Debate 2.0

You can watch the debate below.

Here's my edited running commentary on the debate.

Economic Crisis
Obama: "8 years of failed policies, deregulation is at fault"
Lie! We HAVE regulation, the Dems blocked action on fannie mae.
Why doesn't McCain point out that regulation didn't save us this time - the Dems blocked effective regulation of fannie mae - there was an oversight group already in place, and the Dems ignored the proposals and warnings from this group. Regulation itself is not the answer. And deregulation was NOT the problem here. Government-started companies (Fannie and Freddie), with implicit U.S. backing fueled this fire until everyting burned to the ground. Bush, to his credit, tried to control Fannie Mae, but the Dems wouldn't allow it.

Obama spoke of the massive increase in spending under Bush. Does McCain not know that a lot of this came from the war on terror? Why didn't he say it? Sept. 11 changed a lot of things, including federal spending. We've spent a lot on the war on terror.

McCain's mortage buyout plan
Whoa - McCain drops the bomb right away - let's have the taxpayers buy all those bad loans and arbitrarily set the price of those homes, and not foreclose on the owners.

This is quite unbelieveable. This is more like a proposal Obama would make.
McCain is trying to out-liberal Obama, I guess.
It is clear now McCain is NOT running as a conservative. His proposal is very interventionist, very Democrat-like. He's trying to be a centrist populist.

Regarding McCain's buyout plan:
- how would his plan work exactly, and what would it do?
- would he save those who took out multiple mortgages on their house to buy cars and tv's?
- it would reward the very undeserving buyers who drove up house prices, bidding up and buying what they couldn't actually afford, making housing prices more expensive for all of us? They over bought, and now McCain wants to give them hundreds of thousands in home equity by repricing their loans. Governments are never good at centrally setting prices in any market any where. Just ask the old Soviet Union.
- These home owners in trouble: their homes will eventually rise in value - what then? Do they give the money back? Or will they simply realize hundreds of thousands in equity gains and then turn around and take out a 2nd loan, buying more things, and again putting themselves at risk of defaulting? Think of it - the government buys their bad load, and simply shaves off hundreds of thousands perhaps off the principal, effectively letting them buy that same home again at a lower price. Their neighbor isn't so lucky. Their neighbor paid an artificially high price for the home because of all of those home buyers that bought what they couldn't afford. Now, that neighbor is working hard to pay off that mortgage, and because he will NOT default on the loan, he gets no free equity from the government. UNBELIEVEABLE.

Taxes
Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!! McCain fires back on this rant that Obama incessantly repeats: "McCain wants to give tax breaks to the biggest corporations and richest Americans."
Obama is going after small and medium-sized businesses all ove the country. That is going to hurt job growth.

Obama: 95% of americans will get a tax cut. And yet, he says this is a middle-class tax cut. How can the middle-class make up 95% of the population?
40% of tax payers PAY NO TAX!!!!!!!!! That can only mean he's going to give them back even more money (much of the bottom 40% actually gets money from the government in the form of cash back credits). As Newt Gingrich pointed out, this is welfare, not tax cuts.

McCain is clearly not arguing as a conservative but as a populist centrist. He keeps pounding on "Wall Street greed". Why can't anyone mention Main Street greed? Or did Wall Street hold a gun to Main Street's head and make them buy that expensive house?

Healthcare
- listen to O's language: "we're going to make sure that digital technologies are used to make companies more efficient."
Who does he think he is?? Does he not know that companies all over the world are already implementing technology for medical records? Private industry does this - not the gov. But listen closely to Obama - all his "changes" originate from big gov. and are mandated by big gov.

Remember Supply and Demand? Prices go up when there is short supply or too much demand. In healthcare, there is way too much demand. This is known, and this is understood by many economists. This is not yet known by most politicians. When seeing an expert only costs $20, you're going to see that expert more often. If you had to pay the true cost of it, you'd make a better cost-benefit decision about your health. We all pour tons of money into insurance premiums, and our companies turn around and tell us to go see the doc as often as we want. The inverse should be the case - lower premiums, and pay full price for each doc. visit. Insurance is for disasters NOT for anything and everything you want for a given service.
We've created healtcare all-you-can-eat buffets and it's driving up the prices. It's the same as if people have paid their $12.95 for the buffet, and now they're going eat all day!

