All "Journalists"

clipped from althouse.blogspot.com As usual, Trooper understates the case against journalists. Just remember Goebbels, Trotsky, Marx, and Dan Rather were all journalists.

Caesar's Dreamland

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com Obama has presented himself from the start as a messianic, "transformational" leader -- and thus played deceitfully with ideas that belong to religion and not politics. That he has done this so successfully is a mark of the degree to which the U.S. itself, like the rest of the western world, has lost its purchase on the Christian religion. Powerful religious impulses have been spilt, secularized. In this climate, people tend to be maniacally opposed to the sin to which they are not tempted: to giving Christ control over the things that are Caesar's. But they are blind to the sin to which they are hugely tempted: giving Caesar control over the things that are Christ's. "Faith, hope, and charity" are Christ's things. They apply, properly, outside time -- to a "futurity" that is not of this world. They must not be applied to any earthly utopia. A Caesar who appropriates otherworldly virtues, is riding upon very dangerous illusions. Follow him into dreamland, and you'll be lucky to wake up

What's A Little Genocide After All?

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com "The unconstrained vision is really an elitist vision," Sowell explains. "This man [Obama] really does believe that he can change the world. And people like that are infinitely more dangerous than mere crooked politicians." Indeed. That's the difference between href="http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2006/07/malignant-narcissism-sociopathic.html">malignant narcissism of the selfish variety and malignant narcissism of the idealist variety--the latter I refer to as "sociopathic selflessness". This malignant selflessness allows the Bill Ayers of the left to cooly contemplate killing 25 million people in order to usher in the leftist utopia. href="http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/276377.php">What's a little genocide, after all ?

OFraud Update

clipped from hughhewitt.townhall.com But to my honest and patriotic Democratic friends, I must say this forthrightly, and I must say it now: There is a criminal element that is infesting your Party to a degree unprecedented in American history, and they are trying to buy the White House for your candidate through overtly criminal means. every honest Democrat should demand that everyone associated with the decision to disable the most basic anti-fraud mechanisms from the Obama-Biden campaign's credit-card donations systems be publicly identified and immediately fired. Every honest Democrat should demand the immediate and full cooperation from the campaign — pointedly beginning with Barack Obama — in seeing them prosecuted and convicted. You may not stay silent, watching your funds commingled with those obtained through criminal means, and keep your own honesty. You may not close your eyes and keep your own honesty. And you may not deny that this fraud is happening, and yet keep your grasp on reality and your sanity.

NYeT! NYeT! NYeT!

clipped from www.pajamasmedia.com "If this thing was running the other way, if Obama was taking the public money and McCain had opted out and raised $150 million in September, do you think The New York Times would have an editorial against it? Indeed.

Do bears do you know what in the woods?

What If

clipped from www.qando.net However, deficit hawk or no, we have Obama touting his tax increases and href="http://www.qando.net/Details.aspx?Entry=9537" target=new>Barney Frank saying taxes need to be increased as well. Any guess which group is most likely to prevail? Any guess as to why there is a great sell off going on on Wall Street right now? James Pethokoukis says: In 1980, anxious Americans voted for lower taxes and smaller government as the solution to the nation's economic ills. Would the opposite prescription also have led to a 25-year economic boom? With Obamanomics, voters may be about to play a fascinating game of "what if." Except it's for real. When Goldman Sachs ran a sophisticated economic simulation of the effect of a total repeal of the Bush tax cuts, the computer predicted a 3 percentage-point drop in GDP. Maybe investors fear that with perhaps a trillion-dollar budget gap ahead, revenue-hungry Dems will raise taxes further than Team Obama is suggesting—right into the teeth of a weak economy. What if, indeed.

A Small Circle Of OFriends

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com According to href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obamamideast10apr10,0,1780231,full.story">Wallsten the evening not surprisingly turned into a classic Jew-bash: "During the dinner a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. Barack Obama also praised the former PLO operative during the event. And, Obama confessed that his family often shared dinner with the Khalidis: His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases... It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world." ...The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times. Khalidi and the Obamas were great friends in Chicago and often shared meals together. By the way, Khalidi was also href="http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/43474e3d-252a-4011-9044-2befe2e65e40">best friends with Bill Ayers.

