“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”–George Santayana
What would Santayana (1863-1952) say were he with us today? Although born in Madrid, Santayana lived and taught in the United States for decades, an amused, slightly detached observer of the human panoply and its addiction to folly. Recalling the disater of the Carter years–the economic dégringolade (remember the “misery index“?), the foreign policy disasters (remember the Iran hostage crisis?), recalling above all the hang-dog, defeatist attitude of the Carter years (remember the “malaise” speech?)–Santayana would doubtless have shaken his head as so many Americans (and even more, so many Europeans) are loosing their heads over Barack Obama.
Here, after all, is a man who is a distillation of Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, and Bill “the bomber” Ayres. On taxes. On foreign policy. On free speech. On government entitlements. On all this and more Obama is the most left-wing candidate in the history of the Republic. And yet he is greeted with open arms not only by self-confessed revolutionaries like Bill Ayres but by Mom and Pop Democrat in a taxing district near you.
How do you explain it? Bush Derangement Syndrome (exacerbated by Palin Hysteria Syndrome)? In part. There is also a large quantum of liberal guilt operating, an emotion that Team Obama has been quick to capitalize on.
Ask yourself this: What is the thing a good liberals feel most guilty about? Racism. Yes, they feel guilty being American, especially if they are well to do; the men among them feel guilty about being men, just as the heterosexuals feel guilty about their sexual orientation. But in the great sweepstakes of guilt, race trumps everything. Obama comes wielding all the usual left-wing nostrums about “fairness” (i.e., what’s yours is his, or at least the government’s) and “sharing” and getting along with and talking to our enemies. But what he offers above all is expiation for the imagined taint of racism.
The liberal says: “We have sinned. We are guilty. Please absolve us of our wrong.”
Team Obama says, “Sure, but it’s going to cost you.”
Part of the cost seems to be a simple recognition of historical truth. Thomas Sowell touched on this yesterday when he wondered, not without exasperation, whether facts still mattered in our political life. The current economic crisis seems to have benefitted Obama in the polls. But how could that be? Sowell reminds us of some forgotten facts:
Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years– including the present year– denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.
It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today’s financial crisis.
Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.
Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration “right-wing ideology” of “de-regulation” that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?
Yes, they matter alright, because without them we might actually believe that, as Sowell puts it, it was “it was the Bush administration ‘right-wing ideology’ of ‘de-regulation’ that set the stage for the financial crisis.”
Ultimately, the question is not whether facts matter but whether we can get people to face up to them before it is too late. Ideology is like a field of snow on a sunny day: it can produce temporary blindness; ideology supplemented by liberal guilt is like a field of snow on a sunny day after a powerful draught of opium: it produces temporary blindness along with soporific insensibility.
Sooner or later, the mists will dissipate, the intoxication will give way to something harder and more unpleasant. And when that happens–let us pray that it is not too late–people will begin asking questions.
Mr. Sowell mentions Congressman Barney Frank. One of the questions that people will likely begin asking concerns Frank’s romantic relationship with Herb Moses, a “Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.” According to Fox News (h/t to Mark Steyn on The Corner for this story),
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 Mae.
See, “Impropriety, the appearance of.” And there’s more:
The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses “helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs.”
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.
Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.
The last time I checked, there wasn’t a syllable about this in The New York Times. Just imagine if the story featured a different cast of characters: John McCain, for example, and some fictional romantic interest. Just imagine what you’d be reading in our former paper of record, the AP wire, and seeing on the establishment news programs.
Barney Frank, Barney Frank, Barney Frank. Let’s see, wasn’t he the Congressman who was having sex with a chap who ran a gay prostitution ring out of Frank’s Capitol Hill apartment? Er, yes. And wasn’t he the Congressman who just this last spring was was busying supporting legislation to decriminalize marijuana? Right again! I suppose it’s understandable why Congressman Franks would prefer that his public were as stoned as possible: less chance then for them to notice or to care what else he was up to. If you’re a gay Democrat (don’t try it if you’re a Republican), your private life is your own. But there are still one or two busybodies out there who will notice when policies you supported lead to the evaporation of a trillion dollars and the destruction of a large swathe of the American banking industry. Mark Steyn, as usual, has the rapier-like anecdote that brings a smile to one’s lips even as it chills the blood. Citing the revelation of Frank’s relationship with the “Fannie male,” Mark mentions an email he’d had from a reader proposing a new Hollywood adaptation: Broke Bank Mountain. Mark quotes his correspondent thus:
In defense of the BBC (words I never thought I’d type), Doctor Who has been turned into a multi-million dollar cash cow for the government-run Corporation. If the US Government put gays like that in charge of Fannie and Freddie, we might not be in this pickle.
