Posted on 09/16/2008 3:47:00 PM PDT by joanie-f
Perhaps more than any presidential candidate in recent history, Barack Obama’s pious rhetoric has focused on his concern for ‘the little people’ and his disdain for the big money represented by corporate America.
I’d like to take a brief look at the words/deeds comparison of this man, and then pose a few crucial questions regarding not only Senator Obama’s honesty, but also his personal and professional affiliation with an organization that bears much of the responsibility for the sub-prime mortgage crisis and subsequent financial meltdown, and his fitness to hold office of any kind.
In July of this year it was announced that Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), America’s largest mortgage companies, are now the property of the United States government.
Along with that ownership comes some $5 trillion (with a tr) in mortgage debt. The nationalization of the two biggest mortgage companies in America occurred because it ‘was required to help millions of struggling mortgage holders and shore up the U.S. housing market.’
As a result, every American taxpayer will be forced to pay through the nose for the rest of his lifetime in order to bail out wealthy, well-connected people who committed fraud. In effect, every American taxpayer has been forced to purchase stock in two insolvent companies.
Ben Bernanke was not elected by the American people, and he is not accountable to them. Henry Paulsen was not elected by the American people, and he is not accountable to them. And the people in the corporate offices of FM and FM were not elected by the American people, and they were not accountable to them. And they were committing fraud.
In addition to the gargantuan personal debt that you and I have been forced to assume, the U.S. dollar will suffer as a result of this bailout. Inflation will increase. And the recession will worsen.
This is just the beginning of the ‘let's-make-the-U.S.-taxpayer-pay-the-price-for-the-financier/government-blunders’ roller coaster. The bailouts are going to start coming fast and furious. The big question is: How long will it take before the powers that be recognize that the boat is sinking faster as a result, and the people who are doing the bailing are going to (1) weaken to the point where they can no longer lift their bucket, or (2) mutiny. I'm betting on (1) because the American public is too clueless to contemplate (2).
The democrat party, and Barack Obama in particular, are forever crucifying big business and the financial world, while purporting to champion ‘the little people’. The democrat party, and Barack Obama in particular, are forever accusing John McCain of being in the pocket of both.
When the federal government announced two months ago that it was taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, The Center for Responsive Politics decided to take a close look at the amount of political contributions the two largest mortgage companies in America have made to our Washington leadership.
If you have been in the practice of swallowing leftist media swill, you should be very surprised at the results of their study: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers.
In the list of 354 lawmakers who have received contributions from the two mortgage giants since 1989, Barack Obama has collected the second highest dollar figure – behind only fellow leftist Christopher Dodd (D-CT). Recall, also, that Senator Obama has been in Washington for only three-plus years. So, despite the fact that this list includes the total of all of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac’s contributions to these 354 lawmakers since 1989 (for the last nineteen years), Barack Obama has managed to eclipse all but one of his fellow senators/congressmen, some of whom have been on the Hill six times as long as he.
And democrats in total collected the large majority (57%) of those monies.
The mainstream media, and most of our leadership in Washington, would have us believe that this mortgage crisis (eventually scheduled to blossom into a full-fledge economic earthquake) occurred as the result of a combination of greed on the part of the banking/mortgage industry and ignorance on the part of prospective low-income homeowners.
That, however, is not the case. The mortgage crisis is the result of a purposeful, newly required relaxing of underwriting standards, largely foisted by our government on the banking/mortgage industry in the name of ‘ending discrimination’, and in spite of warnings from respected economists that such underwriting relaxations could lead to unprecedented defaults.
It was the regulators, not the banks, who relaxed these standards - at the behest of 'community organizers' and 'progressive' political activists.
Byron York wrote in a recent National Review article:
See also: The Acorn Obama Knows and Getting Paid to Watch: The Link Between Obama, the Woods Fund, Earmarks and the Mortgage Crisis.
Acorn approached sympathetic members of congress who managed to amend the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, forcing banks to collect racial data on their mortgage applicants. The predictable result was that it was ‘discovered’ that banks were indeed discriminating against minorities (the fact that those minorities were generally less financially capable of assuming a mortgage received minimal consideration in every study).
What resulted was an increase in the power of the Community Reinvestment Act, and banks were now required to relax the criteria for low income mortgage applicants. Another new, more insidious, stipulation in the revamped Community Reinvestment Act allowed for 'community organizers' to take an active part in annual bank reviews. Intimidation was the name of the game.
