This'n'That; November Second [Election Day!! Heartland Inst; obama's "Car"]

Today is: THE BIG DAY!!
Today is November Second!!
Today is the day of one of the most important elections OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!!
Today is the day (IF you and I are of like mind) to turn out ANY incumbents in the 'Ruling Class!!'  Let them enjoy the experience, the thrill and the benefits of UNEMPLOYMENT!!

EVERYONE Should Order These....
    Early last week I received a package of pamphlets I'd ordered from the Heartland Institute.  I didn't know what to expect when I ordered them; you know how authors and others with 'an axe to grind' will embellish their offerings!  Over the weekend, I carved out a period in which to review these several pamplets.  I had received a total of twelve volumes and one DVD:

• "The Patriot's Toolbox"  Eighty principles for restoring our freedom and prosperity
• "Blowing Smoke?"  An investigative report from The Christian Science Monitor, covering such topics as: Carbon Offsets; Native and Green Energy; Carbon Offset SCAMS.
•  "Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?"  An investigative report on the facts and fallacies concerning the title topic; by Anthony Watts (www.surfacestations.org ).
•  "Global Warming Facts versus Faith"  A report authored by Apollo 7 Astronaut-Walter Cunningham.
•  "The OBAMACARE Disaster-An Appraisal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act"  (Heartland Policy Study #128) Peter Ferrara appraises various aspects of obamaCare.

 (The) Legislative Principles Series:  [A series of brief guides to the most important public policy issues of the day, written especially for elected officials and other opinion leaders.  Some legislative uses:  (A) Answering constituents' questions; (B) Formulating position papers and talking points; (C) Preparing speeches and testimony; (D) Writing op-eds, letters-to-the-editor, and commentaries; (E) A tool for further research.]

1. Ten Principles of School Choice
2.  Ten Principles of State Fiscal Policy
3.  Ten Principles of Health Care Policy
4.  Ten Principles of Energy Policy
5.  Ten Principles of Telecom Policy
6.  Ten Principles of Property and Casualty Insurance Regulation
7.  Ten Principles of Privatization
8.  Ten Principles for Improved Business Climates

.....and a DVD: 
Unstoppable Solar Cycles-The Real Story of Greenland

Whether an actual benefit exists or not, depends on the readers' political stances.  I intend to briefly review each volume as time permits; in a priority I think is important.

How obama's 'Car' Actually Got In 'The Ditch!'
    "Clown Prince" obama loves his car-in-the-ditch analysis of our crashed economy. He repeats it constantly, and has added this: “We’re huffing and puffing trying to get the car out of the ditch, and the republicans are standing around watching sipping on a slurppy.”  That slurppy bit is supposed to connect him to middle America. Well, maybe, but doubtful.
    But the real problem isn’t the slurppy gag: the problem is the road to the ditch. The financial collapse which led to our present enervating recession was the housing collapse and bank failures.  Toxic mortgages, foreclosure crisis, Mr. Fix-It bailouts–the entire sorry tale is obamacRAT from way down the road to the crash site.  It starts with Jimmy Carter and his Community Re-Investment Act, by which the heavy hand of government “encouraged” banks to loan to marginal borrowers.  That push was ramped up under Bill Clinton.
    Clinton’s HUD Secretary, Andrew Cuomo (yes, the same one) created regulations which forced the government sponsored mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to step up loans to minorities under the logic of the affordable housing movement–every American should be a homeowner. It turns out affordable housing didn’t mean inexpensive homes poor people could afford, but instead, easy credit to buy homes they could not afford.
    Clinton’s Treasury Secretary was obamacRAT Robert Rubin, aided by obamacRAT Lawrence Summers, now on the obama economic team. Rubin and Summers honcho’d the effort to repeal the Depression era Glass Steigal Ac, allowing investment banks to use federally insured depositor cash to back millions of mortgages, while easing underwriting standards at the same time. No money down? No problem.  In addition, Rubin pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed the creation of mortgage back securities, liar loans packaged as investments and sold to pension funds.
We all know what happened to those “improvements” in the financial system. When the economy fell apart, the trail of tears led right back to these financial shenanigans. obamacRATs created a mortgage casino which led to chaos. But because the housing bubble stirred up so much action at the banks, obamacRAT Rubin took home $100 million from his post-Treasury job at Citi Bank (which was eventually saved by a bailout.)
(**)
Later, when Fannie and Freddie–the places where the buck actually stopped– started to give off a strong odor of stinking loans and the threat of large losses the taxpayer would have to cover, obamacRATs blocked reform. In 2003 when republicRATs ran DC, they pushed for HR2575–The Secondary Mortgage Market Interprises Regulatory Improvement Act, which would have strengthened an independent regulator for the government backed mortgage giants, Fannie and Feddie.
(***) 

