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If you didn’t catch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent appearance at the Ohio McCain rally, here he is. Some good lines in this speech.

Technorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ohio rally

The unprecedented 600+ million dollars that Obama has raised, in turn, should (but doesn’t, at least in MSM) raise questions about popularly held assumptions.

Democrats’ constant cry that they are the party of the poor & oppressed doesn’t exactly correspond to the obscene amount of funding raised for Barack Obama. Look at the million plus funds (mostly from out-of-state donors) raised in a matter of hours for MN’s Michele Bachmann’s democratic opponent.

Just where is all this money coming from? You might ask Barack Obama or David Axelrod, but even they couldn’t tell you. Apparently, the Obama campaign subscribes to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to receiving money. They can’t tell you if the money is from non-citizens, from foreign or domestic terrorists, or from sources that have exceeded the legal donor limit.  At best, this is willful ignorance that reinforces Obama’s glib disposition to deal “without precondition.” It’s time we think about the consequences of such an approach. See the New York Post article on the source of Obama’s Campaign Money: DUBIOUS DONATIONS

Technorati Tags: campaign finance, donations

Excerpts from Obama’s radio interview while he was part time state senator, part time lecturer. What is interesting here is that Obama takes wealth redistribution as a matter of course, and that the real question is how best to bring redistribution about - through judicial or administrative channels. Obama doesn’t question that wealth redistribution is not a fundamental principle of the founding fathers. Instead, Obama apparently sees wealth redistribution as the next step in a continuing civil rights movement. The Obama tax plan for Americans clearly represents this wealth redistribution philosophy.

Technorati Tags: civil rights, Joe the plumber, judicial system, wealth redistribution

Here’s the full McCain interview on Letterman last night:

Technorati Tags: Comedy, Late Show, Letterman

Going though all the documentation on Obama’s campaign website is not unlike watching Obama give a speech or during a debate; word-smithing & pretty presentation abound in Obama’s platform documents. Obama tells us what he thinks people want to hear - like all politicians - but you don’t have to read between the lines to recognize that Obama’s opinion of the average American is pretty low.

Here’s a look at the Economic Agenda - Mortgage & Home-Ownership, published by Obama:

(1) Create a government entity to track & regulate the mortgage industry -

• Problem: Democrats notoriously blocked Fannie & Freddie examination & oversight, leading to this very problem. That Obama can create an entity that appropriately regulates the mortgage industry is pretty doubtful, especially with Pelosi & Reid at the helm.
• Corollary: Another big spending idea (over $100 million) of Obama’s.
• Cost: Set-up another government agency & maintain national database, according to Obama, about 200 million.

(2) Mandate that every loan should come with a clear-cut schedule of borrower payments to lenders (“HOME”=Homeowner obligation made explicit). Only those buyers who wish to remain blissfully ignorant of what they will owe every month can ignore the numerous mortgage calculators readily available on mortgage websites, or simply don’t ask their lender (if the lender hasn’t spelled it out for them already).

• Problem: This doesn’t weed out speculators. And besides, this idea of HOME already exists. A lot of people who signed ARMs with interest rates that would increase after a couple years did so thinking that they would re-finance their ARM mortgage to a conventional mortgage. Problem was, after a couple years, market values decreased & re-financing was impossible. These homeowners knew that they would have to pay more when the rate increase kicked-in, they just incorrectly bet on the real estate market continuing its upward trend.
• Cost: Enforcing this as part of the Stop Fraud Act (100s of millions).

(3) Create a Foreclosure Emergency Fund - A government fund to pay mortgages for “innocent” homeowners. Really, Obama lays it on thickly here. “Barack Obama will establish policies to help Americans currently facing foreclosure through no fault of their own”?? Clearly, Obama doesn’t believe in personal responsibility, and (to him) Americans are as innocent - and ignorant - as when they were born. Constantly referring to Americans as “innocent homeowners” and “victims” isn’t only fallacious, it’s insulting.

• Problem: Obama even suggests that your neighbor’s foreclosed home will increase the likelihood that you will be driven to foreclosure too. A foreclosed home may drive down market values, but as long as you’re paying your mortgage, you won’t go through foreclosure! We can only suppose that Obama believes birds of a feather flock together - that you are just as ignorant & vulnerable as your neighbor. Obama is playing victim by association with us (but didn’t he discount this association argument where Wright/Ayers are concerned?).

• Cost: Unknown - likely billions of dollars, judging from other relief funds.

(4) Give Bankrupt Homeowners Protection from Mortgage Payments - Revise law toward decreasing/eliminating mortgage payments of bankrupt homeowners.

