Oh My God, Sarah Palin Might Be ... Normal?? Gasp!

Saw this YouTube at Politico - which is sounding more and more like Obama Central everyday.

Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, the first portion of which airs tonight, won't give Republicans any reassurance that she's ready for prime time. It will, however, reassure McCain aides that they're following the right course of action by keeping her shielded.

I honestly think the media just continues to parade its elitism as regards Palin and doesn't understand her grassroots appeal at all. Jonathan Martin:

She is what she is -- not a seasoned politician who knows how to dodge every question. It's bracing but it also could be spun as normal.

Yeah, it could also be that, you know, she is normal and it doesn't have to be spun. Just think! People might actually like seeing someone that's normal in Washington for a change. (insert collective media shudder here)

Another note, when you start thinking that it's a crime for someone or something to be "normal," or that it's an impossibility, ... maybe you're the one with the problem? Ya think?



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Paulson just didn't have a clue

By Anatole Kaletsky, a prominent British economics writer

THE Emperor has no clothes. If you want to know why American capitalism is on the brink of disaster, but also want to understand what will save it, then log on to the C-Span congressional website and watch the interrogations of Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, by the Senate and House banking committees.

Until last week, I was in a minority of one in arguing that Mr Paulson was personally responsible for suddenly turning the painful but manageable credit crunch that had been grinding away 18 months in the background of the US economy into a global catastrophe. Mr Paulson's appearances on Capitol Hill, marked by the characteristic Bush-era combination of arrogance and incompetence, are turning my once-outlandish view into conventional wisdom: Henry Paulson is to finance what Donald Rumsfeld was to military strategy, Dick Cheney to geopolitics and Michael Chertoff to flood defence.

Mr Paulson may be a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, but as US Treasury Secretary he does not know what he is doing. His recent blunders, starting with the "rescue" of Fannie Mae, have triggered unintended consequences around the world, resulting in the death-spiral of financial values. But last Friday Mr Paulson outdid even these Rumsfeldian achievements, when he demanded $700 billion from Congress for a "comprehensive and fundamental" solution to the global financial crisis, without apparently having any idea of what he would actually do.

The good news - before I return to the perils of Mr Paulson - is that his blunders no longer matter very much. There will still be a huge US government bank bailout, which will probably avert a disastrous slump in the US and global economies. But because Mr Paulson has lost the political initiative, this bailout will now be led by the Democratic leadership in Congress and will be structured around its priorities - relief from mortgage foreclosures, restrictions on bankers' pay and big government shareholdings in US banks. For President Bush it is a disaster, dashing his last faint hope of having a tangible achievement to his name before he leaves office.

How did things come to such a pass? When Mr Paulson announced his $700 billion "plan" last Friday, everybody in the financial world (myself included) heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, it seemed, the US Government was going to do whatever it takes to stabilise the world financial system. The universal assumption was that Mr Paulson would present a detailed plan of action over the weekend, putting a safety net under the value of homes, mortgages and related assets.
Yet all that appeared by Saturday evening was a three-page legislative outline, with no hint of the mechanisms to be used. The only substantive clause in the draft was a swaggering demand for untrammelled power: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to this Act are non-reviewable and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

When further details of the Paulson plan failed to appear on Sunday it was assumed that the details were being untangled in late-night political negotiations. When there was still no plan on Monday, the view was that Mr Paulson must be holding back the details for his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee the following day. But then, to everyone's astonishment, Mr Paulson turned up to the committee on Tuesday morning with only the briefest opening statement, which simply repeated what he had already said the week before: the sky was falling and the only way to stop it was to give him authority over $700 billion in public money, to be spent in unspecified ways.

And suddenly the sky did fall down - not on the world economy, but on Mr Paulson. Consider the reactions from American politicians, including Republicans: "Stunning and unprecedented in its lack of detail"... "a $700 billion blank cheque to Wall Street"... "neither workable nor comprehensive"... "foolish waste of massive taxpayer funds"... "eerily similar to the rush to war in Iraq". Best of all was John McCain's comment: "When we're talking about a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, `trust me' just isn't good enough."

More here

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ELSEWHERE

The Left have been shrieking for years about how evil it is to view women as sex objects. But portraying Sarah Palin as a dim bimbo is fine, apparently. See here

Democrat dummy can't tell the difference between animals and people: "Rep. Alcee Hastings told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because "anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

Leftist racism: "As an African-American, I have never supported a Democratic presidential candidate. Why? Because I have always believed that the Democratic Party's and the liberal media's marked propensity to stigmatize the Republican Party as racist is a disingenuous attempt to deflect any criticism about the Democratic Party's own shortcomings in this regard. Much of what the DNC and the liberal media say about its commitment to stamp out racism in America rings hollow, because they never miss an opportunity to fan the flames of bigotry. If one needs proof about where racism lies, whether consciously or not, all one has to do is to take a close look at some of Joe Biden's comments in recent years."

Coalition Has Entered `Endgame' in Iraq, Gates Says : "Amid an 80-percent drop in violence and with further withdrawals of U.S. forces in sight, the coalition in Iraq has reached the "endgame," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. "I believe we have now entered that endgame - and our decisions today and in the months ahead will be critical to regional stability and our national security interests for years to come," he told the Senate Armed Service Committee during a hearing on Iraq and Afghanistan. Highlighting success in Iraq are reductions in U.S. casualties and overall violence, and the handover of Anbar province this month to Iraqi authority. Anbar, the 11th of 18 provinces now under Iraqi control, once was a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency and the scene of some of the war's most contentious fighting."

A good time to kick the United Nations out of New York?: "Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo on Tuesday introduced legislation aimed at that: "The legislation is being introduced amid incessant anti-American and anti-Jewish political grandstanding from the podium of the General Assembly."

Newt on Senator McCain's Decision to Suspend His Campaign to Forge an Agreement on the Financial Crisis: "Today john McCain showed what it meant to put country first. He put everything on the line to try to put together a bipartisan sizable economic package to replace the failed Paulson bailout package. This is the greatest single act of responsibility ever taken by a presidential candidate and rivals President Eisenhower saying, `I will go to Korea.' Every House and Senate Republican should join him in seeking the best ideas and the best solutions from across the country. This is the day the McCain-reform Republican Party began to truly emerge as a movement which puts country first, solutions first, and big change first."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Bush held firm on Iraq and got it right when all about him were wobbling

History will speak well of him

Now that even Barack Obama has acknowledged that President Bush's surge in Iraq has "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams," maybe it's time the Democratic nominee gives some thought to how that success actually came about -- not just in Ramadi and Baghdad, but in the bureaucratic Beltway infighting out of which the decision to surge emerged.

Consider what confronted Mr. Bush in 2006. Following a February attack on a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra, Iraq's sectarian violence began a steep upward spiral. The U.S. helped engineer the ouster of one Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in favor of Nouri al-Maliki, an untested leader about whom the U.S. knew next to nothing. The "Sunni Awakening" of tribal sheiks against al Qaeda was nowhere in sight. An attempt at a minisurge of U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad failed dismally. George Casey, the American commander in Iraq, believed the only way the U.S. could "win" was to "draw down" -- a view shared up the chain of command, including Centcom Commander John Abizaid and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

From the State Department, Condoleezza Rice opposed the surge, arguing, according to Mr. Woodward, that "the U.S. should minimize its role in punishing sectarian violence." Senior brass at the Pentagon were also against it, on the theory that it was more important to ease the stress on the military and be prepared for any conceivable military contingency than to win the war they were fighting.

