Another Jobs Summit Fantasy

  Another wasted day and another dollar down the drain.  As unemployment increases the only response that Obama has is another “Jobs Summit.”  [You may remember this past June’s Senate Democratic” Green Job Summit.”]  It would have been interesting if some of the participants had actually ever created any.  This group was woefully lacking of people that know how to create jobs and the organizations that make a living by figuring these things out like the US Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Business and National Association of Manufacturers weren’t even invited.  Early reports indicate that not much happened short of more policy wonk talk and pontification.  Here you have an Administration that has made 92% of their appointments from those that never worked in the “private sector” organizing a meeting to discuss how to create jobs.  All this from a crowd that never had to “make a payroll?”  This is a world class irony.

I did notice that Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) was proposing a “jobs tax credit” and I am sure that the Administration would try and take credit as a “tax cutter” if they ever implement one but they shouldn’t (implement one), let me explain.

First this particular iteration of the “jobs tax credit” was designed by the Economic Policy Institute which has a Board largely formed by Union Leaders, College Professors and a retread executive of the failed Lehman Brothers, in short a rich mixture of Democratic partisans who themselves never had to make a payroll.  In their collective wisdom they were recommending a “jobs tax credit” of 15% in 2010, 10% in 2011 and falling to 0% in 2012 and beyond.  In short if you hired someone presumably in 2010 you could take a tax credit of $7500 for a $50,000 job in 2010, $5000 in 2011 and of course nothing in 2012.  This means it actually costs you 85% in 2010, 90% in 2011 and 100% in 2012 and beyond along with all related “overhead” cost of employment such as insurance, retirement and whatever.  They “project” that this will create between 2 and 5 million jobs.  This is fatutously amusing.

I have been in the position over my career of having to “make” payrolls, hire people, prepare tax returns for those taking the tax credit and yes even taking said credit myself.  (thank you Uncle Sam)  I can honestly say that not on a single occasion did I or anyone I worked with even consider the “jobs tax credit” in making the “hiring” decision (maybe in the budgetary process).  This is not an anomaly, it is the bottom line.  I am certain that these “jobs tax credits” are not on their own responsible for a SINGLE reasoned job hire. 

When you read statistics each month and you read something like “employment shrank by (lets say) 495,000 jobs.”  This actually means that more people were “let go” than “hired.”  In every economic environment (good or bad) SOME people are hired and SOME are let go.  In good times the numbers favor the hiring and in bad times the numbers favor the firing.  The employers of those that are hired will take the jobs tax credit for sure and the government will take the credit for creating (as opposed to saving) jobs.  The result, however, is no impact on job creation but a huge cost to the Treasury to reward companies for hiring people that they would have been hired anyway.  NOBODY will hire somebody and pay 85%, 90% then 100% of salary plus “overhead” based on that nominal savings.  They must FIRST have confidence that they will need them in the long run, which is discouraged with every breath out of the administrations mouth continually promising tax raises for those making over some “arbitrary” limit ($250K i.e. small business), regulations and daily increasing the burden of government mandates.  If employers are convinced they will need new employees in the long run they will hire them regardless but they will pick up the boot along anyway.  Anyone that hires someone based on a jobs tax credit should be summarily fired, and somebody that doesn’t recognize this is fool.

This is not some esoteric business theory but Basic Business 101.  The only problem is that nobody in the Obama administration has taken that course in academia or more importantly real life.  I am shocked  that it isn’t intuitive to them anyway.  Senator Gillibrand has now also made it abundantly clear that she is a lightweight and I will impart to her along with others the title “fool.”  They are just trying to look like they care and are doing something until something else just happens.  This is sort of like re-arranging the furniture on the Titanic.

December 4, 2009 | Filed Under Economics, Fiscal Policy, Politics | 2 Comments 

“Collective” Praise by School Children

  Now back at the Florida Headquarters from Ohio then Nashville (nearly adjacent to the EIB network) J

I wanted to post a personal email I sent to a couple of friends last night that are occasional readers and commenters here at NSL, though not on the flattering side.  I have taken the liberty of nominal editing and redaction of some actual personal numbers in this republished letter, but you can trust that they were just the same significant, at least to me.

I’d hope that while the left is taking a page out of the Mao Tse-Tung songbook of “collective” praise by school children for the leader (mmm, mmm, mmm) that some might read the article (below) about the “real world” and learn something about how finance actually works, but then again that is why they say about SOME teachers: ”those that can do, do …. while those that can’t do, teach.”  New York is worried and perplexed about why the income tax revenues from the recent piled on tax of the “wealthy” this year is not meeting expectations even after adjustment for the recession.  The truth is (and to their future and intensified dismay) because it was enacted just this year the “wealthy” have not yet been able to implement their “end game” economic plans.  This year down 20% but look out for additional exodus from New York that will not only erode some of the planned increase, but take money off the table that previously existed under the prior tax structure.  You might say, “well, that is a state problem,” but they can’t run away from the Federal Government.  This is the naiveté of the left.  These people are the primary employers in the country and just watch them move investment & production offshore because of this type of stuff and cap & trade, etc.  [Just like Obama did in 2008 with the proceeds of his book sales income invested almost entirely in foreign investments.]