Obama: "Healthcare is a right." Well, at least he said it truthfully. I don't think Clinton (you pick which one) could've been so straightforward in a debate.
OK - how much healthcare is a right? I have a tummy ache - should do I have the right to have it fixed, courtesy of all other tax payers? My "right" becomes everyone else's obligation.
What if I'm 200lbs overweight and have a lot of health problems because of that. Taxpayers should pay for that? What about STD's? AIDS?

Read Thomas Sowell - you see that a lot of problems in life are dealt with by trade-offs, not "solutions". The Anointed always think a perfect "solution" is around the corner. A perfect "solution" in healthcare is impossible, and trying to attain it would bankrupt the country. But I think we could make wise trade-offs and help cover those who can't afford it (we already do this, but perhaps we can do it better, and in a way that doesn't place the burden on counties and individual hospitals).

Dems have it easy when it comes to buying the votes of the public - no unhappiness, no sickness, free everything, tax those evil rich people. Vote us in and you'll get your kickbacks.

War and The Use of Force, Foreign Policy
Obama - the Iraq war is "an enormous strain on our budget." This from a guy who wants to immediately spend an additional TRILLION when he gets in office.
Why are libs only concerned about spending when it has to do with our defense?
Have they ever complained once about spending money on their constituents? Or how expensive fannie mae is now? Or how expensive soc. sec. is?
Nope - only national defense is a burden when it comes to spending.

McCain is lucky that more of the debate didn't focus on the financial crisis.

Pakistani sovereignty - do people not understand that there are some subjects that our leaders cannot speak of?
Of course we need to pursue al-Qaeda - and of course, our gov. shouldn't talk about that publicly so that we don't fuel terrorism in Pakistan. Obama totally blows this answer and McCain nails it.

Obama: Biggest national security priority: al-Qaeda and kill bin laden. Hmm. About 8 years too late on that one, Obama. How about the wider war on terror? How about nukes in Iran? Al-qaeda and Bin Laden are the top priority? I wonder if that will change when Iran has nukes or Israel is forced to attack before they do?

Lame Brokaw question: Is Russia today an evil empire?
What kind of lame, utterly useless and ultimately divisive question is that??? What a cad. How about ask a real question while some 50 million of us are watching????
This question was a cycnical trap for McCain. Libs went crazy when Reagan said this of the Soviet Union. So Brokaw was just fishing for a gaffe. Nice try, Mr. Balanced.

Iran - I'm actually surprised by McCain's tough talk. One could've never spoken in a national debate like that before Sept. 11, 2001.

Obama is actually blaming Bush for North Korea developing more Nukes and Iran creating centrifuges???? How can he even be serious? Clinton talked and talked to North Korea and signed deals, and gave them nuclear technology because they were so "good". The problem is, they lied, had always intended to develop nukes, and then mocked us once they acquired them. So much for sitting down and talking. I guess Obama believes he can sit down and talk to liars and those who only understand strength and force. But good luck, Senator Obama, in talking to these thugs. History's record doesn't reveal happy events after such folly. As Thomas Sowell asks, has anyone ever considered how many millions have died because of "peace" movements?


Post Script:
I thought McCain was terrible in the first debate, and decent in this one.
Obama, as much as I oppose his candidacy, is sounding a little more presidential after 2 years of campaigning.

Man, I can't stand these sound-byte debates.
"OK, candidate, tell me in 2 minutes what you'll do if Iran nukes Israel and WW III starts."

Surely we as a nation have a little more time to devote to the future of our country than 2 minutes per question.

Here's a real debate - let them go at it on the issues, and let a moderator only make sure that equal time is given to each, and move along to the next issue after the current one is exhausted. Useless 2-minute format, where jabs and quips are more important than substance.