Mark goes on to note, with his customary judiciousness, that “In fairness to Barney and his pal, they did manage to give Lehman Bros, Wachovia et al the amazing powers of Doctor Who’s Tardis. One minute the bank’s standing there, the next it’s vanished. If only we knew where to. But somewhere out there is a distant galaxy that’s suddenly acquired an amazing new ATM network.”
A BESTIARY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT (OR) DWARFS ON THE SHOULDERS OF MIDGETS
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. ~Plato
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where they is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it. ~Clarence Darrow
I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~Doug Larson
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. ~Thomas Jefferson
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen. ~George E. MacDonald
One ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. ~ George Orwell
It seems to me this “Democrats are afraid to be called racists” “explanation” of the inexplicable fact that *SOME PEOPLE PREFER THE CADNDIATE I DISLIKE* is as simplistic, and as wrong, as the “Republicans are racists” explanation of the same inexplicable fact from the Democrats.
UNFORTUNATELY,ONLY A SMALL NUMBER OF VOTERS KNOW FACTS SUCH AS THESE. THE MSM,EXCEPT FOR FOX, NEVER REPORT THEM OUT OF PARTISANSHIP OR IGNORANCE. THE LEFTISTS OF THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES DOMINATE THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE MEDIA, AND THEIR ANTI-AMERICAN BIASES HAVE HELPED PRODUCE A NEW GENERATION THAT IS ANXIOUS TO ELECT A PRESIDENT WHO WILL PLEASE THE ARAB WORLD, AMERICA DESPISING EUROPE, AND THEIR COLLEGE PROFESSORS. CONGRATULATIONS. AND GOD HELP AMERICA.
“Dozens of interviews, most from people who requested anonymity to avoid legal repercussions, offer an inside account of the critical juncture when Fannie Mae’s new chief executive, under pressure from Wall Street firms, Congress and company shareholders, took additional risks that pushed his company, and, in turn, a large part of the nation’s financial health, to the brink.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05fannie.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
Barney’s boy friend and
Barney Frank assured us as late as July that these mortgages were safe.
“There is nothing to see here move on.” “We need to move ahead and let these companies do their jobs.” “So that mortgages for low income family’s will not be hampered!”~
I lost my job at AIG and many of my friends lost their life savings at Wachovia.
Did I mention that Barney Frank is a Democrat and part of the Democrat ‘do nothing’ congress. We still haven’t recovered from what Bill Clinton did to our textile and furniture economy in NC. After he pushed his NAFTA and unbalanced World Free Trade.~
Wal-Mart stock is up!
Hey! Maybe they might hire a 55 year old man- looking for my resume, and my Republican absentee ballot. MAD IN NC.
I’m a very regular viewer of the business channels (such as CNBC and Bloomberg).
I can assure you that the financial press has been consistently well behind the curve in its reporting on the current crisis in finance.
As housing inflated though mid-2005 there was never a mention of items such as “liar loans,” or of “ninja loans” or of “no-doc loans.” Rather, the press was quite content to watch housing grossly inflate – possibly because the reporters’ own homes were inflating and it would not do to ask too many questions. Instead, they urged the public to purchase $2 million fixer-uppers in Compton.
When early last year (2007) the “sub-prime” mess first appeared, the press engaged in “minimization.” We were told to pay no attention. It’s just a minor problem confined to a very few loans and was a trivial problem (that has now destroyed the economy).
Four years ago at this time, we heard nothing but “macaca” and of Mark Foley. Those matters were trivial compared to the (so far) trillion dollar financial tsunami. But today, the press has no intention of discussing causation and the economic disaster because it would sink the liberals/Dems out of sight.
