Fast & Furious

The only news program wiling to actually cover the corrupt and probably illegal FBI/ATF gun running operation that was started by the Obama Dept of Justice is Univision.  Here's their preview of that news report.

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

People died...because of the actions and direct approval of our Dept of Justice.  So far Eric Holder has avoided having to take responsiblity, yet he HAS lied to Congress about what he knew, and when he knew it.  I suspect that he approved of the operation in order to charge that we needed curbs to the 2nd Amendment.   His deputy's resignation, I believe, is intended to deflect attention from him till after the election.  The fact that the MSM has so far minimized coverage just goes to show how damaging this is to the Obama regime.

Disabled WW2 Vet Faces Eviction

A disabled World War II and Korean War veteran, faces eviction.  Freddie Mac refuses to return his phone calls.

“I worried. You can’t sleep at night. With my husband being disabled, you try to go on with things as normal as you can. And keep my husband and my daughter, who is mentally handicapped, as stable as can be,” said Sally Scott.

That stability vanished with an eviction notice from Freddie Mac, the giant home loan lender that was bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of $120 billion.

“I haven’t been able to get hold of Freddie Mac. And basically, SPS, the loan servicer, said if you can get Freddie Mac to rescind the foreclosure, we’ll work something out with them,” Sally stated.  

FOX 2 also tried to contact Freddie Mac about the Scott’s foreclosure. No one got back to us. So Sally Scott turned to community groups to try and stop the foreclosure.
“Not only Freddie Mac, but other large banking institutions, I mean, they would not be around if it weren’t for our tax dollars,” said Zach Chasnoff with Missourians Organizing for Reform. “And you know, I think it’s important that they don’t take that for granted.” 

So far, Freddie Mac won’t budge.

But, they can't get Freddie Mac  to return their calls.  If you remember, Freddie Mac was bailed out with hundreds of billions of dollars of tax payer money yet, they are going to evict a disabled veteran?  That's plain bullshit.

Bureaucracy Wins: San Francisco Edition

San Francisco is not business friendly...and here's a video BY A CITY EMPLOYEE showing just how FUBAR the "system" is there.



This is what happens when people make rules, who have absolutely no concept of what sort of impact those bullshit rules do to people who actually want to create wealth and jobs.

Education Bubble: Government Cause Inflation

Joe Biden, Obama's VP has admitted that government subsidies have caused the cost of education to rise more than 400% in the past 40 years.



HatTip, NewsAlert.com

Maryland Shuts Down Lemonaide Stand @ US Open

The US Open is being held here in Maryland this year.  But, as a hugely blue nanny state, where "government always knows best" how to care for us, a child's Lemonaide Stand was closed by the county health department and fined $500.00.  With all the probblems facing us today, a lemonaide stand is the least of our worries, unless of course you're a liberal, then a child's attempt at free enterprise is a public threat.



HatTip:  Newsalert

How Government Failure Caused the Great Recession

Here's an excellent explaination on just how government rules and regulations FUBAR'd the economy into near depression. 

By Mark J. Perry and Robert Dell

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Filed under: Government & Politics, Economic Policy

The banking crisis that began in August 2007 shocked markets and precipitated the Great Recession. To fully explain the banking crisis, one must account for its timing, severity, and global impact. One must also confront a startling historical contrast. If we define “banking crisis” to mean bank failures and system losses exceeding 1 percent of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), we find that in the period 1875-1913, a period of marked expansion in international trade and capital flows comparable to the last three decades, there were only four banking crises worldwide.(1) By contrast, in the period 1978-2009, a period of much more extensive bank regulation, central bank intervention, government protection of depositors and other bank creditors, and government control of mortgage markets, about 140 banking crises occurred worldwide. Of these, 20 were more severe than any crisis from the earlier period of 1875-1913, in terms of total bank losses as a percent of GDP.

