Party Like It's 1992

Now I've pointed out some truly dismal numbers when discussing the crushing policies of the Obama regime with regard to the economy but this is by far the the worst:

The Great Recession wiped out nearly two decades of Americans’ wealth, according to government data released Monday, with middle-class families bearing the brunt of the decline. 

The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.

Note that the large portion of the misery is currently being suffered through by the middle class who watched their true nest egg--the equity in their house--tumble. Thanks to your favorite Democrat and his or her (or in Barney Franks' case both) unwavering support of the social engineering experiment that is Fannie Mae.

Think about this, in 1992:

-George H.W. Bush yakked all over the Japanese premiere;
-The IRA were still bombing Britain;
-The LA riots destroyed a bunch of Korean and Black businesses;
-The Ruby Ridge fiasco stoked the ire of many antigovernment types;
-Hurricane Andrew whacked Florida;
-Some chick named shine head Sinead O'Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope on SNL;
-Nirvana's Nevermind was #1;
-Slick Willy was elected to the highest office in the land, which he promptly disgraced; and
-US forces landed in Somalia to assist in feeding the starving people of that African nation, who quickly repaid that favor by attacking us in the first bin-Laden attack against the US that left Delta and Ranger forces dead.

That's where we find ourselves now, living to a standard I enjoyed when I was 24 and a third class boatswains mate in the good old US Navy.

If I were Romney, I'd hit Obama over the head with this repeatedly and daily.

The Final Nails in Newt's Political Coffin

Republican's will forgive a great many things when it comes to past activities of their candidates. Whether it be Mitt Romney signing healthcare legislation into law in Massachussetts or John McCain sponsoring his infamous bill with Russ Feingold that trampled free speech, we tend to look at the bigger pictures (we will never forgive one of our members driving off a bridge and leaving a young woman to die while he called his lawyer, for the record).

But Newt Gingrich taking $1.6 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is one thing we will never forgive and forget:

Mr. Gingrich has faced many questions recently about the more than $1.6 million in consulting fees he got from Freddie Mac since leaving Congress in 1999. But part of the relationship started years earlier, as records and interviews show that Mr. Gingrich, as House leader in the 1990s, aligned himself with Freddie and Fannie on a number of key issues — defending them in Congress against political attacks, joining with them on housing projects and seeing top aides go work for them.

While Mr. Gingrich has minimized his past connections to the two closely related companies on the campaign trail, his Congressional record shows that his political and financial ties to the firms run deeper and farther back than he has acknowledged publicly and, in fact, set the stage for the lucrative consulting work that followed.

Mr. Gingrich, whose campaign declined to comment on his ties with Fannie and Freddie while in Congress, has been blistering in his recent criticism of the mortgage finance companies. He has blamed them in part for the 2008 housing collapse, said they should now be “broken up,” and in an October debate he declared that Representative Barney Frank should be “in jail” for associating with lobbyists close to Freddie.

No, we will never give a man who speaks with two tongues a second chance. Hypocrisy is as much a part of Gingrich's psyche as is infidelity. Bad enough Newt took the money from the two firms that share the greatest responsibility in the housing market implosion and worse that he assisted them while Speaker but to take our tax money for "consulting fees" while espousing smaller government and other conservative talking points is the end of the line with regard to supporting him. Freddie sand Fannie have taken %150-billion of our tax dollars and pissed it away on mismanagement and bad bets. Newt got a slice of that and smiled as he cashed the check.

Ask any fiscal conservative the five things they hate the most in government and you'll find Freddie and Fannie in the mix with Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Obamacare.

Gingrich got into bed with the dogs and will just have to deal with the fleas.

Update: In related news, the rats are leaving the sinking USS Newt including the biggest rat of all.

Delaware Senator's Blame Placing a Bit Suspect

Senator Edward Kaufman (D-DE) is on the warpath. The junior senator from the First State wants those who were responsible for the mortgage meltdown and other assorted crashes that neutered the economy to be investigated and jailed if judged guilty. Here's what the good senator had to say:

The Wall Street collapse that precipitated today's economic crisis has many causes, from regulatory failures to recklessness and greed. But before Congress begins to write new rules, we must investigate any crimes that may have been committed, whether by local mortgage brokers or the biggest banks.