Yet More National OSocialist Shock

clipped from www.pajamasmedia.com I'M SHOCKED, href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102303364.html">SHOCKED: The Miami trial of a Venezuelan entrepreneur who grew rich doing business with President Hugo Chávez's populist administration has exposed how some top government officials have profited from a corrosive web of corruption in the oil-rich country. Kickbacks, bribes and secret payoffs have become a feature in the socialist administration, which had claimed a break from the past but instead has seen several officials implicated in multimillion-dollar corruption schemes, according to testimony and conversations taped by the FBI. The trial has also revealed the Chávez government's determination to funnel state funds to its allies in Latin America and the lengths it will go to to keep the aid secret. Corruption among socialists? But they're for the people! Right?

Curing A Nearby Blind Child

clipped from jimtreacher.com Media Bubble, Oct. 23 -- Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has come under fire in recent days after it was revealed that earlier this year, a drive-through meal purchased by the Alaskan Governor contained more than the usual number of french fries. The discovery was made during a routine Associated Press search of drive-through security camera footage obtained from the McDonald's restaurant at 130 Front St. in Juneau, less than a mile from the governor's mansion. "Sarah Palin says she's just an ordinary working-class American. [laughter] Now it turns out she eats strips of potato that have been fried and salted. And if somebody offers her more of them for a slightly higher price... that's just fine with her. [boos] Pres. Obama then emitted a discreet puff of arugula-scented flatulence, curing a nearby blind child.

Barack On Whitey

clipped from www.youtube.com

Joe Blows Again

clipped from jimtreacher.com "I mean, the taxes, they're gonna be unbelievable. Holy f***. So we'll need your help with that. You're gonna have to pay 'em. There's no way we can repel a full-scale nationwide tax revolt without resorting to nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, at least in the scenarios they've shown me, so we're countin' on you to do the right thing. "And I'd say to America, this land that I love: You've all seen what an agent of change Barack Obama is. He's brought together people from all walks of life. He's inspired every single person in this country, no matter who you are or what you look like or even if you're into, y'know, the funny stuff. [chuckle] Which is gonna be a great comfort when the Obama administration strangles the U.S. economy and sets off a long, terrifying race war. Biden added, "And don't forget Iran! They know he's a pushover. Which is one of the things I love about the guy, he's a pussycat, but these animals? Boy oh boy. Can you say 'suitcase nuke'?

Of Burke And Lewis And O

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Or Edmund Burke who said: "I must bear with infirmities until they fester into crimes." And then there's this from C.S. Lewis, via a reader: Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Barkless

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Then, part 2 took place today. The sellers of the CDS settled with the buyers. And NOTHING happened...or, rather, the sellers shelled out about $6 billion or so to the buyers and everyone went home. No CDS counterparty failed to perform! The cash collateral margining mechanism worked just fine. A handful of small hedge funds might fail...because they typically borrow to meet their CDS collateral margin calls...so lenders to those funds may have a problem, but NOT the CDS counterparty. But so far none has. And the overhang?...well almost all of it is HEDGED, i.e., offsets other obligations...when these were all netted....the actual required payout was LESS THAN 2% of the notional amount of the CDS contracts. I'll be waiting for the big news report on this in the MSM and their informed observers. There you have it.

Even Bad Weather

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper. But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie -- that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad -- even bad weather -- on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to. If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth -- even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate. But the mainstream media--which is to say, most reporters and editors who work for "mainstream" news organizations--have no honor and are not interested in truth. They are, as Card says, "the public relations machine of the Democratic Party."

The Mudbath For Thee But Not For O

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com The question should naturally arise: Had he any significant early connections with persons who were not former Weather Underground terrorists, Chicago mobsters, corrupt party-machine fixers, race-baiting radicals, or systemic perpetrators of voting fraud? And, given a voting record in the U.S. Senate to the left of every other member, and a potentially controversial register of past campaign contributors, is there any indication that he has moved beyond the sordid political environment from which he emerged? Moreover, having granted that he is a smooth and engaging speaker, a paragon of cool, and the rhetorical master of the emotive empty phrase, what has he ever done to suggest he even might be presidential material? Nothing that I can find -- and this after a very long and excruciating campaign in which every candidate who has run against him (from Hillary Clinton to John McCain to Sarah Palin) has been subjected to an extended media mudbath.

