Jay Bookman

By "The Corporal"

September 22, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this

This whole thing started on the down hill side because of political correctness in who got loans. We never learn.

By hillbilly ragger

September 22, 2008 12:47 PM | Link to this

This post has been pulled.

By T

September 22, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this

Well, thanks for the info. Now I am sure that I will not be able to sell my home for years to come. How can I compete with give away prices.

By Paul

September 22, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this

Jay,

About a year ago - affluent community near mine - one of the highest household incomes in the state, let alone nation - number of corporate headquarters went through staff reductions. High-level reductions. Bunch of homes in excess of half a mil came on the market as foreclosures.

Story was people took no down, interest only loans and other creative financing systems, when they easily qualified for ‘traditional’ mortgages. When their six-figure jobs ended, they walked.

As I said, it cuts across all levels.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 22, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this

It’s all jumping bad for the democrats, this mortgage scandal will enlighten a whole bunch of people to how hostile liberals are to US financial strength and security.

No drilling? Pray tell, when you think of it as a means to harm America, is there really any good reason not to be drilling?

Global warming? The coldest summer in decades, August was downright chilly, what in the hell are the liberals talking about? Or do they see it as a chance to cripple the United States?

How many more schemes have been uncovered and overlooked? Terrorist propaganda against our soldiers? The world doesn’t “love” us. We use more resources than the rest of the world, blah, blah, blah.

Even this very day, the liberals are attempting to hijack the bailout on behalf of deadbeats and loafers.

Wake up and smell the coffee America, before it is too late.

Liberalism is our worst enemy.

By getalife

September 22, 2008 1:24 PM | Link to this

They want to rush it thru because it is bad for the gop at election time.

The Dems should say the Paulson (Mr. China) proposal looks like China’s socialism and unacceptable.

Have hearings, reinstall regulations to stop it happening again, hold them accountable, debate, then vote after the election.

This administration can’t be trusted. Period.

Go vote early and fire the gop.

Enough is enough.

By getalife

September 22, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this

Damn, Obama is attacking McCain like a Clinton.

Nice speech Obama.

Vote early and fire the gop

By getalife

September 22, 2008 1:34 PM | Link to this

Damn, Obama is attacking McCain like a Clinton.

Nice speech Obama.

Vote early and fire the gop

By Citizen of the World

September 22, 2008 1:34 PM | Link to this

Some people want to blame this mortgage crisis exclusively on low-income people who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford. They refuse to see that upper income people have been doing the same.

But at least the more affluent buyer had a choice when purchasing a house to find something within their budget. For low-income people, there have been too few affordable options. In case you haven’t noticed, developers aren’t building houses for low or middle-income people — not unless the buyer wants to live 50 miles outside of Atlanta.

Some buyers were greedy and ostentatious, some were hopeful and naive. I tend to have more sympathy for the hopeful and naive.

By Bud Wiser

September 22, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this

I had a realtor once tell me that I should….mortgage to the hilt!, meaning I should acquire as high a loan as I could qualify for, then buy at that level.

I got a new realtor.

I was the smart one. Apparently though her modus operandi was a widespread practice, and there’s a lot of folks in shortfall now because of it.

Anyone out there ever have a realtor sit with you and figure how to fudge the figures so you could qualify for a higher amount loan? Once again, someone trying to trick###k the market.

Point being, these quasi screwball realtors have a culpability in the housing market equal to the homeowners that they worked with to essentially commit fraud so they could buy a bigger house. But, there is no accountability, because the banks and other institutions actually made the loans.

BUT. had Bill Clinton back in 1997 not ordered his buddy Franklin Raines (a current Obama economic advisor) over at Fannie to “loosen the purse strings” so lower income people could now qualify that previously did not, maybe this whole thing would have never happened after all.

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid

By getalife

September 22, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

Obama: On Economy, McCain Has Had An “Election-Time Conversion”

Check out the attacks on McCain. I am impressed and yes he is going after lobbyists. Finally, somebody is addressing the problem of lobbying.

Obama can smell it and going after it.

By hillbilly ragger

September 22, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this

Ok, Jay—I see I crossed a line, upthread. Won’t happen again.

CotW @ 1.35, yes it’s true that “the more affluent buyer had a choice when purchasing a house to find something within their budget. For low-income people, there have been too few affordable options.”

But let’s keep something else in mind about our fabulous market-based, merit-driven American economy. If you’re middle-class and have kids, and your kids are among the 90% of Americans who attend public school, you’re not just buying a house; you’re also buying a school district.

It’s easy to look critically at Buyer X with a modest income buying a not-so-modest home. Sure, Buyer X ought to buy what he can afford and no more. But what if Buyer X’s more affordable home is in a marginal school district? What if that not-so-modest home was about all that was available within a reasonable commute of Buyer X’s workplace?