 

Though just a small player in the financial world, I am a “tax refugee” from Ohio myself.  I make most of my income from stocks and the stock market.  My margin cost (i.e. investment interest) can run to 50% of my gross proceeds (and has been 80% in the past).  Ohio is one state that does not recognize the legitimate expenses of producing income and wants to tax the gross not the net.  Even the Federal Government allows this type of expense though be it “below the line” as they say and then they also have an “unfair” “run off” of Schedule “A” deductions and of course taxing the gross through AMT outrage.  Any self respecting “progressive” won’t see anything wrong with this at all and others will justify it by accusing and citing what they personally didn’t like about George Bush or some ad hominem comment like that, but the bottom line is this is costing governments “revenues” and they just can’t seem to grasp that.

One example is that I myself now file as a Florida resident (and you can be sure I am dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s religiously on the residency game).  I went ahead and calculated my hypothetical OHIO taxes for 2008 (just for personal humorous entertainment since I became a refugee in 2007).  Well, I laughed when the computer gave me the answer.  Even though the rate is about 30% lower than CA, if I were an Ohio resident in 2008 I would have sent them a check for $XX,XXX.  If they had responded favorably and reasonably to my petitions to have margin or investment interest deductible against investment income, I would have only had to pay around $XX,XXX in taxes.  A couple of Republicans proposed this legislation (which I think I may have influenced) but the “progressives” shot it down.  Their “progressive” ignorance not only cost them the $XX,XXX extra tax they wanted from me but the amount I would have paid if they had allowed investment interest deduction as well.  In short they lost it all.  You say “no big deal” but remember I am not the only one.  I meet “tax refugees” down here all the time.  Ted Turner is one by his own admission. (though I didn’t meet him)

 

If teachers or people want their children to learn something that will be of value apart from some inane mantra about the leader however creepy it may seem, they should teach them the lessons of this article (just think how delicious the response would have been if it were George Bush they were singing about 2001-08).  Since people still have certain freedoms the schemes of the left are doomed to failure, but I think they know this and realize that they will have to deal with what we once thought of “as” our freedoms.  [just for starters take note of the Baucus health care bill requiring the young & healthy to buy health insurance or pay $3,800 +/- “tax” under penalty of fine and imprisonment in the gulag (most likely un-constitutional now ….. pending future vacancies) in order to subsidize health care for the older and other uninsured (which now looks like will include “illegal aliens” by simply declaring them legal).  Just think what a world wide health care magnet that will make us…….we’re so wonderful]

 

About the article below, read it, memorize it and don’t forget it…………. They already tried this with the aviation and marine industries during Clinton and it failed so badly that Teddy Kennedy led the repeal himself. But along the way it cost untold thousands of jobs and was a “net income loss” for the Treasury.  The Democrats bragged about it being a luxury tax on the rich.  No “rich” person paid the tax and none were denied luxury yachts or private jets or non-jet aircraft, yet they (the rich) still created a lot of jobs…….overseas.  What is it they say about what the deffinition of insanity is?  But what the hell, change is coming.  (heard that before too)  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_re_us/us_taxing_the_rich

September 28, 2009 | Filed Under Administration, American Left, Economics, Health Care, Political Correctness, Politics, Taxes, The Left | 1 Comment 

Government Ministry of Thought

  The White House is now asking publicly for ordinary citizens help it rain in what it calls disinformation about the Presidents healthcare program.  They have published an email address flag@whitehouse.gov for people to write to snitch on people expressing their dissatisfaction with the program.  Check out this Public Service Announcement by the White House HERE.  What has come to this country is CHANGE, but I’d prefer to retain my freedoms such as speech, thank you.  It is interesting that from the same people that made sure that George Bush wouldn’t tap the phones of overseas Jihadists calling their operatives in the USA we are getting and executive branch campaign to collect names of dissenters from the Presidents programs.

Anyone that has a bit of common sense can examine statements by the White House and Members of Congress as well as past video comments by Barry and realize that this is indeed designed to move us to a “single payer” Canadian style program ultimately.  Their claims to the contrary about the plan is in fact the real disinformation campaign. They are even lying about the language itself that is contained in that 1,000 page monstrosity.  But that is what a democracy is all about.  People have preferences.  If you are for the Canadian system and all that this may mean like Barry, then so be it.  But they should be honest about it and not so surreptitiously conniving to force something down your throat through the strategy of dying by a thousand small lashes.

