Obama’s charismatic control of an audience has caused women to faint. His hubris has led him to assert he will quell the rise of the oceans, and that he has come to save the world, not just the United States. Sound preposterous? Google it. Bypass bloggers claims, go for the video clips.

The not so reverend Farrakhan has preached from his pulpit “this man is our Messiah”. And Farrakhan is not the only one who accepts Obama’s assertion that he is the one the people have been waiting for.

Colmes – for a while I wondered if he was a true phony, a shill. It seemed no one could seriously espouse what he claimed to believe. But I have come to the opinion, not a conclusion mind you, that Colmes is a nice dolt and would make a better neighbor than Hannity.

O’Reilly – a man who hates child abusers (good) and loves his success a little too much (not so good). The Factor is a clever format, entertaining, arousing and sometimes folksy. An honest guy at all times but never more so than when he tells a guest “I am not as smart as you”

Rush – here is the man with insight. While Hannity has never had an original thought Rush is all original thought. Bombastic, overweight, pompously puffing on a cigar and self assured to a fault this man is the nemesis of the Left. Limbaugh is personification of the quip “Humility among genius is hypocrisy”. A foot soldier and General all at the same time, Rush is the irreverent Patton of the conservative movement.

ABC News recently released this report.

Don’t be taken in. Ayers and Obama are soul mates through the common bond of Saul Alinsky. Part of the Alinsky approach is, first you need to obtain the power, then you can bring about the Revolution. As recently as 2001 Ayers showed his contempt for the USA with the infamous photo of him proudly stamping on the great symbol of this great land, the American flag.

Ayers undoubtedly realizes his relationship with Obama is diminishing the chances of achieving step one, obtain power. Any Marxist true to his cause will deny his deepest beliefs if it will further the cause of those deepest beliefs. Hence cometh Ayers cartoon as a means to diminish voter concerns over Obama’s relationship with an unrepentant bomber. You might call it volunteering to join grandma along with all the others already under the bus.

Read the script of the cartoon. Ayers remains unrepentant. He says in essence ‘at my age people have regrets’ but he never says he has any.

The celebration in the Palin camp was exuberant, in the Biden camp mild. That puzzles me. Perhaps the Biden supporters were expecting Palin’s performance to be so miserable that Obama’s election would be secured. If that was there expectation it would account for a major disappointment.

Palin avoided some direct answers. Biden did better in this regard.

Biden made it clear he believes Supreme Court Judges should make decisions based on ideology. By definition that means not on what the Constitution says. That was alarming.

It took a lot of chutzpah for Biden to claim in absolutely no uncertain terms he knows what is causing global warming when so many leading climatologists around the world come to differing conclusions.

Gateway Pundit compiled a list of 17 attempts by Republicans to reform and strengthen regulatory oversight of Fannie and Freddie. All warnings dismissed by Democrats, and attempts at reform blocked by Democrats.

There were calls for reform and calls for investigation. None came from Democrats, All came from Republicans and were blocked by Democrats. Who said so? I say so and I’ve done my research! Challenge me, I have the proof.. Who else said so? Bill Clinton said so, on Good Morning America and he’s a Democrat. You don’t need Lexus Nexus to research these truths, all you need is Google.

McCain co-sponsored a Bill in 2005 calling for greater regulation of Fannie and Freddie. The Bill was called the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005. Democrats killed it.

Democrats conceived the idea of creating government agencies to lend money for housing to people who could not afford it. Democrats protected the agencies from reform attempts by Republicans. James Lockhart the head of OFHEO pleaded repeatedly for more “bank like” authority. Democrats blocked Republican attempts to grant it.

A Democrat, Andrew Cuomo, then head of HUD urged the GSE’s to increase lending to the sub prime category from an already unconscionable 41% to 50%. Democrats Janet Reno and Jamie Gorelick put the pressure of their positions behind Cuomo’s efforts intimidating lenders to increase lending to those ill equipped to pay back.

Maxine Waters (D) testified in Congressional hearings praising Franklin Raines for his excellence shortly before he was forced out of office for manipulating the reported earnings in order to enhance his bonus and stock option value.

This whole affair was government caused, grown to glory by Democrats, nurtured as a cash cow for Democrats, it’s failings and frauds covered up as long as possible by Democrats. I could go on for pages. Ms Pelosi cannot possibly be unaware of this. Yet she asserts in effect this government grown monstrosity is the result of unbridled capitalism. The utter dishonesty and unmitigated gall of this woman is totally beyond simple explanation.

Is she so self serving that it’s power at any price? Is she driven by the Marxist ideology and belief that the end justifies the means? Is she a pathological liar? Is she just stupid and knows no better ?

Oil

The oil industry classifies reserves in categories including Proven, Probable and Unproven. Reserves don’t become Proven until wells have been drilled and daily production rates are available to extrapolate. There has been no drilling in ANWR so none of that oil is included as Proven reserves attributable to the US.

So we have the oil but it does not show up in the statistics. In fact, the U.S. has more petroleum in the ground than the entire world has consumed since it started burning gasoline in the 19th century.

Beware of politicians bearing statistics, by any Party

In 2003, the New York Times ran this article on proposed reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates. ...

