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Monday, December 15, 2008

The Bush Derangement Syndrome And Other Liberal Nonsense

By Dean

From a recent email;

1977: President. Jimmy Carter signs into Law the Community Reinvestment Act the foundation and cornerstone for the impending disaster.. The law pressured financial institutions to extend home loans to those who would otherwise not qualify .

The publicized premise: Home ownership would improve poor and crime-ridden communities and neighborhoods in terms of crime, investment, jobs, etc.

The Results: Statistics bear out that it did not help.

How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing market?

Answer: Bill Clinton wanted it that way.
1992: Republican representative Jim Leach (IO) warned of the danger that Fannie and Freddie were changing from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the principals and the stock-holding few.

1993: Clinton extensively rewrote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules turning the quasi-private mortgage-funding firms into semi -nationalized monopolies dispensing cash and loans to large Democratic voting blocks and handing favors, jobs and contributions to political allies . This potent mix led inevitably to corruption and now the collapse of Freddie and Fannie.

1994: Despite warnings, Clinton unveiled his National Home-Ownership Strategy, which broadened the CRA in ways congress never intended.

1995: Congress, about to change from a Democrat majority to Republican. Clinton orders Robert Rubin's Treasury Dept to rewrite the rules. Robert. Rubin's Treasury reworked rules, forcing banks to satisfy quotas for sub-prime and minority loans to get a satisfactory CRA rating. The rating was key to expansion or mergers for banks. Loans began to be made on the basis of race and little else.

1997 - 1999: Clinton, bypassing Republicans in Congress, enlisted Andrew Cuomo, then Secretary of Housing and Urban Development elopement, allowing Freddie and Fannie to get into the sub-prime market in a BIG way. Led by Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, congress doubled down on the risk by easing capital limits and allowing them to hold just 2.5% of capital to back their investments vs. 10% for banks Since they could borrow at lower rates than banks their enterprises boomed.

With incentives in place, banks poured billions in loans into poor communities, often "no doc", "no income", requiring no money down and no verification of income. Worse still was the cronyism: Fannie and Freddie became home to out-of work-politicians, mostly Clinton Democrats. 384 politicians got big campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie. Over $200 million had been spent on lobbying and political activities. During the 1990's Fannie and Freddie enjoyed a subsidy of as much as $182 Billion , most of it going to principals and shareholders, not poor borrowers as claimed.

Did it work? Minorities made up 49% of the 12.5 million new homeowners but many of those loans have gone bad and the minority home ownership rates are shrinking fast.
1999: New Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, became alarmed at Fannie and Freddie's excesses. Congress held hearings the ensuing year but nothing was done because Fannie and Freddie had donated millions to key congressmen and radical groups, ensuring no meaningful changes would take place. "We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage our credit and interest rate risks," Fannie CEO Franklin Raines, a former Clinton official and current Barack Obama advisor, bragged to investors in 1999.

2000: Secretary Summers sent Undersecretary Gary Gensler to Congress seeking an end to the "special status". Democrats raised a ruckus as did Fannie and Freddie, headed by politically connected CEO's who knew how to reward and punish. "We think that the statements evidence a contempt for the nation's housing and mortgage markets" Freddie spokesperson Sharon McHale said. It was the last chance during the Clinton era for reform.

2001: Republicans try repeatedly to bring fiscal sanity to Fannie and Freddie but Democrats blocked any attempt at reform; especially Rep. Barney Frank and Sen.Chris Dodd who now run key banking committees and were huge beneficiaries of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants.

2003: Bush proposes what the NY Times called "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago". Even after discovering a scheme by Fannie and Freddie to overstate earnings by $10.6 billion to boost their bonuses, the Democrats killed reform.

2005: Then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan warns Congress: "We are placing the total financial system at substantial risk". Sen. McCain, with two others, sponsored a Fannie/Freddie reform bill and said, "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". Sen. Harry Reid accused the GOP ;of trying to "cripple the ability of Fannie and Freddie to carry out their mission of expanding home ownership" The bill went nowhere.

2007: By now Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee over HALF of the $12 trillion US mortgage market. The mortgage giants, whose executive suites were top-heavy with former Democratic officials, had been working with Wall St. to repackage the bad loans and sell them to investors. As the housing market fell in '07, subprime mortgage portfolios suffered major losses. The crisis was on , though it was 15 years in the making.