I think Buyer X may have little choice but to be, as you put it, “hopeful and naive”, as well.

I’m not speaking from personal experience; if anyone cares, earlier in the decade I took pains to purchase a home with a traditional 30-year fixed rate mortgage for which I easily qualified. I’d had an ARM on a smaller property some years earlier and lucked out with it, and didn’t want to tempt fate again.

One other thought. Most Americans might take out three or four mortgages or so in a lifetime. (yes, some re-fi all the time, but I suspect most don’t.) They work with what’s made available to them at a given time. They are not the experts. The folks brokering these loans, they’re supposed to be the experts. I find it fairly appalling that the experts are given such a free pass, and that the homebuyers are taking quite so much heat.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 2:08 PM | Link to this

getalife,

One thing that has struck me today is that I’ve heard alot of criticism from folks about Obama not proposing anything since he met with his advisor on Friday. Which isn’t exactly true, because he has addressed these problems in his economic plan all along, but I guess that’s some how different to the ADD types who can only follow one thought for one second at a time.

Anyway, I digress—

Let’s examine this:

Okay, Obama met with his econmic advisors on Friday, and decided to wait and see what Congress proposed.

Why is that so bad? Shouldn’t you wait a few days to see what exactly is going on before flying off the cuff?

McCain starts screaming for a scape goat right off the bat, and starts in with his frakking 12-point program to fix the economy BEFORE he even knows what the hell is going on!!!

Is that good judgement? Set forth proposals BEFORE you even know what is going on?

By hillbilly ragger

September 22, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this

“Is that good judgment? Set forth proposals BEFORE you even know what is going on?”

No, but it’s… mavericky? Makes you want to have a beer with the guy?

ok, me neither.

By Swami Dave

September 22, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this

There we have it, folks.

Some, at the lower end of the financial ladder, allowed to get mortgages for which they were not qualified. Others, up the financial spectrum, allowed to get higher mortgages than they were qualified or able to repay.

I think that it is painfully clear that both are serving as the foundations for this current problem. A return to underwriting practices requiring legitimate valuation, down payments / owner equity, verifiable credit histories, and qualifications to standardized rate scales should be the focus moving forward.

-Swami Dave

By "The Corporal"

September 22, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this

Some of the upper income crust is to blame but the great, great volume involves low income loans which never should have been made.

We never learn.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this

hillbilly ragger,

:-)

Me neither. I don’t want to drink beer with either candidate - I don’t want to be friends with them, I want them to fix the damn country.

But seriously, am I the only person whose been in more than one situation where people panic or tempers get flared, and have stood up and said, “Okay, people, let’s just all calm down.” It works out a lot better than flying off the deep end and exciting that panic.

And let’s say Obama DID get on TV with his economic team and have a kumbaya 12 point program to fix the economy agenda like McCain has including firing people whom he has no business firing, and say the Congress comes back with a proposal that is totally off from what you’ve proposed, doesn’t it make the guy who waited a couple days to see how the tide is turning seem a little more reasonable, than the blow hard who is calling for blood - ironically the same guy who helped create this whole mess to begin with?

Maybe McCain knows his days are numbered and he’s trying to re-write his own history. Hopefully what getalife said is true, Obama can smell blood and hopefully he’ll rip the bleeder to shreds.

By AmVet

September 22, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this

Notwithstanding the ongoing electoral fallout that will continue to plague the GOP courtesy of the worst ideology to ever hit these shores - neo-conservatism, all of this blustering about change must be somewhat comical to those in office.

They KNOW, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that as incumbents, the sheep that make up their “constituencies” will just send them back again and again and again.

The electorate is essentially paralyzed. By ignorance (in many cases willful) and to a bigger extent, fear, which is the biggest card the professional crooks have.

How else can one explain the rebirth of McCarthyism in this country, where there is a commie hiding behind every bush and socialism is the scourge of the land?

Rudy tried desperately to parlay 9/11 into victory.

He had the right idea, he just overplayed his fear-mongering hand.

Subtlety works best with sheep…

By Dusty

September 22, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this

Jay Bookman,

Why don’t you tell us about the foreclosures in Clayton County? Are the homes of the so called “affluent” the only ones that interest you? Could it be they “sound” more Republican? I doubt that these big homes had little to do with the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie, key culprits in the current fiasco.

Now, Pelosi is suggesting that we maintain the mortgage “requirements” resembling those of Fannie and Freddie. Her mind seems to block out anything that smells Democratically induced.

Unless Democrats are willing to recognize one of the main frailities of the mortgage business, they will be the usual hinderance and blackade while Obama and Pelosi promise more and more of the same thing. Is there any thought other than “party” welfare by Democrats??