Banks that received poor reviews were fined. Some were denied merger requests. Others faced Justice Department action if their ‘quotas’ of minority acceptances were not met.
As if ACORN’s complicity in the entire financial meltdown weren’t enough, the organization for which Barack Obama worked both before and after attending law school, and with which he still maintains close ties, is currently being accused of committing massive voter fraud, presumably in order to get their man elected. ‘Their man’ … the one who looks out for ‘the little guy’ and who repudiates big money and the power of special interests.
I will leave you all with a few simple questions:
(1) Why is it that Barack Obama rarely, if ever, lists his ‘accomplishments’ as a ‘community organizer’?
(2) Why did Barack Obama receive more total political money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than all but one of his fellow senators/congressmen? And how did he accomplish that amazing feat in just three short years, when many of his fellow 'leaders' have been on the job for six times as long?
(3) How difficult should it be for the American citizenry to accept Barack Obama’s pious repudiation of capitalism and the ‘greed’ of big business?
(4) If John McCain or Sarah Palin had such skeletons in their closets, would those skeletons find themselves revealed in glaring headlines from now until election day? And would congress be clamoring for hearings ... or worse?
(4) Where are the mainstream media?
Nuff said.
~ joanie
Pinging for additional commentary.
Mainstream Media is in tank for Obama, therefore do NOT report negatives for him....LIARS,LIARS tha’s CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and many others.
The link for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers takes to to the pic of Obama.
The url for the link should be: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
Thanks.
~ joanie
The correct url for the link is: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
~ joanie
Excellent on all points! We need more writers like you who can articulate just what it is that is dangerous about Obama.
Oh that more in this country would wake up to the double standards and bias we see 24/7 from the left/media. I do think that is happening somewhat now with the attacks on Sarah. You can sum it up by saying ‘Democrat, thy name is Hypocrite.’
Oh and P.S.-
I think the most hypocritical point of all when it concerns Obama, is the fact that Dems claim to be the party for the poor, the downtrodden, the little people- yet, his half brother lives in a tin hut in Kenya- and he and Michelle can’t do a damn thing to help him. Heck, give him a hand up, help him start his own business or go back to school...Good grief.
“Where are the mainstream media?”
In Alaska.
Amen.
Your 'P.S.' represents one of the most blantant hypocrisies of all. If a man can't offer a hand to his brother, where is his heart?
He is a hypocrite of the worst kind. Proclaiming his desire to help the downtrodden (with all manner of socialist programs, that is) while ignoring those that he knows personally.
~ joanie
No one sucks up money faster than a member of the Communist Nomenklatura. All for the good of the Proletariat, of course.
An aquaintance of my husband -- a teacher in a nearby school district -- who seems like an educated, intelligent man, is a fervent Obama supporter.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband asked him whether he would be willing to read a few essays that I had written about Obama on my weblog. He agreed to do so.
Several days later, he approached my husband and told him he resented my implications that Obama had Marxist connections, and he would not be reading any more of my essays.
So much for our 'member of the Communist Nomenklatura' references. A part of the electorate (I'm sure more than one) would prefer not to hear such powerfully damning stuff.
~ joanie
Has anyone noticed how Michelle Obama's outfits are channeling Jackie O?
First Lady in Waiting:The Mistress of Deceit and Phony Outrage
Michelle Obama: the style of Jackie Kennedy
“his concern for ‘the little people”
I’ve never met anyone who referred to themselves as “the little people.” It’s always that guy down the street. As far as I am concerned, there are no little people in US.
Jackie K. is as convenient a model as any for Ms. Obama. And the same kind of people who looked up to Jackie (for her obviously superb character) will also look up to Michelle for the same reason.
Stick a fork in us. We're done.
~ joanie
Thanks Joanie,Here’s a bump.
Excellent, joanie. Confirms the mandate of the current administration to the home loaners to loosen up regardless of cost.
I think the question is, “How do we make complacency amongst Conservatives illegal?” That way the law abiding Conservative folks would get off their behinds and go to work fighting this slime.
This is one of the most awesome articles I have yet seen this week. I hope somewhere along the line it is either published or plagiarized like crazy before being published. Excellent information!
Media? The Democrat National Committee's print/audio/video reporters manufacturers have no use for THIS STORY. They have a candidate to manufacture.
Thanks joanie-f. GRRRREAT stuff!
thanks for the heads up on this.. looks like a LOT of good info .
