Giving up on "her" seat?

On drudge: CAROLINE KENNEDY ENDS SENATE SEAT BID. That's disappointing. I thought she was the perfect pick. She was a woman with no relevant political experience entitled to the seat because of her last name. She was going to replace a woman who, when she got her senate seat, had no relevant political experience but was entitled to the seat because of her last name. Oh well...

Even more on the inauguration. Oh my!

An article by Mark Steyn (via cg):

"What happened last week was that the Bush administration formally declared a
federal emergency in the District of Columbia.

So what was it? An ice storm? A hurricane?

No, it's the inauguration of his successor. The inauguration is scheduled to make landfall on Tuesday and wreak havoc all night long, as Category Five conga lines buckle highways round town, and emergency busboy crews find themselves overwhelmed as they struggle to clear drained champagne flutes. So the mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, put in a request for more federal money, and, apparently, the easiest way to sluice the cash to him no questions asked was for the president to declare a state of emergency in the District and funnel however many extra gazillions he wants through FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I don't know if anybody's ever done that," said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary."

This is what the military calls "mission creep." You start out with a goal in mind and end up doing something completely different. In this case, declaring a 'federal emergency' was supposed to be just that. An emergency. Incoming hurricane! Terrorist attack! Human sacrifice! Cats and dogs living together! In short, something worthy of being called an 'emergency' at all. But then again, maybe I'm overreacting. Clinton did the same thing for W in 2000. Uh, didn't he? Oh, never mind...

Read the entire article (it's a good read). Here's just a bit more:

"We're now told that the problem with the last New Deal is that it was too
small, so Obama's new New Deal has to be even bigger. That's like telling New
Orleans that the problem is they're not far enough below sea level so they need
to dig deeper. If Washington is now a federal disaster area, it would be nice to
think of Barney Frank and the gang waving from the roof of the Capitol until
they can be evacuated somewhere safe, like one of the outlying South Sandwich
Islands or Charley Rangel's vacation property in the Dominican Republic. But,
alas, Washington is one of those disaster relief cases, where they get the
relief, and the rest of us get the disaster. As the incoming president has said,
this is the worst crisis since …oh, at least the great Vernon, Conn., snowfall
of 1996. To facilitate the stimulus, I urge him to declare every American his
own individual federal disaster area."

Flattered & Blushing linkaround

A good linkaround from the Anchoress:

"Unfortunately, Embryonic Stem Cell Research WILL be opened to Government Funding (as will just about everything else - why not, money grows on trees) under President Obama and a congress full of people who don’t seem to care that the “promise” of Embryonic stem cell research is a gargantuan lie."

"Obama: No torture…except maybe when its’ necessary. Never forget that in 2002 Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats were briefed on torture and some of them wondered if waterboarding would be “enough”. It was later apparently decided that the best thing to do with waterboards was beat President Bush over the head with them as “a moral issue” until they got into power..."

"Just a wee reminder, because everyone always forgets: Rendition began under President Clinton - something perhaps Leon Panetta should talk about at his confirmation hearing. So did the policy of regime change in Iraq begin under President Clinton in 1998. Same year President Clinton declared that Saddam had nukes. We really need better intelligence."

"If I hadn’t already weaned myself of my Diet Pepsi addiction, this would do it for me. A family member who lives in DC writes, “this place is starting to feel like North Korea, with its “Dear Leader” vibe. I’m all for celebrating Obama’s inauguration, but I’ll be damned if I want to see his face on my soda with a “grapeful” message included.” "

"Former Senator Bill Frist who - aside from being a miserable racist Republican is also a physician with a deep commitment to the improvement of health standards in Africa, says George W. Bush has saved 10 million lives on that continent, with his AIDS and Malaria initiatives - the ones that no one ever wants to talk about. "

Lots of links. Lots of good reads. So go over and knock yourselves out.

Carter, Clinton, Obama - oh my! Part 2

"Obama: Bush a 'good man' but mistaken" An article I saw on Brietbart (via Drudge) had two sentences that stuck out to me, here's the second (the first was here):

"Obama flayed Bush over the Iraq war, accused him of taking his eye off the ball
in Afghanistan and accused him of favoring the rich and ruining the US economy." (emphasis mine)

So for Bush to have ruined the US economy, he would have had to cause the housing bubble. How did this happen? How did we get here? Let's start with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two democrat inventions (FDR the former, LBJ the latter) known as GSEs (government sponsored enterprises). In a nutshell, a GSE is "capitalist profits, socialist losses; " that is, when profits are made, the executives make huge bonuses. When bad, the taxpayer is on the hook for the losses (and the executives still make huge bonuses!). When Fannie and Freddie went down, the entire housing market went down with it. These two inventions got absolutely ginormous in the last decade, mostly on subprime loans. But let's back up just a bit.

