Valkyrie
08-25-2009, 11:37 AM
The following is digested from an article by James Simpson in The American Thinker –September 28, 2008:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
* * * * *
Obama has spent a large portion of his professional life working for ACORN or its subsidiaries, representing ACORN as a lawyer on some of its most critical issues, and training ACORN leaders. Stanley Kurtz's excellent National Review article, "Inside Obama's Acorn (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=) ." also describes Obama's ACORN connection in detail. But I can't improve on Obama's own words:
I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career (emphasis added). Even before I was an elected official, when I ran the Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. - Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007 (Courtesy Newsmax.)
As a community activist for ACORN; as a leadership trainer for ACORN; as a lead organizer for ACORN's Project Vote (http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=8009); as an attorney representing ACORN's successful efforts to impose Motor Voter regulations in Illinois; as ACORN's representative in lobbying for the expansion of high-risk housing loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current crisis; as a recipient of their assistance in his political campaigns -- both with money and campaign workers; it is doubtful that he was unaware of ACORN's true goals.
In his few years (two) as a U.S. senator, Obama has received campaign contributions of $126,349, from Fannie May and Freddie Mac, second only to the $165,400 received by Senator Chris Dodd, who has been getting donations from them since 1988.
Obama’s closest advisers are a dirty laundry list (http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2008/09/best-congress-fannie-could-buy.html)of individuals at the heart of the financial crisis: former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Federal_Housing_Enterprise_Oversight); Former Fannie Mae CEO and former Clinton Budget Director Frank Raines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines); and billionaire failed Superior Bank of Chicago Board Chair, Penny Pritzker (http://amok.asianweek.com/2008/02/28/obamas-campaign-finance-chair-has-links-to-subprime-debacle/).
Johnson had to step down as adviser on Obama's V.P. search after this gem came out: An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report[1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Johnson_%28businessman%29#cite_note-0#cite_note-0)] from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses, enabling top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive huge bonuses in 1998.[2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Johnson_%28businessman%29#cite_note-1#cite_note-1)] A 2006 OFHEO report[3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Johnson_%28businessman%29#cite_note-2#cite_note-2)] found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Johnson received approximately $21 million in bonuses.
Obama denies ties to Raines but the Washington Post calls him a member of "Obama's inner political circle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines)." Raines and Johnson were fined $3 million by the Office of Federal Housing Oversight for their manipulation of Fannie books. The fine is small change however, compared to the $50 million Raines got in improper bonuses by juggling the books.
As a young attorney in the 1990s, Barack Obama represented ACORN in Washington in their successful efforts to make it easier for ACORN groups to force banks to make risky loans. This also paved the way for banks to package mortgages as investments, and for the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite them. These changes created the conditions that ultimately led to the current financial crisis.
* * * * *
Obama continues to blame Bush for the mess he "inherited" (which he helped create HJR). No matter how he describes himself, Obama has been a radical activist for most of his political career. That activism has been in support of organizations and initiatives that at their heart seek to tear the pillars of this nation asunder in order to replace them with their demented socialist vision. He has already pointed out the alleged "deficiencies" in the constitution, namely that it didn’t "mandate redistribution of income," a pure socialist objective. Their influence has spread so far and so wide that despite their blatant culpability in the current financial crisis due to Obama’s influence, they are able to manipulate Capitol Hill politicians into cutting ACORN a $140 billion piece of the bailout pie!
Stimulus Lies
Working in cahoots with the Federal Reserve, Obama announced they would spend almost a trillion dollars on a so-called "stimulus" program. I say "so-called" because this program was not designed to produce any economic stimulus.
First, spending money to stimulate a sick economy is discredited " Keynesian economics." As the Japanese found out recently, "priming the pump" didn’t work in the past, it won’t work in the future, and it doesn’t work now.