BTTT
I believe that, if the voting public were to get wind of his connections to the debacle, he would be defeated soundly. You know, the old 'It's the economy, stupid!' thing.
Even if Obama himself wasn't directly connected to the debacle, an organization with which he has very strong ties was. And the results of their efforts are going to affect us, our children and our grandchildren for generations to come. With the death of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch (and more to come), this economy hasn't begun to feel the effects of the schemers' manipulations.
~ joanie
I believe that, if the voting public were to get wind of his connections to the debacle, Obama would be defeated soundly. You know, the old 'It's the economy, stupid!' thing.
Even if Obama himself wasn't directly connected to the debacle, an organization with which he has had, and continues to have, very strong ties was. And the results of their efforts are going to affect us, our children and our grandchildren for generations to come. With the death of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch (and more to come), this economy hasn't begun to feel the effects of the schemers' manipulations.
~ joanie
I believe that, if the voting public were to get wind of his connections to the debacle, Obama would be defeated soundly. You know, the old 'It's the economy, stupid!' thing.
Even if Obama himself wasn't directly connected to the debacle, an organization with which he has had, and continues to have, very strong ties was. And the results of their efforts are going to affect us, our children and our grandchildren for generations to come. With the death of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch (and more to come), this economy hasn't begun to feel the effects of the schemers' manipulations.
~ joanie
Top notch research, Joanie!
They still believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, in the marxist method. They believe in it not because they (outside of their useful idiots) think for an instant that it will help the people or the nation, the believe in it becuase they crave and lust after power and control and know that if they can usher in such a system on the ashes of our free market, that they will be in charge...and that is what they want above all else.
Barack Hussein Obama and his ilk (and he has been created by big money interests that are not representative of the best interests of this nation) are enemies to the American way of life, our foundational moral principles, our economic system, the defense of this nation and its national interests, our juris prudence, our spiritual roots and values, and, in short our very liberty, pursuit of happoiness, and lifes and those of our children and grand-children.
He has stated that our religious values must be comprimised in the public areana, he has stated that captialism is a failed system, that our defenses must be drastically cut...he has made clear what he intends on numerous occassions.
It is up to us to spread the knoweldge and Audacity of Truth about this man and those who back him.
As Patrick Henry stated, and that truth has not dimmed since the 17700s...there is a just God in Heaven and we will not fight our battles alone (if we will just have the gumption to stand and fight) and that He will raise up friends to fight with and for us.
I believe with all my heart that Sarah Palin is one suchg "friend". and that we can achieve victory over this Obamanation and those who support it and would foist it on us.
All on my Ping list: Please read this vital information that Joanie haas articulate dhere and spread the word to all you know.
****It was the regulators, not the banks, who relaxed these standards - at the behest of ‘community organizers’ and ‘progressive’ political activists.****
Progressive political activists like George W. Bush.
All that remains for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Of course when the so called good guys are taking earmarks like popcorn and their relatives are all lobbyists and many of them are outright thieves .... well then you are really in the $hitter.
We have the government we deserve.
Revolution or secession. Choose.
“It was the regulators, not the banks, who relaxed these standards”
Apparently you don’t realize that the 11 member banks are the majority vote on the Federal Reserve.
Well said, as always, Jeff.
Since the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, I have been angered most by some conservatives' nit-picking about several things they believe are lacking in her (chief among them, 'experience').
I won't go into my arguments against those comments (I'm about worn out in that regard), but, bottom line, I believe this may well be our last chance to reclaim our republic. We cannot survive even four years of 'leadership' under the likes of Barack Obama.
And for 'conservatives' to hesitate about supporting this ticket is suicidal, for our party (or what's left of it), our republic, and (literally) our children.
Thank you, as always, for all that you do in your crusade to expose the liars and make the truth known.
Blessings to you and your family, dear FRiend ...
~ joanie
They still believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, in the marxist method.
Sadly enough, at the cost of millions of lives (not to mention billions of dollars).
5.56mm
Did you read the entire article? --about the pressure that was brought to bear by special interests and pols? And certainly the banks had something to gain from this too, but that wasn't the main contributor to the mess.
Nice work, Joanie.
We must put yet another attempt down at the ballot box...while we still can.
Thanks for the ping!
The banks are the ones that voted for the rule changes in the banking regs.
Without the loosened regulations it never would have happened no matter how much the government socialists wanted it.
