|
September 15, 2008
The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy
This is a long and complicated story about how Obama backers were behind the mortgage industry meltdown. It hast to start some where, so lets start with a well known Chicago name Penny Pritzker. It starts with a bank failure. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for the 1,406 people who lost much of their life savings when Superior Bank of Chicago went belly up in 2001 with over $1 billion in insured and uninsured deposits. This collapse came amid harsh criticism of how Superior's owners promoted sub-prime home mortgages. As part of a settlement, the owners paid $100 million and agreed to pay another $335 million over 15 years at no interest.Yeah, that ∅bama. A man who stands up for the little guy. After his friends have kicked them down. Though Superior Bank collapsed years before the current sub-prime turmoil that is rocking the world's financial markets - and pushing those millions of homeowners toward foreclosure - some banking experts say the Pritzkers and Superior hold a special place in the history of the sub-prime fiasco.Well, isn't that special. Kind of reminds you of ∅'s special friend Tony Rezko who worked the low income housing scam in Chicago. Small potatoes that Tony. He only destroyed millions in housing value. Pritzker was involved with trillions. But you know the Democrats really have a heart for the poor. As long as they can rob them blind. OK we have a looked at one thief for ∅bama. How about another? James A. "Jim" Johnson, James A. "Jim" Johnson, born in Benson, now lives on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., with views of the Potomac and the Washington Monument. But you'll also find him in the inner circle of many of the nation's power groups.Just a regular guy with lots of money? Maybe not so regular. He was a backer of Walter Mondale in 1984. Following the failed 1984 presidential bid, Johnson went about the business of making money. He joined with diplomat Richard Holbrooke in founding Public Strategies, which gave political advice to business clients. Later, he did similar work with Sherman Lehman in D.C. Holbrooke and Johnson remain together now, as vice chairmen of Perseus, an international merchant bank and private equity fund management company.Well, what do ya know. Another ∅bama backer tied to the breakdown of the mortgage industry. Which brings us to the Fannie Mae Foundation. A sweet little set up for handing out cash to a nice little outfit called ACORN among others. Here are a few of the grants to ACORN. ACORN Housing Corporation - DallasOK so ACORN helps people who were barely qualified or totally unqualified get housing. So what would they be doing? Finding landlords who would rent to them? Well no. Landlords want to get paid. Fannie Mae had no such scruples. Ever hear of NINJA mortgages? Funny name, huh? It stand for No Income, No Job, No Assets. Just the kind of reliable folk honest lenders are looking for. People with a credit score of ∅. Help with getting poor people mortgages was only one service ACORN provided. Another was help with elections. I wrote a little about that in Election Fraud Control. Let me quote a little from that piece. The question I'm asking is who you might need to be on the look out for when it comes to voter fraud? Now who might you want to be on the look out for? A group called ACORN.Well it seems like he actually was tied in to the ACORN web of intersecting interests.Late last month six people hired by ACORN were indicted for their role in filing false voter registration forms involving a 2006 drive to increase Missouri's minimum wage.Here is something else interesting I'll bet you didn't know about ACORN:ACORN is a former legal client of Senator Obama's, as the Sun-Times reported in 2006:Voter fraud? From a Chicago Machine politician? I'm shocked. Actually I think the Chicago Machine needs to be praised. Jesus brought a few people back from the dead. Jesus himself is reported to have come back from the dead. But the Chicago Machine is special. They bring tens of thousands back from the dead. No wonder they hail ∅bama as The One.In 1995, former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar refused to implement the federal "Motor Voter" law, which Republicans argued could invite fraud and which some Republicans feared could swell the ranks of Democratic voters. And ∅bama was not the only one involved. Barney Frank a noted champion of the poor was out in front, attacking the Fannies. There were many moments of high entertainment during last week's House hearings on Fannie Mae's creative accounting. But our favorite was the Mister Magoo performance given by Barney Frank (D., Massachusetts) after learning that Fannie had handed out $245 million in bonuses over five years. Mr. Frank chided Fannie CEO Frank Raines and CFO Tim Howard, saying, "At the level of compensation you get, we ought to be able to count on you to do your very best without additional incentives."Well what do you know. A wretched hive of scum and villainy. Our very own Congress. Well that was a report from 2004. Let me use the Way Back Machine and go back to 2002. A lovely year. We were still distracted from the thieves by the aftermath of 9/11. But some people were paying attention. The Wall Street Journal for instance. They had a cute name for their piece Fannie Mae Enron? We were reading President Bush's budget the other day (we know, get a life), when we came across an unusual mention of our all-time favorite companies -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What we found is a tale we think taxpayers and investors should want to hear.Well, things have turned down. The Chickens are coming home to roost. Say haven't I heard that some where before? Oh, yeah. ∅bama's favorite minister. Before he wasn't ∅bama's favorite minister. Well Barry ∅bama was right in there looking out for the interests of the taxpayers. Senator Barack Obama and two other prominent Democrats urged federal housing regulators on Tuesday to cut the golden parachutes of the ousted leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, another sign that the government bailout of those mortgage giants could reverberate through the presidential campaign.Why yes. Mr. ∅ was outraged. The very people who helped to rip off the American people were taking millions from the taxpayers while ∅ was helping the thieves get away with trillions. I'm outraged. At the theater. What a great act. And he seems so sincere. Bob Sikes looks into some of the fun and games. He quotes Jennifer Rubin. During Obama's time on the Woods Funds ACORN received grants of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), and $40,000 (2002) from the Woods Fund. (Obama in the early 1990's helped train ACORN organizers and later served as counsel in 1995 for ACORN in a "motor voter" registration lawsuit.) And ACORN certainly appreciated whatever assistance Obama afforded the radical organization over the years.