Handed this menu of defeat, Mr. Bush played opposite to stereotype by firing Mr. Rumsfeld and seeking advice from a wider cast of advisers, particularly retired Army General Jack Keane and scholar Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute. The President also pressed the fundamental question of how the war could actually be won, a consideration that seemed to elude most senior members of his government. "God, what is he talking about?" Mr. Woodward quotes a (typically anonymous) senior aide to Ms. Rice as wondering when Mr. Bush raised the question at one meeting of foreign service officers. "Was the President out of touch?"

No less remarkably, the surge continued to face entrenched Pentagon opposition even after the President had decided on it. Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went out of his way to prevent General Keane from visiting Iraq in order to limit his influence with the White House.

The Pentagon also sought to hamstring General David Petraeus in ways both petty and large, even as it became increasingly apparent that the surge was working. Following the general's first report to Congress last September, Mr. Bush dictated a personal message to assure General Petraeus of his complete support: "I do not want to change the strategy until the strategy has succeeded," Mr. Woodward reports the President as saying. In this respect, Mr. Bush would have been better advised to dictate that message directly to Admiral Mullen.

The success of the surge in pacifying Iraq has been so swift and decisive that it's easy to forget how difficult it was to find the right general, choose the right strategy, and muster the political will to implement it. It is also easy to forget how many obstacles the State and Pentagon bureaucracies threw in Mr. Bush's way, and how much of their bad advice he had to ignore, especially now that their reputations are also benefiting from Iraq's dramatic turn for the better.

More here

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Democrats' hair of the dog remedies

"The private sector got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it," said Barney Frank, which illustrates why conservatives often say liberals have a socialist bent.

Free market conservatives understand that many problems have been caused by government's officious intermeddling in the private sector. The subprime mortgage crisis is no exception. History has shown that liberal prescriptions don't work, but when they fail, liberals invariably not only deny responsibility for their do-gooder manipulation but also insist on even more government intrusion. Think of it as "the hair of the dog" remedy on steroids.

For example, many of our health care problems can be traced to increased government control and the reduction of market forces. Yet the liberal solution is full-blown nationalized health care. Never mind that it doesn't work anywhere in the world and always leads to waiting lines and inferior health care. Never mind that the United States has the best health care in the history of the world, notwithstanding admittedly serious problems.

Another example is Social Security. Instead of creating a trust fund segregated from general revenues, congressional liberals with an insatiable appetite for spending raided Social Security revenues from day one. The system has been one big Ponzi scheme funded by IOUs from one arm of government to another. Bill Clinton and Al Gore had the audacity to propose a "lockbox" to secure Social Security, when their ideological predecessors happily breached their promise for the original lockbox.

But what did liberals do when President Bush proposed that people be allowed to set a portion of their Social Security funds aside in private accounts? They called it a risky scheme to benefit Wall Street. Barack Obama is the latest in a long line of liberal demagogues to make this claim, but his ad on this subject was so distorted as to earn a reprimand from FactCheck.org.

When liberalism causes a problem, by all means, don't allow the natural equalizer of the free market to cure it. Insist on more government intervention under the theory that the problem is a result of too little government. It's kind of reminiscent of the Marxist promise of the withering away of the state, is it not? Just give us totalitarian control and we'll eventually unshackle the proletariat from government bondage. Right. There's also a bridge to the Kremlin they'd like to sell you.

Which brings us back to the current subprime mortgage crisis. When we strip away all the complexity, we discover that social planning largely led to this debacle. Government politicians and bureaucrats forced lending institutions to make un-creditworthy loans and helped create unnatural demand in the housing market by priming the pump on bad loans. This created an unnatural price bubble in real estate, which was securing these ill-advised loans. When the bubble inevitably burst, the mortgages secured by the artificially inflated real estate plummeted in value, which left us with an epidemic of grossly under-secured loans.....

The Democrats will never take responsibility for the mess they made and they would rather look for scapegoats than a solution. When a solution is designed you can expect that Democrats will be trying to get their hands in the cookie jar for more for their constituents instead of solving the problem.

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ELSEWHERE

An interesting post here about Pinochet and Allende in Chile. A point that I had missed is that Pinochet was actually appointed to the top army job by Allende himself!

Feminist Naomi Wolfe lapses into full-blown paranoid schizophrenia: "Almost everyone I work with on projects related to this campaign for liberty has been experiencing computer harassment: emails are stripped, messages disappear. That's not all: people's bank accounts are being tampered with: wire transfers to banks vanish in midair. I personally keep opening bank accounts that are quickly corrupted by fraud. Money vanishes. Coworkers of mine have to keep opening new email accounts as old ones become infected. And most disturbingly to me personally is the mail tampering I have both heard of and experienced firsthand. My tax returns vanished from my mailbox. All my larger envelopes arrive ripped straight open apparently by hand. When I show the postman, he says "That's impossible." Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My childrens' report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived."

Obama vs. Biden: "So in the last 24 hours we have seen Joe Biden call an Obama campaign ad terrible and say it would never have happened if he had known about it; Barack Obama say Joe Biden should not have opposed the AIG bailout last week; and Joe Biden disagreeing with Obama's position on clean coal and telling a voter (rather unpleasantly) that his view, not Obama's, is the campaign's position. Not a great sign from the guys who argue that running a campaign is a substitute for executive experience."

The Palin surge shows up the feminists: "McCain's hand grenade has exploded the rot at the core of today's feminists; and by exposing the inner emptiness of feminism, she has also torn apart the center of all the victimhood/identity politics that have driven the Democratic Party for a generation. The Party of Nothing--with all their pious intonations about victimhood and diversity; hope and change--stands before us in the pseudopersona of the Obamessiah and his dedicated minions, who will do anything for him. Meanwhile, Sarah continues to draw in the crowds and revitalize the Republican conservative base. How frightening that must be for the "progressives" of the left."

Follow the money: Barack Obama Edition : "Writing at the American Thinker, Mac Fuller describes the flow of funds around Barack Obama in an exquisitely documented article. Did you know that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has received $15 million in federal funds? Yep, that's the same Wright who accompanied Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan on a trip to Libya (and the Pan Am 103 mastermind Muammar Gaddafi), published Hamas propaganda in his newsletter and espoused racially divisive, anti-American rhetoric for decades. All the while, he was collecting millions in taxpayer funds from "G*dd**n America, the USKKK of A" (his words). Unsettling to say the least."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Clubbing the Bailout

The Club for Growth condemned the massive government bailout proposed by the Treasury and the Bush administration as unnecessary, unfair to taxpayers, and fraught with serious costs to the American economy

Eighteen months into the credit crunch, many largely capitalized financial services firms are experiencing serious difficulties but the overall economy continues to grow. GDP growth over the past 12 months was 2.25 percent and 3.5 percent when excluding the drag imposed by the housing sector. Even within the financial sector, many banks are doing well.

Regional bank indices had risen significantly since the lows of last July-prior to the bailout announcement-and thousands of community banks are thriving. It is extraordinary that a massive government intervention in the economy is considered inevitable when the economy is not even in a recession.

