Happy Neww Year

To my many Jewish friends, Shanah Tovah. May the winds of good fortune always fill your sails my friends.

Stanley Kurttz On Fox And Friends Tying Obama To ACORN

This is complimentary to the post below, at least Fox has picked up on this, via Hot Air and Ed's remarks are worth reading as well.

For some reason Ed doesn't think we should focus as much on ACORN but more on Fannie, Freddie and their enablers in the Democrat Party that looked the other way as corruption ran amuk and nearly destroyed our financial markets.I disagree, we need to tie Obama to every slimy association he has and hammer on it at least we don't have to make stuff up. Jim Geraghty sees a conspiracy to do that very thing in the hope voters will stampede to the Democrats to save them, maybe that's why Pelosi torpedoed the bailout vote yesterday. Do the Democrats really want to create a massive recession in order to gain some more power? If they think they can pin it on the GOP they sure will try since they are as dishonest and corrupt as the day is long. I think this whole "crisis" is manufactured and greased along by the liberal media or else why would it be happening now just a few weeks before the election. I have a sneaky feeling Paulson is a closet Democrat that panicked Bernanke and Bush with trumped up concerns.

There is no credit crisis, I get at least a dozen offers a week for personal or business credit. Now if you have crappy credit ratings you might have some problems and you should, that is your fault not the lending institutions. They should not be forced to lend money to anyone if they don't have reason to believe they will be payed back, credit is not a right or entitlement, it is a privilege to be earned.

I might as well tack the new McCain ad on here since it's related.

The Roots Of The Financial Crisis: Updated

How did we get here? Democrats of course are quick to blame Republican policies of the last eight years while failing to look at their own policies of the last thirty years. It all started with the Community Reinvestment Act of '77 , Democrats controlled all three branches of government then. This was given more teeth in '92 while all three branches were again controlled by Democrats and banks and lending institutions were given something called a CRA rating by how well they complied with the Act. The Act was a well intentioned efforts to boost home ownership in minority and lower income markets.

This essentially forced banks to make loans not based on credit worthiness but based on the race of the borrower, affirmative action lending. At this time a community organizing group ACORN started an aggressive campaign against banks in Chicago with the aid of a young attorney named Barack Obama and the financial aid of three organizations he worked for, the Annenburg Challenge, the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation. Stanley Kurtz, once again doing the work the liberal MSM won't do, has a detailed article in the New Yok Post that goes into this in depth.

In fact, intimidation tactics, public charges of racism and threats to use CRA to block business expansion have enabled ACORN to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and contributions from America's financial institutions.

Banks already overexposed by these shaky loans were pushed still further in the wrong direction when government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began buying up their bad loans and offering them for sale on world markets.

Fannie and Freddie acted in response to Clinton administration pressure to boost homeownership rates among minorities and the poor. However compassionate the motive, the result of this systematic disregard for normal credit standards has been financial disaster.

ONE key pioneer of ACORN's subprime-loan shakedown racket was Madeline Talbott - an activist with extensive ties to Barack Obama. She was also in on the ground floor of the disastrous turn in Fannie Mae's mortgage policies

This drove the demand for houses up which inturn drove the price of houses up and a vicious cycle of refinancing to pull out that equity ensued until the bubble burst and the bill came due. People were taking out interest only loans with zero down in the belief they could flip the home at a substantial profit in a couple years and then turn around and do the same thing again in an almost pyramid type scheme. It didn't work and the market collapsed into the glut.

Republicans started warning about this as early as '94 and President Bush started calling for reform in '03. John McCain pushed for reform again in '06 but they were both blocked by Democrats who didn't see a problem. Barack Obama had the gall to try and blame this mess on the lax regulation of the Republicans while his finger prints are all over the seeds that started it as Kurtz lays out. Two other Democrats, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank also share a large portion of the blame as their committees in the House and Senate are responsible for oversight of the financial markets but they blocked all efforts at reform because they are bought and paid for by those that made millions to look the other way as the scam continued. In short if blame is to be put anywhere it is squarely in the laps of the Democrats.

They forced banks and lenders to loan money to people that couldn't pay it back and unscrupulous lenders smelling profit took advatage of it by then selling the bad paper to Fannie and Freddie whose CEOs then cooked the books for their benefit. That is what lead us to where we are today.

Update: Wow even clear headed liberals know where to place the blame, go PUMAs.

LOL

Courtesy of my friend Paul at American Sentinel, do go read his post it is quite good on Obama's goon squads of brownshirts.

Obama And The Radical Left Wing: Updated

I have written extensively about Obama's connections to the far left radicals that seek to bring down this country and turn into some kind of communist utopia. I guess they don't know communism doesn't work, just look how big a failure it has been where it has been tried. James Simpson has a fantastic piece that connects even more of the dots than I ever have with extensive links and research.

Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors -- Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others. David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks.org have also contributed a wealth of information and have noted Obama's radical connections since the beginning.

Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. When seen together, the influences on Obama's life comprise a who's who of the radical leftist movement, and it becomes painfully apparent that not only is Obama a willing participant in that movement, he has spent most of his adult life deeply immersed in it.

But even this doesn't fully describe the extreme nature of this candidate. He can be tied directly to a malevolent overarching strategy that has motivated many, if not all, of the most destructive radical leftist organizations in the United States since the 1960s.

He then goes on to tie all of these groups and individuals together in a neat bundle for us to consume and Barack Obama is their man. He is simply the most radically far left candidate that that a major Party has ever put forward, a committed communist redistributionist. They play by the "Rules For Radicals" playbook of Saul Alinsky and not just him but now the entire Democrat Party and their minions in the MSM.

Just like this current financial crisis is largely manufactured by Democrat policies and pushed by the press, note the eight years of gloom and doom reporting we've had from the MSM since Bush took over despite a growing economy. They must make people feel so helpless and full of despair for them to accept the radical changes to socialism they want to impose on society. Simpson should have included this quote from Alinsky in his piece.

"There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevski said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families - more than seventy million people - whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don't encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let's not let it happen by default."

Community organizer means communist and that is what Obama wanted to be but then learned that the best way was to get elected to office and to work within the system, just like Bill Ayers. Ayers does it through the education system, Obama through the political system.If you take a close look at how Obama campaigns you will see this strategy, lay out a doom and gloom picture, demonize the other party as the cause, and then claim to be the only one that can solve it with all kinds of government programs that won't work but only make things worse in a vicious circle as Simpson explains in detail. What I will never understand is how Americans can think the Party that created all these problems, the Democrats, are better suited to fix them. It's like rehiring the electrician who's faulty wiring burned down your house to wire the new one, insane.

Update:I might as well tag this McCain ad on to this post, via the Patriot Room.

And a couple post from Gateway Pundit on Obama's brownshirt truth squads, here and here.

API Blogger Call On Oil And Energy Production: Updated

As I promised here is the transcript, it is in PDF unfortunately so I can't copy and paste any of it. We discussed refineries, what the lifting of the bans mean, known and unknown reserves, employment and a few other things. The audio is below, it is an hour or so long. (Update: The audio app does not seem to work in firefox so use explorer, weird.)