The proposal is the opening act in one of the biggest and most significant lobbying battles of the Congressional session. ...

''The current regulator does not have the tools, or the mandate, to adequately regulate these enterprises,'' Mr. Oxley said at the hearing. ''We have seen in recent months that mismanagement and questionable accounting practices went largely unnoticed by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight,'' the independent agency that now regulates the companies. ...

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

I believe these were known as the Shelby (R AL) hearings if you care to Google it.

McCain’s attempt to fix Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac in 2005

[From http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/17/mccains-attempt-to-fix-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-in-2005/  I excerpt the following]

Politically, the pertinent question is this: Which candidate foresaw the credit crisis and tried to do something about it? As it turns out, John McCain did — and partnered with three other Senate Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending three years ago, after an attempt by the Bush administration died in Congress two years earlier. McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 addressed the President of the Senate:

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

In this speech, McCain managed to predict the collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.

Republicans and the Regulator repeatedly cried danger and called for reform.

Gateway Pundit published a list of warnings and attempts for reform by President Bush Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They counted 17 such attempts since 2001.

But Congress would not act on the president's warnings: The list of top 5 recipients of campaign donations from Freddie and Fannie may explain the blockage.

In 2005-- Senator John McCain partnered with three other Senate Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending.
Democrats blocked this reform, too.

Blame

Some have claimed seen the mortgage mess is a failure of Republicans and/or the free market system. The popular German magazine Der Spiegel declared we have seen the end of American capitalism

Responsibility is widespread. The bulk would seem to fall on the greedy home buyers who bought higher than they could afford and the Democratic Party who conceived, expanded an untenable project protected it from reform attempts by Republicans. Some salient points;

1. Government Sponsored Enterprises are not are not free market private entities. It was Government Sponsored Enterprises (spawned under the Carter administration, I believe) that are the root of the problem.
2. Andrew Cuomo, son of Gov Mario and Secretary of HUD under Clinton saw that 41% of GSE loans were for “affordable” housing, i.e. risky loans. i.e. sub prime loans. Rather than advocating reduction to reduce the risk level he urged the level be increased to 50%. Atty General Janet Reno supported Cuomo’s position effectively making it a mandate.
3. Nationally chartered banks are required to keep 12% reserves which means they can lend up to 8 times the money they have on hand (the reciprocal of 12). That’s the maximum for banks. The GSEs however are allowed to lend 30 times the money they have on hand. Another example of a reasonable rule applied to private enterprise but not to government.
4. Wall Street is complicit, but in my opinion amoral. That’s amoral, not immoral. For better or worse Wall St is about money not politics, ideology or morality. Sometimes that’s better, sometimes that’s worse. Congress sets the rules. Wall St looks for opportunities within the rules.
5. Securitization of debt, derivative instruments thereof and the power of computerization enabled the creation of real assets whereof no one could assuredly determine the value. There is real value but no one knows what it is. Everyone knows it is less than face value. How much less is a mystery.
6. Sarbanes Oxley, the government’s response to the Enron fraud, requires corporations to value all assets at current market value. It’s called marking to the market. It’s a mild headache for manufacturing companies, an administrative killer for midsize companies and has become the fly in the ointment for financial companies. When no one knows the value of an asset, but everyone knows it is distressed there are no buyers. Any asset, and particularly a derivative security is only worth what someone will pay for it. No buyers, no market value, the government says you must report it as worthless, more or less.
7. Lenders are complicit. Lenders exploited the government largess that flowed thru the GSEs. Encouraged by Congress to expand lending to all Americans, financially able or otherwise, lenders offered ARMs with introductory teaser rates, SILs (Stated Income Loans, no income verification required, dubbed NINJA loans for No Income No Job no Assets). The government provided the money via the two GSEs.
8. Buyers are complicit. Given a virtually unlimited supply of money available for real estate, no questions asked, no money down required, government sponsorship, a lot of people are going to commit beyond their means. Also all the elements were there to fuel a boom. Booms invite speculation. Booms always bust. Unlike the dot com spike this was a government sponsored boom.
9. Summary, opinion and conclusion. Today’s problem was incubated by the government with the probably well intentioned idea of extending home ownership to lower income echelons. It’s almost a mathematical law, government + real estate = corruption. Corruption occurred (Raines). But there was more than corruption. It became a font of funds for everyone from welfare recipients to fat cat speculators. Alan Greenspan saw the reality and warned Congress. The regulator Lockhart alerted President Bush of the house of cards and begged for more regulatory authority. The President and some Republicans urged Congress to tighten regulation. McCain and two other Republicans introduced a reform bill but were unable to prevail against Democratic opposition.
10. After thought. When it was all private enterprise lenders required meaningful down payments and assurance that buyers could afford to honor their commitments. Initial home ownership was more difficult, but foreclosures were rare. Then the government decided they could improve on it. If the government had not come in to help we would not be facing the financial crisis we are working through today.

Selected Events

1968 The Fair Housing Act makes “red lining” illegal and pressures banks to make riskier loans.

1977 The Community Reinvestment Act expands the same cause.

The traditional mortgagors of first resort, S&Ls fade into the background when they self destruct after expanding into businesses they know nothing about.

