The death of Dith Pran

Dith Pran the Cambodian man who survived and walked through the "killing fields" has died. He was Sydney Schanberg's interpreter by was left behind after the war (Vietnam) was over. He was the inspiration for the book THE KILLING FIELDS written by Schanberg.
He was an outspoken critic of the Pol Pot regime and when Pot died he continued:
"The Jewish people's search for justice did not end with the death of Hitler and the Cambodian people's search for justice doesn't end with Pol Pot,"

He died a Buddhist:
I want to save lives, including my own, but Cambodians believe we just rent this body," he said. "It is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites, it is time to leave."

The question of the day?

Ar least two dead in the Green Zone from rocket attacks. Bush out there talking about this being a test of the Iraqi government to control things. The question of the day:Is Baghdad burning?

Anatomy of a sub prime problemo.

The Washington Post has an article that belongs in the "Hola suckers" file concerning the sub prime loan debacle that we responsible citizens will be paying for. As is usual in liberal mainstream media papers like the Washington Post no mention is made about the legal status of some those involved. Use your own editorial judgment because you can't rely of those of the Washington Post. Still the article shows the problem that all of the rest of us RESPONSIBLE citizens will be paying for. Here are some of the money quotes:

"Looking back, Glenda Ortiz can see she did everything wrong when she bought her house in 2005."

Duh! When you do everything wrong. Guess what happens?

"Ortiz, who speaks little English, said she didn't know much about the U.S. banking system. So when a Mary Kay saleswoman, Maria Esperanza Salgado, came to her door and said she could help her buy a house, Ortiz said, she believed her."

What could go wrong here? Ortiz has lived in the U.S. for nine years and speaks little English? Perhaps if she spent a little less time watching Spanish language Novellas on TV she might have been able to read some of the documents she signed.

Exhibit A:
"She signed papers in English that she didn't understand. One said she was married to a man she didn't know. "

Uh huh. Well this must be a new law that I am not aware of.

"Erick Gutierrez, housing director for the Washington-based Latino Economic Development Corp., said is all too familiar. Gutierrez blames the government for allowing so many sub prime loans, such as Ortiz's, which required no proof of income."

Oh yeah, I blame the government too! But, unlike Mr. Gutierrez I blame the government for not making sure that some of the people getting these loans are supposed to be in this country in the first place. Of course there is no mention of this in the article.

"According to the Center for Responsible Lending, 40 percent of loans to Latinos are subprime, and it projects that one out of five of these loans made in 2005 and 2006 will go into foreclosure."

Of course not all of these loans to Latinos where being made to illegals but, no one in the mainstream media or our government seems to be asking the question of how many of these sub prime loans were given to people who should not have been here in the first place. But, we responsible U.S. citizens should be demanding that they do! After all we are paying for this debacle.

"She said she had become so depressed about losing her home that she stopped working for more than a year."

Hmmm stopped working for a year? I wish I could do that. How did she survive? Oh but, she has somehow managed to scrape together enough money to hire another lawyer. Hola suckers!

Richardson's racism and his Obama endorsement

SANTA FE, N.M. -- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president"- Washington Post

Yep some endorsement! Bill Richardson was the former Democratic Presidential candidate who thought that Alberto Gonzales should remain in the Attorney General's Office just because he was Hispanic. Some of these guys like Richardson even don't see their own racism. But, that may fit it nicely with Reverend Wright's endorsement of Obama too.

Just what we need?

We the people own the airwaves or so we are told. But. yesterday the Federal Communications Commission auctioned off a chunk of it and sold them to Verizon and AT& T and others for a total of $16 Billion. Though they are supposed to provide "openness" whatever that means for the system. Here is the money quote:

"The openness rules could encourage more innovation, such as better video access over cellphones or home refrigerators that automatically order groceries online over a wireless network, some analysts said."