This country is founded the principle of freedom of speech and political thought and it is clear that the administration is trying to crush this.  He has ordered his lieutenants to hit back twice as hard.  They were smart, they charged the opponents at the Town Hall meeting preemptively with wearing swastikas and rough house and intimidation in disrupting the meetings even though this was not so according to many police reports around these events.  This was a couple of days before they launched their own Brownshirt activity by loading the Town Halls with SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and ACORN affiliates to intimidate the old people attempting to enter the halls.  Of course those preemptive comments about the opponents would serve to permit the Administration and Democrats in Congress to say the opponents were striking back and making it up.  Too bad this time it is on tape.

Reports are that many opponents at many town meetings were told it was full while SEIU members were ushered to alternate doors for entry.  This is flat out suppression of speech.  This whole thing is becoming rather Orwellian in the manner that Obama is running this thing.  This is much like the “Black Panther” intimidation during the election that the White House got the charges dropped on after they got into office.  Let me tell you there is one hell of a storm brewing folks.

The most interesting and hypocritical thing of it all is that Barry is calling out those voices of protest as noise makers interrupting his work.  These are people that are voicing their objection to his plans.  Here you have the Organizer (scratch that) Agitator and Chief that spent his career organizing protest now using strong arm tactics to stomp it out.  But I don’t mind in the least, because I believe he is making mistakes that will lead to death (of his Administration).  I guess Rush was correct when he hoped for Obama to fail (as to his programs) even though the left media tried to distort the truth of what he actually called for.

Be sure to cancel your subscriptions to all newspapers and periodicals that are supported by the State Controlled Media and be SURE to cancel your memberships to AARP who has sold out their membership in favor of their blind acceptance of this direction.  Send the message.  Now go ahead and report this “fishy” blog post to the Government Ministry of Thought.

August 8, 2009 | Filed Under Administration, American Left, Health Care, Political Correctness, Politics, Presidential Politics, U.S. Constitution | 1 Comment 

Blood for Votes (and other musings)

  Obama claims that he doesn’t want to nationalize U.S. businesses, but as I see it, Obama has been in office a little over 4 months and he has turned our legal system upside down and stole the property that belongs to the “secured” and senior lenders to GM and Chrysler in order to essentially “give” those companies to the unions, his largest political financial supporters which are junior and unsecured.  Nice payback payoff ……what is it they say; “elections have consequences.”  This is more adept than the Russian Revolution of 1917.  Remember the misery this brought Russia and others for nearly a century following that little experiment?

To the surprise of the executives in the car industry and dealers, he has dictated the closing of many car dealers nationally without a mechanism to insure that the survivors are not Political Favorites of Obama while many “successful and profitable” dealers are being closed outside of the parameters set up by the auto industry for continued existence.  The only significant justification that you can deduce from this is that they are (as most in fact were) Republican supporters.  He fired the head of GM and replaced him with an “Obama friendly” retired communications executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., who claimed on the day of the announcement that he “doesn’t know anything about cars.” Go figure.

Now he is running the banks and deciding how much their executives can earn.  He has even hired a salary “czar” to establish their pay grade.  He likes this idea so much that he is looking into expanding this to other industries.  Steve Ballmer, CEO and co-founder with Bill Gates of Microsoft has been a supporter of Obama but stated that they will move Microsoft “offshore” if Obama continues down this punitive path of taxes and making companies non-competitive in foreign markets.  While attacking US corporations that do business overseas and receive tax benefits for it and wealthy taxpayers not paying enough tax, he himself (according to his published personal taxes for 2008) almost exclusively invested those millions of book royalties U.S. Tax Exempt offshore companies and tax exempt bonds….check it out yourself.

We passed a $800 Billion pork laden program under the guise of “emergency stimulus” to save us from the “Bush economy” [see my link HERE on Obama and the “Community Reinvestment Act” that I posted this past October revealing the real cause of the financial meltdown] and used this urgency as the cover to violate his own campaign promise of posting legislation for 48 hours on the White House website so all could see its contents.   He called it his “new transparency.”  Instead he delivered the 1,000 page bill to the Republicans for first review at 11 PM with a final vote scheduled on it the following morning at 9 AM.  Is this the transparency he promised?  The only thing transparent is that we were played for fools.