Before Freddie and Fannie became ridiculously large, there was the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 (Jimmy Carter). It was designed to make sure low-income residents of downtrodden neighborhoods received bank loans. Now the CRA by itself is not to blame for the current meltdown (although it was the beginning of government encouraging 'risky loans'). It had no teeth. It was a bunch of arm-twisting of financial institutions. And back in 1977 and so forth, there were no subprime loans advertised in papers (my parents bought a house then, and it was definitely not subprime). So how did the subprime loan business get so big?

Fast forward to 1995. Bill Clinton gave the CRA teeth (basically made affirmative action a banking requirement). The Glass-Stengal Act of the 1930s, designed to keep banks out of the speculation business following the bank failures during the Great Depression, was repealed. Banks no longer mitigated risky loans with savings deposits (so more risk, and less to back it up - read here). ACORN (yes, THAT ACORN) then launched campaign after campaign of intimidation coupled with protest to force banks to lower credit standards, which they subsequently did (a little). At the same time, Fannie and Freddie lowered credit standards (A LOT. They were pushed to do so by democrats in Congress at the urging of ACORN. yes, THAT ACORN again). Fannie and Freddie began to buy subprime mortgages on the secondary mortgage market while holding just 3% (or less) capital to back up the loans. This encouraged banks to offer more subprime loans, which they did. These loans were subsequently bought up by Freddie and Fannie. More were offered (greed begets greed). You can see where this goes. By 2006, subprime loans made up a full 30% of total loans (they were 2% back in 2002). By 2007, Fannie and Freddie guaranteed half the U.S. mortgage market (12+ Trillion (!) dollars). During this time, Fannie and Freddie were also cooking their books. Once caught, the entire deck of cards came tumbling down (see a good roundup here). These dots are not hard to connect (Ace Ventura would lay out the exact same case and say this).

And the Bush administration's role in this? The Bush administration warned of the danger in letting Fannie and Freddie get too big as early as 2002. See the report here. The administration called for more regulation (aren't dems blaming Bush for not enough, even though they fought all regulation on Freddie and Fannie?). They were blocked at every single turn by Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, and the like. Hey, don't trust me on this. Hear it right from the mouths of the democrats responsible for oversight:

For the record, Obama's chief-of-staff-in-waiting, Rahm Emanuel, was a board member at Freddie Mac (appointed by Bill Clinton) during the book-cooking phase. And Fannie Mae's CEO during this time? Franklin Reines, Obama advisor. Freddie Mac's CEO? Jim Johnson, Obama advisor. By the way, Fannie and Freddie gave political contributions to politicians. #1 recipient? Chris Dodd. #2 recipient? Barack Obama.

The fact that the democrats, and their allies in the mainstream media, have somehow hung this debacle around the neck of George W. Bush is a masterpiece of politics and deception. I somehow hold out hope that, someday, history will tell the true story of the out-of-control government influence responsible for this mess. Sure there's enough blame to go around, but the bulk has to reside at the feet of the democrats for introducing social engineering into the banking system.

Carter, Clinton, Obama - Oh my! Part 1

"Obama: Bush a 'good man' but mistaken"

An article I saw on Brietbart (via Drudge) had two sentences that stuck out to me. Here's the first:

"When he is sworn in on Tuesday, Obama will inherit two foreign wars and the
worst economy since the 1930s Great Depression with the budget deficit forecast
to hit more than a trillion dollars this year."

Why is the 'worst economy since the Great Depression' canard out there like this (I know, it's to pin everything on Bush)? Did everyone forget the Carter Presidency? The stagflation (the inflation rate was 12% in 1980!)? Double-digit unemployment (it was around 10% then, 7% now)? Interest rates at 21 percent (home mortgage rates were at 18% then, 5% now)? And forget the foreign policy front (Iran? 444 days? Defense budget cuts?). I distinctly remember as a child waiting in gas lines with my dad. He wasn't happy. There was this one time when, after waiting in the gas line for about 30 minutes, a guy came out of the garage and put a barrel in front of my dad's car. No more gas. I learned about every curse word I would ever know that day, right then and there (he got laid off in the prior weeks as well). So how is it that on the way back in time the great speed-bump of the Carter era is somehow unseen these days? And that trillion dollar deficit will look small when the 'stimulus' plan gets underway.

Hillary Clinton -- still ethically tone-deaf

Apparently so. Via powerline. "Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing on Tuesday was something of a love-fest. Even the normally sensible Senator DeMint saw fit to assure Clinton "I have no questions about your integrity." Has DeMint forgotten Hillary's corruption during the 1990s, which led her to the brink of a deserved indictment?"

"Accordingly, Lugar argued that the Clinton Foundation should receive no foreign donations while Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State. Alternatively, he made a series of modest, and in the Post's words "sensible," recommendations... ...Clinton responded by praising Lugar (this was a love-fest after all) and ignoring his suggestions. Her answers, which basically refused to acknowledge the existence of the problem, suggest that she remains almost as ethically tone-deaf as she was during her days as First Lady."

Yikes.

AP: Clinton acted on concerns of husband's donors

A story for the Associated [de]Press[ed]: "Secretary of State nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found." I predict she will win confirmation regardless. (HT: Drudgereport)