A deal you can't refuse

Apparently Doug Ross received one of those internet get rich quick emails....

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

I AM WORKING WITH MR. CHRISTOPHER DODD, MILLIONAIRE SENATOR, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE NINETIES. THIS TRANSACTION IS 100% SAFE.

THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.

PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.

YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON

Liberals need another bailout

From the American Thinker....

So California needs a bail out. The state government is out of money. The Golden State, blessed with incredible beauty, perfect weather, fabulous soils, plenty of coast line and even much of the world's high tech and entertainment revenue, has managed to run out of money and is now asking Henry Paulson to tack on seven billion for their government.

Grey Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Assembly has managed to do what Fidel Castro has done - run a paradise into the poorhouse. There are many problems with the state, not the least of which that many businesses have fled the state and taken their jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. For a number of years in a row, California has the country's "worst business climate."

California managed to edge out other notably liberal "blue states" for the title, with New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts rounding out the bottom five. The only good news here is that sometimes businesses do flee Cali for New York and New Jersey, helping economies in those states.

All of this points out a tremendous opportunity that the McCain Campaign is missing. All of the worst areas economically are run by liberal governments, yet McCain seems to rail only against Wall Street greed. Perhaps the climate change we need to address is the business climate.

If it seems like you've read something similar on this blog; you have. Check out these posts....

What's so "progressive" about bankrupt states?

Barack Obama and the History of Project Vote

Nobamamania - Catch it

From Doug Ross... Post if you're interested.

The Post Partisan Candidate

I always find it amusing when media types use the terms non-partisan or bipartisan. It's usually code for "liberal".

So when the Palinator says Obamamania as voting democratic all of the time, they're shocked to learn.....that it's true.

The Statement:

Gov. Sarah Palin said at the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate that Sen. Barack Obama has "pretty much only voted along his party lines. In fact, 96 percent of his votes have been solely along party line."

Get the facts!

The Facts:
Congressional Quarterly examined Obama's votes in the Senate. According to the analysis, Obama has indeed voted with the Democratic Party 96 percent of the time.

CQ - a non-partisan and highly respected journal of Congressional affairs - says Senator John McCain has voted in line with the Republican Party 86 percent of the time. McCain's total number of votes is much larger, since he has been in the Senate since 1986, while Obama is in his first term.

Congressional Quarterly also looked at what it deemed to be "key" votes. That analysis found Obama voted with his party on 29 out of 30 votes, which came out to 97 percent of the time. For McCain, CQ said there have been 335 "key" votes over the years, and that he voted with his party on 266 of them — 79 percent of the time.

The Verdict: True.

(CNN)

more....

I'm shocked to learn that Obama actually cast a vote in the senate.

Is he talking down to us? Or is he an idiot?

An analysis carried out by a language monitoring service said Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at a more than ninth-grade level and Sen. Joseph Biden spoke at a nearly eighth-grade level in Thursday night's debate between the vice presidential candidates.

More...

Harry "The Weasel"

Apparently, Harry "The Weasel" Reid suffers from an acute case of diarrhea of the mouth....

Just as U.S. credit markets this week were close to the edge of the cliff, threatening capital-starved businesses large and small, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stepped in front of reporters and offhandedly announced:

"One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company. A major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about." The next day, share prices fell sharply across the insurance industry.

Let us stipulate we do not think it necessary for even U.S. Senators to understand the internal mechanics of credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations. But if we have learned anything amid the panic over Bear, Lehman, Merrill and adventures in naked short-selling, it is that rumors can obliterate economic value, instantly.

The SEC has been issuing subpoenas for an investigation into rumor-driven market manipulation. Of course, Harry Reid stood up in broad daylight to talk about a troubled insurer "with a name that everyone knows," so his contribution was merely obtuse. And predictably destructive. The steep drop in the share prices of insurance companies Thursday destroyed wealth for uncounted middle-class investors holding onto stock in companies still considered healthy.

More.....

Well, Duh!

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made considerably less money than rival Sen. Joe Biden, but the Palin family gave more to charity in the last two years than Biden has in the last eight combined, according to Palin's tax records released Friday afternoon.