Leading financial economists such as Charles Calomiris have argued that a necessary condition for a banking crisis is government policy that distorts the micro-incentives of banks. Likewise, University of Chicago scholar Richard Posner has argued the banks that got into trouble during the recent crisis were simply taking “risks that seemed appropriate in the environment in which they found themselves.”(2)

But then why didn’t a banking crisis erupt sooner—say, in the recession years of 1990-1991 or 2001-2002? What changed in recent years that led to business risk-taking capable of wrecking the U.S. housing market and the U.S. banking system and other banking systems throughout the world? Further, why were prudent credit practices reasonably maintained in credit card and commercial mortgage securitization in recent years, but wholly abandoned in residential mortgage securitization?

Some economists have criticized securitization as an inherently flawed business model, particularly since the process of securitization involves a “long chain” of players with “information asymmetries.” The buyer of the mortgage or security typically knows less than the seller. But many of the financial institutions involved in subprime securitization (e.g., Citigroup) held portions of their own securitizations, and they have for decades been securitizing credit card loans without major debacles. Calomiris has observed that even during the subprime boom, banks aggregating credit card loans for securitization and investors in securitizations closely examined the identity of originators, their historical performance, the composition of portfolios, and changes in composition over time.(3)

Read the whole thing here...


H/T InstaPundit

Government Officials Exempt From Airport Groping

The TSA has announced that elected, appointed and top bureaucratic officials will be exempt from airport groping by during the security kabuki theatre when they fly commercially.  This is utterly against the basica principles of a republic.  Everyone who flies on commercial airlines MUST be subject to the same indignities that the "little people" must endure.  This was announced by the TSA today.

Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials are exempt from toughened new airport screening procedures when they fly commercially.

If you want to avoid being groped by illiterate cretins, then fly privately or government air.  But if you fly commercially, then you must be exposed to the same bullshit that everyone else has to endure.  Glenn Reynolds comments that this will go over well with the proles...

Stimulus Payments...

This is rather amusing...

Sometime this year, we taxpayers will again receive another 'Economic Stimulus' payment.

This is indeed a very exciting program, and I'll explain it by using a Q & A format:

Q. What is an 'Economic Stimulus' payment ?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q.. Where will the government get this money ?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money ?
A. Only a smidgen of it.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment ?
A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the U.S. Economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

* If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China or Sri Lanka .
* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.
* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India , Taiwan or China .
* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala ..
* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea .
* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .
* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.

Instead, keep the money in America by:
1) Spending it at yard sales, or
2) Going to ball games, or
3) Spending it on prostitutes, or
4) Beer or
5) Tattoos.
(These are the only American businesses still operating in the U.S. )
Conclusion:
Go to a ball game with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a yard sale and drink beer all day !
No need to thank me, I'm just glad I could be of help.

Sen Michael Bennet D-CO Admits Stimilus Package A Failure

Senator Michael Bennet, D-CO, said in a town meeting last Saturday, 21 August, 2010, that the trillions the Obama administration has spent has been wasted. 

We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet” and, “in my view we have nothing to show for it.” Speaking of the debt, he said our debt almost equals the economy. Regarding the current job situation, Bennet said the situation has been dire for over a decade saying, “We have created no net new jobs in the United States since 1998” which were the last two years of the Clinton administration. Pointing to a slide showing budget expenditures, he said that currently 65 percent of the budget was for social security, Medicaid and Medicare expenditures and that we could not grow our way out of debt.

Those remarks were made in one of the few town hall meetings held by Democrats this summer.  This meeting was held in Greeley, Colorado, and reported by the local paper, the Greeley Gazette.  My own Senators (Mikulski & Cardin, both D) and Congressman (Sarbanes, D-MD2) have failed to hold any either.  It's time to make these spendthrift legislators accountable for their actions.  They have spent $3,000,000,000,000.00 in the past year in stimulus packages and bailouts.  Nothing has come out of this but more debt.  Mr. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are proposing to spend ever more money in an attempt to rape the country to pay off ever more of their rapacious union supporters (SEIU-government employees in particular have faired far better than the average worker in this country).

Fed Turns Down New Jersey For Hundreds Of Millions Of Education Funds

The Federal Dept of Education turned down the State of New Jersey for having ONE incorrect page of a 1,000 page grant application.