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this

Corporal,

I’m sure you have something other than your opinion and obvious loathsome of the poor to back up your stated opinion?

NO? Shocking.

By Linda

September 22, 2008 2:34 PM | Link to this

Does Sarah Palin really charge rape vicitims when they report the crime? At first I thought this was some kind of liberal joke, but it’s not? I still can’t believe it.

By Paul

September 22, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this

G’day, Bosch

Did you get the ‘Heroes’ alert in the previous thread?

By Midori

September 22, 2008 2:40 PM | Link to this

Bosch,

he’s a one-trick pony.

like most of them.

look at all their posts and you see they only have one basic theme: either its the poor, the democrats or poor democrats to blame.

thank god those greedy b******* on wall street didn’t get their hands on social security. could you imagine? I try not to think about it.

By getalife

September 22, 2008 2:42 PM | Link to this

They should resign in disgrace.

Oil up 18 bucks, dollar tanking, food up.

Socialism for corporate losses.

Fire them.

Damn.

By Conservative Amusements

September 22, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this

Palin 08: America goes to H..E..Double Hockey Sticks

By hillbilly ragger

September 22, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Linda @ , does she? No.

Did she? apparently so. Sarah’s official line is that she had no idea such practices were in place, but it truly strains credibility to imagine the mayor of such a small town would be unaware.

A story’s up at CNN.com; like you, at first I thought this business about the rape kits was so surreal it couldn’t possibly be true. I honestly wish it weren’t.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Hi Paul

Nope, I missed it. I know that the season premiere is tonight. My daughter was all a flitter this weekend. I probably start watching when the show starts at 9:00 - that’s about what time I’ll get home.

I played soccer yesterday, and I think I’m getting too old to play - it’s sad. My knee is the size of a grapefruit today and one of my ankles won’t move, and that’s after putting ice on my knee all evening. It sucks getting old. Maybe it’s karma getting me back for making fun of Dusty.

By Dusty

September 22, 2008 2:50 PM | Link to this

bosch,2:08

If you want to make suppositions, try these.

Obama did not know what was going on so he stalled. Junior senators are minor players on the Congressional scene. Community organizers have even less experience.

McCain was well aware and had lomg experience with congressional committees and government finance. He, at least, knew how to make a temporary plan.

But you have it all wrong (as usual). McCain’s numbers are not numbered as the election (not polls) will prove.

Obama smells disaster and runs frantically from state to state. His plan for EVERYTHING is “change”. No specifics. Just change. And you can bet it is “short change” for taxpayers. (“Short change” means less money. Got it?)

By Paul

September 22, 2008 2:50 PM | Link to this

Bosch,

I mean, Old Man! Old, old old, old man!

Sorry to hear about your knee. That swelling is worrisome. You ought to get it checked.

Kept tellin’ ya, don’t mess with Dusty…

But have someone set up your recorder! It’s three hours tonight - first hour is a recap with new material, then two new episodes.

By getalife

September 22, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this

The Dems should submit this counter proposal:

All resign in disgrace and lawyer up for the investigations.

Pelosi bring in the Clinton team and fix this mess.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this

Midori,

Obama should be yelling that from the rooftops (about Social Security).

I think I read something about that in the New York Times today.

Obama needs to sharpen his claws and fangs and go for it!

By Paul

September 22, 2008 3:05 PM | Link to this

Bosch

Possibly there was something else to McCain’s desire to fire the SEC commissioner.

He said commissioner gave no head-up, didn’t do his job. Canning a gov’t official in that position shows a lot of people the start of accountability.

That led to his next statement, overlooked so far - that he’d appoint Andrew Cuomo, NY Attorney General, Housing Secretary under Clinton, and of course, a Democrat.

Shows going after someone. Shows bipartisanship. Shows bringing in talent, even a Democrat, with a proven performance record. Shows change.

While Obama’s in meetings or giving speeches. A good speech, but long on generalities and short on specifics.

Hey, don’t get ticked at the messenger. Just laying out how it appears to many.

Obama better get ready for the question “What Republicans would you appoint?”

That assumes the question gets asked, of course.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 3:07 PM | Link to this

Yeap Midori,

Here we go:

Obama Criticizes McCain on Social Security

By Paul

September 22, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this

Bosch

Is that some of the same elements on Social Security labeled a falsehood (politespeak for…)?

Link: [Obama’s Social Security Whopper]*(http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamassocialsecurity_whopper.html)

Don’t you think Obama’s just a tad vulnerable himself? First proposing no earnings cap, then capping, then a doughnut hole, then saying, well heck, I’ll put fixes in place - in ten years.

I wonder if he still has his early campaign advisors - you know, the ones who beat Hillary.

By Midori

September 22, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this

thanks for the link, Bosch.

