Free Republic

It isn't often that public outrage peaks so close to an election, but this is a rare moment in history when "we the people" can exact a price from the political leadership that has duped, scammed and lied to them, contributing mightily to the current financial mess. At the Senate Banking Committee hearings Tuesday, Democrats, led by Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut, seemed to think the mortgage crisis, aided and abetted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and other disasters, occurred on someone else's watch. Dodd, joined by ranking Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, criticized...

What kinda deal or IOU will kill this investgation

I was talking politics with an attorney recently who, pondering the possible outcomes of the Obama-McCain election, sighed “I can’t wait ’til this is over.” “Are you kidding?” I replied. “I haven’t had this much fun doing talk radio since Bill met Monica under a White House desk!” “Yeah, well, your job is different,” he answered. And he’s right. Partisan politics is a talk show host’s bread and butter. But for my attorney friend, workplace debates about the presidential race had become so common - and so heated - that a recent conference meeting he attended began with a warning...

Banking is a confidence scam. Always has been. Every once in a while their hand is called, and guess what: they have a bet on the table and not a dime to cover it. I think it was Jefferson who said "If ever the bankers shall be permitted to create deposits then first by inflation and then by deflation they will cheat the people out of all their wealth" I don't have my library handy so I have to paraphrase the quote Where is Old Hickory when we need him? we need someone to close these scammers up for once...

The Emperor has no clothes. If you want to know why American capitalism is on the brink of disaster, but also want to understand what will save it, then log on to the C-Span congressional website and watch the interrogations of Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, by the Senate and House banking committees. Until last week, I was in a minority of one in arguing that Mr Paulson was personally responsible for suddenly turning the painful but manageable credit crunch that had been grinding away 18 months in the background of the US economy into a global catastrophe. Mr...

A proposal for curriculum standards for science courses in Texas would remove language requiring students be taught the "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories, wording which some say has been used to undermine the theory of evolution. Proposals released Tuesday from review committees of teachers and academics would also put up roadblocks for teachers who want to discuss creationism or "intelligent design" in biology classes when covering the subject of evolution. The biology review committee proposed language that states supernatural and religious-based concepts such as creationism have no place in science classes. The standards are subject to approval by...

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Florida Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings pointed to Sarah Palin on Wednesday to rally Jews to Obama. "If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," said Hastings. "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through." Hastings, who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, made his comments in Washington, D.C., while participating in a panel discussion sponsored by the...

Morning Talk Shows renewed thread because the old one seems lost.

With embattled House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel scheduled to host a fundraiser for him today, U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski is sticking by his longtime friend. He won’t cancel the fundraiser or return $21,000 in campaign contributions from political action committees controlled by the Democratic New York City congressman. Mr. Rangel is facing questions about whether he violated state and federal laws by failing to report rental income on a Dominican Republic villa on state and federal tax returns. “I go with the people that brung me, and Charlie’s a friend of mine, and Charlie’s done nothing...

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, made large, previously undisclosed home loans to two additional executives of Fannie Mae, the government-chartered firm at the center of the U.S. credit crisis. One of Countrywide's previously undisclosed customers at Fannie was Jamie Gorelick, an influential Democratic Party figure whose $960,000 mortgage refinancing in 2003 was handled through a program reserved for influential figures and friends of Countrywide's chief executive at the time, Angelo Mozilo. Ms. Gorelick was Fannie Mae's vice chairman at the time. [Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, listening to testimony on Capitol Hill in April, got a...

The Clinton administration helped create the financial crisis we are experiencing today. The Clinton administration with the usual Democrat players botched the economy beginning in the early 1990's.

The father of John Walker Lindh, who has spent nearly seven years in federal prison for serving in an Afghan army, told a room full of law students at University of San Francisco on Wednesday his son has been used as a scapegoat for the faults of the U.S. government. Frank Lindh of Marin County spoke for the fourth consecutive year about how he believes U.S. troops in northern Afghanistan in 2001 illegitimately captured his son, known as an "American Taliban," for fighting as a Taliban soldier just after the Sept. 11 attacks. Frank Lindh said he believes his son...

<p>NEW YORK — NBC News reporter Luke Russert said he made a "dumb" misstatement on the "Today" show Wednesday when he suggested that smart people supported Barack Obama for president.</p> <p>Almost immediately, Russert took a hazing in the Web world. Wrote Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center on the NewsBusters blog: "Out of the mouths of young, untrained reporters come the unspoken beliefs of the liberal media."</p>

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said on Wednesday Democrats had reached an agreement to stem one of the worst U.S. financial disasters in decades, and that there would be enough votes to pass the measure and send it to President George W. Bush to sign into law. "We now have between House and Senate Democrats an agreement on what we think should be in the bill, and we have a meeting scheduled at 10 a.m. tomorrow to meet with the Republicans," said Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Fellow FReeper, "beaware" suggested in another thread, the idea of having Sarah Palin debate Barack Obama in place of McCain. McCain stays on task in the Senate and Palin steps in for McCain. As "beaware" put it: “Send Sarah in to Debate the empty suit. He has more important things to do in Washington... Sometimes the VP has to stand in for the Pres ya know...” I think this idea is brilliant. Have the McCain camp offer it up late Thursday or even Friday morning. Frame it as "She might have to step in, so it would be appropriate for...

There's a BIG IDEA AT STAKE in the Democrat-Caused Financial Crisis September 22, 2008 BEGIN TRANSCRIPTRUSH: Okay, as to the bailout here, folks, a lot of people over the e-mail are very confused about this, even some of my closest circle, because they think, "Well, the bailout's a bad idea, but what if we don't? Is everything going to crash around it? This is more nuance than, you know, just cut-and-dried, up-or-down, liberal-versus-conservatism." I think, folks, a lot of people say, "You know, we're beyond the point of assigning blame here. That's not the problem. What we have to...

"... the community organizer ... must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression.' -- Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals "THERE IS ONLY THE FIGHT --- An analysis of the Alinsky Model." -- Hillary Clinton, BA Honors Thesis, Wellesley College, 1969. "(Barack) Obama worked in the organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky, who made Chicago the birthplace of modern community organizing...." -- The Nation

It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The phrase definitely applies to Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and the 2004 Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry. For most of the 2004 campaign, the Kerry campaign was winning on the gun issue by making it a non-issue. Kerry was doing well, having lulled to sleep the giant pro-gun voting block. And then came September. The Swift Vets had Kerry struggling in the polls, and in a widely-publicized rescue move, former Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville, Mike McCurry, Lanny Davis and Joe...

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, made large, previously undisclosed home loans to two additional executives of Fannie Mae, the government-chartered firm at the center of the U.S. credit crisis. One of Countrywide's previously undisclosed customers at Fannie was Jamie Gorelick, an influential Democratic Party figure whose $960,000 mortgage refinancing in 2003 was handled through a program reserved for influential figures and friends of Countrywide's chief executive at the time, Angelo Mozilo. Ms. Gorelick was Fannie Mae's vice chairman at the time. Another Countrywide client was recently ousted Fannie Mae Chief Executive Daniel Mudd, though it isn't clear...

A Newport News physicist has been charged with violating federal arms-control laws by selling rocket technology to China that's now being used in that country's space program.Quan-Sheng Shu, 68, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Shanghai, was arrested Wednesday morning and made an initial appearance that afternoon in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. He is being held in jail pending a bond hearing Monday. Selling defense and space technology to China or other prohibited countries without a license is a violation of the federal Arms Export Control Act.Shu operates Amac International Inc. at the Applied Research Center in...