Watcher's Council Nominations, 10/08/08

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

A full list of entries, including some excellent non-Council ones can be found here.

Council News: We are still taking applications for the spot available on the Watcher’s Council. If you have a blog of your own and feel you measure up, you're welcome to find out what's involved and apply here. Or you can leave a comment in the comments section on this post.

So, let's see what we have this week...

Joshuapundit - How The Democrats Created the Financial Crisis One thing that's been missing from the current political debate is a simple, easy to follow narrative to counteract the fable that Bush/McSame, their cronies and deregulation are entirely to blame for what's going on in the credit market.

Since the current occupant of the White House and the GOP aspirant to the job seem unwilling or unable to make this case to the American people, I decided to provide one for any interested parties.

Bookworm Room - Keeping the Faith - A nice piece by Ms. Bookworm this week on her impressions of Sarah Palin after seeing her speak at a small local rally. I also have some personal knowledge of the person in question, and I have a feeling that if Governor Palin was at the head of the ticket the only question would be how big a landslide she'd win by. No matter how the current election turns out, she'll be back. Depend on it.

The Colossus of Rhodey - The downside of being a teacher - Hube reflects on the role of being a conservative minded educator in what amounts to a Democrat fiefdom.

Cheat-Seeking Missiles - The Palin-Haters Find Their Own Rev. Wright - In this case, Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee, a guest speaker at her former Wasilla Community Church who actually has the gall to pray for grace and favor for Sarah Palin, for G-d’s presence to be felt in politics, for her protection from evil and for politicians who walk in G-d's ways... horrors!!

Wolf Howling - Hurricane Subprime - Part I (1977-2000) - The indefatigable GW gives us a long and detailed look at the history of the mortgage crisis.

The Glittering Eye - Issues 2008 - Dave Schuler looks at what he considers to be the primary policy issues facing America and invites a confluence of views.

The Razor - If Obama Wins - Scott attempts to look at the possible upside of an Obama presidency. I agree with him that the country is strong enough to survive it, but the damage he and his cohorts could do in four years will take a great deal of time, blood and treasure to to repair and the effects could be with us for a generation.

Hillbilly White Trash - Taking the Gloves Off - Lemuel likes the fact that Sarah Palin has decided to bring Obama's association with Bill Ayers into the spotlight.

Soccer Dad - No runs, no hits, plenty of errors - Clark Hoyt is the puerile 'public editor' at the New York Times, who supposedly has an ombudsman's function. This week, Soccer Dad does a great job destroying his response to charges that the Times has become little more than an arm of the Obama campaign.

Russia Sells Advanced Missile System To Iran, Syria As US Cancels Iran Diplomatic Outpost

The Bush administration has indefinitely shelved plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran, following Iran’s refusal to discontinue uranium enrichment and cooperate with the IAEA on its nuclear weapons program.

While the article I've linked to makes a large deal out of the possible influence on our elections, I personally consider that horse manure. The current occupant of the White House has absolutely no interest in helping John McCain get elected.

The real story is that the mullahs consider Bush and Condi Rice to be an ineffectual lame duck administration and not worth dealing with..especially when the US press so helpfully shows the much more accommodating Obama leading.Why deal now when they'll likely get so much more from a President Obama?

The Iranians also would just as soon not have a US presence in Iran just now anyway, as they race towards achieving a nuclear weapon.And it's not that far off.

The Russians have agreed to supply Iran and Syria with the advanced S-300 missile defense systems to protect their nuclear sites. Once those ship, Israel will have a three to six month window, at most, to hit Iran's nuclear sites before taking them out becomes infinitely more difficult.

That was the real story behind Ehud Olmert's sudden trip to Moscow, to try and talk Putin out of supplying Iran and Syria with the new system. How well he succeeded can be seen by the fact that Putin was 'too busy' to see him, and Olmert had to make do with a short meeting with Putin's number two, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev.

According to Anatoly Isaikin, director of the Russian arms exports agency Rosoboronexport, the deal for the S-300's is on track..and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they've already been shipped.The Russians have their own motives for providing Iran and Syria with the new systems. Now that the Russians are planning on basing their warships at Syrian and Iranian ports, the missile batteries will help guard them from air and sea attacks by Israel... or the US.

The Iranians are also feeling confident watching how the US failed to respond to Russia's aggression against Georgia and North Korea essentially thumbing it's nose at the Bush Administration and reactivating its nuclear program.And as for the other great diplomatic feat of Condi Rice, the Lebanon ceasefire, Hezbollah has rearmed and has all but taken over the country..while Syria's army masses on the border preparing to complete the process of making Lebanon a Syrian colony.

Meanwhile, President Bush appears to be committed to finishing out his term without dealing with the problem as the president is preoccupied with the ongoing financial meltdown and coasting to the finishing line on January 20th without any other problems surfacing.

The Israelis, of course, have been left holding the bag...first by the Bush Administration taking the military option against Iran off the table and second by the Bush Administration's insistance that Israel forego an attack on Iran and rely on diplomacy and sanctions. Olmert and Livni bought that particular merchandise and are only now realizing how worthless it really is.

And for that matter, it leaves the US in an untenable position as well.

Finally - McCain Hammers Obama On Fannie And Freddie

It's about freakin' time....