A couple points I wanted to make towards the end but was unable to in regards to how far offshore these platforms should be and environmental matters. API rightly pointed out that not a drop of oil was spilled by the rigs in the Gulf during the worst Mother Nature could throw at them during Katrina which was a cat 5 storm when it passed over them with 100 ft. seas. The last spill from an offshore drilling platform was forty years ago and technology has come a long ways since then.

Currently off the coast of California there are over 2000 known natural oil seepages that leak hundreds of barrels a day into our coastal waters some of these in environmentally sensitive areas. So it would make sense to tap them for energy instead of just letting them pollute the environment. Secondly these drilling platforms become artificial reefs attracting a vast variety of marine life and contribute far more to a healthy fishery than they take away.

Thirdly some worry about so called sight pollution, not wanting them to spoil the view but they are not that big and at 10-15 miles off shore you would hardly notice them anymore than a passing ship. Its not like there would be some sort of massive skyskraper looming on the horizon. Plus with modern drilling technology a single platform can reach a much vaster area than in the past when we would have needed several platforms to reach the same area.

Another point was brought up about a liberal talking point that we have only a tiny percentage of the worlds oil and population but we use 25% of the world's production of oil. That may be true but we are also the world's biggest producer of goods and services with that oil not to mention the hundreds of other products that come from oil byproducts like plastic, paint, tires, nylon, and cosmetics. It is not all used to fuel our cars, it also fuels our industries from manufacturing to agriculture, without energy there is no production. We can't power our nation today with good intentions and pie in the sky green energy ideals that do not exist yet and won't be viable for decades. Though we should continue the research into those fields with private money and free market forces not tax dollars subsidies and government mandates.

Moderator:Jane Van Ryan, Senior Communications Manager, API
Speakers:Red Cavaney, President and CEO, API
Prentiss Searles, Marketing Issues Manager, API
Sara Banaszak, Senior Economist, API
Tim Sampson, Senior Advisor, API
Richard Ranger, Manager, Upstream, API

The other bloggers on the call were
Bob McCarty, Bob McCarty Writes
Cindy Kilkenny, Fairly Conservative
Devil's Advocate, Copious Dissent
Doug Lambert, Granite Grok
Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum
Geoff Styles, Energy Outlook
Jim Hoeft, Bearing Drift
Joules Burn, The Oil Drum
Joy McCann, Little Miss Attila
Michael Swartz, Monoblogue
Peter Carlock, OPNTalk
Pejman Yousefzadeh, RedState

Update: Bob McCarty has a post up about the call.

The Bailout Boondoggle

This is what I have been able to figure out so far. The Democrats are trying to lard it up with massive handouts to some of their special interest groups like ACORN, La Raza, trial lawyers and big labor, basically poison pills to GOP support. Why are they doing this? Basically teh Democrats want the markets to crash so they can then blame the GOP for not supporting the bailout. The thing is Nancy Pelosi can pass this thing out of the House without any Republican support and Harry Reid can likely get the votes he needs in the Senate to send it on to the President.

Why won't they? Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid don't want the Democrats left holding this hot potato with sole responsibility for it. They don't want to be seen as bailing out the Wall Street fat cats they love to rail against without Republican cover. The GOP wants a clean bill that has taxpayer protections in it and they do understand the seriousness of the credit crunch though some don't believe it is as bad as being touted by some, like the global warming thing.

Apparently it is only a few really big mortgage houses that are in trouble larrgely from buying weak or bad paper that lenders that were forced to write by Democrats seeking to increase homeownership in poorer markets. Watch the two videos in the post below this one for a better understanding of that. The smaller local and regional banks are in fine shape because they maintained standards of lending credibility.

I don't know enough about financial markets to know if this bailout is needed or not but if it is I sure don't want millions or even billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of the voting and mortgage fraud specialists , ACORN, and illegal immigrant race baiters, La Raza. Michelle Malkin has outlined how La Raza got many of these lending houses to write mortgages for illegal immigrants often with fraudulent documents, that is unacceptable and should not be allowed to continue.

What I want to know is why are the two Democrats most responsible for this mess even being allowed to negotiate the solution, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd? They should be locked up along with Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson and Jamie Gorelick, all Clinton offials, for this massive fraud pulled on the American people that we may very well end up paying for.

What Caused The Mortgage Mess

Democrats starting in the Carter era and made worse under Clinton, Republicans tried to reign it in and were blocked by Democrats. Watch this video that is going viral.

Facts don't lie, Democrats do and we are supposed to trust them to fix it and run the country, HA.
This is another good one from hearings in '04 when the Fannie Freddie scam started to come apart, note is pushing for more oversight and who is saying nothing is wrong.

Presidential Debate Tonight

The debate between Obama and McCain will go on eventhough McCain had initially called for a postponement inlight of the negotiations on going in DC over the financial market bailout/work out. I am hearing that Jim Lehrer will focus on this for at least a portion of the debate which is a good thing. I am not going to get into an analysis of it because there are far better sources than me all over the web. My only objection to it is based on Democrats attempting to lard it up with gifts to groups like voter fraud specialists ACORN and illegal immigrant proponent La Raza.

Anyway back to the debate, McCain should eat Obama's lunch because despite Obama's considerable teleprompter fed oratorical skills he is a poor debater as the last few with Hillary showed. McCain has a rapier like wit and is able to give short concise answers off the cuff while Obama tends to ramble and speak in circles while saying nothing of substance. McCain has held hundreds of town hall meetings and press conferences over the years. The few I have seen of Obama's he stumbles around and gets tied up in his own tongue more often than not.

I will attempt to do some live blogging so check back.

Update: Obama jumps right in with a lie, he did not warn about Fannie and Freddie two years ago, he was silent, while McCain spoke on the Senate floor about it and cosponsored a bill to reign them in. He was blocked by Democrats. Gerge Bush tried to get more oversight in '93.. Obama was bought and paid for by the mortgage giants. Come on John point that out, please.

Update: McCain tags Obama with his 932 million in bork barrel spending, Obama attacks back by saying McCain supports taxcuts for those that create jobs and wealth. Obama clearly does not understand economics. So far Obama sounds like a liberal tax and spender and McCain sounds like a reformer with a solid grasp on economic policy.

Update: McCain already has Obama back on his heels stammering. He cannot give 95% of the people a tax cut when some 30% of the people don't pay any taxes.

Update: Obama is lying through his teeth on just about everything.

Update: I wonder if Obama's education plan is anything like his Annenburg Challenge work with Bill Ayers. McCain is blowing him away. Obama needs to remember he is not running against Bush and that McCain stood against Bush many times.

Update: McCain comes across as serious, Obama is a blatant liar. Obama is going to be shredded in post debate write ups. I can't type fast enough to do it now. McCain is IMO hitting homers, Obama is hitting grounders to first base. Obama is getting hot under the collar and his lies come ever thicker as time goes on.

Update: Acck, Obama is making me sick to my stomach, McCain is going strong and clearly has a huge upper hand on the issues.

