Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." Unfortunately, the future of this country, as well as the fate of the Western world, depends on how many people can be fooled on election day, just a few weeks from now. Right now, the polls indicate that a whole lot of the people are being fooled a whole lot of the time.
The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain-- which is astonishing in view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing on this crisis. It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?
Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis. It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.
Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago. Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?
We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't. Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?
Then there is the question of being against the "greed" of CEOs and for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis. Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines? Liberal Democrats, including Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of whom referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him to the same standard as white CEOs.
Even after he was deposed as head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines was consulted this year by the Obama campaign for his advice on housing! The Washington Post criticized the McCain campaign for calling Raines an adviser to Obama, even though that fact was reported in the Washington Post itself on July 16th. The technicality and the spin here is that Raines is not officially listed as an adviser. But someone who advises is an adviser, whether or not his name appears on a letterhead. The tie between Barack Obama and Franklin Raines is not all one-way. Obama has been the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's financial contributions, right after Senator Christopher Dodd. But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.
Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported. The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to counter-attack. They deserve to lose. But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America.
Most Rantburg rants are much more professional than the so-called "professional" journalists'."
;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/04/2008 17:06 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Barbara: The information to noise ratio is indeed much higher on the burg than elsewhere, despite the occasional visits from the Glurong Johnsons of the world.
This author sounds like Maureen Dowd on a bad hair day.
#9
Ouch, mom. :-) The poor man is a typical big-city provincial who completely lacks understanding of the world beyond his particular city's walls, coupled with a naive faith that politicians always speak the truth. He probably thinks Americans really are like the characters in "Dallas" and "Beverly Hills 90210". It was well-written, though.
#10
"This author sounds like Maureen Dowd on a bad hair day."
I was thinking Maureen Dowd on a no-hair day, mom, but yours works too. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/04/2008 18:16 Comments ||
Top||
#11
The poor man is a typical big-city provincial...
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"
--George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
#12
Indeed, it would be a surprise if Biden had any tongue left at all after last nightÂ’s debate, given how much time it must have spent being bitten by that flawless set of gameshow teeth.
Gameshow teeth, car salesman's hair, condescending attitude. Had my grandmother, and exceptional judge of character, been alive to watch the debate, she would have wanted to "slap that shit-eating grin off his smug face". It was all I could think of whenever he flashed his brite whites.
Richard F. Grimmett
Specialist in International Security, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
This report briefly reviews the issue of U.S. arms sales to Pakistan. It provides background details regarding recent major weapons transactions between the United States and Pakistan, as well as the rationale given for such sales. It also reviews the current statutory framework that governs U.S. weapons sales to Pakistan, including existing authorities that could be used to curtail or terminate existing or prospective sales to that country. This report will only be updated should events warrant. PDF at the link
#2
Turns out, Glurong, that it really isn't any of your business, because, you know, you're a Canadian, eh?
But if it were, fearless leader, the Big 'O', wants to invade Pakistan. The first thing the Paks would do in response is cut off the supply line to Afghanistan. The one that provides our troops, and NATO troops (including your Canadian citizens) with 90% of their supplies.
Smart. Or as you would say, Duh!
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/04/2008 16:34 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
By Thomas Sowell