Obama needs to shout this loud and often.

the more I think about it, the more it appears obvious that was their game plan all along. they looted the treasury via this phony war, and social security was next.

greedy, filthy pigs.

By Tom

September 22, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this

Yeah, Jay, yeah. But the SURGE is working! The entire Middle East has been Democracized and Christianity prevails just as we knew it would. And McCain is a real “combat” war hero, and Caribou Barbie is speaking in tongues and ready for first-day action! Ya just can’t have everything at once, my friend! God Bless Thee Ewenited States of Murcuh!

By Bud Wiser

September 22, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this

OIL UP $25/BARREL at 3pm.

NO DRILL DEMOCRATS, what say ye now? As if the economy wasn’t screwed up enough by Bill (Let’s give money to low income and minorities so they can buy a house without really being qualified to do so) Clinton, now the NO DRILL DEMOCRATS watch the speculators drive up the price of oil almost 25% IN ONE DAY, and still they have nothing to say.

More American dollars go to the sheiks and mullahs, which apparently the Dimocraps want, while they try to say “lets drill’ in a no-oil zone. And you liberals support this view? Stupid, stupid idiots. And the so-called Gang of Ten? Ten idiots, I’m surprised that they can count that high, led by the ever spineless Saxby Chambliss, a sad sack beyond compare.

What has been postured by the oil companies in our area as a “we don’t have any gas….right now” situation, is probably no more than a stockpiling of fuel so it can be sold tomorrow at a hugely marked up price. Never mind that the hedges were probably bought at $102…they’ll say they had to buy it at $130 to justify their markups.

And where is Governor Sonny Perdue, the rotund one who said years ago he’d “go after the gougers” …probably at the Golden Corral chowing down, while his accountant hides all of the under the table oil money he has to be getting, to sit on his arse and do nothing.

Election ‘08 - I weep for the future

By "The Corporal"

September 22, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this

To Bosch

Oh, but Mr. Bosch sir, you don’t know me. I used to be poor…..very poor. My first thoughts I can remember as a child is of my Dad sitting in a wash tub on the back porch of our little ram shackle house in a “holler” in W.Va. and I wondered why he was so “black” (he was trying to wash the coal dust off as he had just come out of the mines). You have no idea. I could go on and on but I won’t waste my time with you.

Bottom line ………. the truth is the truth. I never was able to buy a home until I could afford to and that is the way it should be.

By Dusty

September 22, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this

Oh, puleeze, Paul,2:50

Don’t make me laugh. I’m a charmer with karma. ABSOLUTELY!

bosch is playing soccer? That’s the one where you bounce balls off your head all day, isn’t it? Sounds like the right game for bosch.

Anyway, how’s the crew on Galactica? Aren’t they getting a little rusty in the knees by now? The old films with Spanish voices are more fascinating. You know. Schwartenegger as Terminator speaking Spanish!! Delightful! Oley!!

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this

Paul,

There are some things I don’t know in this world, and some things I do know in this world, and one thing I do know in this world is you don’t make plans on how to do something in the political or business world, without knowing all the facts and the details first.

Sure you can take a few risks, but they need to be knowledgeable risks (if that makes sense).

Sure, some are flightly, and free spirited, and I’m like that with a lot of things in general life, but with business? No way.

There are of course, those that do, and they more times than not get bit in the a## trying to do it-especially in the political arena.

Canning a government official? Oh sh!t! Yeah! That’ll fix it (as I roll my eyes). How about holding some of these greedy SOB executives accountable?

I forget who I heard say this, OH YEAH, it was Ron Paul yesterday (not quotes, but along these lines) - this bailout is pumping temporary breath in to a failed system.

In other words, like putting a band-aid on a severed arm.

And how’s McCain going to defend his voting record of deregulation for the past so many years? Bringing in Cuomo? So?

On a side note, I don’t like doctors, they are fine for other people, but not for me, unless, I’m dying or something like that, and I don’t think a swollen knee or an ankle that won’t move is a symptom of my demise.

By Midori

September 22, 2008 3:23 PM | Link to this

Paul,

you’re starting to sound as worthless and partisan as the rest of the 28% club.

guess it was eventual.

By Paul

September 22, 2008 3:24 PM | Link to this

Bosch

A link without the asterisk

Link: Obama’s Social Security Whopper

Dusty

You mean that game of finesse, speed, skill and coordination?

The crew’s patiently waiting for the Heroes hoopla to subside. I suppose you want me to say they’re heeding Obama’s advice and learning Spanish?

:-)

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this

Corporal,

Nice story, but so? Do you have any proof that the poor are the ones whose caused this financial mess?

Nice andedote there, but you still offer no proof.

Nope? Still? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Paul,

Um, didn’t say it was iron proof, my point is that Obama needs to sharpen his claws, we are in an election man - McCain is sharpening his claws, fangs, talons, and knives - Obama needs to do the same. Obama needs to be reminding voters about Bush’s and the GOPs attempt to privatize EVERYTHING, and see what the voters think of that now.