Palin, the running mate of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and her husband Todd reported meager earnings from 2006 and 2007, at least by presidential-politics standards.

In 2006, the Palins paid $11,944 in taxes on $127,869 in income. In 2007, they paid $24,738 on $166,080.

But in 2006, they donated $4,880 to charity, and in 2007, they donated $3,325.

By contrast, Biden (D-Del.), Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's running mate, has donated a total of $3,690 since 1998 despite his higher Senate salary, according to an analysis posted by National Review.

No shocker here. See the Palin's are REPUBLICANS when they read Matthew 25 they hear an instruction to take care of the "least of thee." Biden is a DEMOCRAT, when he reads Matthew 25 he thinks it's a mandate from god (small g intentional) for a tax increase.

More.....

What Just Happened?

The corruption McCain won't expose

The Fannie Mae corruption just keeps getting deeper. it's too bad there's not a major party candidate for president willing to point it out.

From Fox news (thanks Andy)

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."

More.....

Is it possible Frank can go back to dating guys hustling gay hookers out of his apartment. It'd be a lot cheaper for the taxpayers.

McCain gives up

On the heals of the McCain campaign pulling out of Michigan, a state ripe for the taking, it appears that McCain refuses to go nuclear on the Fannie Mae-Obamunists connection.

From The Weekly Standard

I understand that he didn't want to get overly partisan while a delicate measure he thought was necessary was just barely making it through both houses of Congress. But there's no excuse for letting a false narrative lie, and letting Obama and Biden continue to lie about the roots of this crisis.

It was not simply Wall Street greed that caused this problem, but government intervention that incentivized self-interested industries to offer and buy up high-risk loans they thought were backed by a government promise because they were backed by government-sponsored entities. If the American public gets only one side of this argument, the free market is in some serious trouble. There are plenty of respectful (even bipartisan) ways to articulate this, and Bill Clinton is the guide for the message.

And, yet it sounds like McCain is unwilling to go there. The financial crisis is what has driven his numbers down; a little distancing from the root causes of that crisis, and placing blame where it belongs, would be helpful.

Nope, that is not going to happen Why not? 1) It is a complicated argument, and McCain is not good at making complicated arguments, not even about earmarks. (Note, additionally, his lack of defense of the war in Iraq during his debate with Obama. Amazing.)

2) There is a racial component to criticism of the Community Reinvestment Act that can make it sound like you are scapegoating minorities for Wall Street's problems.

3) The campaign believes McCain's time is better spent talking about taxes and energy and healthcare. Really.

Really? This is the perfect illustration of McCain as prescient reformer while Obama is nothing but petulant rhetoric, and it happens to distinguish his position from Obama's on the most important issue of the day.

I realize the campaign would like this to just go away, but I don't think that's going to happen. Repeating the same talking points as the Obama camp about Wall Street does not help close the gap on economic issues. The truth just might.

McCain needs to decide this weekend whether he wants to be a collegial senator during an Obama administration or does he want to be president of the USA.

Running for the presidency is the NFL and McCain is trying to play without hurting someone or himself; always a big mistake.

Look, this is whole issue is mold that needs light shined on it. Even if he exploits this issue and loses the election, the American people deserve to be educated on the government extortion of financial institutions that created this mess.

He owes it to his party so they have an effective argument for the next socialist intrusion on American liberties.

He owes it to Sarah Palin, who has suffered some horrendous character assassinations to support this nomination.

Finally, he owes it to himself. He got his ass kicked by Bush eight years ago and he comes back to let himself be flogged by the Obamunists. You'd think he'd have more honor than that.

His handling of this issue is exactly why conservatives like myself hate the republican party. If you're not willing to fight on a principle, you're as worthless as an empty Spam can.

Now, lead follow or get out of the way and let Palin take over.

O'Reilly Blasts Barney Frank On Fannie Mae Mess!!

Good enough for thee, not for me

Liberals are always great at making pronouncements about caring for the little guy until the money actually has to come from their own pocket.

Take Tyler Perry, an Obamunist.