At the same time, socializing economic risks come at a great cost to the American economy by misallocating capital, inviting political manipulation, and putting taxpayers on the hook for possibly a trillion dollars. Such a large takeover by the government will surely be accompanied by adverse, unintended consequences. Already, other companies and industries are lining up at government's door asking for their own bailout. And if the government incurs $700 billion in debt to finance the purchase of bad bank assets, the danger that it will eventually monetize that debt and trigger dramatic inflation is very worrisome

"The Treasury's bailout proposal will likely cause more harm than good," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. Instead of launching the largest government bailout since the Great Depression, the government should be implementing policies to stimulate the economy. These include, at a minimum, cutting the tax on capital gains, cutting corporate taxes, reviewing and considering repeal of FAS 57 which requires banks to mark-to-market most securities, and emphasizing the need for a strong dollar."

"Finally, many politicians are using the current struggle to make free-market capitalism the scapegoat for the economy's troubles, when in fact, government played a major role in getting us into this mess in the first place. Free-market capitalism is alive and well, and we should be embracing its tenets, not rejecting them."

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Why Henry Paulson must be "contained"

Both parties in Washington are about to screw us over on an unprecedented scale. They are threatening us with fiscal apocalypse if we don't fork over $700 billion to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and allow him to dole it out to whomever he chooses in whatever amount he chooses - without public input or recourse. They are rushing like mad to cram this Mother of All Bailouts down our throats in the next 72-96 hours. And right there in the text of the proposal is this naked power grab: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Stop. My question for fellow conservatives: Do you trust this man? I don't. Do you trust Hank Paulson's judgment? I don't. Listen to what he said about the subprime crisis in April 2007:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said... the housing market correction appears to be at or near its bottom and that troubles in the subprime mortgage market will not likely spread throughout the economy. "We've clearly had a big correction in the housing market. Retail housing was growing for some time at a level that was not sustainable," Paulson said in a speech to The Committee of 100, a business group in New York promoting better Chinese relations. "I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained," he added.

Much more here

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Former Clinton Staffers Jump to McCain Camp

MSNBC reports on the former Hillary staffers now supporting McCain and making strong arguments against The One. One must wonder if (officially) pro-Obama Hillary urged these loyal staffers to not do this. It would be unusual for Clinton loyalists to do something against her wishes. Some gems from the former Clinton supporters:

"Obama really doesn't have the experience," said Miguel Lausell, senior national political advisor to Hillary Clinton. "We don't know what he's going to be doing. We don't really know where he's coming from, and that's the big difference."

Luchy Secaira, former Sen. Hillary Clinton Delegate-at-Large, said that stance on women's issues is all talk and no action. Secaira said that Obama's rhetoric on the Equal Pay Act is not backed up with hiring practices in his Senate office. "We need to look no further than Sen. Obama's own senate office, where it's been documented that he pays women less on his staff than males on his staff," said Secaira. "He talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk."

"The Hispanic community has nothing to fear, because they know John McCain," Secaira added. "He has fought against his own party on behalf of the Hispanic community and was an integral part in trying to bring forth comprehensive immigration reform."

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ELSEWHERE

Has Sarah swung Mac on ANWR? "Alaska's congressional delegation seemed confident that if Sen. John McCain wins the presidency, he would sign off on a bill opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. There are, however, a lot of ifs. The race for the White House is neck and neck, and Congress doesn't have a bill giving the go-ahead to oil development in Alaska's far north."

Inquest into British police shooting: Police ruled victim out as suspect 20 mins before they shot him! "Jean Charles de Menezes was ruled out as a suspected suicide bomber just 20 minutes before he was shot dead by police, an inquest into his death has heard. The innocent Brazilian was killed on a Tube train at Stockwell Underground station on July 22, 2005 after being mistaken for one of the four terrorists who had tried to blow themselves up on London's transport system the previous day. Two firearms officers who shot him in the head a total of seven times at point blank range have said they were "convinced" Mr de Menezes was about to detonate a suicide bomb and that "an instant killing was the only option" otherwise "everyone in the carriage was going to die". Yet an officer in the Metropolitan Police control room directing the surveillance teams who followed Mr de Menezes made a note which said: "Not identical male as above discounted. Surveillance to withdraw to original positions."

Another Dem talking point proven false: "The Democrats want you to believe that the Iraq War turned the world -- especially the Muslim world -- has turned against us because we toppled an evil killer of Muslims. Their prescription was to pull out our troops. So how do we explain this from the Jordan Times? AMMAN - Jordanian Muslims' support for Osama Ben Laden has dropped dramatically this year, with only 19 per cent expressing confidence in Al Qaeda leader, compared to 61 per cent three years ago, according to a study.

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Financial Crisis Came Because Democrats Failed to Act

Let's stop the nonsense. It's an established fact that President Bush began to call for reform for Freddie Mac and Sally Mae long before it was politically fashinonable, and long before the present crisis.

Another fact is that when he did some of the democrats that are squawking now, failed to act. As I said here, back in 2003 The Bush administration recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

What was the response response? NADA. In fact two Democrats, Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chuck Schumer did more than next to nothing. Via Wake up America who notes this editorial on Frank and Schumer's role in the crisis.

"One month from tomorrow, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner. It is a coveted and high-profile role previously filled by such notables as Hillary Clinton and Al Gore. The Democrats' choice of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank is, therefore, very revealing.

The party announced Frank as the keynote speaker on Sept. 11 - three days after the U.S. government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, costing taxpayers untold billions. That takeover probably could have been prevented had Frank not worked to thwart every attempt to limit the risks taken on by the two government-sponsored mortgage giants.

For 16 years reformers in Congress have tried to improve oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and prevent the government-chartered companies from putting the housing market and the whole economy at risk. All that time, Frank was involved in efforts to block those attempts, and in the last eight years he was a leader of those efforts.

In 2002, shortly before accounting irregularities were exposed at both companies, Frank said, "I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems," The Wall Street Journal reported. After the Freddie Mac accounting scandal in 2003, Frank said, "I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis."

But there was a crisis, thanks in large part to Frank, Sen. Charles Schumer and others on the leash of these companies. In Congress, they made sure there was no additional oversight, no additional limit on executive behavior and compensation, and no further restraint on the growth of the companies' mortgage-backed-securities portfolios, among other changes.

In fact, Frank & Co. made matters worse by pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take on greater risk. They wanted more loans to people who might not qualify for traditional bank financing. And, as The Wall Street Journal has pointed out, Frank "pressured regulators to ease up on their capital requirements - which now means taxpayers will have to make up that capital shortfall."

Even now, after the government took the companies over (which Frank repeatedly said over the years was not a possibility), Frank opposes limits on the amount of money they can risk on mortgage backed securities - the one reform that might have done the most to prevent the current meltdown and probably would do the most to keep it from happening again.

Barney Frank is the very symbol of Washington's deliberate refusal to prevent the collapse - the predicted collapse - of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And this is the guy the New Hampshire Democratic Party showcases at its most prestigious annual event. That ought to tell you a lot right there."

