Sep 23 2008

Home loans for illegals: a personal aside

Category: diversity,economy,illegal alien — harmonicminer @ 10:40 pm

Michelle Malkin :: Townhall.com :: Illegal Immigration and the Mortgage Mess

It’s no coincidence that most of the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave — Loudoun County, Va., California’s Inland Empire, Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and Las Vegas and Phoenix, for starters — also happen to be some of the nation’s largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime (the accursed species of loan to borrowers with the shadiest credit histories). A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure.

Read the whole thing.  It is both stunning and a bit chilling.

Continue reading “Home loans for illegals: a personal aside”

Tags: ,

Sep 23 2008

If only the Lefties on the Hill had to debate Thomas Sowell in open forum

Category: economy — harmonicminer @ 1:47 pm

Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com :: A Political “Solution”

Why then is there such a mess in the financial markets? Much of that mess is due to the very people we are now turning to for solutions– members of Congress.

Past Congresses created the hybrid financial institutions known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, private institutions with government backing and political influence. About half of the mortgages in this country are backed by these two institutions.

Such institutions– exempt from laws that apply to other financial institutions and backed by the implicit promise of government support with the taxpayers’ money– are an open invitation to risky behavior. When these risks blew up in their faces, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government, costing the taxpayers billions of dollars.

For years the Wall Street Journal has been warning that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking reckless chances but liberal Democrats especially have pooh-poohed the dangers.

Read it all.

UPDATE:  And then read this.

Tags:

Sep 23 2008

California Supreme Court: restrained when it suits its political positions

Category: affirmative action,diversity — harmonicminer @ 1:40 pm

An earlier post discussed the issue of Richard Sander’s attempt to get bar association records to evaluate the efficacy of affirmative action in law school admissions. It would seem that the California State Supreme Court, in an uncharacteristic display of judicial restraint, has decided not to consider Sander’s request for an order to release the records.

If UCLA law professor Richard Sander gains access to California Bar exam data for his own study on racial preferences, he’ll have to start somewhere other than the California Supreme Court.

Last week, that court denied Sander’s request for an order compelling the State Bar to cooperate with him. The justices didn’t rule on the merits of the request — which had been filed with the Supreme Court early last month — but rather indicated Sander should refile “in an appropriate court.”

This is, of course, a pure stalling action. They hope that Sander will just give up at some point, run out of money to pursue it, etc. They hope that somehow a resolution can be found for the matter that won’t require them to go on record as opposing public access to such records on the one hand, or appearing to support research that might undermine affirmative action on the other.

Our black robed masters are so courageous, whenever they can rule in favor of the extreme Left, but curiously gutless when it comes to upholding public access to what should be public records.  Of course, this is probably just a case of attorneys protecting attorneys, the jurisprudential version of professional ethics.

Tags: ,

Sep 23 2008

Brrr.. a look back at the winter

Category: environment,global warming — harmonicminer @ 9:00 am

Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January “was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.”

China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.

There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.

In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.

And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its “lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Smile. Buy a nice warm coat. You may need it.

Tags:

Sep 22 2008

Touchstone for anti-gun, universal healthcare true believers

Category: guns,healthcare,legislation — harmonicminer @ 9:00 am

A lot of folks believe themselves to be very righteous because they care so much about the children (even though they’re pro-choice on abortion).  They want you to believe that they care more about human life than you do.  So they’re really big on universal health care, and they’re anti-gun.  In the first instance, they want you to be forced by government taxation to pay for it.  In the second instance, they want to remove your right to self-defense (only meaningful if you have the tools to do so, correct?).

Is it clear yet that they don’t care about you?  I hope so.  If you don’t grasp that, reread the first paragraph.  Their concern is for other folks, not for you.  Not even for your children, because, you see, your children are yours, and the universal health care/anti-gun true believers don’t really care about them, just the children of those other people.  Otherwise they would not try to take away from you the tools you need to defend them, and the money you need to take care of them.

Continue reading “Touchstone for anti-gun, universal healthcare true believers”

Tags: , ,

Sep 21 2008

More evidence the AP is in the tank for Obama

Category: Uncategorized — harmonicminer @ 8:48 pm

Political Pulse | The Associated Press-Yahoo! News Poll on Yahoo! News

Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks, many calling them “lazy,” “violent,” responsible for their own troubles.

This story has been up for two days now…. the AP/Yahoo news line NEVER leaves a single story up this long.  Maybe they want to give their readers time to memorize it?