Update: Good grief, I know more about foreign policy than Obama, what a joke. Obama lives by the maxim, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullshit.

Wrap Up: Obama is clearly out of his league when onstage with McCain. This is a huge win for McCain though I am sure the MSM will do their very best to spin it otherwise. All I heard from Obama was typical left wing talking points that have been around for years now, he has those down pat for sure. John McCain impressed me tonight with his vast grasp of the issues and an ability to think outside the box. How will this play with the average American? I don't know because I am a biased political junkie but I don't think Obama came across as knowledgable. All He had was to blame Bush and while that will play well with his moonbat base it won't resonate with America. McCain had Obama on his heels the whole night from my vantage point. It was a good debate and I thought Jim Lehrer did a good job of encouraging an open debate.

Blogger Conference Call With API

The call today with the American Petroleum Institute went very well and was highly informative, wide ranging and lasted over an hour. There were about a dozen of us on the call and all were well informed about energy related issues, I am familiar with a couple of them. I would say the biggest name there was Pejman from Red State but little ole me did not feel in over my head or out of place.

I will post more about it once I have a chance to go over the transcript which they hope to get out tomorrow and will provide links to it as well as the audio file.

Obama's Brownshirts Strike Again

Obama's attorneys are once again threatening TV stations running anti-Obama ads, this time it is the NRA's ads. Does this guy not believe in free speech or what? Is this what we can expect should he get elected? Unfreaking real, this is after he encouraged his supporters to attack Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso for appearing on a Chicago radio station to discuss their work looking into Obama's past. This is pure liberal fascism, the only free speech is what agrees with them and nothing else or they will shut you down. There shall be no criticism of the One or you are a racist bigot that needs to be shut up.
Here is one of the ads the NRA is running the others can be seen here and they are all very good.

Here is Megyn Kelley taking an Obama surrogate apart over it.

Making History Judenrein

Algebra and social science aren't required learning according to the Torah. G-d doesn't require us to be experts in chemistry or in English literature. The only high school subject that the Torah commands us to learn is history. "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will declare unto you, your elders, and they will tell you." (Deut. 32:7) Every single Jew must be aware of his history, from where he came, so that he should know where he is going. A Jew must have a proficiency in the legacies of the past, of the course of Jewish history. Only a Jew who is well versed in the history of his people can feel the true weight of his destiny, of his heritage, and to be able to carry on the Jewish mission.

The enemies of Israel know too well that without a sense of history, the Jewish people have nothing. Therefore, they work tirelessly to erase the past and to destroy evidence of Jewish history. They seek to make history judenrein, free of Jews. The incredible story of Jewish survival throughout the ages bears testimony to our triumph and vindicates our claims before the world. It is not surprising that those who want most to undermine the homecoming of the Jewish people deny the past.

The policy of the "Palestinians" (an invented entity in-and-of itself), both Hamas and the "moderate" Fatah, has been to deny that a Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat, may his name be accursed, repeated this lie before a shocked President Clinton and his aides. Children in the Arab world are consistently taught that the Jewish people are interlopers who have no history in the Land of Israel, or "Palestine". On September 23, Fatah-run "Palestinian" television featured a video clip which called for Muslims to protect al-Aksa mosque. It repeated the claim that the Temple never stood in Jerusalem. As translated by PMW, the video clip that appeared on PA TV on September 23, 2008, includes the lyrics, "Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being, Al-Aqsa is ours. Al-Aqsa is ours, Oh Muslims, Al-Aqsa is ours." It goes on to call for another Saladin, the Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem in 1187, according to PMW. This clip has been broadcasted by Fatah and Hamas repeatedly during the last 18 months.



The Islamic wakf which is in charge of the Temple Mount has been feverishly working to destroy all archaeological evidence of the Temple. Archaeologists have found them dumping priceless historical artifacts in the Kidron Valley. They have been Islamizing the Temple Mount while removing every last vestige of Jewish past from it. Despite the fact that for thousands of years, the Temple was the center of Jewish spiritual life, and Jews pray three times a day facing the Temple Mount, the wakf doesn't allow Jews access to their holiest site. They know full well that without historical justification, Israel has little basis as a Jewish state. With this in mind, they try to cut Jews off from their past. Jews are forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount, Muslim mobs destroyed Joseph's Tomb in Shechem and the Arabs are besieging the beleaguered Jewish community in Hebron, centered on the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

A study released this week by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community affairs, found that American elementary and high school textbooks contains gross distortions about Israel and Judaism. One textbook claims that Jesus "was a young Palestinian", and charges the Jews with deicide. Many others deny the connection between the Jewish people and Israel. They claim that the Arabs never attacked Israel and that Israel has refused to make peace with them. They teach that Israel put the "Palestinians" in refugee camps but ignore the half a million Jews forced out of their homes in Arabs lands. (The history of Jews in Arab lands is another subject of historical revisionism as revisionist "scholars" deny the indignities and brutally that they suffered at the hands of Islam.) After a vote by the Islamic Council of Education, it was decided to avoid using the name "Israel" to refer to the Davidic dynasty lest anybody make a connection between this ancient kingdom and the modern State of Israel.

The President of Iran, who is now in NY speaking before the UN and having dinner with religious leaders, denies the Holocaust before the entire world. He has said that: "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets. The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets, (it) deals very severely with those who deny this myth but does not do anything to those who deny God, religion, and the prophet. If you have burned the Jews, why don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel? Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?" Ahmadinejad asked the West rhetorically why, if they truly committed the Holocaust, do they not the Jewish people a piece of land in Germany. He ignores the historical and ancestral claims that the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel and rewrites history by painting the Arabs as the natives of Palestine who were displaced by Zionist invaders. He combines Holocaust denial, anti-semitism and a commitment to destroy Israel into a frightening combination. He is just one of the growing number of voices that seeks to "revise" the Holocaust and to claim that it was exaggerated.

The Jews were once compared to a messenger who forgot his message. The G-d of history chose the Jewish nation to be His, to be a light unto the nations and to spread holiness and G-dliness all over the world. Unfortunately, many Jews have forgotten their lofty calling and contented themselves to living like gentiles, focusing on materialism and ignoring the Jewish destiny. Leo Tolstoy wrote of the Jews in 1908: “What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?! The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity." The Jewish people has survived all of its oppressors and begun to return to its land. Israel is the beginning of the Redemption, what Jews have prayed for three times a day for two thousand years, since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and the beginning of the current exile. They longingly beseeched G-d to return them to His land.

This week's Torah portion sets out G-d's guarantee of our return. "And it shall come to pass, when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall return to your heart [while in exile] among all the nations, where the Lord your God has driven you. And you shall return unto the Lord your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul. Then the Lord your God will [re]turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the Lord your God has scattered you...And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live. ... And you shall return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command you this day. And the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, for good; for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers. If you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the Torah, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul." (Deut. 30:1-10) To be able to return, we must be aware of our original state and be able to know that our present reality is an aberration and not the ultimate goal. The G-d of history will have mercy on His people. Amen.

Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake

Code Pinkos Meet with Ahmadinejad

Code Pinko founders, Jodi Evans and Medea Benjamin, and about 150 other peacenik moonbats met with the world's greatest sponsor of terrorist groups today in New York to propose a "Peace Park". Jodi Evans one of the cofounders of the Code Pinko clown group is also a major fundraiser/bundler for Barack Obama. Code Pinkos also raised a few hundred thousand they sent to insurgents/Al Qaida in the Sunni triangle during the height of the Iraq war. Those insane people are not into peace only the defeat and humiliation of the US and the installation of socialism here. They also advocate for the palestinians and the downfall of Israel. Just a few more whacked out friends of Obama. Oh yeah Obama wants to sit down for tea and falafels with him with no preconditions to discuss the best way we can surrender.

You know the joke. What do Obama and Osama have in common?

They both know people that bombed the Pentagon and hate the USA.

What those idiots don't understand is that they would be the first ones killed by radical jihadis. I bet Ahmadinejad was amused and chuckling to himself, 'what uselessly useful morons'. I wonder if the witches from Code Pink wore their cute pink crowns or donned hijabs and keffiyas for their appearance with the mad mullah's mouthpiece.

Here is El Rushbo on the topic.

Saying One Thing Doing Another

With the negotiations ongoing in DC over how to best solve the financial crisis I found this interesting. Not long ago Barack Obama was on Sixty Minutes and had this to say about what would make him a good President, via Dan Riehl.

(on camera): Why do you think you’d be a good president?

OBAMA: Well, I think that when you think about the challenges we face, these are challenges that require us to look forward and not backwards.

(CROSSTALK)

KROFT: Why you? I mean, why do you think you would be a good president?

OBAMA: Well, I was going to get to that.

KROFT: Go ahead.

OBAMA: You know, I’m a, I’m a practical person. One of the things I’m good at is getting people in a room with a bunch of different ideas who sometimes violently disagree with each other and finding common ground and a sense of common direction. And that’s the kind of approach that I think prevents you from making some of the enormous mistakes that we’ve seen over the last eight years.

You would think he would then be uniquely suited to bring the disparaging sides together in those negotiations but what does he say in his presser yesterday besides droning on and on?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) change your decision to stay here? Or are you still going to stay here in Florida and prepare for the debate, or are you thinking of going back to Washington?

OBAMA: You know, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to -- what I have told the leadership in Congress is that, if I can be helpful, then I am prepared to be anywhere any time.

What I think is important, though, is that we don't suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics at a time when we're in the middle of some very delicate and difficult negotiations.

So, you know, I think the message is, if you need us, if I can be helpful, I'm prepared to be there at any point.

He is really taking the lead here isn't he? Didn't he brag to the Israelis a while back that he was on the Banking committee? He isn't of course but the super skilled negotiator is trying his best to stay as far away as possible from these negotiations. He'll fly back to DC to be Harry Reid's lap poodle if Harry needs his vote but that's about it because he is clueless about what to do. Heck one of his financial advisers is Jim Johnson one of the creators of the mess.

Barack Obama In But Not Of America

Barack is an American but he is not of America in that he did not set foot on continental US soil till he was a young man going to college in Las Angeles and then spent the bulk of his adult life in the elite echo chamber of academia. He does not understand America as Bob Owens points out in this post and why he has trouble connecting to average folks the way Sarah Palin or even John McCain does.

And he's right: Barack Obama's life story, half-lived and half-told in two self-aggrandizing auto-biographies, is not the story of America or of Americans, but the story of a "citizen of the world." Barack Obama cannot hold quintessential American values because he has not lived a life that celebrates or even respects American culture.

His mother Stanley Ann was the offshoot of an odd and vain man who was determined to name his child after himself, regardless of sex. She became radicalized in high school in Washington state, and met the freshman Senator's Kenyan communist father in a Russian language class in Hawaii. Three months after she became pregnant she married Obama's father, though he was still married to his first child's mother in Kenya (no doubt, we can expect Andrew Sullivan to launch an investigation into Obama's paternity any day now). Barack Obama, Junior was born six months later, abandoned by his foreign father within several years, and spent his youth in Indonesia with a new stepfather, boning up in his English via correspondence courses. Barack Junior finally left Asia many years later to move in with his grandparents and go to high school in Hawaii.

The he Bob is referring to at the beginning of the clip is Prof. David Demming who has a scathing piece in the Edmund Sun about Obama's authenticity or I should say his lack of it. Authenticity is what Sarah and John have in spades over Barack and Joe Biden and is why she so resonates in middle America.

Obama is a Harvard lawyer who is a mile wide and an inch deep. He is only the latest in a long line of shallow elites that consider it stylish and intellectual to despise their own culture and heritage.

Nothing exemplifies Obama’s antipathy for American culture better than his statement that Americans “cling to” religion and guns out of frustration or bitterness. We only can suppose that Obama regards religion or firearms as aberrations that need to be eradicated.

Of course, both guns and religion are essential aspects of American culture. The United States was founded by people seeking religious freedom. Does the word “Pilgrim” ring a bell with anyone? Our freedom and the right to self-government were won by farmers with guns.

Barack simply cannot connect because he has no idea how, he looks down his nose at us as ignorant dirty peasants that need to be ruled not lead. We need to be told how to live because we are inferior to his elite intellect and therefore incapable of caring for ourselves. We need massive government programs lead by the liberal elite to care of us is his thinking. As Bob points out at the end of his post Obama is not so much anti-America he is unamerican, just looking at the people he chose to associate with for most of his life, from Frank Davis, to Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and it becomes very obvious.

My First Blogger Conference Call

I have been invited to my first blogger conference call on Friday! It will be with the president of the American Petroleum Institute, Red Cavaney, to discuss the impacts on the industry by the recent hurricanes and the expiration of the bans on drilling for oil and natural gas on the OCS and the interior of the US. I am excited about this opportunity for the Barnyard to participate in such a call. I have been in contact with one of their spokespeople for a couple months now and have learned a tremendous amount about our energy needs, what we have in our domestic reserves and how urgent the need is to be able to tap those reserves.

Tapping those reserves would keep hundreds of millions of dollars here in the US that would otherwise flow into the coffers of countries that don't like us very much. It would also create hundreds of thousands of good high paying jobs while bolstering our economy in the process. We need access to this energy now as a bridge to future technologies and it would also provide revenue to develope them.

There is a RSS feed on my sidebar to podcasts from Energy Tomorrow Radio that if you are interested are very informative. Jane Van Ryan, the hostess, is my contact with the API and I will be happy to submit whatever questions you my readers might have so let me know.

Meanwhile here is a very interesting document she sent me with lots of good charts and graphs for you to peruse, note the estimates of our reserves are about 30 years old and don't include shale oil or the Bakken formation which has been seriously upgraded with new drilling technology. It is a PDF file unfortunately but if you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader by now you shouldn't have a computer, kidding, just get it its free.

I will give my report on Friday and will have transcripts and audio available within a couple days after that, stay tuned.