One of Barack Obama's staunchest supporters and prized campaigners and film biographers from the motion picture and television business has just been accused of union busting, according to a complaint filed Thursday with the National Labor Relations Board. Before the exposé, writer/actor/director/producer Tyler Perry invited the presidential candidate to the grand opening of his entertainment studio on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, this coming Saturday night.

But if Obama attends he will be met by picket lines thrown up by the Writers Guild of America with support from other unions including the Teamsters, even though the latter union has officially endorsed the Democrat. "This is just the first step. We've got a lot more planned," a WGA insider told me last night, indicating that the Perry picketing may widen to Time Warner's TBS and Warner Bros which broadcasts his hugely popular House Of Payne sitcom, and an upcoming TV spinoff of one of Perry's movie's Meet The Browns.

By the way, The Washington Post just uncovered another Sarah Palin scandal. Her father received a parking ticket in 1976 and did not pay it. That scandal ridden ho.

Peggy Noonan on Gov. Sarah Palin's Debate Performance

Red Meat

Maybe they'll vet this

Just how much in donations from foreign countries is pouring into the Obama campaign coffers is a question one FEC auditor would like to have answered. The problem is that evidently, his bosses at the FEC are refusing to move on the charges which would almost certainly require them to ask the Justice Department and the FBI to look into the matter. This would, their reasoning goes, take on the appearance of a "criminal investigation" and would impact the coming election.

The anonymous investigator (who won't reveal his name for fear of retribution) says that "I can't get anyone to move. I believe we are looking at a hijacking of our political system that makes the Clinton and Gore fundraising scandals pale in comparison. And no one here wants to touch it."

This just in from the NY Times..... Apparently 35 years ago, Sarah Palin told her best friend she hated her and never wanted to talk to her again, and then when back on her word and played with her at recess; what a hypocrite.

More.....

Another Obama friend goes down

When will this get vetted?

The FBI on Wednesday raided the county offices of a former Illinois state senator who is a poker-playing buddy of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

According to Chicago authorities, the FBI visited the offices in Joliet, Ill., of Will County executive Larry Walsh, a longtime friend of Mr. Obama's, and his chief of staff Matt Ryan.

Mr. Walsh, who served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2005, was endorsed by Mr. Obama in his county executive election bid. With the support of some of Mr. Obama's U.S. Senate volunteers, he easily defeated incumbent Republican Joseph Mikan.

Will County auditor Steve Weber confirmed that his office had been asked by the FBI to assist in an investigation, but he did not elaborate on the specifics.

Two FBI agents out of Chicago reportedly spent more than an hour in the Will County offices on Wednesday morning.

According to sources, the Walsh investigation may be tied to lobbying firm Smith Dawson and Andrews, which was hired in 2006 for $10,000 per month to help Will County acquire federal grants.

Probably the same time the Fannie Mae connection does...

More....

By the way, did you know that Sarah Palin colors her hair; she's totally fake!

Cell phones

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
Uploaded by sassiere

What do you think happens to your brain when you yap on your cell phone all day.

Chose

Obama Youth - Junior Fraternity Regiment

Justice Billary

Bill and Hillary Clinton are doing their bare minimum to help elect Barack Obama president because the Democratic nominee refused to guarantee Hillary a US Supreme Court judgeship should he win the White House, sources say.

A rep for Sen. Clinton e-mailed Page Six yesterday: "Absurd. Nonsense. Rubbish. Hogwash. Malarkey."

But the word in Democratic circles is that Hillary - after being rejected by Obama as his running mate, the position given to Sen. Joe Biden - made it clear to Obama's camp that she wanted to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

One insider said, "Hillary wants an assurance that if she shows loyalty and goes out there like a good soldier, she will be rewarded with a nomination for the Supreme Court should a seat become available."

More...

Democrats

I'm Voting Democrat

1984

At the American Thinker...

A British power company named npower (they actually use the cutesy colors) is urging children to spy on their parents and record their "climate crimes" in a "challenge diary." Coming on the heels of the infamous child-exploitation video of little children singing the praises of Dear Leader Obama, the world is starting to get seriously creepy.