They can keep the refrigerator that orders groceries and cell phone video. How about a being able to use a cell phone that allows us citizens to make doctors appointments to a healthcare system that is available to everyone at a reasonable price.

IRAQ: Five years later. The quote of the day

Five years after the start of the war in Iraq here is the quote of the day:
After a reporter cited polls showing that two-thirds of Americans oppose the Iraq war, Cheney responded: "So?" -Washington Post

Barack on the bus

Barack Obama gave an interesting speech on race yesterday in order to try and distance himself from the racist comments of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But, instead of throwing him under the bus Obama said he will continue to ride with him. So much for Barack's "change" message. Here is the money quote:

"Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive," he said, "divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems."

So let me get this straight Barack. You listened to the "divisive" racial hatred messages that Rev. Wright spewed from the pulpit for twenty years but, never said anything to him about it? If you can't confront your Pastor with something you say you did not believe in how can we expect you to confront the problems that come with being President.

Just words?

It was interesting to see the Obamaites try and sugar coat Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah A. Wright oratory regarding 9/11 and the United States. You had NPR's Michelle Norris on Sunday's Meet The Press trying to say that kind of talk is heard in Black churches every Sunday. Uh Huh. That may be and the pastor certainly has the right to say what he said. It may play well before the African American community who attends these churches. But, what revs people up in that community may not play well in others. It will be interesting to see how Obama addresses this issue. Because as he has said before speeches are not "just words".

White men can't jump but, we do vote!

Dan Balz in today's Washington Post has an article today on us neglected white male voters that the Obama and Clinton campaigns have just discovered. I am reminded of the Quicksilver Messenger Service song from the 60's whose refrain was "Ohhh What ya gonna do about me?" A Lou Dobbs Democrat like myself still remembers Hillary Clinton speaking at the illegal immigrant rallies and we also know that Obama supports drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. Just like Eliot Spitzer and you know what happened to him. Yes, perhaps we white guys can't jump but, we do vote. And all campaigns should remember that we don't forget either.

Eating the Bear

Last night I was on the Amtrak heading back to Washington D.C. reading the weekend Financial Times. There are a few articles about the Bear Sterns bailout. But, what struck me was the timeline one of the articles had. It traces the demise of some of these geniuses of Wall Street but, more importantly the amount of money we taxpayers have been pumping in to correct the mess so far:

Timeline

Jul 2007 Bear reports hedge fund losses of $1.6bn
Aug 5 Warren Spector quits as Bear co-president
Aug 10 Fed provides $38bn of liquidity to the market
Aug 17 Fed cuts discount rate by 50bp
Sep 11 Joe Lewis, a British billionaire, buys 7 per cent of Bear
Oct 4 Bear cuts 310 more jobs
Oct 29 Stan O'Neal ousted as head of Merrill Lynch
Nov 2 Bond insurers' troubles emerge
Nov 4 Chuck Prince quits as CEO of Citigroup
Dec 8 Joe Lewis raises Bear stake to 8 per cent
Dec 21 Bear reports Q3 loss of $859m
Jan 7 2008 Jimmy Cayne resigns as chief executive
Jan 21 Fed makes emergency 75bp interest rate cut
Mar 7 Fed injects $200bn into market
Mar 10 Bear shares start plunging
Mar 11 Fed delivers an additional $236bn rescue

Along with this money when you add the $156 billion from the "stimulus bill" you can see pretty soon we are talking about some real money that we fellow taxpayers are laying out because these masters of the universe of Wall Street never questioned the words "sub prime". And it's not over yet. File this under "Hola Suckers" taxpayers.

Money, Money, Money

Well the masters of the universe in the banking and financial industry who came up with these hair brained schemes like "sub prime loans" still do not understand that their universe is shrinking. Even as Feds try and make a silk purse out of a sows ear and the idiots of the finiancial industry still can not own up to their mistakes. Here are some of the money quotes:

"Taken in total, the effort seeks to cure three paramount failings behind the credit meltdown: Financial firms at each step of the securitization process didn't know what they were buying, didn't care as long as they were making money, and didn't have enough cash to cover mistaken bets."