I'm not too into "who won" the debate, but please do post your comments in the comments link below on what you thought of the debate.

For me, I can't stand it when candidates blather on with populist rhetoric and platitudes. Just tell me what you think and how you'll deal with the subject at hand, and what the effect of your policies will be. Newt Gingrich could mop the floor with both of these guys.



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Ayers Comes Into The Spotlight For Obama

Voters should have a huge problem with Obama's associations with Bill Ayers.

See this link here: Obama Much Closer To Ayers Than He Admits

Two things here that people are not clearly getting from the sound-bite oriented news..

1) Ayers wanted to kill hundreds of U.S. Soldiers, and might have, except that the bomb he designed blew up his friends, the bomb makers, instead

2) The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was started by Ayers, and he and Obama used the $50 MILLION to, in Ayers' own words, "teach against oppression," against America's history of evil and racism, thereby forcing social transformation. The whole point was to indoctrinate kids - kids! - about how evil America is. Shame on Obama for even leading this effort.

Obama worked for Ayers. It what way does that make him just "some guy in my neighborhood?"

CNN's coverage (yes, CNN!)...
[hat tip: Hot Air]



Fox News has this...




Forgive the overly dramatic music and the typos, but this video has interesting footage...
[hat tip: LGF reader links]





More evil associations at The Pantheon Journal.

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It Ain't over Yet - Morris: Expect the race to get closer

Voters have a short memory. I suspected that this financial crisis will be an old story by November. It's crazy to me that people would actually switch who they vote for over this issue, but there you have it.

Now, Dick Morris writes: EXPECT THE RACE TO TIGHTEN

A summary of his points:

• Obama is peaking in the polls too soon
• He has the spotlight now, and doesn't fare well in it
• His spending plan and economic credentials are now in focus
• He clearly lied about his 'he's some guy in my neighborhood' ties to terrorist Bill Ayers

Quotes:

But October may see the end of Obama's surge: He's peaking too soon.

Once the Democrat is seen as the clear leader and likely winner, the spotlight will inevitably shift to him. And he may not benefit from the increased attention.

Obama didn't do well when he last emerged on top, in later Democratic primaries. The more it appeared that Hillary Clintonwould lose, the more voter concerns over Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright cost him state after state in the later primaries.

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Obama's First Book: Outright Frightening

Phyllis Schlafly reviews Barrack Obama's book "Dreams From My Father": The Audacity of Obama

The book rather seems to be a frightening portent of racial division.

Some quotes from the article:

Obama stews about injustices that he never personally experienced and feeds his warped worldview by withdrawing into a "smaller and smaller coil of rage." He lives with a "nightmare vision" of black powerlessness.

Obama says that the hate doesn't go away. "It formed a counter-narrative buried deep within each person and at the center of which stood white people -- some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives."

He objects to the public schools because black kids are learning "someone else's history. Someone else's culture."

Obama rejects racial integration because it is "a one-way street" with blacks being "assimilated into the dominant culture, not the other way around."

There is absolutely nothing in this book that expresses pride in or love of or appreciation of America. In 442 pages of introspection extending over his life as a teen, undergraduate and law student at prestigious institutions, community organizer and working adult, he doesn't say anything positive about American government, culture, society, freedom or opportunity.

In his autobiography, Obama accepts the view that "black people have reason to hate."

Go post-racial, here at The Pantheon Journal.

Rep. Frank's Gay Lover Was A Fannie Mae Exec

Barney Frank, an openly gay Democrat member of congress, is also the chairman of the House Banking Committee. You know, the group that's supposed to oversee government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae.

But for years Frank's gay lover, Herb Moses, was an executive at at Fannie Mae - even while Frank had the power to block real oversight of Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae was recently taken over by us, the taxpayers, because they made TRILLIONS in loans that they could not guarantee. At least $400 billion of that was to people with terrible credit profiles. And now we're on the hook because Rep. Frank vigorously defended Fannie Mae's unethical and dangerous practices.