And here's another little tidbit...Daniel Mudd , CEO of Fannie Mae (with a mere $100 million in annual 'compensation') acknowledging the 'familial' relationship between Fannie Mae and the Congressional Black caucus, including a certain freshman senator from Illinois. Of course, in view of the money Obama, Maxine Waters and most of the others were getting from Fannie and Freddie to look the other way, perhaps 'employee' is a better way to put it...

How The Democrats Created the Financial Crisis

One thing that's been missing is a simple, easy to follow narrative from John McCain's campaign to counteract the fable that Bush/McSame and their cronies are entirely to blame for what's going on in the credit market.

Since the current occupant of the White House and the GOP aspirant to the job seem unwilling or unable to make this case to the American people, I suppose it's up to lil' ol' me...

In one sentence, what caused the meltdown is that Democrats in Congress refused on a pretty much straight party line vote to do anything to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in spite of warnings from the Bush Administration and ironically enough, Senator John McCain. And the rot from Fannie and Freddie percolated through the entire financial system, so when they collapsed, so did a lot of other people.

Think of it as a missile strike, with a whole bunch of collateral damage.

Here's how it worked:

Freddie and Fannie are private companies, but with a government charter...so they, unlike private companies were not allowed to fail. They simply received more funds from the government in an ever-expanding cushion when they needed it.Because of that, almost anything they did had the aura of the US government's full faith and credit behind it.

So, as time went on, Fannie and Freddie became the major enabler of the mortgage crisis. They lowered underwriting criteria and standards that fed Wall Street's desire to become a player in securitizing subprime loans by becoming the main buyer of pools of AAA-rated subprime mortgages - huge multimillion dollar groups of mortgage loans sold as securities, and the toxic securities spread throughout the system. Freddie and Fannie also held on to a huge amount of mortgages themselves, and in time this added up to a huge amount of money wrapped around these dubious loans.

That was fine as long as real estate prices continued to rise and another sucker could be found. Once the market went south, the whole pyramid scheme collapsed, bringing a large chunk of America's financial infrastructure with them.

And it's not as if it was any surprise to Washington.

Even President Clinton has admitted as much. But the rot could be seen even more recently than that.

Back in early 2005, Fannie and Freddie were under major scrutiny. Thanks to Fannie Mae chiefs Franklin Raines and James A. Johnson manipulating the accounting numbers to pay themselves huge unearned bonuses (something more commonly known as embezzlement when the Little People do it), there was major impetus in congress for reform of Fannie and Freddie.

In 2005, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress outright that if Fannie and Freddie "continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest-rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road," he said. "We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk."

Clear, hmmm?

In response, a major Fannie and Freddie reform bill was introduced by the Senate Banking Committee, S.190. That bill established a regulator for Fannie and Freddie, gave him the power to oversee the two agencies, force the tightening of underwriting standards as necessary and would have mandated that Freddie and Fannie eliminate garbage loans from their portfolios.

One of the three co-sponsors of that bill, incidentally, was Senator John McCain.

Had that bill passed, there would have been an end to the questionable subprime loans Fannie and Freddie were underwriting and then spreading throughout the rest of the financial structure like toxic waste, and we'd be in a very different place today.

But it didn't pass because, on a straight party-line vote, the Democrats tied it up in committe and killed it, preventing it from even comming to a full vote in the Senate.

Part of the reason was politics, and politics with a racial component. Many Democrats saw these loans as a way of extending home ownership to minorities, whether they were qualified to own a home of not.That was the real reason behind th esupercharging of the CRA under the Clinton Administration, which was used as a club along with Fannie and Freddie's increasingly lax standards to get lenders to dilute their underwriting criteria and make those loans regardless.

But others had additional motivations...financial ones.

Senator Barack Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and he's second only to Senator Chris Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who got over $165,000. Senator John Kerry ended up with $111,000.Democrat members of the House like Maxine Waters and Barney Frank got a fistful of cash as well, and in the case of Frank, the man he introduced as his 'wife' , Herb Amos, was a high level Fannie Mae executive who specialized in overturning Fannie's lending underwriting standards.

In other words, Fannie and bribed legislators to look the other way and keep Fannie and Freddie doing business as usual.

There's other things I could mention, like the fact that one of the major beneficiaries of the $700 billion plus buyout was none other than Democrat kingpin George Soros, but let's keep this as simple as possible.

What I just wrote took you roughly 3 1/2 to 4 minutes to read, and about the same amount of time to speak. There's absolutely no reason why the current occupant of the White House couldn't level with the American people and do exactly the same.I'll leave his motivations to your imagination.

And there's even less reason for John McCain to keep silent, if he plans on winning the election. It remains to be seen whether he plans to open up about this or not.

In any event, you now know what happened, in the simplest most direct way possible.

Brit Commander Officially Surrenders To The Taliban In Afghanistan

"If you think the day is lost, you had best keep quiet about it sir." - Confederate General Stonewall Jackson to one of his wavering commanders during the Confederate victory at Bull Run, 1861.

Today,Britain's commanding general in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying:

"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army. {...}

"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this."

You know America has its share of quislings and defeatists too...but generally speaking, they're not commanding troops in harms way.

What General Carleton-Smith has done by opening his pie hole publicly in this fashion is to encourage our mutual enemies in the Taliban to redouble their efforts and to put not only the men under his command but every NATO soldier and every Afghan ally of ours in increased jeopardy.