The way we know that this bill has nothing to do with “emergency stimulus” (even as it was designed and written) is the fact that 2/3rds of it wouldn’t be spent until 2010 and 2011 with most of that being in 2011.  But it couldn’t wait another 48 hours on the website for proper disclosure.  After it was shot gunned through Congress, Obama took a vacation and didn’t even sign it till mid (the following) week.  Heck, not even the rank and file Democrats had a chance to read it.  But this has all turned out even worse than that because they have only spent 5% of it to date, but you probably recall that part of its sales pitch was that we had plenty of “shovel ready” projects ready to go to effect an immediate stimulus……….not so.  The economy is now beginning to recover without much Federal Stimulus money and even though it will likely be a protracted recovery, maybe we should revisit this spending and cancel it and save our children and grandchildren much grief.

He further emphasized the urgent need of the “stimulus” package in order to avoid the unemployment rate from going over 9% this year.  Well, that strategy worked and that ill designed “stimulus” package did pass and almost exclusively by Democrats but the unemployment rate already hit 9.4% last month.  Now just yesterday he has fired the Inspector General who investigated some suspicious illegal activities of a crony of his own.

Every despot in the world is testing Obama and they are learning that they can get away with anything and they include not only Iran and Venezuela but N. Korea as well.  N. Korea tested nuclear bombs and missiles in contravention of US and UN warnings and yesterday the UN passed a resolution permitting UN member countries to “interdict” N. Korean vessels suspected of caring weapons.  Obama stated yesterday that he intends to challenge such vehicles on the open seas, but wouldn’t use force to board them…………  Do you see what I see here?  He has essentially neutralized even the weak action of the UN and stated IN ADVANCE that we wouldn’t actually stop them.  What kind of leadership is this?  Do you think N. Korea will be inclined to cooperate with the “spirit” of the UN action since we have notified them that we won’t enforce it?

He has been on a world wide tour apologizing for the “misdeeds” of America without mention the countries we saved, the poor people we have fed, etc. and he has even unilaterally stated to the nations of the world that the United States is NOT a Christian nation.  Ok, I can live with that maybe if he let it go at that, but then he goes onto Moslem soil and states that the United States is one of the largest Moslem nations.  Truth is, even by those metrics we are not.  We would be far down that list.  You may have noticed that he managed to exempt his own culpability from all these woes that America has brought on the world.

Obama and his party are doing everything to release real terrorist that we have captured while simultaneously strategizing to prosecute real Americans that protected us from them.  Now Pelozi wants to release photos that even she agrees with U.S. Generals will cost American’s lives.  People don’t understand why she would do that, but it is an easy assessment.  She is playing to the political left in San Francisco that is demanding this.  She has placed her reelection and position ahead of Soldiers lives.  The Deomcrats once (often) said “Blood for Oil” as they criticized Republicans.  I think this is much more clearly Blood for Votes.  (You can’t come up with any other analysis of it.)

What is the cost of all this…………..?  Essentially every economist (eliminating those with a White House connection) feel that the Obama program will bankrupt the country and leave our children with an insurmountable debt at a time they will already be going broke over the existing Social Security and Medicare problems.  Obama said last week “you ain’t seen nothin yet.”  With Cap & Trade and Cap & Tax he will permanently make the US non-competitive with the rest of the world so we can be seen as “politically correct” in solving a problem (global warming) that either doesn’t exist or is not caused by people.  The primary Charlatan and Elmer Gantry of our era is Al Gore.  He has already made $100 million propagating his junk science that he won’t debate with opposing scientists and he is on the threshold of making Billions by becoming the primary “broker” of carbon offset credits.  Understand this is a Ponzi scheme that moves around the production of carbon but doesn’t reduce a single pound of emissions.  Did I tell you that C02 is NOT a toxic substance and is necessary in the photosynthesis process?  You breathe C02 in and out with every breath.  If you didn’t you’d be dead.

Let me conclude and say I smell that Obama is on the threshold of betraying the Israelis in a fundamentally existential fashion and he is headed in the direction of being the biggest elected disaster in the history of the country………..stay tuned.

June 13, 2009 | Filed Under Democratic Hypocrisy, Economics, Global Warming, Muslim/Islam, Political Correctness, Politics, Taxes, U.S. Constitution, War on Terror | 6 Comments 

Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (a white paper)

     The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) which was designed to offer mortgage credit though all areas not just wealthy areas was passed during the Carter Administration and subsequently managed by Jack Kemp during the Regan Administration.  It was not designed to insure credit was made available to unqualified borrowers.  It wasn’t until 1994 during the Clinton Administration that this Act of Congress became a useful tool for activist organizations like Acorn (which is facing criminal investigation in many states) and Community Organizer Lawyers like Barack Obama to leverage it to the advantage of their political and activist goals.  Janet Reno staked out the new policy of the Clinton Administration which was to be a policy of rigorous enforcement: 

“No loan is exempt, no bank is immune,” warned then-Attorney General Janet Reno. “For those who thumb their nose at us, I promise vigorous enforcement.”     

