John McCain Doesn't Know How to Use a Computer (Video)

DemoPublicans One And All?"But just as with the Democratic wing of our single Oligarchy Party, this is what the Elite of the party has decided to feed us. Just as with the Democratic wing, this is the character the Elite have calculated they can best control, and keep in line, thereby preserving their own controlling interests."

Don't tell that to these dyed-in-wool-I-think-Obama-is-God Demos. If you're not for him, you're a racist. I got called one this morning because of Obama's voting stance on the FISA bill. He hasn't even received the official party nomination and he's already selling us out. I said I don't think he's "qualified" for president and Cynthia McKinney wasn't either. Because I named two of the three candidates stating, in my opinion, that they are not "qualified," and because they just happen to be black, I am now "officially" a racist, even though my main point was "qualification" and not race. I guess because I don't like John McCain either?and he's white?that it's OK to say HE'S not "qualified." McCain comes across as arrogant as GWB. He acts as though he knows for a fact he'll occupy the White House next year and that it's already been settled. Something's wrong here.

Lehman Brothers: Obama's Rezko-Auchi conflict of interest
By Andrew Walden @ 11:19 AM :: 137 Views
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was quick to blame the bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers on Republicans' "failed philosophy". Obama's September 15 comments were repeated throughout the media--yet reporters have not noted Obama's glaring conflict of interest?the Lehman debt owed to a bank owned by the financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko.

Jockeying among the other debtors seeking repayment under Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules is BNP Paribas, a large French bank whose largest single private shareholder is Nadhmi Auchi's General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH). BNP Paribas is owed $250 million by Lehman.

Nadhmi Auchi is an Iraqi whose Baathist ties go back to 1959. A formerly high-ranking official in Iraq's Oil Ministry, Auchi left Iraq at the end of the 1970s. His wealth then grew exponentially as a procurer of arms for Saddam Hussein's government during the Iran?Iraq war. He is now one of the richest men in Britain. Saddam Hussein in 1995 selected BNP, which later merged with Paribas, as the sole conduit bank handling Oil-for-Food transactions. This Clinton-era arrangement was changed in 2001 by the incoming Bush administration.

Auchi was also a key financial backer for Chicago political fixer and dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko. This writer explained the complex web of relationships in an August 24 article titled, "Iraqi Billionaire Threatens Reporters Investigating Rezko Affair":

A secret $3.5 million loan from an Auchi company to key early-money Barack Obama fundraiser Antoin Rezko was exposed while Rezko was awaiting trial on fraud and money-laundering charges earlier this year. Rezko's bail was revoked and police showed up banging on the doors of his Wilmette Chicago mansion to drag him off to jail early in the morning of January 28th. Auchi's loan to Rezko had come on May 23, 2005 but had not been disclosed to the Court as required in his bail agreement. Three weeks later, on June 15, 2005, Rezko's wife assisted the Obamas in the purchase of their South Chicago mansion by purchasing a next-door undeveloped lot being sold with the house.

According to the Times of London, "Mr. Rezko's lawyer said his client had 'longstanding indebtedness' to Mr. Auchi's General Mediterranean Holding (GMH). By June 2007 he owed it $27.9 million. Under a Loan Forgiveness Agreement described in court, M. Auchi lent Mr. Rezko $3.5 million in April 2005 and $11 million in September 2005, as well as $3.5 million transferred in April 2007. That agreement provided for the outstanding loans to be 'forgiven' in return for a stake in the 62-acre Riverside Park development."

Rezko's relationship with Barack Obama goes back to at least 1990, when Obama's law firm did work relating to thousands of now-decaying Rezko apartment units in South Chicago. Rezko was a key early-money fundraiser in Obama's state Senate campaigns and his failed run at the U.S. Congress.

According to The Times of London, "Mr. Auchi first met Mr. Rezko after the 2003 Iraq war and they have a business relationship." At the time Auchi was facing the possibility of extradition to France. The Times of London explains: "Mr Auchi was convicted of corruption, given a suspended sentence and fined £1.4 million in France in 2003 for his part in the Elf affair, described as the biggest political and corporate scandal in post-war Europe. He, in a statement from his media lawyers, claims he is appealing against the sentence."

In 2003, Nick Cohen of the UK Guardian wrote:

Allow me to introduce you to Nadhmi Auchi. He was charged in the 1950s with being an accomplice of Saddam Hussein, when the future tyrant was acquiring his taste for blood. He was investigated in the 1980s for his part in alleged bribes to the fabulously corrupt leaders of post-war Italy. In the 1990s, the Belgium Ambassador to Luxembourg claimed that Auchi's bank held money Saddam and Colonel Gadaffi had stolen from their luckless peoples. In 2002, officers from the Serious Fraud Squad raided the offices of one of Auchi's drug companies as part of an investigation of what is alleged to be the biggest swindle ever of the (British National Health Service). With allegations, albeit unproven, like these hanging over him, wouldn't you think that British MPs would have the sense to stay away?

One might think Obama would also stay away, but in truth it is only the US media who are ducking this story. While ideological bias and a predisposition towards inanity might explain some of the media ignorance, the August 24 article cites another cause:

Working for Auchi? attorneys from London law firm Carter-Ruck have for several months been flooding American and British newspapers and websites with letters demanding removal of material they deem "defamatory" to their client.

In its June 28 edition, British satirical magazine Private Eye explains: "Until Carter-Ruck and Partners and England's stifling libel laws got to work, the few American journalists not caught up in Obama-mania were turning to the archives of the British press to answer an intriguing question: who is Nadhmi Auchi?"

What is so "stifling" about English libel law? In the U.K., as Carter-Ruck explains on its own website, "A libel claimant does not have to prove that the words are false or to prove that he has in fact suffered any loss. Damage is presumed."

The Obama campaign recently issued a non-denial denial in response to claims that Obama met with Auchi―contained in Jerome Corsi's bestseller, The Obama Nation. They cited only two references. One is, "Mr. Auchi's lawyer" who told the February 27, 2008 London Evening Standard, "As far as he can remember he has had no direct contact with Mr. Obama." Another is, "A lawyer for Auchi, Alasdair Pepper" who says, according to the April 16, 2008 Washington Post, "Auchi Had 'No Recollection' Of Meeting Obama or Michelle." Alasdair Pepper is the attorney whose name appears on the Carter-Ruck demand letters.

Here are some questions reporters should be asking Barack Obama:

Senator Obama: Lehman Brothers owes over $250 million to a bank owned in part by Nadhmi Auchi's holding company. Auchi was a key financial backer of Tony Rezko. Sources indicate you met Auchi twice when he visited Chicago in 2004. If elected, how will your relationship with Rezko and Auchi affect your policy towards Lehman Brothers?

Senator Obama: There are reports that Nadhmi Auchi was in 2004-2005 seeking US residency while appealing his French court conviction in the ELF-Aquitaine case. If elected, would you look favorably on a US residency application from Auchi?