The quasi government entities known affectionately as Fannie and Freddie become providers of money for both strong and not so strong mortgages. Banks no longer need to fund mortgages with their own deposits.

Home buyers are no longer even asked to put 20% down.

Adjustable rate mortgages become commonplace. Home buyers ignore the longer term consequences thereof.

“Stated Income Loans” followed, boldly advertising no income verification required. Just tell us what you make, we promise not to try to verify it.

“Interest Only Loans”, the ultimate carrot. Buy a home, little or no money down, no need to show any income, no requirement to make any payment to reduce the mortgage, just pay current interest.

Real Estate prices explode, naturally.

People who cannot afford houses buy them.

People who could afford $300,000 houses commit to million dollar houses.

Buyers and lenders are happy as long as prices are rising.

Eventually the market becomes saturated, prices stop rising, ARM’s start adjusting, boom turns to bust.

At one point along the way 31% of Federal agency mortgage funding was devoted to sub prime mortgages. Then came Andrew Cuomo, Clinton appointee as Secretary of HUD mandating this be increased to 50%.

2005 McCain warns of risk in this house of cards. Few listen. Democrats defend Fannie and Freddie. Nothing happens.

Franklin Raines, President of Fannie Mae gets his fanny kicked for corruption. Can you imagine that, the head of a quasi government entity corrupt ! And one supported by Democrats, the party of the people.

Chuck Schumer kills Indy Mac with one well timed memo.

Some well known investment banks hit the dust. No one really knows why. Actually no one knows what they did for a living in the first place.

We see shades of the infamous Bank Holiday of the Great Depression.

The German magazine Der Spiegel gleefully declares the end of American capitalism and the free market system. Schadenfreude exemplified.

Obama does not know what to do. McCain suggests appointing one of the major contributors to the problem as overseer of the solution, namely Andrew Cuomo.

My head is starting to hurt again but before I go let me say, given the strengths of this Nation and of the free market system we shall overcome. And it will not be long before we can say, this too has passed.

Not to be diminished those same sayers said ‘what’s the difference?’. Honest Abe responded to a similar canard by saying “the difference is like the difference between a horse chestnut and a chestnut horse”.

Don’t be taken in. Ayers and Obama are soul mates through the common bond of Saul Alinsky. Part of the Alinsky approach is, first you need to obtain the power, then you can bring about the Revolution. As recently as 2001 Ayers showed his contempt for the USA with the infamous photo of him proudly stomping on the American flag.

Ayers undoubtedly realizes his murderous history (the Weathermen killed 3 people in an effort to raise money for their cause through armed robbery) is diminishing the chances of achieving step one, obtain power. Any Marxist true to his cause will deny even his deepest beliefs if the denial will further the cause of those deepest beliefs. Hence cometh Ayers cartoon as a means to diminish voter concerns over Obama’s relationship with an unrepentant bomber. To that end he comes close to volunteering to join grandma along with all the others already under the bus.

I hope you read the script in the cartoon. Ayers remains unrepentant. He says in essence ‘at my age people have regrets’ but he never says he has any regrets.

The third frame appears intended to deny he meant bombings when he said in 2001 “We did not do enough”. The inference is there but he stops short of denial. In the same frame he implores more people should have done more. More what ? More bombings ?

Nowhere to date has Ayers expressed any regret or condemnation for terrorist style bombings. Nor has Obama thrown Ayers under the infamous bus, at least not yet. The essence of Barack’s response to questions about the Ayers connection is “He’s just someone I know, don’t blame me for what he says”. Like Wright and Farrakhan, Obama cannot bring himself to condemn what these people stand for until political expediency demands it.

During the primaries Hillary cornered him into denying Farrakhan. Public opinion combined with Wright’s National Press Corps speech forced Obama to add Wright to the Greyhound Condominium. Thus far he has not been pressed enough on Ayers to squeeze him under there too. Obama’s reluctance to condemn these, his personal anti-American heroes, is all I need to know to decide he is not my choice to lead America.

After listening to Sarah’s speech Michael Reagan wrote an article headlined “Welcome Back, Dad” ….Pause for a minute to think about what that means.

I intend to write another post exploring the implications of his headline. But for now let me digress and ruminate on the subject of Michael Reagan. Do you get vibes? I do. My vibes tell me Biden is a decent idiot, Monica was telling the truth when she said Bill told her he doesn’t know the truth from a lie, and my vibes tell me Joe Lieberman is a person of extraordinary strength of character.

Those same vibes tell me Michael Reagan is one of the good guys, one who typifies what made America great, someone who is very special because he is no one special, just one of us. Michael was adopted and fully appreciates all that that implies.

I have a neighbor, in his late 30’s from an Eastern European (formerly Iron Curtain) nation. America is his adopted country. He loves America as Michael loves his late father. What do these two have in common, - adoption. What is so unique about adoption is it is the result of choice, always the result of choice, always with some risk and never simple and easy.

There is also a gift element to it and those that see it are to be commended. They are also to be envied for they know a love that those of us more fortunate do not share. Perhaps we are not more fortunate after all.