John McCain Leads, Barack Obama Cedes

Today John McCain suspended his campaign to go do his job as a Senator to help solve the fiscal crisis for the American people. Barack Obama ceded to the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the biggest idiots on the Hill, and said he would return if they needed him to. He has no idea what to do so he will let others tell him what to do, what a leader. McCain showed by that action he does put the country first yet again and not his personal ambitions, that is leadership my friends. McCain is a fiscal conservative hawk and does not take spending the people's money lightly and neither does his wingman Sarah Palin so I am glad he is joining the debate because he will fight for us. Obama will vote however his leader Harry Reid tells him to since he has no problem throwing the people's money around with total abandon if it forwards his career.

McCain's statement is here and Obama's is here, McCain speaks with clarity and principaled judgement , Obama rambles in feckless platitudes.

Are Democrats Better On The Economy?

Emphatically NO, they are good at using the government to get in the way of a free market economy but they are not good for the economy so why do so many Americans think they are. The only thing Democrats know how to do is raise taxes and spend more and more money on stupid entitlement programs and policies that don't work. As Reagan once quipped, if its moving liberals want to tax it, if it keeps moving they want to regulate it, and once it stops moving they want to subsidize it. Their only answer to any economic problem is always to raise taxes and grow government not to get out of the way of the private sector.

Look at the states and cities that are struggling the most and you will find Democrats in charge. All the cities with the highest rates of poverty and unemployment have all been in Democrat control for at least a few decades. Democrats have no respect for those that actually create jobs and grow the economy, like entrepreneurs and small businesses or even those evil large corporations that employ thousands.

The financial mess we are in now was largely caused by Democrats starting with the Carter administration and then made worse during Clinton's by forcing lending institutions to make loans to unqualified people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were run into the dirt by corrupt individuals from Clinton's administration, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and Jim Johnson that made millions cooking the books. President Bush called for more oversight 17 different times since '03 when Raines' corruption and dirty books were uncovered. Fannie, Freddie and others bought off Democrats to block those efforts and to look the other way as they continued their corrupt dealing. Democrats Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from those mortgage giants to look the other way and to obstruct Republican efforts at reform.

The economy did do well for most of the Clinton years until the tech bubble burst sending us into a shallow recession the Bush tax cuts pulled us out of and the economy has grown every single quarter since. When did it start slowing down? Two years ago when Democrats gained control of Congress and did nothing but conduct witch hunts on the Bush administration, name a few post offices, spend billions on pork and try to lose the war. Why in the hell would the American people want to give these idiots even more power and give the Oval Office to a novice lawyer that knows nothing about economics, Barack Obama, and a man that has been in the Senate for 35 years and has voted for every stupid socialist bill that came in front of him, Joe Biden?

Stanley Kurtz On Obama, Ayers, And Education Policy

Barack Obama said in an early debate that Bill Ayers was just a guy in his neighborhood that he didn't exchange ideas with but that now appears to be a blatant lie. Obama once bragged about his work on the board of the Chicago Annenburg Challenge when was running for Senate but now he and his cronies in the MSM have been doing everything in their power to bury it. Stanley Kurtz gained access to the archived records of the CAC and finds substantial linkage between the two and radical efforts to reform the Chicago school system. They spent 150 million to not teach kids reading writing and arithmatic but how to be little socialist grievance mongers agitating to overthrow their oppressive overlords.

In works like "City Kids, City Teachers" and "Teaching the Personal and the Political," Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? "I'm a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist," Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk's, "Sixties Radicals," at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.

CAC translated Mr. Ayers's radicalism into practice. Instead of funding schools directly, it required schools to affiliate with "external partners," which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn).

Mr. Obama once conducted "leadership training" seminars with Acorn, and Acorn members also served as volunteers in Mr. Obama's early campaigns. External partners like the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education. CAC's in-house evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its grants on the test scores of Chicago public-school students. They found no evidence of educational improvement.

I really don't care what Ayers and his wife did forty years ago as radical terrorist bombers but I concerned about what he is attempting to do today through the indoctrination of children in public schools. Obama and Ayers have dicussed at length education and punishment of juvenile offenders in various forums one even sponsored by Michelle Obama. Bill Ayers is now a Professor of Education meaning he teaches future teachers and currently is VP of a board that writes curriculum agenda for public schools across America as this article in City Journal points out. That should scare the bejeebers out of all parents of school age children and just imagine what kind of education policies Obama would push if he were to become president.

Ayers’s influence on what is taught in the nation’s public schools is likely to grow in the future. Last month, he was elected vice president for curriculum of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association (AERA), the nation’s largest organization of education-school professors and researchers. Ayers won the election handily, and there is no doubt that his fellow education professors knew whom they were voting for. In the short biographical statement distributed to prospective voters beforehand, Ayers listed among his scholarly books Fugitive Days, an unapologetic memoir about his ten years in the Weather Underground. The book includes dramatic accounts of how he bombed the Pentagon and other public buildings.

AERA already does a great deal to advance the social-justice teaching agenda in the nation’s schools and has established a Social Justice Division with its own executive director. With Bill Ayers now part of the organization’s national leadership, you can be sure that it will encourage even more funding and support for research on how teachers can promote left-wing ideology in the nation’s classrooms—and correspondingly less support for research on such mundane subjects as the best methods for teaching underprivileged children to read

If you have noticed a steep decline in our public schools and have become concerned about what your kids are learning or not learning you can thank Bill Ayers for that. I wonder what the parents of all those kids in Chicago's failing inner city schools think, probably that its the system keeping them down. When actually it is the schools failing to teach the kids how to read, write, do math, or the critical thinking skills to master science or history. They instead teach political correctness and liberal grievance mongering about class, race, and how America is evil and oppresive.

Thanks to the efforts of Stanley Kurtz, Tom Maguire, Sol Stern, and Steve Diamond who have all written on and researched extensively the connections between Bill Ayers and Barack Obama the story is finally getting told, thank God for the New Media or we may never have found out. Do go to Tom's site where he has extensive links posted for much more information.

It is up to us in the new media to spread this since the MSM won't because they basically agree with Ayers and Obama since they came from the same elite institutions that push this crap they call education. We cannot let Obama and by extension Ayers and his ilk get their hands on the levers of power in America, its time to stand up and be counted.

The Sarah Palin Chronicles: Terminator

Thanks to Atlas and the New York Sun are the remarks Sarah Palin would have delivered today at the anti-Ahmadinejad rally in NY if Democrats hadn't pitched a whiny fit.

I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country — leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice of outrage.

Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York — to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan — and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.

The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material to produce a bomb within a year.

The world has condemned these activities. The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its illegal nuclear enrichment activities. It has levied three rounds of sanctions. How has Ahmadinejad responded? With the declaration that the "Iranian nation would not retreat one iota" from its nuclear program.

So, what should we do about this growing threat? First, we must succeed in Iraq. If we fail there, it will jeopardize the democracy the Iraqis have worked so hard to build, and empower the extremists in neighboring Iran. Iran has armed and trained terrorists who have killed our soldiers in Iraq, and it is Iran that would benefit from an American defeat in Iraq.

