THE 2004 HEARINGS

Yeah, this was all the Republicans fault...


The conscience of the congress? - Bad for Obama...

Frank's fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco (aka Barney's Rubble)

By Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe

"THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."

That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' " ...

Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.

As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he'll find one suspect in the nearest mirror.

-Jeff Jacoby


Rep. Barney Frank, who now vilifies Republican House members for questioning a policy of throwing another $700 billion on the bonfire, insisted to the New York Times during the 2003 accounting scandal: "These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."Partners at the Destruction by John Fund, WSJ

Also see: Barney's Rubble, Wall Street Journal

Barney 'Rubble' Frank was busy demanding Affirmative Action in mortgage lending and playing grab-ass while the country's financial system bloated with debt then burst apart. Frank is the powerful Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, so he could have averted this disaster. He did not. All he can seem to do now is demonize his victim, the American free enterprise system. Thanks Marxist Massachusetts voters and Congressional Liberal Douchebags.

Barack Hussein Obama

"I have never been a practicing Muslim"


Dreams From My Father, Page 154:

"In Indonesia, I had spent two years in a Muslim school ... In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies."

"John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith."



"Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent...Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset:'"

"Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah..."
Nicholas Kristof, NYT


"I will stand with [Muslims] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."







"Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag]"

[But] "I decided I won't wear that [silly] pin on my chest..."









So do not suggest Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim ... for he is something far worse:

A Marxist who wants to radically Change America into a nightmare Thomas Jefferson would not recognize, but which would fulfill the dreams of Obama's spiritual mentor who urges "God Damn America".

Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood

Sandra Bernhard - Liberal Darling

by Steve H. Graham
Yesterday, I asked a fellow blogger if she could think of any more rotten things the left could do to Sarah Palin. I was being sarcastic. My point was that leftists had been so creative and so cruel, it was hard to think of anything new for them to do. Wow, was I wrong.

They accused her of pretending her daughter's baby was hers. They said she should have stayed home having babies, instead of governing a state. They compared her to the political-machine stooge (close kin to a community organizer) who had Jesus scourged and delivered Him up for crucifixion. Then they hacked into her email account, and leftist blogs put the emails on display, claiming they were "legitimate news."

Now we learn that Sanda Bernhard is publicly joking about Governor Palin being gang-raped by Bernhard's "big black brothers." And people are paying to hear this crap. Not many; it looks like she's appearing in one of those clubs that used to be a Pack-n-Ship or a Mrs. Field's, but still...

What is the point of making a joke like this? What merit is there in the joke, that justifies putting that horrible image in our minds, and in the minds of Governor Palin's kids? What will we joke about next? Raping children? Auschwitz?

What exactly did Sarah Palin do, to deserve the treatment she has received from the left? She accepted an invitation to run for public office. That's her crime. She didn't shoot up a day care center. She didn't bomb the World Trade Center. She didn't--let me pull an example out of a hat--bomb the Pentagon, publicly confess it, and state that she wished she had done more. She didn't steal documents from the National Archives. She didn't commit perjury and get disbarred. She didn't con the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a bogus land deal in Arkansas. She didn't encourage Los Angeles residents to riot, shouting "No justice, no peace!" She didn't hit a security officer on her way into the Capitol. She wasn't involved in the first and only real "Troopergate." She didn't hide $90,000 in bribe money in her freezer. She didn't steal furniture from the White House, or vandalize it before a new administration moved in. She just answered the call, when her party and her country needed her.

It's a wonder anyone is willing to run for office as a Republican. Look at the treatment our candidates and politicians get. If the kooks don't get you, unethical prosecutors will. And the press will turn a blind eye, and sometimes, they'll aid in the persecution.

What an education her kids are getting. Liberals present themselves as warm and loving people who care about all the trees and bunnies, and who protect the downtrodden from mean old Republicans, who want to return to the feudal system. But there is nothing warm and loving about the way liberals are treating Sarah Palin. It's no exaggeration to say they display more hatred for her than they do for Osama bin Laden.

Governor Palin's treatment is an ominous reminder of the way the hard left wishes to treat those who disagree with it. It reminds us that killing fields and gulags can happen here, too. If Bill Ayers were in charge, we would have had those things forty years ago. And it looks like Sandra Bernhard would approve.

What ever happened to perspective? When did Americans decide that the need to win an election justified this kind of vile behavior?

Another question: what does Sandra Bernhard think of black men? It seems pretty obvious. She thinks they gang-rape people for trivial reasons. I'm trying to think of a more depraved example of racism, but I'm drawing a blank. This is a person who feels solidarity with blacks? She cares about them and respects them and empathizes with them, but she thinks she can count on them to rape a visiting governor. Black people should rejoice, having a friend who thinks so highly of them. I wonder what the Obamas thought of her remarks.

I already hoped Sarah Palin would win, because I support her politically. But now I hope she wins because her enemies are so vicious. I don't want to see them rewarded.

I wonder if we can make it to Monday without a new story about someone sliming or threatening or mistreating Sarah Palin. I hope so, but I wouldn't bet my lunch money on it.

-Steve H. Graham, HogOnIce.com

Sandra Bernhard: Palin Would Be Gang-Raped By Blacks

Open Thread...

Regarding Heart's lack of enthusiasm for someone remembering their music,

As long as the venue paid ASCAP for using the song, the Wilson sisters have no legal recourse.
(as long as it's not used in an actual advertisement) And the news coverage of the RNC event amounts to "fair use". If they didn't want it used at all in a political context they should have had a "non political" clause included like Neil Diamond does.
Also, they may not be all together on this anyway. I've been reading at least two of the band members don't really care.

That said, I wonder what political affiliations Gretchen Wilson (no relation to Ann or Nancy) or Alice in Chains has? Perhaps the McCain camp could get a license of their version?


I think she does a better job than Heart anyway...

UPDATE! Gretchen is a McCain supporter!
(hell I didn't even know she was AT the RNC...)

Palin Rumors put to rest.

Sarahcuda!

Hat tip to FF!

No Crackheads in Alaska...

Who does this remind you of?....LOL