The back story on this --the PACs, the Lobbyists, Ike's 'Military-Industrial Complex', and most other nefarious group involvements with our government and especially Congress, is the illegal and non-legal and non-binding statement added to a case, where the Court Reporter noted in the First Sentence of the Syllabus:
He adapted that from the following, which was not in the Decision made by the Court, but in instructions given to the parties prior to the Oral Argument and Legal Presentations before the bench:
Reference: SANTA CLARA COUNTY V. SOUTHERN PACIFIC R. CO., 118 U. S. 394 (1886) - United States Supreme Court
I'm fairly certain that all cases before any Court have detailed commentary providing for limitation of the arguments to be presented, to ensure that the specific details are presented in a comprehensive, cogent, manner, and to prevent moving too far afield in the legal precepts necessary for the case at hand.
Lesser Courts and the USSC itself have used that illegal statement to run roughshod over the restrictions in the Constitution, thereby allowing the debacles we find ourselves in today.
Neither the USSC nor Congress has any intention of revising this illegal record, making this government illegal.
I share your belief that we need a revolution, and we will not have one (not enough of us care enough to 'get involved', even in something much less demanding).
So many of my conservative friends are of the mind that, once a sufficient number of people's oxes are gored, we will all rise up in defense of our liberties. But the ignorance and apathy run so deep that I believe the average American would prefer to relinquish liberties rather than lose his television reception.
Thank you for the little-known, yet extraordinarily important, information. I have it saved for future reference.
~ joanie
Excellent as usual! Thank you!
Take a step back, and what you see is that Marxism - or any other totalist worldview - is nothing more than a vehicle for the exercise of absolute power.
Folks, history - particularly that of the last century - is all too clear as to the outcomes produced by those who do manage to acquire total control over the apparatus of the State. You know what I’m talking about.
The Gramscian praxis - chaos and conquer - is playing out before our eyes. The Obama-worshippers have no idea what they are ushering into being. They’re the merely ignorant. The ones who DO know what they’re doing - they are sociopaths at best and unempowered mass murderers looking for their big break at worst.
So what are we to do when it all comes down and the Man On The White Horse rides in to ‘save’ us all? How can we prevent this and in so doing alter the course of history? We do know that individuals can and have determined the flow of history. Where is the inflection point? Where d owe apply the lever? When do we shrug?
And how dearly will we sell our lives?
I had heard that the changing standards in the mortgage industry (Congressional implications, there) had occurred, and figured the Section 8 housing had something to do with it (iirc, under Cisneros during the Clinton Administration). I was not aware of the A.C.O.R.N. connection to that change, but that ties Obambam back into the matrix pretty thoroughly.
If the numbers I have heard are anywhere close, the bailout puts my family on the hook for multiples of our current debt, while we live well within our means and frugally, so others could live well beyond their means and live it up.
If Americans really understood how thoroughly they have been screwed, the roads to Washington D.C. would be jammed with people looking to adorn the lamp posts with swinging bureaucrats and Congress people.
The media have no intention of reporting this connection between a group in which Obama has been extremely active, and in which he wields significant power, and the incredible social and economic burden that will result for not only our generation, but the next. These people have also indirectly placed our national security in jeopardy.
Yet even 'fair and balanced' FoxNews still busies itself with fluff stories, or at most stories that are significantly less relevant than this historically unprecedented betrayal of the public trust.
Thank God for the internet. At least this way we can attempt to inform those who are willing to expend more effort than sitting in front of their televisions in order to know the truth (I estimate that portion of the population to be approximately two percent).
If Americans really understood how thoroughly they have been screwed, the roads to Washington D.C. would be jammed with people looking to adorn the lamp posts with swinging bureaucrats and Congress people.
The only reason the majority of Americans might react in that way would be because this particular affront hits them in the pocketbook. It reverts to the old 'It's the economy, stupid!' mindset. Which, in this case, is valid, but I have always cringed at that concept. There are many more blatant usurpations of power over which we should be revolting that are far more egregious than those that hit us in the pocketbook. But if that's what it would take for the lamp post/swinging thing to occur, so be it. Wrong reason, right reaction.
~ joanie
Sadly so.
I cannot tell you how many people I come across every day -- family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances -- who, if I bring up the subject of the election, invariably respond in platitudes -- and, more often than not, platitudes that are merely echoes of television soundbites.
What on earth could be more important than undertstanding the beliefs of the two men who are seeking to run one's country, during an era in which there are more threats to our lives, sovereignty, and very existence than at any other time in our history?