Second, most of the stimulus money was "back-loaded," which meant that only five to ten percent would be spent in 2009, and the rest would be spent years down the road. The current stimulus effect was near non-existent. Already the usual cast of characters is telling us the stimulus is not working because "they underestimated the seriousness of the crisis," and the "stimulus was too small," so expect Obama Stimulus #2!
The money they threw at the automobile industry had socialist strings attached. Basically, government bought control. They then fired the CEO of General Motors , and would not give them the money unless they agreed to manufacture the kind of cars his environmentalist constituents wanted built, regardless of whether or not consumers wanted to buy them. The government and the unions ended up owning 89 percent of General Motors (or Government Motors), and "secured creditor" bond holders were wiped out. The American automobile industry was summarily "socialized."
The banks are under the thumb of government too. There were more shotgun marriages (Bank of America had to buy Merrill Lynch with inadequate stockholder disclosure of Merrill’s big problems). When billions were given to AIG, they were no longer permitted to reward the managers and successful sales people, with bonuses they thought they had earned. Many had worked for a dollar a year, plus bonuses, but the government "cancelled" those earned bonuses. How Obama expects AIG to ever make any money to repay taxpayers when their best people have been disincentivized and have run for cover, I’ll never know.
In any event, government is systematically buying control of major industries . Barney Frank, one of the more powerful members of the Democratic caucus in the House, has been talking about controlling executive compensation even when the companies haven’t taken any government money. In other words, the government plans to bully even private companies to which they have given no money.
Printing all these trillions of dollars (we don’t actually print much money anymore; only about five percent is printed, minted or coined; the rest is created by a keystroke on a computer) only guarantees all this "stimulus" will only stimulate inflation and the size of government.
The Good News Is…
Obama has painted himself into a corner. If he thinks he has troubles now, wait and see how the people feel when inflation really starts taking off and his plan is laid bare for the devastating mess he has created.
Yes, the Obama-induced advance of socialism will make things a lot worse in America, and the government will control more and more of your life in an attempt to "fix" the varied problems it created.
Yes, Obama scares the wits out of me. If he isn’t the anti-Christ, he will do until one comes along.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
* * * * *
Obama has spent a large portion of his professional life working for ACORN or its subsidiaries, representing ACORN as a lawyer on some of its most critical issues, and training ACORN leaders. Stanley Kurtz's excellent National Review article, "Inside Obama's Acorn (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=) ." also describes Obama's ACORN connection in detail. But I can't improve on Obama's own words:
I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career (emphasis added). Even before I was an elected official, when I ran the Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. - Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007 (Courtesy Newsmax.)
As a community activist for ACORN; as a leadership trainer for ACORN; as a lead organizer for ACORN's Project Vote (http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=8009); as an attorney representing ACORN's successful efforts to impose Motor Voter regulations in Illinois; as ACORN's representative in lobbying for the expansion of high-risk housing loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current crisis; as a recipient of their assistance in his political campaigns -- both with money and campaign workers; it is doubtful that he was unaware of ACORN's true goals.
In his few years (two) as a U.S. senator, Obama has received campaign contributions of $126,349, from Fannie May and Freddie Mac, second only to the $165,400 received by Senator Chris Dodd, who has been getting donations from them since 1988.
Obama’s closest advisers are a dirty laundry list (http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2008/09/best-congress-fannie-could-buy.html)of individuals at the heart of the financial crisis: former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Federal_Housing_Enterprise_Oversight); Former Fannie Mae CEO and former Clinton Budget Director Frank Raines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines); and billionaire failed Superior Bank of Chicago Board Chair, Penny Pritzker (http://amok.asianweek.com/2008/02/28/obamas-campaign-finance-chair-has-links-to-subprime-debacle/).
Johnson had to step down as adviser on Obama's V.P. search after this gem came out: An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report[1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Johnson_%28businessman%29#cite_note-0#cite_note-0)] from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses, enabling top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive huge bonuses in 1998.[2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Johnson_%28businessman%29#cite_note-1#cite_note-1)] A 2006 OFHEO report[3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Johnson_%28businessman%29#cite_note-2#cite_note-2)] found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Johnson received approximately $21 million in bonuses.
