Apollo wrote on Oct 14, 2008 5:43 AM:Re: Ed DeCanniere (North San Diego County letter)
What is the deal these days with the repeated delaying of North San Diego County letters while Riverside County letters get processed?
Third time in a week!

Since you have overlooked the 10/14 North County letters, I will respond to one in today's print edition here.

Looking at Ed DeCanniere's letter, you might think, Wow! The guy really did his research into the 1999 passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repeatled many of the banking reforms in the Glass-Steagal Act passed under FDR to rescue this nation the FIRST time Democrats had to come in and get us out of an economic meltdown caused by Republican deregulation.
Look at all the voting detail he refers to. But if you look at the real history, what DeCanniere shows is extremely incomplete and misleading. So is he being disingenuous? - or - is he just copying his misleading propaganda from the 9/25 North County Times reprint of Rich Lowry's syndicated column?

DeCanniere seems to wonder why - why?! - anyone could have the gall to blame this repeal on Phil "nation of whiners" Gramm (who also wrote the bill deregulating oil speculation and wrote John McCain's economic policy)?
I also note that DeCanniere just mentions that the bill overturns Glass-Steagal, and does not mention its name: GRAMM-Leach-Bliley, which might just provide a hint as to why someone might blame Gramm, who happened to be the bill's principal author.

DeCanniere (and Lowry) are technically correct in their details about the final vote for the Act. But they misrepresent the historical context and distort the record by omission. They make it sound like this was a bipartisan bill. False!

The ORIGINAL Senate Bill as written by Gramm was passed on 11-4-1999 by a 54-44 vote along almost straight party lines. John McCain voted for it; Joe Biden voted against it. The corresponding legislation in the House of Representatives passed 343-86. As usual, there were differences between the House and Senate versions.
Having already passed both houses of Congress, the House and Senate had a conference committee to work out the differences so that identical bills could be passed for the president's signature.
In consideration of certain compromises, including strengthened privacy provisions and other consumer concerns, the Senate Democrats agreed to support the compromise changes, and the final vote was the 90-8-1-1 (one "present" and one absent - John McCain, out campaigning for his 2000 presidential bid and unable to handle both senate and campaign duties). Biden did vote for the final conference committee edition as part of the compromise to get some changes and concessions in a bill he otherwise opposed and had voted against in its original incarnation.

And by the way, I actually did the research.
I didn't copy this from the propaganda of some columnist.

Ron wrote on Oct 14, 2008 6:17 AM:I think David Thompson needs to do a little math on this subject before he speaks. We all know the cost of this affirmative action housing plan run by Democrats through Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, it is $700 billion dollars. Actually, the correct number as determined by the Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) is $5.6 trillion. Which, I should add, was purposely underfunded by Democrats precisely because they wanted to preserve their campaign coffer inside Fannie. This is why the Fed is currently pumping $40 billion a month into both Fannie & Freddie, under the radar, and apart from the $700 billion bailout. Apparently, the correct number is $780 billion that were eventually sold to investment banks by Fannie & Freddie.
Also, we now know that key Democrat members, "Friends of Angelo", or FOA's they were called, blocked any attempt to reign in the now known fraud that was happening inside these two GSE's.
Let us never forget, Democrat Senator Chris Dodd not only received huge amounts of campaign cash from Fannie/Freddie, in fact, THE MOST of any person on Capital Hill, but also got a sweetheart mortgage deal by Angelo via Country-Wide, who benefited the most via these sub-prime load going through Fannie & Freddie.
So, if you want to get into "fat cat's", I have no problem pointing to them, Dave.
Also we know, the second leading Senator was none other than Barackous NObamous. Ranked the #1 most liberal senator, while an avowed socialist Berine Sanders is ranked only 4th.
Then we know about Kent Conrad, Democrat Senator, also Friend of Angelo, and another sweetheart deal from Country-Wide.
Ever wonder why the Most Ethical Congress in History is purposely NOT looking into the corruption of these two guy's?

Further, on 17 different occassions the President called for stricker reform of Fannie/Freddie, beginning in 2001.

I would agree these above listed "fat cat's" aided and abetted the fraud commited by Fannie by Frank Raines, Jim Johnson, and Jamie Gorelick. Their names are Dodd, Conrad, NObama, Frwank, Waters, et. al.