If the public is to be informed, it will have to be via the blogs. The press will blame Bush/McCain/Repubs and will have zero recollection of Frank, Dobbs, and Company or of their own complicity in this fiasco.
The public has every right to be furious and that fury should be aimed directly at the Dems and at the liberal media, which is absolutely incapable of covering reality.
The public will, one day, wake up and there will be Hell to pay. For right now, the system is dysfunctional. The public is turning for salvation to the same captains who just sailed the ship into the iceberg. Their trillion dollar bailout will, of course, simply compound the problem and, no, the taxpayers will never make a profit on the deal – those believing otherwise are to be pitied.
The choice was this: Either make six figure loans to those collecting welfare benefits or to those collecting unemployment benefits (two valid income sources for loans) or you’re a racist. You could get prosecuted by Janet Reno.
Result: Disaster = and have no doubt it was the liberals who are primarily responsible.
Why not start a movement to vote against every incumbent in Congress?
Barney Frank’s involvement in the current economic mess should destroy the Democratic Party on Election Day. Alas, we do not live in a fair world. How many voters will know the truth in time? It has finally dawned on me that Barack Obama could win the election—and be wildly unpopular before the day of his inauguration? We could see a severe case of buyer’s remorse.
Journalism is dead.
We only have ourselves to blame. The voting public does little to vote out the incumbents. Until we change our ways and insist on results, of our elected leaders not much will change.
Isn’t it clear the number one job of an elected offical is to get reelected, over doing what’s right for the country.
Gov. Palin would be a great start for changing our ways and giving people that do want to do the right thing a chance to impact our country in a positive manner.
David,
Please don’t forget that Obama wrote a letter last year warning of the subprime danger–a letter. The same brilliant military strategist who stood on stages across the country and announced his opposition to the surge and his plans for troop withdrawal without even talking with General Petraeus. He spoke truth to power. But when it came to confronting Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, well he ignored McCain’s proposed legislation and a year later wrote a letter. Maybe within his first year of office he will send letters to Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea. He might even put his new presidential seal on the letterhead. That ought to do the trick.
I was disappointed to see that some readers used this post as an occasion to indulge in inappropriate remarks about Barney Frank’s personal life. I’ve removed those that have come to my attention. The impropriety would have been the same had Congressman Frank’s liaison at Fannie Mae had been named Hermine, not Herb. The issue is Barney Frank’s mendacity, dereliction of duty, and unprofessional behavior, not his sex life.
It is hard to understand why Republicans seem to enjoy being “punked” again and again by the Democrats. By failing to bring this scandal to full light, naming names and citing dates and actions, they are bound to lose this election. Meanwhile, they will continue to be politically bitch slapped by those wily Dems.
The MSM has told us the truth – everything has been brought on by Republicans and G.W. Bush, vote them all out of office and let the Democrats be our leaders? Time for a One Party system without any Checks and Balance. We can trust the Democrats they have never lied about anything to the public. Vote for Obama to lead the way and congress will be glad to give him money to spend. A job for everyone along with new TV’s, new cars, new houses, new friends, new everything in the New World. I am impatient to get started so let’s just crown him now and forget the election as Axlerod has already stated it will be the largest landslide for Obama.
There are consequences for conduct . . . the truth has to be told, and if the MSM won’t tell it, someone else must!
There is an answer:
http://www.intouch.org/atf/cf/%7B865500FE-874B-487B-A95C-C0B327D0A690%7D/LP080928.pdf
Roger:
I agree. His sex life is of no consequence to anybody, his running Fannie and Freddy into the ground is. But Massachusetts is a state with one political party and Frank will be there for life, regardless of how inept he is.
Apparently too many voters have made up their minds and choose not to be confused by any facts.
No matter how many times they might see videos showing how it was the Democrats who defended Freddie & fannie, no matter how many times they are told that it was McCain who tried to rein this in, they will believe that the Republicans only care about the rich guys on Wall Street.
When they finally realize that nothing will change under Democratic leadership, when they see their pension funds underfunded, when their 401ks become valueless, when their taxes are raised and capital pulls out to find some investment overseas, maybe they will reconsider.
