Oct 02 2008

Signs Of Intelligent Life On Earth?

Category: Congress,corruption — amuzikman @ 11:40 pm

Thank God for Senator Tom Coburn.  Thank God there is someone in Congress willing to speak truth and lay the blame squarely where it belongs.  Please read the Oklahoma Senator’s press release about the so-called “bailout” bill v.2, now before Congress.

This is a man who gets it!  Why are there so few who do?  We have a largely incestuous, hypocritical, power-hungry, pompous, arrogant, self-aggrandizing and immoral group of so-called leaders (called Congress) who, having abdicated their Constitutionally-mandated role and having gotten all of us in this financial mess now declare they are going to provide the solution!  Preposterous! Congress has no business (and no right) whatsoever to be involved in home mortgage lending in ANY capacity! (vis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac)

As I stated in an earlier blog we as citizens do have the ability to respond in a variety of ways.  We can simply bend over, grab our collective ankles and cry, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?” as these “leaders” stick it to us by pledging our money to correct their unconstitutional mismanagement.  Or we can go to the ballot box in November with a shout of, “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it any more! and vote OUT the offenders and their willing accomplices.  We don’t have to take this!

Is anyone out there?  Is anyone listening?  Is this thing on?  Hello?…………..John, Sarah, are you there?

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Oct 01 2008

Why the Bubble Burst: bumped, with refreshed links

Category: Congress,corruption,economy,media,Uncategorized — harmonicminer @ 5:25 pm

As has been pointed out before, it ain’t rocket science, and here’s an unusually succinct statement of the problem, and incisive commentary on the bailout.

The bursting of the housing bubble — which in turn precipitated the collapse of the financial and credit house of cards — is entirely government-made. Point fingers where you will, but I point mine at those congressmen and administrations that sought to win popular support by turning the Federal Reserve System, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac into public reservoirs of easy credit and home loans, available even to the riskiest and most credit-unworthy of borrowers. For years, the federales have artificially lowered interest rates and opened the loan spigots for institutional borrowers which — under inducements and even statutory pressures — opened their credit spigots, in turn, for just about any and every would-be homeowner. The usual tests of credit-worthiness that typically govern lending practices in a free, competitive marketplace were recklessly abandoned — sometimes under “moral” claim that rigorously screening prospective borrowers is “discriminatory.” So, lending has become increasingly indiscriminate, especially in the sub-prime, adjustable-rate-mortgage market.

Here’s a little more history, for those who need it, on the road up to the current problems.

Continue reading “Why the Bubble Burst: bumped, with refreshed links”

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Sep 25 2008

Heroes & Villains

Category: Congress,corporations,corruption,economy — amuzikman @ 6:29 pm

From our earliest childhood we are confronted by the epic struggle between the forces of good and evil.   We see it in literature, in sports, on stage and screen.  It is a subject with apparently endless possibilities.  This conflict between two opposing forces is frequently illustrated through fictitious characters who personify those forces and who engage in frequent battles for supremacy.  Countless myths and stories are told of heroes vs villains, evil witches and fairy God-mothers, the cowboy in the white hat vs. the one with a black hat.  For every Luke Skywalker there must be a Darth Vader, Batman has the Joker and the Dodgers have the Giants (sorry, bias exposed!). The object lesson is clear.  These stories teach us to seek the good.  Likewise we learn to shun the bad.

But what is so very clear and simple in a play, motion picture or novel, is almost never as clear in real life.  But that doesn’t keep us from trying to disregard the complex in favor of the simple.  We want to blame someone for their evil deeds and we want the hero to show up just in the nick of time and save us just like in some old serial Western.

Continue reading “Heroes & Villains”

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Sep 12 2008

“Birds Of A Feather Flock Together” / “A Man Is Known By The Company He Keeps”

Category: corruption,election 2008,friendship,Obama,politics — amuzikman @ 8:00 am

When I was about 11 years old I remember my parents telling me they had some serious reservations about my hanging out with a couple of guys from school who didn’t meet with their approval. At the time I took great offense, telling my folks their concerns were misplaced, and secretly harboring no small resentment against them for trying to tell me who I should and shouldn’t have for friends.

Not too long after that our family moved and I didn’t see those guys as much. I do remember one of the last times we were together I noticed they seemed to have developed quite a taste for finding ways to skip school and get high.

In retrospect my parents were absolutely right!

A few years later they were at it again, this time about a girl I was dating. Again I became indignant over their “meddling” and again, I had to admit to myself later they were right.

As a parent, and now officially on the “other”side of the hill, I see the same issue playing out in the lives of my own kids. And the perspective that comes from adulthood adds a dimension to this subject I didn’t have as a child. For now I realize the problem wasn’t necessarily who my friends were, it was the judgment, or lack thereof, I exhibited in making choices about who I would invite to be a part of my life.

Every parent breaths a sigh of relief when their kids make good choices about the friends they run with. And the two wise old sayings that serve as title to this blog have entered the American lexicon precisely because we know them to be true.

So, do we suspend this truth with candidates for the highest office in the land? Do Presidential candidates get a free pass on the company they keep? Or is the truth still the truth? William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khaladi, Louis Farrakhan, and Kwame Kilpatrick are all friends of Barack Obama. If Obama was my child I’d be worried. If Obama becomes president I’ll be afraid.