Today's Nutshell

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Abe Greenwald went to a "Democrats for McCain" event last night and liked the cut of speaker Bartle Bull's href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/39471">bullet points: -8 YEARS OF AN OBAMA-PELOSI-ACORN ADMINISTRATION WOULD GIVE AMERICA: -8 YEARS OF SPREAD-THE-WEALTH SOCIALISM, -8 YEARS OF CHICAGO-STYLE CORRUPTION, & -8 YEARS OF UNITED NATIONS-STYLE FOREIGN POLCY The case that never gets made is that the consistent political philosophy of Ayers and his associates continued to warp the mission of the Democratic Party long after the Weather Underground has become nostalgia, and that Obama is the philosophical offspring of the movement birthed by radicals such as Ayers.

Another Helping Of JFK For You Coming Up

clipped from hotair.com Kennedy’s assessment of his own performance was no less severe. Only a few minutes after parting with Khrushchev, Kennedy, a World War II veteran, told James Reston of The New York Times that the summit meeting had been the “roughest thing in my life.” Kennedy went on: “He just beat the hell out of me. I’ve got a terrible problem if he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts. Until we remove those ideas we won’t get anywhere with him.” What resulted?  The Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis.  Kennedy wound up trading strategic intel and missile installations in western Asia in exchange for Soviet withdrawal of the nuclear missiles from Cuba.  The entire Kennedy administration turned out to be a foreign-policy disaster that was only overlooked because of the tragic assassination of Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. I agree with Biden.  Obama is exactly like Kennedy in this regard, and our enemies will test us by threatening our interests around the globe if we elect Obama.

Thanks for that Slow Joe.

Good News: 10% Of Bailout Funds To Go For Bonuses

clipped from www.247wallst.com No matter how badly the economy is doing and what shareholders in American financial firms have lost, it would be a shame to see investment bankers go without their bonuses. According to The London Observer, "Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned. Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bailout from the US government that has already prompted criticism."

Can't have the Reichstag fire arsonists get cold this winter now can we?

I'm sure Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and the whole Fannie/Freddie crew will somehow end up with a cut too.

PDO Update

clipped from www.weatherquestions.com A simple climate model forced by satellite-observed changes in the Earth's radiative budget associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is shown to mimic the major features of global average temperature change during the 20th Century - including two-thirds of the warming trend. A mostly-natural source of global warming is also consistent with mounting observational evidence that the climate system is much less sensitive to carbon dioxide emissions than the IPCC's climate models simulate. It is significant that the observed scale factor (1.9) that converts the PDO index into units of heating or cooling is just what the model required (1.7 to 2.0) to best explain the temperature behavior during the 20th Century. Thus, these recent satellite measurements - even though they span less than 6 years -- support the Pacific Decadal Oscillation as a potential major player in global warming and climate change.

Cold Snap

clipped from network.nationalpost.com Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart explained that extreme cold or snowfall events in his country have always been tied to "a negative PDO" or Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Positive PDOs -- El Ninos -- produce above-average temperatures in South America while negative ones -- La Ninas -- produce below average ones. Dr. Hackbart also pointed out that periods of solar inactivity known as "solar minimums" magnify cold spells on his continent. So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.

Clock Stoppage

clipped from www.pajamasmedia.com In partiuclar, adultery (without regard to whether the spouse consents) is, without any further consideration, a legitimate topic to report. That inevitably has to lead to an even further erosion (if that's possible) of our political class, a further narrowing of the people willing to enter politics. And the vast disparity between the media resources and attention devoted to sleazy gossip like this versus actual investigation of true government corruption and crime seems to be growing by the day, such that behavior like this will further decay our already quite decadent journalistic class as well." Greenwald and I disagree about many things, but there's not much room to argue where the poor state of the political and journalistic classes (and the increasing lack of differentiation between them) is concerned.