By Wyld Byll Hyltnyr

September 22, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this

jay, I know where you are going with this - trying to argue that CRA pressures where not a major driver of the crisis. I am an industry participant and, while I dont live in CCOTS, I am familiar with the area. CCOTS has a lot of moolies in it, so while the numbers are large, there is more than likely a black face on these foreclosures.

By Midori

September 22, 2008 3:37 PM | Link to this

and here comes Wyld Byll to remind us once again that racism is in vogue.

strike a pose

By Paul

September 22, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this

Bosch

I wrote earlier that I went to Factcheck last week to see who had the most…. misrepresentations, if not outright lies.

I gave up. Neither candidate had purity points.

But Fox News said McCain lied more (their words).

Bosch, I would just like his team to think through every line of attack. Ask “can this be turned back against us? Have we done the same? Will it connect with the great undecideds? What possible way can it backfire on us?”

I guess I’m a tad disappointed it reduces to this - same old, same old campaign style. Even after all the posts I read last months ago about how the conservatives and Republicans sway people with ‘fear’ - now I see the great changer doing the same.

I’m seeing way too many similarities between the two.

By "The Corporal"

September 22, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this

To Bosch

If you want to know the truth do some research. Here is just one …….

About 46% of Hispanics and 55% of African Americans who obtained mortgages in 2005 got higher-cost loans compared with about 17% of whites and Asians, according to Federal Reserve data. Other studies indicate they would have qualified for lower-rate loans. [127]

Disproportionate default rates across ethnic classes prove that legislation such as the Community Reinvestment Act forces banks to make unsound loans. [128]

[127] “Minorities hit hard by rising costs of subprime loans - USATODAY.com” (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-19.

[128] {{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/miqa3750/is199909/ai_n8869517

By David

September 22, 2008 3:44 PM | Link to this

It’s interesting to see this foreclosure crisis cross class lines. Whether you’re a republican or democrat, you should realize behind all the bad decisions in banking, consumers made as many bad decisions on borrowing.

More sobering is that Ralph Nader warned of this happening.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this

Paul,

Do you think McCain’s bringing out the Freddie Mae/Obama connection is going to do him any good?

Like Obama is just going to roll over and take it? Of course they are going to fight back and it seems like they did a pretty good job of it today and made McCain look worse in the process.

ByteMe posted the article earlier.

But, yes, it’s disappointing, but surprised? No, you’re not surprised.

Politics is politics - but you know that and the pre-Karl Rove days of politics is history.

By Bud Wiser

September 22, 2008 3:48 PM | Link to this

I wonder why we don’t see a chart on the national foreclosures that includes such things as:

1) Purchase price(s) of individual home(s) 2) Actual income and adjusted income, used to qualify buyer for loan 2) Race of foreclosed persons, by percentage 3) Qualifications of foreclosed persons used to justify loans (incomes, bills, taxes, etc) 4) Sub prime figures, and loans sold 5) Violations of loan institutions of federal guidelines or guidelines of inst.( Fannie, Freddie, etc.)

We’ll never see it. Too sensitive a material here, especially in the race and income factors, when applied to the mortgage amounts. Doesn’t matter now anyway, since the horses have left the barn. Better catch the horses though, because oil is spiking again today.

Election ‘08 - Tweedledum or Tweedledee

By Paul

September 22, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this

Bosch 3:20

And some overanalyze to death. Information paralysis. That’s how Obama comes across to many. And when he does speak quickly it can come across as missing the point - witness his first response to the Russian invasion “both sides need to …”

I believe on the 60 Minutes interview McCain did speak of speculating if there were some way to go after some of those executives. But as far as firing someone, we hear ‘no accountability, no responsibility” and McCain goes after one of the prime officials who should have been watching and yelling (a guy quite popular with the farfar right, I gather) and you’re not happy? My gosh, man, Pres Bush wouldn’t fire anyone! McClellan could’ve written his book while still Press Secretary and he wouldn’t have been fired! So McCain proposes this and Dems complain.

Is this another case where Obama would be more like Pres Bush than McCain is?

I think McCain’s saying “I’m being portrayed incorrectly. I proposed changes this many years ago here and here and here while my opponent was taking $$$ from them.”

My feeling is people are ticked but want action. Heard a panelist on NPR say after Iraq we don’t want gov’t to make any more quick decisions (a process that took months is quick?). Kicking the can until after the election without offering anything comes across to many as either not knowing what to do or calculatingly putting off action.

Midori

You mean because I point out what I think are weaknesses in how the campaign’s run? How it could be more effective? Or because I continue to express concern over Obama/Biden’s statements about military adventurism where the McCain camp has not made similar statements?

