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rorapid · Captain Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 309

Do Facts Matter?

By Thomas Sowell
Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."

Unfortunately, the future of this country, as well as the fate of the Western world, depends on how many people can be fooled on election day, just a few weeks from now.

Right now, the polls indicate that a whole lot of the people are being fooled a whole lot of the time.

The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain— which is astonishing in view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing on this crisis.

It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years— including the present year— denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.

It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.

Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.

Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?

We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.

Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?

Then there is the question of being against the "greed" of CEOs and for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis.

Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines? Liberal Democrats, including Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of whom referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him to the same standard as white CEOs.

Even after he was deposed as head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines was consulted this year by the Obama campaign for his advice on housing!

The Washington Post criticized the McCain campaign for calling Raines an adviser to Obama, even though that fact was reported in the Washington Post itself on July 16th. The technicality and the spin here is that Raines is not officially listed as an adviser. But someone who advises is an adviser, whether or not his name appears on a letterhead.

The tie between Barack Obama and Franklin Raines is not all one-way. Obama has been the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's financial contributions, right after Senator Christopher Dodd.

But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.

Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.

The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to counter-attack. They deserve to lose.

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America

You can find all of Thomas's columns at http://www.tsowell.com/

hopemonger · Lieutenant Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 121 Location: nc

Cap'n Slappy · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:52 pm Post subject:

Change or no change. It's a no brainer for me.
_________________
"But right about now Joe the plumber is meeting with his transition team. They're going to help ease him from obscurity back to oblivion."

David Letterman

rorapid · Captain Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 309

Record versus rhetoric

By Thomas Sowell
| Apparently there is something about Sarah Palin that causes some people to think of her as either the best of candidates or the worst of candidates. She draws enthusiastic crowds and provokes visceral hostility in the media.
The issue that is raised most often is her relative lack of experience and the fact that she would be "a heartbeat away from the presidency" if Senator John McCain were elected. But Barack Obama has even less experience — none in an executive capacity — and his would itself be the heartbeat of the presidency if he were elected.
Sarah Palin's record is on the record, while whole years of Barack Obama's life are engulfed in fog, and he has had to explain away one after another of the astounding and vile people he has not merely "associated" with but has had political alliances with, and to whom he has directed the taxpayers' money and other money.
Sarah Palin has had executive experience — and the White House is the executive branch of government. We don't have to judge her by her rhetoric because she has a record.
Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here.
We don't know what Barack Obama will actually do because he has actually done very little for which he was personally accountable. Even as a state legislator, he voted "present" innumerable times instead of taking a stand one way or the other on tough issues.
"Clean up the mess in Washington"? He was part of the mess in Chicago and lined up with the Daley machine against reformers.
He is also part of the mess in Washington, not only with numerous earmarks, but also as the Senate's second largest recipient of money from Fannie Mae, and someone whose campaign has this year sought the advice of disgraced former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines, who was at the heart of the subprime crisis.
Why then the enthusiasm for Obama and the hostility to Sarah Palin in the media?
One reason of course is that Senator Obama is ideologically much closer to the views of the media than is Governor Palin. But there is more than that. There are other conservative politicians who do not evoke such anger, spite and hate.
Sarah Palin is the one real outsider among the four candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency on the Republican and Democratic tickets. Her whole career has been spent outside the Washington Beltway.
More than that, her whole life has been outside the realm familiar to the intelligentsia of the media. She didn't go to the big-name colleges and imbibe the heady atmosphere that leaves so many feeling that they are special folks. She doesn't talk the way they talk or think the way they think.
Worse yet, from the media's perspective, Sarah Palin does not seek their Good Housekeeping seal of approval.
Much is made of Senator Joe Biden's "experience." But Frederick the Great said that experience matters only when valid conclusions are drawn from it.
Senator Biden's "experience" has been a long history of being on the wrong side of issue after issue in foreign policy. He was one of those Senators who voted to pull the plug on financial aid to South Vietnam, which was still defending itself from Communist invaders after the pullout of American troops.
Biden opposed Ronald Reagan's military buildup that helped win the Cold War. He opposed the surge in Iraq last year.
Sarah Palin will not be ready to become President of the United States on the first day that she and John McCain take office. Nobody is.
But being Vice President is a job that can allow a lot of time for studying, and everything about Governor Palin's career says that she is a bright gal with her head on straight. The country needs that far more than it needs people with glib answers to media "gotcha" questions.
Whatever the shortcomings of John McCain and Sarah Palin, they are people whose values are the values of this nation, whose loyalty and dedication to this country's fundamental institutions are beyond question because they have not spent decades working with people who hate America. Nor are they people whose judgments have been proved wrong consistently during decades of Beltway "experience."