No Point In Saving Their Credibility

clipped from www.pajamasmedia.com Honestly, I don't think they are going to be able to hit the reset button this time if their preferred candidate wins. It was easier for Republicans (and center/right folks who voted that way in 2000 and 2004) to let it slide a little in those years, because winning the election made it that much sweeter. If the press drags Obama across the finish line, there will be no forgiving or forgetting. It was way too blatant this year, largely thanks to the blogosphere. Yes, I thought they were in the tank in 2004, but this has been a whole different order of flacking. Partly I think it's because they actually like Obama, or at least the idea of Obama, while Kerry was just a not particularly well-liked means of getting rid of Bush. I think they also feel that as the big media lose viewers and circulation, this may be their last chance to swing an election, and so there's no point saving their credibility for future engagements.

The Price Of Freedom In The House Of Corruption

clipped from proteinwisdom.com Bush has been rightly excoriated by conservatives for his failure to veto, and for the social spending built in to “compassionate conservative.” At the same time, however — and even though I’ve been willing to pile on W about increasing government spending — I’ve had the nagging sense, which I’ve mentioned here on a few occasions, that Bush’s nearly singular focus has been what he sees as an existential battle between the west with its freedoms and those theocracies and authoritarian rules trying to launch a campaign aimed at re-establishing medievalist social contracts and fundamentalist religious law. If this feeling I have is correct, Bush’s tunnel-vision — which has to this point kept us safe (recall the feeling in the air after 911: when would the other shoe drop?) — came at a political cost: Dems and some Republicans problematized the war(s) against radical Islam to create leverage for getting what they wanted in exchange for their ultimate support for the war on terror.

In What Kind Of Nation?

clipped from politics.boogietrain.nl In “href="http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/16/what-we-can-learn-from-the-joe-the-plumber-episode/">their rabid character assassination” as Ed Morrissey puts it, of Joe the Plumber, “a man who did nothing more than ask a question,” Obama supporters and their allies in the media remind us (yet again) of the tactics of all too many on the left.  Instead of challenging their conservative, independent or just plain non-orthodox leftists critics on the plain of ideas, they dredge up whatever they can find in an attempt to destroy our credibility. They just get upset with anything which upsets their narrative. They href="http://www.pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/025918.php">don’t want to investigate Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac because such an investigation might undermine their narrative that deregulation and Wall Street greed prompted the mortgage meltdown.  When conservative suggest that government programs might have precipitated the mess, for example, one leading Democrat href="http://www.gaypatriot.net/2008/10/07/has-barney-frank-no-shame/">accused such heretics to the media narrative of racism. In what kind of nation, do the media investigate critics more than candidates?

Good Friends

Until he threw them under the bus. And people were stupid enough to believe it.

clipped from pajamasmedia.com After all, in a 2004 interview he bragged that he went to Wright’s Trinity every Sunday (even on THE SUNDAY?) and had some rather inspirational mentors (GG is the Chicago Sun-Times interviewer): GG: Do you still attend Trinity? OBAMA:Yep. Every week. 11 oclock service. …. GG: Do you have people in your life that you look to for guidance? OBAMA:Well, my pastor [Wright] is certainly someone who I have an enormous amount of respect for. I have a number of friends who are ministers. Reverend Meeks is a close friend and colleague of mine in the state Senate. Father Michael Pfleger is a dear friend, and somebody I interact with closely. GG:Those two will keep you on your toes. OBAMA: And they’re good friends. Because both of them are in the public eye, there are ways we can all reflect on what’s happening to each of us in ways that are useful. I think they can help me, they can appreciate certain specific challenges that I go through as a public figure.

The "People's Ticket"

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com The "people's ticket" ordered a little snack from room service at the Waldorf, as the N.Y. Post's page Six reports: While he was at a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Michelle Obama called room service and ordered lobster hors d'oeuvres, two whole steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar and champagne, a tipster told Page Six. I'd guess the bill for that snack came in at around $350. Iranian caviar ain't cheap — even if you negotiate for it yourself. What the hell . . . Your campaign contributions (soon to be your tax dollars) at work.

She hated her country before she loved it. And let's fund the Iranian nutjobs while we're at it also...

