Personally, I find it unacceptable that middle-middle-class and lower-middle-class pay hardly any taxes. They’re middle class dammit, not poor. They should be called upon to help fund our military, CIA, FBI, etc…. Prior to the Bush tax cut, they paid 1/6 of the federal tax burden. When that tax cut expires in 2010, it will go back to the way it should be.

I’m tired of hearing middle class people complain about how hard it is, while they spend $200/mo on cellphone bills. Every Middle-schooler gets braces to fix their teeth. Wow! When I was a kid, kids didn’t want braces, because they got teased. They don’t have 3-5 kids each like when I was a kid. Two or three TV’s per house. Two or three cars. Kids have their own rooms. Electronic gadgets abound. I guess they learned the rule growing up: well-to-do people learn how to poor-mouth.

They were allowing folks to borrow money without ANY money down.(!!) And with little, if any, reassurance of secure employment on the part of the borrower.(!!) Insanity in the real world. But it makes sense if…well…if you’re a Dem. Because maybe there was a grander plan…

BO is talking on the stump today. Listen carefully to what he’s saying:
“We have to make sure these people don’t lose their homes.” Now how are they going to do that?

And did you see this? The other day a bunch of poor folks holding signs – protesting – getting all upset about losing their houses and getting ripped off. Gosh, it looked and sounded strangely familiar…like they’d been coached by some Alinsky ‘community organizers’ to me…

I thought I heard murmurings some time ago about reducing the amount these folks will have to pay on their homes in order for them to afford the mortgages. So will this mean we’ll be essentially giving, say, a $100K house to someone for maybe half its value? Wow. Not bad if you can get away with it. Would that mean that that Dem congresswoman who didn’t have one mortgage, but THREE, was worried about losing one of her houses; and correct me if I’m wrong, but was she using campaign money to pay off some mortages?

Back to BO on the stump. In the same breath, I heard BO moving on to his next project: college loans. This bailout has to move from WallStreet to Main Street, is what he’s saying. Yeah, somehow, I’m sure he and his pals will figure a way to have the taxpayer pay for the advanced educations of those he cares most about. But, you know what, I think this is where I’d like to draw the line.

I don’t even like the hard-earned money my kids’ dad has forked over to the liberal, creepy institutions of higher education they’ve attended. My kids have heard me tell them more than once: can you read? Can you think? Well, pick up a book and take care of your own education. They know I’ve about had it with these overrated halls of ivy.

Nope. I’m not too keen on my money paying for an Ayers-inspired education with the likes of Ward Churchill in the classroom. There’s no telling how mushy the mind might be that’ll receive it. And I won’t be around to tell them it’s a load.

A fascinating take on TAKING votes to STEAL elections
reposted from “barbara ny” (link at top of the following)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2087244/posts

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ALSO OF RELATED INTEREST:

Back to Square One
By Bruce Bartlett
Sunday, September 21, 2008; Washington Post, Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/19/AR2008091903185.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

“If the events of recent days prove anything, it is that we cannot believe a word that John McCain or Barack Obama has said about what he will do as president. It’s not that they have lied. Simply put, the underlying premise of everything the candidates have proposed — that the economy is fundamentally sound — is no longer operational.

The writer was deputy assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy from 1988 to 1993. Before that, he was a senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Policy Development and worked as an economist on Capitol Hill.

Inside Obama’s ACORN by Stanley Kurtz (at National Review, I think). Very informative.

BO’s ties to this organization are more far-reaching than he would have us believe, and we get a look into this network of radicals. Like Alinsky, they employ intimidation, and this tactic: “in your face” — (sound familiar? BO’s supporters are now asked to do this to those who write/speak critically of him). Necessary now that his numbers are falling.

The treatment of Freddoso surely was intimidation – threat/attempt to sue him over his revelatory book. Disrupting his radio interviews. No way does BO want the broader public to know about his history of attachment to radicals.

To be fair, the gentle, peace-loving savior favors first political insider strategy. His ugly side isn’t so obvious. But if faced with losing, has no problem resorting to hardball intimidation. The man’s going to get his way. Just ask Hillary. Or Alice (Baker?). Or Jim (Ryan?). Political opponents all.