Easier to write it off as ‘the other side” and ignore it, I suppose.

BTW - my sister called a couple hours ago - they have power. Better than another month.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 22, 2008 3:54 PM | Link to this

It’s getting sickening out there and of course it is the liberals crossing the line:

What doesn’t she know about financial markets, Islam, the history of the Middle East, the cold war, modern weapons systems, medical research, environmental science or emerging technology? Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin’s ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth.-ABC

(Expletive self deleted)

(Expletive self deleted)

Kandy as-s.

(Expletive self deleted)

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 3:56 PM | Link to this

Corporal,

You know nothing of research. Are those wikipedia articles? Did you write those yourself?

Again, that proves nothing.

By JAY BOOKMAN

September 22, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this

And Bud, other than to stoke your already clearly demonstrated racism, what on earth would the race of borrowers have to do with this crisis?

By AJC/DNC Management

September 22, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this

I have been asked by many why I have such confidence in a rookie Alaskan governor, given the rigors of the campaign to follow. (Many Republican pundits apparently do not.) I think we are starting to see the answers to that question. The proverbial “they” hacked into her private email accounts. They swore that her daughter was the real mother of her Down Syndrome baby. They sent legions of reporters and lawyers to Alaska to dig up dirt. They wrote columns suggesting that she was stupid, uneducated, dishonest, a liar, and worse still. All this was the work of moralists, who, in their more extreme manifestations, tried to flood a Chicago radio station to disrupt guests, who doctored photos of McCain to subvert his portrait, who disgraced the Atlantic brand by trafficking in pregnancy rumors, and who now publish the private email of Palin.

You should be so proud of yourselves.

And? She is still smiling and apparently unmoved. Had they done this to Biden, he would have gone berserk. Wait—they didn’t do this to Biden, and he seems near berserk in his daily gaffes.

bwa.

By Frederick Douglass

September 22, 2008 4:00 PM | Link to this

There are some choice things I could say about this topic, but the doctors here at the facility will fill me up with mind altering meds if I said them.

By Paul

September 22, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

Bosch 3:47

They’re both dirty. That’s my point.

I’m willing to accept that - remember my previous posts of “if you want to elect a saint, go to church” and about how the farfarLeft sounds suspiciously like the old Moral Majority Family Values Republicans when it comes to their McCain/Palin attacks?

So having accepted that, I’m more than willing to look ahead and compare specific policy proposals and philosophies. Without all this backwards looking. I think there’s a lesson in the change that occurred on the road to Damascus -

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 4:08 PM | Link to this

Paul,

Unfortunately for McCain, he has a proven record of doing the opposite of what he’s proposing now. Is Obama perfect? No, not in the least, but that’s why I’ve said all along one of the reasons I like Obama is that he hasn’t been in Washington long enought to taint himself, and please don’t go there with ‘Moose Mama.’

But, all this is why I’m taking my “political media hiatus” for the next few weeks (okay, I cheated a little yesterday morning).

By AmVet

September 22, 2008 4:11 PM | Link to this

David, you are100% correct. Nader predicted this was coming and the R’s and D’s just laughed.

Go ahead, partisans, keep putting the foxes back in charge of the hen house. But remember those are your and my eggs in there…

The lobbyists and corporate lawyers, the heads of financial firms and the crooks who control Wall Street, all those who spent the last three decades assuring us that government was part of the problem and should get out of the way, are now busy looting the U.S. treasury. They are also working feverishly inside the Democratic and Republican parties to blunt any effective regulatory reform as they pass on their distressed assets to us. The process is stunning in its hubris and mendacity, and two of the most potent enablers of this unprecedented act of corporate welfare are John McCain and Barack Obama.

The rhetoric of the two presidential candidates about the crisis has been filled with pious outrage about the abuses of Wall Street and short on actual solutions. John McCain and Barack Obama know, after all, who funds their campaigns. The financial industry has given $22.5 million in the current election cycle to Obama and $19.6 million to McCain, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And the financial industry has come around to collect. Two of the biggest financial groups in Washington, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Mortgage Bankers Association, have been holding meetings with McCain and Obama’s economic advisers. They are working with the campaigns to protect the unregulated power of financial industries and at the same time to shift bad debt to taxpayers.

Ralph Nader, who has spent his adult life battling corporations, understands more about the rise of the corporate state and the steady fleecing of American citizens by corporations than anyone else in the country. The core of his message is that Republicans and Democrats are hostage to corporate power.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080922fleecingwhatsleftof_america/?ln

By TW

September 22, 2008 4:15 PM | Link to this

AmVet - while I agree about Nadar, let’s not excuse the fact that he gave ‘w’ the presidency. Would Al Gore have presided over this abortion on Wall Street? Probably not. Maybe - but probalby not. Oh, Al also would have read the PDB.