Senator Obama: You stated that the Lehman bankruptcy shows that Americans cannot afford four more years of the Republicans' "failed philosophy". Can Americans afford a President whose home was purchased with the assistance of now-convicted-felon Tony Rezko, a man characterized as having "permanent indebtedness" to Nadhmi Auchi?

Obama Has Fingerprints All Over Financial Crisis - Updated
Strata Sphere ^ | Sep 19 2008

Now we know why Obama wants to raise taxes - to bail out those jerks who tanked our mortgage markets and nearly sent us into a real depression. First off it is good to get a little history on what led to this mess. Michael Reagan does a good job of laying out the story, but this part is worth noting and remembering:

To find the donkey, you need to go back to the Clinton administration, which decided that everybody and his kid brother was entitled to a mortgage even when they didn't begin to qualify for a home loan.

In saner days, banks designated certain areas as no-loan zones ? depressed neighborhoods where lending money to potential home buyers was not just a risky investment, but a certain future foreclosure.

Critics of the practice called it "redlining," and President Clinton and his chums on Capitol Hill decided that banks should no longer act like banks and lend money only to home buyers who could afford to handle the monthly payments.

Remember, Clinton left office with the economy a mess after the dot.com bubble burst too. This is what happens when you let inexperienced people with radical and naive ideas become president. One of the people key to this mess is Franklin Raines - who has ties to both Clinton and Obama:

Franklin Delano Raines (born January 14, 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton.

?

In 1991 he became Fannie's Mae's Vice Chairman, a post he left in 1996 in order to join the Clinton Administration as the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he served until 1998. In 1999, he returned to Fannie Mae as CEO, "the first black man to head a Fortune 500 company."[1]

In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $50 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings [2] initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as 6.3 billion.[2].

As everyone noted this guy was the first black CEO of a fortune 500 firm it becomes clear we cannot select leaders based on their race, or whether it advances their race. We need to pick leaders based on the content of their character, judgement and plans. Anyway, after setting up this mess and stealing a few million Raines ended giving advice to the Obama campaign.

Even more troubling is the fact that the two top beneficiaries of political donations from failed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the last 9 years were Sen Chris Dodd (#1) and Barack Obama (#2). First off, I cannot fathom how a quasi-government company controlling 100's of millions of dollars in mortgage payments from Americans across this country can line the pockets of the politicians supposedly overseeing them.

This is criminal. They take our mortgage payments and send some of it to the politicians - all the time running the entire thing into the ground? Folks, they took our mortgage payments, got rich, bribed some pols and sit fat and dumb in million dollar homes - paid for by us. And now we will pay more to fix the mess they left behind. Obama is in this up to his neck, since he got more money than any other senator save one, and he did it while in office only three of the 9 years covered.

Read this and thank God you were not a fetus around Huessain Mohamad Obama. Liberals love government handouts so they kill the unborn to stop the competition. Of course Obama will say it is racist when he is exposed for the cold hearted S.O.B. he is!

If It Was Up to Obama, This Woman Would be Dead
Townhall.com ^ | September 20, 2008 | Doug Giles

Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 06:46:53 by Kaslin

No, I'm not talking about Sarah Palin, I'm talking about Gianna Jessen.

If it was up to the abominable Obama, the to-be-aborted little baby, Gianna Jessen, would have been turned into worm dirt 31 years ago. Thankfully, Mr. Change and Mr. Hope wasn't around back then to lay his liberal legislative death-dealing pen to Ms. Jessen's fate?and the world is a better place for it.

So, who is Gianna Jessen?

Gianna is an abortion survivor. Yep, she kicked death's butt and survived against all odds. Her medical records state that she was "born during a saline abortion," and if Barack Obama would have had his way, she wouldn't be here.

Barack Obama voted four times against affording these "born alives" their most basic human right. Chilling, eh? How progressive of you, liberals. Hitler would be proud, and I'm sure Satan is just giddy with your creative ways to slay that inconvenient little baby even if it survives your initial assault.

Jessen, with a Pit Bull spirit, survived being burned alive in saline solution for eighteen hours. Eighteen hours, ladies and gents! FYI: This is not the same saline solution you use to clean your contacts but a lethal cocktail of death intended to cook the unborn kid from the inside out.

Weighing in at 2 lbs at birth with cerebral palsy (thanks to the effects of the witch's brew she stewed in), the gloomy doctors said little Gianna would never be able to hold up her head, sit up, crawl or walk.

God had different plans.

Not only did she hold her head up, sit, crawl and walk, but she has run in two twenty-six mile marathons and has spoken all over the world, on TV, in churches and on college campuses about the power of God and the sanctity of life. Put that in your stupid pipe and smoke it, all-wise and all-knowing doctors.

Liberals love being painted as the defender of the underdog. Yeah, if you feel like you are being abused, oppressed, preyed upon, neglected, entitled to something or endangered in any way . . . do not fear! The Dems are here! Their protection extends not only to the human victim, but also to the translucent hair lice, the gargling nut warbler, a warming globe, a rare venereal crab, and a whooping crane's egg.

Yep, the liberals will ramp up to Mach2, set their hair on fire, and fight, yell, picket, protest and blog their fingers bloody for animal rights and for your rights?that is unless, of course, you're an unborn child.

It is with the unborn baby that the "protectors of the weak" morph into the party that wreaks havoc upon the truly helpless. It's interesting to see misty-eyed liberals go quasi-Talibanic for the little animal while they have absolutely no qualms whatsoever endorsing the snuffing out of the life of a tiny unborn human.

One of the reasons the barbaric left uses to convince themselves that they're right on the issue of killing that inconvenient "little bugger" (as one of their own calls it) is that it is not yet a person.

Something that is really wrecking the "protectors of the weak" BS campaign of killing unborn kids, however, is ultrasound imagery (Oops. Didn't see that coming, now did you?). These pics and videos are screwing up things for the pro-choicers. Back in the day when they were selling us on the "fetal blob" stuff, all we had at our disposal to contradict their nonsense was common sense and a very grainy 2D sonogram.

With the use of ultrasound imaging increasing daily, how a person can say that an unborn baby is not yet a person and can be killed at Mommy Dearest's discretion is barbarically beyond me. I guess the left and the pink conservatives callous their hearts to the unborn by rejecting a proposition central to Judeo-Christian thought regarding life and death: namely, that human life (beginning at conception and lasting until the person naturally croaks) is intrinsically good and thus sacred?not just instrumentally good.

In contrast with the secular "elite," the "stupid," "non-elite" and "archaic" Judeo-Christian constituency believes that all people?from the embryo to the elderly, including severely developmentally disabled, people in comas and everyone in between?have dignity and value. As Robert George said, "Their significance is not based upon what they can do, or how they make us feel or whether or not we approve of their quality of life, but principally because they live."