BO specifically worked on legislation on these ACORN pet issues: living wages and banking practices/bankruptcy. I perked up when I saw “living wages” since my son – college student – showed me this assigned book “Nickel and Dimed.” A NYT bestseller(natch) says on its jacket, “has fueled nationwide campaigns for a living wage.” With Ayers hard at work, the campaign is on in our schools.

BO isn’t new to politics and the perversion of same. ACORN had a bigger hand in his entry to political office than is known.

He goes back at least to 1992, as a lawyer – ACORN’s “Project VOTE” – and the Motor Voter case. ACORN is not nonpartisan, but rather intensely radical and partisan. I think some 37 employees in Wisconsin alone (Milwaukee?) were recently charged with fraudulent voter registration. They’re not even careful about info – or lack of – on the forms they submit. Perhaps because they’re paid for each card they turn in. And if memory serves, one organization on which BO&Ayers were board members shoveled money (meant for other uses) instead to grants ($70K) to ACORN.

He was no more blind to their fraud then – and now – than he was blind to Wright’s hateful sermons.

For decades these radicals have inserted themselves in our society – destroying it bit by bit. Their former stealth tactics are now seeing the light of day. We can’t let them point the finger of blame on others. We have to fight back and expose them for who they are. And Americans have to know who BO is.

They wanna blame Republicans for the economic mess? They didn’t regulate enough? Sounds to me like the Dems are saying, “You didn’t know how stupid we are. Or how corrupt. It’s your fault you didn’t protect everybody from our stupidity and corruption.”

Well, I’ve got an answer: kick as many Dems as you can out of Congress in November, and get McCain/Palin in the White House.

She’s got a shotgun and her aim is pretty good.

It’ll be cocked and ready to hit the back sides of any Democrat – or Republican – that tries to turn tail and run from any mess created by their corruption. She doesn’t play favorites.

Just ask Alaskans.

Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 08:55:59 by dirtboy

In early June 2008, Americans learned of a VIP loan program provided to influential politicians by Countrywide Mortgage at the direction of its chairman Angelo Mozilo – and that one of the so-called ‘Friends of Angelo” was none other than Jim Johnson, a former CEO at Fannie Mae who had just been tapped to head Barack Obama’s vice presidential vetting committee.

Countrywide Friends Got Good Loans

Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.

These borrowers, known internally as “friends of Angelo” or FoA, include two former CEOs of Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of Countrywide’s mortgages, say people familiar with the matter.

One was James Johnson, a longtime Democratic Party power and an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, who this past week was named to a panel that is vetting running-mate possibilities for the presumed nominee. Another was Franklin Raines, a onetime Clinton administration budget director, who left Fannie Mae amid an accounting scandal in 2004.

Initially, Obama did what he did best, namely, obfuscate: Obama Defends Jim Johnson’s Role as VP Selecter

At a press conference today, Sen. Barack Obama said he will not ask Jim Johnson to step down from his VP selection committee despite his ties to Countrywide Mortgage. Obama said he will not vet the vetters.

Obama: “These are not folks who are working for me.”

But that only lasted one day: JIM JOHNSON STEPS DOWN

Jim Johnson, who had been leading Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee, has stepped down from the campaign.

“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept,” Obama said in a statement. “We have a very good selection process underway, and I am confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process.”

Under the bus you go, Jim. Say hi to Reverend Wright for us.

So apparently Jim Johnson’s sweetheart Countrywide mortgages were grounds to disqualify him from vetting Obama’s veep candidates. But receiving similar favorable Countrywide mortgages were not sufficient from preventing another Friend of Angelo from drafting legislation that stood to benefit the new owner of Countrywide, Bank of America, at the expense of the American taxpayer. Namely, one Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT. Chair of the Senate Banking Committee. And at the time, busy crafting bailout legislation for the mortgage industry – legislation of considerable interest to Bank of America.

The story was initially broken by Conde-Nast Portfolio (link only) and picked up by other media outlets as well.

Two Senators Appear to be “Friends of Countrywide”

The Senator, a Democrat from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee which regulates mortgage lending, was named in an article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Associated Press and earlier by Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, as one of two senators – the other being Senator Kent Conrad (D – ND) – as having received preferential treatment from Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo in obtaining mortgage loans. Dodd had earlier this year called Countrywide’s lending practices “abusive.”