Fox News' whole story is here: Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest

Let's see - how many weeks of news coverage did the Larry Craig gay bathroom incident get?? Top coverage for a long time. And how much time has this Barney Frank story gotten in the major media? Uh, somewhere less than zilch. Nada.

So Larry Craig is a household name because of one incident, while Barney Frank's gay lover worked for a massive government enterprise over which Frank has significant control. And don't even mention the fact that Frank had a male prostitution ring running out of his D.C. apartment, courtesy of some other gay lover of his. Remember the weeks of coverage that story got? Nope.

This is getting Orwellian. Democrats can seemingly do whatever they want - lie, cheat, dissemble, cover up, etc. And they always get a get-out-of-jail-free card from Big Media.

Quotes from the incredible (in the sense of unbelievable) story:

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

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

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

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

More Orwellian events, here at The Pantheon Journal.

By The Numbers: The Surge Worked

Don't go telling Senator Obama, but the surge worked. Emphatically. Undeniably. Check out the chart below, from the recent Dept. of Defense report to Congress.

That peak you see is the start of the surge. The dramatic drop-off in violence is the result.

As I noted here, "the surge" per se is a little too simplified of a reduction - it really was the combination of the increase in forces, General Petraeus' new plan of counter-insurgency, and other factors that brought about so much success in Iraq. But the surge is the backbone of all those efforts. And it worked.

We cannot forget that the Obama-Biden intention was to give up before the surge. Think of Al-Qaeda controlling all of Iraq's oil (or al-Sadr's shia militia). Think of the hundreds of thousands of dead. Think of a terrorist-controlled state that would now be a buddy to an Iran with violent nuclear ambitions. The Democrats fought hard for that scenario, and lost.

{click on image to enlarge}

Full report is here.

Quotes from the Executive Summary:

The overall security situation in Iraq has greatly
improved this reporting period. Security
incidents have remained at levels last seen in
early 2004 for nearly three consecutive months,
while civilian deaths across Iraq have declined
to a level 77% lower than the same period in
2007. The surge in Coalition forces, the
growth of more capable Iraqi Security Forces
(ISF), the contributions of the Sons of Iraq
(SoI), the ability of forces to secure the
population, operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq
(AQI) and other extremist elements, and the
increased willingness of the people and the
Government of Iraq (GoI) to confront
extremists are important factors that have
contributed to the improved security
environment. Periodic high-profile car and
suicide vest bombings have occurred, but the
number of these attacks and the resulting
casualties have decreased dramatically.
Moreover, these attacks have not rekindled the
self-perpetuating cycle of ethno-sectarian violence...

[hat tip: http://tank.nationalreview.com/]

Defeat the defeatists, here at The Pantheon Journal.

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Biden's Lies

Good story here the NY Post: THE LIES BIDEN TOLD.

And LGF has another great article here: Biden's Lies, Ignored By Media

Quotes from the NY Post:

Then there was what might have been the biggest head-scratcher of the night. Said Biden of the Bush administration's supposed Middle East follies:

"When . . . along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."

Huh?

Assuming that Biden was referring to when, in 2005, American and French pressure helped the Lebanese people kick Syrian troops out of Lebanon, who ever thought NATO occupation of that deeply divided country was a good idea?

As if America's NATO allies would have gone in the first place.

But hey, as long as it makes Biden sound presidential.

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What Just Happened?

I've documented lots of times here how Fannie and Freddie, not free-market entities but government-sponsored enterprises, were the fuel to this whole credit fire that burned down the financial war. They provided about $6 TRILLION in loans, and now we now significant parts of that were to borrowers who ere less than stellar, but received these loans in the name of "affordable housing".

See:
We Told ya...

Under Clinton, Welfare Counted as Income for A Home Loan
(that last one has several other links as well).