Source

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Jimmah Carter started the rot that led to the present financial crisis

Much as Bush-hating media members conveniently ignore historical events that led to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, their current finger-pointing at the White House, John McCain, and all Republican politicians for the collapse of the financial services industry lacks any honest assessment of decades-old legislation that laid the groundwork for today's problems. In particular, 1977's Community Reinvestment Act which required banks and savings institutions to make loans to the lower-income areas in the communities they served.

Despite how integrally tied the current crisis is to this bill enacted by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into law by Jimmy Carter, no major media outlet other than Investor's Business Daily and National Review Online mentioned it during last week's market meltdown. Going against the grain was a highly-informative editorial by IBD Thursday:

To hear today's Democrats, you'd think all this started in the last couple years. But the crisis began much earlier. The Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas. Age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so on the basis of race.

These well-intended rules were supercharged in the early 1990s by President Clinton. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans. [...] Failure to comply meant your bank might not be allowed to expand lending, add new branches or merge with other companies. Banks were given a so-called "CRA rating" that graded how diverse their lending portfolio was. [...] In the name of diversity, banks began making huge numbers of loans that they previously would not have. They opened branches in poor areas to lift their CRA ratings.

Meanwhile, Congress gave Fannie and Freddie the go-ahead to finance it all by buying loans from banks, then repackaging and securitizing them for resale on the open market. That's how the contagion began. With those changes, the subprime market took off. From a mere $35 billion in loans in 1994, it soared to $1 trillion by 2008.

Readers are strongly encouraged to review this entire fact-filled piece to not only better understand the roots of today's financial crisis, but also to get a sense as to just how absurd media accusations of this all being Bush and McCain's fault are.

That said, from 1989 through 1995, I managed branches for two savings and loans: Imperial Savings, which got taken over by the Resolution Trust Corporation during the S&L bailout, and; Great Western Bank which eventually was purchased by Washington Mutual. The pressure to comply with CRA was astounding, especially at Great Western as it was expanding throughout the country. Its ability to acquire other institutions was directly related to its CRA rating.

With this in mind, IBD's views concerning this matter are spot on raising a very important question: if the role of news media is to inform the public, why does a LexisNexis search indicate that as this crisis came to a head last week, its connection to CRA, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton was almost completely ignored?

Would such a revelation make it difficult for Obama-loving press outlets to point fingers at George W. Bush and, more importantly, John McCain? Yes, that's a rhetorical question.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

One small step: "American Thinker justly can claim credit for legislation to protect Californians against at least one petty tyranny. SB 1491 in on the Governor's desk awaiting signature. It would allow citizens to refuse a remote controlled thermostat in their home or office. It is not all we wanted but it is something. This AT article triggered a national outcry, according to the New York Times. State Senator Tom McClintock deserves credit for SB 1491. He is running for Congress now."

Bush called for reform of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac 17 times in 2008 alone... Dems ignored warnings : "For many years the President and his Administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties. President Bush publicly called for GSE reform 17 times in 2008 alone before Congress acted. Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded, as the President's repeated attempts to reform the supervision of these entities were thwarted by the legislative maneuvering of those who emphatically denied there were problems."

There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly "incorrect" themes of race, genes, IQ etc.

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Our Sister Sarah Palin's Anti-Elitist Charm

By Ralph Peters

I KNOW Sarah Palin, and so does my wife. Neither of us ever actually met the governor of Alaska, but we grew up with her - in the small-town America despised by the leftwing elite. One gal-pal classmate of my wife's has even traveled from New York's Finger Lakes to Alaska to hunt moose with her husband. (Got one, too.) And no, Ms. Streisand, she isn't a redneck missing half her teeth - she's a lawyer.

The sneering elites and their mediacrat fellow travelers just don't get it: How on earth could anyone vote for someone who didn't attend an Ivy League school? And having more than 1.7 children marks any woman as a rube. (If Palin had any taste, her teenage daughter would've had a quiet abortion in a discreet facility.)

And what kind of retro-Barbie would stay happily married to her high-school sweetheart? Ugh. She even kills animals and eats them. (The meat and fish served in the upscale bistros patronized by Obama supporters appears by magic - it didn't really come from living things. . .)

Palin has that hick accent, too. And that busy-mom beehive 'do. Double ugh! Bet she hasn't even read Ian McEwan's latest novel and can't explain Frank Gehry's vision for a new architecture. She and her blue-collar (triple ugh!) husband don't even own a McMansion, let alone an inherited family compound on the Cape. And she wants to be vice president?

The opinion-maker elites see Sarah Palin clearly every time they look up from another sneering article in The New Yorker: She's a country-bumpkin chumpette from a hick state with low latte availability. She's not one of them and never will be. That's the real disqualifier in this race.

Now let me tell you what those postmodern bigots with their multiple vacation homes and their disappointing trust-fund kids don't see: Sarah Palin's one of us. She actually represents the American people. When The New York Times, CNN, the NBC basket of basket cases and all the barking blog dogs insult Palin, they're insulting us. When they smear her, they're smearing every American who actually works for a living, who doesn't expect a handout, who doesn't have a full-time accountant to parse the family taxes, who believes in the Pledge of Allegiance and who thinks a church is more than just a tedious stop on daughter Emily's 100K wedding day.

Go ahead, faux feminists and Hollywood deep thinkers: Snicker at Sarah America's degree from the University of Idaho, but remember that most Americans didn't attend Harvard or Princeton as a legacy after daddy donated enough to buy his kid's way in. Go ahead, campaign strategists: Mock Americans who go to church and actually pray. But you might want to run the Census numbers first. And go right ahead: Dismiss all of us who remember how, on the first day of deer season, our high school classrooms were half empty (not a problem at Andover or Exeter).

That rube accent of Palin's? It's a howler. But she sounds a lot more like the rest of us than a Harvard man or a Smithie ever will. Why does Sarah Palin energize all of us who don't belong to the gilded leftwing circle? Because she's us. We sat beside her in class. We hung out after school (might've even shared a backseat combat zone on prom night). And now she lives next door, raising her kids. For the first time since Ronald Reagan, our last great president, we, the people, see a chance that one of us might have a voice in governing our country. ....

Our country can't afford another one of these clowns. Harvard isn't the answer - Harvard's the problem. So here's the message Palin is sending on behalf of the rest of us (the down-market masses Dems love at election time and ignore once the voting's done): The rule of the snobs is over. It's time to give one of us a chance to lead. Sen. John McCain's one of us, too. He raised hell at Annapolis (quadruple ugh: military!), and he'll raise the right kind of hell in Washington. McCain's so dumb he really loves his country. Sarah Palin's dumb that way, too. How terribly unfashionable.

More here

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Hating Sarah Palin

The left-liberal Webzine Salon has become something of a clearinghouse for rage against Alaska's governor. The latest contribution, from one Anne Lamott, actually uses the H word:

I sat outside a 7-Eleven and had a sacramental Dove chocolate bar. Jeez: Here we are again. A man and a woman whose values we loathe and despise--lying, rageful and incompetent, so dangerous to children and old people, to innocent people in every part of the world--are being worshiped, exalted by the media, in a position to take a swing at all that is loveliest about this earth and what's left of our precious freedoms.

When I got home from church, I drank a bunch of water to metabolize the Dove bar and called my Jesuit friend, who I know hates these people, too. I asked, "Don't you think God finds these smug egomaniacs morally repellent? Recoils from their smugness as from hot flame?" And he said, "Absolutely. They are everything He or She hates in a Christian."