So, what was Dodd’s reaction to this revelation of preferential treatment? Why, to pull out the Dem scandal management playbook. First, he denied that he got preferential treatment. When it was revealed that he knew he was getting a special deal, he claimed he thought it was for his being a longtime customer. When a former Countrywide loan officer said that Mozilo demanded of his employees that they inform the recipients of VIP loans of their special treatment, and that Dodd had received FOUR sweetheart mortgages instead of just the two initially reported by Conde Nast (saving him a total of $70,000), Dodd just simply clammed up and stonewalled.

Some called on Dodd to halt his work on crafting the mortgage bailout bill, given the allegations. But Dodd refused. After all, there was vital legislation to draft for his new patron, Bank of America.:

WASHINGTON (Map, News) – “We call it the ‘Bank of America bill on steroids.’” A House staffer told me that, demanding anonymity, but speaking on behalf of aides to GOP members of the House Financial Services Committee.

He was talking about the bill whose Senate version has been brought to the floor this week by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CN, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL. Dodd-Shelby would let mortgage lenders off the hook for bad loans, shifting the burden ultimately to taxpayers. Dodd has received approximately $70,000 in campaign contributions from Bank of America in the last year-and-a-half.

Dodd-Shelby hit the Senate floor this week amid controversy over sweetheart loan deals Dodd and other powerful politicians received from Countrywide Financial, the lender with the most exposure to subprime mortgages at risk of default.

Some journalists and Republican lawmakers are asking if Countrywide bought a bailout bill with its VIP loans to Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee

And it appeared that Bank of America was pleased with what their money bought:

NRO Doc Drop: BofA-Scripted Bank Bailout Looks Awfully Similar to Dodd-Drafted Housing Bill [Stephen Spruiell]

National Review Online has obtained an internal Bank of America “discussion document” (pdf here) on the subject of the FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008, a.k.a. the Dodd-Shelby mortgage-lender bailout bill.

Yesterday, Tim Carney reported that the prevailing sentiment on Capitol Hill is that the Dodd-Shelby bill “is exactly what Bank of America and Countrywide wanted.” BofA is in the process of acquiring Countrywide. Countrywide is currently embroiled in a scandal over its V.I.P. program, under which several powerful politicians, including Sen. Chris Dodd, got preferential loan rates.

This discussion document (dated March 11, 2008) would appear to support the contention that BofA essentially wrote the bailout section of the bill. Almost all of BofA’s preferences are mirrored in the Dodd-Shelby legislation. The BofA document even offers PR tips, such as “We believe that any intervention by the federal government will be acceptable only if it is not perceived as a bail-out of the bond market.”

And the estimated cost to taxpayers for that bailout of BofA and other mortgage lenders? Estimates range from $300 to $500 billion. So for $70,000 in campaign cash and $70,000 in mortgage discounts … well, you do your own math as to what that costs each taxpayer.

And the sorriest part of this affair? After all these revelations, Dodd was still on Obama’s short list of veep candidates. Which goes to show just what Obama thinks of the Politics of Personal Enrichment – that it is business as usual for the Democratic Party. Change? Try chump change. As in, Obama and Dodd thinks we are the chumps because they stick us with the costs. There’s only one way to prove them wrong. Make their corruption cost them their jobs.

As an investment professional I can attest to the veracity of what Mr. Poole has written here. Doubling the capital gains tax is incredibly foolish, since most Americans who have retirement funds are exposed to the negative effects of this idiocy. Young people will find fewer jobs and economic stagnation awaiting them after graduation. I remember what the 1970′s were like. I was a teenager and young adult during that time. Jobs were hard to find, and unemployment was higher than it is today. Inflation (take a look at Obama’s energy proposals and think of how higher energy costs will harm the economy further)was trending higher, eventually forcing the Fed to put on the brakes real hard. It was not a fun time to be young and trying to get started.

However, I fear that the only way to get socialism out of our system here in the U.S. is to endure its painful consequences again and learn the lesson we learned thirty years ago (I am a former Leftist who left the Left in 1987). Most of Obama’s support is from the under-40 crowd, the education unions, and the last-hurrah Older Boomer Cohort (I’m one of the Younger Boomers). And it is primarily female. Well, ladies, how are you going to be able to hitch up with young guys and start families if yours and your men’s economic prospects are considerably more dim than they now are?