Amen brother

Thanks Progress Ohio

I just filled out my ballot and I want to thank Progress Ohio for their voting guide.

For any judge or issue they supported, I voted against them (it).

Keep up the good work.

The trillion dollar bailout

City Journal has an entire anthology of articles on the up coming mortgage crisis.

Here's a great one from Winter of 2000 that lays all this out nicely.....

The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their own striving, is the key to their well-being.

The CRA's premise sounds unassailable: helping the poor buy and keep homes will stabilize and rebuild city neighborhoods. As enforced today, though, the law portends just the opposite, threatening to undermine the efforts of the upwardly mobile poor by saddling them with neighbors more than usually likely to depress property values by not maintaining their homes adequately or by losing them to foreclosure. The CRA's logic also helps to ensure that inner-city neighborhoods stay poor by discouraging the kinds of investment that might make them better off.

At first, many of us had some fun with the Obamunist's background as a community organizer.

But after we've seen ACORN's part in this mortgage mess as well as how they've broken all kinds of voter laws (see Thurber's Thoughts) with the intent of weakening our democracy, it's not so funny anymore. These people are full fledged Marxists.

And the national media just turns their head to the whole damn thing.

Barack's Fannie Mae buddies

Palinmania - Catch It!

The Obama youth sing for Pyong Pyang

Educating the idiots

In a confidential internal memorandum obtained by Face The State (PDF), the Colorado Democracy Alliance outlines a roster of "operatives" who worked for Democratic victory in the 2006 general election. The document outlines specific tasks for various members of the state's liberal infrastructure, including a campaign to "educate the idiots," assigned to the state's AFL-CIO union. Among the operation's intended targets: "minorities, GED's, drop-outs."

A couple of thoughts

First, aren't these folks the primary democratic demographic?

Second, how is it that the democrats don't seem so concerned about "educating the idiots" in our public schools?

Third, if they actually educated them, they'd be republicans.

More....

ACORN = Obama = Fannie Mae = Current Financial Collapse

I'm just curious as to when NBC, CBS, ABC, the NY Times, Washington Post (aka mainstream media) will actually pull one of their four hundred snoopers from Wasilla Alaska to investigate Sarah Palin not wearing a bicycle helmet in 1979 and investigate in detail how this whole economic mess is a complete result of democratic policy and obstruction, specifically the Obamunists.

The NY Post with some reporting

WHAT exactly does a "community organizer" do? Barack Obama's rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question. Here's a big part of the answer: Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.

In the name of fairness to minorities, community organizers occupy private offices, chant inside bank lobbies, and confront executives at their homes - and thereby force financial institutions to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgages to low-credit customers.

In other words, community organizers help to undermine the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans. And Obama has spent years training and funding the organizers who do it.

This would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic.

Obamamania - Catch it

Sing for Change Obama

it's still creepy

McCain's Early Recognition of Fannie/Freddie Crisis

After you watch this, how could you possibly entrust any democrat to effectively manage our economy?

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

The Green party candidate

Cynthia McKinney, former democratic congress person on the 5000 executions in Louisiana after hurricane Katrina.

Believe it or not, she actually held a congressional job at one time.

Is this the kind of person who should be fixing a 700 billion dollar bail out request?

What's so "progressive" about being a lunatic?

You tube pulls video

You tube pulled the Hitler, I mean Obama youth video (see below).

You mean this things was even too creepy for you tube.

Rein

Socialism disguised

If you're one of those kooky conspiratorial types who believes that the whole global warming crusade is a veiled attempt to invoke socialism on the world; I think you'd be correct.

Need evidence? Read this....

People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns.

The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.

It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops - alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping.

The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind.

Tara Garnett, the report's author, warned that campaigns encouraging people to change their habits voluntarily were doomed to fail and urged the government to use caps on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pricing to ensure changes were made. "Food is important to us in a great many cultural and symbolic ways, and our food choices are affected by cost, time, habit and other influences," the report says. "Study upon study has shown that awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it comes to more difficult changes."

By the way, the score to the global warming challenge is warm 288 cold 265

Who will she vote for? #7991

Meet Michele Allen. Why is she in the news?