And yet, these secular barbaric "tools" see human beings as tools; and if they don't somehow fit instrumentally within the secularists' Darwinian, utilitarian utopia, they get tagged as "inconvenient" and are relegated to the "very expendable" list. That's why abortion is no big deal, and neither is taking the life of a so-called defective child, or suicide, or "mercy killing" a helpless senior. But God help you if you should ever run a boat's prop over a manatee's back! They'll get pissed!

Not only does Obama's Party of Death (as Ramesh Ponnuru calls the libtards) advocate the death of the unborn and the inconvenient, but they also want your tax dollars to pay for their death wishes, for all parents to butt out of their teenage daughter's abortion plans, and for the US to continue to stay left of Europe when it comes to abortion on demand. Consider all the above when you cast your vote in November, those of you on the left and the right who cherish the unborn more than a sea cow.

For all the 411 on Gianna Jessen and what she's up to, go to www.BornAliveTruth.org. Send her money, watch her videos, play her radio spots and help her wake our nation up to Barack's barbaric beliefs.

Obama's Real-Estate Bust
He did for Illinois taxpayers what shady mortgage lenders have done for the economy.

By David Freddoso

Last week, Sen. Barack Obama compared the Savings and Loan bailout of the late 1980s to the situation of the mortgage-securities markets today:

Too many S&Ls took advantage of the lax rules set by Washington to gamble that they could make big money in speculative real estate. . . . [T]hey made hundreds of billions in bad loans, knowing that if they lost money, the government would bail them out. And they were right. The gambles did not pay off, our economy went into recession, and the taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Sound familiar?

Indeed, it does sound familiar ? it sounds a lot like what Barack Obama did to Illinois taxpayers as a state senator in Springfield. Using his elected office and his clout, Obama helped Tony Rezko and other unscrupulous low-income housing developers obtain millions of dollars in state grants, tax credits, low-interest loans, and regulatory advantages.

Taxpayers had no serious chance of recouping these "investments" in Rezko and other developers. And many beneficiaries went one step farther, depriving the public of even the benefits they could have gotten. These developers took government help to build low-income housing, and then let their buildings deteriorate into uninhabitable slums.

To date, the most complete account of this sad story is Binyamin Appelbaum's piece in the Boston Globe. Not only does it demonstrate the monumental failure of the low-income-housing policy that Obama vocally championed as a state senator, it gives a detailed look at how some of Obama's donors and friends ? the beneficiaries of that policy ? neglected their own housing developments at the expense of the inhabitants.

There is no indication that Obama approved (or even knew) of the massive and systemic neglect of these properties in his own state-senate district. But there is also no question that he was an enabler in these transactions. He cosponsored at least six bills to give special tax breaks, tax credits, building-and-maintenance subsidies, and zoning exemptions to the developers. In 1998, he wrote letters to state and city officials requesting $14 million for a project developed by Tony Rezko and another close Obama friend ? the politician's old law-firm boss, Allison Davis.

In his Globe piece, Appelbaum describes the low-income Grove Parc Plaza complex, which was developed by Davis:

Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale ? a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

Sewage backups seem to be a common problem in Davis's low-income slums ? another of his buildings, Appelbaum reports, was cited in 2007 "after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments."

Valerie Jarrett, Obama's campaign adviser and the subject of a recent fawning interview by Katie Couric, is the chief executive of the company that managed that Grove Parc slum until just recently. Appelbaum writes that her company managed another housing complex until its condition became so poor that the federal government seized it in 2006.

Cecil Butler, another Obama donor, had his Lawndale Restoration complex confiscated by the government in 2006 "after city inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations."

Appelbaum's piece gives some sense of just how closely Obama was, and still is, tied to the slum-lord world. He's taken contributions from its big players and pushed legislation favorable to them. His closest ally in that sphere has been Rezko, who raised $250,000 for Obama's campaigns before being convicted on unrelated corruption charges earlier this year.

Rezko had been leveraging his fundraising abilities to win alliances with other politicians long before Obama got his start. He applied for his first subsidized-housing loan from the City of Chicago six days after Mayor Richard M. Daley's election in 1989. Within the first six years of Daley's reign, Rezko's company, Rezmar, received $24 million in government loans and $8.5 million in federal tax credits. Over the following decade, it would rake in more than $100 million in loans from the city, state, and federal governments, as well as private bank loans to fix up 30 Chicago buildings for low-income public housing.

Despite all this cheap and free taxpayer money, all of Rezko's 30 buildings eventually ran into financial difficulties. As of 2007, 17 had gone into foreclosure. Six were boarded up and abandoned.

The City of Chicago sued Rezmar at least a dozen times for failing to heat its properties. During the winter of 1997, Rezmar claimed it lacked the funds to heat a 31-unit building in Englewood on the south side of Chicago ? one of eleven Rezmar buildings in Obama's state-senate district. Tenants there went without heat from late December 1996 through mid-February 1997. Despite his company's financial hardship, Rezko signed a $1,000 check for the campaign fund of the newly elected state senator Barack Obama on January 14, 1997.

When Barack Obama talks about risky real-estate investments and failures of government oversight, remember how he put Illinois taxpayers on the hook for some of the worst real-estate investments of all ? investments in his close friend and in other slum landlords who took the public's money and betrayed their trust.

The WHite House ^ | September 19 | Staff

Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 21:06:36 by PghBaldy

For many years the President and his Administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties. President Bush publicly called for GSE reform 17 times in 2008 alone before Congress acted. Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded, as the President's repeated attempts to reform the supervision of these entities were thwarted by the legislative maneuvering of those who emphatically denied there were problems.

2001

April: The Administration's FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is "a potential problem," because "financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity."

2002

May: The President calls for the disclosure and corporate governance principles contained in his 10-point plan for corporate responsibility to apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (OMB Prompt Letter to OFHEO, 5/29/02)

2003

January: Freddie Mac announces it has to restate financial results for the previous three years.

February: The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) releases a report explaining that "although investors perceive an implicit Federal guarantee of [GSE] obligations," "the government has provided no explicit legal backing for them." As a consequence, unexpected problems at a GSE could immediately spread into financial sectors beyond the housing market. ("Systemic Risk: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Role of OFHEO," OFHEO Report, 2/4/03)

September: Fannie Mae discloses SEC investigation and acknowledges OFHEO's review found earnings manipulations.

September: Treasury Secretary John Snow testifies before the House Financial Services Committee to recommend that Congress enact "legislation to create a new Federal agency to regulate and supervise the financial activities of our housing-related government sponsored enterprises" and set prudent and appropriate minimum capital adequacy requirements.

October: Fannie Mae discloses $1.2 billion accounting error.