And ironically, his nonsense makes it a lot less likely that the Taliban would ever negotiate..I mean why should they when they're facing an enemy so obviously eager to flee? Even more ironic is the fact that the Saudis, of all people, hosted preliminary talks between the Afghan government and representatives of the Taliban in Riyadh during the Eid ( the Muslim feast marking the end of Ramadan) with the idea of of working out a political rapprochement between the two.

General Carleton-Smith just did a splendid job of trashing those efforts, as problematical and far-fetched as they might end up being.

You see, the Taliban, like most Islamists aren't noted for their ability to play nicely with others. No matter what kind of arrangement the Taliban 'agreed' to, the likelihood is that as soon as the NATO troops leave for home, the Taliban will kill off their enemies and take over, just like last time.

For that matter, the idea of negotiating any settlement that leaves these brutal 7th century brigands with any voice or power at all in the Afghan government is something that ought to make anyone with a semblance of morality or humanity feel dirty and in need of a long shower for even thinking about it.

Carleton-Smith's little hand grenade comes at the same time as a leaked cable from none other than UK Ambassador to Afghanistan Sherard Cowper-Coles writing about how the military campaign against the Taliban is doomed to failure and that the best solution for those little brown folks in Afghanistan is `an acceptable dictator."

Obviously the good ambassador was referring to what's acceptable to Britain, rather than what might be acceptable to the Afghans, who might just have a few different ideas on the subject.

None of this is coincidental, of course. The Brits are setting up a situation to retreat and leave the fighting to others, just as they did in Iraq.

None of this, by the way, should probably reflect on the average British soldier,and no doubt some of them actually have the grace to be embarrassed. But looking at who's calling the shots and giving the orders, well, let's just say that their behavior as allies is a bit questionable.

With the possible exception of Prince Harry, I wonder if there's anyone in Britain's governing class that still remembers their martial traditions.

Perhaps the best thing is simply to let them scuttle off and buy their way out of their NATO responsibilities, as disgraceful and unfair as that is.

At least we, the Canadians, the Australians, the Dutch, the Danes and the other nations willing to stand with their allies and man up to their obligations wouldn't have to worry about them sabotaging us from our own side of the lines.

'American Carol' Debuts This Weekend

And a friend of mine who saw a special industry screening tells me it's absolutely h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!!

Go see it, and give Hollywood an ioncentive to make more movies like this.

Plus, El Rushbo likes it...and he's seldom wrong about these things.

This Is What The Republicans Need To Emphasize..

..over the next 32 days, over and over again....



The Fannie and Freddie meltdown were caused by the Democrats protecting them in exchange for campaign contributions and in the case of Barney Frank, with the additional stimulus of a lil' Fannie buddy who specialized in overturning Fannie's lending underwriting standards.

I guess it wasn't just the country who was getting screwed...

Like I said, I've heard that McCain plans to flame the Dems over this now that the bail out bill has been signed. The perception the Dems and their trained goons in the dinosaur media are pushing is that this is strictly a Republican issue, and that horse manure needs to be countered.

If McCain fails to do that, he doesn't deserve to be president.

We'll see..

Hat tip Ace

Obama's Presumptive National Security Advisor: Invade Israel To Establish A Palestinian State

Ah yes...Dr. Samantha Powers, Obma's presumptive Natonal Security Advisor's solution is to invade Israeli territory and 'impose a solution' to establish a second Arab Palestinian state, even if it means angering `a very powerful and influential US constituency' and creating half a million Jewish refugees.

Nevertheless, I'm sure a lot of self-hating Jews will continue to support Obama under the illusion he's pro-Israel....

Hat Tip to Carl for ferreting this one out...

Crap Sandwich 2.0 Passes

Aye, Matey...this here earmark' ll will bring in a boatload o' campaign contributions!


Ah yes, the new improved version, expanded from three pages to 450 pages of earmarks, pork and outright bribes and special interest legislation unprecedented even in Washington.

I'm sure they're breaking out the Veuve Cliquot on Wall street, now that their old pal Paulsen has successfully looted the Treasury in a heist that makes the blue collar slobs who pulled off the Brinks robbery look like rank amateurs.

And the will of the people, who were overwhelmingly against this be damned.

Here's the final roll call.

Needless to say, the current occupant of the White House signed this monstrosity in record time..almost as if he were afraid somebody was going to call a cop to try and prevent this grand larceny before he could sign it into law and make it official.

He and the rest of the gang that pulled this off ought to be ashamed of themselves, if they have any shame left in them. Call it the final act of one of the most ineffectual presidents and the worst, most corrupt and self-interested Congress we've had in a long time.

I hope part of the bail out money includes funds for fumigation of th ecapital building and the White House, simply out of common decency.

As for us, we'll be living with the effects of this for quite some time. Aside from the theft of public funds, Congress has effectively allowed the nationalization of the mortgage and real estate industry, something that will come back to bite us in a big way in the end, mark my words.

Addendum: Joshua's Army member Das just informed me that Duncan Hunter turned down a personal appeal from the White House to vote for this travesty, saying that the $700-billion bailout amounted to a "massive exposure for the American taxpayer for what's at best a very limited return."

Now you know one more reason why he was my original choice for president.