     The way the law was implemented was to deny banks the ability to grow or buy out other banks unless they were in deemed to be in “compliance” with the CRA and individual ad hoc groups were authorized and encouraged to bring legal action against the banks to enforce this action.  The lawsuits that were filed against the banks could literally bring all plans to a “standstill” on mergers or expanding their capital base.  The litigious nature of these groups caused many banks to “play ball” with them and approved very questionable loans and to concede to financial contributions in the multi-millions of dollars to organizations like Acorn to keep peace.  It was in reality a sort of a “protection” plan administered by the activist groups (especially Acorn) much like the Jesse’s Jackson’s Operation Push shakedown.  You had to pay up or they would drag you through the coals and label you as a racist.  In short the shoddy loan practices of the banks were forced upon them through this process, not corporate greed as advertised.

     In 1994 a Lawsuit against CitiBank was brought by Acorn (and soon to come association with activist Chicago lawyer named Barack Obama) in: 

Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank Fair Housing/Lending/InsuranceDocket / Court 94 C 4094 (N.D. Ill.) FH-IL-0011 State/Territory Illinois,

and in 1995 such suit was granted “class action” status and Barack Obama joined the suit with his own clients in the following three Illinois cases he was personally representing against CitiBank and remained as a page one named attorney in the class action suit representing ACORN, et al.:

FH-IL-0011-7500 | FH-IL-0011-7501 | FH-IL-0011-9000.

     This case was to force CitiBank to abandon their loan policy of not making loans in risky markets and to risky creditors.  The political pejorative for this was Red Lining.

     In 1997 CitiBank “settled” out of court after the Democrats in Congress at the behest of Acorn forced a reduction in mortgage loan standards for banks through coercion on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and then began “donating” large sums of money to ACORN and reversing their practice of “red lining” districts and borrowers that were not qualified for loans.  Enter James Johnson.

     James Johnson was the Chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae after previous political activity as serving as the Campaign Chairman of Walter Mondale’s failed 1984 Presidential bid.  It was during his tenure that the goals of Acorn and many activists in Congress such as Maxine Walters, Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank we’re supported by Fannie Mae by providing the ultimate backstop for Citibank’s agreement to issue what were risky loans by agreeing to guarantee those loans and in fact purchase the loans in many circumstances from CitiBank.  (We know now that  those loan guarantee and purchases resulted in the ultimate demise and conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008.)

     During this time (1991-1998) that Johnson was Chairman and CEO of the quasi Public organization (Fannie) he and Fannie reported that he was paid $6-7 million (wow for a quasi public corporation) but it was discovered by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) in 2004 that Fannie Mae had deferred $200 million in expenses in 1998 through the accounting techniques identical to that of Enron and WorldCom (I can say this being an accountant) to enhance the appearance of profits.  Since the current crowd of operators initiated a “bonus” program that was based on profits, millions of dollars of fraudulent bonuses were made available to Johnson, his successor Franklin Raines and Raines’ ultimate deputy Jamie Gorelick (Both Raines and Gorelick were Clinton appointees).  OFHEO also found that Johnson had misrepresented Johnson’s compensation as $6-7 million after the audit and found that it was actually $21 million (talk about Public Servants).  Johnson (along with Chris Dodd D-CT Chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee who originally said he didn’t know Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial) received special “below market” loan approval on a private personal loan directly from Mozilo of Countrywide who was the first major domino to fall in the Sub-Prime housing market.  It was found that Mozilo had a personal list of people under his direct authority for obtaining special loan approval.  It was called his VIP list.

     It should be noted that Johnson subsequently served as Chairman of the John Kerry Vice President selection committee and was providing similar advice to Barack Obama after he secured the Democratic Presidential nomination.

     When Johnson left Fannie Mae in 1998  Franklin Raines was appointed by Bill Clinton as Chairman and CEO and took the financial scam to new heights.  He appointed as his deputy a loyalist from the Clinton Administration that had not one minute of financial education or experience Jamie Gorelick (the author of the Clinton policy of the “absolute wall of separation” between U.S. intelligence organizations which had substantial impact on the proverbial left hand not knowing what the right had is doing issue leading up to our intelligence gaffs on bin Laden and 911.  The US Government was not allowed to share intelligence information between the CIA, FBI and other intelligence gathers………….think about it and how devastating that result was.)