I have been in a better mood ever since, and have decided not to even say this woman's name anymore, because she fills me with such existential doubt, such a sense of impending doom and disbelief, that only the Germans could possibly have words for it.

What's hilarious about this is that, except for the obligatory "or She," Lamott and her unnamed interlocutor fit exactly the stereotype people on the left typically hold of conservatives, and religious conservatives in particular: smug yet insecure, dogmatic and intolerant and filled with hate and rage. Even Lamott's descriptions of Palin more aptly describe Lamott in the act of describing Palin!

Source

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ELSEWHERE

The arty-farties again: "The art world is intrigued by a statue called "Mao Suit," a five-and-a-half-ton steel representation of the dictator's iconic jacket, currently installed on Park Avenue in Manhattan, a choice of location that should merit some kind of Nobel Prize in Irony. Critics have noted that the bottom of the jacket is rather generously cut, suggesting that the chairman was prosperous to the point of being bourgeois. "It suggests that Mao was quite plump," Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society's museum, told the New York Sun. She added: "Yes, his policies exacted suffering among his people: There is a common saying about Mao being 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong." Seventy percent right? St,phane Courtois's Black Book of Communism estimates that the Maoist project in China killed some 65 million people, about two-thirds of Communism's worldwide toll of 100 million dead. Somewhere, Mao's ghost is wondering, Does this genocide make me look fat?"

Party of Lawyers : "Barack Obama and Joe Biden are both lawyers. Neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin is a lawyer. Kedwards were both lawyers too, whereas neither George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney is one. Eugene Volokh, a lawyer, extends the pattern further: Of 12 Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees since 1980, all but two (Jimmy Carter and Al Gore) were lawyers. Of the nine Republican nominees in the same period, all but two (Dan Quayle and Bob Dole) were nonlawyers."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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The Rest of the Meltdown Story

By Neal Boortz

What in the world is going on here? You've seen the headlines, and you heard of the failures and buyouts. Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG; all big names and all in big trouble. Then those mysterious quasi-government agencies with names like Freddie and Fannie become wards of the state and you learn that you and your fellow taxpayers are potentially on the hook for tens of billions of dollars. At the end of the week Washington Mutual is looking for a buyer, and you start to wonder about the security of your own bank and your own savings account. Let's change that ad copy to WaMu -- boo hoo.

Somewhere in the back of your mind you understand that this is all tied somehow to bad mortgages. If you start reading a bit further to enhance your understanding you run into terms like Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and credit-default swaps, whatever in the world those are. Read further and you find out that a combination of falling home prices and mortgage defaults have put many investment banks and other financial institutions in deep puddin'. All this reading, all this watching the talking heads on TV, and you still don't really know what in the world is going on here.

Fear not. I'm here to help. I know . I'm just another talk show host; but the fact is that when the stage was being set for the problems we're seeing today I was making most of my money as a real estate lawyer .. closing loans for some of the very institutions that are the tank today. This rather unique combination - closing lawyer and radio talk show host - gave me a front row seat to the politicization of mortgage loans that led us to today's headlines.

OK .. so we all know that a lot of really bad real estate loans were made. The political class would sure love for us to believe that the blame here rests squarely on "greedy" (try to define that word) mortgage brokers and lenders. The truth is that most of the blame rests on political meddling in the credit decisions of these mortgage lenders.

Twenty years ago the buzz-word in the media was "redlining." Newspapers across the country were filled with hard-hitting investigative reports about evil and racist mortgage lenders refusing to make real estate loans to various minorities and to applicants who lived in lower-income neighborhoods. There I was closing these loans in the afternoons, and in the mornings offering a counter-argument on the radio to these absurd "redlining" claims. Frankly, the claims that evil mortgage lenders were systematically denying loans to blacks and other minorities were a lot sexier on the radio than my claims that when credit histories, job stability, loan-to-value ratios and income levels were considered there was no evident racial discrimination.

Political correctness won the day. Washington made it clear to banks and other lending institutions that if they did not do something .. and fast .. to bring more minorities and low-income Americans into the world of home ownership there would be a heavy price to pay. Congress set up processes (Research the Community Redevelopment Act) whereby community activist groups and organizers could effectively stop a bank's efforts to grow if that bank didn't make loans to unqualified borrowers. Enter, stage left, the "subprime" mortgage. These lenders knew that a very high percentage of these loans would turn to garbage - but it was a price that had to be paid if the bank was to expand and grow. We should note that among the community groups browbeating banks into making these bad loans was an outfit called ACORN. There is one certain presidential candidate that did a lot of community organizing for ACORN. I won't mention his name so as to avoid politicizing this column.

These garbage loans to unqualified borrowers were then bundled up and sold. The expectation was that the loans would be eventually paid off when rising home values led some borrowers to access their equity through re-financing and others to sell and move on up the ladder. Oops.

Right now this crisis is being sold to the American public by the left as evidence the failure of the free market and capitalism. Not so. What we're seeing is the inevitable result of political interference in free market economics. Acme bank didn't want to loan money to Joe Homebuyer because Joe had a spotty job history, owed too much money on his credit cards, and wasn't all that good at making payments on time. The politicians told Acme Bank to figure out a way to make that loan, because, after all, Joe is a bona-fide minority-American, or forget about opening that new branch office on the Southside. The loan was made under politicial pressure; the loan, with millions like it, failed - and now we are left to enjoy today's headlines.

So . why aren't you reading the whole story in the mainstream media? Come on, are you kidding me? Do you really expect the media to blame this mess on deadbeat borrowers and political interference in the free market when it is so easy to put the blame on greedy lenders and evil capitalists? Remember . there's an election going on. One candidate is decidedly anti-capitalist. Do the math.

Source. An article at IBD makes similar points to the above

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Ugly old Leftist baggage slimes Sarah Palin

You can see a recent image of her here. If you read anything that tears some woman to shreds, you can almost always be sure that it is the work of another woman. And an ugly old woman with nothing left but her tongue will often loathe a younger attractive woman. What the old baggage below says is nothing but abuse and unsubstantiated assertions so I think it is reasonable not to discuss her hate-filled rant but rather to point to the motives behind it and give a bit of contempt back.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is reviewing complaints from both Americans and Canadians about a Web site columnist who recently described Sarah Palin's supporters as "white trash," compared the vice presidential candidate to a "porn actress" and called her daughter's boyfriend a "redneck" and "ratboy."

In the CBC story, Mallick wrote that John McCain's running mate "added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote." She proceeded to write that the Alaska governor "has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favored by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression."

She also questioned why the Palins were allowing Levi Johnston - 17-year-old Bristol Palin's boyfriend and father of her unborn baby - into the family. "What normal father would want Levi `I'm a f--n' redneck' Johnson prodding his daughter?" Mallick asked. "I know that I have an attachment to children that verges on the irrational, but why don't the Palins? I'm not the one preaching homespun values but I'd destroy that ratboy before I'd let him get within scenting range of my daughter again, and so would you. . Turn your guns on Levi, ma'am."....

Mallick also wrote on the CBC Web site that Republican men, whom she called "sexual inadequates," must think that women would vote for Palin just because she's a woman.