But it will be too late – they will have the disaster conservatives forecast. Unfortunately so will the rest of us. Unfortunately the rest of us will
Anyone really thinking about the present political situation in which a man with absolutely no real-world qualifications, and no real-world performance record is being handed the most powerful political office in the world, has got to ask…”what forces are really operating here?” Now it certainly isnt reason, facts, or even reality is it? It certainly isnt his “record” or even his professional behaviour..these are categories that dont even exist when applied to Obama. If you insist on remaining on the rational plane you will understand NOTHING of what is going on.
I would then suggest that reason will do little to explain Barney Frank, nor will it explain his appeal to his constituents, who will, after all, undoubtedly re-elect him, and I submit would re-elect him by an even greater margin if he did even more damage.
Nothing short of seething malevolence explains Frank and nothing short of self induced trance explains his supporters,
and that means those who support
tacitly as well actively
If you want to understand Frank you could look to Freud, but if you want to understand the phantasmagoric quality of this election year dont look to the platform of the Democratic Party, nor even Karl Marx. Instead I would study Marshall McLuhan and the ways sheer unreality is mass produced and imbibed.
ON behalf of Doctor Who fans everywhere, I protest the odious comparison.
For fans of Dr. Who, remember the last two episodes of Season 3 with “The Master”? The Master is the nemesis of Dr. Who and he specializes in manipulation of humans. In the first episode he uses a satellite signal to beam subliminal messages into the cell phone network to get all residents of the UK to vote him in as Prime Minister. Nobody knew his background other than official press releases – and any journalist who tried to dig deeper would be disappeared. The whole nation of voters felt like they WANTED to vote for him, but they couldn’t tell you anything about why they felt that way, or what was going to be better once he was elected.
Sure enough, once he was elected the world went to hell, humans from the year 100 trillion arrived to reclaim the Earth, and the Utopia promised during the election turned out to be more akin to Doomsday. Well it is science fiction after all…
Sadly, we aren’t going to have a time traveler show up and save us. Instead, we have guys like Frank being put in charge of determining culpability for this financial mess and being praised for getting the Bailout package through the House, we have a presidential candidate who has a nation a-ga-ga without ever saying anything of substance, and we have a MSM willing to lob softballs at these guys while pitching Vaseline laced hardballs to the other guys.
Doctor Who is the ultimate force for what is good and pure about humans, and he does anything he must to save mankind. The only thing Dr. Who has in common with John McCain is that they are both over 900 years old. And thus instead of picking the best man, we end up always picking the second worst man…because they are all part of the same failed system.
VOTE SAXON!
Mr. Kimball,
As a young conservative, I find myself stunned that so many of my peers are flocking to the mindless rhetoric of the Obama administration. According to American liberals, government interference in the workings of a sound economy is like hard liquor for an alcoholic: the cause of, and the solution to, all of life’s problems. What liberals, like alcoholics, fail to realize is that you cannot stop one evil with the same evil. Just as another beer will not satisfy that insatiable thirst, so too state managment of the economy will not solve problems arising from state management of the economy.
The hypocrisies inherent in the Reid-Pelosi-Obama economics have emerged full force this year, most notably in the dangerously misguided attempt to bail out not major investment banks and mortgage providers, but rather the political ideology that, throught the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (and its subsequent modifications, most notably under Pres. Clinton) forced those financial institutions to extend credit to those who could never realistitcally pay off their mortgages. The recently passed bailout bill is a bailout of failed economics and political practices. It will perpetuate our addiction to state confiscation of billions in taxation and redistribution according to a utopian, socialist worldview.
So I wholeheartedly agree with you on this point. But I find your attacks on Congressman Frank to be extremely offensive and (put crassly) counterproductive. As one who ascribes to the tradition of individual moral autonomy espoused by our nation’s true conservatives (i.e. Goldwater, not Bush), I support efforts to allow civil unions for homosexuals and to legalize medicinal marijuana use (please note that under the conservative doctrine of states’ rights, the federal government has no legal or moral jurisdiction prosecuting marijuana offenses in states where medicinal use is legal).