TRANSLATION: I believe this is called mismanagment. And gee who is responsible for that? Oh yes the "managers" of these institutions.

"Unfortunately, you've got the brightest minds of both parties working night and day to come up with solutions, and so far there have been a lot more misses than hits," he said."

Ya Think!


"Paulson, a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, also raised the hackles of some Wall Street bankers by suggesting they cut dividends to shareholders to raise their capital levels to cover potential losses. They said punishing shareholders was the wrong move for banks that are struggling."

So let me get this straight these bankers screw up up but, they don't want to punish the shareholders? OK how about these executives resign and sell their Hamptons houses, private jets and a only drive one car (without a chaffeuer) too. When they were making money were they giving any of the extra profits back to the rest of us taxpayers. I think not but, now that house of cards has collapsed they don't want anyone to pay for their bad decsions exept the U.S. taxpayers. I don't think so.

Spitzer and me.

I shook hands with Eliot Spitzer once. On November 14th 2007 I was standing in the security line to get into one of the congressional office buildings in Washington D.C. The news broke that morning that Spitzer reveresed himself on his plan to give illegal immigrants a New York State drivers license. Spitzer and his entourage arrived to give testimony along with Governor Napolitano to some congressional comittee. I called out to Spitzer as he entered the building shook his hand introduced myself as a New York State resident. I thanked him for reversing his position on the illegal immigrant drivers license plan. He said "Your welcome" and then went off to the hearing.
About a month or two later I'm on the Washington Metro and there is a guy sitting about two seats in front of me across the aisle. The guy looks exactly like Eliot Spitzer. I'm thinking to myself it could not be. The Governor of New York would not be riding by himself on the Washington D.C. metro. There would be some sign of security around. I thought maybe Spitzer might have had a brother who might work in D.C. a brother who looked like him who just happens to be riding the Red Line metro train. As I'm thinking about this the train pulls into a station and the guy gets off. Which just happens to be the metro stop closest to the Mayflower hotel.

Spitzer: On second thought...

I thought New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was an idiot for attempting to grant New York State drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. But, when he reversed himself and withdrew the plan. Well, I thought that maybe there was hope for him as he semmed to have heard and responded to the outrage from New York citizens to the plan. Then yesterday the bomb shell dropped the Spitzer was involved as a client of a prostitution ring. I think I was right the first time.

SNL removes Obama video cartoon?

I went looking for the Saturday Night Live site where a very funny cartoon has Obama doing everything he can to avoid people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as they attempt to jump onboard his political bandwagon. Apparently the power weasels at Saturday Night Live and the NBC network are so politically correct they have removed all traces of this funny video from the SNL website. Seems the Dems like the Bush administration like to remove things from the public so people won't see them. Where is John Stewart when you need him?

SNL UPDATE!It appears that the catoon has reappeared on the website. What happened? Server trouble? Or the power of the blogosphere? Anyway here it is:

Some Senators are listening to the American people

Michelle Malkin has some good news on illegal immigration

Today, U.S. Sens. David Vitter (R- Louisiana), Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia), Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) announced the formation of the Border Security and Enforcement First Caucus.
The U.S. illegal immigrant population is the highest it has ever been. One in 25 residents currently living in the United States is here illegally. Over the last seven years, immigration has been the highest in history – 10.9 million immigrants arrived, over half of them (five million plus) without legal status.
The Caucus members recognize that Congress has presented the American people with a false choice in solving the illegal immigration problem – give illegal aliens amnesty or round them up and deport them en masse. The principle mission of the Caucus is to promote a true, achievable alternative: attrition through enforcement and border security. Living illegally in the United States will become more difficult and less satisfying over time when the government – at ALL LEVELS – enforces all of the laws already on the books."

Hmmm having our Federal Government enforce the law. What a concept!