∅ must be a genius to keep all that all in his head. So lets look at another little connection. Which politicians did Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's Political Action Committees support? How about a look at the top five. 1. Dodd, Christopher J D-CT $133,900You know. Some of the names on that list look familiar. I'm sure I've seen them some where before. Let's follow the money some more. Brian Lamb is interviewing Peter Wallison a Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. LAMB: Let me show you a piece of paper. This is not very fancy graphics, but there are 70 members of the House Financial Services Committee. Every time you see a line through a name, that means that, in the 2008 cycle - and you can actually turn the pages here, same thing on the other side - the names really don't matter.Well that is more than enough for one day. You have enough leads to follow the money and vote out the bastards behind it. Cross Posted at Power and Control Welcome Instapundit readers. You might also like Fannie - A Time Line. Update: 29 Sept 008 1135z Here are some more articles that will help flesh out the story: ACORN and vote fraud: ACORN Is Not About Nuts Especially have a look at the American Thinker article linked at: Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank which also covers the mortgage fraud stuff. posted by Simon on 09.15.08 at 07:03 PM
Comments
O! comedy central: "If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily," Obama said. http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTUyZDc5MDM0YzUzNWE5ZThjNzFiMTRlZDM3OGU3YjA= dre · September 15, 2008 07:35 PM From the NYT September 2003: The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates. ”There is a general recognition that the supervisory system for housing-related government-sponsored enterprises neither has the tools, nor the stature, to deal effectively with the current size, complexity and importance of these enterprises,” Treasury Secretary John W. Snow told the House Financial Services Committee in an appearance with Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, who also backed the plan. Mr. Snow said that Congress should eliminate the power of the president to appoint directors to the companies, a sign that the administration is less concerned about the perks of patronage than it is about the potential political problems associated with any new difficulties arising at the companies. [...] ”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.” Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed. ”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said. william · September 16, 2008 10:08 PM I think you have to be nuts not to believe that both parties have been feeding at this trough, and for a very long time. Let me recall, to start with, the savings and loan meltdown of the late 80s. Actually, I don't remember a whole lot, except that one prime figure, Keating, a Democrat, got McCain go to bat for him and McCain got censured for sticking his nose in. And on the Republican side, Neil Bush wound up in a world of trouble for his and his friends many hands in the till. The Dems may well have encouraged loosening loan standards for Freddie Mac beyond reason, but surely no one is maintaining that the banks that were benefiting from this unregulated orgy were all Democratic bastions. You might start here for a look at where the political contributions of the financial industry were headed: http://www.campaignmoney.com/Stock_Broker.asp italtrav · September 16, 2008 11:43 PM I believe McCain/Palin are saying that they will go after this sort of thing without respect to party. And they have a record that indicates they may be telling the truth on this. ∅ has no such record. In fact he seems to be in the thick of it. M. Simon · September 17, 2008 02:19 AM William, Here is a link to the piece you quote: M. Simon · September 17, 2008 02:22 AM M. Simon, Thank you. I believe I found the quote at Protein Wisdom. Sorry for not linking. Cheers, william · September 17, 2008 08:07 AM Excellent tread. I found you googling "Fannie Freddie oversight 2003" As a Chicagoian I remember very well the Superior Bank failure and other items you have referenced, all true. I'll be back. Good work!! Clint Golden · September 18, 2008 09:18 AM Our individual futures, as well as the future of our nation, will be strongly influenced by our understanding of the power of values for good or bad, and what we can do to nurture the right ones in ourselves and in others - in family life, in our schools, in political leadership, in the administration of justice, in domestic and international business, and in other aspects of our daily lives. William M. Fox · September 19, 2008 11:39 AM The companies are ran by a CEO appointed by the Board of Directors of the company. The President does not make these apointments. Have you not noticed that all these CEOs are Democrats, do you think Bush would not appoint someone from his own party. Barney Frank was one of the major supporters of the type of low income loans that we given with no requirements. The Democrats set up the mission to give out as these low income loans, while having no financial requirements. Other top Democrats called these CEOs, jumping on them when they tried to reduce the amount of low inome loans. The Democrats have had 2 years to head this problem off, but were more worried about making Bush look bad than doing their job. McCain brought this problem up to the House and nothing was done about it. I say, vote in new people to the House and Senate every election until we get some repesentation for the people. Do not vote party vote for experience and the future. The Democrats are not going to fix this problem. James · September 19, 2008 05:45 PM Pelosi is just looking out for the party intrest to get there puppet in office. She has done nothing for this country for 2 years. She had to go on vacation instead of addressing our energy problems. Also, what energy legislation have they enacted. Her party has made no attemps to support alternative energy, which they preach about. James · September 19, 2008 05:53 PM Post a comment
You may use basic HTML for formatting.
|
|
September 2008
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
September 2008
August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 AB 1634 MBAPBSAAGOP Skepticism See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank
ACORN Is Not About Nuts A Man And His Mouth I hate football! (But when in Rome....) Macsmind Hacked - Obama Plans To Disarm America Bracelets, NCOs, and improvised explosive devices No justice! No peace! And this means you! new hood, old friends For Sarah It Wasn't Broke
Links
Site Credits
|
|
We can feel good about Washington, D.C. Nancy Pelosi is there, looking out for us.
.