Now the Republicans have finally come out with a good attack ad that shows the dem's defense of Fannie and Freddie...
[hat tip: instapundit]





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Video Of Gov. Palin/Sentaor Biden Debate

Top 10 Extra "Thingies" Put Into The Bailout Package

10. $40 million emergency congressional pay package for overtime incurred during long, deliberating sessions

9. $300 million tax on the middle class to be immediately distributed back to the middle class

8. $156 million to establish insurance fund for lobbyists who bought ineffective influence in Washington

7. $22 billion in corn subsidies for ethanol

6. $472 million in subsidies for farmers to not grow too much corn

5. $127 million for Corn Huskers uniforms

4. $2 billion to communities built near active volcanoes

3. $33 billion in carbon offsets, non-hybrid auto carbon taxes, a ban on oil, and solar panels for endangered California condors

2. $77 billion to the Fund For Friends of Democrats Who Helped Cause This Whole Mess

1. $25,000 to cover the price of the paper the bill will be printed on


More taxen und schpenden, at The Pantheon Journal.

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Election '08: Don't Forget About Judicial Appointments

A President can pass politically central legislation, and still do long-term damage to the moral health of this country by appointing judges, at both the Federal Appeals level and the Supreme Court, that are far left.

Bill Clinton allowed conservative legislation to pass, but the same man appointed the former general counsel of the ACLU to the Supreme Court (Ruth Bader-Ginsburg). I wonder how Libs would've responded if Bush tried to appoint to the Supreme Court the head counsel of Focus on The Family.







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Electoral Picture Darkens For McCain: Current Electoral Map

The economic nightmare currently being paraded in the news today is having an obvious effect on the presidential race - clearly favoring Obama.

As Newt Gingrich pointed out on Fox News, bad economic news favors 1) the non-incumbent party and, 2) the Democrats - and in this election those two are the same.

RealClearPolitics has the full map and numbers here.

Whereas before McCain only needed 5 electoral votes to swing his way and he'd win, he is now behind by 64 electoral votes, using today's polling numbers applied to electoral votes. Ughh.

Fortunately, people have short memories, and a month from now will hopefully be be voting for more reasons than economic panic. Not sure why people are leaning towards Obama's trillion-dollar spending package. I guess that counts as stimulus to some.





And though the polls have been tipping towards Obama for weeks now, they didn't effect the "no toss-up states" electoral map. Until now.




This would indicate the broader popularity of Obama in more states now. The no-toss-ups map was not effected until recently - perhaps because if more people in California or New York - liberal bastions - go to Obama in the polls, that wouldn't affect the outcome of the electoral map, since in the winner-take-all system Obama will likely get those states any way. Meaning, if a few million more people in California vote for Obama, it doesn't really matter, since Obama is carrying that state strongly anyway.  But now some more states have leaned towards Obama.

McCain Must swing 33 electoral votes his way (-33 for Obama, +33 for McCain gives McCain the necessary 270 electoral votes).  But a lot of the toss-up states only have 5 to 10 votes each.  Strap in for a wild ride to the election...


More incredible electoral fretting, here at The Pantheon Journal.

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Let's Nail This Guy!!!

San Jose stalker, soon to be punching bag in prison...

Holy Cow!!!

This is one of the silliest and strangest photos I've ever seen.

And please do click to comments link below this article to submit your favorite pun or caption.




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$100,000 To Pelosi's Husband Through Her PAC

The leader of the most ethical congress shines in her example of ethical superiority by funneling money from her PAC into her husband's business. I'm getting confused about to whom this moniker of "culture of corruption" applies...

Wash Times EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds

Big Media would try to bury this anyway, but again a Democrat lucks out since the news cycle is already brimming with our imminent demise as a country, what with the financial world crumbling and all. Oh, and that whole campaign thing.

Quotes:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she voted to ban last year.

Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history.

The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife's committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show.

More hypocrisy at The Pantheon Journal.

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Obama Fights Back. Gently.

Oh man, major props to LGF for finding this gem on The Onion.


Obama Runs Constructive Criticism Ad Against McCain

WE Told You The Dems Hold Most of The Blame

Look in the archives links to the left, and you'll see about half a dozen articles on how the Dems set up this whole failure.