November: Council of the Economic Advisers (CEA) Chairman Greg Mankiw explains that any "legislation to reform GSE regulation should empower the new regulator with sufficient strength and credibility to reduce systemic risk." To reduce the potential for systemic instability, the regulator would have "broad authority to set both risk-based and minimum capital standards" and "receivership powers necessary to wind down the affairs of a troubled GSE." (N. Gregory Mankiw, Remarks At The Conference Of State Bank Supervisors State Banking Summit And Leadership, 11/6/03)

2004

February: The President's FY05 Budget again highlights the risk posed by the explosive growth of the GSEs and their low levels of required capital, and called for creation of a new, world-class regulator: "The Administration has determined that the safety and soundness regulators of the housing GSEs lack sufficient power and stature to meet their responsibilities, and therefore?should be replaced with a new strengthened regulator." (2005 Budget Analytic Perspectives, pg. 83)

February: CEA Chairman Mankiw cautions Congress to "not take [the financial market's] strength for granted." Again, the call from the Administration was to reduce this risk by "ensuring that the housing GSEs are overseen by an effective regulator." (N. Gregory Mankiw, Op-Ed, "Keeping Fannie And Freddie's House In Order," Financial Times, 2/24/04)

June: Deputy Secretary of Treasury Samuel Bodman spotlights the risk posed by the GSEs and called for reform, saying "We do not have a world-class system of supervision of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), even though the importance of the housing financial system that the GSEs serve demands the best in supervision to ensure the long-term vitality of that system. Therefore, the Administration has called for a new, first class, regulatory supervisor for the three housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banking System." (Samuel Bodman, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Testimony, 6/16/04)

2005

April: Treasury Secretary John Snow repeats his call for GSE reform, saying "Events that have transpired since I testified before this Committee in 2003 reinforce concerns over the systemic risks posed by the GSEs and further highlight the need for real GSE reform to ensure that our housing finance system remains a strong and vibrant source of funding for expanding homeownership opportunities in America? Half-measures will only exacerbate the risks to our financial system." (Secretary John W. Snow, "Testimony Before The U.S. House Financial Services Committee," 4/13/05)

2007

July: Two Bear Stearns hedge funds invested in mortgage securities collapse.

August: President Bush emphatically calls on Congress to pass a reform package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying "first things first when it comes to those two institutions. Congress needs to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused, and then I will consider other options." (President George W. Bush, Press Conference, The White House, 8/9/07)

September: RealtyTrac announces foreclosure filings up 243,000 in August ? up 115 percent from the year before.

September: Single-family existing home sales decreases 7.5 percent from the previous month ? the lowest level in nine years. Median sale price of existing homes fell six percent from the year before.

December: President Bush again warns Congress of the need to pass legislation reforming GSEs, saying "These institutions provide liquidity in the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital they operate safely and operate soundly. So I've called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs ? and ensures they focus on their important housing mission. The GSE reform bill passed by the House earlier this year is a good start. But the Senate has not acted. And the United States Senate needs to pass this legislation soon." (President George W. Bush, Discusses Housing, The White House, 12/6/07)

2008

January: Bank of America announces it will buy Countrywide.

January: Citigroup announces mortgage portfolio lost $18.1 billion in value.

February: Assistant Secretary David Nason reiterates the urgency of reforms, says "A new regulatory structure for the housing GSEs is essential if these entities are to continue to perform their public mission successfully." (David Nason, Testimony On Reforming GSE Regulation, Senate Committee On Banking, Housing And Urban Affairs, 2/7/08)

March: Bear Stearns announces it will sell itself to JPMorgan Chase.

March: President Bush calls on Congress to take action and "move forward with reforms on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They need to continue to modernize the FHA, as well as allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to homeowners to refinance their mortgages." (President George W. Bush, Remarks To The Economic Club Of New York, New York, NY, 3/14/08)

April: President Bush urges Congress to pass the much needed legislation and "modernize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [There are] constructive things Congress can do that will encourage the housing market to correct quickly by ? helping people stay in their homes." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With Cabinet, the White House, 4/14/08)

May: President Bush issues several pleas to Congress to pass legislation reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the situation deteriorates further.

"Americans are concerned about making their mortgage payments and keeping their homes. Yet Congress has failed to pass legislation I have repeatedly requested to modernize the Federal Housing Administration that will help more families stay in their homes, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance sub-prime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/3/08)

"[T]he government ought to be helping creditworthy people stay in their homes. And one way we can do that ? and Congress is making progress on this ? is the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That reform will come with a strong, independent regulator." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With The Secretary Of The Treasury, the White House, 5/19/08)

"Congress needs to pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/31/08)

June: As foreclosure rates continued to rise in the first quarter, the President once again asks Congress to take the necessary measures to address this challenge, saying "we need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." (President George W. Bush, Remarks At Swearing In Ceremony For Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 6/6/08)

July: Congress heeds the President's call for action and passes reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it becomes clear that the institutions are failing.

Barack Obama's Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Connection
Fox News ^ | Sep 16, 2008 | John Gibson

Posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 18:02:40 by fightinJAG

Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs.

A group called the Center for Responsive Politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were Democrats and No. 2 is Sen. Barack Obama.

Now remember, he's only been in the Senate four years, but he still managed to grab the No. 2 spot ahead of John Kerry ? decades in the Senate ? and Chris Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional Democrats and the Clinton White House, designed to make mortgages available to more people and, as it turns out, some people who couldn't afford them.

Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington Democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket millions. The Clinton administration's White House Budget Director Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected $50 million. Jamie Gorelick ? Clinton Justice Department official ? worked for Fannie and took home $26 million. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama's VP search committee, has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae CEO job.

Countrywide Mortgage CEO Angelo Mozilo offered sweetheart deals on loans to his "friends", who just happened to be people who had oversight responsibilities on his business. People like Fannie Mae CEO/chair Jim Johnson, Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad, and others got below-market-rate loans from Mozilo through a "Friends of Angelo" program at one of the main lenders at the heart of the subprime collapse. Now a federal grand jury wants to talk to Angelo's circle of friends to determine whether indictments for corruption are in order:

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, made large, previously undisclosed home loans to two additional executives of Fannie Mae, the government-chartered firm at the center of the U.S. credit crisis.

One of Countrywide's previously undisclosed customers at Fannie was Jamie Gorelick, an influential Democratic Party figure whose $960,000 mortgage refinancing in 2003 was handled through a program reserved for influential figures and friends of Countrywide's chief executive at the time, Angelo Mozilo. Ms. Gorelick was Fannie Mae's vice chairman at the time.

Another Countrywide client was recently ousted Fannie Mae Chief Executive Daniel Mudd, though it isn't clear whether he received special treatment on two $3 million mortgage refinancings he made when he was the company's chief operating officer. ?

Countrywide loans on preferential terms to influential figures are the subject of a federal grand jury investigation in Los Angeles, according to people involved in the inquiry. Prosecutors subpoenaed records of many of the so-called "Friends of Angelo" loans in August, lawyers and others familiar with the matter said. ?

