We Need Another Choice

Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, Capitalist or Socialist, Fascist or Libertarian, you can only be disappointed by tonight's debate. Both candidates showed why neither should be allowed anywhere near the White House. On healthcare Obama said that if you like your current policy you can keep it, but did not say how he would cover those without it. Assuming that he would subsidize healthcare for those who can't afford it, why would those who pay full price keep theirs when they could have cheaper healthcare under Obama? On mortgage support John McCain said he would use taxpayer money to buy foreclosed mortgages and renegotiate the mortgage as well as the price of the home. Seems a little unfair to the ninety percent of Americans who have paid their mortgages on time, did not fall for the sub-prime bait and did without the extras that those who refinanced themselves into a tremendous hole acquired. In both cases these men are saying that if you have worked hard, kept your commitments and acted responsibly your reward is to see those who have acted the opposite subsidized with the taxes you send to the government. On foreign policy both want to send troops, only the places are different. After eight years of criticizing George Bush for acting preemptively in Iraq, Obama stated policy is to act preemptively by analyzing and reacting to threats before they occur. The irony of all this is that the financial crisis, which was made possible by the US Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, escaped real scrutiny. On the whole McCain provided more substantive answers, while Obama tended to talk around the questions. However, McCain's constant use of the phrase "my friend" was very annoying, while at the same time Obama's feeling that the debate rules did not apply to him was also annoying. I am extremely disgusted with both men since in my view they think of taxpayers as some sort of host that they can suck dry. What is even worse is that pundits, commentators and partisan spinners think we're stupid. I’m sure I’ll vote on election day, but I will not be happy with the outcome no matter who wins.

Any Questions?

If your one of those people who has some questions for the Commission on Presidential Debates you might as well forget it. They answer to no one. Their website does not feature an address, a phone number or an email address for contacting them. The Commission of Presidential Debates is two men and a few secretaries. The fact that they self identify as one Repubican and one Democrat provides little comfort considering their choices of partners, moderators and questioners. Their partners have included CNN and the MSN crew, both of whom are so in tank they'll need crying towels if Obama loses. This year the moderators have included Jim Leher, Gwen Ifill, Tom Browkaw and Bob Schieffer, bonfide liberals all. There has been no effort to choose a more centrist moderator like Chris Wallace or an equally conservative moderator like Brit Hume, who would at least provide some balance to what have clearly been liberal presentations of questions. We will see just how undecided their audience and myspace questioners are tonight. Watch and be your own judge.

Obama's Millstones

There is talk that John McCain is going to turn up the temperature in tomorrow's Presidential Debate. Reports are that he will go after Obama's associations with anti-American types like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayres. His unsavory connections to indicted real estate developer Tony Rezko and the widely discredited voting organization ACORN should also be put under the microscope. These are all juicy and legitimate targets because it paints a picture of Barack that the mainstream media has failed to present to the public. However, McCain must be careful to not make this the entire spectrum of his attack. He must connect Obama to the current financial crises in a way that demonstrates how his failure to demand or support reform is a direct cause of the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. McCain must point out that President Bush, former Treasury Secretary John Snow and McCain himself called for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage standards for several years before the crisis became critical to the nation's economy. During Obama's two years as a US Senator he was the second largest beneficiary of campaign contributions, second only to Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Obama received over $125,000. Obama's alliance with Dodd, Barney Frank and other Democrats successfully stifled any reform of the giant GSE's. This is the millstone that can be used to end the Obama candidacy. At the same time McCain must present his own financial plan that includes lower taxes, a thorough investigation of mortgage lenders and Wall Street bankers, reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the creation of a Resolution Trust type organization to manage the bailout.