Hmmm...mortgage brokers, banks...someone is missing in this list and I can't quite put my finger on who it is. Give me a second or two while we read on and are treated to the stunning intellectual brilliance of Sen. Kaufman:

Let's enforce the laws that were on the books and throw those who broke them in jail.

Good idea and I just remembered who the senator forgot: His fellow senators and congressmen. Chris Dodd, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, they all were responsible for this mess but the senator neglected to mention them. It must have been an oversight on his part. Okay, what about Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and the rest of the crew who took huge bonuses while simultaneously cooking the books. That's fraud and those laws were on the books so let's throw them in jail as the esteemed senator recommends.

I am not prejudging anyone. We may well find that only a few cases involved outright criminal behavior. And we must take care that our anger does not cloud our judgment.

Nor am I prejudging anyone, Senator. I say we investigate them all starting with Raines and work our way around to "Friend of Angelo" Chris Dodd.

Mortgage brokers may have fraudulently solicited mortgages or engaged in predatory practices.

But, but didn't the government encourage the practice by relaxing regulations? Did not Democrats call the entire idea of auditing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an act of racism? Didn't President Bush and Sen. McCain sound the alert on the crisis that was building at both Freddie and Fannie in 2005 when Raines and Gorelick were cooking the books and accepting huge checks?

As the housing bubble burst, banks may have failed to disclose material information as they went from supposedly profitable to insolvent, leaving investors holding the bag.

They probably would have remained solvent had they not given sweetheart loans to congressman who sit on committee's that regulate them. Chris Dodd pops into mind as one who received such a loan.

Attorney General Eric Holder has emphasized that federal law-enforcement officials can understand exactly what happened and investigate the people and firms involved only by "drilling down" into the records of complicated financial transactions. Right now, the resources to do so are not there.

I say we do indeed investigate the people and firms and "drill down" into the records. Let's start with Countrywide and look at who exactly qualified as a "friend of Angelo". They shouldn't be that complicated when it comes to a certain US Senator from the great state of Connecticut. But where to get the resources?

We must dramatically increase the number and training of FBI agents investigating these crimes. Our bill authorizes $155 million a year for the Justice Department to hire fraud prosecutors and investigators in 2010 and 2011. It also provides $65 million a year for 190 additional FBI special agents and more than 200 professionals to fight white-collar crime.

Awesome! All that for only $155 million? Anytime I see a new spending bill that asks for millions instead of billions or trillions it's cause for celebration. I just hope we have $155 million left. If not we can just ask the next three or four Obama nominees to pay up on their past taxes and we'll cover that cost.

Prosecuting bad people won't put an end to all bad behavior. But it will make people in the board rooms, on the trading desks, and in the mortgage industry think twice before they look the other way, put greed over fiduciary duty, or deal from the bottom of the deck. At the end of the day, this is a test of whether we have one justice system in this country or two.

Or three when the House and Senate are added in. But of course, Dodd, Rangel, Geithner and the myriad other Obama cronies are not greedy, just mistake prone evidently.

This is not about vengeance or politics. For our economy to work for all Americans, investors must have confidence in the honesty and transparency of our financial markets. Our economy will flourish only when Americans again trust that everyone is accountable to the law.

Of course it's not about vengeance or politics, heavens no. I mean, Obama is above the fray and his attacks on Rush, Cramer and Santelli are not about vengeance and politics either.

It's true, "our economy will flourish only when Americans again trust that everyone is accountable to the law". that includes members of the House and Senate Mr. Kaufman.

Dems Will Hold Hearing on Meltdown After Election

Hope and change.