2008: McCain has repeatedly called for reforming the behemoths, Bush urged reform 17 times . Still the media have repeated Democrats' talking points about this being a "Republican" disaster. A few Republicans are complicit but Fannie and Freddie were created by Democrats, regulated by Democrats, largely run by Democrats and protected by Democrats. That's why taxpayers are now being asked for $700 billion!!

If you doubt any of this, just click the links below and listen to your lawmakers' own words. They are condemning!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68D9XrqyrWo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgqfM5C8lY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9juJr8CSY4&feature=related

Postscript: ACORN is one of the principle beneficiaries of Fannie/ Freddie's slush funds. They are currently under indictment or investigation in many states. Barack Obama served as their legal counsel, defending their activities for several years.

The financial crisis we are currently witnessing was manufactured and supported by Democrats. Fabricated by Democrats to do what? Think about it and remember my words.

Old news you say? Perhaps, but it bears repeating until this "ship of fools" we are on gets it.

A post by Lynn Stuter worth a read;

THAT DÉJÀ VU FEELING

December 2, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

An estimated 67,000,000 Americans, we are told, voted for Barack Hussein Obama on November 4, 2008. A landslide we are told; a mandate for change we are told.

The total population of the United States, according to the 2008 U.S. Census bureau estimates, is approximately 306,000,000. When we compare the number of votes for Obama to the total population, the percent who voted for Obama is 21.9%; hardly a mandate for change; certainly not a mandate for change of the type Comrade Obama has in mind.

[Note: When I wrote this article, I made an error which has been brought to my attention. While the total population is 306,000,000, this figure includes everyone, of all ages. This, of course, overstates the voting population. Using this document put out by the US Census Bureau, averaging the % increase in voting population over the past five election years, 1998 through 2006, the estimated population eligible to vote in 2008 would be approximately 226,300,000 people. This would change the percent who voted for Obama from 21.9% to 29.6%; still hardly a mandate for change.]

In total, an estimated 130,000,000 Americans voted; 42.5% of the total population; more an indication of the apathy that leads to the loss of freedom and destruction of any nation.

Barack Hussein Obama is now, at every opportunity, appearing before the cameras from behind a podium on which appears a sign, “The Office of President-Elect.”

Never heard of the Office of President-Elect before; must be something new. The truth is that this is just another ploy to make Americans believe the election is over. It is far from over.

Barack Hussein Obama does not become President-Elect Obama until the Electoral College meets and votes on December 15, 2008.

More and more Americans are becoming concerned by the fact that Barack Hussein Obama may not be eligible to the office of president. More and more articles are appearing on internet sites concerning this issue. While the mainstream media continually and erroneously refers to the fraudulent document released by the Obama camp as a “birth certificate” and tries to play down the growing concerns with fluff pieces like the one done by Pete Williams of NBC, the fact still remains that Obama has yet to prove his eligibility. Causing further concern is a Hawaiian law that allows for the issuing of birth certificates to individuals who are foreign nationals:

338-17.8] Certificates for children born out of State. (a) Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birth certificate for such adult or minor, provided that proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child.

On October 31, 2008, Dr Chiyome Fukino, Department of Health, Hawaii, issued a press release in which she stated, in part:

Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.
On October 31, 2008, the Associated Press reported the following:

Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said Friday she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.
Notice that neither the actual press release nor the Associated Press article state that Obama was born in Hawaii or that he is an American by birth; both items were left to the reader to assume: if there is a birth certificate on file with the State of Hawaii then Obama must be a natural born citizen. That, however, is not an assumption that should be made, considering §338-17.8 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

After my last article, I received a couple of responses that bear mention. One response stated the FBI has a file on Barack Obama that proves he is not an American citizen; the other stated that an individual employed by the Hawaii Department of Health came forward, after the “non-answer” press release of Dr Chiyome Fukino, and stated that there were two pieces of paper in the file holding Obama’s birth certificate; that the second piece of paper states Obama was born in Kenya. It is doubtful the FBI would be willing to turn over their file on Obama; and thus far the State of Hawaii has steadfastly refused to give audience to Obama’s vault copy Hawaii birth certificate. Thus neither claim can be substantiated.

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