From Bob's:
Friggin' wingnuts. Teabaggers. Right wing hate puke machine. Terry Shiavo. Hurricane Katrina. Heckuva job Brownie! Bad mortgages. GOP RIP.
I know you don't do links Bob, but before you go blaming the GOP for the bad mortgages, I suggest you get yourself some education.
Fannie and Freddie:
Fannie and Freddie's congressional sponsors—some of whom are now leading the administration's effort to "reform" the financial system—have a lot to answer for. Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, sponsored legislation adopted in 2008 that established a new regulatory structure for the GSEs. But by then it was far too late. The GSEs had begun buying risky loans in 1993 to meet the "affordable housing" requirements established under congressional direction by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Most of the damage was done from 2005 through 2007, when Fannie and Freddie were binging on risky mortgages. Back then, Mr. Frank was the bartender, denying that there was any cause for concern, and claiming that he wanted to "roll the dice" on subsidized housing support.
In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then controlled by Republicans, adopted tough regulatory legislation that would have established more auditing and oversight of the two agencies. But it was passed out of committee on a partisan vote, and with no Democratic support it never came to a vote.
See, it's fun and easy to blame the GOP for the subprime mess. It's simply wrong.
Then there's this:
Hamsher and Norquist want to know now whether the bailout was in part the result of corrupt practices by Emanuel while he was a board member at Freddie in 2000-2001.
They cited a Chicago Tribune story that described a plan by the executives and the board to use accounting tricks to show shareholders they were reaping massive profits even as they continued down a path of risky investments. The profits were then used to justify the executives' big bonuses. When Emanuel left the board to enter Congress in 2002, he was qualified for $380,000 in stock and options and $20,000 cash.
The two wrote they would like the Justice Department to "begin an investigation into the cause of Fannie and Freddie's conservatorship, into Rahm Emanuel's activities on the board of Freddie Mac (including any violations of his fiduciary duties to shareholders), into the decision-making behind the continued vacancy of Fannie and Freddie's inspector general post, and into potential public corruption by Rahm Emanuel in connection with his time in Congress, in the White House, and on the board of Freddie Mac."
Rahm Emanuel. He's not a member of the GOP, now is he? And Hamsher certainly isn't. Think Eric Holder's gonna start an investigation? Take your bets.
In their letter to Holder, Hamsher and Norquist wrote that the White House has stonewalled any inquiries into Emanuel's role on the board, noting that the acting inspector general was "stripped of his authority earlier this year by the Justice Department, relying on a loophole in a bill Mr. Emanuel cosponsored and pushed through Congress shortly before he left for the White House."
The White House has not appointed a new inspector general to determine whether crimes were committed by the board to defraud investors, the two noted, and the statute of limitations for empaneling a grand jury is about to run out.
"Under the influence of Rahm Emanuel, the White House is moving a trillion-dollar slush fund into corruption-riddled companies with no oversight in place. This will allow Fannie and Freddie to continue to purchase more toxic assets from banks, acting as a back-door increase of the TARP without congressional approval," Hamsher and Norquist wrote.
Asked about the letter on Thursday, White House spokesman Bill Burton did not address the allegations, saying, "I have the feeling that Rahm's job is very safe.
Yea, I bet it is.
I'll (maybe) deal with Bob's other charges later. Terry Shiavo and Katrina. @@. Or, if you're wont, join in comments.
Update:
This from the American Spectator in their wrap-up of the last decade:
And now we are suffering the ironic trick of history repeating itself; we have come full circle from the onset of the 21st century, where we once again have a Commander-in-Chief who treats acts of war as criminal offenses, despite having witnessed the consequences of such conduct. A man who, like Bill Clinton, directly benefited from the bold actions of his predecessor when it came to confronting evil head on, while failing to learn from those hard-won lessons.
And, once again, the media shows its incredible bias by not excoriating a president who called the events on Flight 253 the work of an "isolated extremist," despite all the evidence to the contrary. The same media who emitted interminable howls of indignation when George W. Bush told FEMA chief Michael Brown that he did "a heck of a job" in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but virtually yawns when our Homeland Security chief proclaimed that "the system worked" after the Christmas Day bomb plot.
Here's a fun little experiment. Google "the system worked" v "Mision accomplished"
"The System worked": Top five hits:
1) Napolitano talks terror attack- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the botched airline attack is not likely part of a wider terror plot.
www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/ 2009/12/27/sotu.napolitano.talks.terror.cnn.html - Related videos -
2) Work the System — WTS Methodology
3) My Way News - Analysis: Many question 'system worked' comment
Dec 29, 2009 ... WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration claim that "the system worked" after a failed aircraft bombing wasn't quite as jolting as ...
4) Registry Cleaners - Disk Defragmenter - Computer Startup Programs ...
Helps prevent system errors—Undoes erroneous registry tasks and commands to help ... Sep 09, 2009 -"Our computer had not worked correctly since we bought it ...
www.symantec.com › Norton › Products & Services - Cached - Similar -
News results for the system worked
5) Mass High Tech Crane To Resume Work On Boeing 787 Brake System, Get $18.9M - 1 day ago
(BA), resolving its claims relating to the brake-control system for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Under the agreements, Crane will resume work on a ...
"Mission Accomplished" top five hits:
1)Mission Accomplished - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Mission Accomplished," refers to a banner titled "Mission Accomplished" that was displayed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a televised ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Accomplished - Cached - Similar -
2) CNN.com - White House pressed on 'mission accomplished' sign - Oct ...
What was once viewed as a premier presidential photo op continues to dog President Bush six months after he landed on an aircraft carrier to declare one ...
www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/.../mission.accomplished/ - Cached - Similar -
3) CNN.com - Commander in Chief lands on USS Lincoln - May. 2, 2003
Above him, the tower was adorned with a big sign that read, "Mission Accomplished." Bush said he did take a turn at piloting the craft. "Yes, I flew it. ...
www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/.../bush.carrier.landing/ - Cached - Similar -
4) Image results for Mission accomplished - Report images
5) "Mission Accomplished," 5 Years Later - CBS News
May 1, 2008 ... Since Bush Declared End To Major Combat Operations In Iraq, Nearly 4000 US Troops Have Died.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/01/.../main4060963.shtml - Cached - Similar -
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