Rep. Henry Waxman has decided that yes, it is in the best interest of Americans to find out why friends of Obama were getting fat, dumb and happy at our expense. Just not until after the election:

Democrats are giving Republicans the hearing they’ve been demanding to dig into the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but it won’t happen until after the election.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) Monday announced that he will hold a hearing into the collapse of the mortgage giants on Nov. 20, and plans to call several of the firms’ ex-CEOs, including Fannie Mae's Franklin Raines.

...“It seems highly suspicious that Chairman Waxman has delayed this particular hearing - which doubtless will focus on the desperate need for reform and Fannie and Freddy, and the equally desperate efforts by Democratic leaders to block those reforms,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

The Center for Responsive Politics found that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) the Democratic presidential nominee, has received more money since 1989 from Fannie Mae than any lawmaker except for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

McCain has got to hit them hard on this but probably won't. The leading presidential candidate is neck high in bed with two GSE's that led directly to the taxpayers forking over $700-billion and Waxman is playing politics to the extreme.

Welcome to the next four years, folks.

Debate Analysis

No major gaffes but no major movement for McCain either. He needed major movement. He did make a mistake by referring to Obama as "that one" (update: a strategy?), which will be spun as racist somehow I'd imagine. (Update: It sure got 'em riled up.)

On the domestic policy end, Obama seemed confident and stuck to talking points, he made a few mistakes as he is wont to do when not reading but nothing major. Obama did slam Bush over the break down in unity after 9/11 and rather shamelessly by my thinking. Obama did say he supported nuclear power, a step he's not taken previously and in fact came out against.

But then McCain said something that seemed very desperate, he offered that the government could buy the mortgages of seniors (the AP wrote it was all houses but I took it as seniors houses) and re-issue loans for the market value they now are worth, reducing the full loan. Shameless shilling and populism that and it will give Conservatives pause. This after slamming Obama on Fannie and Freddie. Update: Michelle Malkin has more.

On foreign policy, Obama said that we shouldn't invade a country unless it was for humanitarian reasons. Wasn't the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and the decimation of marsh Arabs an organized genocide by Saddam?

All in all, McCain needed a TKO and probably won on points, that's not enough. With Palin out on the stump hammering Obama, it was up to the head of the ticket to take it to the next level and he couldn't do it.

In effect we saw a McCain win in this battle but Obama still holds serve in the war. Too bad considering McCain is whittling down Obama's lead and is only down two in the latest Zogby poll.

Rep. Christopher Shays Calls Congress Out

The financial meltdown begins and ends with three entities, the Democrats in the US Congress, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) asks that investigations begin forthwith and will certainly be rebuffed. The Dems know full-well that the hearing would show that they were in Freddie and Fannie's pockets and with elections only a month away, there's no way in hell Waxman allows this to proceed.



Exit questions: Is Henry Waxman the single oddest looking dude to ever serve in Congress and will America ever get the good sense to vote those responsible out?

Hat tip: Allahpundit

2nd Debate Preview

Expect fireworks.

McCain has two more shots but this is the one to change the momentum. With the way things are trending, it's mucho important

How will the Maverick play it? If he goes with the talking points Maverick, probably not so good. Should he opt for the take no prisoners, get down and dirty Maverick, he could put The One on the defensive and turn him into a stuttering fool like he has a tendency to do sans teleprompter so it could be an enjoyable evening. I foresee a free-flowing debate in which the MSM will immediately declare The Messiah the winner but the public may see it differently. I also foresee McCain playing the Ayers/Wright/Fannie Mae card in which case I see the MSM calling it for Obama and saying McCain was mean, grumpy, surly or racist (or maybe a composite of all four).

Either way, The Maverick has to come out swinging and ready to take Obama down a few pegs. Take it to him from the opening bell and not let up for the duration. Yes, it could backfire, but as I noted earlier, these issues I mentioned above are new to those who have been living life and not reading blogs daily so if McCain hammers it home, it could be a game changer.

Palin Finally Takes the Gloves Off

Sarah Palin should have been unleashed weeks ago but the McCain campaign bigwigs held her under wraps. They've taken the high road for the majority of the campaign but now know that's just not working.