Welfare As "Tax Cuts"

clipped from www.spectator.org HEMPSTEAD. N.Y. -- "We are going to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans," Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, said in the spin room here at Hofstra University following the final debate of the 2008 presidential election. Plouffe was repeating one of the boldest claims made by the Obama campaign. It's a claim that the Wall Street Journal editorial board href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html">dubbed "Obama's 95% Illusion," noting that more than a third of Americans don't pay any income taxes, and that what Obama's plan does do is offer a raft of subsidies and government payments to individuals and families that he redefines as "tax cuts." His proposal looks more like a redistribution scheme than an honest effort to reduce taxes -- as he href="http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/13/obama-plumber-plan-spread-wealth/">revealed on Monday when he told a now famous Ohio plumber that his plan aimed to "spread the wealth around." If Barack Obama can effectively claim that his plan cuts taxes on 95 percent of Americans, then the term "tax cut" has no meaning.

Joe (Menchu) The Plumber

clipped from betsyspage.blogspot.com For those on the left who think that this whole story is about Joe's personal background, let me put in in terms they should understand. Think of Joe as a symbolic construct whose situation is "fake but accurate." The left always seems to like that sort of approach to what they regard as underlying truths. Think of him as the left thought of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menchu">Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemalan writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature with her autobiography of how, as an indigenous Mayan, she and her family had suffered at the hands of the Guatemalan army. Except it turns out that many of the details in her autobiography were fabrications. That didn't matter to the left or the Nobel Prize Committee because they regarded her story, true or not, as an essential expression of suffering that could have been true.

OContentedness

clipped from baseballcrank.com Is the real Obama the deeds of yesterday, or the more soothing words of today, when he distances himself from so many of his old friends? I don't actually pretend to know whether Barack Obama shares the beliefs of Bill Ayers; I only know that he was content to send millions of dollars Ayers' way to "educate" the children of Chicago and give a glowing review to Ayers' book. I don't actually pretend to know whether Barack Obama shares the beliefs of Rev. Wright; I only know that he was content to sit in Wright's pews for two decades, bring his young daughters to have their heads filled with Wright's ravings, donate to Wright's church, declare Wright to be his spiritual mentor and name his best-selling book after one of Wright's incendiary sermons. I don't actually pretend to know whether Barack Obama shares the beliefs of the New Party; I only know that he was content to put his name on their party line and sign a contract to support their platform.

Barack The Plumber

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

Chilled

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com And yet, for that Joe is being pilloried, every aspect of his private and professional life being sorted through and exposed. To prove ... what? What does that have to do with Obama's answer? What does Joe's situation have to do with Obama's philosophical answer — that he wants to "spread the wealth"? Obama's answer goes down the memory hole while the nation concentrates its fire on obliterating Joe the Plumber. It's sickening, it's maddening and it's downright chilling. Sorry for the length. But I am just SEETHING. And: I could care less about Joe's background, whether he's legit, or whether he is a McCain operative. What I do care about is that I could be attacked like a public figure simply for asking a question, like Joe. I am chilled. No longer undecided either.

Joe Shall Not Question The One

clipped from hotair.com He asked a question.  He stood on a rope line, and Obama picked him to ask it.  The Tanning-Bed Media seems to feel that they have a duty to expose every last part of Wurzelbacher’s life, but that asking Obama to explain his political partnerships with Tony Rezko and William Ayers, and his long friendship and financial support of rabid demagogues Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, are not just out of bounds but downright racist. So what have we learned from this episode? Thou shalt not offend The One by asking him a question.  Of any kind. Anyone who questions The One will have to undergo a public pillorying of a kind unseen since the Red Scare, or perhaps the Inquisition. The Tanning-Bed Media will happily participate in any inquisition, as long as it keeps them from investigating irrelevant issues like Obama’s ties to the Chicago Machine, William Ayers, ACORN, or his record on protecting infanticide.