Cap'n Slappy · Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:32 am Post subject:

Thomas Sowell is as far as I needed to read.
_________________
"But right about now Joe the plumber is meeting with his transition team. They're going to help ease him from obscurity back to oblivion."

David Letterman

Roostercogburn · Captain Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 391

General Colin Powell just gave his endorsement to Obama. That is all I need to read! He said eloquently what I have been thinking all along:

[quote]“I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said flatly. By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, “is ready to be president on day one.”

Powell also said he was “troubled” by Republican personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and Republicans’ recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, the founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.

Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.

“I look to these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said.
“O ver the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.” [quote]

I was a skinny little nerd during elementary school. I had thought there was good to be found in all people. Well... I got beat up alot riding the bus home from school everyday by the big boys... the ones with the big muscles and lots of tough talk. (I guess they didn't appreciate my compassionate, positive message.) It continued into my business life where I thought that treating everyone fairly and not selfishly ripping off customers, vendors, and employees was the right thing to do. My business colleagues in the beginning (also big, strong and intimidating) tried to explain to me that, as they would say... "Nice guys finish last." Well, I guess they were right... they brown nosed and bullied their way up the corporate ladder and became much more successful than I am. Was I stupid not to listen to their muscular wisdom? Anyway, those kids who used to beat me up... they run the USA now. I never could have imagined a world so unjust.

Lotta Republican people still will vote Republican and blame slick willy,Democrats in Congress and anybody else they can find. They will post incredible lies about Obama in the press until they either kill him or bleed him to death. It's almost impossible to change their programming. They were born Republican and will die poor and broke but they will die Republican. Tough programming to change. I know. I used to be one.
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“I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” ~George Carlin

