Shoes and Praise

It’s a good thing I wasn’t in Carlisle the other day when President Bush visited there. There might have been another shoe throwing incident like the one that occurred in Iraq recently. Mr. Bush told the crowd there that he is proud that another attack like September 11 hasn’t occurred during his Presidency. The vile attacks that day were conducted by terrorists mostly from Saudi Arabia and trained in Afghanistan. Bush and his crowd responded by insisting that we had to retaliate immediately, not at Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan or even against the terrorists themselves, but by taking out a tinpot dictator who had nothing to do with 9/11. Even Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction turned out to be so much thin air. When people like Gen. Shinseki asked how much this adventure might cost, or how many troops we needed, or why it was even a good idea, they were called delusional defeatists. Bush bought off the rich by giving them tax cuts and the religious right by supporting their campaigns of terror and marginalization. Now we’re reaping the fruits of this folly. We’re stuck in a foolish war against the wrong enemy. Bush’s policies have played into the hands of Muslim extremists and marginalized the moderate voices there. Rather than building up surpluses in the good times to use in the hard times we are now in, his policies have resulted in record deficits.

We should be grateful to the brave men and women who have fought terrorism and perhaps kept them at bay over the last seven years. But Mr. Bush and his Administration should get no praise. Better keep your head down, sir. The shoes will keep coming.

The Race Card

I used to have a lot of respect for John McCain. During the 2000 campaign Karl Rove's buddies spread a vicious rumor in South Carolina that McCain had a biracial child out of wedlock. She is really his adoptive daughter. That slur probably cost McCain the SC primary in 2000.

How ironic that McCain and his supporters are now spreading the same sort of bile about his opponent. McCain is clearly allowing the race card to be played in his campaign. If he's not explicitly playing it himself, he is clearly allowing his surrogates and supporters to use race. All this stuff about "He not like us" and "He's really a Muslim" is code for one thing - "He's black." John McCain knows that and the McCain who ran in 2000 would never have allowed it.

Abe Lincoln, the Republican Party's first Presidential candidate, appealed to the better angels of our nature. Much has changed since then in the Grand Old Party.

The REAL Cause of the Financial Crisis...according to Faux News

Someone emailed me a link to a story that appeared on Fox News, which I am reprinting below.

Well, fact checking Faux News is so like (chose your metaphor, shooting fish in a barrel, taking candy from a baby) that it's almost unfair. But, here goes anyway.

I don't watch Faux News much. I prefer to get my news from outlets that at least take a stab at objectivity like NPR, CNN and NBC. I now see I've been making a big mistake. Those outlets say that there are plenty of factors that together resulted in the present financial crisis. These include too lax regulation of the financial services industry, new financial products that concentrated risk like credit default swaps, bankers who made liar loans and low doc mortgages, and individuals who agreed to loan terms that they didn't really understand. Faux News has removed the scales from my eyes. Our whole financial crisis was caused by a single gay Congressman.

However, it is interesting that Rep. Frank's problematic liason began in 1991 and ended in 1998. That's TEN YEARS before our current financial crisis. It's also before Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the major financial servises deregulation law, was passed in 1999. Also, Rep. Frank was a member of the minority party during the entire time he was involved with Mr. Moses. I guess the right wing is correct - those gays have incredible power over our entire society. Look for Faux News exposes in the near future showing how gays are also responsible for 9/11 and the War in Iraq.

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Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest

Friday , October 03, 2008

By Bill Sammon

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WASHINGTON —

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."

A top GOP House aide agreed.

"C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws."

Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

"I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said recently.

Who is being disrespectful?

The right wing politicians and commentators keep saying that the media is not showing proper respect to Gov. Sarah Palin. The other day Gov. Palin was at the United Nations to meet with some foreign leaders. Her Republican handlers wouldn’t let reporters ask any the Governor any questions and didn’t even allow her to speak. What outrageous questions was she asked? Terrible things, like, “What did you learn from Prime Minister X? What do you think about the crisis in country Y”?

There are plenty of knowledgeable women who have a lot to say about current domestic and foreign affairs. A prime example is, of course, Sen. Hillary Clinton. I have the privilege to be married to another. But Gov. Palin’s handlers don’t allow even allow her to open her mouth, unless it is in a controlled setting where they can be sure no one will ask any difficult or probing questions. Who is really showing disrespect for Gov. Palin? The media who try to ask her the same questions that Sen. Biden is asked and answers every day? Or is it Sen. McCain’s staff, who don’t trust her to engage in the normal give and take of a political campaign? If Gov. Palin is ready to be a heartbeat away from the nation’s highest office, why are her handlers treating her like some vacuous beauty queen? What are they afraid of? Do supporters of, say, Sen. Clinton think this is the proper way for a woman candidate to be treated?