Obama denies ties to Raines but the Washington Post calls him a member of "Obama's inner political circle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines)." Raines and Johnson were fined $3 million by the Office of Federal Housing Oversight for their manipulation of Fannie books. The fine is small change however, compared to the $50 million Raines got in improper bonuses by juggling the books.
As a young attorney in the 1990s, Barack Obama represented ACORN in Washington in their successful efforts to make it easier for ACORN groups to force banks to make risky loans. This also paved the way for banks to package mortgages as investments, and for the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite them. These changes created the conditions that ultimately led to the current financial crisis.
* * * * *
Obama continues to blame Bush for the mess he "inherited" (which he helped create HJR). No matter how he describes himself, Obama has been a radical activist for most of his political career. That activism has been in support of organizations and initiatives that at their heart seek to tear the pillars of this nation asunder in order to replace them with their demented socialist vision. He has already pointed out the alleged "deficiencies" in the constitution, namely that it didn’t "mandate redistribution of income," a pure socialist objective. Their influence has spread so far and so wide that despite their blatant culpability in the current financial crisis due to Obama’s influence, they are able to manipulate Capitol Hill politicians into cutting ACORN a $140 billion piece of the bailout pie!
Stimulus Lies
Working in cahoots with the Federal Reserve, Obama announced they would spend almost a trillion dollars on a so-called "stimulus" program. I say "so-called" because this program was not designed to produce any economic stimulus.
First, spending money to stimulate a sick economy is discredited " Keynesian economics." As the Japanese found out recently, "priming the pump" didn’t work in the past, it won’t work in the future, and it doesn’t work now.
Second, most of the stimulus money was "back-loaded," which meant that only five to ten percent would be spent in 2009, and the rest would be spent years down the road. The current stimulus effect was near non-existent. Already the usual cast of characters is telling us the stimulus is not working because "they underestimated the seriousness of the crisis," and the "stimulus was too small," so expect Obama Stimulus #2!
The money they threw at the automobile industry had socialist strings attached. Basically, government bought control. They then fired the CEO of General Motors , and would not give them the money unless they agreed to manufacture the kind of cars his environmentalist constituents wanted built, regardless of whether or not consumers wanted to buy them. The government and the unions ended up owning 89 percent of General Motors (or Government Motors), and "secured creditor" bond holders were wiped out. The American automobile industry was summarily "socialized."
The banks are under the thumb of government too. There were more shotgun marriages (Bank of America had to buy Merrill Lynch with inadequate stockholder disclosure of Merrill’s big problems). When billions were given to AIG, they were no longer permitted to reward the managers and successful sales people, with bonuses they thought they had earned. Many had worked for a dollar a year, plus bonuses, but the government "cancelled" those earned bonuses. How Obama expects AIG to ever make any money to repay taxpayers when their best people have been disincentivized and have run for cover, I’ll never know.
In any event, government is systematically buying control of major industries . Barney Frank, one of the more powerful members of the Democratic caucus in the House, has been talking about controlling executive compensation even when the companies haven’t taken any government money. In other words, the government plans to bully even private companies to which they have given no money.
Printing all these trillions of dollars (we don’t actually print much money anymore; only about five percent is printed, minted or coined; the rest is created by a keystroke on a computer) only guarantees all this "stimulus" will only stimulate inflation and the size of government.
The Good News Is…
Obama has painted himself into a corner. If he thinks he has troubles now, wait and see how the people feel when inflation really starts taking off and his plan is laid bare for the devastating mess he has created.
Yes, the Obama-induced advance of socialism will make things a lot worse in America, and the government will control more and more of your life in an attempt to "fix" the varied problems it created.
Yes, Obama scares the wits out of me. If he isn’t the anti-Christ, he will do until one comes along.