If your argument had stopped short of these ad hominem attacks (with the exception of the prostitution ring, which, being illegal, should have bearing on Frank’s ability to hold office), I believe it would have been far stronger. Hyperbole such as “Congressman Franks [sic] would prefer that his public were as stoned as possible” only serves to undermine the very legitimate points that the mainstream media seem to be overlooking.
love to see the reps squirm after screwing the country and stealing the 2000 election. if we can have a reagan, we can have a mcgovern. how delicious to contemplate the thought of bush watching obama take the oath!
suck it up guys, you made your bed driving centrists like me to obama, now lie in it!
Distortions, myths, half-truths, misinformation and outright lies = today’s American Journalism.
Some things never change…
How much does it cost to put a TV ad up in a congressional district? Find out! Don’t assume. Years ago, I was involved in a political campaign and discovered it would cost $300 to put an ad on CNN in my county. That was a long time ago, but still…call and find out. It may be less than you think, and you may be able to raise the money easily when people find out.
Then, get in touch with the folks at realchange.com or veteransforfreedom.com or any group creating effective ads and get together with them to buy ads following political shows.
You have a computer. Put together an 8 page newsletter explaining –clearly and wittily if possible–
1. what the economic issues are in this campaign: especially, the wealth and jobs that would be created by drilling for oil, natural gas, etc. reforms of the market AND the congress.
2. what reforms McCain-Palin would make including his use of the Presidential veto pen, something Bush never did.
3. Obama’s questionable associates: Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the anti-Americanism and racist nature of his church.
4. Obama’s disastrously wrong ideas and lack of qualifications to be commander-in-chief.
5. I think that Barney Frank’s love affair with a top executive at Fannie Mae is fair game. I never buy the National Enquirer but I used to scarf down the tabloids at my local beauty salon. I called it my “bubble-gum reading.” Gossip is terrible, terrible, but…..
MOST IMPORTANT, put your readers first. They may not be that interested in politics. Write some articles showing them how to cut their family budgets, where and how to save money, holding garage and yards sales with the proceeds going to pay down any credit card debt they may have. Make the links of their economic problems and the politicians making the rules: forbidding drilling, etc.
Biden had much to do with the bankruptcy and credit card legislation causing families such difficulties. Make the link.
Investor’s Business Daily has wonderful editorials and cartoons. Call and ask for permission to use their work.
Then, distribute your newsletter to anyone who wants one
If you put in information that’s useful forever, they won’t throw it away. It will be a keeper and may even survive in people’s homes till the 2010 which will be an opportunity to throw out more scoundrels. .
The Boston Herald did a survey last week as to who was most culpable for the crisis. The choices were Bush, Frank, McCain, Obama…Barney got 70% of the votes.
Maybe the penny has dropped.
I am male. I am white. I am also reasonably intelligent and well educated. I can tell when someone is lying to me and right now that includes a very large number of people in government and in the press. I am also aware of what has transpired both economically and during this interminable, sorry election campaign. I do not suffer fools well nor do I suffer from any degree of liberal or white guilt. Call me intolerant, homophobic, racist or unfair if you wish, I do not care any longer and really do not give a rat’s a** if others find that disturbing. I also believe there is a large and growing number of people just like me and that should be of grave concern to very many people in positions of power and authority. I am not by nature a violent person but when I get pissed off and very angry it becomes harder to control any tendency toward violence. And I am really pissed off and becoming very, very angry. While I take some issue with the French, I have a much greater appreciation for the storming of the Bastille and the use of the guillotine. We are getting close to that point in our own history.
I find campaign literature a bore. Always have.
But when a gal who was a genius at desktop publishing and I put together our 8 page Perot newsletter, we put in the kind of information people would want to keep.
Write up the Barney Frank and his lover at Fannie Mae scandal in a way that’s juicy but would be appropriate if Frank’s lover had been Valerie Plame. Go to gaypatriot.com and if they have the story, ask permission to use it. Reagan invited the Log Cabin Republicans to join his coalition, a policy I totally agree with.
HIGH GAS PRICES have been devestating to many Americans who live where there is no public transit. Show that the Democrats WANT high gas prices to “get us over our dependency on oil.” But as T. Boone Pickens has said, alternative fuels are not there yet.