Of Women and Judgments

I congratulate my Republican friends on the addition of Sarah Palin to their Presidential ticket. True, it comes 24 years after the Democrats named a woman to their ticket, but let’s not be picky. I also agree with them that Gov. Palin should not be asked questions that solely pertain to her personal life or family. She should only be asked questions that would be just as appropriate if asked of a man. That said, here are a few of the questions that we have every right to ask of Gov. Palin.

1. Why do you keep saying you said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the bridge to nowhere? In fact you were for the bridge when you ran for governor. You later changed your mind when it had become clear the bridge wasn’t going to happen. But, most importantly, you kept the money earmarked for the bridge. Why does that make you a champion for governmental reform? What you really said was “Thanks for the earmark, but let us decide what to spend the money on.”

2. Why do you call yourself a champion for governmental reform when you hired a lobbying group to help your city get earmarks? And, why have you repeatedly and on the record praised Alaska’s congressional delegation for doing the best job of obtaining earmarks?

3. Why do you say you an expert on foreign policy just because your state borders Russia? I guess that means because my state borders Maryland, I am an expert on crabbing.

4. Why did you repeatedly try to censor the books in your town’s library. And, when that didn’t work, why did you try to fire the chief librarian? We know you support the second amendment, but how about the first?

5. Why do you repeatedly chant “drill, drill, drill”, when virtually every expert agrees (i) drilling offshore will have at best a miniscule effect on oil prices and (ii) even this limited effect won’t happen for at least seven years.

6. Why do you call yourself a fiscal conservative when it has been widely reported that during your six years as mayor, expenditures increased by 33% and taxes increased by 38%?

We should judge Gov. Palin by the same standards as we would a man – her achievements (or lack thereof), her beliefs, her treatment of others and her truthfulness.

An open letter to Sen. Barack Obama

The following is an open letter to Barack Obama. First, kudos on finally getting the nomination. That was a struggle, wasn’t it?

Now comes a very important decision, whom to pick for your running mate. You are in luck, for I have the perfect choice for you. No, it’s not Hillary. There are roughly 87 zillion reasons why she wouldn’t work well as your running mate, though you certainly want her to campaign for you. There is one obvious choice for your number two, Sen. Jim Webb of VA.

He is right for you in so many ways. First, choosing him puts Virginia in play for the Democrats for the first time in decades. It’s become sort of a purple state lately. Putting Webb on the ticket will push it over the brink. Second, Se. Webb is a former Republican and even served under Ronald Reagan. He'll set just the right tone for you - a military hawk who nevertheless thought the war in Iraq was a bad idea. That will give McCain and the right wing talk show hosts fits. How can Rush and O’Reilly say you don’t know anything about foreign policy when you have Webb on your team. In all candor, there are a lot of moderates who are with you on the domestic and social issues. Nevertheless, they aren’t yet convinced that you are the right person to handle a foreign policy crisis. Adding Webb can change all that.

Although I am a big fan of Sen. Webb, even I realize he has some flaws. He comes off as a bit intense and prickly, and he’s not the best campaigner. Well, you are probably the best campaigner since Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, so you don’t need any help in that area. You will need to have a heart to heart with Sen. Webb about not going too far off the reservation. But choosing him will also show that you aren’t afraid to have strong personalities in your Administration. When he criticizes the Bush – McCain bunch for their foreign policy missteps, he’ll be taken seriously.

I’m no fan of Dick Cheney, but I think it was a masterstroke for GWB to choose him as his running mate. In the 2000 campaign, Bush’s biggest negative was that he was perceived as a lightweight (correctly, as we now know). Choosing Cheney, a longtime DC insider and perceived hero of the first Gulf War largely fixed all that. That decision was one of the few good ones that GWB made. Don’t be afraid to follow his example this one time.

I hope you’ll accept this recommendation in the spirit with which it is given. Best of luck to you.

Retrospective Mudslinging

[The following is a response to an op-ed article that appeared on page A9 of the Harrisburg Partiot-News on Monday, June 2, 2008. The article is reprinted below, with credit to the Patriot-News and pennlive.com.]

I read Robert F. Weil’s article on the Carter administration in the June 2, 2007 edition of the Patriot-News. My initial reaction was one of bewilderment. Had I just been transported back to 1981? Why would someone write an article castigating an administration that ended over 27 years ago? More importantly, why would the Patriot-News devote valuable space on its editorial pages to such an article? It took some time for me to puzzle out why Mr. Weil wrote the article. I still can’t figure out why the P-N printed it.

The Carter Administration came in with lots of promise, but even Democrats will admit that it stumbled badly in some areas. But that is such old news!! What exactly is the point of rehashing old failures in the 1970s? Mr. Weil’s motivation seems to be that if he throws mud on an underachieving past Democratic President, that will take away some of the glare from the current one.