Palin Rides Again

The dust from the Ifill-tainted Vice Presidential Debate has settled and Palin proved her mettle to many who thought she was out of her depth and in deep trouble. For the time being, at least, she has risen to the occasion. Now the Republicans, especially John McCain, must take off the gloves now and go in for the kill. He must connect Obama to losing the war against terror, the financial crisis created by the mismanagement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in which Obama is inextricably linked, and Obama's association with disreputable characters whose dislike for the country is apparent. If you watched you already know that Biden fumbled his way through and Palin deftly moved the discussion to her advantage at every turn. Conservatives can only hope that McCain finally gets it. He will not get a break from a press that is in the tank for Obama. They do not like him and they will not be fair. The Democrats, who used to love McCain, hate him too. If you carefully examine McCain's bi-partisan efforts (McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy) you will see that he merely conceded 90-percent of his conservative principles to sign a liberal bill. Liberals gave up very little in those two bills as evidenced by the democratic 527 movement and the continued obstruction of immigration reform and the border fence. At any rate I hope someone on McCain’s staff can get through to him. He must press Obama on Tuesday. He must highlight Obama’s anti-American comments and ask for an explanation. He must explore Obama’s relationship with the Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Franklin Raines, and their complicity in blocking reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And last but not least, McCain must make Obama explain how he will change what he has called the “failed financial system of the last eight years.” In case you missed it that system is capitalism and it has made America the most prosperous and innovative nation in the world. Despite our current financial woes the poorest people in America live better than 75 percent of all the people in the world. McCain can not afford to think that Obama and his supporters will be fair. They will cut his throat if they get the chance. He must do the same.

John McCain's White Horse

With some minor exceptions media pundits tended to play down the importance of McCain's ride to Washington and try to portray it as grandstanding and politicizing the situation. On Tuesday Senate Leader Harry Reid said the bill would not pass unless McCain provided support. On Wednesday, when McCain said he would return to the Capital to work on the bill Reid said he would just get in the way. On Thursday, the Democrats called a news conference to say they had a bill and McCain's efforts would not be helpful. However, in truth there was no deal and it became clear all too quickly. McCain arrived; the President called Obama to the White House, and once everyone was in the same room the truth emerged. There was no deal. House Republicans were not included in the discussion and the bill did not have enough Republican support in the Senate to survive a cloture vote. One thing is clear. The Democrats could have passed this bill without the House Republicans, but quite frankly, they didn't and still don't have the guts. Even as late as tonight the Speaker of the House is saying she must have a substantial number of House Republicans on board or else. Why you may ask? It's because despite the necessity of this bill the public's perception of it is piss poor and no one, it seems, has really made an effort to explain it. I will probably continue with the fine points of the bill for most of the week, but I want to return to McCain's white horse. Despite the way McCain's efforts were slammed by a liberal-leaning press, his effort to force the Democrats to include the House Republicans in the discussion was very successful and has given the American people an opportunity to see this bill in its entirety on the internet. Conservative Republicans have much angst with the bill, Democrats do as well. There is every indication that the bill will work in so far as the market is concerned if the Congress would stop fooling around and pass it. McCain’s foray forced this bill into the light. A place it would not have ever seen if left to the Administration or the Democrats.

Musings from W314

When your stuck in a hospital bed in the middle of what some are calling a massive financial meltdown and you don’t have a connection to the internet so you can’t update your blog or communicate to the external media it permits you to pick-up on some details that fall victim to partisan politics, presidential politics and just divisive politics in general. What follows here are observations that have been brought to light in the past few days. They have been given short shrift by the mainstream and cable media, and shrill shrift by politicians. It’s Thursday night. The White House Meeting ended badly with both Republicans and Democrats showing their true colors. Both are choosing to ignore the real solution to the current problem and instead are trying to use the situation to fast-forward their own political philosophies. Republicans want less government intervention and Democrats want more. The President wants the money with few ties. Unfortunately he only spent a minute telling the American people what will happen if the deal collapses. So I want to take a little bit of time to tell you how this will effect your everyday life if it fails or is turned into a lightless Christmas tree and empty cupboard by December. When you walk into the supermarket there are thousands of products in high quantities. You pick what you want, you pay and go home. You don’t wonder how it got there and quite frankly that is the beauty of our economy. The same is true for most large, medium and even small retailers who must use credit to finance inventory and it is true for most. Unfortunately most people won’t get it until the shelves are not being refilled as fast as they use to be. On the other hand, the Treasury and Democratic solutions seemed okay at first, but that was because they never included the Republicans. When the Republicans forwarded their own plan the meeting ended with Democrat House Member Barney Frank (D-Mass) apparently blowing his top and saying that everything was okay until the Republicans stuck their noses in. Hello Mr. Frank. They may be in the minority, but the do have a voice. The saga continues….
Other Notes:
John McCain suspended his campaign events to perform his duties as a sitting senator and de facto leader to voice the view his party. Barack Obama invited his colleagues to call him if they needed him, until the President forced his hand and invited him to Washington.
This week all charges against disgraced representative Mark Foley (R-Florida) were dismissed. He was forced to resign because of sexually-tinged emails allegedly sent to House Pages. He was never accused of having sex with young pages like former and deceased Massachusetts Senator Gerry Studds, who was greeted with a standing ovation by the Democratic Caucus when he returned after an ethics investigation in which it was determined he had sex with young men but did not violate the spirit of the house rules. This week also NY Representative and Chairman of Ways and Means Charley Rangel has admitted to several income tax violations, illegal use of the House Garage and falsifying his annual ethics filings. The Democratic caucus voted he should not give up his chairmanship.
Florida Representative Al C. Hastings said that any one who would support toting guns and skinning moose don’t care too much about blacks and Jews. (If you capitalize Jews must you capitalize Black?)
CBS’s Katy Couric took out the long nails today asking McCain’s VP choice for specific examples of government regulation he supported besides reform of Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac. Obviously this demonstrates why she in longer the anchor of CBS news. Katy, Katy, pull in your claws.
Marc Lamont Hill, a PH.D from Temple University is a pro-black, pro-black rasict who puts every problem in the black community on the foot of white people, white government and the white world. Hill is just another emerging dull-minded luminary like the aging Cornell West whose intellectual chicanery had the academic elite on their knees for years.