rorapid · Captain Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 309

Believers in Obama

By Thomas Sowell
Telling a friend that the love of his life is a phony and dangerous is not likely to get him to change his mind. But it may cost you a friend.
It is much the same story with true believers in Barack Obama. They have made up their minds and not only don't want to be confused by the facts, they resent being told the facts.
An e-mail from a reader mentioned trying to tell his sister why he was voting against Obama but, when he tried to argue some facts, she cut him short: "You don't like him and I do!" she said. End of discussion.
When one thinks of all the men who have put their lives on the line in battle to defend and preserve this country, it is especially painful to think that there are people living in the safety and comfort of civilian life who cannot be bothered to find out the facts about candidates before voting to put the fate of this nation, and of generations yet to come, in the hands of someone chosen because they like his words or style.
Of the four people running for President and Vice President on the Republican and Democratic tickets, the one we know the least about is the one leading in the polls — Barack Obama.
Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here.
Some of Senator Obama's most fervent supporters could not tell you what he has actually done on such issues as crime, education, or financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, much less what he plans to do to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear nation supplying nuclear weapons to the international terrorist networks that it has supplied with other weapons.
The magic word "change" makes specifics unnecessary. If things are going bad, some think that what is needed is blank-check "change." But history shows any number of countries in crises worse than ours, where "change" turned problems into catastrophes.
In czarist Russia, for example, the economy was worse than ours is today and the First World War was going far worse for the Russians than anything we have faced in Iraq. Moreover, Russians had nothing like the rights of Americans today. So they went for "change."
That "change" brought on a totalitarian regime that made the czars' despotism look like child's play. The Communists killed more people in one year than the czars killed in more than 90 years, not counting the millions who died in a government-created famine in the 1930s.
Other despotic regimes in China, Cuba, and Iran were similarly replaced by people who promised "change" that turned out to be even worse than what went before.
Yet many today seem to assume that if things are bad, "change" will make them better. Specifics don't interest them nearly as much as inspiring rhetoric and a confident style. But many 20th century leaders with inspiring rhetoric and great self-confidence led their followers or their countries into utter disasters.
These ranged from Jim Jones who led hundreds to their deaths in Jonestown to Hitler and Mao who led millions to their deaths.
What specifics do we know about Barack Obama's track record that might give us some clue as to what kinds of "changes" to expect if he is elected?
We know that he opposed the practice of putting violent young felons on trial as adults. We know that he was against a law forbidding physicians to kill a baby that was born alive despite an attempt to abort it.
We know that Obama opposed attempts to put stricter regulations on Fannie Mae — and that he was the second largest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae. We know that this very year his campaign sought the advice of disgraced former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines.
Fannie Mae and Raines were at the heart of "the mess in Washington" that Barack Obama claims he is going to clean up under the banner of "change."
The public has been told very little about what this man with the wonderful rhetoric has actually done. What we know is enough to make us wonder about what we don't know. Or it ought to. For the true believers — which includes many in the media — it is just a question of whether you like him or not
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A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have....
Gerald R. Ford

hopemonger · Lieutenant Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 121 Location: nc

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

You know, we keep hearing how he's the candidate we know the least about. He's been vetted for 20 months now! What else is there to find out?! Just because some people won't let go to made up lies it makes him seems confusing. There's not much left to find out! You want to know more, read his books! There are two of them. They have some pretty good info on the guy. There's another book that outlines his plans. Oh, yeah, reading is too difficult for most Americans.

So this guy thinks under Obama, Americans are going to be killed? Nice.

Again, McCain has this track record. Tell me about it. I mean, I have a couple of things from his track record that I think are great. Seriously. Give me a few more things to like the guy for.
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"why are we vetting joe the plumber? he's already done more interviews than sarah palin!" -jon stewart

rorapid · Captain Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 309

What about Obama's track record, Drinking coffee with Ayers? Good Job!
_________________
A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have....
Gerald R. Ford

hopemonger · Lieutenant Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 121 Location: nc

Hey, even McCain doesn't care about an old washed up terrorist.

Oh wait. He does. Said so in the very same sentence.

Can't even name one thing, can you? I'm not saying there's nothing to name, I can name a few, two of which I think are GREAT.

But I see I won't have my question answered until I answer it myself about Obama.

Well, let's see. (And hey, not a complete list, but I have to get off this thing and get some stuff done before work...)

After a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

He traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world.

Obama passed legislation with Republican Senator Jim Talent to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline blend.

He passed a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent.

Obama joined forces with former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL) to pass the toughest campaign finance law in Illinois history. The legislation banned the personal use of campaign money by Illinois legislators and banned gifts from lobbyists. Before the law was passed, one organization ranked Illinois worst among 50 states for its campaign finance regulations.

Obama created the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families in 2000 and successfully sponsored a measure to make the credit permanent in 2003. The law offered about $105 million in tax relief over three years.

As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama has been a leading advocate for protecting the right to vote, helping to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and leading the opposition against discriminatory barriers to voting.

In the U.S. Senate, Obama introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to increase penalties for mortgage fraud and provide more protections for low-income home buyers, well before the current sub prime crisis began.

Obama sponsored legislation to combat predatory payday loans, and he also was credited with lobbied the state to more closely regulate some of the most egregious predatory lending practices.

Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.