More here. (Amusing that they use a very old picture of the baggage there)

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ELSEWHERE

The Left loves failure (1): "How does a general responsible for a failed strategy in a major war redeem himself? By talking to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, who is notorious for rewarding his sources with sympathetic treatment. That's why Gen. George Casey, who obviously spent long hours with Woodward, gets an oddly favorable portrayal for defending a losing strategy in Iraq to the bitter end. Woodward writes as though President Bush did something wrong in executing an end-run around Casey and the recalcitrant brass of the Joint Chiefs to find and implement a strategy that might work in Iraq. That strategy was, of course, the surge. The facts make it plain--notwithstanding Woodward's tone--that Bush made a decision of great courage and independence when many at the Pentagon valued getting out of Iraq over winning

The Left loves failure (2):The cast of characters at political conventions is ever changing, except for one family that always appears wherever the Democrats do--the Joads. Their ramshackle jalopy, coated with dust, winds through their speeches, reminding us that it is always evening in America. In years when the economy is booming, it's a struggle to get the old junkheap moving, but the Democrats always manage it; then, their trope is that there are two Americas, one for the heartless rich, the other for the battered sons of toil. Mario Cuomo was the greatest bard of this argument, though John Edwards more recently made it his own until a different issue put him out of commission. When the economy is problematic, as it is now--oil prices sinking but still sky-high; unemployment not sky-high, but rising--then the Joads appear in all their funky glory."

Sad-sack Woody backs Obama: "US filmmaker Woody Allen, best known for such comedy classics as "Annie Hall," says it will be no laughing matter if Barack Obama fails to win the race for the White House. "It would be a disgrace and a humiliation if Barack Obama does not win," he told Spanish journalists at the ongoing 56th San Sebastian film festival, where his latest film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is being screened. "It would be a very, very terrible thing for the United States in many, many ways," he said. Democratic hopeful Obama, Allen said, is "so much better" than Republican rival John McCain, and "represents a huge step upward from (the) incompetence and misjudgement" of the Bush administration. "It would be a terrible thing if the American public was not moved to vote for him, that they actually preferred more of the same."

Leftist "tolerance" again: "In ultra-liberal Austin, TX, McCain supporters have a problem with their lawn signs being vandalized. News Channel 8 reports: "The gate to Hili Geck's house was once flanked by three big John McCain signs. Most others in her neighborhood have Obama signs. Voting records show Geck's precinct is 70 percent Democratic. Still, she's never felt unwelcomed until now. Geck said she came home Monday to find her signs missing and her tires slashed. "I'm not scared," she said. "I'm going to put my signs back because I think that's the most important thing we have in America."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Political attitudes are predicted by physiological traits

Study finds that conservatives react more strongly to apparent danger. Conservatives are more cautious! Nice to see it demonstrated physiologically but not a big surprise

Is America's red-blue divide based on voters' physiology? A new paper in the journal Science, titled "Political Attitudes Are Predicted by Physiological Traits," explores the link. Rice University's John Alford, associate professor of political science, co-authored the paper in the Sept. 19 issue of Science.

Alford and his colleagues studied a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs. Those individuals with "measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism and the Iraq War," the authors wrote.

Participants were chosen randomly over the phone in Lincoln, Neb. Those expressing strong political views -- regardless of their content -- were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their political beliefs, personality traits and demographic characteristics.

In a later session, they were attached to physiological measuring equipment and shown three threatening images (a very large spider on the face of a frightened person, a dazed individual with a bloody face and an open wound with maggots in it) interspersed among a sequence of 33 images. Similarly, participants also viewed three nonthreatening images (a bunny, a bowl of fruit and a happy child) placed within a series of other images. A second test used auditory stimuli to measure involuntary responses to a startling noise.

The researchers noted a correlation between those who reacted strongly to the stimuli and those who expressed support for "socially protective policies," which tend to be held by people "particularly concerned with protecting the interests of the participants' group, defined as the United States in mid-2007, from threats." These positions include support for military spending, warrantless searches, the death penalty, the Patriot Act, obedience, patriotism, the Iraq War, school prayer and Biblical truth, and opposition to pacifism, immigration, gun control, foreign aid, compromise, premarital sex, gay marriage, abortion rights and pornography.

The paper concluded, "Political attitudes vary with physiological traits linked to divergent manners of experiencing and processing environmental threats." This may help to explain "both the lack of malleability in the beliefs of individuals with strong political convictions and the associated ubiquity of political conflict," the authors said.

Source. More details here. Original journal abstract follows:

Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits

By Douglas R. Oxley et al.

Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals' experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with physiological traits. In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War. Thus, the degree to which individuals are physiologically responsive to threat appears to indicate the degree to which they advocate policies that protect the existing social structure from both external (outgroup) and internal (norm-violator) threats.

Science 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5896, pp. 1667 - 1670

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The Economic Reform Wave

What do Azerbaijan, Albania and the Kyrgyz Republic have in common? They're all Eastern European or Central Asian states, and they all currently top the list of the world's most enthusiastic economic reformers.

So says "Doing Business 2009," the latest instalment in the World Bank and International Finance Corporation's series of annual reports on the state of pro-growth policies around the world. There's little change at the top of the league table in absolute terms -- Singapore still ranks No. 1, with the U.S., Hong Kong, U.K., Canada and Australia also in the top 10. But a look at the changes in other rankings shows a still-growing tide of liberalization just about everywhere.

This year the report's authors count 239 pro-growth reforms in 113 economies in the year from June 2007 to June 2008, compared to 200 reforms in 98 countries last year. Yet again, cutting the red tape on business start-ups is the most popular kind of reform and 49 countries took such steps. Top reformer Azerbaijan, for example, opened a one-stop shop to handle new business registrations and cut the number of regulatory steps to six from 13. For these and many other improvements, it now ranks 33rd, up from 97th last year.

Other countries are attracting investment by cutting tax rates or by making it easier and cheaper to file. Malaysia did both, simplifying and cutting corporate income taxes (now a 26% flat tax, which will drop to 25% next year) and introducing online filing. It moved up to 20th from 25th. Colombia, South America's top reformer, embraced trade by cutting export- and import processing times via a host of administrative reforms, helping to improve its ranking to 53rd from 66th.

One notable bright light here is in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa still lags far behind other regions, and the average ranking for countries there is 138th, compared to an average of 111 for the next-worst region, South Asia. But Senegal, Burkina Faso and Botswana this year made the list of top 10 reformers. Senegal improved its ranking to 149th from 168th, in part by speeding customs clearance for trade. Burkina Faso slashed red tape on construction permits and it cut taxes, helping bump it to 148th from 164th.

A lot of work clearly remains to be done; and some countries, such as Indonesia, Bulgaria and Bolivia, slipped down in the rankings. Yet overall this report is a welcome sign that many countries are pushing ahead with reforms.