     With the settlement of the Class Action Lawsuit against CitiBank (the largest in the USA) and Fannie & Freddie taking all the loans you can present, banks like Citi and others based on these precedents wrote zillions in mortgages to unqualified buyers knowing that the Federal Government would “guarantee” re-payment and even purchase the loans.  Purchasing the loans became the game of the day at these quasi federal agencies since Raines had taken his remuneration package to the Board to have it tweaked to the number of loans that were written with the sweetener to obtain agreement by the Board of Directors was an offer of increase in their pay.  As a result during Raines tenure he was able to take out $90 million in bonuses and Jamie Gorelick (deputy) took out and additional $25 million.  Raines later settled out of court on a civil case for “cooking the books” but most of the settlement (about $3 million) was paid for by an insurance policy (paid for by Fannie) and a few hundred thousand dollars of other costs while allowing him to keep nearly all the $90 million.  [It is time for criminal charges to be pursued.]  You should know that Raines is today a financial consultant to the Obama campaign though after initially bragging about it they now deny it.

     The purpose of this “White Paper” is to shed light on what really was the template for the ultimate collapse of the mortgage industry in this country since thousand upon thousands of these unqualified loans were written.

     Barack Obama is still going around blaming Wall Street greed for the financial fiasco while the truth is that Wall Street bought into this program through the pressure of Freddie and Fannie when Freddie and Fannie took packages of these loans and turned them into “securities” that they could market to Wall Street.  This was all the result of a series of events of which Barack Obama played a significant role early on.  Wall Street (i.e. the investment banking community) bought into the commercial banking products because they had been pressured and they were told they were “riskless” by Franklin Raines (I heard the tape where he told the Congressional Banking Committee when asked about the degree of risk they represented he answered “riskless”).  The more they could securitize and push to the investment banking community the more cash they would have to buy more loans from the lenders and increase “bonuses.”  And I should add that Obama was the second largest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae, only being topped by Christopher Dodd (Democrat-CT) Chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee.

      During House Financial Services Committee hearings in 2003 when the BUSH administration was becoming aware through OFHEO there were real problems with Fannie and Freddie and proposed regulatory legislation, a major row occurred in the House Committee by the minority leadership Barney Frank where he read the administration the riot act and as reported at that time by the New York Times (9-11-2003) the following statement:

Bush today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.  Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill.  Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders (of course) and the Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies. 

And in the direct quotable words of Barney Frank (ranking Democrat-MA on the Financial Services Committee)

“These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis,”  “The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.” 

     Don’t you find it interesting that Barney Frank and his cohorts in the House and the Senate are blaming the Bush administration for “lack of regulation?”  It didn’t start there nor end there.  In January of 2005 the Senate introduced a bill titled “Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 S. Bill 190.  This bill could well have brought the practices of Freddie and Fannie into check and regulation.  This bill had 3 Republican sponsors including John McCain and zero Democratic sponsors, but in the Senate you need 60 votes to move legislation and the Democrats made it clear (on party lines) that they would not support this legislation. [But of course the lie being told is that it was Bush, McCain and the Republicans that resisted regulation of the financial industry.  They only need to repeat this lie 29 more days to where it won’t matter so much when the truth finally comes out.     It is time for the Republicans to get with it and start to defend their conduct over the past 10 years on this issue and illustrate that it was nearly a 100% operation of the Democrats to thwart regulation which is directly opposite of what they are saying now.  There are many other instances where the administration attempted to bring these matters under control and were thwarted by the Democrats.

     This financial disaster is the direct and proximate result of the bastardization of the Community Reinvestment Act by the Democrats in the 1990’s in order to extend their “social engineering” to the financial markets.

     Please serve as a counter force to the largest and most sinister scam, in my opinion, that is being thrust on the American public.  Share this narrative about the “bailout” (which I supported) as a direct result of the Democratic meddling in the mortgage community and Congressional Oversight role for the past 10 years.  They would have you believe they are trying to help out Bush after his financial policies failed.  The biggest financial problem we have ever had since the Great Depression is a direct result of socially engineered housing policies of Clinton and Banking Oversight Policies of the Democrats in Congress…………..period.  The Democrats are flat out lying about this every day and it needs correction.  And I’ll tell you that any body that knows what actually went on will not want to debate this issue.

October 5, 2008 | Filed Under American Left, Economics, Fiscal Policy, Politics, Presidential Politics, The Left | 16 Comments 

The Stalinists are Lecturing the U.S.A.

  Don’t you just love it when the idiots that structured nearly every failed financial system in the world in the past century are lecturing the U.S. on economics?  Russia has pronounced that the Credit Crisis marks the end of U.S. economic domination in the World,……ouch.  Their economically expert leadership is declaring that the crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America’s Global Economic Leadership is drawing to a close.  The Russian President, Dimitri Medvedev (Putin’s Puppet) said concerning the credit crisis, “the times when one economy and one country dominated [sic] are gone for good.”  Not so fast Demo…….are you aware of the numbers? 