Yes, the budget deficits were unacceptably high under Carter. But the fact is that most of our national debt was run up on the watch of two alleged conservatives, Ronald Reagan and the current Administration. Carter was a piker by comparison. And, despite what Mr. Weil says, the only major step towards peace in the Middle East happened as a direct result of the efforts of the Carter Administration. Sadat and Begin themselves said that the Camp David Accords would never have happened without the repeated direct intervention and supervision of Jimmy Carter. If these Accords were so meaningless, why is there still peace between Egypt and Israel almost 30 year later, and why have three subsequent Republican administrations achieved nothing of consequence there since?

No amount of retrospective mudslinging by Mr. Weil should divert our attention from the monumental failures of the past seven years. We were taken to war under false pretenses despite ample evidence that there was no justification for invading Iraq. Even Bush the Elder’s advisors expressed apprehensions both before and after the fact. The Administration estimated that the war would cost about $50 billion with slight loss of life. Instead, thus far the current estimates of the total cost range in the trillions and we have tens of thousands of killed and injured American men and women. On the domestic side, this President preached fiscal responsibility while outdoing even Reagan in adding to the national debt. That leaves out other offenses such as torturing prisoners and suppressing scientific evidence of global warming

Mr. Weil and his friend in the White House had better start building houses and running for the Nobel Peace Prize now. They’ve got an incredible legacy of shame to divert attention from. I guess I understand why George W. Bush’s apologists believe they need to start covering up his legacy now. But I don’t understand why the Patriot-News decided to give them such a prominent forum.

AS I SEE IT ROBERT F. WEIL

Here's what actually occurred under Carter

Monday, June 02, 2008

Hardly a month passes without former President Jimmy Carter labeling the current administra tion a failure, or acting as a political free agent that contradicts U.S. policy. This calls for a closer look at the Georgia peanut farmer's tenure as our 39th president.

When elected in 1976, Carter blasted Gerald Ford's administration for failing to control inflation and stem unemployment. But by the time Carter was voted out of office by weary Americans, things were very much worse indeed. Inflation had nearly tripled from 4.8 percent in 1977 to more than 13 percent in 1980. Interest rates had soared to peacetime highs of 20 percent, nearly quadruple the 5.4 percent he inherited. All this came at a bad time for the eight million, or 7.7 percent, of Americans out of work.

While pledging on the campaign trail to eliminate deficits, which he trumpeted as a "national disgrace," he took a federal budget deficit of $30 billion in 1977 and doubled that to $60 billion in 1980, the largest deficit in relation to Gross Domestic Product of any prior president.

His economic policies were so out of joint they prompted economist Arthur Okun, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, to create the infamous "Misery Index." Tying inflation to unemployment, as well as other leading economic indicators, Carter achieved a score of just over 16, the highest of any president in this nation's history (compared with President Bush's average of just under 8).

Carter blamed his own policy failures on "national malaise," a phrase Ronald Reagan deftly used to make Carter just one of seven presidents to fail a re-election bid.

On the international front, Carter fared no better. He negotiated with a ruling military junta in Haiti, despite human rights groups roundly condemning its atrocities. Today, Haiti remains an impoverished Caribbean nation with few civil rights. North Korea, known even then for its savage dictatorship, gained entry to the United Nations during Carter's administration, something it failed to accomplish during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Even his supposed crowning achievement, the Camp David Accord of 1979, was initiated not by Carter, but rather by Egypt's forward-thinking statesman Anwar Sadat who, in 1977, suggested meetings in formal correspondence with Israeli Prime Minster Menachem Begin. Today, there remains no lasting truce in the Middle East despite Israel accepting the accord mandate that it hand back the Sinai Peninsula it had captured during the unprovoked Six Day War of 1967.

When Carter left office in 1981, the Soviets were making war in Afghanistan, Americans had been held hostage for 444 days in Iran, and national morale was at an all-time low. His botched hostage rescue attempt in 1980 was too hastily put into action to install proper air filters on the eight helicopters for the desert environment, allowing sand to suffocate their engines, crashing three and killing eight American servicemen. The effort lacked sufficient planning or air power to ever have succeeded, as determined by a congressional investigation that revealed "a surprising level of negligence."

Carter could learn something from former President George H.W. Bush, who never once spoke out during the Clinton administration despite Whitewater, FBI Filegate, Vince Fostergate, Monicagate, Pardongate, Troopergate, Hillary's ultra-secretive health care initiative, renting the Lincoln bedroom, Jennifer Flowers, giving up on Bin Laden, and numerous other missteps. CARTER WAS A tragically flawed politician who has become a liberal media darling due to his ongoing condemnation of the great American experiment. In a world where hating America and its wealth and freedom is heralded as a badge of honor, he supplies the very words vitriolic leaders of enemy nations use against us daily. Carter should stick to building houses through Habitat for Humanity, for it is there that he does this great nation, which he brought to its economic knees, the most benefit.

ROBERT F. WEIL writes from Derry Twp.