This weekend began the nasty part of the campaign and the 'Cuda went for the jugular:

Sarah Palin defended her claim that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists," saying the Democratic presidential nominee's association with a 1960s radical is an issue that is "fair to talk about."

Obama has denounced the radical views and actions of Bill Ayers, a founder of the violent Weather Underground group during the Vietnam era. On Sunday, Obama dismissed the criticism from the McCain campaign, leveled by Palin, as "smears" meant to distract voters from real problems such as the troubled economy.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, launched the attack Saturday and repeated it Sunday, signaling a new strategy by John McCain's presidential campaign to go after Obama's character.

That should be Obama's lack of character but I digress. Note the headline, Palin doesn't have to defend any comments, she made them, they're true, case closed. Charles has more here.

The door is now open, Obama has indicated that he will go after McCain on the Keating 5 scandal so he is now open for attacks that spotlight: Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger, Fannie Mae, Tony Rezko and the myriad other shady scandals The One has been associated with. It seems like McCain has a lot more to work with than does Obama. Keating 5 versus Rezko, Wright and Ayers? I like the Maverick's chances with that.

Using Palin for this is a good strategy, she can call out Obama for his association with Ayers but do it with a twinkle in her eye and without sounding shrill like Hillary, a nice talent. The media were forced to respond this weekend but in true MSM fashion wrote it off as no big deal. When the possible next President of the US has a known friendship with a man who bombed the Pentagon and police stations and is unrepentant, it's a big deal even if they don't think so.

The Wright story has been widely reported but that was during the primaries and most people were paying little attention. Bring it out and hammer it daily, especially Wright's "God damn America!" outburst. Make the Rezko story the subject of an entire speech explaining exactly what the issues are.

McCain is in trouble due to a poor campaign to this point. With twenty nine days left, it's crunch time and it's time for serious hardball. Get ready, the race card is about to be whipped out as often as possible as that is Obama's only defense, but it won't affect the 'Cuda. Palin has withstood a media beating that would rival Balboa in the first Rocky. Still she gets up and fights throwing haymakers and keeping Apollo Obama on the ropes.

I'm not sure McCain has the heart to hang but I know that Palin's spine is steely.

Update: The entire devastating Hannity show on Obama's oily associations aired last night on Fox News can be found at You Tube.

Update: Nothing to see here, move along...

Update: More of this please:

O'Reilly Pummels Barney Frank

It's about damn time. Barney Frank was the number one Representative out there in 2003 saying that Fannie and Freddie were just fine, nothing to see there. O'Reilly took him to task and Frank was a stumbling, lying fool by the end:


Update: Shocka! Barney Frank's boyfriend was a heavy at Fannie and it looks like the Congressman has some explaining to do about some funny business.

Pelosi Will Not Allow Hearing On Freddie and Fannie

Of course she won't, it would be a non-stop parade of Democrats testifying to their misdeeds while running those two bankrupt firms that are currently costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to keep afloat. Plus the televised hearings would be watched by huge numbers and they would see Rahm Emanuel, Jamie Gorelick, Louis Freeh, Daniel Mudd, William Daley, Obama advisers Franklin Raines and James A. Johnson as well as a cast of about thirty other Democrats--most Clinton cronies, taking the fifth live and in color.

If a Republican-owned McDonalds goes bankrupt, the House under Pelosi holds hearings and Henry Waxman gets to berate the one who was responsible. But when a firm is central to a scandal whereby the entire world economy is affected and the effects could send the US into a depression...no hearings.

I can't see how she can hold these off but she will seriously curtail the witness list one suspects

Another Pelosi failure in leadership. Perhaps Sen. Reid will allow hearings to be held and we can see Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen Obama paraded in front of the TV. I say that facetiously of course.

McCain Goes For Jugular

It's on.

John McCain hit Obama hard on his taking credit for the economic stimulus package he didn't even show up to vote for and his accepting large contributions from Fannie Mae. It's about friggin' time we take off the gloves and quit worrying about being called "racist" for pointing out how poor a candidate Obama is.

Watch and enjoy my friends: