Barack Obama is already doing weekly radio addresses which are being video recorded, and will be available on YouTube each week, at least this is what I heard today, so I took a look, and found the following for this week:

I was delighted to hear a quote stating that the following video is the most watched video of this election year.  I am the 11,797,882 viewer.

Hi readers, here’s something I received by email today from a very upset friend, guess it’s making the rounds, but it’s full of good info…unless some of it isn’t correct…read and decide, comment if any of it isn’t true. And if it is, be sure it influences your vote!

The following is a condensation of a series from the “Investor’s Business Daily” explaining ‘What Caused the Loan Crisis’:

1977: Pres. Jimmy Carter signs the Community Reinvestment Act into Law. The law pressured financial institutions to extend home loans to those who would otherwise not qualify. The Premise: Home ownership would improve poor and crime-ridden communities and neighborhoods in terms of crime, investment, jobs, etc.

Results: Statistics bear out that it did not help.

How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing market? Answer: Bill Clinton wanted it that way.

1992: Republican representative Jim Leach (IO) warned of the danger that Fannie and Freddie were changing from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the20principals and the stockholding few.

1993: Clinton extensively rewrote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s rules turning the quasi-private mortgage-funding firms into semi-nationalized monopolies dispensing cash and loans to large Democratic voting blocks and handing favors, jobs and contributions to political allies. This potent mix led inevitably to corruption and now the collapse of Freddie and Fannie.

1994: Despite warnings, Clinton unveiled his National Home-Ownership Strategy which broadened the CRA in ways congress never intended.

1995: Congress, about to change from a Democrat at majority to Republican, Clinton orders Robert Rubin’s Treasury Dept to rewrite the rules. Robt. Rubin’s Treasury reworked rules, forcing banks to satisfy quotas for sub-prime and minority loans to get a satisfactory CRA rating. The rating was key to expansion or mergers for banks. Loans began to be made on the basis of race and little else.

1997 - 1999: Clinton, bypassing Republicans, enlisted Andrew Cuomo, then Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, allowing Freddie and Fannie to get into the sub-prime market in a BIG way. Led by Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, congress doubled down on the risk by easing capital limits and allowing them to hold just 2.5% of capital to back their investments vs. 10% for banks. Since they could borrow at lower rates than banks their enterprises boomed.

With incentives in place, banks poured billions in loans into poor communities, often ‘no doc’, ‘no income’, requiring no money down and no verification of income. Worse still was the cronyism: Fannie and Freddie became home to out-of work-politicians,=2 0mostly Clinton Democrats. 384 politicians got big campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie. Over $200 million had been spent on lobbying and political activities. During the 1990’s Fannie and Freddie enjoyed a subsidy of as much as $182 Billion, most of it going to principals and shareholders, not poor borrowers as claimed.

Did it work? Minorities made up 49% of the 12.5 million new homeowners but many of those loans have gone bad and the minority home ownership rates are shrinking fast.

1999: New Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, became alarmed at Fannie and Freddie’s excesses. Congress held hearings the ensuing year but nothing was done because Fannie and Freddie had donated millions to key congressmen and radical groups, ensuring no meaningful changes would take place. ‘We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage our credit and interest rate risks,’ Fannie CEO Franklin Raines, a former Clinton official and current Barack Obama advisor, bragged to investors in 1999.

2000: Secretary Summers sent Undersecretary Gary Gensler to Congress seeking an end to the ’special status’. Democrats raised a ruckus as did Fannie and Freddie, headed by politically connected CEO’s who knew how to reward and punish. ‘We think that the statements evidence a contempt for the nation’s housing and mortgage markets’ Freddie spokesperson Sharon McHale said. It was the last chance during the Clinton era for reform.

2001: Republicans try repeatedly to bring fiscal sanity to Fannie and Freddie but Democrats blocked any attempt at reform; especially Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd who now run key banking committees and were huge beneficiaries of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants.

2003: Bush proposes what the NY Times called ‘the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago’. Even after discovering a scheme by Fannie and Freddie to overstate earnings by $10.6 billion to boost their bonuses, the Democrats killed reform.

2005: Then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan warns Congress: ‘We are placing the total financial system at substantial risk’. Sen. McCain, with two others, sponsored a Fannie/Freddie reform bill and said, ‘If congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial sy stem and the economy as a whole’. Sen. Harry Reid accused the GOP ;of trying to ‘cripple the ability of Fannie and Freddie to carry out their mission of expanding home ownership’ The bill went nowhere.

2007: By now Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee over HALF of the $12 trillion US mortgage market. The mortgage giants, whose executive suites were top-heavy with former Democratic officials, had been working with Wall St. to repackage the bad loans and sell them to investors. As the housing market fell in ‘07, subprime mortgage portfolios suffered major losses. The crisis was on, though it was 15 years in the making.

2008: McCain has repeatedly called for reforming the behemoths, Bush urged reform 17 times. Still the media have repeated Democrats’ talking points about this being a ‘Republican’ disaster A few Republicans are complicit but Fannie and Freddie were created by Democrats, regulated by Democrats, largely run by Democrats and protected by Democrats. That’s why taxpayers are now being asked for $700 billion!!

If you doubt any of this, just view the videos below and listen to your lawmakers own words. They are condemning!

Postscript: ACORN is one of the principle beneficiaries of Fannie/ Freddie’s slush funds. They are currently under indictment or investigation in many states. Barack Obama served as their legal counsel, defending their activities for several years.

I really enjoyed watching the Vice Presidential debate so much more than the Presidential Debate, both Candidates did a good job.  I was concerned for Palin, but she did an excellent job.  As people, both candidates for Vice President are personable, nice people.

For me, I don’t know that there was a winner or loser, I’m going to think about that a bit more.  Clearly from the type of posts you see on this blog, I’m a McCain supporter, and I hope he takes some pointers from his running mate…I appreciated how gracious she was to Biden, that she looked at him when she spoke.  When McCain debated, even when asked to engage in conversation with Obama, I don’t recall seeing a lot of that.  Hoping for better in the next two debates.

Finally, what a beautiful ending, the families cordially greeting one another on the stage, I don’t know whether things like that make one a better candidate, but I sure did like it.

Now it’s time to watch…and watch out…as the press does it’s “spin” thing.

Here’s the debate:

My husband, the inspiration for this blog, sent me to view the following video.  It is pointedly biased, I admit, but I think we need a little more bias on the “other side”.  I haven’t commented on this all week, because I’ve been busy with other things, but it’s been unsettling to me to see how the problems with the economy, which are blamed on poor regulation of the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc., have been blamed on “the current administration” or in the words of Nancy Pelosi, “the failed policies of the Bush administration”.  Who, and what party, was saying what in the following clip from a 2004 hearing? And I wonder how long this video will stay online?

The first Presidential Debate in Mississippi happened as planned, in spite of all the plot twists over the past 24-48 hours.

Obama, true to form, was well versed, so some of that time he spent practicing his lines in Florida over the past few days before going to Washington payed off, and there’s no denying he is very eloquent.  We all want a President that cares about us, and he knows everyone is worried about money, and he played to that very well just as he always does.

When I listened to McCain, I felt like a Mom who was watching her son up on stage (even though I’m much younger) and rooting for him because he is my favorite, but cringing at times because I wanted him to be able to PERFORM as nicely as Obama did.

That’s just never going to happen, McCain is a straight shooter, but he’s not a great performer…and I don’t care about that EXCEPT for the fact that appearances are so important to people who don’t want to look past the facade.  I thought McCain repeated himself a lot, and thought both candidates, instead of bringing something fresh and new, often reverted back to the speeches that they give during their Campaign stops, lines I’ve heard repeatedly as I’ve followed closely during the past many…too many…weeks.

So round #1, as far as performance, goes to Obama, but I know deep inside that I want experience, and someone who has has had the courage to stand up against even his own party when he doesn’t agree…so at present, my November vote still goes to McCain.

Now we look forward to the VP Debate next week on October 2nd…where did September go anyway? Have a great weekend!

Here’s the debate:

I am not a big fan of “The View”, the television talk show with Barbara Walters, Whoopie Goldberg, and the rest of the gang, often I find these woman caustic and abrasive to listen to, and even during those times I’ve attempted to watch, I never make it through the show.

I’ve been listening to the press on how John McCain and his wife, Cindy were treated on the show as opposed to how Barack Obama (the candidate of the Stars, as far as I’m concerned) when he and his wife were on a while back.  Rather than give my opinion on the stark difference between how the two were treated, why don’t you watch for yourself?

JOHN McCAIN, FEELING THE PAIN?

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

….AND BARACK OBAMA, FEELING THE LOVE.

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

PART 3

PART 4