DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Senator Obama, when you first ran for Congress in 2000 you claimed your central experience was the Chairmanship of the $165 million Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Yet now that central qualification is missing from your resume. Is that because it was an utter failure... or because you worked closely with terrorist Bill Ayers for a half-dozen years?
Question: "One of the criticisms that arises in connection with your candidacy is you simply haven't been in the Senate very long, the State Senate. You have a limited track record in terms of time, what is your argument based on the one term that you've served so far? What makes you prepared for the Congress?"
Obama: "Well, I'm in my second term, but it's true that certainly both Senator Trotter and Congressman Rush have been in elected office longer than I have. I can't deny that. I would argue, though, that my experience previous to elected office equips me for the job. I have a background as an attorney, I've represented affordable housing organizations to build affordable housing, something that's a major issue in the district. I've chaired major philanthropic efforts in the city like the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, that gave fifty million dollars to prompt school reform efforts throughout the city."
Either answer explains why Obama tossed his CAC experience (arguably his only "executive" experience) down the memory hole.
There is no way, of course, that Senator Barack Obama would ever nominate three controversial figures from his past to serve on the United States Supreme Court: the convicted felon Antoin Rezko; the former Weather Underground radical Bill Ayers; or Mr. Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
Yet the names and faces of the three men appear in a new television advertisement--running in Michigan and Ohio this week and nationally on Fox News on Monday, at a total cost of $500,000--arguing that Mr. Obama's judgment about his associates shows that he cannot be trusted to pick justices for the Supreme Court.
Narrator: "Who is Barack Obama? He says our troops in Afghanistan are . . .
Obama: ". . . just air-raiding villages and killing civilians."
Narrator: "How dishonorable. Congressional liberals voted repeatedly to cut off funding to our active troops, increasing the risk on their lives. How dangerous. Obama and congressional liberals: too risky for America."
"We've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."
After Obama made that statement, the Associated Press produced a "fact check." It concluded that "Western forces (in Afghanistan) have been killing civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents have been killing civilians."
Corsi's book claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president and includes innuendoes and false rumors--that he was raised a Muslim and attended a radical black church.
Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his campaign picks apart the book's claims on the Web site FightTheSmears.com.
An east Jerusalem Arab was indicted on Wednesday in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court for connection with acts of terror.I think I can guess how "sequel crimes" can occur if we let down our guard.
Hadad Ja'abis, 28, of Jebl Mukaber, was a friend of Kassem Mughrabi, who was killed when he rammed his BMW into a group of soldiers and civilians at Jerusalem's Kikar Tzahal two weeks ago.
The 28-year-old was accused of attempting to purchase a hand gun in order to carry out a terror attack in the city, allegedly in either the suburb of Neve Ya'akov, or at the Haas Promenade in Armon Hanatziv, also in Jerusalem.
According to the charge sheet, Ja'abis went to console mourners at the Mughrabi house, and was asked to acquire a weapon "to murder Jews." He apparently made the decision to plan an attack shortly after his friend perpetrated the Kikar Tzahal attack.
The court ordered Ja'abris to house arrest on Tuesday, and he was remanded again on Wednesday until proceedings continue next week.
Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation's housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that's racially motivated.I AGREE WITH BOEHNER, BUT I'D SAY IT A LITTLE MORE BLUNTLY:
The Massachusetts Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the GOP is appealing to its base by blaming the country's mortgage foreclosure problem on efforts to expand affordable housing through the Community Reinvestment Act.
He said that blame is misplaced, because those loans are issued by regulated institutions, while far more foreclosures were triggered by high-cost loans made by unregulated entities.
''They get to take things out on poor people,'' Frank said at a mortgage foreclosure symposium in Boston. ''Let's be honest: The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn't hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people.''
Frank also dismissed charges the Democrats failed on their own or blocked Republican efforts to rein in the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The federal government recently took control of both entities.
House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called Frank's remarks ''a lame, desperate attempt to divert Americans' attention away from the Democratic party's obstruction of reforms that would have reined in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and helped our nation avoid this economic crisis.''
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.CRAMER IN AUGUST 2007:
THE ROOT CAUSES [OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE REAL ESTATE MARKET] WERE HIGH CENTRAL BANKS RATES AND OIL.
GREENSPAN KEPT RAISING RATES THE LAST TWO YEARS HE WAS FED CHAIRMAN, AND THE ECB KEPT THEIR RATES HIGH.
HERE'S A CHART OF THE FED FUNDS RATE - LOOK AT IT FROM 2004 TO 2006 -- THIS IS ONE REASON WHY THE ECONOMY SLOWED:
HERE'S THE CRUDE OIL PRICE CHART; NOTE WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE 2004:
FURTHER PROOF - AND WHY IT'S A GLOBAL CRISIS: LOOK AT WHAT THE ECB DID: THEY KEPT RAISING RATES. THEY RAISED IT WHEN THEY SHOULD HAVE LOWERED IT!AT THE TIME SARKOZY SAID THIS WAS THE WRONG THING, AND THAT THE ECB SHOULD HAVE LOWERED RATES. SARKO WAS CORRECT!
THESE TWO FACTORS - (THE HIGH COST OF MONEY AND HIGH COST OF ENERGY) SLOWED US DOWN AND BURST THE LENDING/REAL ESTATE BUBBLE. PEOPLE HAD THEIR MORTGAGES GO UP AND THE CREDIT CARD EXPENSES GO UP AND THEIR ENERGY EXPENSES GO UP.
SO THEY CUT BACK WHERE THEY COULD, AND THIS IS HOW WE GOT HERE.