I have said to a handful of people, in utter frustration, 'How can you love your children, and not be willing to expend the energy to understand where our potential leaders want to take us? You are condemning your children to live in a world about which you deliberately choose to exercise no informed input.'
I haven't yet lost any friends as a result, but I suspect that day may be just around the corner. :(
~ joanie
I thoroughly agree, but until the bread is gone and the circuses are inadequate to sate the masses, Caesar will rule.
What we're seeing with Palin's popularity is that millions and millions of people at the bottom are fed up with the institutionalized corruption, and are showing up enmass, many for the first time in thirty or forty years, to vote for a real pro-American candidate. Whether McCain stays for a complete term matters little. Palin is the energizing element in the campaign, and McCain seems to recognize this. I believe she will be more influential as VP than any other VP in our lifetimes. And I also strongly believe that she will subsequently be President. She is the right person, with the right message, with the right motivations, for this nation, at this particular time in history.
The people who lead in times of constructive change may come from anywhere in the spectrum, but they must lead from the top to bring about meaningful reforms (and they have to be a real person; not media-created vaporware). Anyone here who has tried to bring about improvements in a business, or an IT shop, or in business or IT processes, being led by mindless, inept bimbos should easily recognize the futility of trying to manage change from the bottom. It doesn't work.
So what does this have to do with unemployed or underemployed computer scientists? Everything. IT projects and IT jobs are overhead, expenditures that can easily be trimmed in tough economic times (you'll have to look back 80 years or more to find a "worse" time, long before .Net). In tough times, core business functions will get all the investment, even if they have to work with paper and pencil. In general, technology projects and innovations are reserved for periods of growth or projected growth.
Many people question what I mean by "institutionalized corruption", and whether it has ever been any different. Corruption has always been present in our politics since the nation's founding, but has cycled from bad to worse, to not so bad. The past two or three decades have brought us to this current period of "really, really pervasive corruption", in government, politics, markets, business, academia, and any other sizable group of people in society.
What is ironic about the question is that it would be asked in discussion groups where concerned citizens are dedicated to improving the political direction of the country, or on a job board where so many qualified job candidates find themselves locked out of regular employment, begging through layers and layers of corrupt recruiting firms and corrupt HR "professionals" for a few crumbs of work.
Brokered employment (where the fruits of one person's work is divided among multiple layers of non-producing thieves) is the worst form of anti-capitalist corruption (next to outright slavery); even worse than multi-generational dependency on socialist government programs.
In a real free market, providers of services would have the unemcumbered right and ability to negotiate directly with the consumers of those services, without the bureaucratic interference of any IRS rules; without the overthrow of immigration controls that served the country well for its first 200 years; without the restraint of legal free trade of services created by the multiple layers of corrupt recruiting and hiring practices.
If corruption were not so pervasive, the discussions on this board would be about making real contacts, getting the right people in the right positions, designing and developing software to make honest businesses more productive and profitable in a growing economy. Instead every single discussion on this board deals with the corruption of brokered labor, manipulated salaries and benefits, massive work-visa fraud, illegal non-compete clauses in make-believe unilateral contracts, crooks, crooks, and more crooks.
I hope you have no objection to my cutting and pasting your response over on my weblog where we have been discussing the sad state of the nation and our frustration with the direction our 'leaderhip' contintues to follow. It (your reponse) pertains.
Thanks for providing the excellent additional insights.
~ joanie
No objections. That was one of my late-night rants.
As an aside, as far as I know, Fannie and Freddie were actually taken over by Uncle Sam during the weekend of September 6 & 7. From where is this idea that they were taken over in July coming?
A corporation is considered a “person” by the legal system? Wow, who knew?
Here's a few more:
The Fannie Mae Foundation Grants Awarded search page.
The Foundation had a similar corruption model as Obama, namely, awarding millions in grants to "community organizations" (including Acorn, of course), who in return would be called upon to lobby congress and create a media blitz on Fannie Mae's behalf.
This is an excellent video of a C-Span interview with Peter Wallison of American Enterprise Institute, who's written at least three books on the subject. The interview covers the history and background of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including the widespread Beltway corruption involved, the intimidation tactics used against its critics, the Foundation, congressional donations, lobbyists, and the surprising fact that Bush, unlike his predecessor, refused to appoint board members to either.
Q & A with Peter Wallison - Fannie Mae
(It's an hour long flash video, and well worth watching.)
See my post 26.
BTTT
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