The timing couldn't be better: The IFC notes that countries with liberalized business regulations frequently grow faster than their peers and are more resilient when tough times hit. In today's uncertain economic climate, every competitive advantage helps.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

Republican energy leads to comeback in polls : "New polling suggests that the Republican Party is beginning to regain some of its luster and, perhaps as important, is experiencing a surge in excitement among its political base. A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports that independent voters have an equally favorable opinion of both parties, 50 to 49 percent, a one-point edge for the GOP. That compares to an 18-point Democratic advantage as recently as August, a wide gap that had generally held for more than a year. And half of registered voters overall now have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, the highest GOP ranking in three years. Slightly more voters, 55 percent, continue to have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. The GOP convention and the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate have also generated considerable enthusiasm among the party rank-and-file. Pew found that three in four Republicans express satisfaction with their presidential choice. In June, only half said the same.

French nanny state bans internet alcohol advertising: "France may be home to some of the world's finest wines but it could be about to join the tiny club of Muslim states that forbid their promotion on the internet. Winemakers and other players in the drinks industry are fighting to avert a ban on advertising, sales and even vineyard websites that has been looming ever since a court ruled that the internet should be included in France's strict laws regarding alcohol advertising. The Heineken beer company was forced by the ruling last February to block French access to its corporate site. Since then, some of the biggest drinks brands have shut out French visitors for fear of prosecution. "Today in France, the sight of a bottle of wine has become as offensive as a picture of war or pornography," said Daniel Lorson, a spokesman for CIVC, the industry body of champagne producers. The industry complains that it is being demonised and that an internet ban would penalise hugely one of the glories of the French economy and the national heritage. [Not a big help to the French economy, one imagines]

Euro-snoops put US to shame: "The U.S. government gets rapped frequently for its growing tendency to use wiretaps, engage in surveillance and compile information about people who are doing nothing more than exercising their right to criticize political leaders -- or even people who are just going about their daily, apolitical business. Especially since 9/11, but even for decades preceding that event, government officials have engaged in a disturbing frenzy of nosiness about the communications, activities and opinions of private citizens. But, in certain circles, it's become the norm to assume that the U.S. government is the worst of the worst. That it practices control-freakery to an extent that shocks, shocks our friends overseas. Would the sophisticated French ever engage in such abusive shenanigans[?] Well, yes, they would."

Father of Palin account hacker David Kernell is Tennessee Democrat State Rep: "The son of state Rep. Mike Kernell has been contacted by authorities in connection with a probe into the hacking of personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Kernell told The Tennessean. Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, said his 20-year-old son David had been contacted by authorities investigating the hacking of Palin's personal e-mail account, the newspaper reported on its Web site this afternoon. The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation Wednesday into the hacking, according to the Associated Press."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Wow! Google are getting tough on conservative blogs

Dick MacDonald had a pretty mainstream conservative blog here. Click the link and see what you get now. Dick is a man in his 70s and a former accountant so you can guess that he wasn't doing anything extreme. His main interest is social security reform. They took his blog down over copyright breaches. Email him on dickmcdonald73*att.net (Replace the star with @, of course) to get on his mailing list. He is worth reading.

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Wherein I Do My Part to Aid the Social Sciences

A good post from Ace below:

Dear Editor of Ace of Spades,

I am writing you on behalf of a research team from the Psychology Department at New York University, in the hopes that you might be able to help us with our timely and important research about the cognitive bases of electoral decision-making. We would be very grateful to you if you could possibly help us recruit politically inclined respondents to our survey by posting to your blog the link to the online survey we are conducting as part of this research...

And on and on and on.

My response:

With all due respect, why bother? I've read these studies before. You already know all the answers: Liberals vote out of rationality and hope; conservatives vote out of irrational prejudice and fear. There's no point collecting data when the conclusions have already been drafted. Thank you for your interest, but I can write your paper for you without bothering with the middleman of data collection.

Added a PS:

To make my complaint clear:

We all know that conservatives are more fond of tradition and liberals are more fond of fads and "new things." Now, we already know that. There is no reason to even collect data on it. It's a fact. It's 75% of what makes conservatives conservative and liberals liberal. But rather than framing it neutrally, you -- if you are anything like the six bazillion psychologists before you -- will say "liberals show they are more OPEN-MINDED and RECEPTIVE OF NEW IDEAS AND NEW EXPERIENCES than conservatives, who are CLOSED-MINDED and FEARFUL OF ANYTHING NEW OR DIFFERENT.

I could take the same data and give it a different spin: Conservatives are more mature and comfortable with themselves. Liberals, however, similar to juveniles, are seek out fads and transient fashions, much like teenagers "identity shop" by trying out new personae until one fits.

The thing is, the data should be reported straight. Neutrally. And if you're going to spin a value judgment on to it, there is no reason to favor the "CONSERVATIVES FEARFUL" spin over of my own "LIBERALS FADDISH AND ONLY PARTIALLY-FORMED IN THEIR ADULT PERSONAE" spin.

But I know in advance -- well, I know to a 99% certainty, based on the all of the similar studies I've read previously -- that it's going to be CONSERVATIVES FEARFUL. Why bother? Let's just skip the whole pretense of faux scientific rigor and get right to the money graf: Conservatives suck, liberals are better and smarter. And like trying out new foods and listening to "World Music."

Source

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There is no Democrat majority

Much has been made this year about how the fundamentals favor the Democrats. An unpopular Republican president, a war that has dragged on beyond the limits of public tolerance, a declining number of people identifying as Republicans and a worrisome economy all set the stage for the Democrats to reclaim the White House.

While citing these factors, Rasmussen Reports and many others have not often pointed out another fundamental-the difficulty Democrats have in attracting a majority of the popular vote.

Since 1860, the year that Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president, only three Democrats have won the White House with a majority of the popular vote. Each of the three-Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter-were aided by extraordinary circumstances.

Roosevelt was elected during the depths of the Great Depression. Johnson was elected less than a year after he assumed the presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Carter was elected in the immediate aftermath of Watergate, a time that makes even the current challenges faced by the Republican Party seem tame by comparison.

For a while, it appeared to many that Barack Obama might be able to expand the traditional limits of Democratic appeal and break through the 50% ceiling. But despite all the polling done by Rasmussen Reports and others this season, he has not yet broken through that barrier....

Democrats are in trouble. The national security issue is one on which they are rightly not trusted and it comes to the fore in Presidential elections. The results of the Johnson and Carter administration as well as the Clinton administration give added reasons not to trust the Democrats on this issue.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

Amazing China thaw: "One of the most visible signs of warming China-Taiwan ties is the presence on the island of Chinese tourists, who can now fly direct from five cities on the mainland. Most come in tour groups, seeing the sights and, in some cases, relatives. "My cousin married a Taiwanese, so she lives here," said Liu Xingxing, one of the approximately 12,000 mainlanders who have come to the island since direct flights started in July. "I wanted to visit her, and also to see my fellow countrymen." Tucking into her breakfast, Ms Liu, from Shenzhen, said that Taiwan's best selling point was its greenery and its cleanliness. "There are lots of trees and the hygiene standards are much better. But the shopping is better in Hong Kong."

Hillary Backer Donald Trump Endorses McCain: "Donald Trump, the flamboyant New York magnate, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Wednesday night that he is supporting Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president. Trump, never shy with his opinions, went on to say that McCain appears to be winning, and that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) should have chosen Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as his running mate. "I know John McCain, and John McCain's a great guy, a tremendous guy," Trump told King. "I've known him for a long time. And I'm with him, and I'm with him based on the fact that I have great knowledge of John McCain. Also, this is not the right time for tax increases. And Obama wants to increase your taxes drastically."