HIGH FOOD PRICES are traceable to corn ethanol subsides. Corn is fed to beef and pigs etc.Now, it’s being used for fuel instead. End the ethanol subsidies and food prices will eventually come down.
Have lots of QUOTES from Sarah and McCain.
Tell the story of Sarah and BIG OIL. How she ended 30 years of squabbling and recently signed the papers for a 40 billion dollar pipleline that will bring natural gas down to the lower 38 through Idaho. Tell how Alaskans get a royalty from the oil companies of how much $2,000 a year. If we drill off California and Florida, the states will get much-needed revenue and the citizens should also get royalties. That will fast-track drilling for oil past the watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside) as the Russians call environmentalists. I’m for the purest water (which we don’t have) and the purest air (ditto). But putting some exotic bird or animal above the needs of humans, no. By the way fish love the oil rigs and the caribou love the pipelines (the warmth).
If you come up with a dynamite newsletter, make 6 or 7 of the pages generic and one or two pages local. Then, share it online.
We have a whole month. That’s several lifetimes in political terms. We absolutely can win this election.
Back in Barney Franks first sex scandal, I was a freshmen in college in a political science class of about 300 students.
We were discussing the issue, and I said something that got an instant, strong reaction from the class as a whole:
I said I thought the media was taking it easy on him.
A dozen or so people around the room laughed out loud with others, including the professor, saying at the same time, “His career is finished!!”
I stuck to my guns saying it seemed to me, looking at the tone and level of coverage, and at the Dem leadership’s reaction, he was going to weather the storm.
I’m sure some of the people in the class might have been somewhere on my side, but nobody agreed with me out loud and the majority of the class thought I was an idiot.
Not only was a right, but both the class’ reaction and this financial scandal are examples of what can go wrong when the press is peopled by a vast majority of workers from one side of the political spectrum: they influence public opinion to the point the society can’t properly judge reality.
Those students, and prof, couldn’t see clearly enough how the media was not going after Frank as they would a Republican and how that difference was going to allow him to remain in office.
And today, our society as a whole can’t see that this financial crisis was led by the Democrat leadership and Dem party idealism (affordable housing (which people couldn’t afford)).
MikeD…you are not alone. After listening to the predictions of “Obama Will Win!” I had to pay a visit to my accountants office. In the middle of the visit I blurted out ..”you know
I refuse to pay taxes to this hoax Obama”.
My accountant pushed his glasses down his nose and looked at me and said…”funny..you are the 4th person to say that this week!”
Helena Handbasket said:
“I can assure you that the financial press has been consistently well behind the curve in its reporting on the current crisis in finance.”
Well, Helena, that’s what you get for watching CNN and Bloomberg.
Fox News Channel and Fox Business have been all over these issues and did a documentary special over the weekend on the economy.
I usually watch Neil Cavuto’s 2 hour Saturday morning investment block. The food fighting makes it lively, but this weekend he turned over the two hours to getting national experts to weigh in on these issues.
If we can make these issues understandablet to bright 10 year-olds, we can win this election. Their parents may be too distracted to pay attention but if a child can get Mommy or Daddy to listen. we will have won.
Simplicity. Clarity. Directness. Think of how Sarah Palin would explain an issue (without the folksiness. that’s patented Sarah and would sound phoney coming from you).
McCain has this “noble” self-image that would not stoop to point out the truth about Obama: that he attended at least 480 times a church that was anti-white and worse anti-American. It is entirely legitimate to point this out. Black liberation theology is Marxist.
They do no believe in the sanctity of private property or individual rights.
My God, Obama wants to raise taxes “in the name of fairness”
even though all the evidence is that if you lower tax rates more revenue comes into the tax coffers.
We don’t really KNOW Obama and what he truly believes in. He has spent a lifetime making sure there is no paper trail. He refuses to allow his college Senior thesis to be revealed, etc.
Giving him the keys to our nation is a very risky idea. Nobody really knew what Castro had in mind, nor Chavez. It’s once they have the power of the state that they reveal how things will be. Remember Obama wants a civilian group equal in size to the military. There is already widespread cheating at the polls and there are millions coming from the middle-east in support of Obama. Obama himself is soothing and reassuring, but look at the cast of characters around him — including his wife. Brrrrrr!