This was caused by the fat cats inside Fannie & Freddie, who sold these loaves of you know what to Wall Street, which in the end, will be paid off by
Main Street.
But, this is the Liberal Democrat legacy folks. When you look at our Government run institutions Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Fannie Mae. Not one of these is solvent. We the American public hold the bills due on this group of catastrophes to the tune of $59 Trillion, plus?
What else have they cooked up for us to pay?

Greencinitan wrote on Oct 14, 2008 7:13 AM:Obama's tax plan does not hurt small businesses, most of which do not earn $250k. Would you rather have all of the lower income folks and businesses paying taxes so the rich folk can avoid taxes on their millions, as Bush did? Or would you rather have honest, hard-working people investing public money wisely on needed services like food safety and transportation infrastructure and clean energy, instead of spending billions on wars that make America less safe by inspiring more terrorism? I'll take Obama, thank you.

Surfer wrote on Oct 14, 2008 7:53 AM:F/U from 101308:
Surfer[-] wrote on Oct 14, 2008 7:35 AM:Another Boogie Woogie Whipeout Oh Dude, there is no requirement to contribute to anything or anybody on this blog. Rear don was not discussing but pontificating. The only two who would seriously challenge him or discuss the subject with him would be sdraoul and Nick. It is an accurate observation. Now go home and play in your sand box. See Ya.

Being white in America wrote on Oct 14, 2008 8:17 AM:White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

Rons Glass House wrote on Oct 14, 2008 8:27 AM:Ron 6:17am forgets to mention that John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid by Freddie Mac through August 2008.

Rick Davis in 2000 talking about Fannie and Freddie: "You can say what you want about free-market distortions, but people like the system because it gets them into houses cheap."

McCain's hands are dirtier than anyone in Ron's 6:17am comment. Ron is chucking alot of bricks around his glass house. I hope he doesn't go walking around barefoot!

CANOBAMA wrote on Oct 14, 2008 8:36 AM:David Thompson attempts to shift blame for the economic crisis toward the Republicans. Republicans saw trouble brewing at Fannie Mae years before its collapse while Democrats continually prodded Fannie Mae to loosen lending standards to make home loans available to anyone regardless of ability to repay. No legal immigration status, no down payment, no employment history? No problem, they wanted to put you in a home for a low monthly payment. Mr. Thompson notes that Sen. Hagel did introduce a bill in 2005 to increase oversight on Fannie Mae. It did not get enough support to make it out of committee. Please remember that Sen. Hagel reintroduced his bill again in 2007. By that time, Democrats had become the majority party. Sen. Dodd, if he ever did support cracking down on Fannie Mae, could have used his new committee chairmanship to get this bill out of his committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote. He didn't. This number one recipient of Fannie Mae PAC money was busy at that time doing what the number two recipient of Fannie Mae PAC money (Obama) was doing: campaigning for President.

More bad news for yahoos wrote on Oct 14, 2008 8:41 AM:From the AFP QUOTE Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has solidified his lead over rival John McCain with 51-54 percent support in four key battleground states, a poll released Tuesday showed.

Obama also leads or ties McCain among white voters for the first time in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to polling by Quinnipiac University conducted with the Wall Street Journal and washingtonpost.com.

"Senator Obama's leads in these four battleground states are as large as they have been the entire campaign," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"Those margins may be insurmountable barring a reversal that has never been seen before in the modern era in which polling monitors public opinion throughout the campaign." ENDQUOTE This kind of news really scares me: when the GOP faces a loss, it gets desperate and becomes willing to do anything, legal or not, ethical or not, to tilt the voters. And it has the sitting President who is more than willing to do what they command him to do. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

CANOBAMA wrote on Oct 14, 2008 8:46 AM:As a white person, I can say the pastors in the churches I have attended did not preach the theology described by someone at 8:17 this morning. Had they preached this sort of nonsense, I like most other Christians would never have returned to hear another of that pastor's "sermons" again.

CANOBAMA wrote on Oct 14, 2008 9:03 AM:You've gotta love this one for its irony: Speaker Pelosi calls for the House Ethics Committee to investigate allegations that Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL) paid $121,000 to a former mistress to keep her quiet. According to ABC News, Mahoney, who is married, started an affair with Patricia Allen while campaigning on a morality platform against... Mark Foley (the perv who sent lurid Internet messages to male teenage pages). Mahoney campaigned on a motto of “Restoring America's Values Begins at Home”.

Ron wrote on Oct 14, 2008 9:16 AM:The Kool-aid, as it were...
has taken it's effect, and now the only thing standing between a complete mental break from reality is another speech from the messiah {small "m"}.