Expert, Schmexpert, we need a solution.

As the administration, the Congress and other kibitzers try to seal the deal on the trillion dollar bailout there are two items of importance missing from the so-far proposed solutions; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The solution, which is being danced around, is to dissolve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Create an organization like the Resolution Trust, which was created for the Savings and Loan debacle, to sell the good Freddie and Fannie holdings to investment firms or banks at a small discount and buy up the poor holdings at a greater discount. This will help the housing market find a bottom and at least open up the possibility of a housing recovery. More importantly it will take the Federal Government out of the mortgage business. The Congressional Chairman of the House and Senate Banking Committees should be forced to resign as should their Republican predecessors. The Banking Committees battled and defeated every effort to reform Fannie and Freddie when wiser heads saw the writing on the wall. They should not “Pass Go,” but “Go Directly to Jail.” As noted in a previous column and agreed with by most experts, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the U.S. Congress have led us to this disastrous moment and their only response so far is to bicker over how to spend the taxpayer money that must be injected to save the system. The problems with Fannie and Freddie did not begin last week. Some may argue that the problems started with the inception of the organizations, which were started with taxpayer money and permitted to operate as quasi-government mortgage agencies. Later when there was lots of money in the till the Congress turned Fannie and Freddie loose on the mortgage market by making them "private" companies with stock, chief executives, boards of directors and shareholders. I would say it was more recent. Truth is Fannie and Freddie operated okay for while. Having more money than anybody else they held over 40-percent of all the mortgages in America. At some point along the way the goals of Fannie and Freddie were modified. It has become a cesspool of influence peddling and a dumping ground for administration officials after their party leaves the White House. In fact, we could see Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson emerge as a major player in both organizations when President Bush leaves the White House next year. Jamie Gorelick and Franklin Raines of the Clinton Administration were paid over $100 million to lead Fannie and Freddie, and Raines was president of Fannie Mae when Barack Obama became the largest second largest receiver of contributions from the mortgage giant. Raines has gone on to become a stealth economic advisor to the candidate, as his public presence is no longer of any value. Like other Barack advisors and friends (Ayres, Rezco, Pastor Wright, Louis Farrakhan and others) those who get caught in the media light must be thrown under the bus or made silent and invisible for the good of the candidate. In the 90’s it was decided that removing racism from the mortgage market would be the new goal and Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac were perfectly happy to participate. Through Congressional regulation and financial pressure banks began to provide mortgages in neighborhoods that had been previously locked out through the process of “redlining.” It was an honest enough mistake. Most banks thought they would never see their money from these redlined districts and the Congress felt it was guaranteeing these mortgages so the banks should comply anyway. So they did. The result was an increase in foreclosures, but it was not enough to ring the alarm bells yet. The something more drastic occurred. In order to provide the home-ownership component of the American dream Congressional leaders encouraged to Fannie and Freddie to finance the no-money down, no-income check adjustable rate mortgage and constructed regulations with the help of HUD to package these sub-prime mortgages and sell them to investors in the form of mortgage bundles. This action encouraged mercenary and legitimate real estate and mortgage brokers to sell homes to people who would not have been previously qualified giving rise to the late-nineties housing bubble that pushed up housing prices around the nation. The bubble has now burst because of that old axiom: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. However American citizens may still have a say if they call their Congressman fast enough.