While Countrywide was developing a closer working relationship with Fannie Mae, the company also had created a special path to handle loan applications from influential figures. The "Friends of Angelo" program channeled loan applications from celebrities, public figures and sports stars ? often singled out by Mr. Mozilo ? to a department where the borrowers received special treatment, sometimes including lower interest rates and a reduction in fees.

It's been a while since we've heard from Jamie Gorelick. The former 9/11 Commission panelist wound up being one of the focal points of the dot-connecting afterwards, as she pushed for further separation of law enforcement and intelligence efforts in the years prior to the 9/11 attacks, even while al-Qaeda attacked American embassies in Africa and the USS Cole. Now she turns up at Fannie Mae, taking the same kind of insider loans while having oversight responsibilities for the GSE and the manner in which its business got transacted with other firms, including Countrywide.

Gorelick claims she never knew she got preferential treatment. For that matter, Barack Obama's campaign adviser Jim Johnson says the same thing. However, both got loans a full point lower than market value at the time, after going outside the normal channels to get their loans handled. Are we to believe that the CEO of Fannie Mae and a member of its board were completely ignorant of the going rate for residential loans at the time of their application? What business did they think they were in, anyway? The rate for residential loans is the center of Fannie Mae's business.

The notion that they were ignorant of their preferential treatment insults both their intelligence and ours. I suspect that a federal grand jury will feel the same way if Gorelick and Johnson try to use that line in their testimony, assuming they don't just take the Fifth when called.

Gorelick hasn't had any role in the presidential campaigns, but Johnson has been a high-level adviser to Barack Obama ? and still is. Chris Dodd has taken leadership on the bailout bill negotiations on Capitol Hill. With two Democrats this closely tied to a federal grand jury action, they'd better hope that the grand jury takes its time in assessing the evidence. This to me seems a lot more worthy of an investigation than a dismissal of a political appointee in Juneau.

Obama Has Fingerprints All Over Financial Crisis - Updated
Strata Sphere ^ | Sep 19 2008

Now we know why Obama wants to raise taxes - to bail out those jerks who tanked our mortgage markets and nearly sent us into a real depression. First off it is good to get a little history on what led to this mess. Michael Reagan does a good job of laying out the story, but this part is worth noting and remembering:

To find the donkey, you need to go back to the Clinton administration, which decided that everybody and his kid brother was entitled to a mortgage even when they didn't begin to qualify for a home loan.

In saner days, banks designated certain areas as no-loan zones ? depressed neighborhoods where lending money to potential home buyers was not just a risky investment, but a certain future foreclosure.

Critics of the practice called it "redlining," and President Clinton and his chums on Capitol Hill decided that banks should no longer act like banks and lend money only to home buyers who could afford to handle the monthly payments.

Remember, Clinton left office with the economy a mess after the dot.com bubble burst too. This is what happens when you let inexperienced people with radical and naive ideas become president. One of the people key to this mess is Franklin Raines - who has ties to both Clinton and Obama:

Franklin Delano Raines (born January 14, 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton.

?

In 1991 he became Fannie's Mae's Vice Chairman, a post he left in 1996 in order to join the Clinton Administration as the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he served until 1998. In 1999, he returned to Fannie Mae as CEO, "the first black man to head a Fortune 500 company."[1]

In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $50 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings [2] initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as 6.3 billion.[2].

As everyone noted this guy was the first black CEO of a fortune 500 firm it becomes clear we cannot select leaders based on their race, or whether it advances their race. We need to pick leaders based on the content of their character, judgement and plans. Anyway, after setting up this mess and stealing a few million Raines ended giving advice to the Obama campaign.

Even more troubling is the fact that the two top beneficiaries of political donations from failed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the last 9 years were Sen Chris Dodd (#1) and Barack Obama (#2). First off, I cannot fathom how a quasi-government company controlling 100's of millions of dollars in mortgage payments from Americans across this country can line the pockets of the politicians supposedly overseeing them.

This is criminal. They take our mortgage payments and send some of it to the politicians - all the time running the entire thing into the ground? Folks, they took our mortgage payments, got rich, bribed some pols and sit fat and dumb in million dollar homes - paid for by us. And now we will pay more to fix the mess they left behind. Obama is in this up to his neck, since he got more money than any other senator save one, and he did it while in office only three of the 9 years covered.

Read this and thank God you were not a fetus around Huessain Mohamad Obama. Liberals love government handouts so they kill the unborn to stop the competition. Of course Obama will say it is racist when he is exposed for the cold hearted S.O.B. he is!

If It Was Up to Obama, This Woman Would be Dead
Townhall.com ^ | September 20, 2008 | Doug Giles

Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 06:46:53 by Kaslin

No, I'm not talking about Sarah Palin, I'm talking about Gianna Jessen.

If it was up to the abominable Obama, the to-be-aborted little baby, Gianna Jessen, would have been turned into worm dirt 31 years ago. Thankfully, Mr. Change and Mr. Hope wasn't around back then to lay his liberal legislative death-dealing pen to Ms. Jessen's fate?and the world is a better place for it.

So, who is Gianna Jessen?

Gianna is an abortion survivor. Yep, she kicked death's butt and survived against all odds. Her medical records state that she was "born during a saline abortion," and if Barack Obama would have had his way, she wouldn't be here.

Barack Obama voted four times against affording these "born alives" their most basic human right. Chilling, eh? How progressive of you, liberals. Hitler would be proud, and I'm sure Satan is just giddy with your creative ways to slay that inconvenient little baby even if it survives your initial assault.

Jessen, with a Pit Bull spirit, survived being burned alive in saline solution for eighteen hours. Eighteen hours, ladies and gents! FYI: This is not the same saline solution you use to clean your contacts but a lethal cocktail of death intended to cook the unborn kid from the inside out.

Weighing in at 2 lbs at birth with cerebral palsy (thanks to the effects of the witch's brew she stewed in), the gloomy doctors said little Gianna would never be able to hold up her head, sit up, crawl or walk.

God had different plans.

Not only did she hold her head up, sit, crawl and walk, but she has run in two twenty-six mile marathons and has spoken all over the world, on TV, in churches and on college campuses about the power of God and the sanctity of life. Put that in your stupid pipe and smoke it, all-wise and all-knowing doctors.

Liberals love being painted as the defender of the underdog. Yeah, if you feel like you are being abused, oppressed, preyed upon, neglected, entitled to something or endangered in any way . . . do not fear! The Dems are here! Their protection extends not only to the human victim, but also to the translucent hair lice, the gargling nut warbler, a warming globe, a rare venereal crab, and a whooping crane's egg.

Yep, the liberals will ramp up to Mach2, set their hair on fire, and fight, yell, picket, protest and blog their fingers bloody for animal rights and for your rights?that is unless, of course, you're an unborn child.