The VP Showdown - Palin Ascending

"So, you thought you'd seen the last of me, huh?


Sarah Palin came into last night's debate needing a win badly, and she succeeded admirably.

America got to see her live and in person for ninety minutes, without the selective editing of the dinosaur media and by and large, they liked what they saw.

After her nomination, the Democrats and their trained seals in the dinosaur media relentlessly attacked her and her family as a bunch of breeder hicks from America's outback to the point where people who saw her acceptance were initially awed that she had all her teeth and could put together two complete sentences, let alone deliver an inspiring barnburner of a speech.

They made the same mistake in the weeks leading up to the Veep debate..and it blew up in their faces once again. Here's ace pollster Frank Luntz talking to a focus group of undecided voters he assembled to watch the debate:



What essentially happened is that Governor Palin walked in to this debate with her own agenda. She had some things she wanted to say to the American people,and she chose to do that regardless of the way Gwen Ifill tried to box in the debate according to Ifill's agenda.

That can be a risky tactic in a debate like this, but she made it work, even if she let Joe Biden get away with some pretty egregious whoppers, like the one about 95% of Americans not getting their taxes raised or about meeting Ahmadinejad without preconditions.. something that's still on Obama's website:



Ifill, as I predicted was out to torpedo Palin, although since her blatant conflict of interest was exposed prior to the debate she needed to be more subtle about it than she might otherwise have been. There was not on single question on abortion, on guns or on energy until Palin brought it up in a response on a totally unrelated question. The one time Palin fell into a trap was on the question of the Constitutional basis of the Vice President's powers. Palin, in fact was totally correct about that, but it gave Biden a chance to rail against Bush and especially Dick Cheney, who this ridiculous hack had the gall to label `the most dangerous vice president in American history.'

Palin was also assisted by Biden's demeanor. As caught on the split screen, his attitude when Governor Palin was speaking seemed condescending and dismissive. Maybe that's what I wanted to find there, but it definitely came across on the screen and I'm by no means the only one who noticed it.

In contrast, Palin came across as genuine, speaking directly to her audience and presenting a populist message that resonated with main street. Biden never had a chance...and even grumpy Peggy Noonan, hardly a Palin fan, had to admit it:



Drudge caught this as well:

{{{{DRUDGE POLL}}}} WHO WON THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE?...

BIDEN
28% 142,885

PALIN
70% 350,646

NEITHER
2% 9,307

Total Votes: 502,838

Even MSNBC's viewers only gave Biden the win by 52% to about 39% for Palin. And the AOL live poll, with 525,786 respondants called it for Palin as well, 47% to 45%. Splitting th edifference, roughly 60-40 for Palin.

The upshot? The McCain campaign can expect a slight bounce from this, maybe 2%. It's nice but a lot will depend on how McCain does in the next debates, how the McCain campaign conducts itself in the next four weeks and on events outside the campaign itself.

One positive side is that one of my notorious little birdies told me that McCain is apparently going to take off the gloves and rip into the Democrats for their blatant protection of the cronyism and mismanagement at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac once the bail out bill is passed.With all the anger among average Americans over this, I think it's a winner...

Watcher's Council Results, 10/03/08

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.


Among the Council members, the winner was Cheat-Seeking Missiles for McCain’s Needed New Messaging Strategy - a PR professional's take on how McCain can get across that I particularly liked...

Coming in second was Wolf Howling with A Doddering Fool , a nice beat down on Senator Chris Dodd.

Also getting votes were The Glittering Eye with System Failure and The Colossus of Rhodey for I thought the Left wanted to talk about issues?

Among the non-Council entries, the winner was American Thinker for Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

In second place was a tie between St Louis C of CC Blog - Obamination: Obama Supporters Bob McCulloch, Jennifer Joyce Threaten to Prosecute People For Criticizing Obama and my own nomination by my friend and Counicl alumnus Shrinkwrapped, Everything Is New Under The Sun .

As usual, congratulations not only to the winners, but to the participants.

Germany Derails NATO Membership For Georgia And The Ukraine

There was some other important news today besides our elections...namely German chancellor Angela Merkel giving in to Russian blackmail to bar Georgia and the Ukraine from NATO membership at NATO's meeting later this year:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization won't give Georgia and Ukraine a road map to membership at a meeting later this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

{...}

Mrs. Merkel's rejection of a NATO track for Georgia and Ukraine, at a news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg, would effectively act as a veto. The Western military alliance operates by consensus.

U.S. officials had hoped a NATO ministerial meeting set for December might be the occasion for the alliance to extend a so-called Membership Action Plan, or MAP, to the two ex-Soviet States. However, any quick move toward their NATO membership grew less likely after Georgia's five-day war with Russia in August.

The U.S. State Department declined to comment, saying it hadn't seen or heard Mrs. Merkel's remarks.

No great mystery here.Putin used Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom as the stick.

Germany is dependent on energy sources that either originate or flow through Russia, and Gazprom had been demanding a piece of Germany's energy infrastructure and distribution as the price to keep the oil and gas flowing, especially with the cold European winter just around the corner.

Like magic, as soon as Merkel agreed to blackball Georgia and the Ukraine from NATO membership, Gazprom backed off from its demands and it's business as usual.Plus,there was an additional carrot as well. As a sweetener, the Russians suddenly agreed to a huge gas exploration deal between Gazprom and Eon, the German utility, something that's been in negotiation for over four years.

