Showing posts with label ACORN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACORN. Show all posts
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tone Deaf Populism
Attempting to get his mojo back after Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, President Obama is testing his populist chops:
“We want our money back,” Barack Obama has told US banks, announcing a levy on large financial institutions to help repay the notorious bailout he imposed last year."
Some backround:
"The Treasury estimated net losses on its $700 billion bailout program at $68.5 billion for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009."
How much of this loss is from banks?
"A senior Treasury official said the bank investments will ultimately produce a positive return for taxpayers."
So, the president is taxing banks to recoup losses incurred by other TARP recipients. To make matters worse, those taxes will be passed on to average Americans in the form of higher bank fees. Nice job Mr. President, you aim for fatcats and hit the middle and working classes. As populism goes this is pretty close to being termed an epic fail. Fear not though, the American public is angry and wants its money back. You just have to pick a better target for their ire. As it happens, I have a few suggestions to get you started.
First up, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner:
"The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, while led by Geithner, pressured AIG not to disclose payments it made to such banks as Goldman Sachs Group and Deutsche Bank, to settle swap contracts at the height of the financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg report this morning."
"Emails between Geithner’s Fed and AIG lawyers show that the embattled insurer originally included the information about the swaps in a draft securities filing. But under review by the Fed, AIG was told to cross out references to the swap payments, which were made at 100 cents on the dollar.
The Fed and AIG have taken heat for months about the secrecy surrounding the swap payments, which totaled $62 billion and have been criticized as a “back door bail out” of banks. When asked about the lack of disclosure during a congressional hearing last year, a New York Fed official said that releasing such information at the height of the financial crisis would have hurt AIG’s ability to operate."
There you go Mr. President. Here's a guy who made sure that Wall St. and European fatcats took the American taxpayers for a cool $62 billion. Can't you just feel the populist juices flowing? The best part is that he works for your administration, so firing him will be a snap. You have the added bonus that he's a tax cheat and Americans can't stand the idea that taxes are only something the little people have to pay. With Timmy you get a populist two-fer, but I understand he's your buddy and you'd hate to fire him in the current job market.
Next up, the architects of that $787 billion taxpayer swindle of a "stimulus" bill.
You had three administration officials give three different numbers for jobs "saved or created" this past weekend. The only number that really matters though, is that unemployment is at 10% nationally. You claimed that without the stimulus unemployment would reach 8%. It's time to kill this boondoggle before it wastes even more money.
"Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted."
On second thought, I see that you brought David Plouffe back to right the ship and he intends to campaign this fall on the stimulus being the signature achievement of year One of Obama.
Okay, so far I'm 0-2, but this last one's gold. Go after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their former head honcho, Jim Johnson. Now that your administration has decided to remove the previous $2oo billion (each) caps for these two entities the American taxpayer is now liable for their $5 trillion of sub-prime mortgage holdings.
"New research by Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae and a housing expert, has found that from the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A. [Emphasis added] "
You can explain how community activist groups like ACORN pushed for the Community Re-Investment Act (CRA) that required banks to make risky loans in the name of fairness. You can then explain how noted fixers and prominent Democrats Jim Johnson and Frank Raines made tens of millions while defrauding banks into thinking they were making safe investments, the infamous credit default swaps. Don't forget to mention how Bernake kept interest rates nice and low, allowing a great big housing bubble to form and why you think this qualifies him to another term. Then, BOOM the housing bubble bursts, wiping out jobs and 401K's in one fell swoop.
The American public would cheer as you had Johnson frog-marched out of whatever corporate boardroom he's currently ensconced in. Every media market would cover you as their local ACORN offices were padlocked.
On second thought Mr. President, populism may not be for you after all. The thing of it is, the American people are angry at policies your administration enacted or you supported personally. Your best bet may be to try humility. You see, the American people just don't cling to their guns and their faith. The American people are pretty partial to Freedom and don't look kindly on those who want to take it away. Believe it or not sir, a huge majority of Americans are proud of their country and don't believe our elected leader should be apologizing to every two-bit dictator with a grudge.
“We want our money back,” Barack Obama has told US banks, announcing a levy on large financial institutions to help repay the notorious bailout he imposed last year."
Some backround:
"The Treasury estimated net losses on its $700 billion bailout program at $68.5 billion for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009."
How much of this loss is from banks?
"A senior Treasury official said the bank investments will ultimately produce a positive return for taxpayers."