It is with the unborn baby that the "protectors of the weak" morph into the party that wreaks havoc upon the truly helpless. It's interesting to see misty-eyed liberals go quasi-Talibanic for the little animal while they have absolutely no qualms whatsoever endorsing the snuffing out of the life of a tiny unborn human.

One of the reasons the barbaric left uses to convince themselves that they're right on the issue of killing that inconvenient "little bugger" (as one of their own calls it) is that it is not yet a person.

Something that is really wrecking the "protectors of the weak" BS campaign of killing unborn kids, however, is ultrasound imagery (Oops. Didn't see that coming, now did you?). These pics and videos are screwing up things for the pro-choicers. Back in the day when they were selling us on the "fetal blob" stuff, all we had at our disposal to contradict their nonsense was common sense and a very grainy 2D sonogram.

With the use of ultrasound imaging increasing daily, how a person can say that an unborn baby is not yet a person and can be killed at Mommy Dearest's discretion is barbarically beyond me. I guess the left and the pink conservatives callous their hearts to the unborn by rejecting a proposition central to Judeo-Christian thought regarding life and death: namely, that human life (beginning at conception and lasting until the person naturally croaks) is intrinsically good and thus sacred?not just instrumentally good.

In contrast with the secular "elite," the "stupid," "non-elite" and "archaic" Judeo-Christian constituency believes that all people?from the embryo to the elderly, including severely developmentally disabled, people in comas and everyone in between?have dignity and value. As Robert George said, "Their significance is not based upon what they can do, or how they make us feel or whether or not we approve of their quality of life, but principally because they live."

And yet, these secular barbaric "tools" see human beings as tools; and if they don't somehow fit instrumentally within the secularists' Darwinian, utilitarian utopia, they get tagged as "inconvenient" and are relegated to the "very expendable" list. That's why abortion is no big deal, and neither is taking the life of a so-called defective child, or suicide, or "mercy killing" a helpless senior. But God help you if you should ever run a boat's prop over a manatee's back! They'll get pissed!

Not only does Obama's Party of Death (as Ramesh Ponnuru calls the libtards) advocate the death of the unborn and the inconvenient, but they also want your tax dollars to pay for their death wishes, for all parents to butt out of their teenage daughter's abortion plans, and for the US to continue to stay left of Europe when it comes to abortion on demand. Consider all the above when you cast your vote in November, those of you on the left and the right who cherish the unborn more than a sea cow.

For all the 411 on Gianna Jessen and what she's up to, go to www.BornAliveTruth.org. Send her money, watch her videos, play her radio spots and help her wake our nation up to Barack's barbaric beliefs.

Obama's Real-Estate Bust
He did for Illinois taxpayers what shady mortgage lenders have done for the economy.

By David Freddoso

Last week, Sen. Barack Obama compared the Savings and Loan bailout of the late 1980s to the situation of the mortgage-securities markets today:

Too many S&Ls took advantage of the lax rules set by Washington to gamble that they could make big money in speculative real estate. . . . [T]hey made hundreds of billions in bad loans, knowing that if they lost money, the government would bail them out. And they were right. The gambles did not pay off, our economy went into recession, and the taxpayers ended up footing the bill. Sound familiar?

Indeed, it does sound familiar ? it sounds a lot like what Barack Obama did to Illinois taxpayers as a state senator in Springfield. Using his elected office and his clout, Obama helped Tony Rezko and other unscrupulous low-income housing developers obtain millions of dollars in state grants, tax credits, low-interest loans, and regulatory advantages.

Taxpayers had no serious chance of recouping these "investments" in Rezko and other developers. And many beneficiaries went one step farther, depriving the public of even the benefits they could have gotten. These developers took government help to build low-income housing, and then let their buildings deteriorate into uninhabitable slums.

To date, the most complete account of this sad story is Binyamin Appelbaum's piece in the Boston Globe. Not only does it demonstrate the monumental failure of the low-income-housing policy that Obama vocally championed as a state senator, it gives a detailed look at how some of Obama's donors and friends ? the beneficiaries of that policy ? neglected their own housing developments at the expense of the inhabitants.

There is no indication that Obama approved (or even knew) of the massive and systemic neglect of these properties in his own state-senate district. But there is also no question that he was an enabler in these transactions. He cosponsored at least six bills to give special tax breaks, tax credits, building-and-maintenance subsidies, and zoning exemptions to the developers. In 1998, he wrote letters to state and city officials requesting $14 million for a project developed by Tony Rezko and another close Obama friend ? the politician's old law-firm boss, Allison Davis.

In his Globe piece, Appelbaum describes the low-income Grove Parc Plaza complex, which was developed by Davis:

Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale ? a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

Sewage backups seem to be a common problem in Davis's low-income slums ? another of his buildings, Appelbaum reports, was cited in 2007 "after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments."

Valerie Jarrett, Obama's campaign adviser and the subject of a recent fawning interview by Katie Couric, is the chief executive of the company that managed that Grove Parc slum until just recently. Appelbaum writes that her company managed another housing complex until its condition became so poor that the federal government seized it in 2006.

Cecil Butler, another Obama donor, had his Lawndale Restoration complex confiscated by the government in 2006 "after city inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations."

Appelbaum's piece gives some sense of just how closely Obama was, and still is, tied to the slum-lord world. He's taken contributions from its big players and pushed legislation favorable to them. His closest ally in that sphere has been Rezko, who raised $250,000 for Obama's campaigns before being convicted on unrelated corruption charges earlier this year.

Rezko had been leveraging his fundraising abilities to win alliances with other politicians long before Obama got his start. He applied for his first subsidized-housing loan from the City of Chicago six days after Mayor Richard M. Daley's election in 1989. Within the first six years of Daley's reign, Rezko's company, Rezmar, received $24 million in government loans and $8.5 million in federal tax credits. Over the following decade, it would rake in more than $100 million in loans from the city, state, and federal governments, as well as private bank loans to fix up 30 Chicago buildings for low-income public housing.

Despite all this cheap and free taxpayer money, all of Rezko's 30 buildings eventually ran into financial difficulties. As of 2007, 17 had gone into foreclosure. Six were boarded up and abandoned.

The City of Chicago sued Rezmar at least a dozen times for failing to heat its properties. During the winter of 1997, Rezmar claimed it lacked the funds to heat a 31-unit building in Englewood on the south side of Chicago ? one of eleven Rezmar buildings in Obama's state-senate district. Tenants there went without heat from late December 1996 through mid-February 1997. Despite his company's financial hardship, Rezko signed a $1,000 check for the campaign fund of the newly elected state senator Barack Obama on January 14, 1997.

When Barack Obama talks about risky real-estate investments and failures of government oversight, remember how he put Illinois taxpayers on the hook for some of the worst real-estate investments of all ? investments in his close friend and in other slum landlords who took the public's money and betrayed their trust.