Saturday night, people in the 3100 block of Wilbraham Road called police to report a woman wearing a cow costume was chasing kids, and blocking traffic. Michele Allen also allegedly urinated on the porch of one neighbor.

When officers arrived, they told her to go home. But later that night, they found her again, in the 2400 block of Verity, standing in traffic. This time, officers say, Allen smelled of alcohol and swore at them.

She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
Allen plead guilty, Monday morning, in Middletown Municipal Court, and sentenced to a month in jail.

Let's assume Michele here hops on an ACORN bus to register and vote today, will she pull the lever for The Messiah, Barack Obama, or the staid old John McCain?

Sing for Change Obama

If this doesn't creep you out, nothing will.

HT Exurban League

Congress earns their 10% approval rating

From the WSJ....

The 228-205 defeat reflects badly on all concerned, starting with the Democrats who run the House. The majority party is responsible for assembling a majority vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed in that fundamental task.

Her highly partisan speech on the floor -- blaming "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" for the financial distress -- is no excuse for Republicans to vote no. But it is indicative of the way she has governed for the past two years -- like Tom DeLay without the charm. The cynics are saying Ms. Pelosi deliberately tanked the bill by giving 95 Democrats a pass, knowing failure would hurt John McCain, and given her track record we can see why people would believe it.

House Republicans share the blame, and not only because they opposed the bill by about two-to-one, 133-65. Their immediate response was to say that many of their Members turned against the bill at the last minute because Ms. Pelosi gave her nasty speech. So they are saying that Republicans chose to oppose something they think is in the national interest merely because of a partisan slight. Thank heaven these guys weren't at Valley Forge.

More....

O' Hail the Messiah Lord Obama

HT Connect the dots

Sarbanes Oxley fallout

Here's a good piece by a fellow accountant on one thing the feds could do to ease the fallout of the credit crunch. Suspend the Sarbanes Oxley provisions dealing with mark to market.....

Why should America attempt an expensive, controversial, and possibly ineffective bailout strategy for the current financial crisis when a virtually costless and simpler change could solve much of the problem?

We accountants don't like publicity. Fortunately, we don't get much. Most of the public remembers Enron, but fewer remember Arthur-Andersen, the big accounting firm that went down with them. Questionable accounting was a big part of the reason for Enron's failure. I think accountants may be behind the scenes again in the current financial crisis. Are there any of us bean counters in those meetings? If there are, my bet is that they are sitting on their hands and keeping their mouths shut even though they might know about a much better (and cheaper) solution. Accountants, after all, don't talk much; and they don't like to admit errors.

Pouring 700 billion of our money into failing financial institutions seems akin to throwing spaghetti against the wall. Keep throwing until something sticks. They tell us that credit will dry up if we don't inject cash. No credit would be disastrous for the economy, but they have not explained well enough why the banks have failed so suddenly and drastically that emergency room surgery is required. Knowing why would help us poor taxpayers feel better about how the problem should be solved. Ever wonder how many other bank failures are out there waiting behind the curtain to take their bows? Are we going to throw even more money at them too?

Should we consider a solution that requires no money, or at least a lot less? Here's one. Have the SEC suspend the accounting rule called mark-to-market. By a relatively simple accounting adjustment, troubled banks' assets and capital could be increased and credit kept available. Accounting purists, cover your ears. Eyes glaze and minds wander when I say balance sheet, so let's use the acronym BS, a more appropriate description. BS's have two sides: assets on the left, liabilities and capital on the right. Banks are required to maintain certain levels of capital (the difference between assets and liabilities) in order to make loans. When assets shrink, capital shrinks. When the ratio of capital to assets drops to a certain level, (think ten-to-one), banks are not allowed to make loans. And if it drops too low, they can be classified as insolvent. This can happen overnight, and it did.