Under the deal Eon gets a 25 per cent stake in Yuzhno-Russkoye, a Siberian field and one of the world's largest gas reserves. In exchange, Eon gives back almost half of its 6.5 per cent stake in Gazprom.

Not a bad price, all in all for sandbagging Georgia and the Ukraine. Although I'd also wager that part of the bargain also includes German cooperation with Russia on watering down any meaningful sanctions on Iran...who just happens to be one of Germany's major trading partners.

Das is aber spas, nicht wahr?

Fair And Balanced -Not!

A rather interesting story broke yesterday concerning the moderator of the vice presidential debate tonight between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, Gwen Ifill from PBS.

As it turns out, Ms. Ifill isn't exactly a neutral party. She has a dog in this fight, and a fairly lucrative one for her personally.

You see, Gwen Ifill wrote a book scheduled to debut on inauguration day 2009 entitled 'The Age of Obama' a lovely little volume explaining how the Chosen One is going to change America. And that book's sales are obviously very dependent on whether Barack Obama and Joe Biden capture the White House in November.

Can you say 'conflict of interest'?

It turns out that when Gwen Ifill was first approached by the Commission on Presidential Debates about moderating the debate, she neglected to disclose this very interesting piece of information.

There's a great deal being made by the dinosaur media of Ifill's reputation and integrity, but it seems to me that a journalist with actual integrity and ethics would have recused themselves from monitoring this debate.

Not only that, but Ifill's ethical lapse is obvious since she deliberatelyfailed to disclose the fact that she was writing this book to the Committee. If she had, the onus would have been on the Committee and the McCain campaign for not paying attention.

Having your political preferences is one thing, but being in a position where you're supposedly neutral but you can influence an event that puts some of that mean green in your pockets is another thing entirely.

For her part Ifill is going to pick not only what questions are asked but which candidates get to answer them. Expect Ifill to do her very best to torpedo Sarah Palin tonight without appearing to be too overtly obvious about it.

Unfortunately, this particular issue is a done deal, simply because John McCain refused to make an issue out of it. I think he should have.

As he put it, life isn't fair, and we'll have to see what develops.

Race Based Politics

Here's a question for you, and one I've asked in the past...when is racism not racism?

Imagine this scenario, that a major media outlet wrote a sympathetic story about how enthusiastically white folks were lining up almost in a bloc behind John McCain's candidacy for president.

Can you imagine the headlines and the uproar? The outraged screams in the media?

As a matter of fact, I'd be wiling to bet that no major media outlet would dare run a story of that nature.

Yet when the Washington Post writes that very same story and simply changes 'white' to 'black' and 'McCain' to 'Obama' it's apparently perfectly acceptable.

I don't mean to single out the WAPO alone. There have been constant stories of this nature run in the dinosaur media, as well as a plethora of stories that purport to show that the only reason Obama isn't twenty points ahead in the polls right now and the only possible reason he might be defeated is white racism.

The truth is that it's just as racist for blacks (or anyone else for that matter) to vote for Obama simply because he's black as it is for whites to vote against him because he's black.Yet the first is obviously acceptable in many people's eyes while only the second is considered a despicable symptom of racism.

The fact that the vast majority of blacks would want to vote for Obama is one thing. For a very long tome now, black Americans have mostly identified with the Democrat party, regardless of how beneficial that has been in general for black people. And it's likely true that just about any Democrat would be assured of a majority of the black vote. But it's another thing entirely to vote for someone strictly out of tribal loyalty, and it's quite apparent that's exactly what's happening.

Yet here's the kicker....it's a losing proposition either way.

If Barack Hussein Obama is defeated, the cynical use of the race card by Obama and his willing shills in the dinosaur media guarantees further 'evidence' of white racism, since his quasi-marxist politics, questionable associations and lack of any discernible qualification for the job of president obviously could have had nothing to do with it. Race pimps like the NAACP, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton can look forward to an absolute bonanza in contributions to pump up their lifestyles, and a certain percentage of black folks have an excuse as to why their not doing as well in life as they feel they ought to be, as this poisons race relations for another generation.

On the other hand if Obama's elected,he is certain to accelerate the Democrat party's radical embrace of abortion on demand, a policy that affects black folks disproportionally and will cause the black vote and voice in America to become increasingly marginalized. Interested parties should take the time to read up on the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger and how she felt about black people.

Obama would undoubtedly be one of the most ineffectual and failed presidents in American history, to the point where it becomes dangerous for blacks and whites alike.And, like every Democrat elected before him, he will likely continue to take the monolithic black vote for granted while promoting policies that do absolutely nothing to deal with the real challenges black Americans face.

I don't mind admitting it. I'm disappointed that so many voters are allowing race based politics to rule their thinking in this election cycle.Like I said, that's ultimately self-defeating and a loser's game no matter who plays it.

Hey, I'm Voting Democrat, Because....

Watcher's Council Nominations, 10/01/08

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

A full list of entries, including some excellent non-Council ones can be found here.

Council News: We are still taking applications for the spot available on the Watcher’s Council. If you have a blog of your own and feel you measure up, you're welcome to find out what's involved and apply here. Or you can leave a comment in the comments section on this post.