So, the president is taxing banks to recoup losses incurred by other TARP recipients. To make matters worse, those taxes will be passed on to average Americans in the form of higher bank fees. Nice job Mr. President, you aim for fatcats and hit the middle and working classes. As populism goes this is pretty close to being termed an epic fail. Fear not though, the American public is angry and wants its money back. You just have to pick a better target for their ire. As it happens, I have a few suggestions to get you started.
First up, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner:
"The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, while led by Geithner, pressured AIG not to disclose payments it made to such banks as Goldman Sachs Group and Deutsche Bank, to settle swap contracts at the height of the financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg report this morning."
"Emails between Geithner’s Fed and AIG lawyers show that the embattled insurer originally included the information about the swaps in a draft securities filing. But under review by the Fed, AIG was told to cross out references to the swap payments, which were made at 100 cents on the dollar.
The Fed and AIG have taken heat for months about the secrecy surrounding the swap payments, which totaled $62 billion and have been criticized as a “back door bail out” of banks. When asked about the lack of disclosure during a congressional hearing last year, a New York Fed official said that releasing such information at the height of the financial crisis would have hurt AIG’s ability to operate."
There you go Mr. President. Here's a guy who made sure that Wall St. and European fatcats took the American taxpayers for a cool $62 billion. Can't you just feel the populist juices flowing? The best part is that he works for your administration, so firing him will be a snap. You have the added bonus that he's a tax cheat and Americans can't stand the idea that taxes are only something the little people have to pay. With Timmy you get a populist two-fer, but I understand he's your buddy and you'd hate to fire him in the current job market.
Next up, the architects of that $787 billion taxpayer swindle of a "stimulus" bill.
You had three administration officials give three different numbers for jobs "saved or created" this past weekend. The only number that really matters though, is that unemployment is at 10% nationally. You claimed that without the stimulus unemployment would reach 8%. It's time to kill this boondoggle before it wastes even more money.
"Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted."
On second thought, I see that you brought David Plouffe back to right the ship and he intends to campaign this fall on the stimulus being the signature achievement of year One of Obama.
Okay, so far I'm 0-2, but this last one's gold. Go after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their former head honcho, Jim Johnson. Now that your administration has decided to remove the previous $2oo billion (each) caps for these two entities the American taxpayer is now liable for their $5 trillion of sub-prime mortgage holdings.
"New research by Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae and a housing expert, has found that from the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A. [Emphasis added] "
You can explain how community activist groups like ACORN pushed for the Community Re-Investment Act (CRA) that required banks to make risky loans in the name of fairness. You can then explain how noted fixers and prominent Democrats Jim Johnson and Frank Raines made tens of millions while defrauding banks into thinking they were making safe investments, the infamous credit default swaps. Don't forget to mention how Bernake kept interest rates nice and low, allowing a great big housing bubble to form and why you think this qualifies him to another term. Then, BOOM the housing bubble bursts, wiping out jobs and 401K's in one fell swoop.
The American public would cheer as you had Johnson frog-marched out of whatever corporate boardroom he's currently ensconced in. Every media market would cover you as their local ACORN offices were padlocked.
On second thought Mr. President, populism may not be for you after all. The thing of it is, the American people are angry at policies your administration enacted or you supported personally. Your best bet may be to try humility. You see, the American people just don't cling to their guns and their faith. The American people are pretty partial to Freedom and don't look kindly on those who want to take it away. Believe it or not sir, a huge majority of Americans are proud of their country and don't believe our elected leader should be apologizing to every two-bit dictator with a grudge.
Monday, November 30, 2009
ACORN's Back in Business
Eric Holder's Justice Department has overturned the will of Congress and re-opened the Federal spigot to ACORN. This Attorney General is rewarding fraud, instead of prosecuting it. The money is to be spent for ACORN's housing assistance, the very program that James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles exposed as rife with corruption.
When he wasn't writing entertaining stories, C.S. Lewis was offering sage political advice. He advised the progressives' of his day "If you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.". Being a true-blue progressive, Wrong-way Eric is following the road dictated by the monied interests of the left, moveon.org and George Soros. The ACORN decision is just the latest case where politics has trumped justice. Some examples:
1)Ignoring the OLC decision that the vote to give Washington D.C. a representative in the U.S. House was unconstitutional.
2)Dismissing charges in a voter intimidation case against three members of the New Black Panther Party after they had been convicted.
3)Forcing a U.S. Attorney in New Mexico to drop an investigation of Governor Bill Richardson.