Why? Wall Street is essentially driven by emotion and the news of the day, so when nobody wants a particular security, the price falls fast and hard. Do I believe in efficient markets? Yes, eventually, but markets are often wrong for periods of time ... think years. Therefore, we are marking assets down to near zero based on markets that fluctuate wildly from minute to minute. The media have hammered us with news about drops in home prices and increases in mortgage delinquencies to the point that nobody wants to own these assets. A few rotten apples have spoiled the whole barrel. Sub-prime loans and the securities they are bundled into have plummeted in value, sometimes to zero, because nobody wants to touch that barrel, even if most of the apples are still good. Banks marked them to their current value, billions in capital disappeared with the stroke of a pen (excuse me, stroke of a key.)

The introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley has been largely overlooked as a cause of the current crisis but it created a scenario whereby much capital left the New York market for London to avoid many of the provisions of Sarbanes Oxley.

One more mess the government now has to clean up from its own creation.

Steyn on the bailout

Mark Steyn on the congressional bailout....

As a general proposition, when told by unanimous elites that a particular course of action is urgent and necessary to avoid disaster, there's a lot to be said for going fishing*. If the entire global economy is so vulnerable that only the stalwart action of Barney Frank stands between it and ten years of soup kitchens, can it, in fact, be saved? Or look at it the other way round: Given any reasonable estimate of the number of headless chickens running around, was the five per cent fall in Asian markets and seven per cent "plummet" on the Dow in reaction to the House vote really the catastrophe some of my pals round here seem to think it was? If fear of seven per cent falls is enough to justify massive unprecedented government intrusion into the private sector, we might as well cut to the chase and go for the big Soviet command economy.

More....

ACORN & Obama

A great piece on ACORN, Obamamania and our current economic mess.....

The financial markets were teetering on the edge of an abyss last week. The secretary of the Treasury was literally on his knees begging the speaker of the House not to sabotage the bailout bill. The crash of falling banks made the earth tremble. The Republican presidential candidate suspended his campaign to deal with the crisis. And amid all this, the Democrats in Congress managed to find time to slip language into the bailout legislation that would provide a dandy little slush fund for ACORN.

ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a busy hive of left-wing agitation and "direct action" that claims chapters in 50 cities and 100,000 dues-paying members. ACORN is where Sixties leftovers who couldn't get tenure at universities wound up. That the bill-writing Democrats remembered their pet clients during such an emergency speaks volumes. This attempted gift to ACORN (stripped out of the bill after outraged howls from Republicans) demonstrates how little Democrats understand about what caused the mess we're in.

ACORN does many things under the umbrella of "community organizing." They agitate for higher minimum wages, attempt to thwart school reform, try to unionize welfare workers (that is, those welfare recipients who are obliged to work in exchange for benefits) and organize voter registration efforts (always for Democrats, of course). Because they are on the side of righteousness and justice, they aren't especially fastidious about their methods. In 2006, for example, ACORN registered 1,800 new voters in Washington. The only trouble was, with the exception of six, all of the names submitted were fake. The secretary of state called it the "worst case of election fraud in our state's history." As Fox News reported:

"The ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses, and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms."

More.....

2004 House Committee Hearing!

Watch this and you'll get a good feel for the collective intelligence of "progressives"

What's so "progressive about being a dumb ass?

Dems for Bailout: Pelosi #1

When democracy fails

Look, I'm not sure if I'm in favor of any bailout plan or not. But what I am in favor of is having our elected leaders, who are supposed to be knowledgeable about such issues, muster up the courage to vote if they think it's the right thing to do, even if it costs them politically.

Is that happening here when I read this...

"We're all worried about losing our jobs," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote. "Most of us say, 'I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it — not me.' "

So keeping your congressional job is more important than watching an economy beaten into a depression?

This is a perfect example of the structural dysfunction of our congress.

See, Congress is supposed to manage our national interest but the reps are elected in parochial elections. They look at their jobs as accountable to their parochial constituency and not to the national interest they manage.

It's why our founding fathers wanted a week central government.

Unfortunately, with the introduction of the federal income tax, we've totally bastardized the way our government should work.

As for Nancy & Co, she should be hung from the tallest flag pole in Washington and beaten with a wrecking ball.

How is this the republicans fault? If this bill was so damn awesome why didn't her democratic majority step up, pass it, and then take all the credit for saving the day? They could have shoved it right in the GOP's face.