Obama worked to pass a number of laws in Illinois and Washington to improve the health of women. His accomplishments include creating a task force on cervical cancer, providing greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, and helping improve prenatal and premature birth services.

Obama has introduced and helped pass bipartisan legislation to limit the abuse of no-bid federal contracts.

(Opinion- he showed better judgment than McCain in picking a running mate)

Also, he has a degree from Columbia in Political Science with a specialization in international relations. He also has a J.D. from Harvard, magna cum laude. You can say that doesn't matter but I want a smart leader, and he's proven that much. He already gets tons of opinions about things, which is what the President is supposed to do, talk to this person who knows about this and that person that knows about that, etc...

Rip me apart if you will, but please, back it up with facts, and please, tell me some good things McCain has done. I'm not being sarcastic, I just want some positive, educated reasons people are supporting him. And could we not 'personally attack' each other? Thanks. I don't know anything about you guys, you don't know anything about me, and I don't think supporting one candidate or the other makes a person stupid.
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"why are we vetting joe the plumber? he's already done more interviews than sarah palin!" -jon stewart

flyupsidedown · Captain Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 310

What if he (Obama) were a closet socialist?

That would explain alot of things - like "are you ready for real change"
He would need the most naive and idealistic voters, hence the push for youth. He would also need the poor since they like to hear that the gov't has all the answers and will care for their every need. Yes, that would explain his "change" agenda.

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Blessed happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly (following their advice, plans and purposes) . . . Ps 1

Outsider · Lieutenant Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 160

Rooster wrote:

SunAlsoRises · Forum General Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 1945 Location: NC

Obama is only as "socialist" (most people don't even know what that means anymore) as America already is. The "spread the wealth" argument only works as a soundbyte on FOX, it fails as a valid argument once you actually take the time to find out what the tax cuts really entail. McCain's plan will "spread the wealth" just as much as Obama's, only not to middle America.
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flyupsidedown · Captain Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 310

Spread the wealth? Yes, by all means, except by socialism the antithesis of financial progress. The end goal is the same - it is how to achieve it, and the best way to protect personal liberties, property rights, entrepreneurship, risk/reward profit motive which is the engine of ingenuity, along the way. You know, communism has lofty goals of equality also. The theory is great, but what has proven to be the best engine of personal liberty and personal wealth? Capitalism. Contrary to Obama and his class warfare cohorts, the 'profit motive' is not evil nor is personal wealth - something we would all like to achieve by our wits, determination, hard work, sacrifice and personal investment.
I recall hearing in Demark, I believe, the socialistic gov't's personal tax rates are 80%. We need freedom from gov't encroachment, burdening families and businesses with heavy taxation to fund there "socialistic shangra-la". All the while the elite few who know better than "Joe the plumber" what is good for his family further their agenda of social engineering from the top down. Under socialism, choices, spelled personal freedom are reduced and eventually diminished all together. Look at social security, ha, more like social insecurity. Do you think I could opt out of it if I wanted to? They don't even ask. I get my check and they gouge whatever they feel they need. They'll take $5000+ of my earnings this year without ever batting an eye. Why? because they have determined I owe it - to serve their failing socialistic wealth distribution scheme called social security.
Bush did at least try to loosen the social security grip by allowing an individual to have some personal choice as to how a portion of their money is invested. Who stopped it? Who bad mouthed the notion of broadening personal freedom? Liberal socialists, the dems.

So, no, this isn't a socialistic nation by any means, yet, but there are those, such as Barak Obama who keeps hinting 'to the people' about "change", and are they really, really, really ready for it. I wonder why?
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Blessed happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly (following their advice, plans and purposes) . . . Ps 1

Kestrel · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:51 pm Post subject:

It would be social insecurity if people had been able to invest it.

Let the DOW hit the floor!
Let the DOW hit the floor!
Let the DOW hit the flooOOOOR!
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"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." - Winston Churchill