• obamacRAT Barney Frank said, “I don’t think we face a crisis, I don’t think that we have an impending disaster… Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do very good work and they are not endangering the fiscal health of this country.”
• obamacRAT Maxine Waters said “These GSE’s have more than adequate capital for the business they are in: providing affordable housing…We should not be making radical or fundamental change. If there is anything to fix or improve, it is the (regulators).”

    Bush administration regulators got a tongue lashing from obamacRATs for even issuing warnings that disaster was possible. Rep. Gregory Meeks, obamacRAT of New York, huffed “I am just pissed off at (the regulators) because if it wasn’t for you I don’t think that we would be here in the first place.” obamacRAT Meeks thought the hearings by Bush regulators were a waste of time. “I think there has been nothing that was indicated is wrong, you know, with Fannie Mae…the question that then presents is the competence of your agency has with reference to deciding and regulating these GSE’s.” Fannie and Freddie are Government Sponsored Entities, or GSE’s.

    Rep. David Scott, obamacRAT of Georgia, told the regulators that home ownership for African Americans trailed the rate of whites by thirty points, and “Clearly, the mission of Freddie Mac and especially Fannie Mae, is to close that gap.”  At these hearings Fannie Mae’s Chairman and CEO Franklin Raines, a obamacRAT, and former Clinton official, told oversight committee members that the mortgages Fannie was buying were solid gold.

For this type of brilliant forecasting Raines was compensated $90 million during his tenure. When Jamie Gorelick, obamacRAT, took over and continued Raines’ nothing-can-go-wrong-here policies, she earned $26 million. She was followed by obamacRAT Jim Johnson, who was at or near the wheel when the car went into the ditch in 2007. He took home a paltry $21 million. After all Fannie needed to be bailed out with $X billion on his watch.

obamacRATs in the New York State Insurance regulators allowed AIG to insure mortgage backed securities with an invention known as the Credit Default Swap.

“These assets are so riskless that their capital for holding them should be under two percent.” In other words, if banks had two dollars they should be able to loan one hundred dollars. The “assets” Fannie was purchasing from the banks were not that solid: they were junk.

    OK, the car crashed. But when you backtrack, what do you find? Democrats.  Next time Obama asks if you really want to go back to the policies of the people who drove us into the ditch, remind yourself “We already did that.”  Democrats crashed the car, and they are the last people to be driving the tow truck.

Read more:  http://radio.foxnews.com/2010/10/27/gibsons-column-the-road-to-the-ditch/#ixzz13wSiTx36
Til Nex'Time....

(**)obamacRATs used republicRAT Phil Gramm to front their greedy back room plot, and nowadays tend to say it was all Graham. It’s true Graham was in the picture, but look closely: he’s surrounded by obamacRATs.

    (***)The “party of no” in those days was the obamacRATs, who used cloture rules to keep the act from moving to a vote in the republicRAT-controlled Senate. When the obamacRATs came back in control in 2006 it was like hiring obamacRAT chocoholics in the taxpayer candy store. Eighteen attempts by George W. Bush and John McCain to prod the obamacRAT-controlled Congress to exert control over Fannie and Freddie were rejected summarily by obamacRATs.