By Paul

September 22, 2008 4:17 PM | Link to this

Bosch

The disadvantage of having a record, eh?

Oh, I think there are some difference between Obama and Palin. But one’s running for Pres, one for VP and the Obama staff doesn’t want to highlight the differences. And they seem gunshy about doing so with Biden.

Weeks?!!? Awww, c’mon - don’t go!!!

AmVet

Any surprise the ‘establishment’ does all it can to protect the two-party system?

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 4:18 PM | Link to this

Good lord, gold is a little over $900/oz. My grandfather, if he were still alive would have been so proud.

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 4:23 PM | Link to this

Paul,

I’m not leaving the blog. I’m limiting my exposure to the media (NPR, New York Times, Washington Post) and the blog will balance that out. Keep me grounded.

By Dusty

September 22, 2008 4:25 PM | Link to this

Same old same old

Democrats say Obama is WONDERful (no matter what).

Republicans say McCain is GREATER(than Obama without a doubt).

Moderators say both are wrong and some things are right and up is down and down is up.

Bookman figures.. “Ive got to write about something and I am paid by Democrats.” (We know. We know!)

FLASH!!

Did you know they have traced the e-mail espionage of Palin’s internet messages to the son of a Democratic politician? Anybody surprised??

By Paul

September 22, 2008 4:27 PM | Link to this

Bosch

whew -

By Bosch

September 22, 2008 4:32 PM | Link to this

Paul,

Sometimes I think (really, I do) that one of the worst things to happen to this country is the invention of 24-hour news channels.

By "The Corporal"

September 22, 2008 4:41 PM | Link to this

To Bosch

It’s a free country. Keep your head in the sand.

Adieu ………..

By AmVet

September 22, 2008 4:46 PM | Link to this

Hi Paul,

No, I’m not surprised at all.

But I remember reading some years ago that the average Nader supported is fairly amazed that more Americans just don’t get the veracity of his positions.

Nader warned eight years ago that the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) were about to tank like the savings and loan industry of the 1980s and ’90s. Because his warnings were ignored, taxpayers today face losing billions of dollars to cover these bad debts.

The Republican/Democratic duopoly is clearly broken. And IMHO their interests are NOT in the best interests of the nation any longer.

The power brokers in both parties are owned by the dirty money of those interests that run counter to those of the American taxpayer.

Nader has called for an immediate halt to the increase in the national debt. He demands an end to corporate subsidies and unconditional taxpayer bailouts of corporations. And he has called for aggressive prosecution of corporate criminals.

The Republicans blather on endlessly about free markets, yet all they seem to practice is corporate and state socialism.

And guess who gets to pay these crooks?

You and me.

But at least I didn’t vote for Gore/Kerry/BushCo.

And will not cast my lot with either of the existing K Street wh0res, McCain or Obama.

Read the info from the link I provided. Nader has come up with 10 market reforms that he says need to be implemented immediately along with any bailout.

I have proudly voted for Nader in the past two Presidential elections. If elected would he make some mistakes? Certainly. Some big ones? Perhaps. But he is the only legitimate candidate in my lifetime to have the courage and integrity to try and change the corrupt and incompetent status quo in Washington.

And isn’t that what the American people really want?

By Paul

September 22, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this

AmVet

Some (BOR) dismiss him as a flaming socialist so that’s all the thinking some people do.

Some (Left) dismiss him because “he’ll siphon off our votes.”

Had dinner with a group, mentioned Nader, one person said “oh so you believe in wasting your vote?”

I started to discuss principle vs tagging along with the favorite but decided it’d be a wasted conversation.

A three-way debate. Dream on -

By Bud Wiser

September 22, 2008 5:02 PM | Link to this

No racism here, Jay, but statically speaking, when Franklin Raines (a black man) was told by Bill Clinton (a wannabe black man) to open up the purses strings of Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, for low income and minorities, I can only assume Clinton was not referring to Eskimos or other groups.

I doubt very seriously that you can prove one dam thing in alledging that I am a racist. I was asking a simple question, and you took the liberal bait (like your kind always do) and immediately accused me of racism, because you do not want to answer the original question.

Thank you Jay for proving once again that the left is so easy to accuse, so simple minded to assume, and so unfailingly predictable to try to use race as an issue when you are uncomfortable about answering a simple question for which you know, but are afraid to answer.

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid

By V

September 22, 2008 6:20 PM | Link to this

Bud,

No one need prove you’re a racist. You’ve done a great job of that yourself, and you certainly don’t need any help.

V

By Bud Wiser

September 22, 2008 6:36 PM | Link to this

What does V stand for exactly…vomit? You have nothing, you are nothing. Idiot.