So, let's see what we have this week...

Joshuapundit - The Crap Sandwich - that's how House Minority Leader John Boehner characterized the $700 billion dollar 'bail out' bill, right before he voted for it. It's crap all right, a major rape of the American taxpayer disguised as a so-called 'crisis' and designed by the Democrats for maximum political gain in an election year....no matter how badly the 'little people' get hurt.

Rhymes With Right - In The Aftermath Of Ike – The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly -Greg, stuck in the middle of the devastation of Ike gives us an account from the inside. My heart goes out to him...

Wolf Howling - A Doddering Fool - in this case, GW is referring to Chris Dodd, the Democrat Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. And yes, it's indeed odd to see him working on a 'rescue' of the system he did so much to corrupt...

Bookworm Room - When God closes a door, he sometimes opens a window - An interesting post, as always, from Ms. Bookworm. In it, she discusses the Left's abuse of Sarah Palin for not aborting a Down's Syndrome baby as well as other attempts by the Left ( including the Nazis) to eliminate the 'unfit' and 'useless.'

This is a particularly fit topic for this time of year, when , as the Jewish liturgy used at Rosh Hashana states, G-d decrees in the next ten days between now and Yom Kippur " who shall live and who shall die" for the coming year.

The Colossus of Rhodey - I thought the Left wanted to talk about issues? - Hube focuses this week on the mountain Newsweak is attempting to make out of the molehill of how many vehicles the McCain family owns, and how many of them are foreign made.

As an addendum, it should be noted that many 'foreign ' cars are manufactured in the US(Honda, BMW, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Toyota, etc.) by American workers in places like South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky while an awful lot of 'American' cars have components manufactured overseas and are frequently assembled in maquilladora factories just over the border..

Hillbilly White Trash - The little messiah unleashes his freikorps - this week Lemuel looks at the attempts by Obama operatives in Missouri attempting to co-opt the local law enforcement to target anyone who `lies or runs a misleading TV ad' against Obama during the presidential campaign.

Given that Obama and Joe Biden are already talking about putting the previous administration on trial after they're elected and that Obama has said he wants to put together a youth 'national service' corps funded at Pentagon level, this is just another sign of what might be over the horizon.

Hope n' change indeed..

The Glittering Eye - System Failure - Dave Schuler muses on the causes of the present financial crisis. One thing he fails to mention ( although being Dave, I'd bet my dollar to your dime he's fully aware of it) is the political motivations behind this manufactured 'crisis'. I would differ with him that there is anyting so far gone that it requires the massive looting of the federal treasury to fix, but you can read my entry this week for further info on why I feel that way if you're so inclined.

Soccer Dad - McCain’s role - Soccer Dad looks at Senator McCain's role in the bail out negotiations this week, and th e expected criticism from the Dinosaur media. Actually, I found Senator Obama's role far more interesting..but that's not a story you're going to see in the dinosaur media, to be sure!

Cheat-Seeking Missiles - McCain’s Needed New Messaging Strategy - Laer analyzes the debate and as a PR expert, gives us the benefit of his background to examine what John McCain needs to change about his overall message to the country.

L'Shana Tovah!!

Happy New Year! Celebrating 5,769 Years With The Same Management...

Tonight at sundown, the Jewish New Year kicks in, traditionally a time for reflection and spiritual self-examination, as it starts the Days of Awe that proceed through Yom Kippor, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

My very best wishes for the coming year....may you be inscribed.

How I'd Cure The Credit Crisis And Save US Taxpayers $600 Billion

As you've noticed, this proposed rape of the US Treasury has my dander up.

Listening to a number of Conservative pundits and commentators, you definitely have to think of Chicken Little, screaming because the Dow took a big hit, even though in terms of percentage we've seen and survived far worse. They don't realize that they are playing into the Democrat's hands, as they want to make this election about the economy and are thus exacerbating a 'crisis', just as they did with oil prices by refusing to allow any domestic drilling.

One thing I agree with them on is that what's mainly causing the decline is a drying up of credit, as lenders panic and pull their horns in.

So, as a public service, I'm offering to completely solve this problem, at a fraction of the cost of the proposed grand larceny now being proposed on Capitol Hill.

All we have to do is do what we do best, which is allow the normal motivations of fear and greed to work for us.

Since the Feds seem determined to go into the private sector, here's my proposition:

Give me $100 billion or so to work with, and a small staff to answer inquiries and underwrite and process the paperwork. I'll lend it out as credit lines at market rates to small and medium sized businesses and homeowners with at least 70% equity in their properties as security, and take no salary but a mere two points on what I originate.

I give it a month - at most - before the usual suspects get back into the game and start scrambling to lend money to consumers and businesses again...since paper money earns zip when it's sitting somewhere and not working earning money for the people that control it, and the last thing they'd want to do is be left out of the market.

And, with no bail out or government largess in prospect, those companies holding hyper-inflated mortgage debt would be forced to foreclose and sell off those assets at fair market prices to investors...and what losses these companies incur would be treated the way they should be - as tax writedowns against their profits,just as they are for any other business .

Yes, I know, common sense and capitalism.

I'm sure the White House will be in touch with me shortly, no?

Okay, sarcasm off. But what I proposed would save the taxpayers a fortune.

The Crap Sandwich

Ali Baba and the forty thieves - AKA Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Harry Reid


"It's a crap sandwich, but I'll still vote for it"- Republican House minority leader John Boehner.

Something absolutely astounding is going on in Washington today, as debate begins on the modified bailout bill in the US House of Representatives.

This is unbelievably bad, and I got closer and took a putrid whiff so you wouldn't have to....

- The essential problem here is that the decline in American home prices has forced a $500 billion in write-downs of bank capital as I write this, and the banks have only raised $350 billion in new capital to cover what amounts to their margin. Since the private sector, AKA prudent investors are not going to pony up new capital to the banks and investment organs unless the federal government underwrites the risk to shareholders, hence the reason for Paulson's plan, the Federal bailout.

What's wack (to put it mildly) is that this giddy little ex-Goldman-Sachs shill proposes to use your money not just to buy these mortgages and unidentified `other assets' but to buy them at inflated prices no investor with an IQ above double digits would pay. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has displayed an unexpected talent for stand up comedy by referring to this as the "hold to maturity price". Rather than a bailout, this is a wholesale raid on the US treasury. And it gets worse.

- The bill gives Paulson the sole discretion to use your money to identify and purchase other 'troubled assets' at whatever price Paulson's decides is a 'hold to maturity price' - junk bonds, mortgage securities, auto loans, bogus venture capital scams, even shares in WC Field's famed One Penny Beefsteak Mine. And because it's at Paulson's sole discretion,he can bail out anyone he chooses to and eliminate competition to his pals on Wall Street.

- In Section 110, the Feds, after purchasing these mortgages at inflated prices have a mandate to `rewrite' the terms of these loans, including a reduction in interest rates, a reduction in the amount owed and changes in the loan terms.

So...guess what? Congress is going to use your money to gift deserving homeowners - translate that as 'likely Democrat voters' - some more unearned equity to tap to pay off their credit card bills. And if these deserving homeowners are determined as being unable to pay the home loan payments, Paulson wants to use your money to change the interest rate and the terms on their loans at your expense. If you scrimped and saved to put ten percent down to buy that modest home within your means and paid say, one point to bring your interest rate down to 5.5%, screw you, chump. You'll be paying to make things rosy for someone who bought in at three percent or nothing down and bought more than they could afford.

- Not only that, but section 109 gives Paulson and the Feds a mandate to lean on servicers of existing mortgages to 'mitigate foreclosures and to encourage servicers of mortgages to modify loans through Hope for Homeowners and other programs. Allows the Secretary to use loan guarantees and credit enhancement to avoid foreclosures.'

Servicers, for those of you who don't know is anyone in charge of administering and collecting on a home loan. Not only does Paulson want to mess with the garbage the taxpayers are buying outright, but it the bill gives him a mandate to lean on lenders to to lower credit standards and modify loan terms on the mortgages the Feds don't own, especially if 'deserving homeowners' and a possible foreclosure are involved.

To realize how insidious this is, be aware that mortgages are legal contracts between a borrower and a lender, and are then sold to investors on what's called the secondary market. If you bought say, $10 million dollars worth of mortgages at six percent as an investment and the contract for the dollar amount and the yield you were expecting on your investment could suddenly be altered at the whim of some bureaucrat, do you think you'd be in a hurry to invest your hard earned money in mortgages again ?

- But wait, there's more....Paulson gets the unlimited authority to hire whom he wants to administer this mess, according to section 108, because Paulson decides what constitutes 'conflict of interest' , what gets bought, who buys it or where and how they can go to work after they finish their sojourn in DC..a perfect recipe for bribery and corruption almost unparallelled in history.

This bill doesn't do what it's supposed to do, with is to provide confidence to clean out the blocked arteries of credit. The way to do that would have been to allow the Feds to either insure these loans ( at a fair price to the lenders) or to pick them up the same way any other investor of last resort would, at a deep discounts. What it does do is to punish every American Bank, Thrift and S&L who was prudent and played by the rules in order to reward Paulson's pals on Wall Street, keep the same corrupt politicians in charge of the mess, and rob the taxpayers in order to buy votes for the Democrats.

And of course, ultimately that's what this is all about anyway...presidential politics. The Democrats are more than willing to promote economic chaos if it will help them win the White House, no matter how much pain it causes 'the little people' .

The Democrats want to make this election about the economy and are thus exacerbating a 'crisis', just as they did with oil prices by refusing to allow any domestic drilling.And what's more, they want to be able to hang the failure for failing to fix the so-called 'crisis' on the Republicans, who's votes they don't need anyway in order to pass this license to loot the treasury.

It's a tribute to the common sense of the American electorate that they are opposed to this highway robbery by a vast majority.

Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves will probably try to push this through before sundown tonight.

Make your voices heard: 202-224-3121.

UPDATE: THE VOTE: 228 NAY; 205 YEA... Apparently Nancy Pelosi was primarily responsible by ginning up a particularly nasty partisan screed before the vote that blamed the Republicans and a "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" for all the problems with the financial markets, and accused them of being 'unpatriotic'. According to Boehner, this caused a few Republicans who were planning on voting for this travesty to change their minds, but I think it was more that they noticed that Democrats in contested districts were being allowed by the Dems congressional leadership to vote nay, and they rightly saw this as exactly what it was..a set up, with Pelosi deliberately coming off with a nasty, insulting speech in order to goad the House Republicans.