If we retreat without leaving a stable Iraq, Iran's nuclear ambitions will be bolstered. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons — they could share them tomorrow with the terrorists they finance, arm, and train today. Iranian nuclear weapons would set off a dangerous regional nuclear arms race that would make all of us less safe.

But Iran is not only a regional threat; it threatens the entire world. It is the no. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. It sponsors the world's most vicious terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. Together, Iran and its terrorists are responsible for the deaths of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, and in Iraq today. They have murdered Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, and other Muslims who have resisted Iran's desire to dominate the region. They have persecuted countless people simply because they are Jewish.

Iran is responsible for attacks not only on Israelis, but on Jews living as far away as Argentina. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are part of Iran's official ideology and murder is part of its official policy. Not even Iranian citizens are safe from their government's threat to those who want to live, work, and worship in peace. Politically-motivated abductions, torture, death by stoning, flogging, and amputations are just some of its state-sanctioned punishments.

It is said that the measure of a country is the treatment of its most vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the Iranian government is both oppressive and barbaric. Under Ahmadinejad's rule, Iranian women are some of the most vulnerable citizens.

If an Iranian woman shows too much hair in public, she risks being beaten or killed.

If she walks down a public street in clothing that violates the state dress code, she could be arrested.

But in the face of this harsh regime, the Iranian women have shown courage. Despite threats to their lives and their families, Iranian women have sought better treatment through the "One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws." The authorities have reacted with predictable barbarism. Last year, women's rights activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 20 lashes and 10 months in prison for committing the crime of "propaganda against the system." After international protests, the judiciary reduced her sentence to "only" 10 lashes and 36 months in prison and then temporarily suspended her sentence. She still faces the threat of imprisonment.

Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that" effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. John McCain and I could not agree more.

Senator Clinton understands the nature of this threat and what we must do to confront it. This is an issue that should unite all Americans. Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Period. And in a single voice, we must be loud enough for the whole world to hear: Stop Iran!

Only by working together, across national, religious, and political differences, can we alter this regime's dangerous behavior. Iran has many vulnerabilities, including a regime weakened by sanctions and a population eager to embrace opportunities with the West. We must increase economic pressure to change Iran's behavior.

Tomorrow, Ahmadinejad will come to New York. On our soil, he will exercise the right of freedom of speech — a right he denies his own people. He will share his hateful agenda with the world. Our task is to focus the world on what can be done to stop him.

We must rally the world to press for truly tough sanctions at the U.N. or with our allies if Iran's allies continue to block action in the U.N. We must start with restrictions on Iran's refined petroleum imports.

We must reduce our dependency on foreign oil to weaken Iran's economic influence.

We must target the regime's assets abroad; bank accounts, investments, and trading partners.

President Ahmadinejad should be held accountable for inciting genocide, a crime under international law.

We must sanction Iran's Central Bank and the Revolutionary Guard Corps — which no one should doubt is a terrorist organization.

Together, we can stop Iran's nuclear program.

Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a plea to Israel's enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain's promise and it is my promise.

Thank you.

Good NRA Ad

They have four they are going to run in key battle ground states, via Hot Air.

Newt Gingrich On The Paulson Bailout Proposal

This is a must read article by Newt and he asks some very pertinent questions that need to be answered before Congress rushes into a possibly disasterous solution. He is right that they need to slow down and be very careful to make sure the taxpayer is protected and not just throw good money after bad to the benefit of a few at the expense of the many. I don't and won't pretend to know what needs to be done, all I can do is hope some cooler heads can prevail.

Imagine that the political balance of power in Washington were different.

If this were a Democratic administration the Republicans in the House and Senate would be demanding answers and would be organizing for a “no” vote.

If a Democratic administration were proposing this plan, Republicans would realize that having Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Dodd (the largest recipient of political funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) as chairman of the Banking Committee guarantees that the Obama-Reid-Pelosi-Paulson plan that will emerge will be much worse as legislation than it started out as the Paulson proposal.

If this were a Democratic proposal, Republicans would remember that the Democrats wrote a grotesque housing bailout bill this summer that paid off their left-wing allies with taxpayer money, which despite its price tag of $300 billion has apparently failed as of last week, and could expect even more damage in this bill.

But because this gigantic power shift to Washington and this avalanche of taxpayer money is being proposed by a Republican administration, the normal conservative voices have been silent or confused.

A couple of our young conservative guns are throwing up some red flags, Mike Pence and Michelle Bachman and they concur with Newt that opening up our energy market will do more for stimulating the economy than any government bailout plan. Repealing the capital gains tax would also do a lot and would result of a surge of capital into the market improving liquidity.

A reminder that Democrats created this mess and blocked multiple efforts to get ahead of the problem before it exploded. Hattip: Ace

Ed Morrisey has more on that Bloomburg article linked above and adds, more here.

What happened? Despite moves from Republicans such as Chuck Hagel, John Sununu, Elizabeth Dole, and John McCain to get more regulatory oversight on Fannie and Freddie, Congress took no action. Why? Fannie and Freddie had already co-opted Chris Dodd with over $130,000 in campaign contributions over 20 years, and over $120,000 to Barack Obama over less than four years. Hillary Clinton took tens of thousands in eight years, and Chuck Schumer also opposed any new regulation on markets that Congress had forced open.
We can play blame games for the next several months and years, but what would be the point? In this case, there is a point, and it couldn’t be more clear or important. We have two candidates running for President who would bring much different styles to executive authority over regulatory responsibility. Barack Obama and his allies took the money and stayed on the sidelines rather than take proactive action to resolve the credit crisis. McCain and his co-sponsors of this bill had the right idea and instincts, but could not get any cooperation from Clinton, Schumer, or Obama.

And unbelievably socialist Democrat Barney Frank wants to continue the bad lending practices that got these institutions in trouble in the first place.

Sarah Palin Draws Obama Size Crowd In Florida

She drew approximately 60,000 folks to a rally and she didn't have to provide a free rock concert to do it. They waited in line for hours to see her so don't believe the MSM meme that she is costing McCain support in the South. My mom and sister live in the South and they love her, they like strong independent women down there, that is something city slicker elitists will never understand about rural folks. McCain will hold the South handily and will make Obama fight for states that should have been easy picks for him.
Hattip: Jim Hoft

Big Scoop Coming Tonight: Updated And WOW Is It A Scoop!

Ace is reporting that Rusty has some scoop on a nasty anti-palin You-Tube ad that is being astroturfed by Obamabots but is somehow connected to Axelrod and the Obama team. Rusty is one savvy internet sleuth known for hacking jihadi sites and taking them down so whatever he finds could be big but the sorry tease won't be posting it till late tonight Eastern time. I will follow up as soon as I know more. Plus Ace has some background on Axelrod and independent campaign ads.

Obama is running the most dishonest nasty campaign I have seen since I started following politics closely in '92 so at this point I put nothing below him or his minions. Heck even some in the MSM are starting to take notice. Hattip: Jennifer Rubin.

