Posted on 09/16/2008 3:47:00 PM PDT by joanie-f
Perhaps more than any presidential candidate in recent history, Barack Obama’s pious rhetoric has focused on his concern for ‘the little people’ and his disdain for the big money represented by corporate America.
I’d like to take a brief look at the words/deeds comparison of this man, and then pose a few crucial questions regarding not only Senator Obama’s honesty, but also his personal and professional affiliation with an organization that bears much of the responsibility for the sub-prime mortgage crisis and subsequent financial meltdown, and his fitness to hold office of any kind.
In July of this year it was announced that Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), America’s largest mortgage companies, are now the property of the United States government.
Along with that ownership comes some $5 trillion (with a tr) in mortgage debt. The nationalization of the two biggest mortgage companies in America occurred because it ‘was required to help millions of struggling mortgage holders and shore up the U.S. housing market.’
As a result, every American taxpayer will be forced to pay through the nose for the rest of his lifetime in order to bail out wealthy, well-connected people who committed fraud. In effect, every American taxpayer has been forced to purchase stock in two insolvent companies.
Ben Bernanke was not elected by the American people, and he is not accountable to them. Henry Paulsen was not elected by the American people, and he is not accountable to them. And the people in the corporate offices of FM and FM were not elected by the American people, and they were not accountable to them. And they were committing fraud.
In addition to the gargantuan personal debt that you and I have been forced to assume, the U.S. dollar will suffer as a result of this bailout. Inflation will increase. And the recession will worsen.
This is just the beginning of the ‘let's-make-the-U.S.-taxpayer-pay-the-price-for-the-financier/government-blunders’ roller coaster. The bailouts are going to start coming fast and furious. The big question is: How long will it take before the powers that be recognize that the boat is sinking faster as a result, and the people who are doing the bailing are going to (1) weaken to the point where they can no longer lift their bucket, or (2) mutiny. I'm betting on (1) because the American public is too clueless to contemplate (2).
The democrat party, and Barack Obama in particular, are forever crucifying big business and the financial world, while purporting to champion ‘the little people’. The democrat party, and Barack Obama in particular, are forever accusing John McCain of being in the pocket of both.
When the federal government announced two months ago that it was taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, The Center for Responsive Politics decided to take a close look at the amount of political contributions the two largest mortgage companies in America have made to our Washington leadership.
If you have been in the practice of swallowing leftist media swill, you should be very surprised at the results of their study: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers.
In the list of 354 lawmakers who have received contributions from the two mortgage giants since 1989, Barack Obama has collected the second highest dollar figure – behind only fellow leftist Christopher Dodd (D-CT). Recall, also, that Senator Obama has been in Washington for only three-plus years. So, despite the fact that this list includes the total of all of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac’s contributions to these 354 lawmakers since 1989 (for the last nineteen years), Barack Obama has managed to eclipse all but one of his fellow senators/congressmen, some of whom have been on the Hill six times as long as he.
And democrats in total collected the large majority (57%) of those monies.
The mainstream media, and most of our leadership in Washington, would have us believe that this mortgage crisis (eventually scheduled to blossom into a full-fledge economic earthquake) occurred as the result of a combination of greed on the part of the banking/mortgage industry and ignorance on the part of prospective low-income homeowners.
That, however, is not the case. The mortgage crisis is the result of a purposeful, newly required relaxing of underwriting standards, largely foisted by our government on the banking/mortgage industry in the name of ‘ending discrimination’, and in spite of warnings from respected economists that such underwriting relaxations could lead to unprecedented defaults.
It was the regulators, not the banks, who relaxed these standards - at the behest of 'community organizers' and 'progressive' political activists.
Byron York wrote in a recent National Review article:
See also: The Acorn Obama Knows and Getting Paid to Watch: The Link Between Obama, the Woods Fund, Earmarks and the Mortgage Crisis.
Acorn approached sympathetic members of congress who managed to amend the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, forcing banks to collect racial data on their mortgage applicants. The predictable result was that it was ‘discovered’ that banks were indeed discriminating against minorities (the fact that those minorities were generally less financially capable of assuming a mortgage received minimal consideration in every study).
What resulted was an increase in the power of the Community Reinvestment Act, and banks were now required to relax the criteria for low income mortgage applicants. Another new, more insidious, stipulation in the revamped Community Reinvestment Act allowed for 'community organizers' to take an active part in annual bank reviews. Intimidation was the name of the game.
