Bush tried

Lew Rockwell points out that Ron Paul predicted the Fannie/Freddie crash.

Wow, 2003. What a prophet! Ron Paul is usually right on financial issues and that's why I'm glad he's in congress.

But predictably, Mr. Rockwell doesn't mention that the Bush Administration foresaw what was coming an tried to stop it also. In 2003.

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

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

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

...but was thwarted by Dems such as Barney and Melvin who threw out the timeless and well-beloved canard, "Bush is just twying to huwt to poow people!!"

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

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

"I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing," Mr. Watt said.

Rush on Obama's use of the "tactics of the old segregationists"

A good read to understand the original context for Rush Limbaugh's quotes used in the Obama ad. Excerpt:

The malignant aspect of this is that Mr. Obama and his advisers know exactly what they are doing. They had to listen to both monologues or read the transcripts. They then had to pick the particular excerpts they used in order to create a commercial of distortions. Their hoped-for result is to inflame racial tensions. In doing this, Mr. Obama and his advisers have demonstrated a pernicious contempt for American society.

We've made much racial progress in this country. Any candidate who employs the tactics of the old segregationists is unworthy of the presidency.

Charlie Rangel owns Pelosi

And Charles Hurt pwns both of them. Excerpt:

Try telling people in this economy that you just discovered a loose $75,000 you didn't know you'd made. For most people, that's called the lottery.

Is this "the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history" that Pelosi promised?

Pelosi ordered Rangel to Washington earlier this week, sending out signals that she would lower the boom on him.

At the very least, she would make him step aside until all his ethics inquisitions are finished.

Wrangling Rangel is no small order.

He's immensely popular on the Hill, even among many Republican lawmakers.

He's perhaps Pelosi's highest-profile committee chairman.

And he's one of her very top African-American lieutenants whom she simply cannot cross.

So, she folded like a cheap pantsuit.

Choice picture, too. What a piece of... ....work.... ...he is.

The Casting Department

The other day the Gaffe Machine himself, Joe Biden, asked a paralyzed man to stand up during a speech. Whoops.



I'm thinking that when the make the "Joe Biden Story" made for cable movie that NE Ohio's own Fred Willard of Waiting for Guffman fame should be cast as ol' Slo-jo. I couldn't find the clip I wanted from WfG with Catherine O'Hara, but this one from Mighty Wind should facilitate the vetting process for our casting department.



What do you think? Anyone? Jonathan? Anyone?

"I stand up next to a mountain..."

"...and I chop it down with the edge of my hand."



Say that again....

Actually I was checking out some of his work on Let's Dance when I found this. Cat People in particular rocks. I can't get the SRV sound out of my head, and dat be a good ting, dog.

"I was hungry and you gave Me food..."

Click here or call 800-604-0300 to contribute to hurricane Ike Relief efforts. I just contributed 500 pounds on behalf of my family.



Hat tip Jesus Christ.

One Good Insight Deserves Another

Rod Dreher astutely points out that the Palin-excitement among conservatives, insofar as it may be lacking in substance, isn't any different in that regard than the wild Obama-enthusiasm expressed earlier in this marathon presidential campaign.

I am amused by the folks in the comboxes below who are tut-tutting the identity politics manifesting themselves on the Right, with people "identifying" with Sarah Palin, and therefore willing to give her their votes. Because, see, the only reason leftish people have gone ga-ga over Barack Obama is because they carefully and unemotionally examined his positions on key issues, and decided to support his candidacy.

Bosh. Obama's program was no different from Hillary Clinton's, and is pretty standard Democratic fare. Obama sailed to the top on a high tide of good feeling; tens of thousands of people found him inspiring, seeing in his style certain ideals, and the charisma necessary to bring those ideals to reality. So what? This is how politics always works. You think Yes, we can! is a program? No, it's an emotion. Obama's entire approach has been about inviting the masses to identify with him, and it's served him well. What on earth do you think Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" business was all about?

That's right on, IMAO. Let the record show that in all my many criticisms of Rod Dreher I never said he was a bad writer, and I noted that quite the contrary was the case at least once.

Then in the comments for the same post, another astute observation is made by someone styling himself/herself as "erstwhile contra":

This is one of the most intelligent things you've ever written; I just wish you had the same insight with regard to Crunchy Conservatism. If only you understood that conservatives who got on your case for going to a farmer's market didn't really have a problem with fresh produce. Instead, they were jokingly acknowledging that liberal form (going to farmers markets, for example) so often merges into liberal substance, as is made obvious in the bedrock liberal principle of of identity politics. It is exactly the principle of identity politics that conservatives not only reject, but define themselves against. Therefore conservatives don't love Palin because she hunts moose, they love her because her hunting of moose telegraphs that she is not a liberal. The fact she bore a Down's syndrome child telegraphs the same, leaving zero room for ambiguity and doubt, despite liberals' best efforts. The Palin phenomenon is actually the triumphant return of "lack of identity politics", with the delicious irony of Palin's irrefutable womanhood making it all the more sensational.

Suffice it to say this is a fairly adequate summation of my own views on the matter.

And for what it's worth to yous locals in NE Ohio, there's is some choice-looking produce up on Detroit in Westlake on the south side of the road, a little west of Columbia. The watermelons looked especially tasty. The dude has a mega-garden.


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[cross-posted at the Alexandria blog]