Again, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are organizations that were started by the government, spun off privately, and have always existed with an implicit guarantee that we the tax payers would always back them up if they failed. Well, they failed.

Fannie and Freddie provided all of the capital necessary to make all of these loans. Then they criminally lied to cover up their terrible accounting methods, they went after anyone who was a critic and represented a danger to their power, and then embarked on a gambit to increase the number of loans, by about $400 BILLION, that they gave to under-qualified borrowers, in the name of "affordable housing". Let's hear Nancy Pelosi address that part!

They failed because they had billions in income to buy the votes of Republicans and Democrats to keep them alive while they lied about their bad habits and bad balance sheets. But it was the Democrats who killed the efforts of oversight and disallowing Fannie and Freddie to buy all of these terrible loans and forcing them to increase their capital base. An example of that: if your home was worth $200,000,  do you think it would be safe to take out a $10 million loan against it? That's what Frank Raines is asking for when he states in the video below that Fannie Mae really only needed about 2% capitalization against all those trillions of "riskless" mortgages that they owned.




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Why Rangel's Crimes Are So Bad

One of the most powerful Democrats in Congress continues to abuse his power, months after multiple scandals have been discovered.

I love this NY Post pic to the right - his taxpayer-provided Cadillac, picking him up at his luxury, yet rent-controlled apartment.

The NY Post reports that Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel is still using a rent-controlled apartment as campaign headquarters, which is against the rules.

Months ago, the day after the news came out about his 4 rent-controlled apartments, Rangel raised nearly $1.3 million in contributions.

Now, PublicSchoolReview.com lists Harlem's median household income at about $15,000.

This is why this man is so repugnant. He's one of the most powerful politicians in terms of being able to craft new tax laws. He can raise millions with barely an effort, which makes him a perma-incumbent. And his district comprises constituents that are way below the poverty level, yet he chooses to take 4 apartments that could have gone to families less fortunate than him, and he gets all 4 of them WAY below market value. 3 of them have been turned into one big flat, and 1 is still campaign headquarters.

I hope the NY Post investigates WHY he's getting this break in rent. Could it be that the landlord gets anything in return for that? No, couldn't be...

Thomas Sowell neatly documents all of the problems with rent control in his books. And Rangel personifies it in the most disgusting and imperious way: when rent control is present, people buy more than they need. It's that simple, and it occurs every time you have rent control. Rent control allows Fat Cats like Rangel to use 4 times more than they would've otherwise, depriving other consumers of that resource (in this case, real estate).

Read more on all of Rangels recent scandals.

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$700 Billion Figure: Pulled Out of Thin Air

Wow, major kudos to LittleGreenFootballs.com for finding this story.

Forbes reports this:

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Full story at Forbes here.

Bailout Deal Done?!?!

WSJ reports that the deal is done.

Good video report here.


Interesting debate here among George Will, Newt Gingrich, and others.

Those of you who want to dig in...
Full Text of the Bill Here.

Quotes from WSJ:

The $700 billion program would effectively nationalize an array of mortgages and securities backed by them -- instruments whose deteriorating value has clogged the nation's financial system.

Lawmakers finished writing the bill late Sunday, after which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared it "frozen," meaning no changes would be made. The bill leaves many mechanics of the operation up to the Treasury. Among these are the crucial issues of how the U.S. government would decide which assets it will buy and how it would decide what to pay for them. The legislation leaves the Treasury 45 days to issue guidelines on those procedures. The bill awaits votes in Congress starting on Monday.

At the bill's core is Mr. Paulson's concept of buying impaired mortgage-related assets from financial firms -- giving them cash to replace the toxic debts that have put them in danger or dissuaded them from lending. The plan is to help the firms restore their capital bases as well as the trust that enables them to borrow and lend at reasonable terms. Without this, officials worry that the credit markets, the lifeblood of the economy, would grind to a halt.

More meltdown at The Pantheon Journal.

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