I mean after all, they're all about "Main St." over "Wall Street" right?

For years, the circus clowns of both parties have had cover for horrible decisions of the past and now it's time to pay the piper. In this regard, courage is like a muscle. If you never use it, it atrophies. If any of these guys would have had the balls to stand up to Fannie Mae 15 years ago, this problem would be a small nuisance, not a potential debacle.

Just wait until we actually have to deal with the cold reality of social security defaults 100 times the size of this one.

Fox guarding the hen house

From the NY Post....

Here's why Americans are revolting over the Wall Street rescue plan.

It's not that taxpayers refuse to dig deeper to avoid an even bigger catastrophe.

It's that they're all puking over the notion that it's the same bums in Washington who caused the mess by allowing it to fester who are now demanding their money to fix it.

It's like the criminal who breaks into your house, hurts himself, then sues you for damages.

Amen brother

Just think in roughly another 20 years when current Medicare and Social security promises will exceed the entire federal budget it will be the same clowns pretending that they had no idea this was a problem...

Bengals - Browns fallout

Once again, the Bengals showed up large today against the win less Browns.

I bet Paul Brown is really proud of that mess played in the stadium that bears his name. It's a good thing the city shelled out the hundreds of millions on this team. Otherwise we end up with a team as good as the Raiders.

Who will he vote for #156

Meet Daniel Andreas San Diego. Why is Danny boy in the news?

Daniel Andreas San Diego grew up in a safe and quiet suburb of San Francisco, the son of a city manager in California's affluent Marin County. Now 30, he swore off drugs and drink as a young man — and even milk and meat — but the straight-edge San Diego was no straight shooter.

"He looks like a personable young man," says David Strange, the FBI agent who's been following San Diego's case for five years. But San Diego's bespectacled face masks a violent hate that authorities say turned him into an eco-terrorist, a vicious vegan with an ax to grind.

Before dawn on Aug. 28, 2003, two homemade pipe bombs went off at the headquarters of Chiron Corporation, a biotechnology firm based in Emeryville, Calif. The second blast was time-delayed; the FBI suspects that may have been a tactic to harm emergency teams responding to the blast.

Let's assume that he can evade the FBI for the next two months and is able to cast a provisional ballot in some ACORN neighborhood.

Will he vote for Barack Obama or John McCain?

A vote for Obama will have the US looking like Oakland

I wonder when "progressives" are going to own the shit holes they've created in our once great American cities?

Forexample, let's take Oakland CA which will probably go Obama 85-15. You couldn't find a republican in their city government with an entire posse from the show Bonanza....

This location on MacArthur, west of Interstate 580 and about a mile northwest of the Oakland Zoo, may be the most concentrated killing zone in a city where killing is common. Oakland, ranked America's fourth-most-dangerous city in a CQ Press study released in November, has seen 105 homicides so far this year, up from 104 at the same time last year.

Police blame the MacArthur Boulevard bloodshed on a pervasive problem - young men who fall into drug dealing and violence. In response to the killings, city officials recently made quelling violence at the location a priority, combining a stepped-up police response with outreach and job-finding assistance for youths.

But solutions remain elusive.

I've got a solution! Let's try voting for a republican in that city for a change.

105 murders in one year? In one city? If this were Iraq, code pink would be going crazy. When will Obama announce they're pulling out of our cities?

At least a vote for Obama would make the rest of the country look like Oakland.

A group mugshot

Wall Street Bailout.... Where's Senator Blutarsky?

I don't typically watch conventions, debates, and state of the union addresses because I don't generally find smoke up my butt all that comfortable.

So Friday night, I did something more productive and watched Animal House for the 35th time.

So few people actually watch Animal House and really look at the subliminal messages behind the actual movie. (Like listening to Dark Side of the Moon during the Wizard of Oz).

For instance, you could dub this little line right over the big Wall Street bailout meetings going on this weekend.

Otter as Hank Paulson: Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

Bluto as Harry Reid: We're just the guys to do it.

I'm still looking for Animal House characters as stupid as Barney Frank

Obama Checks Soldier's Name on Wrist Band

Hey, where's the teleprompter?