The reality is, the Dems want a 'crisis' to continue, at least until November 4th. It's how they feel they can win.


Congress is planning on adjourning until Thursday...keep up the pressure.


ADDENDUM: After the vote failed, you'll notice that the Dow climbed again once Wall Street realized that they would have to make do and conduct biz without access to our money. Some crisis, hmm?

And for those of you concerned about the supposed drying up of credit, as a public service, I've offered a simple solution to cure the credit crisis and save the taxpayers $600 billion dollars.

All the current occupant of the White House has to do is e-mail me, or have his people do it if he's otherwise engaged.

Fight Night - Who Won?

Depends on whom you talk to.

To those people that consider the Drudge Report a right wing hate site and Huffington Post or MSNBC fair and balanced, Obama was the obvious winner. But Drudge's online poll with almost 350,000 respondents had McCain winning with 68%, with about 2% undecided.MSNBC, CBS and CNN had Obama winning...which was to be expected, simply because of their own bias and who watches them.

And, by the way, one thing I found personally fascinating is the relatively low numbers of viewers for the debate. Apparently it was far less than the numbers for the first Bush-Kerry faceoff.People are obviously wishing for this forever campaign to end.

My own impressions? McCain definitely won, but on a decision - he let Obama slide with some key points that could have resulted in a knockout had he pursued them. I know I would have.

McCain started out slowly. He was obviously tired from the last minute flight to Mississippi, and it showed....had I been his campaign manager I would have insisted he take a day or so to rest and get ready. But about 30 minutes into it, he go this second wind and began hammering Obama, particularly in the final part of the debate that dealt with foreign policy.

The beginning part of the debate, 45 minutes or so was devoted to economics and the proposed bailout, and McCain certainly did no harm to himself talking about out of control spending and earmarks. One place he let Obama slide was when the Chosen One claimed that '95% of Americans will be getting a tax break.'

Had I been McCain, I would have shot back with "Senator, your plan calls for a large increase in payroll taxes and in capital gains taxes. That's obviously a tax on all Americans, since businesses don't pay taxes....they make it up with price increases to their customers. And how many jobs will be lost, especially in small businesses because of the increased cost of investment and expansion and because businesses have to lay off employees to cut costs because of your tax increases?"

Instead, McCain kept to his mantra of cutting spending, which was good, but also allowed Obama to slide by with the sound bite that he was giving a tax break to the middle class rather than a whopping increase.

Another zinger I would might have pulled out of the hat when Obama kept repeating 'John is right' for the third time would have been 'Thank you for that, Senator..I'm glad we agree, experience and judgment count.'

On the foreign policy front, McCain did pretty well, and I especially liked the part where Obama stumbled and had to read the bracelet on his wrist to remember the name of the dead veteran he was supposedly honoring.Yet again, there were two major gaffes McCain could have exploited that he let Obama get away with.

After Obama went into his spiel about how the McCain-Bush administration had `taken their eye off the ball in Afghanistan', McCain responded by reminding Obama that Osama bin-Laden and al-Qaeda had declared Iraq their central front in their war on us and that if Obama had his way , the US military would have come home in defeat. And he mentioned that Obama chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on European Affairs but has yet to convene it..without explaining to the audience that that committee has the direct responsibility of negotiating to increase the European's lack of combat troop support for NATO's mission in Afghanistan!

McCain actually let Obama sluff this off by mumbling ` well,you know that no actual business comes before that subcommittee, this is kind of inside baseball stuff..but let me go on...'

if I were McCain, I would have simply responded, `Senator,I beg to differ...this subcommittee you head is charged with negotiating with our European allies to provide more boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Obviously nothing is going to come of that if its' chairman takes his eye off the ball and never convenes them even once.'

I would also have mentioned that the Europeans actually showed some signs of putting more combat troops into Afghanistan until Barack Obama came along pledging to remove US troops from Iraq and send extra US troops to Afghanistan - thus taking the heat off of countries like France, Italy and Germany, who will now, of course be prepared to wait until after the election and see if the Americans and others do the heavy lifting under an Obama administration.

Had McCain said something like that I think we might have had a deer-in-the-headlights moment.

Next, when Obama was criticizing all that aid we give to Pakistan and talking about how we that money was all wasted,McCain should have reminded Obama politely that that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and that map reading is an important and necessary skill for a commander-in-chief. He should have reminded the audience that Afghanistan is landlocked, that 75% of the supplies for our troops in Afghanistan pass through the Pakistani port of Karachi and comes into Afghhanistan overland through through the Torkham border crossing, and that the Pakistanis closed that corridor for over a day in response to the last US attack in Waziristan. And he should have finished by saying that the alternative if Obama creates a hostile Pakistan is either a costly and inefficient airlift or shipping the stuff through the Black Sea into Georgia and Azerbaijan (assuming they let us) and then crossing the Caspian Sea and shipping the stuff through Turkmenistan and then over rough, mountainous country into Afghanistan from the Northwest.

Again, had McCain said that, I think we would have seen Obama motor boating as he tried to pick himself up off the canvas.

As it is, McCain scored significant points,but not decisive ones. That will have to wait until the next outing, a townhall style debate that McCain will hopefully be more in shape for.