"Greencinitan" @7:13AM: Has drank the nobama kool-aid, so let me attempt to revive him, via the facts, which it is hoped, he would recover from this illness that has overtaken him.

His claim, and it is also the nobama claim is that: NObama's tax plan does not hurt small businesses, most of which do not earn $250k.

Under the SBA, this is how they, the SBA define small business, with average annual receipts by industry that a business can have and still be classified as small business by the SBA: Crop production: $750,000,
Animal production except for cattle & chicken/eggs: $750,000, Cattle feedlots: $2.5M, Chicken/egg production: $12.5M, Forestry & logging: $7M, Fishing: $4M, Irrigation, sewage, water supplies: $7M, housing construction: under $33.5 million, Heavy and civil engineering construction: $33.5M, Dredging and cleanup: $20M, Concrete, framing, and other housing contractors: $14M, Car dealers: $29M.
RV, motorcycle, & boat dealers: $7M, Furniture, hardware, clothing & sporting good stores: $7M, Electronic stores: $7M, Supermarkets, gas stations & department stores: $27M, Pharmacies: $7M.

Any of you work in these industries?
How bout coal, oil, or other smoke stack industries, like steel?

Are ya really sure about that $250K cutoff?
Take another sip...

Ron wrote on Oct 14, 2008 9:32 AM:No one ever said the McCain's crew was clean as the wind driven snow...
"Rons Glass House" @8:27 AM.

But if your really interested, let me explain to you how this really worked inside the swamp that is known as Washington D.C.

You see, under the direction of Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Daniel Mudd and Jamie Gorelick.. all Democrat sycophants, by the way. But under these people, they used their fradulent accounting to win for themselves big, big money. With some of that money, they bought & paid for many, many lobbyists who's goal, it now seems, was to defeat any new reforms or re-regulation of Fannie & Freddie. Word on the street was, they bought EVERY lobbyist, so no one else had any to lobby for reforms.

And that is why there was no legislative action taken between 2001, when GWB first called for stricker regulations over these GSE's, and the other 16 times Bush continued to call for re-regulation of Fannie/Freddie.
It went no where because everyone was bought & paid for by the Democrats running this thing.
Protected by the likes of Dodd, Frank, Conrad, Waters, et. al.

The problem is Government should not be involved in affirmative action loans to those who can't repay them.
And do you really want to know how the Democrats aren't really about re-regulation of these two fraud giants?
Because within the details of the Democrat approach to the first bailout, was buried a 20% siphon away to a Community Fund, which everyone now knows, would go to groups like ACORN.
The Democrats haven't learned the lesson, as most socialists do not. They see an attempt to blame capitalism, which is the end goal of all socialists, blame the capitalism, then take complete power, Centrally.
Marx said, first democracy, then socialism, then communism.
With more liberal democrats plus Nobama, soon we will all be in the rice paddies. We will then be equal, as in, equal opportunities. The ruling elite, the vanguard, however, shall be supervising us, like Lenin, Stalin, Mao.

To Ezra wrote on Oct 14, 2008 11:28 AM:Ezra: With your long silence I thought you had learned your lesson about pushing phony archeopteryx stories and creation myths. Sorry to hear you've learned nothing during your years of absence and that you're back preaching nonsense again (e.g. preaching about Ben Stein's failed attempt to challenge science).

to CANOBAMA wrote on Oct 14, 2008 1:43 PM:Sarah Palin attended churches whose pastor said those things, and she did not leave for years. Imagine, too, if Michelle Obama had been a member of a radical group that called for the secession of Illinois, whose leader insisted that this state leave the evil USA. Do you think that Obama would hear about this from his opponents and the public? Do you think it would affect his support? Seems that republicans treat Todd Palin's membership in such a group as utterly trivial. Interesting.

Doesnt Matter Ron wrote on Oct 14, 2008 4:13 PM:McCain has proven he is not a closer, and therefore will not be elected President.

And, since he does not understand how to close a sale, small businessmen are probably better off waiting it out for 4 years to elect someone, who perhaps has some business savy, because McCain will do more harm than good, and almost certainly more harm than his opponent.

CANOBAMA wrote on Oct 14, 2008 4:18 PM:I'm certain if Michelle Obama or Laura Bush had been a member of a radical group we would never read about it in the newspaper because the media would respect the private life of a candidate's spouse and not go digging for dirt.