In other news on that front, the disgusting Obamabot slug that hacked into the Palin family's email and posted some of it online was served a warrant last night by the FBI and they spent a couple hours gathering evidence from his dorm. Gateway Pundit has more info with links if you want more.

UPDATE: Like I said Rusty is a savvy and ruthless internet sleuth and he has basically uncovered how all the Palin smears seem to appear all at once at multiple moonbat sites. It is long, detailed and full of links. I will have to go back and reread it with less beer in me but it is full of evidence of the Chicago style of politics, dirtier than the devil's pet pig. This is more red meat than I can digest in one sitting. Basically it appears like one of the biggest PR firms in the world is running an undercover smear campaign to support Barack Obama and my common goat sense tells me Obama is just fine with it and knows all about it, the Chicago way you know.

Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Those smears included false allegations that she belonged to a secessionist political party and that she has radical anti-American views.

Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.

It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:

Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.
Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.
Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.
The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.
This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod's firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as "astroturfing."
David Axelrod is Barack Obama's chief media strategist.
The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.

Obama's Job Plan

He doesn't have one but this is funny, slight content warning, via Allah Pundit.

Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

What Caused The Financial Meltdown?

Many many things actually but the seed was planted thirty years ago during the Carter administration with something called the Community Redevelopment Act which was a well intentioned plan to increase home ownership in poorer neighborhoods. This was given more teeth in '92 under Bill Clinton which forced banks to make risky loans and threatened them that if they didn't their ability to lend or expand would be limited. Bear in mind that Democrats controlled all branches of government at those times and George Bush was nowhere on the scene though Joe Biden was.

Investors Business Daily has an excellent piece that explains all this better than I can since I am not an economist or financial analyst, their is too much good stuff to pull a quote so go read it. Noel Sheppard also as an interesting take on this after managing some banks during that time.

I admit that some of these laxed lending practices helped me purchase my first home a few years back and also came damn close to getting me in trouble financially, but unlike many of those borrowers I have an excellent credit rating. I also didn't bite off more than I could chew. It seems to me that when housing prices started rising steadily as demand increased a lot of people whose mortgages were nearly paid off refinanced their homes in order to capitalize on the increased value of their homes for many various reasons, some good, some bad over extending themselves in the process. There were also the flipper speculators that bought with the intention of selling within a year or two at a profit. The mortgage brokers also sought to make a few bucks and created all sorts of creative plans to facilitate this, like interest only, ARMS, and back loaded payments that actually added to the amount owed. Then the bill came do and a whole bunch of folks said OH Shit! and the housing bubble burst, leading to where we are today.

This is not President Bush's fault or John McCain's who both sought to reign this idiocy in and were blocked by Democrats as the IBD article spells out in plain language. The Democrats are actually pushing to allow these insane lending practices to continue in the name of fairness and be backed up by the taxpayer. I do not like the bailouts of Fannie, Freddie and AIG but unfortunately it was needed to prevent an even bigger meltdown. I am also not a fan of regulations but some rules and oversight are needed for markets or society to function in an orderly manner, they just need to be of the proper kind, unlike those forcing banks to lend to those that aren't credit worthy.

The blame for this meltdown can be spread far and wide but most of it falls squarely in the lap of the Democrats with their well intentioned as usual but incredibly shortsighted policies. The question now is who is best suited to fix it, the Party that got us into this mess or the one that warned about it as early as '93. John McCain has come out with some solid ideas while Barack Obama has blamed George Bush and by extension McCain but has offered no solutions beyond tax the rich. If I were McCain I would put Mitt Romney in charge of getting this mess in order but that is why I was backing Mitt from the start anyway. Who would Obama put in charge of it? I would guess some of the folks that got us here in the first place since his financial team seems to be filled with Clinton era derelicts.

Another Obama Ad Gets The Facts Wrong

Earlier this week a courageous miracle of a woman, Gianna Jessen, filmed an ad for Born Alive Truth on Barack Obama's votes against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act while serving as a state senator. Why is she a miracle? Gianna was born alive despite an attempted abortion and she now works with Jill Stanek, the nurse that blew the whistle on the Chicago hospital that refused treatment for these babies and allowed them to die. Barack Obama has also promised to repeal all laws restricting abortion including the bans on the ghastlt partial birth form if elected and to make taxpayers pay for them. Here is the ad Gianna filmed for Born Alive Truth via Michelle Malkin who has more including stsements by Gianna and Jill.

It is fact that Obama made these votes unlike the 130 where he voted present and there is audio of him argueing against the act. Obama's campaign ran a rebuttal ad that blatantly lies thrice, once in blaming McCain for running the above ad which he clearly did not, again by denying his recorded votes and then by saying McCain wants to ban abortion even in the case of rape or incest. I don't think McCain has even mentioned this because he rarely mentions the abortion issue despite his 100% pro-life record. McCain generally takes a Federalist position on this and believes Roe to be bad law because it is, my position also. Here is the Obama ad.

Here is Obama in his own words desribing why he opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, well questions about live are as he said to Rick Warren,"above his pay grade" and thinks babies are "punishment". To me being dog catcher is above Obama's pay grade. This is via Gateway Pundit.

I don't think abortion should be illegal and should remain an option with increased counseling and waiting periods. I do find Barack's and rabid feminists' positions completely disgusting though since in this modern medical world the woman's life is almost never in danger.

I remember getting in a huge argument a few years ago with an animal rights activist vegan about factory farms, which I don't like either, then I asked her about the abortion mill. She was also a pro-abortionist and you could literally see her head exploding as I persued that line of questioning till she left the thread and never raised the argument again. Ironic that the only animal liberals support killing is of the most vulnerable human variety, the young, the old and the Terry Shiavos.

Can The GOP Recreate '94?

Color me sceptical but the Democrats sure are working hard to give us a chance to do just that especially on the issue of energy production and specifically exploiting our vast resources of coal, oil and natural gas. Despite their best efforts they have been unable to convince people that catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is imminent or even happening at all since we can do the research ourselves now. It has been proven to be a myth and a massive scam cooked up by Al Gore to enrich himself and his fellow socialists. Democrats have been intoxicated by their pipe dream of alternative sources of energy that don't even exist yet. They may at some future date but we need to power our homes, vehicles, businesses and economy now and coal, oil and natural gas are the best way to bridge that gap to the future. Republicans can run on this and a few other key issues and blindside the elitist out of touch Democrats that think Hollywood represents America.

Jed Babbin outlines this in a great piece for Human Events this week in which he points out that in '94 the Dems enjoyed the same generic lead in polls as they do today untill Newt Gingrich introduced his Contract With America. Newt has been hard at work again with his American Solutions organization and Platform of the American People that the GOP adopted large portions of for our platform. Jed points out that if the GOP candidates run on this they will win and handily. The Dem platform is free abortions for all, higher taxes, bigger government, gay marriage and a litany of liberal programs and agendas that run against the grain of the American people. Here is a teaser from Jed's essay but do read the whole thing.

There are two other issues the Republicans can, if they choose to make the election national rather than local, use to propel themselves to significant gains: the Dems’ embargo of American oil and the craziness of the liberal media.