4)Re-opening a case against members of the CIA for the interrogation techniques they employed against members of Al Qaeda.
5)Treating KSM and his 9/11 co-conspirators as common criminals worthy of a jury trial in NYC.
6)Inviting Democratic strategist Donna Brazile to speak to employees of the Justice Department.
I believe the above examples make a pretty good case that under Eric Holder's leadership we have the most politicized justice department in modern memory. This latest decision to restore funds to ACORN overturns the will of Democrats as well as Republicans. I hope the Democratic members of Congress will join their Republican colleagues and insist that the funding ban they enacted be enforced.
Andrew Breitbart of biggovernment.com recently issued A.G. Holder a challenge, "investigate ACORN or I'll release the rest of what I have on ACORN before the 2010 elections". With this decision, Holder has doubled down on his bet on ACORN. I say, if Mr. Breitbart has more evidence of dirty dealing by ACORN it needs to be released now rather than later.
When he wasn't writing entertaining stories, C.S. Lewis was offering sage political advice. He advised the progressives' of his day "If you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.". Being a true-blue progressive, Wrong-way Eric is following the road dictated by the monied interests of the left, moveon.org and George Soros. The ACORN decision is just the latest case where politics has trumped justice. Some examples:
1)Ignoring the OLC decision that the vote to give Washington D.C. a representative in the U.S. House was unconstitutional.
2)Dismissing charges in a voter intimidation case against three members of the New Black Panther Party after they had been convicted.
3)Forcing a U.S. Attorney in New Mexico to drop an investigation of Governor Bill Richardson.
4)Re-opening a case against members of the CIA for the interrogation techniques they employed against members of Al Qaeda.
5)Treating KSM and his 9/11 co-conspirators as common criminals worthy of a jury trial in NYC.
6)Inviting Democratic strategist Donna Brazile to speak to employees of the Justice Department.
I believe the above examples make a pretty good case that under Eric Holder's leadership we have the most politicized justice department in modern memory. This latest decision to restore funds to ACORN overturns the will of Democrats as well as Republicans. I hope the Democratic members of Congress will join their Republican colleagues and insist that the funding ban they enacted be enforced.
Andrew Breitbart of biggovernment.com recently issued A.G. Holder a challenge, "investigate ACORN or I'll release the rest of what I have on ACORN before the 2010 elections". With this decision, Holder has doubled down on his bet on ACORN. I say, if Mr. Breitbart has more evidence of dirty dealing by ACORN it needs to be released now rather than later.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The shameless seven
The U.S. Senate voted 83-7 in a rare demonstration of bi-partisan resolve to keep ACORN from receiving federal funds through HUD. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles for their gutsy reporting. ACORN has a lot of friends in high places. Heck, seven Senators still voted to give them funding after the revelations of criminality. They are: Gillibrand (D-NY), Casey (D-PA), Durbin (D-IL), Burris (D-IL), Sanders (I-VT), Leahy (D-VT) and Whitehouse (D-RI). The voters of Vermont and Illinios should be especially proud that both their senators stood up for an organization that was caught on four and counting occasions giving advice on setting up a brothel for underage girls from Central America.
Those that follow ACORN know that they don't limit themselves to giving tax and housing advice to prostitutes and their pimps. They also dabble in vote fraud. The organization is being investigated in a dozen states for their voter registration practices. Even with these investigations the U.S. Census bureau was going to let them help with next years census. I guess they figure if they can create democrat voters out of thin air, they will be an asset in inflating the number of Americans. Two twentysomethings with an outlandish story and a hidden camera put a stop to that however.
While ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson believes this story is best left to cable television and the NY Times doesn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. At least according to this internal email from last fall: "The Times reporter who wrote that story, Stephanie Strom wanted to pursue the story further, but she was discouraged by her superiors at the Times and gave up after blistering phone conversation with then-candidate Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Strom revealed in an email: “I’m calling a halt to my efforts. I just had two unpleasant calls with the Obama campaign, wherein the spokesman was screaming and yelling and cursing me, calling me a rightwing nut and a conspiracy theorist and everything else.” Explaining why she wanted to pursue the story further in another email Strom wrote:
The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what — and for the charities like the housing orgs, that’s a problem. Charitable money cannot be spent on political activities. It’s a big no-no that can cost charitable organizations their exemptions." You can't get friends much higher than President of the United States.
This is an organization that has received at least 53 million dollars from the federal government since 1993 and is set to receive many times that from the stimulus bill. Barney Frank is a huge supporter of ACORN and it will be interesting to see if the House strips ACORN of taxpayer funds. If and when the vote happens, I'll post an update with the names of those who want your money to support criminals.