The WHite House ^ | September 19 | Staff

Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 21:06:36 by PghBaldy

For many years the President and his Administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties. President Bush publicly called for GSE reform 17 times in 2008 alone before Congress acted. Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded, as the President's repeated attempts to reform the supervision of these entities were thwarted by the legislative maneuvering of those who emphatically denied there were problems.

2001

April: The Administration's FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is "a potential problem," because "financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity."

2002

May: The President calls for the disclosure and corporate governance principles contained in his 10-point plan for corporate responsibility to apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (OMB Prompt Letter to OFHEO, 5/29/02)

2003

January: Freddie Mac announces it has to restate financial results for the previous three years.

February: The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) releases a report explaining that "although investors perceive an implicit Federal guarantee of [GSE] obligations," "the government has provided no explicit legal backing for them." As a consequence, unexpected problems at a GSE could immediately spread into financial sectors beyond the housing market. ("Systemic Risk: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Role of OFHEO," OFHEO Report, 2/4/03)

September: Fannie Mae discloses SEC investigation and acknowledges OFHEO's review found earnings manipulations.

September: Treasury Secretary John Snow testifies before the House Financial Services Committee to recommend that Congress enact "legislation to create a new Federal agency to regulate and supervise the financial activities of our housing-related government sponsored enterprises" and set prudent and appropriate minimum capital adequacy requirements.

October: Fannie Mae discloses $1.2 billion accounting error.

November: Council of the Economic Advisers (CEA) Chairman Greg Mankiw explains that any "legislation to reform GSE regulation should empower the new regulator with sufficient strength and credibility to reduce systemic risk." To reduce the potential for systemic instability, the regulator would have "broad authority to set both risk-based and minimum capital standards" and "receivership powers necessary to wind down the affairs of a troubled GSE." (N. Gregory Mankiw, Remarks At The Conference Of State Bank Supervisors State Banking Summit And Leadership, 11/6/03)

2004

February: The President's FY05 Budget again highlights the risk posed by the explosive growth of the GSEs and their low levels of required capital, and called for creation of a new, world-class regulator: "The Administration has determined that the safety and soundness regulators of the housing GSEs lack sufficient power and stature to meet their responsibilities, and therefore?should be replaced with a new strengthened regulator." (2005 Budget Analytic Perspectives, pg. 83)

February: CEA Chairman Mankiw cautions Congress to "not take [the financial market's] strength for granted." Again, the call from the Administration was to reduce this risk by "ensuring that the housing GSEs are overseen by an effective regulator." (N. Gregory Mankiw, Op-Ed, "Keeping Fannie And Freddie's House In Order," Financial Times, 2/24/04)

June: Deputy Secretary of Treasury Samuel Bodman spotlights the risk posed by the GSEs and called for reform, saying "We do not have a world-class system of supervision of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), even though the importance of the housing financial system that the GSEs serve demands the best in supervision to ensure the long-term vitality of that system. Therefore, the Administration has called for a new, first class, regulatory supervisor for the three housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banking System." (Samuel Bodman, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Testimony, 6/16/04)

2005

April: Treasury Secretary John Snow repeats his call for GSE reform, saying "Events that have transpired since I testified before this Committee in 2003 reinforce concerns over the systemic risks posed by the GSEs and further highlight the need for real GSE reform to ensure that our housing finance system remains a strong and vibrant source of funding for expanding homeownership opportunities in America? Half-measures will only exacerbate the risks to our financial system." (Secretary John W. Snow, "Testimony Before The U.S. House Financial Services Committee," 4/13/05)

2007

July: Two Bear Stearns hedge funds invested in mortgage securities collapse.

August: President Bush emphatically calls on Congress to pass a reform package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying "first things first when it comes to those two institutions. Congress needs to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused, and then I will consider other options." (President George W. Bush, Press Conference, The White House, 8/9/07)

September: RealtyTrac announces foreclosure filings up 243,000 in August ? up 115 percent from the year before.

September: Single-family existing home sales decreases 7.5 percent from the previous month ? the lowest level in nine years. Median sale price of existing homes fell six percent from the year before.

December: President Bush again warns Congress of the need to pass legislation reforming GSEs, saying "These institutions provide liquidity in the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital they operate safely and operate soundly. So I've called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs ? and ensures they focus on their important housing mission. The GSE reform bill passed by the House earlier this year is a good start. But the Senate has not acted. And the United States Senate needs to pass this legislation soon." (President George W. Bush, Discusses Housing, The White House, 12/6/07)

2008

January: Bank of America announces it will buy Countrywide.

January: Citigroup announces mortgage portfolio lost $18.1 billion in value.

February: Assistant Secretary David Nason reiterates the urgency of reforms, says "A new regulatory structure for the housing GSEs is essential if these entities are to continue to perform their public mission successfully." (David Nason, Testimony On Reforming GSE Regulation, Senate Committee On Banking, Housing And Urban Affairs, 2/7/08)

March: Bear Stearns announces it will sell itself to JPMorgan Chase.

March: President Bush calls on Congress to take action and "move forward with reforms on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They need to continue to modernize the FHA, as well as allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to homeowners to refinance their mortgages." (President George W. Bush, Remarks To The Economic Club Of New York, New York, NY, 3/14/08)

April: President Bush urges Congress to pass the much needed legislation and "modernize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [There are] constructive things Congress can do that will encourage the housing market to correct quickly by ? helping people stay in their homes." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With Cabinet, the White House, 4/14/08)

May: President Bush issues several pleas to Congress to pass legislation reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the situation deteriorates further.

"Americans are concerned about making their mortgage payments and keeping their homes. Yet Congress has failed to pass legislation I have repeatedly requested to modernize the Federal Housing Administration that will help more families stay in their homes, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance sub-prime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/3/08)

"[T]he government ought to be helping creditworthy people stay in their homes. And one way we can do that ? and Congress is making progress on this ? is the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That reform will come with a strong, independent regulator." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With The Secretary Of The Treasury, the White House, 5/19/08)

"Congress needs to pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/31/08)

June: As foreclosure rates continued to rise in the first quarter, the President once again asks Congress to take the necessary measures to address this challenge, saying "we need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." (President George W. Bush, Remarks At Swearing In Ceremony For Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 6/6/08)

July: Congress heeds the President's call for action and passes reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it becomes clear that the institutions are failing.

have a problem with GOP lies.

They look us in the eye and tell us something without blinking and we the people fall in line.