Just like Jay, you use the racist comment with no proof, no nothing. You use it as a substitute for intellect, because you have none. It is the liberal calling card for “I don’t know” or “I’m afraid of you.” You are void of a brain.

You need to stay away from the computer, little boy/girl. You cannot compete with a real mind.

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid

By V

September 22, 2008 6:43 PM | Link to this

Bud,

Please keep talking and reinforcing the shallow persona that is “Bud Wiser”.

You are the living paradigm of the racist Republican southerner that so stains my once-lovely home state. You would seek to amuse when you only bore.

V

By Just_Me

September 22, 2008 7:24 PM | Link to this

The mortgage crisis knows no boundaries-and, truly is the fallout of greed….

My brother’s brother in law is a mortgage broker…tried DESPERATELY to sell my brother on one of those ‘creative’ interest-only mortgages to put my sister in law in a house they could ill afford. My brother found his…errr, whatevers, and said NO. Thank goodness, because the company my brother worked for went belly up six months later (construction-who’da thunk it!)—as it was, my brother barely broke even on his house when he had to move….I know wealthy, poor, black, white, and other who have lost homes….

Mortgage brokers worked like crazy to get people they knew were unqualified—and those pitiful people who really only wanted what we all want-a piece of land to call ours-were either too impatient, or had too many stars in their eyes to see how much trouble they could get into.

I have a friend, perfect example: single mom—after her divorce, she waited 2 years, and bought a house…had to do the ARM…was panicking because she had to find a way to refinance before that balloon payment….we no longer work together, but I sincerely hope that she was either able to make the payment or refinance in time.

A REPUTABLE, honest broker would have told her, “Look, I am sorry this is going to break your heart, but YOU CAN’T AFFORD A TRADITIONAL MORTGAGE…SO YOU MAY AS WELL WAIT.” Someone had to be the grownup…yes, he homebuyers should have known better, but where were the bankers telling them, flat out, “Nope, you don’t have the money?” Everyone was greedy—homeowners to own a house they couldn’t afford-which is understandable to want to own your own home-but the mortgage industry who did take advantage of this home-buying frenzy.

When we bought our home new, 12 years ago, I fell in love with a house nearly twice the size…and 40K more. My husband, very wearily said, “we can get a bigger mortgage..” and our banker nodded. However, I knew, and my husband did too, that it would be TIGHT…and heaven help us if one of us lost a job, got sick, or had some other catastrophe..were would we be?

So, we bought the house we could afford (and expanded on the sucker 9 years ago!)—unfortunately, not everyone is as realistic as my spouse…but the bottom line is, our mortgage broker would have made it happen….and it wouldn’t be because he wanted ME to have that house with the four fireplaces! ;->

Paul and Bosch

Thank you for proving that there are people on this board who are able to disagree, and DISCUSS it, without the stupid rhetoric.

I may not agree with you (Paul!), but at least you are not name calling and are truly working on creating a dialog.

Paul- BTW: i went back to the other day’s post..saw your post about our moving out of the country for retirement and medicare—-i hadn’t thought about it, but the husband had (I married a good man)-we were planning on keeping an apt here-I will, hopefully, have grandchildren, and couldn’t really bear the thought about being so far from my sons..! I guess that would solve that problem…however, i am still 20 years away from retiring….! ;-) Night all-my kids at school wore me OUT today!

By Bud Wiser

September 22, 2008 7:31 PM | Link to this

Thank you again for the “racist” label V - in your mindless stupidity you once more reinforce exactly what I said about liberals many times before…you use the racist label when you have nothing else, no answer, no argument, no brain.

I choose not to be bothered with your stupidity in the future, because you have already unwrapped your own package, and found…….. nothing. Idiot

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid

By Midori

September 22, 2008 8:20 PM | Link to this

V,

I just saw a clip in which Neil Cavuto, of Fox News, was making pretty much the same “argument” as Bud, re: minorities.

At least we now know where he gets his talking points.

By Frederick Douglass

September 22, 2008 8:21 PM | Link to this

Is it just me, or is it starting to sound like this financial fiasco is going to be blamed on Obama too? Who might I ask has been at the helm of this ship for the last eight years? It is high time for those calling the shots to own up to their incompetence, and quit blaming others. You all promised us less government, less taxes, and fiscal responsibility, well 7 years and 10 months later, where’s the beef?

By Midori

September 22, 2008 8:23 PM | Link to this

Bud Wiser - making it easy to call a racist scumbag a racist scumbag.

By Hillbilly Deluxe

September 22, 2008 10:35 PM | Link to this

Just an aside, I typed in my zipcode to Jay’s link. A couple of foreclosures I know of aren’t listed. It might be even worse than it looks.

By V

September 23, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Bud suffers from the same ills that plague Governor GW Bush, delusions of adequacy.

V