The Miracle Is That Scores Did Not Decline

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com It is not surprising, therefore that prominent members of the "Afrocentric," rites of passage movement spoke at Wright's church during the late 1980s and 1990s. Obama missed church on these occasions, no doubt. But Obama was right in the middle of the process through which tens of thousands of dollars were funneled by CAC into SVACC teacher training programs. In 1995, the year Obama assumed control of CAC, he publicly rejected "the unrealistic politics of integrationist assimilation," thereby embracing the Afrocentirc educational philosophy of the SVACC, Wright, and Ayers. And according to Kurtz, it is clear from the documents that Obama reviewed and commented on proposals to fund the training programs of SVACC, including the African rites of passage based programs. We've noted in the past that CAC's own evaluators found that Annenberg-aided schools showed no improvement in achievement scores. The miracle is that scores did not decline.

The Diversity Recession

clipped from www.vdare.com  As I've  argued, the Bush Administration wanted to turn Hispanics into Republican voters by making them homeowners through easy credit. George W. Bush and Karl Rove don't deserve all the blame, however. Their lax mortgage policies were largely a continuation of trends to boost minority and low income mortgage access that were well under way in the Clinton Administration—as I pointed out in my June Takimag.com article on "The Diversity Recession." These lax mortgage policies also had the secondary effect of encouraging residential real estate speculation—“flipping”—by minorities and non-minorities alike. Right now, the elite consensus (as in the 1930s) is that the free market failed. The truth, to which we blinded ourselves in an orgy of political correctness, is that the America of 2008 doesn't have the human capital to justify the valuations of wealth it thought it had.

Mothers Of Meltdown

clipped from isteve.blogspot.com Why did the mortgage market melt down so badly? Why were there so many defaults when the economy was not particularly weak? Why were the securities based upon these mortgages not considered anywhere as risky as they actually turned out to be? This report concludes that, in an attempt to increase home ownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, virtually every branch of the government undertook an attack on underwriting standards starting in the early 1990s. Regulators, academic specialists, GSEs, and housing activists universally praised the decline in mortgage-underwriting standards as an “innovation” in mortgage lending. This weakening of underwriting standards succeeded in increasing home ownership and also the price of housing, helping to lead to a housing price bubble. The price bubble, along with relaxed lending standards, allowed speculators to purchase homes without putting their own money at risk.

Protecting Acorn

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com In her latest column Marinka discovered that Barack Obama co-sponsored legislation to protect ACORN from criminal prosecution for harassing banks to approve loans for individuals who could not afford them. These practices helped push our country into its current economic crisis. But, thanks to Barack Obama, ACORN will not have to worry about facing any consequences for its dubious practices. href="http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/5548">The Canada Free Press reported: Not only did Barack Obama's presidential campaign pay more than U.S. $800,000 to a front of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform, Now, ACORN, currently under investigation in a dozen States for voter registration fraud and bribery schemes, for “get-out-the-vote-efforts”; Obama co-sponsored legislation called the “Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2007”-- that was supported by ACORN and protects them.

It's All He Really Knows

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com But there are at least six reasons to fear that Obama will govern from the far left. First, it’s all he really knows. Obama grew up in a left-wing household, attended elite left-wing dominated universities, and spent the remainder of his formative years as a community organizer alongside the likes of Wright and Ayers. Second, it’s how he votes. In 2007, according to the National Journal, Obama’s voting record was the most liberal of any senator. Third, it’s what he falls back on. Obama is scripted to be “post-partisan.” But when off-script he’s liable to blurt out that those who resist the leftist agenda bitterly “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to those who aren’t like them.” And when his wife said that, as an adult, she has never been proud of America, Obama defended her statement as applied to American politics. This is “god damn America” lite.

OWelfare

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com A lot of people are noting this exchange between Barack Obama and a plumber who has figured out that under an Obama administration, his taxes will be increased. Obama explains that he has nothing against the plumber personally, but wants to "spread the wealth around:" Obama's "tax" plan would in effect undo the greatest accomplishment of the Republican Congress, welfare reform. It would reinstate the federal welfare system that we thought was gone for good with the repeal of AFDC. Not only a welfare system: a welfare system that would rapidly grow from more than a half trillion to over a trillion dollars a year. That plumber is right to be nervous. I wonder, though, how many voters know that Barack Obama proposes to put the federal government back in the welfare business to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.