Wake Up, America

H/T to Norm Hooben.

From IBD Editorials, October 06, 2008

A nation that doesn't know history is destined to repeat its serious mistakes. People swayed by carefully crafted political propaganda relentlessly repeated and effectively delivered can easily lose their freedom and way of life.

How many times have you been told by soaring, almost hypnotic oratory that "the direct causes of our financial crisis and subprime real estate loan mess were the greedy banks, big corporations and the failed economic policies of George Bush"?

It's common to blame the one in power. This time, however, it's 100% wrong.

Every American, young or old, must be told who was really behind the subprime loan disaster that threw our economy off track and injured the good people who lost their homes — like those now boarded up in Cleveland and other major cities — plus the millions of other citizens hurt by yet another failed Big Government-run program gone awry.

In 1977, Jimmy Carter and a Democrat Congress created the Community Reinvestment Act mandating that banks make more housing loans to lower-income and inner-city borrowers. It was for a well-intended social cause and even appeared to work in the 1980s.


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But in 1995, President Clinton imposed even tougher regulations that forced banks to make dramatically more subprime loans to previously unqualified people with lower credit scores in higher-risk areas.

Government regulators rated banks by how well they performed in meeting these strict new CRA obligations. Failure to comply meant stiff penalties and limits on mergers, acquisitions and expansion.
Big Government forced the lowering of long-proven safe-lending standards. Most of the more than $1 trillion of new subprime CRA loans had adjustable rates. Many required no documentation of the borrower's income and little or no down payment.

For the first time, the Clinton regulatory rules allowed and encouraged lenders to bundle the new, riskier subprime loans with prime loans and sell these packages to other institutions. The first one hit the market in 1997. That tragic blunder let loan originators make their profits faster and eliminate any future risk for those lower-quality loans. It let them turn around and make even more CRA-type loans and sell them off in packages again, with little future risk.

It was a government-sponsored pyramid scheme, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac providing the implied government backing by buying ever larger amounts of these risky subprimes.

Freddie and Fannie also became heavy donors to top members of Congress. These included Sen. Chris Dodd, a young Sen. Barack Obama and Rep. Barney Frank, who aggressively defended the highly leveraged, extremely risky lending against any reforms.

Ironically, the Bush administration repeatedly went to Congress in 2004, 2005 and 2006 to obtain stronger oversight and some limits on Freddie and Fannie's reckless subprime lending. And each time, it was voted down by Democrats in Congress, led by Frank, now chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

Bottom line: This whole mess was another Big Government program created, designed and run by Democrats. It started with great intentions but resulted in typically awful unintended consequences that materially hurt the very people they were supposed to help.

Worse, this incompetence put our financial system in jeopardy. It's reminiscent of LBJ's two lost wars — the War in Vietnam and the War on Poverty.

Many government housing projects, though well-intended as part of LBJ's War on Poverty, later deteriorated into slums that became recruiting grounds to get very young new gang members.

That's how we got into this financial mess — and why the $700 billion rescue package was passed. But what about the future? What serious threats does America face in the next five years? The list isn't comforting:

Continue reading here.

Norm breaks it down for you here. His commentary in red.

Related reading from Critical Bias titled, "What Caused The Financial Meltdown Part III."

Can You Be A Christian and Not Vote for Huckabee???

It seems to be that the name Mike Huckabee can not be mentioned without also saying that he has been pushed towards the top of the Republican nominees for president by evangelicals and home schoolers.

It's not just because he, like a certain other Arkansan, has ties to a town called Hope, nor because he lost 105 pounds and has written a popular diet book. And it's not only because he is mastering a conservative form of triangulation blending religious conservatism with policy pragmatism.

That point is not the reason for this article, which is are there Christian Republicans and Independents who are not supporters of the former governor of Arkansas, and if there are why don't we hear about it on the MSM?

To answer my own question - yes, there are Christians who do not back Mike Huckabee for president. It is also not necessary to feel guilty about not supporting a fellow Christian as I (and many others) don't believe that Huckabee brings several of our conservative values to the table.

I want to answer the second part of my original question, and then I will give the reasons for both of my answers.

Why don't the MSM report that there are Christians who support other Republican candidates? OK, this is simple. The Democrats look at Huckabee as being an easy victory in November. It's that plain and simple - what the liberals of the world want is what the MSM reports. With that being the case, that also should be one of the top reasons not to support Huckabee.

Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal. The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party's nomination. The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.

Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the "glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it."

Let me say that I originally narrowed my choices to Huckabee, Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter, and held out on who to throw my support behind for quite a while trying to find a way to back an obviously good and likable man as Huckabee is. I kept coming back to one thing that kept running through my mind - Huckabee can't beat the Democrats. All the other things I will talk about take a back seat in my mind to this one fact -Huckabee can't win in November and that's why he has become a media darling!

I have one friend who called Huckabee the Republican version of Jimmy Carter in an excellent comment here.

I just hope and pray that most Republicans understand that Huckabee is the Republican version of a Jimmy Carter. It's not enough to go meet our enemies with love in one's heart. One must also have a sword in one's hand also to get their attention.(Tip of the hat to Al Capone who understood people better than most social liberals like Huckabee.)

SFBert

Of course there are the real issues that make a Conservative like me know that Huckabee is not the RIGHT man for America.

Taxes - Good start in 1998 with a B ranking from Cato Institute, but from there it became a steep downhill free-fall from there with grades of C in 2000 and 2002, D in 2004, and F in 2006.

"Mike Huckabee of Arkansas went from being one of the best governors in America to one of the worst," the Institute declared. "The main reason for the drop was his insistence on raising taxes at almost every turn throughout his final term."

Immigration - I'll let Ann Coulter speak on this.

From Ann Coulter's new column.

On illegal immigration, Huckabee out out in left field. He has compared illegal aliens to slaves brought here in chains from Africa, saying, "I think frankly the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before."

National Defense - Even ABC seems to think he is in the dark!

Death Penalty/Crime - Huckabee trying to defend his record:

Mike Huckabee said his record of carrying out 16 executions in his time as governor of Arkansas refutes his opponents' claims that he's soft on crime. The Republican presidential candidate has been criticized for granting 1,033 clemencies in 10½ years and for supporting the parole of Wayne DuMond, a rapist who, upon release from prison, raped and murdered another woman in Missouri.

I like Mike Huckabee, we are both Christians, and I enjoy listening to him talk. However, he is no Conservative and not the RIGHT person to be the next Commander-in-Chief of our great nation!

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