More Is Less : "Crucial Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level on record, continuing an alarming trend, scientists said Tuesday," the Associated Press reports from Washington. But if you read the second paragraph carefully, you see that this isn't necessarily a continuation of the "alarming trend": The ice covered 1.74 million square miles on Friday, marking a low point for this summer, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Last summer, the sea ice covered only 1.59 million square miles, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1979.. That is, there was more ice this year than last year. We won't be able to draw any conclusions for a few more years, but this latest datum is consistent with a reversal of the trend".

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Democrats feel at home at home in fantasyland

Ted Nugent doesn't like Hollywood pinheads and is rather fond of Sarah Palin. He delivers a nice slap at simpleton Matt Damon and his idiotic statements last week.

Anyone who has watched Ted Nugent appear on talk shows over the years knows he can deliver a punch when he deems it necessary. In an email exchange The Vote had with Nugent this morning, the rock star starts off diplomatic. "To be concerned is prudent, but his references are without merit," Nugent wrote. "Her record in politics proves she is a tough woman of intellect, logic, common sense, integrity and defying courage. Theoretically, Matt's concerns would better be aimed at and earned by Barack Obama."

Nugent had high praise for the Republican vice presidential nominee, who - like Nugent - is an avid hunter. "I like her a lot," he said. "I have examined her record and she is my kind of elected official. She may very well be the best Republican in America today." ...

Nugent, an outspoken conservative, is a minority in the entertainment community. When asked why the celebrity crowd seems to better connect with the Democratic party, Nugent becomes the Nugent you know on TV - unfiltered.

"With all due respect, many in the entertainment industry are deep into mind-altering substance abuse, and when one's logic and intellectual calculating powers are replaced with dopey feel-good, fantasy-driven denial, the democratic party serves them well," Nugent blasted.

Ouch. Speaking of Hollywood celebutards, John McCain delivered his own slap at Obama and Barbra Streisand today.

"He says he's siding with the people just before he flew off for a fundraiser in Hollywood with Barbra Streisand," McCain said of his rival. "Let me tell you my friends, there's no place I'd rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio."

McCain used the line as his close at an airport hangar rally, drawing loud applause.

Source

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About the Situation on Wall Street

Quite a few good articles on different aspects of the big crashes. An excerpt from this one: "What makes me laugh - ruefully, I assure you - is when our office seekers trot around the country promising "accountability" for Wall Street. Lehman just went bankrupt - in a market economy, things don't get more "accountable" than that. What everyone wants to know is how serious the current situation is. Step back from the ledge, and for goodness sakes ignore Senator Obama's ignorant hysterics. What we have now is a market correction. Firms that made poor decisions are being devoured by the market's unforgiving nature. Today the Dow is steady, the American economy having easily withstood the shock of the weekend's events.

Another good comment here. It starts: "Democrats have spent more time investigating Sarah Palin than they have the crooks in their own party who are responsible for the financial crisis!"

Another comment includes this excerpt: "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were run by Clinton cronies who received millions of dollars from the organizations. Democrats were in bed with these companies and refused to listen to George Bush when, in 2003, he "recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago"

My comment: It all started out with the Democrats pressing the banks to lend to blacks -- regardless of whether the blacks looked like good risks or not. The banks did as they were told and passed on the risks to the financial sector generally. The result was entirely predictable.

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ELSEWHERE

Obama: Don't Listen to McCain. Do What He Says!: "Barack Obama is presently droning on about the economy with the kind of rhetoric you would expect from a liberal of the bigger-the-government-the-better-the-government stripe, but what I thought was hilarious was his attack against John McCain for suggesting we need a 9/11 type commission to study what has gone wrong recently, only to turn around several minutes later and insist that we need a regulator's committee. So we need a committee, not a commission. Is that what Obama means by "change?"

Obama and Negotiating With Iraq: "Media priorities: A major newspaper reports that a presidential candidate tried to undermine U.S. war policy while overseas and the rest of the media obsesses about Sarah Palin's tanning bed. That must be one heckuva tanning bed."

Obama's murky past: "While the New York Times crack investigative staff is busily pursuing a 4-H pal of Sarah Palin's, they seem to have missed the biggest story of this election cycle. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn are unrepentent terrorists who even today advocate communism and the overthrow of the United States government. They launched and orchesterated Barack Obama's career, providing him with the qualifications necessary to run for major political office. Repeat: communists and terrorists launched Obama's career. And the fossils at the Times, who are rapidly sinking into financial quicksand, can't bother to report the story."

Some sense from the Netherlands: "The North Pole is not melting and school children should not be 'indoctrinated' into thinking that it is, says Martin Bosma, an MP for the anti-immigration party PVV, in today's Telegraaf. 'Our schoolchildren should be learning to spell and do sums not that pathetic polar bears are drifting around on ice floes because we go on holiday by plane,' the paper quotes him as saying.

Mad cow or mad bureaucrat: "Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) tests about 1% for BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. But Creekstone Farms wants to test 100% of the cattle they process, at their own expense. The USDA won't let them, and the USDA's rule has been backed by the federal courts. You see, if Creekstone tests all its beef and boasts of it in its marketing, their larger competitors could feel obliged to do the same, and this additional expense may lower their profit margins or raise the price of beef."

Yet another episode in England's black crime nightmare: "A greengrocer was stabbed to death in a revenge attack after a row over a 90-cent orange, a UK court has heard. The 25-year-old greengrocer, Khalil Nasseri, was allegedly knifed in the chest by 39-year-old Delroy Brown after he caught Mr Brown trying to steal the orange from a South London fruit shop in January, the Daily Mail reported. "[Brown] took an orange from the greengrocers' fruit display in the street and he began to peel it with a knife," Peter Kyte, QC, told a court. "He appeared unwilling to pay for that orange. Khalil Nasseri challenged him to pay for the orange and a disagreement between these two people ensued." Brown first attacked Mr Nasseri with a hammer he took from his car, but was disarmed by other shopkeepers and chased from the store, but not before warning Mr Nasseri: "I will return. This is not over ... I'm coming back for your blood", the Daily Mail said. "He was chased away from the scene by a number of people and he returned a couple of days later, this time he came with reinforcements, two other black men," Peter Kyte, QC, told the court. One of the men had a knife, Mr Kyte said. They assaulted shopkeepers at the store before stabbing Mr Nasseri to "almost instantaneous death", he said."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH (2), TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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Google's "Help Obama" campaign

Heh! I have thought of an amusing response to Google's harassment of my Obama blog. I have moved it not to another platform but to another blogspot address! It is now at http://dumbama.blogspot.com.

I call it DUMBama in reference to the fact that all Obababy seems able to do is spout Leftist boilerplate in a nice voice.

Google will probably delete the old blog once I cease making requests to remove the spam flagging but that hardly matters. Being a cautious old conservative, I already have duplicate archives online elsewhere -- e.g. here.

Google harassment continues

They still seem to be intent on driving my Obama blog off their platform. Their silly letter-copying task before I can post is still in place.

So I am getting a bit more serious about moving my Obama blog elsewhere. The trouble is finding another template that I like. I have put up a test site on Wordpress that badly needs some colour in it. If anybody knows Wordpress well enough to put some colors there, I would be interested to hear from them.