• Problem: Bankruptcy protects you from creditors & outstanding debts - it wasn’t designed to provide a free ride/free home for you. Who is going to cover the cost of the unpaid mortgage? You can already walk away from your mortgage without being held accountable for the amount outstanding (other than a credit report ding). Obama calls the current law a “bankruptcy loophole” - but this idea encourages bankruptcy filings to stay in the house payment-free. This only exacerbates the current housing crisis.
• Cost: Unknown - hundreds of millions? Makes the housing crisis worse.

(5) Refundable Universal Mortgage Credit - Obama plays more class warfare: “like so much in our tax code, this [itemized mortgage interest tax deduction]tilts the scales toward the well-off.” Are Americans on two opposite sides? Obama would have us think so.

• Hitch: A mortgage interest tax deduction is pretty basic, something rote to a filer from H&R Block, but perhaps Obama thinks a $50 filing fee is only for the wealthy.
• Cost: Ultimately, this is another $500 refund check going to 10 million people - that’s 5 billion dollars…but it’s just a drop in the well compared to his tax plan. See the next installment on Obama’s Plan for the middle class.

Technorati Tags: Foreclosure, Housing, tax policy

Obama came on just after McCain (make sure you see McCain’s intro of Obama in my previous post). Funny too, but McCain is clearly the one you want roasting you at your charity dinner (unless you’re Barack Obama - his smile appeared rather forced at times during McCain’s shtick, and no wonder).

Part 1:

Part 2:

Technorati Tags: Alfred E. Smith, Roast

Move over Tina Fey! McCain at the Alfred E. Smith Charity Dinner roasts Obama, the Clintons, & the media. A nice dose of hilarity, especially in the last weeks of the campaign.

McCain’s complete speech is separated, unfortunately. Watch both - they’re worth it.

From the top:

and through to the end:

Technorati Tags: Alfred E. Smith, Funny, Roast

Watch the video of kids singing (pretty well) about how Obama will Change the world. A homespun affair? Rather doubtful. But it is definitely a product of Obama’s effective propaganda machine. The brainwashing sincerity of these kids - and adults - as they sing gives us more pause than the opus of Obama kool-aid songs out there. Apparently, Obama isn’t content with convincing this generation of voters that he’s a legend - he’s already laying down groundwork to cement his biblical status for generations to come.

Technorati Tags: Kids, Kool-aid, Obama song, Propaganda

We’ve all heard Obama repeatedly point the finger at McCain & Republicans for deregulating Wall Street - leading to this financial mess. Obama has basically become like a bad song on the radio - you hear something enough, it actually starts to sound decent, or in Obama’s case, seem like truth.

But deregulation isn’t really at the heart of the issue, according to American Enterprise Institute Fellow in recent Bloomberg piece (bolding added),

In the debate on Sept. 26, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama argued that the current crisis in the financial markets is the result of Republican deregulation.

The credibility of the charge depends on ignoring several important facts:

– There has been a great deal of deregulation in our economy over the last 30 years, but none of it has been in the financial sector or has had anything to do with the current crisis. Almost all financial legislation, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Improvement Act of 1991, adopted after the savings and loan collapse in the late 1980s, significantly tightened the regulation of banks.

– The repeal of portions of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 — often cited by people who know nothing about that law — has no relevance whatsoever to the financial crisis, with one major exception: it permitted banks to be affiliated with firms that underwrite securities, and thus allowed Bank of America Corp. to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to buy Bear Stearns Cos. Both transactions saved the government the costs of a rescue and spared the market substantial additional turmoil.

None of the investment banks that got into financial trouble, specifically Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., were affiliated with commercial banks, and none were affected in any way by the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

– Republicans have favored financial regulation where it was necessary, as in the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while the Democrats have opposed it. In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a tough regulatory bill (for which McCain was a voluble co-sponsor) for Fannie and Freddie over the unanimous opposition of committee Democrats. The opposition of the Democrats when the bill reached the full Senate made its enactment impossible. [...]

– The subprime and other junk mortgages that Fannie and Freddie bought – and the market in these mortgages that their buying spawned — are the underlying cause of the financial crisis. These are the mortgages that the Treasury Department is asking for congressional authority to buy. If the Democrats had allowed the Fannie and Freddie reform legislation to become law in 2005, the entire financial crisis might have been avoided.

Obama & Democrats are pulling a bait & switch with regard to subprime lending as well. Apparently, Democrats had nothing to do with pushing home ownership for those who couldn’t afford homes. At-will dementia is a powerful and pathetic thing.

Technorati Tags: Economy, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, housing crisis

I’m posting this partly because I’ve received 5 summons to appear on jury duty in the past 2 years - you’d think that there are more eligible jurors in the cycle. Luckily, I don’t have a land line so I’m unlikely to experience this jury scam that bullies me into giving SSN & other info over the phone. But, for those of you who do have home phones (or ever wished you weren’t plagued by jury duty), watch out for this…

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois and Colorado. This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.

Check FBI warning here.
And on Snopes here.

Technorati Tags: fraud, Jury duty, phone scam

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