Economic Powerhouses of the World (GDP): 1)  U.S.A. $13.8 trillion,   2)  Japan $4.3 trillion,   3)  Germany $3.7 trillion,   4)  China $3.3 trillion,   5)  United Kingdom $2.8 trillion,   6)  France $2.5 trillion,   7)  Italy $2.1 trillion,   8)  Spain $1.4 trillion,   9)  Canada $1.4 trillion,   10)  Brazil $1.3 trillion,   11)  Russia $1.3 trillion.

     These numbers are expressed in U.S. dollars and based on 2007 performance and were calculated when the value of the U.S. Dollar in international exchange was valued at nearly its’ lowest.  If these same statistics were recalculated at today’s increased value of the Dollar the differentials would be substantially more dramatic.  Did you notice that the economy of Russia with a substantially greater population than the U.S.A. is less than 1/10th of the US even based on a “cheap dollar” calculation earlier this year.

     It is just during this time of economic financial crisis that the Dollar has rallied because the “markets” see that the U.S. Dollar and U.S. Treasury Bills are the safest “economic” harbor in the World, exactly the opposite of what Demo’s thesis would be even if he understood his own words.  Need I say that the U.S. Stock Market at this time is down about 22% +/- THIS YEAR depending on your index approach while the Russian Market was down 50% LAST WEEK. So even though the socialist world would have you believe the opposite, Capitalism is still the best place to be and if we had keep the “social architects” out of the legislation and regulation for “affordable housing” you would have not even seen this credit crisis gather such steam.  [You have an opportunity on November 4th to see that they (BHO and his crowd) don’t get back in office]  It was the emphasis and mandate of these social engineers that created the vacuum for the Banks to fill with their own greed as it was then handed off to the Quasi Public agencies such as Freddie and Fannie (which was financially corrupted through Clinton/Democratic cronyism) which in turn securitized them and also handed them off to the Investment Banking Community (worldwide).

     I might add that during even this past week $52 Billion in Net Private Capital left Russia with most finding it’s way to U.S. Treasuries (comparably that would be equivalent to $520 billion leaving the USA in one week).  So Demo…………you get an F on your economic acumen.  You should thank God (I know that is sort of an oxymoron for your type) that you guys can remain in power because you control most the guns.  For the complete story on this post from the New York Times “International Herald Tribune” check HERE.

October 4, 2008 | Filed Under Economics, Marxism, Politics, Presidential Politics, Russian Resurgence | Leave a Comment 

The Global Warming Consensus Nuts Just Lost

  This article is to point the folly of Al Gore and the rest of you dolts that have bought the mantra of Global Warming – Hook, Line and Sinker.  The big crime is the assertion that this is “settled science.”  It is not only now called into question by the group from which the assertion first came, but also is starting to lean in the direction that and degree of settlement on the science is in the direction the point that Global Warming if it indeed exists is not man made HERE.  Are 50,000 Physicists enough to shut up the lie that the scientific community is in consensus on Global Warming?

For goodness sake, what is settled is the fact that man’s unique contribution to the carbon in the atmosphere is limited to 2-3 percent.  Now for those of you that hold the arrogant view of the mainstream on Global Warming and think the rest of us are right wing nuts should read the link below and crawl back into your hole of ignorant bliss.  

Oh by the way, I know you think that CO2 emissions are pollutants, if so don’t tell anyone because you are so misguided that you will be totally embarrassed when your peer “crowd” learns of your ignorance.  Did you enjoy Al Gores speech today where he said we must have our energy grid based on renewable energy up within 10 years?  Yes the guy that bragged about breaking the TIE in the Senate on the Ethanol legislation.  Those of you that do not already know of the folly of this legislation please allow me to refer you to my previous post on the matter HERE.

July 18, 2008 | Filed Under Environment, Global Warming, Political Correctness, Politics | 11 Comments 

Quotes of the Year - 2007

 I found interesting and wanted to pass along a list compiled by Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations as the “most memorable” quotes of 2007.  This is a good list, but I would quibble with the order of ranking.  To me his #10 is clearly the number one quote of the year. Find out why HERE.  Hope you find this interesting and returns your thoughts to events of this past year.  

  1.  
    1. “Don’t Tase Me, Bro”  Andrew Meyer UF student as he was being hauled away by campus police during speech by Sen. John Kerry  (Tin Soldiers and Kerry Coming…………)
    2. “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.”  Lauren Upton, Miss Teen USA contestant from SC when asked why one-fifth of Americans cannot find the U.S. on a map.  (Excuse me………?)
    3. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during a speaking engagement at Columbia University New York.  (I wonder why they don’t have any…..?)
    4. “That’s some nappy-headed hos there.” Radio personality Don Imus referring to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. (Another example that no evil deed goes unrewarded)
    5. “I don’t recall.”  Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ repeated response to questions from Congress about the firing of U.S. Attorneys  (sounds like the HRc “I don’t recall video” compiled by her detractors when discussing the finding of the “lost” Whitewater papers in her office and other matters, all of which the media didn’t seem to find as humorous as this Gonzales response…..hm…….)
    6. “There’s only three things he (Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11).”  Senator Joe Biden (the man that graduated from the lowest quartile in his class and would be President.)
    7. “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating.”  Harry Reid on VP Dick Cheney.  (Harry….would you like to go over those percentages again?)
    8. “(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom.”  Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig, explaining why his foot touched a police officer in the airport restroom.  (And his hand signaled he was ready for action by reaching under the stall into the next stall…..ha.)
    9. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.  I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”  Senator Joe Biden, referring to Senator Barack Obama.  (Wow……two entries from Mr. “C’s get degrees” himself all in one year.)

    10. “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.”  Former President Jimmy Carter, on the Bush administration.  (Coming from the actual worst President in history (HERE) this must be some type of put on.  I would rank this quote as number 1 for 2007.)

December 31, 2007 | Filed Under Politics, Uncategorized | 10 Comments 

Don’t Ask…..Don’t Tell II

 The LA Times is reporting HERE that Hillary is now in a “Don’t Ask” mode following a few faux pas of the previous weeks.  It seems that Hillary’s current campaign strategy is to arrive at a campaign point in Iowa and give the “stump” speech that she wants told and then when her speech is over for the loud speakers to rev up with her campaign theme song (which was that now? …….. “It Ain’t Me Babe?”  …….what?)

Even to reporters she is not answering any questions.  When asked about her take on the Bhutto assassination by a reporter she simply looked at the reporter, turned around and walked away.  It seems that Chelsea is working under the same template where she refuses to comment on anything.  Not overtly by saying “no comment” but simply by ignoring the questioner.

So now we have the Clintons instituting “Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell II” as a campaign strategy.  This reminds me of the beginning of her campaign where she took off on her “listening” tour to see how the “people” felt about things.  She said there would be plenty of time for her to comment on her views, but it was important that she only listened at that point to see what the public wants.  She must have found out, because she changed nearly all of her previous positions on things to accommodate them in order to be elected.

Come on, do I have to say it again.  This lady is one crafty con artist.  Whoever gave her and Bill the moniker “the grifters” sure had it right.  Not only has she changed every position to appease the immediate crowd, she has contradicted herself so many times now that her only option is to not comment and trust that everyone still believes the lies that were crafted for their demographic when they first heard them.  I wonder if Obama and Edwards are going to allow this to pass unchallenged.

December 28, 2007 | Filed Under Character, Politics, Presidential Politics | 1 Comment 

The Folly of Al Gore

dr-william-gray.jpg  Dr. William Gray is reputed to be one of the foremost meteorologists in the world and probably the foremost meteorologist concerning hurricane forecasts and is considered to be a “pioneer” in that field.  If you have heard any annual predications of hurricanes you should know that it is most likely Dr. Gray’s publications from which this is drawn.

Dr. Gray considers that the theory behind Al Gore’s thesis on Global Warming is “ridiculous” and was the product of people (scientists) that according to Dr. Gray “don’t understand how the atmosphere works.”  Dr. Gray believes that the Earth is currently going through a “normal” warming cycle but that the impact of humans on that is “simply too small to have a major effect.”

Dr. Gray addressed the University of North Carolina on the same day that Al Gore received in part the current year award for the Nobel Peace Prize.  He commented that we were brainwashing our children and described the presentation of Inconvenient Truth to school children as “being fed all this.”  He stated that a natural cycle of ocean water temperature was related to the content of salt in the water which was responsible for rising temperatures, which he acknowledged, but he said that same cycle meant that a period of “cooling” would begin soon and last for several years.

He went on to state that those that linked Global Warming to the increase in Hurricane activity were wrong.  He says that we will look back in 10-15 years and see how foolish this current proposition is.  He also says that he realizes that his viewpoint has made him an outsider in popular science circles, but that “It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong.”   ”But they also know that they’d never get any grants if they spoke out. I don’t care about grants.”  Of course when that (cooling cycle) occurs, the left will claim victory resulting from their diligence on the matter now………. J

For additional support for Dr. Gray’s position see my post titled It’s All a Bunch of Hooey (Man Made Global Warming) referencing work by Reid Bryson of the University of Wisconsin and widely know as the “Father of Scientific Climatology.”

October 14, 2007 | Filed Under Global Warming, Political Correctness, Politics | 13 Comments 

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