Update: The House voted 345-75 to strip ACORN of all federal funds. Names of the 75, all democrats below:
Baldwin, Becerra,Brady (PA),Brown, Corrine, Butterfield, Capuano, Carson (IN), Castor (FL)Cleaver, Clyburn, Crowley, Cummings, Davis (IL), DeGette, Delahunt, Doyle, Edwards (MD)Ellison, Engel, Fattah, Filner, Fudge, Green (Al), Grijalva, Hinchey, Hirono, Holt, Honda, Jackson (IL),Jackson-Lee (TX),Johnson, E. B., Kilpatrick (MI)Kucinich, Larsen (WA), Lee (CA), Lewis (GA), Lynch, Markey (MA)McCollum, McDermott, McGovern, Meeks (NY), Mollohan, Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Nadler (NY), Neal (MA), Olver, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Polis (CO), Price (NC), Rahall, Rangel, Roybal-Allard, Rush, Sánchez, Linda, T.Schakowsky, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, Sherman, Sires, Slaughter, Stark, Thompson (MS), Towns, Tsongas, Velázquez, Waters, Watson,Waxman, Wexler,Woolsey
Sadly, most of the Massachusetts delegation chose to continue funding ACORN. They are: Capuano, Delahunt, Lynch, Markey, McGovern, Neal, Olver, Tsongas. If enabling child prostitution isn't enough for these Reps to pull the plug on ACORN what is?
Those that follow ACORN know that they don't limit themselves to giving tax and housing advice to prostitutes and their pimps. They also dabble in vote fraud. The organization is being investigated in a dozen states for their voter registration practices. Even with these investigations the U.S. Census bureau was going to let them help with next years census. I guess they figure if they can create democrat voters out of thin air, they will be an asset in inflating the number of Americans. Two twentysomethings with an outlandish story and a hidden camera put a stop to that however.
While ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson believes this story is best left to cable television and the NY Times doesn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. At least according to this internal email from last fall: "The Times reporter who wrote that story, Stephanie Strom wanted to pursue the story further, but she was discouraged by her superiors at the Times and gave up after blistering phone conversation with then-candidate Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Strom revealed in an email: “I’m calling a halt to my efforts. I just had two unpleasant calls with the Obama campaign, wherein the spokesman was screaming and yelling and cursing me, calling me a rightwing nut and a conspiracy theorist and everything else.” Explaining why she wanted to pursue the story further in another email Strom wrote:
The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what — and for the charities like the housing orgs, that’s a problem. Charitable money cannot be spent on political activities. It’s a big no-no that can cost charitable organizations their exemptions." You can't get friends much higher than President of the United States.
This is an organization that has received at least 53 million dollars from the federal government since 1993 and is set to receive many times that from the stimulus bill. Barney Frank is a huge supporter of ACORN and it will be interesting to see if the House strips ACORN of taxpayer funds. If and when the vote happens, I'll post an update with the names of those who want your money to support criminals.
Update: The House voted 345-75 to strip ACORN of all federal funds. Names of the 75, all democrats below:
Baldwin, Becerra,Brady (PA),Brown, Corrine, Butterfield, Capuano, Carson (IN), Castor (FL)Cleaver, Clyburn, Crowley, Cummings, Davis (IL), DeGette, Delahunt, Doyle, Edwards (MD)Ellison, Engel, Fattah, Filner, Fudge, Green (Al), Grijalva, Hinchey, Hirono, Holt, Honda, Jackson (IL),Jackson-Lee (TX),Johnson, E. B., Kilpatrick (MI)Kucinich, Larsen (WA), Lee (CA), Lewis (GA), Lynch, Markey (MA)McCollum, McDermott, McGovern, Meeks (NY), Mollohan, Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Nadler (NY), Neal (MA), Olver, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Polis (CO), Price (NC), Rahall, Rangel, Roybal-Allard, Rush, Sánchez, Linda, T.Schakowsky, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, Sherman, Sires, Slaughter, Stark, Thompson (MS), Towns, Tsongas, Velázquez, Waters, Watson,Waxman, Wexler,Woolsey
Sadly, most of the Massachusetts delegation chose to continue funding ACORN. They are: Capuano, Delahunt, Lynch, Markey, McGovern, Neal, Olver, Tsongas. If enabling child prostitution isn't enough for these Reps to pull the plug on ACORN what is?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