Mike D.
You are not alone. I paid a visit to my
accountant and in middle of things I blurted out “I refuse to pay taxes to this Obama hoax”
My accountant looked at me and said..”you know you are the 4th person to say that to me this week”
Race is just icing on the cake for the majority of people. First and foremost they truly believe in big, activist, FDR/LBJ-style government. Sure, race helps them overlook a whole of flaws, but it really doesn’t matter if their candidate is Gore or Kerry or Obama. Even if the MSM weren’t so successful in their coup it would break this way. It’s a truism, but the only advantage Republicans ever have is national security in times of international crisis.
Barney Frank… waving his hand… saying:
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…”
Is it time?
Is it time to split te USA into two parts?
A Red nation and a blue?
Are our differences irreconcilable?
Think carefully about this. There is no sort of war worse then a civil war.
On the other hand, if Obama and the Democrats think so little of the Constitution as to run a candidate that is not eligible to be President, by the Constitution, has the time to fight arrived?
So do Americans give up America (which IS the Constitution ) without a fight?
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
John Stuart Mill
English economist & philosopher (1806 – 1873)
I hate to sound like a downer, but hands-down, the most politically successful presidency in history was FDR, because the worse the economy got, the more people elected him. I fear that Obama’s trying to replicate that formula. The worse things got in FDR’s day, the more popular he became. So as long as it’s not too obvious, the worse Obama makes the economy, the more popular he’ll become.
If things get bad enough, they may even repeal the 22nd amendment. And that guy’s got a lot of years left in him.
Another little detail: Obama only claims to have written a letter to the SEC. He has yet to produce that letter. I’d like to hear the SEC’s take on that.
Regarding a movement to vote them all out, I propose, instead, to vote out any who voted yes on the bailout. A lot of good Republicans voted no. They stood by their convictions. A lot of Blue-Dog Dems did, too. One Pub, Tony Davis, resigned in protest. Somebody talk him down from the ledge, please. We need more like him in Congress.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0e0846cd-694f-40d1-a6d9-55e20de176cf
Go see the Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace, then see Blink, and then tell me if it is not the best television in the world today.
This was a clear violation of ethics rules and a conflict of interest issue because it involved a Government official. Roger Kimball, I agree with you that Frank’s relationship with that male Fannie Mae exec shouldn’t be sensationalized simply because both men are gay, but their homosexual relationship is relevant because gays in Government are protected like no other human or animal on earth. You can’t hold Frank to account on this or any other issue because the gay bloc and the liberal Democrat establishment that protect the gay lifestyle is so powerful. Why else would Frank be given a pass after his involvement in that repulsive gay prostitution scandal? If that apartment had belonged to some heterosexual Republican congressman, the mainstream media and the Democrats would have made his life a living hell until he was forced to resign. The double standard we saw with Palin pales in comparison to this.
By the way: The Doctor isn’t gay. His friend Captain Jack Harkness is.
And, yes, Doctor Who IS the best television in the world today.
“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where they is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev”
I agree. All parties need to be blamed and all those that follow a party tend to be biased. Each side points fingers but nobody turns the finger around on themselves.
Self-hating Boomer said:
I hate to sound like a downer, but hands-down, the most politically successful presidency in history was FDR, because the worse the economy got, the more people elected him. I fear that Obama’s trying to replicate that formula. The worse things got in FDR’s day, the more popular he became. So as long as it’s not too obvious, the worse Obama makes the economy, the more popular he’ll become.”
Not gonna happen. Then, people didn’t have the internet nor histories of past depressions, nor the Fox News Channel, nor the Fox Business channel.
Mike D is obviously very pissed-off, but we have 30 days to go, and there are many positive things we can do.
1. Make phone calls to get out the vote for the McCain/Palin team.
2. If you have public speaking experience, volunteer to speak before a local group.
3. On election day, volunteer to poll-watch.
I have started a new blog sandrabarracuda.wordpress.com
in which I will give tips on spotting press bias, logical fallacies, argumentation, etc.
To KILOFOX:
I support a movement to throw every Congressmen out! and let’s start with a clean slate. Where do we start? Let’s get the media to give us free P.R., I bet the nation will start rallying to the movement.