1. We have to send our sons and daughters to die looking for weapons of mass destruction.

2. Sedam Hussein was responsible for 9-11.

3. Iraqi oil will pay for the war.

4. Mission accomplished.

5. Our economy is basically strong.

6. We are fundamentally better off during the bush administration.

7. John McCain campaign statement that he is not able to use a computer because of his suffering as a prisoner of war. Now here is my problem with that scenario.

a. On July 13, 2008 in a New York Times interview John McCain said: "I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/us/politics/13mccain.html_r=1&adxnnl=1...

b. On Rachel Ray I saw John McCain whip up a batch of ribs. I would like a medical opinion on what different muscles are used to barbecue ribs that you would have to use on a keyboard.

It is time to look in their eyes ? not blink ? and say "Stop lying to us?"

THE FUROR OBAMA
Backlash to Obama officials squelching political speech
Law enforcement threats, intimidation likened to 'police-state tactics,' by Missouri governor Gov. Matt Blunt
Following legal threats by Missouri state law-enforcement officials supporting Barack Obama against presidential campaign ads that appeared to be false or misleading, Gov. Matt Blunt today likened the intimidation to "police state tactics."

"St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign," said Blunt in a statement released today. "What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment."

The statement came after the law enforcement officials pledged to form a "truth squad" to halt ads that, among other things, claimed Obama was not a Christian or that he was not planning to cut taxes on Americans other than the wealthy.

"If they're not going to tell the truth, somebody's got to step up and say, 'That's not the truth. This is the truth,'" McCullogh told KMOV-TV in St. Louis.

The effort appeared to be part of a move by the Obama campaign to block advertisements to which it objects. The campaign also sent "threatening" letters to several news agencies in Pennsylvania and Ohio demanding they stop airing ads exposing Obama's gun stance, according to the National Rifle Association.

"This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson," said Blunt. "I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson's thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election."

Blunt concluded: "Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts ? not a free society."

(Story continues below)

The NRA's Political Victory Fund also condemned the effort as censorship.

"Barack Obama and his campaign are terrified of the truth," said Chris W. Cox, chairman of organization. "Sen. Obama's statements and support for restricting access to firearms, raising taxes on guns and ammunition and voting against the use of firearms for self-defense in the home are a matter of public record. NRA-PVF will make sure that everyone knows of Obama's abysmal record on guns and hunting."

The Obama campaign declined to respond to a WND request for comment.

The NRA said Obama sent "cease and desist letters" to news outlets in the two states, "denouncing the ads and demanding their removal from the airwaves."

"Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in our nation's history. That's the truth," said Cox. "NRA-PVF has the facts on our side. No amount of running from or lying about his record and then intimidating news outlets in the hope of deceiving American gun owners and hunters is going to work. Those strong arm tactics may work in Chicago, but not in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and not as long as NRA-PVF has anything to say about it."

The warnings were from Obama lawyer Robert Bauer, who told station managers that in order to stay in the Federal Communication commission's good graces, they should not air the ads.

Josh Marquis, an Oregon prosecutor who serves as a spokesman for the NDAA, said the comments from Missouri don't sound like the McCulloch he knows.

"I'm really surprised. I know Bob," Marquis told WND.

The KMOV report said the Obama campaign asked members of Missouri's law enforcement to target anyone who "lies" or issues misleading television ads. Formation of the Obama "Truth Squad" was the result, the report said.

McCulloch declined to return a call from WND seeking comment.

The KMOV report said the campaign was being conducted by McCulloch and another prosecutor, Jennifer Joyce, along with a number of sheriffs throughout the state.

"They will be reminding voters that Barack Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes for anyone who makes less than $250,000 a year. They also say they plan to respond immediately to any ads and statements that violate Missouri's ethics laws," the report said.

"We want to keep this campaign focused on issues," Joyce told the station. "We don't want people to get distracted. Missourians don't want to be distracted by the divisive character attacks."

The campaign was assembled to "set the record straight," they said.

Officials with the Missouri Sheriff's Association declined to talk about any sheriffs who might be involved in the campaign.

At the blog Gateway Pundit, the reaction was immediate.

"St. Louis and Missouri Democrat sheriffs and top prosecutors are planning to go after anyone who makes false statements against Obama during his campaign. This is so one-sided I can't even [begin] to describe how wrong this agenda is," writes blogger Jim Hoft.

Hoft said Joyce and McCulloch "are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out falsely against Barack Obama."

Missouri blogger Doctor Bulldog commented: "Don't think they will stop with just the local radio and television stations. Oh, no. We bloggers are NEXT on the chopping block! It doesn't matter if it is the truth. It only matters if Obama deems it a lie (i.e. ? something that can cause damage to his bid to be president). Basically, NO ONE is free to criticize Obama here in Missouri!!!"

In the St. Louis Examiner, a commentary said, "Look, politicians are all about lies. It may be annoying (I find it entertaining), but that's for their opponents and good-government groups to counter ? not law enforcement. ... Even if the officeholders joining the 'truth squad' are nominally stepping out of their official roles in order to put on their (political) party hats and play politics, it's inappropriate. They wield too much power to use it to wag their fingers at people who say un-nice things about political hopefuls. Prosecutors and sheriffs are, after all, normally thought of as people with the clout to put their targets behind bars."

I guess the McCains are a "twofer," because without his wife, McCain's 3 am call will be a 12-year-old reluctantly getting back to him about how to print out a document.

McCain is not suitable for his current office and he will never be anywhere close to being a suitable candidate for the Oval Office.

You still print out documents? Perhaps you're the one a little behind the times.....

The problem is the media hasn't made an issue of it. Not just McCain, look at all the really old senators and congressmen we have. Why do we trust the country to people that may be senile!?

And they don't really understand tech; many are so far behind the times.

This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that all these old people, most of whom know little about technology, are trying to legislate the internet.

OK, he can't use a computer. The most important question is, can he wipe his own butt without assistance. That, to me, is one of the major qualifications in a presidential candidate.

McCain's lack of computer skills and knowledge is crucial to him NOT being qualified to be President in this modern world. It has absolutely nothing to do with knowing how to use Google or a Blackberry. Much of this country's business, security, and infrastructure is WIRED. You CANNOT lead in the 21st century without understanding all the underlying issues behind eComerce, digital security (both corporate and national) and all the electrical, telecommunication, transportation, nuclear systems and even educational issues that rely on broadband (wired and wireless) communication. It has been well documented that terrorism's next intended target includes these systems. How can you even comprehend how to defend against that when you don't understand the technology or the impact of such an attack?
Having John McCain as a candidate is like having a caveman running for modern day office.

Nice work, Jonathan!

Frank Rich linked to you in his column in The New York Times!

McCain's favorite film is Viva Zapata?

Yes, Viva Zapata, a film made 56 years ago, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Peters and Anthony Quinn, all of whom are now dead and gone -- much like John McCain's chances of ever being President.

the lack of computer knowlage shows major problem's for a presidentual canidate... the refusal to change, the lack of ability to lern, the lack of ability to creat a simple document that a president will have to creat during his term at some point and the extra cost going to some one to creat documents and help out with any computer needs of McCain