Here is more detail on the company Obama keeps.

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Sep 09 2008

Thank You, Sir. May I Have Another?

Category: Congress,corruption — amuzikman @ 8:00 am

OK, movie trivia buffs – from what movie does the title of this blog come? If you said Animal House, (1978) you are correct. The scene is an outrageously funny spoof of a fraternity initiation. In a secretive, candle-lit, quasi-sado/masochistic ceremony, gleefully sinister hooded frat boys take sensual delight in whacking the backsides of the “whitey/tighty”-clad pledges who must cry out, “Thank you sir. May I have another?” each time they are smacked with a wooden paddle.

It struck me this scene is a perfect metaphor for the relationship between American citizens (the pledges) and the United States Congress (the frat boys). The latest wallop to our collective backsides? The recent revelations regarding unethical and quite possibly illegal real estate dealings of the “honorable” Charles Rangel, Congressman, 15th Congressional District, New York.

According to Thomas Lifson, at American Thinker:

Charles Rangel, a man who writes federal tax laws as head of the House Ways and Means Committee, not only failed to pay taxes on income he received from a luxury resort property he owns, he financed the purchase with an interest-free loan from a campaign backer who is also a politically active lawyer.

To read the complete article, go to: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/the_rangel_scandal_deepens.html

And, of course Speaker of the House Pelosi will do everything she can to hide, obfuscate, and delay any investigation until after the November election. The other frat boys and girls, (Congressional members of the same party) will circle the wagons in order to protect one of their own. The Mainstream Media shills will bury the story as long as possible – heck, we might even get some cries of “racism”, because ol’ Charlie happens to be black. And We The People will respond once again in enthusiastic unison, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?”

When are we going to get up off our proverbial hands and knees? When do we collectively put our pants back on, snatch the paddle from their hands and decide to offer up an equally famous quote from another movie, “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” (Peter Finch in the 1976 movie, Network)?

We CAN say that very thing, if we possess the collective will. We CAN do something about it, if and when we decide we’ve had enough. We don’t have to keep getting paddled by a seemingly endless parade of the corrupt, greedy, and hypocritical from both sides of the aisle that populate the halls of Congress. We The People can go to the ballot box. We The People can vote out EVERY incumbent. There’s one action that might just send a message.

Or we can all bend over, grab our ankles and wait for our corporal cue to utter the Animal House line once again…and again and again and again and………….

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Aug 04 2008

Privatized Profit, Socialized Risk: the problem of public/private companies

Category: capitalism,corporations,corruption,economy,housing,Uncategorized — harmonicminer @ 11:28 am

Larry Summers on the underlying problem of joint private/public companies, and how they led to the current housing market crunch.

Here is a really good creative capitalism idea. All Americans benefit from increases in home ownership because of the values like hard work, community, and respect for property that ownership instills. Families want desperately to own their own homes and accumulate equity. Yet it is very hard for conventional banks that borrow money over the short term to lend over the kind of 30-year horizons that best help families buy houses.

Continue reading “Privatized Profit, Socialized Risk: the problem of public/private companies”

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Jul 23 2008

When there’s a financial crisis, look to the government as the cause, part 2

Category: Congress,corruption,diversity,economy,election 2008,housing,politics — harmonicminer @ 12:11 pm

Thomas Sowell continues his previous discussion of how the government is the primary cause of our current financial issues.

We don’t look to arsonists to help put out fires but we do look to politicians to help solve financial crises that they played a major role in creating.

How did the government help create the current financial mess? Let me count the ways.

Continue reading “When there’s a financial crisis, look to the government as the cause, part 2”

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Jul 21 2008

When there’s a financial crisis, look to the government as the cause

Category: corruption,diversity,economy,election 2008,politics — harmonicminer @ 10:27 pm

Thomas Sowell on the financial markets meltdown: here’s a taste, but read it all

It was government intervention in the financial markets, which is now supposed to save the situation, that created the problem in the first place.

Laws and regulations pressured lending institutions to lend to people that they were not lending to, given the economic realities. The Community Reinvestment Act forced them to lend in places where they did not want to send their money, and where neither they nor the politicians wanted to walk.

Now that this whole situation has blown up in everybody’s face, the government intervention that brought on this disaster in is supposed to save the day.

Sowell is not the first person to make this observation, though his very prominent voice is a strong confirmation.

Jul 09 2008

“Unaccountable Corporations”, or “Unaccountable Government”?

Category: capitalism,corporations,corruption,economy — harmonicminer @ 12:00 pm

It’s popular on the Left to bash corporations, and, by extension, capitalism, for just about every evil under the sun. When you dig a little deeper into most corporate abuses (the really big ones, that is), you tend to find that the real problem was government, which is the only way corporations can get enough power to do really bad things. Regulations, set-asides, sweetheart deals, mandated monopolies (it isn’t a monopoly if the government gives it to you), etc., are only possible when government sticks out its hand to corporations and says, “If you pay me now, I’ll pay you later.” True capitalism, which does NOT include giveaways by government to large corporations (or anyone else) would not include things like this.

Continue reading ““Unaccountable Corporations”, or “Unaccountable Government”?”

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