Spread the word!
Pick a spot of ground you can fight from and start punching. Fight in this last month while you can, because its a month you will not have again. And it could make all the difference.
Ex-fetus: I don’t think we could have a civil war. I think its most of the US citizens against most of the government.
Greg: the propaganda of the stolen 2000 election has been laid to rest for the lie it was. The democrats operate almost wholly on the premise of stealing elections. Throwing out military ballots, presently blocking republican voter registration in Ohio, pursuing illegal immigrant and other voter fraud (such as ACORN), and so forth. How else would they get enough votes?
I think that Barney Frank’ sex life is entirely relevant and cannot be divorced from the current situation. His defiance of western norms of sex and fidelity (remember the prostitution ring run out of his house) cannot be separated from his cynical manipulation of our financial institutions. Barney has no boundaries anywhere in his life. I think that everything about him that is shameful should be exposed and shamed.
But, if the Bush Administration was so concerned, why did it do nothing? It could have criminally prosecuted Fannie and Freddie for numerous criminal violations, it could have suspeneded trading in their stock based on the frauds, etc. Bush stood by and did nothing. They were too afraid, as usual, of criticism in the media and on the Hill. And they also did nothing while there was a Republican majority. Bush is as guilty as Barney F*g.
Johnnie,
Reforms were attempted. The Dems blocked all efforts and Barney Frank was one of the main obstructionists.
Do your homework and stop embarassing yourself.
I’d like to see any of you haters take on Barney Frank in a debate. He made O’Reilly look like a lunatic the other night.
ref: “Here, after all, is a man who is a distillation of Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, and Bill “the bomber” Ayres.”
you left out Adlai Stevenson.
sandra M: look forward to the blog. I think there needs to be more sites to point out bias and discrepancies in reporting.
And also, overall, a particular party (Democrats) does not ulitmately mean the same as one candidate (Obama). Just because there was corruption in a party, does not mean one leader does not wish to reform.
RIGHT ON MOST COUNTS ROGER-BUT AT LEAST MCGOVERN WAS A DECORATED BOMBER PILOT IN WW2,DID SAY HIS POLITCAL VIEWS WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF HE HAD OWNED THE HOTEL THAT EVENTUALLY FAILED FOR HIM AND HIS WIFE AFTER LOSING HIS SENATE SEAT AND MOST RECENTLY HAS DONE AN AD AGAINST THE UNION THUG CARD CHECK. OBAMA HAS NO HOPE-HES AN OUTRIGHT HARDCORE COMMIE WITH SYMPATHY FOR ISLAM THAT MAKES YOU WONDER ABOUT HIS COMMITTMENT TO AMERICAS PRINCIPLES. JUST HIS ASSOCIATES(WRIGHT,PLEGLER,MOSS,AYERS ,DOHRN,REZKO,KHALI,AUCHI,ETC) GIVE CREDENCE. AND THE RECENT HARASSMENT OF DR JEROME CORSI IN KENYA SHOWS HIS CONTEMPT FOR HIS OPPONENTNS KNOWS NO BOUNDS.
Barney Frank you are a disgrace to the Jewish religion and you should be dragged out of Congress in handcuffs.
Why doesn’t Barney Frank call the great one and debate the constitution with him? He doesn’t appear to have a clue what is in it.
Yes, damn those dems and de-regulation! Regulation all the way baby, that’s the republican way… wtf?
And Barney’s ideas for the Defense Dept:
http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2008/10/dem-envisages-25-drop-in-defense.html
Barack Obama’s little shop of economic horrors
Barack Obama named Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as his top economic adviser at the White House as head of the National Economic Council.
Larry Summers is one of the people most responsible for the failure of the banking system. He was a strong advocate of scrapping Glass-Steagall. He did this under the encouragement of Former President Bill Clinton who received large contributions from Wall Street. Repeal of this regulatory act led to the repeal of more banking regulations and the spiral into the crisis we are now in. He has named a flaming liberal, Melody Barnes, as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. These people will be working closely with Barney Frank, Maxine Waters and other Congressional democrats who are culpable in the economic crisis we face today. This is very much like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum.