pcfugitive
Electing Another Baby Boomer
No surprise that journalists are continuing to get something wrong but it is really bugging me. After the election I keep hearing and reading how we have elected our first post Vietnam president; a man who isn’t a baby boomer. They have the first part right but the second part is wrong. Barack Obama is a baby boomer.
Baby boomers were the children of the Greatest Generation who were settling down, marrying and having children after World War II. To be specific, demographers have always defined boomers as those born from 1946 to 1964. Yes, this is a large group of births but most people don’t realize that the peak of births didn’t occur until 1957. In total, nearly 76 million babies were born during the baby boom and half were born from 1956 to 1964.
Although Barack is an exception, many of these second wave of baby boomers were the younger brothers and sisters of the older baby boomers. Although they are all boomers, the journalists were right in that these two groups had very different life experiences. The older boomers were teens or young adults during most of the Vietnam War and were at the forefront of all the movements of the 1960’s; civil rights, women rights, gay rights. While the younger boomers were, well, young.
I should know as I, too, was a baby boomer born during the second half of this demographic group. This topic, especially the major differences of the two groups has always fascinated me. For example, don’t ask my fellow younger boomers where they were when Kennedy was shot because they’ll be quick to tell you that they were still in diapers or just learning to walk at the time. But do ask us where we were in 1981 when Reagan was shot or when the Challenger exploded, two events which greatly impacted us for we were teens or young adults at the time. As for the pivotal year of 1968, when so much seemed to happen in our country, the youngest boomers ranged in age from 4 to 11 years old. Personally my only memory of the assassination of Martin Luther King was being angry that my cartoons on TV had been canceled for the news coverage.
So Barack Obama is as much of a baby boomer as Bill Clinton or George Bush. I am sure this will frustrate anyone born after 1964 because the rest of the country is definitely tired of baby boomers. Yet as part of the second wave of boomers he does have a much different life experience than the older boomers. He, himself, has already alluded to this when he was defending his association with Bill Ayers by saying he was only 8 when Ayers was bombing buildings. He truly is a post Vietnam child who grew up in a world that was different from the past boomer presidents. Yet, let there be no mistake on this, Barack Obama is still a baby boomer.
The Astonishing Biden Interview
Have you thought that it is too late for anyone in the media to ask some tough questions? Or that no one would ever confront the Obama campaign about Obama’s true beliefs? Well, guess what. It actually happened. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the person with the “balls” to do this is actually a woman but what did surprise me was to find out that she was from a TV station in my own hometown!
Barbara West, a long time anchorwoman with WFTV in Orlando, had the opportunity to interview Joe Biden last week. She only asked Senator Biden a few questions but oh what questions they were! I will include the link to the interview at the bottom but sometimes there is a greater impact to words when you see them written in black and white. Here were the questions asked to Joe Biden:
- “..Aren’t you embarrassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barrack Obama has been tied to in the past?”
- “..Senator Obama now famously told Joe the Plumber he wanted to spread his wealth around. A Gallup poll showed 84% of Americans preferred government focus on improving economic conditions and creating more jobs in the US as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth. Isn’t Senator Obama’s comment a potentially crushing political blunder?”
- “You may recognize this famous quote ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”
Wow. The first question wasn’t too bad although Ms. West followed it up with a tougher question on Obama’s affiliation with ACORN. The second question was shocking as no one has ever accused Obama of any mistakes much less a “potentially crushing blunder”. When you watch the interview, keep an eye on Biden’s face during this question. Biden smiles broadly at the mention of Joe the Plumber but as Ms. West continues with her question his smile slowly deflates until it is a near grimace by the time she gets to “blunder”. In fact I don’t think he really smiles again for the rest of the interview.
It is the last question, though, which is priceless. I almost wonder if this is a question from a viewer as it is more like the questions real people are asking each other and not questions a journalist would ask. Biden’s reaction is funny for he keeps asking if this question is a joke. No joke, Joe. Wake up and realize that in the real world this is what people are wondering about your leader.
As for Obama’s reaction to this interview? Simple. He is now banning this TV station from his campaign for the foreseeable future. And that may have been his biggest mistake. If he had ignored it and treated it as a small town problem not worthy of his attention it might have blown over. Instead, he has given it greater importance and credence by blackballing the station. Then again, the fact that somebody actually asked these questions is just too good, too juicy to be ignored. Now go see it for yourself and enjoy …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbCf4l1dtDc&feature=related.
ACORN CREEPs Into The News
I had a flashback this morning as I listened to more news regarding ACORN and their potentially illegal practices in voter registration. There are now reports of counties with more registered voters than population, plus tapes of this non profit organization’s obvious, yet illegal, support of a political candidate (Obama). Out of nowhere CREEP popped into my mind. Now that is a blast from the past.
For anyone under 50, CREEP was the Committee to ReElect the President and in this case the President was Nixon. Everyone is familiar with Watergate, the hotel where the burglaries took place, but few remember that it was at the direction of CREEP. So why does ACORN remind me of CREEP, other than the fact they both have memorable acronyms?
Richard Nixon would have clearly won his second term without the machinations of McCord, Dean, Mitchell etc. breaking into and wiretapping the offices of the Democrat Party. Assuming Obama wins in two weeks, I would think he still would have won even without ACORN’s help. Yes, it might be a lot closer race without the millions of voters registered legally and illegally by ACORN but he probably might still be the next president.
Yet thanks to the illegalities of ACORN all the votes cast for Obama in areas in which ACORN was active will be questionable. Additionally, the millions raised by ACORN will now be thoroughly investigated to see if any money was diverted to Obama’s campaign. Even the NY Times, which had previously refused to write about ACORN, is now investigating this organization because of the growing accusations.
Just as in the case with CREEP, I think the overriding problem is hubris combined with stupidity. For how arrogant and dumb can you be for an ACORN executive to give a speech at an ACORN event in which they openly and forcefully support Obama while they were being taped? Did they not know it was illegal for a non profit organization to support a candidate? Or did they think that no one would dare to take them to task because Obama is the chosen one who must be elected? Additionally can’t anyone count in this organization? It is one thing to knowingly register false names but to end up with more supposedly registered voters than there is a voting population is absurd. (Yes a few areas might be attributable to college campuses but this doesn’t explain all of them.)
Whatever the reasons, ACORN is now beginning to tarnish Obama’s campaign. Unfortunately, by now ACORN and Obama are clearly tied together in the public’s mind such that any illegalities by ACORN will reflect on to Obama. Even if Obama wins, I believe that the investigations into ACORN will continue. Unlike CREEP which eventually brought down Nixon’s presidency I sincerely doubt if ACORN’s activities could do the same to Obama. An obvious difference is that Obama will have a sympathetic Congress and media who will do all that they can to shield Obama from any criminal activities by ACORN.
I have no idea how all of this will play out. It is also important to remember that it wasn’t CREEP’s activities as much as it was the cover up afterwards that caused Nixon’s downfall. It will be interesting to watch how both ACORN and Obama react to these newest charges.
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PS - I wanted to add a short follow up to my blog about the first day of early voting in Florida. I had said that two of my friends had given up due to the long lines but that I expected they would try again. They did. Yesterday, on the second day of early voting, my friend returned to the downtown Orlando polling place where once again the parking lot was full and there was a long line. This time she was prepared for this and thinking that it might never get much better she spent the 90 minutes needed to park, stand in line and then vote. My second friend, who lived in an upper income suburb, also returned to his polling spot. This time there were plenty of parking spaces and no lines, and he was in and out in about 5 minutes. Considering the demographic trend of downtown urban voters vs. suburban upper income voters, this does not bode well for McCain….
Turning Out the Vote in Florida
Senator Obama held a rally in Orlando yesterday to coincide with the first day of early voting in Florida. Although there were 50,000 people at the rally, Obama’s supporters were also out at the voting booths, too. Mid afternoon I received an email from a friend who lives in Orlando and had decided to vote early. She assumed that mid day, when people are at work, would be a good time to vote as there wouldn’t be any lines or waiting. Wrong. She couldn’t even find a parking space in the large strip parking lot. There was also a long line snaking out of the front door, down a block and around the corner. She drove up to those near the back of the line and asked how long the wait was. To her amazement they said an hour and a half at which point she went back home. A few hours later I was on the phone with another friend who was driving to his home in an affluent suburban area north of Orlando. He, too, planned to stop off and vote that afternoon. Just as I was relaying what happened to my other friend he interrupted me. Turns out, that even in this higher income suburb, people were out early to vote. The library parking lot was full, people were parking all over the place and there was even a policeman helping direct all the traffic. Needless to say, this friend also gave up on voting yesterday.
In her email, my first friend observed that in the downtown voting area the long line was made up of primarily African Americans and Hispanics. I can only imagine that for them, voting for the first African American for President must be a joyous and exciting occasion. Actually I can’t really imagine how it must feel. To know that you or your father or grandfather had been subjected to degrading and sometimes violent racism and now you are voting to elect a black man as the next president. Wow. Whites were always told that anything is possible in America. Blacks are now finding out that the same is really true for them, too.
If I were black I would vote for Obama, even if I didn’t completely agree with his politics. Why? Because I would want my children to know that they can grow up to be President if they wanted to. I believe that the second or third time that an African American is up for election everyone will be more inclined to vote based on politics. But this first time? Blacks relate to him as family, as a man who will understand what it is like to be black in America and will speak for them. (Ironically, in the Middle East and then Hawaii, Obama rarely faced the racial problems found elsewhere in America but that doesn’t seem to matter.) In spite of what Colin Powell or anyone else says this presidential race is about race and yet I don’t think it is necessarily racist. I think it is more akin to voting for your favorite Uncle even if you didn’t completely agree with his politics. But he is family, someone more like you than any other past president so yes, you would vote for him and then believe he will help you out in return.
One can assume with nearly 100% accuracy that a black man standing in line to vote will cast his vote for Obama. Then there is the white guy standing in line amidst a sea of black faces. No wonder there have been altercations regarding wearing clothing with political slogans and names when going to vote. In many states it is illegal to campaign near a voting booth therefore wearing a t-shirt that says Obama may not be allowed. However, I don’t blame the wearer of such clothing, especially if it is a white person. If, in a line full of exuberant African Americans, I was one of the few whites then I, too, would want to wear my Obama t-shirt to proudly show I was with them. On the other hand if I were planning to vote for McCain I would probably feel somewhat intimidated, especially if I were elderly as many of McCain’s supporters are.
I worry that many Republicans will turn around and go home when faced with long lines just as my friends did. However, I am sure both of my friends will try again until they do vote (although ironically they will cancel each other out). But I wonder how many other people will become discouraged by these long lines even during this early voting period? I also imagine that there are a lot of Republicans who aren’t all that fond of McCain to begin with, who are put off by the long lines, who perhaps even feel a bit intimidated by them and who believe the polls that Obama was going to win anyway. How many of these Republicans will eventually give up and go home?
The only hope McCain has is if he has the kind of grass roots support that Obama has. For he will need supporters who will encourage and help his voters go and stay in lines, perhaps for more than an hour, in order to cast their votes for him otherwise it could be a landslide victory for Obama.
And yet, I almost worry more about the process then the results. Already there are all these problems about invalid voters, fraudulent practices and lawsuits. I truly hope that the combination of McCain supporters, Obama supporters, ACORN workers, “independent” observers and of course the media looking for a story doesn’t turn our election process into a sham and our voting precincts into battlefields.
Pakistan Teams With China For Nuclear Power
Pakistan, China, France and others call American environmental constraints on nuclear power “laughable” and simply foolish.
Pakistan has an “energy security plan” envisaging an increase in nuclear power generation from the current 425 megawatts to 8,800 megawatts by 2030 to meet its growing energy demands. It has contracted with China to build it two more nuclear plants. China is one of Islamabad’s closest allies as well as its largest arms supplier.
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program has been under the spotlight since a 2004 confession by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of its nuclear program, that he sold atomic secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan was pardoned by then president Pervez Musharraf in 2004 but has been kept at his Islamabad villa ever since, guarded by troops and intelligence agents. Pakistan has rejected international demands for access to Khan.
Pakistan, China, France and others call American environmental constraints on nuclear power “laughable” and simply foolish.
Foolish as the USA “starves” itself for future power to satisfy irrational zealots.
Islamic Harmony vs. Freedoms
On September 27th the home of Martin Rynja, which is also the headquarters for Gibson Square’s publishing house, was firebombed.
It didn’t make the major headlines and yet it should have for this was a terrorist attack against a company who stood up to Islamic threats. This weekend I received an email berating me for an article I had written about a radical Islamic group. Although a bit creepy, the email was not threatening and yet I mention it because the two incidents are somewhat related.
In August I wrote an article denouncing Random House for submitting to Islamic blackmail. If you recall, this blog was about a new book by Sherry Jones on a wife of Mohammad called “The Jewel of Medina”. Random House was to publish it until they were told that it might be offensive to Muslims and could cause violence. I thought Random House was wrong to then back down and give in to this blackmail. I feel that we always need to stand up for our freedoms no matter the threats.
However, I was wrong when I wrote that Random House would not let any other company publish this book. They did sell the publishing rights to Gibson Square Publishers who was willing to publish “The Jewel of Medina” even knowing about the threats. But these threats were not idle for, as previously mentioned, their headquarters were bombed the end of September. Luckily it was only a small bomb which was inserted in the mail slot and no one was injured. In fact, according to the NY Times “The police were already on the scene as the result of what they described as “a preplanned intelligence-led operation,”. The London police have already arrested three men so that’s one for the good guys!
Did this terrorist attack stop the publisher, Mr. Rynja, from publishing this book? No. Although he is taking precautions and is currently in hiding he actually sped up the printing process. Instead of the October 30th date they sent the books to the US for an October 15th publishing date. I am so pleased that the book is actually published as I had been very upset with Random House when they backed down to the threat of possible violence. It just felt so wrong to me. I believed that the radical Islam’s had won and it only takes a few decisions like this for us to slowly begin to lose our freedoms. We need to stand up against bullies of all shapes and sizes and preserve our freedoms no matter the costs. Gibson Square Publishing needs to be applauded for their actions.
In the beginning of this blog I also mentioned an email I received on Saturday. After I wrote my blog about Random House I followed it with an article on a radical Islamic group called Messenger of Allah Unites who wanted to “criminalize any act deemed to be insulting to Islam” In addition to the passing of their UN resolution denouncing defamation of religions, the scariest part is that they want to subpoena and try anyone accused of blasphemy or inciting hatred against their religion.
I was appalled to think that this Jordan based group could reach out to anyone anywhere that they thought were anti Muslims or whom they simply disliked. Ironically it turns out I am one of those people. The email I received on Saturday was to tell me that someone had left a comment on this old article. The comment was:
“The most intelligent thing to do is to recognize that Prophet Mohammad is too important for Muslims and should not be degraded in the guise of ‘freedom of speech‘. You do this for anti-semetic propaganda. So, why not anti-Mohammad. “.
Remember, Muslims usually don’t have an issue with a scholarly criticism of Mohammad or even a non-scholarly criticism of Islam and Muslims. But, Prophet Mohammad is dear to every Muslim no matter how religious or non-religious he/she might be. And, the day people like you recognize it, you’ll actually start promoting harmony instead of hatred in this world.”
In a way I sympathize with him. It isn’t easy to see a beloved and revered religious figure degraded. For decades, Christians have had to deal with blasphemous books or pictures of Jesus, Mary and other Christian symbols. It is disturbing and yet that is the price you have to pay to ensure our freedoms. And yes, it is hypocritical to be told that flying the Confederate flag or using the N word or speaking against gays is considered “hate speech” but attacks on any religion is allowed. This isn’t right but in today’s world of political correctness where some are more equal than others I doubt if it can be changed.
As for my article, I never denigrated the Muslim religion at all, I was only criticizing those who wanted to prosecute and censure anyone they deemed was anti Muslim. The commenter mentioned promoting harmony and yet the only way to obtain perfect harmony is to silence anyone who disagrees with you. This means threatening book publishers and even commenting on an obscure article written months ago by an amateur blogger. But we can’t let them silence us. For we believe in a free world with freedom of religion as well as freedom of speech. And with these freedoms come discord and the right to disagree as we all will have our own opinions. It may not be perfect but I’ll take our messy freedoms over perfect harmony any day.
Financial Crisis Rant II: Obama, ACORN and $700 billion
Congress did it again. They took a 3 page bill and turned it into a 442 page novel. This bill they passed. Will it help the economy, Stock Market and consumers? Nobody really knows but now it contains 439 pages of pork barrel spending. Typical. It was also interesting to watch the Democrat politicians repackage this bill from a “Financial Bailout” for big business to a bill that will help those with houses they really can’t afford. So now voters associate a Financial Bailout with Republicans and the $700 billion bill that was passed as being due to Democrats. No surprise then that Obama is now leading in the polls.
It is interesting, however, that Obama, who is so proud of his prior role as a Community Organizer is suddenly mum on the whole topic of affordable housing. Nor has he said anything about his close association with ACORN back in his hay days in the South Side of Chicago. Since Obama isn’t talking then we need to inform the rest of the nation of exactly what this man was doing in the past 15 years, starting with Acorn….
ACORN, may sound familiar, as it was one of the reasons the first bailout bill failed. ACORN is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The first bill, which thankfully the House Republicans defeated, contained nearly $5 billion for affordable housing, financial counseling and mortgage restructuring for people and neighborhoods affected by the housing meltdown. A large portion of that would have gone to ACORN.
Gee, what a surprise to also discover that ACORN is co-managing a $15.9 million campaign with the group Project Vote to register 1.2 million low-income Hispanics and African-Americans, who are among those most likely to vote Democratic. Technically nonpartisan, the effort is one of the largest such voter-registration drives on record. (See the following for more details on this: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/dems-have-pushed-acorn-bailout-since-july.)
The New York Post recently had an interesting article on ACORN, Chicago and Barack Obama (http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_dangerous_pals_131216.htm?&page=1). In this column, they introduce Madeline Talbott, the director of the Chicago ACORN. It then details her activities in the early 1990’s including:
- ”…Talbott announced plans to conduct demonstrations in the lobbies of area banks that refused to attend an ACORN-sponsored national bank “summit” in New York. She insisted that banks show a commitment to minority lending by lowering their standards on down payments and underwriting - for example, by overlooking bad credit histories.”
- “And Talbott continued her effort to, as she put it, drag banks ‘kicking and screaming’ into high-risk loans. ….
- five area financial institutions ….participating in a $55 million national pilot program with affordable-housing group ACORN to make mortgages for low- and moderate-income people with troubled credit histories.”
The same article then ties in Obama to ACORN. Here are a few key quotes:
- “In those years, he also conducted leadership-training seminars for ACORN’s up-and-coming organizers. That is, Obama was training the army of ACORN organizers who participated in Madeline Talbott’s drive against Chicago’s banks.”
- … Obama was funding them. As he rose to a leadership role at Chicago’s Woods Fund, he became the most powerful voice on the foundation’s board for supporting ACORN“
- “The Woods Fund report makes it clear Obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by ACORN’s Madeline Talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. Yet he supported Talbott in every conceivable way. He trained her personal staff and other aspiring ACORN leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts.”
This is the man who is now favored to be our next President. His association with ACORN clearly shows his complete lack of knowledge of how to run a business. Obama and ACORN’s insistence on “affirmative action” for business practices, in this case of providing low cost housing to people who cannot afford it, has cost the taxpayer at least $700 billion. It makes me shudder to think what business they might go after next and at what cost. As for the thought of Obama running the country itself, with Pelosi and Biden at his side, all I can do is try to persuade myself that they can’t do too much damage in 4 years.
Financial Crisis Rant: Part I - Video’s, Code Words and Barney Franks
This whole financial crisis is really angering me. The left continues to promise to take care of “the homeowners who are losing their homes” and blaming the big bad bankers and investment firms. As I tried to explain to a liberal, let’s say bankers are greedy, it then wouldn’t make sense for the bankers to make bad loans if it would hurt profits unless they were forced to do so by the liberal Congress via the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). I wrote about the CRA in my earlier posting on Carter, Clinton and the Liberal Congress.
I am returning to this topic partly because of two emails I recently received. One of the emails was from a liberal who was sending me a power point slide show. This slide show was quite juvenile considering the topic; the financial crisis. I was more than a little disconcerted to find that it featured stick figure cartoons who frequently say f*** this and f*** that while explaining the financial problem as the fault of bankers and investment houses. And you know that businessmen and investment bankers are liberal code words for Republicans, of course!
On the other hand, I had earlier received an email with a video showing the conservative point of view on this subject. But this presentation was done as a YouTube slide show filled with facts, charts, and tables that clearly illustrates cause and effect between the CRA legislation, liberal Congress and our current financial and housing crisis. The only swear words were the ones by the viewer after seeing this documented and verified information. Comparing the two presentations, obscene stick figures vs. charts and graphs made me wonder why the liberals are supposed to be the intellectuals!
Speaking of intelligent, in a recent conversation with a liberal I was told that Barney Franks, the liberal congressman from Mass., and Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, was extremely intelligent and had an excellent handle on the financial mess. I recalled that I had seen something about Franks on the YouTube video so I watched it again.
Sure enough there was a slide in regards to a 2003 proposal by Pres. Bush to create a new department to oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as he was worried they were going broke. The following quote is from the NY Times on September 11, 2003:
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
And there we are; affordable housing. To again use that word liberals like, that is “code” for minority housing. Back in 2003 we could have averted this whole mess were it not for the liberal’s “concern” over the low income population. Sure there may be some true liberals who really do want to help out the poor. But I bet it is more about votes to help the politician then it is about helping the poor.
Take Barack Obama, please… Sorry bad joke. Actually, right now after thinking about the liberals, Barney Franks, insulting and vulgar videos, affordable housing etc. and I think I’ve had my fill of the left. I’ll get back to Barack and ACORN in part II of this article. But before I forget, here is the link to the YouTube video. If the link doesn’t work, please let me know. The author had to change the link once before after it was illegally taken down. This just goes to show that the liberals can’t handle the truth and don’t want you to see it either. So please, inform yourself and watch the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4
Blaming Carter, Clinton and Liberal Congress
When the financial problems surfaced my first reaction was to place a big portion of the blame on Jimmy Carter and the liberal Congress who passed the first CRA law. I then read an article that explained why I was wrong and silly me, I believed it. Since then I have read too many other reports that indicate that my initial gut response was, in fact, right. CRA is to blame for a big part of the housing and mortgage problem.
What is CRA? During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Congress created the Community Reinvestment Act to ensure that banks met the credit needs of lower income areas. I was in banking then and remember when a close friend of mine was initially put in charge of implementing the CRA requirements for my bank. I even helped her with the demographics and maps outlining where the low income areas were and showing the number and types of loans we had in those areas.
Within a year we needed to have an entire department full of people, including a lawyer, to not just make these loans but to show the government that we were in compliance with the new laws. This is because we soon realized that this law had teeth. If a bank was found to be out of compliance then the government could stop it from opening branches, merging with other banks, or even give then a Cease and Desist order! I worked for a large bank which had the manpower and expertise to not only meet the new laws but to then prove we did meet them. But for smaller banks, both making the loans and the accompanying CRA paperwork was (and still is) a huge burden.
I am assuming this but it would make sense that over the next 10-15 years the banks found and made loans to the “best” consumers and businessess in low income areas. Yet they still had to show growth and continuous new lending but there was no one left who qualified.
In 1995 there was a revision to the CRA and one of the changes was to allow the securitization of new CRA loans with subprime mortgages. I have heard but have not yet been able to prove that these changes also allowed banks to use unemployment checks as income for applying for a loan. Regardless of the exact method, the result was to offer mortgages to people who would not qualify for a loan if they lived in my neighborhood or your neighborhood. Yet they were now moving down the street and raising the prices of our houses, all thanks to CRA. And gee, guess what one of the roles of a community organizer is?
Basically, CRA is affirmative action imposed on banks. But affirmative action to lower the requirements to get into college is one thing, lowering the requirements to make a loan is an entirely different prospect. If a person flunks out of college, no harm is done but if a person can no longer pay their mortgage, well, we now see what happens. Then again, what else should we expect when liberal congressmen, most of whom have never worked in the real world their entire lives, tell businessmen how to do business?
I hate being right. But my gut instinct to blame CRA is correct. And yet, even as I write this, banks are still being examined to see if they are compliant to CRA regulations. This makes no sense. We must reign in the CRA requirements or else we will find ourselves back in the same mess, regardless of any new proposals by Congress to resolve this issue. As the saying goes, it would simply be throwing good money after bad.
Power Play
If elected Barack Obama will be a very weak and indecisive president. How did I arrive at this conclusion? By watching the current power play over the past week in which Obama abdicated his leadership role to the Democrat leaders of Congress. It is not often that the public can see such a ruthless play for power but that is exactly what is happening over the financial bailout.
First, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, said they had come up with a plan. Only after getting maximum press coverage, where they looked like the heroes of the hour, was it revealed that they had not vetted it with anyone else. Then when anyone (such as the House Republicans or a good part of the nation) disagreed with their idea the dissenters were portrayed as deal breakers when in fact there never had been a deal satisfactory to enough people to pass a vote.
When McCain said he and Obama should be there to work on a bailout rather than getting ready for a debate, these Democrat leaders said that this issue was not a place for “presidential politics”. Excuse me? Since one of these men will be responsible for this country in just a few months and tasked with implementing the solution then they should definitely have a role in this. As for “politics” few people are more political than Pelosi and Reid. Their entire role seems to be less in finding a workable solution and more in claiming they were the ones who had a solution and blaming McCain for derailing their “deal”. However, even setting aside “presidential politics” Obama and McCain are Senators who should be there in that role.
This week Obama showed his inexperience and weakness by abdicating his leadership to Pelosi and Reid. Instead of asserting his role as the next potential president he bowed to their wishes and initially stayed away from Washington. Perhaps this is also a reflection of Obama’s history of avoiding making decisions by either not being there or by avoiding either a nay or aye vote. Whatever his reasons, by staying away he turned over his leadership role to Pelosi and Reid. Only a call from Bush finally got Obama back to Washington.
As I write this on Friday morning, Reid has just had another press conference. Again he said that “outsiders should stay out of it” which is a swipe at McCain and yes, even Obama. He also insinuated that a deal would have been reached if McCain had stayed away. You could see that Reid was clearly angry that his deal was shot down by the House Republicans. How dare anyone go against him! Reid even admitted that he is getting angry calls from his constituents but that Congress knows best and even though people are unhappy with it, the deal is good for Wall Street and Main Street. What hubris!
I don’t know how this whole financial mess will ultimately be resolved. What I do know is that Pelosi and Reid are already trying to flex their political muscles. This past week Obama has already set precedence by not only letting Pelosi and Reid tell him what to do but even worse by then doing their bidding. Instead of acting “presidential” he showed he was weak and could easily be controlled by Pelosi and Reid. This bodes a difficult presidency for Obama and an even worse four years for the rest of the country. For if Obama wins then Pelosi and Reid just might end up as the real leaders
Panic of 08 - Part 2
Financial experts, Congress, the President and other advisors are all running around trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it. They talk of $700 billion plans to buy bad mortgages from banks to free them up to make more profitable loans. But before they throw good money after bad everyone needs to take a step back. Since so many people say this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression then that is where we need to start.
A major component of the Great Depression was bank failures. Simply put, bank failures were partly due to bank’s using their customer’s deposits to buy and sell stocks and risky securities, in other words to act as investment banks. To prevent this from happening Congress passed The Banking Act of 1933 which included the Glass-Steagall Act. This act said that the only deposit accounts banks could offer were Checking, CDs or Savings accounts. The government even regulated what interest rates a bank could offer on CDs and Savings. As for buying or selling stocks or securities you had to go to an investment back. Overall, these laws clearly defined a distinct line separating commercial banks from investment banks.
In the early 1980’s investment banks were the first to cross the Glass-Steagall line when they started to offer Money Market Accounts. Even though investment bank’s Money Market Accounts were not insured, as were bank deposit accounts, they offered very high interest rates. People were moving their money from commercial banks to investment banks and so to remain competitive, Congress began to deregulate banks and overturn The Banking Act of 1933.
The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 paved the way for banks to offer checking with interest and eliminate the interest cap on CDs and Savings. This was followed by more deregulation which allowed banks to merge in their state and granted new powers to Savings and Loans. The law that impacted Savings and Loans the most was the Garn-St Germain Act of 1982. This act allowed S&L’s to have up to 50% of assets in commercial real estate. This meant that Saving’s and Loans went on a binge of making loans with little regard if the person or business could pay them back. Within a few years Savings and Loans were failing throughout the country. In 1989 the government created the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) which was to oversee the S&L failures and funded it with $50 billion. Over the next few years another $50 billion was given to the RTC. In 1980 there were 4,000 S&L’s and today there are only 1,250.
Congress continued to deregulate banks and the last of the Glass Steagall Act from 1933 which separated commercial banks from investment banks was abolished with the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act of 1999. Commercial banks could now do everything an investment bank could do such as underwrite and sell insurance and securities.
The financial world looks much different today than it did before the deregulation of the 1980’s. Savings and Loans are few and far between and now investment banks are gone, too. For the most part, that leaves just commercial banks to handle all of our daily transactions, savings, mortgages, consumer and commercial loans and now even our retirement funds. And with the deregulation of interstate banking, the number of commercial banks has dropped tremendously. Our best hope for the future lies not in the huge conglomerates but in the small local banks. They might not be sophisticated but they still believe in serving their customers and in an old fashioned fiscal conservatism. And maybe the big financial institutions and Congress can learn from them.
Parody Time - Barahck, Barahck
Times are very tough right now. The financial world is spinning out of control, the stock market is plummeting, mainstream media continues their biased coverage of the election, the devastation is unending in TX, Brady’s injury has ruined many football pools and things all over appear to be in trouble. So it seems to me that everybody (or at least conservatives) could use a few chuckles…..
A friend of mine recently asked me if I knew about the Capital Steps, a group that sings political parodies. Not only was I aware of them but I made sure that I saw their show the last time I was in DC. Plus what my friend could not have known is that for the past thirty years, before I had even heard of the Capital Steps, I was writing funny parodies to popular songs and poems to commemorate family occasions.
This summer I tried my hand at writing my first political parody. One of my inspirations was the fact that I’ve always thought that Barack’s name sounds like what a chicken says. Barahck Barahck. Silly, I know. As I wasn’t sure how that would go over I just tucked my song away. But thanks to my friend, and the need for a bit of silliness to offset all the bad news I decided to actually print it. So, this one is dedicated to you, Jim and I hope everyone enjoys it.
Since I can’t sing, you will have to hum to yourself as you read my parody to Bad Bad Leroy Brown. (To see the words to the original song click here: (http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/homealone3/badbadleroybrown.htm). With deepest apologies to Jim Croce here is my parody to Bad Bad Leroy Brown
Barahck Barahck Barahck Hussein
ln the South side of Chicago
Is the elitist guy I know
Yes he’s a Harvard man
With a really dark tan
Barahck Obama is that bro
Now Barahck runs from trouble
You see he stands against our war
All the blue state liberals call him “Détente Lover”
All the red states call him girl
And it’s Barahck Barahck Barahck Hussein
The wimpiest man in the USA
Wimpier than old Al Gore
And scarier than Michael Moore.
Now Barahck he a chicken
‘Cause he vows to leave Iraq
And he likes to wave a big white flag
In front of Islamic attacks
Though he acts so presidential
He got no experience at all
He’s got the media in his pocket, for sure
But we’ll still vote McCain this fall
For its Barahck Barahck Barahck Hussein
The wimpiest man in the USA
Wimpier than old Al Gore
And scarier than Michael Moore.
The primary bout a month ago
Barack lookin’ fine
When from the edge of our country
Came a girl named Sarah
And oo that girl did shine
Well he cast his eyes upon her
And the troubles soon began
Cause Obama learned a heapin’
Bout keepin’ all the votes of the common man.
And it’s Barahck Barahck Barahck Hussein
The wimpiest man in the USA
Wimpier than old Al Gore
And scarier than Michael Moore.
Obama’s FEET OF CLAY
The phrase “Feet of Clay” comes from the Old Testament (Dan.2:31-32).
Don’t look now but Barack Obama’s FEET OF CLAY are showing. After month’s of fawning by most media and chanting if irrelevant German and Denver crowd rank and file voters are taking a careful look at the onetime Messiah designate candidate and seeing feet of clay.
I am struck how appropriate ‘feet of clay’ describes the fatal flaw or vulnerable point in the character of Barack Obama, and I can certainly not be confused with any Bible scholar.
What I do see is what other regular Americans see an Obama without his teleprompter and absurd Ionic columns made of flimsy Styrofoam less substantial than worthless, even dangerous noisy rhetoric from campaign fiction writers.
Americans are looking past an absurdly misplaced sense of political correctness and “white guilt” to find a leader who has walked-the-walk and not just talked-the-talk. There are storm clouds on every horizon as America sits in the eye of a global storm threatening not just it but civilization itself.
The phrase “Feet of Clay” comes from the Old Testament (Dan.2:31-32). The Hebrew captain Daniel interprets a dream for Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (c 630-562 BC). The King had dreamed of a giant idol with golden head, silver arms and chest, brass thighs and body, and iron legs. Only the feet of this image, compounded of iron and potter’s clay, weren’t made wholly of metal.
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the clay feet of the figure made it vulnerable, that it prophesized the breaking apart of his empire.
With appropriate apologies to my Rev. Uncle John and Robert Hendrickson, and his Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins.
McCain and Computers
My apologies to Senator McCain. I have seen the Obama ads trying to position you as being out of touch. I am sorry to say that I believed their remark about you not using a computor and thought that perhaps you are too old for new things. I feel so horrible that I believed Obama’s lies after learning the truth today.
The Fox Sunday News had Karl Rove on who specifically mentioned that ad. He said Obama went too far. He said that Obama didn’t explain that McCain can’t use a keyboard because his shoulder injuries while a POW makes it too difficult to type and not because he is 
behind the times. My apologies Senator McCain and I hope that everyone who saw that ad will eventually learn the truth, too. And one more thing, Shame on you Obama!
National Service Initiative
Thursday night Barack Obama and John McCain were questioned about their ideas on a National Service initiative. Both said they were for it and thought that more people should get involved in volunteer service work. Not surprisingly, McCain wanted it to continue to be more of a grassroots initiative while Obama wants government to take a bigger role at a bigger cost.
It was the typical liberal attitude of making it a government concern, throwing more money at it and ultimately creating another bureaucratic nightmare. In discussing service, President Kennedy’s name was frequently mentioned as he started the Peace Corp, one of the current government service departments. But this and Americorp and a few other government initiatives isn’t enough for Obama. He was talking about creating a cabinet position on service!
While I listened to this, I had a sudden inspiration. In addition to the Peace Corp, wasn’t President Kennedy also concerned about physical fitness? Didn’t he get the government involved in this issue by creating the President’s Council on Fitness? Since then hasn’t the government supported this department, which was tasked with making Americans more physically fit, by pouring more and more money into it? And yet here we are 40 years later and look what government involvement has done for us. All studies show that today’s children are heavier than ever, that Americans of all ages have a greater percentage of obesity than in the past and that we do less physical activities than in previous generations. Thanks government.
Lipstick On A Pig
This may never happen again but I am going to stand up for Barack Obama. In the business world “lipstick on a pig” is one of those phrases that is overly used to describe trying to make a bad idea or policy look good. Then Sarah Palin tells her lipstick joke. Lastly a few days ago Barack used the lipstick on a pig phrase. And now we a big controversy about what he meant but I honestly don’t think he meant anything by it and simply didn’t think it through. As somebody who sometimes has a problem with the English language I can sympathize. (Dare I admit that just yesterday when telling someone that they will have a run for their money it came out as “mun for their runey”?)
I think Barack was simply using a common business phrase but as soon as it came out of his mouth he realized that lipstick now has a new context since Palin’s speech. Oops. What bothers me isn’t that he said it, but the reaction by those who heard him say it. His audience immediately thought it was in reference to Palin and roared in derisive laughter.
Call me naïve but it seemed to symbolize not only the polarization between the two parties but also the downright hatred people are feeling for the opposite party. And the really scary part for America is that it no longer seems as if it is Democrats vs. Republicans but more like blacks vs. whites. In a way, I believe that Obama has set back racial advances for decades. Or maybe all whites have been naïve and the division has always been there but kept underground. Now it is out in the open.
Think about it. Remember this spring how stunned most whites were to hear what Jeremiah Wright was preaching and how we were even more shocked by the cheers and jeers from his church’s worshipers? Then yesterday I receive an email talking about Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis on black separatists. Black separatists? Wow. And until this election, when have you heard newscasters reporting on how white woman are voting? After 2001 I really felt as if the nation had pulled together as one people. Today I worry we are further apart than in the 60’s.
All this from Barack’s “lipstick on a pig” comment? Yes, I know I am far off from where I started but then again, maybe this country has simply been putting lipstick on a pig when it comes to racial harmony. Now there is a good word – harmony; a pleasing arrangement of parts. That would be nice but, again, maybe I am naïve to think we ever really had it in the first place. And what scares me most of all isn’t who will win the election but how the losing half will react.
MSNBC Shake Up
Did you hear the good news yet? MSNBC finally did the right thing (pun inten
ded) and fired Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors during political events.
Yeah! As everybody but the MSNBC big wigs knew, those two jokers were destroying whatever credibility MSNBC had. It was way past time they were removed from a position of reporting during any kind of political activity because they proved that they could not even try to be fair and balanced.
Their coverage of the Conventions was a farce. I would go to their channels for a minute or two and that was all I could take. It was so awful to watch Olbermann and Matthews try to outdo each other in their devotion to Obama and criticism of McCain. If a guest dared to disagree with them they would go after you tooth and nail with mean spirited sarcasm and abuse. Hell, they went after another MSNBC newsman who didn’t agree with their far left opinions. It was a disgrace to call this reporting and I am sure poor Tim Russert must be spinning in his grave.
While I am at it, I will also admit that I was disappointed with Fox’s coverage of the conventions, too. Sure they might be a bit to the right but they were a lot more fair and balanced than MSNBC. However, my complaint is that they talked too much! Instead of covering the speakers at the convention, the anchors on Fox would talk among themselves. I wanted to tell them to shut up so I could hear what was happening on the convention floor. Instead I simply changed the channel to CNN. I would then flip back and forth to hear their analysts afterwards.
Overall, Fox had the highest ratings during the Republican Convention while CNN was the ratings winner during the Democrat Convention. MSNBC trailed far behind both. The sad truth is if MSNBC’s ratings had been higher then we still might have to put up with Olbermann and Matthews. Luckily no one watched them so good riddance to Olbermann and Matthews as “news” anchors although they will still have their regular shows. So now MSNBC’s foray into having a news station that is “liberal” based has tanked just as every liberal radio station has done before it. You would think they would finally get the hint.
Meet Cindy McCain
Cindy McCain surprised me. I had this image of her in my mind of a younger trophy wife, a rich socialite with houses around the country who at one point had a problem with prescription drugs. My first clue that this wasn’t exactly right was during Rudi’s speech when the cameras showed Mrs. McCain holding Sarah’s baby. You could see that Cindy was totally absorbed in that little infant, talking to him and giving him her whole attention.
I then enjoyed the bio shown about Cindy McCain which put her life into an entirely new perspective. In fact, if she had been a Democrat and not a Republican, I bet the tabloids would be racing to crown her the American Princess Di. She is beautiful, blond, rich, thin, classy and spends her life working with the poor and helpless. But since she is a Republican she will be continuously vilified and destroyed in the press.
Oh I forgot to mention her speech. Someone started to criticize how she delivered her speech. I would have agreed, if I hadn’t heard a broadcaster talk about it before she started. Turns out that the GOP speech writers looked for prior speeches by Cindy McCain so that they could tailor this speech to her style. Only problem, she had never given a major speech or really any kind of speech on politics in her whole life!
So once her children left the stage and Cindy McCain stood there alone, mike in hand and knowing that millions were watching her give her first major speech, well, of course she was nervous. Her voice was thin at times and it took her a while to get used to the thunderous applause and the even more overwhelming complete silence as they all looked expectantly at her, waiting for her to speak. How intimidating!
Yet given the same environment and with greater consequences, Gov. Palin had earlier given the speech of her night. No hesitations, no nervousness, the complete opposite of Cindy giving a speech. Both were reading speeches others had written for them but one is a natural and the other appeared more comfortable holding a baby than giving a speech. Wait, that is not fair to Sarah who can do both, take care of her baby and family and give a Vice Presidential acceptance speech with equal aplomb.
But back to Cindy McCain. During this convention I really started to warm up to the woman. I hate her more for being thin and blond then I do for being super rich and wearing $300,000 outfits. (Yes I am being sarcastic.) Heck, if my father had worked hard and lived the American dream and left his entire fortune to me, his only child, and I was a size 2 or 0 you bet I would wear designer clothes (only American, of course!) and gorgeous tasteful jewelry. But like Princess Di, Cindy also leads a life using her money trying to help those around the world who need help the most. Good for her!
Now her husband, John McCain, needs her the most. She might never again take center stage as she did during the convention, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her off to the side of stages in small towns and big, watching her husband. And if she watches him with a Nancy Reagan look of adoration, I won’t complain about that either.
Mac Attack
Ok let’s have a little straight talking. The first part of his speech was borrinngggg…..
I know, I know, everybody had been saying that in this speech he needed to give details of what he will do but truthfully? Maybe I shouldn’t admit this but he was losing me as he discussed these “kitchen table” items. All I really need to know are a few things that are at the heart of all Republican beliefs. Does he belief in a small government, in a strong defense and that the court should never deviate from the Constitution? If he believes in this, which he does, then the rest is simply details to be worked out later.
The middle part started to get a little more interesting. For he vowed to continue to reach across the aisle, to work with Democrats, Independents, anyone who can help him get things done. And the delegates applauded. Wow. What a difference from a year ago when he was vilified for breaking away from some of the Republican ideas. But with Gov. Palin appealing to the conservative base then McCain is freed up a bit and perhaps his being his maverick self isn’t a bad idea right now. Maybe some Independents out there will be moved to vote for him this fall. We’ll see.
It was that last third that was terrific. Sure we’ve heard his life story before, but not quite in this way. How being a POW changed him from a selfish hot shot fighter pilot into who he is today. And the whole theme of being a fighter was a winner. It was stirring and emotional and moved the crowds as he concluded on a high note.
But you know what? I can just hear folks talking around the water coolers in the morning saying that it wasn’t a bad speech, but it sure wasn’t a Sarah Palin speech. And that’s ok, too.
Sarah Palin Did It!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Republicans aren’t bumping fists we are pumping fists up high and strong today.