Just call it a "loophole", whatever

Robert Novak reports on Obama's plan to pay for $800 billion in new spending by "closing tax loopoholes":

Obama has made clear that he would try to roll back President Bush's tax cuts, but that does not come under the definition of a "loophole." A loophole consists of a conniving tax attorney discovering a weakness in the Internal Revenue Code or such a weakness intentionally legislated by Congress under the instigation of crafty lobbyists. The only specific tax legislation contained in his paper would raise the capital gains rate for most shareholders, restore taxation on dividend income to pre-Bush standards and restore the full estate tax.

These were not loopholes but presidential proposals enacted by Congress. The Obama paper paints a picture of lobbyists running wild on Capitol Hill but neglects to assess the impact on the economy during the current financial crisis of taking a serious strike against the stockholding public.

Barack Obama's Politics and the Current Financial Turmoil

I can't get this one thought out of my head about the current financial mess: when companies do silly things, crazy things, things which go against their own self-interest, almost inevitably we find out later that politics was somehow involved. That's why I think Mona Charen's latest piece on ACORN's relationship to the mortgage mess makes so much sense. These ACORN people ought to all be put in jail for the election fraud they commit; here's something to jog your memory:

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."

ACORN explained that this was an "isolated" incident, yet similar stories have been reported in Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado -- all swing states, by the way. ACORN members have been prosecuted for voter fraud in a number of states. (See www.rottenacorn.com.) Their philosophy seems to be that everyone deserves the right to vote, whether legal or illegal, living or dead.

I remember the ACORN voter fraud incident in Northern Ohio circa 2003-04. Some of the names registered were "Mickey Mouse" and "Jive Turkey"; I'm not making that up. It was hastily reported on the news with muted outrage if any.

Also, from the news report by FOX:

"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."

Democrat labor leader Cecil Roberts said Jesus was a "Community Organizer" s well. I wonder if that means he smoked pot?

But here's the other reason ACORN needs to be permanently destroyed. I've been hearing from all friends left of center and right of Pat Buchanan that it was the familiar bogeyman named Corporate Greed driving the sub-prime loan market. The following demonstrates that this is at the very most only half the story.

ACORN recognized very early the opportunity presented by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. As Stanley Kurtz has reported, ACORN proudly touted "affirmative action" lending and pressured banks to make sub-prime loans. Madeline Talbott, a Chicago ACORN leader, boasted of "dragging banks kicking and screaming" into dubious loans. And, as Sol Stern reported in City Journal, ACORN also found a remunerative niche as an "advisor" to banks seeking regulatory approval. "Thus we have J.P. Morgan & Co., the legatee of the man who once symbolized for many all that was supposedly evil about American capitalism, suddenly donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN." Is this a great country or what? As conservative community activist Robert Woodson put it, "The same corporations that pay ransom to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pay ransom to ACORN."

We've all been told that Barack Obama is different than race-baiting money-grubbing scumbags like Sharpton and Jackson, but his ties to ACORN reveal that he is substantially no different. I'll have to only agree halfway with Senator Joe Biden: articulate, Si; clean, No.

Alcee Hastings post on Alexandria blog

I posted my "musings" on Alcee Hastings comments over at the Alexandria blog. I was too lazy to repost it here.

"You probably think this blog is about you..."

I got a kick out of this Obama ad.


Hey, the person cropping this photo cut poor Barack's ears off! Oh, it was done on purpose? Never mind....