I’ve already deconstructed this one here.  One other thought:  maybe this is an innoculation against Obama losing the election.  If he loses, the ground is being prepped to cry “racism!” instead of dealing directly with his weakness as a candidate.

UPDATE:  Now Geraldo is going to cover this.  I would think that alone would be enough to embarrass anyone who takes this seriously.

Sep 21 2008

Obama: China, the model for all nations

Category: China,Obama — harmonicminer @ 6:50 pm

China, the nation lauded by Obama for its wonderful infrastructure, the very envy of the world, to hear him tell it, can’t seem to maintain a safe milk supply for its children.

China said nearly 13,000 children were in hospital Sunday after drinking toxic milk powder in a dramatic escalation of Beijing’s latest safety scandal.

No doubt some of those funds that would have been used for milk supply testing and production quality control were diverted to make pretty buildings in downtown Beijing. Yep, we should definitely nationalize the production of everything in the USA, too, so those good folks in the federal government can exercise proper control over everything.

By the way: HERE is what happens when you search Google for “Obama China infrastructure”.  Go ahead and look.  You discover an utter silence of any mainstream media.  That’s right:  nothing from NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, NYTimes, LATimes, Boston Globe, WAPO, etc.  It seems that it wasn’t newsworthy for them. 

More evidence, as if it was needed, that the mainstream media is totally in the tank for Obama.  What’s that mean to you?  If you get most of your election info from those sources, you’re probably hopelessly uniformed.

Tags: ,

Sep 21 2008

When your enemy likes your leaders….

Category: election 2008,Hamas,Israel,McCain,middle east,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 9:35 am

Yoni, former Israeli special forces operator, makes this cogent comment.

When your enemy supports the election of a candidate then you should be afraid, no you should be very afraid.

He is saying this in reference to the recent election of Livni to replace the corrupt Olmert, but it might just as well apply to the possible election of Obama, who is endorsed by all the wrong people.

I doubt that either Hamas or Al Qaeda (or Iran or Russia, for that matter) is happy about the possible election of McCain. Now, that’s a recommendation.

Sep 20 2008

Obama should have taken the chance to practice

Category: election 2008,McCain,media,Obama,politics,White House — harmonicminer @ 11:31 pm

Which Obama will show up for presidential debates? – Yahoo! News

Which Barack Obama will show up for the first presidential debate?

It could be the tone-deaf debater who condescendingly told Hillary Rodham Clinton during a Democratic debate that she was “likable enough.”

Or perhaps the confident candidate who absorbed a jab from Clinton about using her husband’s former advisers and responded with a devastating one-liner of his own: “Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.”

For a man known as a powerful speaker, Obama has rarely wowed people in political debates. He can come across as lifeless, aloof and windy.

But Obama didn’t make any serious mistakes in the many debates during the Democratic primary, or when he was running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. He sometimes showed flashes of wit and charm. And, with a couple of exceptions, he got better with time.

“A year ago, he was not nearly as polished,” said Timothy O’Donnell, a professor at the University of Mary Washington and chairman of the collegiate National Debate Tournament. “He equivocates less. He’s quicker with examples.”

Continue reading “Obama should have taken the chance to practice”

Tags: , ,

Sep 20 2008

Bigotry towards whites masquerades as reporting on race

Category: diversity,election 2008,multi-cultural,Obama,politics,race,racism — harmonicminer @ 9:08 am

It will get worse before election day, as the Main Stream Media does it’s best to guilt everyone into voting for Obama even though they disagree with his policies and/or think his leadership and experience is lacking, just for fear of being called racist.

Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks, many calling them “lazy,” “violent,” responsible for their own troubles.  The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004, about two and one-half percentage points.

Of course, “deep seated racisl misgivings” on the part of blacks will cause 90+% of blacks to vote FOR him, with a total margin greater than 2 1/2% of the vote.

More than a third of all white Democrats and independents, voters Obama can’t win the White House without, agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don’t have such views.

There is no foundation established here to conclude that a voter will not select a particular individual just because the voter makes generalized observations about a demographic group. And the huge piece of missing information here: how would blacks respond to the same survey? We all know the stories of black cab drivers who won’t pick up young, male blacks at night. Are they bigots, too?

Continue reading “Bigotry towards whites masquerades as reporting on race”

Tags: ,

« Previous Page — Next Page »