“Drill Nothing” Nancy is the perfect example of liberal elitism that Republicans have to campaign against. The Pelosicrats believe higher gasoline prices are good for us because it helps them “save the planet.” They don’t care, as Gingrich does, that the vast majority of Americans want to fuel their cars without having to take out a loan, don’t like flag burning and don’t like courts making gay marriage legal. These are national wedge issues just waiting to be seized by Republicans.

Just as it did in 1994, Republican recovery starts with Gingrich.

A few months ago, Gingrich energized the Republican base with his “Drill here, drill now, pay less” petition to Congress to end the bans on offshore drilling and development of other American energy sources. At last report, 1,476,899 Americans have signed it.

Not to mention Democrat House leader Nancy Pelosi and Democrat Senate leader Harry Reid have led Congress to its lowest approval ratings in modern history with their witch hunts and grandstanding while getting nothing done. The GOP candidates can directly hang the high fuel prices, and collapse of the financial markets solidly around the Democrats' neck. I almost forgot their blatant attempt to lose the war against radical Islam to spite President Bush. Thanks to the pick of Sarah Palin for McCain's wingman the base is finally motivated and ready to fight for it.

Finally McCain Ties Obama To Franklin Raines In New Ad

Franklin Raines was the corrupt and disgraced CEO that ran mortgage giant Fannie Mae into the dirt and got very wealthy doing it. He is now Obama's chief adviser on housing and the mortgage industry. McCain has also started hitting Obama from the stump on this and its very timely.
(ed. minor correction Raines is an informal adviser as per his own words)

Ed Morrisey also has been kind enough to dig up a few stories about Raines in the WaPo on just how corrupt this guy was.

March 2005: Perverse executive pay forced Raines out of his job.
May 2006: Extensive fraud at Fannie Mae under Raines’ direction, generating over $50 million in bonuses for nonexistent growth.
April 2008: Raines gives up $24 million in future payouts to avoid criminal charges in Fannie Mae fraud, although most of that was in worthless options; he pays $2 million in cash.

The following is from McCain's remarks today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Two years ago I warned this Administration and Congress that regulations for our home loan agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, needed to be fixed...

But nothing was done.

Senator Obama talks a tough game on the financial markets but the facts tell a different story. He took more money from Fannie and Freddie than any Senator but the Democratic chairman of the committee that regulates them. He put Fannie Mae's CEO who helped create this disaster in charge of finding his Vice President(ed. Jim Johnson). Fannie's former General Counsel is a senior advisor to his campaign. Whose side do you think he is on? When I pushed legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senator Obama was silent. He didn't lift a hand to avert this crisis. While the leaders of Fannie and Freddie were lining the pockets of his campaign, they were sowing the seeds of the financial crisis we see today and enriching themselves with millions of dollars in payments. That's not change, that's what's broken in Washington.

Mcain also oulined some of the things he would do to make sure this does not happen again. Obama whines and points fingers seeking to place blame, McCain works to find real solutions to a bad situation. This is also the type of corruption Sarah Palin faced down in Alaske and beat. McCain/Palin the right kind of change we need in Washington.

Update: Ace has more and here.
Gateway Pundit has more including this damning video of Fannie CEO telling Democrats that they are the "Family" that kept the Feds at bay and looked the other way while they were bought off.

OUCH, thats going to sting.

Moonbat Slugs Hack Into Palin Family's Personal Email Accounts

Slugs are exactly what they are, crawling around in gutters leaving their slime trails wherever they go. This is of course a violation of Federal Law and the Secret Service and FBI will have these slugs put away where they belong in short order I am sure. I seriously doubt the Obama team had anything to do with this but I guarantee those who did are supporters of The One. Why else would they do this to the Palins? They posted emails, addresses and even cell phone numbers to not only Sarah and Todd but their children as well, this was beyond despicable. The left has zero shame and will do anything and I mean anything to gain power. Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, and Hot Air all have more but it is racing aroung the blogosphere at lightspeed. The McCain team issued a short statement condeming it and saying it had been turned over to the proper authorities and they would have no further comments on the matter.
This is a good reason why politicians especially those in the executive should not use email.

McCain Foresaw Fannie Freddie Collapse In 2006

He also tried to do something about it then but it was blocked by Democrats in the banking committee led by senior Democrat, Chris Dodd, the number one pig at the handout trough from their lobbyists, the number two pig at that trough, Barack Obama. President Bush had pushed for tighter oversight of the runaway mortgage giants in 2004 and was thwarted then also by the Democrats. Ed Morrisey has much more on this including this hard hitting speech from John McCain on the Senate floor.

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

Franklin Raines made millions of dollars as CEO of Fannie Mae while cooking the books to make them look like they were turning a profit and is currently a top adviser to Barack Obama on the economy and housing. Tim Johnson also made millions as CEO there and briefly was in charge of vetting Obama's VP pick. When McCain speaks of corruption on Wall Street and in Washington this is what he is talking about and has sought to reform. Where was Obama, racing Chris Dodd to the money trough, not helpng McCain reform the system just enjoying the perks.
I wonder if Mitt Romney would be available to help straighten all this out. John McCain appears to be far more savvy about economics and the financial markets than he lets on. I am sure this issue will come up in the debates the first one being next Friday and McCain should be able to shred Obama on this.

The Democrats No Energy No Drilling Energy Plan

Rep. Michelle Bachman reports that it would permanently seal up 90% of our oil resources and block nuclear energy development along with increased taxes on the energy sector. The Democrats are trying yet again to pull the wool over our eyes with a fake drilling bill the only thing it drills is our pockets.

Late last night, the Democrat Rules Committee decided to allow debate on ZERO amendments to the Democrats’ new energy gimmick bill. It is a closed bill, so no amendments can be offered, and no compromise can be reached.

They made this decision over Republican objections, in the dead of night, and less than 12 hours before the House would begin consideration of the bill.

Not only is their approach wrong; but so is their bill. Their bill bans drilling in 9/10ths of our off-shore reserves and bans exploration in ANWR entirely. They’re blocking nuclear power. They’re blocking coal-to-liquids. They’re blocking oil shale and the list goes on. Really, they’re blocking All-of-the-Above.

At the same time, they’re increasing utility costs for consumers who are already concerned about imminent high heating bills. That’s the last thing our already tight family budgets need right now.

The Democrats know this bill is seriously flawed, and it’s simply a political gimmick. They’re not really trying to address the issue, but rather trying to cover their backs during a tough election season. The truth is the Democrat leadership has failed the American people on energy reform. Don’t be fooled by their charade.

Rep. John Campbell has more details of what is in the Democrat bill, high on taxes and subsidies and short on real energy production.
The gang of 20 in the Senate's bipartisan bill is no better as I reported on here, hopefully Mrs Energy Sarah Palin can keep McCain well away from those lunatics.
Ace has the Senate phone numbers listed and those to the RSCC and RNC, if the Republicans cave on this they are giving a up serious advantage and perhaps the only winning issue they had to run on.
Update: Lots of good information at Energy Tomorrow on rhetoric vs reality.