Banks that received poor reviews were fined. Some were denied merger requests. Others faced Justice Department action if their ‘quotas’ of minority acceptances were not met.
As if ACORN’s complicity in the entire financial meltdown weren’t enough, the organization for which Barack Obama worked both before and after attending law school, and with which he still maintains close ties, is currently being accused of committing massive voter fraud, presumably in order to get their man elected. ‘Their man’ … the one who looks out for ‘the little guy’ and who repudiates big money and the power of special interests.
I will leave you all with a few simple questions:
(1) Why is it that Barack Obama rarely, if ever, lists his ‘accomplishments’ as a ‘community organizer’?
(2) Why did Barack Obama receive more total political money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than all but one of his fellow senators/congressmen? And how did he accomplish that amazing feat in just three short years, when many of his fellow 'leaders' have been on the job for six times as long?
(3) How difficult should it be for the American citizenry to accept Barack Obama’s pious repudiation of capitalism and the ‘greed’ of big business?
(4) If John McCain or Sarah Palin had such skeletons in their closets, would those skeletons find themselves revealed in glaring headlines from now until election day? And would congress be clamoring for hearings ... or worse?
(4) Where are the mainstream media?
Nuff said.
~ joanie
Pinging for additional commentary.
Mainstream Media is in tank for Obama, therefore do NOT report negatives for him....LIARS,LIARS tha’s CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and many others.
The link for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers takes to to the pic of Obama.
The url for the link should be: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
Thanks.
~ joanie
The correct url for the link is: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
~ joanie
Excellent on all points! We need more writers like you who can articulate just what it is that is dangerous about Obama.
Oh that more in this country would wake up to the double standards and bias we see 24/7 from the left/media. I do think that is happening somewhat now with the attacks on Sarah. You can sum it up by saying ‘Democrat, thy name is Hypocrite.’
Oh and P.S.-
I think the most hypocritical point of all when it concerns Obama, is the fact that Dems claim to be the party for the poor, the downtrodden, the little people- yet, his half brother lives in a tin hut in Kenya- and he and Michelle can’t do a damn thing to help him. Heck, give him a hand up, help him start his own business or go back to school...Good grief.
“Where are the mainstream media?”
In Alaska.
Amen.
Your 'P.S.' represents one of the most blantant hypocrisies of all. If a man can't offer a hand to his brother, where is his heart?
He is a hypocrite of the worst kind. Proclaiming his desire to help the downtrodden (with all manner of socialist programs, that is) while ignoring those that he knows personally.
~ joanie
No one sucks up money faster than a member of the Communist Nomenklatura. All for the good of the Proletariat, of course.
An aquaintance of my husband -- a teacher in a nearby school district -- who seems like an educated, intelligent man, is a fervent Obama supporter.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband asked him whether he would be willing to read a few essays that I had written about Obama on my weblog. He agreed to do so.
Several days later, he approached my husband and told him he resented my implications that Obama had Marxist connections, and he would not be reading any more of my essays.
So much for our 'member of the Communist Nomenklatura' references. A part of the electorate (I'm sure more than one) would prefer not to hear such powerfully damning stuff.
~ joanie
Has anyone noticed how Michelle Obama's outfits are channeling Jackie O?
First Lady in Waiting:The Mistress of Deceit and Phony Outrage
Michelle Obama: the style of Jackie Kennedy
“his concern for ‘the little people”
I’ve never met anyone who referred to themselves as “the little people.” It’s always that guy down the street. As far as I am concerned, there are no little people in US.
Jackie K. is as convenient a model as any for Ms. Obama. And the same kind of people who looked up to Jackie (for her obviously superb character) will also look up to Michelle for the same reason.
Stick a fork in us. We're done.
~ joanie
Thanks Joanie,Here’s a bump.
Excellent, joanie. Confirms the mandate of the current administration to the home loaners to loosen up regardless of cost.
I think the question is, “How do we make complacency amongst Conservatives illegal?” That way the law abiding Conservative folks would get off their behinds and go to work fighting this slime.
This is one of the most awesome articles I have yet seen this week. I hope somewhere along the line it is either published or plagiarized like crazy before being published. Excellent information!
Media? The Democrat National Committee's print/audio/video reporters manufacturers have no use for THIS STORY. They have a candidate to manufacture.
Thanks joanie-f. GRRRREAT stuff!
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