Foreclosure Follies

As President Obama tries to move his $275 billion dollar foreclosure plan of robbing Peter to bailout Paul plan forward. His radical activist friends at ACORN are already taken the law into their own hands breaking into foreclosed houses like burglars and thieves. Michelle Malkin has the money quotes and the real "documented" story:

But a closer look at ACORN’s sob stories shows that the prototypical foreclosure “victims” by the Left don’t deserve an ounce of sympathy – or a cent of our money.
Earlier this week, ACORN activists broke into a foreclosed home in Baltimore. With a mob cheering and camera crew taping, ACORN leader Louis Beverly busted a padlock and jimmied the door open at 315 South Ellwood Ave. The home once belonged to restaurant worker Donna Hanks, who assailed her evil bank for raising her mortgage by $300 and leaving her on the street.
“This is our house now,” Beverly declared with Hanks by his side at the break-in. What ACORN didn’t tell you: Hanks’ house was sold in June 2008 for $192,000. She bought the two-story home in the summer of 2001 for $87,000. At some point during the next five years, she re-financed the original home loan for $270,000. Where did all that money go? (Hint: Think house-sized ATM.)
Baltimore ACORN leader Louis Beverly, who also claims to be a foreclosure victim himself, was charged with burglary for the break-in and released. He is literally a housing thug – having been charged with separate second-degree assault and property destruction charges earlier this year and battery, assault, handgun possession and possession of a deadly weapon with intent to injure in 1992; and slapped with a peace order issued against him in 2006.

Remember Obama and others talking about how foreclosed homes are the real problem. Well this foreclosed home that ACORN thugs broke into had already been sold and so was no longer part of the problem. It seems ACORN is part of the real problem with there criminal tactics.

President Obama's speech and the fiscal reality

Well President Obama has finally pulled out the "hope" speech out of his jacket pocket last night in the address to congress. Here are some of the money quotes:


"As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President's Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government - I don't. Not because I'm not mindful of the massive debt we've inherited - I am. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. That's why I pushed for quick action. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law." Yep! It's law alright. Before it was passed Obama was talking fear and "catastrophe". Now that we taxpayers are in hock for a trillion dollars Obama has pulled out the "hope" message out of his pocket. The first money from this bill will be going to the black hole of Medicaid. You know the program that in part pays for the illegal immigrants who use hospital emergency rooms as doctors offices. Hola suckers! How much is this "hope costing us taxpayers? Here is the Obama and Democratic talking point which Obama used again last night:

"Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."

Hmm sounds good until you do the math and see that with a trillion dollar "stimulus bill" that works out to $285,714.00 per job. Oh yeah another thing President Obama and the Dems forget to tell us. That since there was no E-Verify provision in the Stimulus Bill it means that those jobs may not all go to U.S. citizens but, illegal immigrants could be hired to work on those infrastructure construction projects too. Hola Suckers again!

More Huffington Post hypocrisy!

Kurtz at the WAPO has the goods on a journalist jerk who created a You Tube clip making it appear that Fox News anchor John Gibson said something he did not about Attorney General Eric Holder. Here are the money quotes:


"A Baltimore television reporter has lost his job after acknowledging that he doctored a video to make it appear that Fox News Radio host John Gibson had made a racial slur.
In the bogus video, which was picked up across the Internet, Gibson seemed to be comparing Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey with a "bright blue scrotum." There had been chatter on Fox News earlier about such a monkey, which had escaped from a Seattle zoo.
A spokeswoman for WBAL-TV confirmed yesterday that technology reporter John Sanders is no longer employed by the station but she declined to comment on whether he had been dismissed. His profile was promptly removed from the NBC affiliate's Web site. "



But even more outrageous is the liberals at the Huffington Post ran with this story. After so many years lambasted Fox News for it's bias the Huff Post now has egg on it's face. As John Gibson correctly notes:


"My ire in this situation is directed at the Huffington Post," Gibson said. "I really think this would have been very easy to check. A kid made a mistake and did something goofy, fine. But these guys [at the Huffington Post] claim to be and are regarded by many as a legitimate news organization. It spoke to their bias against me that they went ahead with it."

Hooray for Huffington?

The Huffington Post headline today is "SLUMDOG SWEEPS". And this is important to me because? Only a LA California based blog like Huffington would consider this news. When in fact to most people what happens in Hollywood does not affect most peoples lives.

THE TARP PLAN ILLUSTRATED

They say one picture is worth a thousand words. It takes a few more to illustrate the Toxic Asset Reduction Plan or as I call it the Turd Asset Reduction Plan:
The TARP, in Pictures

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humor Creative Writing tarp

Vickie Iseman vs The New York Slime

Carlos Slim the Mexican Billionaire must be breathing a sigh of relief. As it seems none of the 250 million he recently provided to bailout the New York Times will not be going to pay lobbyist Vickie Iseman in a defamation suit. It was a feeble attempt by the paper to slime John McCain by insinuating that he had been having an affair with Univision Lobbyist Vickie Iseman. This of course was nonsense! As is increasingly the case the New York Times and other elites in the media they ignored the real story. Make no mistake people were getting screwed by McCain but, it was the American people. As the Mickey Kaus pointed out:

"Former Univision CEO, controlling shareholder and Iseman client Jerrold Perenchio is a National FInance Co-Chair of McCain's campaign. Presumably he brings in more than $85,000; b) The worry isn't that McCain was taking advantage of Univision, et. al. It's rather the other way around. Or, more precisely, that this was a smarmy, mutually self-interested alliance that helped McCain and Univision in ways that maybe went beyond promoting the national interest. "


That's the real scandal behind this story. It is about the lobbist influence on McCain and explains the real reason why he is always pushing for amnesty for the millions of illegal immigrants (the majority Hispanic). He is shilling for his friends at the Spanish language network Univision and making sure that the audience and Univision's revenue do not head south.

Of course the New York Times completely missed the connection or just ignored it. Just another example of why they continue to go downhill in their reporting and readership.

The Stimulus money is green but, is Obama?

So let me get this straight after Obama used fear to get his and the Democratic Stimulus Bill passed fast or there would be a "catastrophe". He then delays the signing by a day. So much for urgency. But, not only that he is going to take Air Force one and fly over halfway across the country to sign the bill. Huh? How much is that going to cost in fuel, security and carbon in the atmosphere to fly the Presidents plane to Denver? How about he just stay in the White House and sign it at the desk. Oh, that's right it would not make for a big photo op if he stayed in Washington.

No E-Verify in Stimulus Bill! Hola suckers!

You would think it would be a no-brainer for Congress which is about to spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on the Stimulus Bill job creation programs would make sure that those jobs would actually go to Americans. But, the dumbocrats like Pelosi and Reid Washington and even President Obama did not demand that E-Verify use it be included in the bill. So construction companies and other employers who will get some this money will be able to continue to hire illegal immigrants without checking if they are legally entitled to work here. That means less jobs for U.S. citizens and more money flowing out of the country. Roy Beck has the money quotes:

"All protections for U.S. workers were stripped from the Stimulus Bill tonight. Illegal aliens can be hired at the same rate as usual.
House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid and the Obama White House were absolutely certain about one thing for the House/Senate negotiating committee on the Stimulus Bill:
There was to be no special restriction to keep illegal aliens from getting new jobs created by the bill at a cost of $250,000 to $500,000 each.The Democratic leadership of our federal government made it clear that there has been no change from eight years of a Republican White House that let the Chamber of Commerce call the shots on immigration.
Pelosi, Reid and Obama gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce exactly what it wanted -- freedom for unscruplous businesses to continue to hire illegal aliens at the same rate as in the past, and to use the hundreds of billions of Stimulus dollars to do it."

File this info in the "Hola suckers" file and remember those politicians who voted for this Bill without protecting U.S. workers!

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Obama meets the press.

President Obama had his first Presidential news conference last night and it was refreshing. He answered the questions well and was specific. A good start in my opinion. Still he was trying to put lipstick on a pig of a stimulus bill. Which he admits is still not perfect. There were some good points made that bringing energy efficiency to Federal buildings would not only create jobs but, would save money (for us taxpayers) down the road. He should expand that to exsisting local schools so that we taxpayers will also benefit from the savings too. This to me is a good idea. Along with making sure that teachers can teach and if they can't get rid of them. We don't have unlimited money to waste on anything.
I think his using the unemployment figures in Elkhart Indiana as an example of the fear mongering he is supposed to abhor. There's no doubt that Elkhart has a unfortunately high unemployment rate. That's why Obama's people choose to go there for the road show. But, what is not emphasised enough is the main industry in Elkhart is RV (Recreational Vehicles) that get something like 10 miles to the gallon. Well duh! That would be one product that U.S. citizens are not going to be buying in an economic downturn. Of course that industry will suffer. Companies stay in business by making products people want and need. Not by having the Federal Government just throw money out there and hope it hits something. I wish Obama and Congress would understand that.

Faith based Obama

Obama continues another program of George Bush. The "Faith Based Initiative". David Waters has the money quotes in the Washington Post:

"Candidate Obama didn't care for President Bush's 2002 executive order that allowed faith-based groups to discriminate in hiring and still get federal grants to run social programs. "If you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them -- or against the people you hire -- on the basis of their religion," Obama said in Ohio last July.
So it was somewhat surprising last week when President Obama failed to rescind Bush's order when he announced the rules for his own White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships."

So much for change we can believe in as Obama fails to turn off the government money faucet flowing to religious organizations.

"The goal of the new faith-based initiative, Obama said at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, "will not be to favor one religious group over another -- or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line our Founders wisely drew between church and state."

Waters does a smack down of this argument.

But this line is blurry. How much blurrier (and more contentious) will it get when millions in federal funds start to flow"

Waters is quite right, The lines are already blurry thanks to George Bush and Obama is not doing anything to change that. The only question I have is will Obama follow through on his talk about transparency in Government when it comes to the Taxpayer dollars these "Faith Based" organizations receive? Will we taxpayers be able to see which get the money, how much and what they spend it on. Right now I have little faith we will.

STIMULUS & THE AUDACITY OF FEAR

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe." -- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Hmmm, that sounds just like President Bush now doesn't it.

Meet the new boss same as the old boss. Or Charles Krauthammer said in the Washington Post:

"So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill. "

Meanwhile is the LA Times finally getting it?

As California continues it's downward fiscal spiral. The good news is that financial disaster may be starting bring the politically correct bias of the LA Times back to some of the reality of what has actually been going on in the state. At least if the column by George Skelton is any indication. He lays out the costs to California of having so many illegal immigrants in the state. Here are some of the literal money quotes:


" The state is spending $775 million on Medi-Cal healthcare for illegal immigrants, according to the legislative analyst. Of that, $642 million goes into direct benefits. Practically all the rest is paid to counties to administer the program. The feds generally match the state dollar-for-dollar on mandatory programs."



"There also are other taxpayer costs -- especially through local governments -- but those are the biggies for the state. Add them all up and the state spends well over $5 billion a year on illegal immigrants and their families.

Of course, illegal immigrants do pay state taxes. But no way do they pay enough to replenish what they're drawing in services. Their main revenue contribution would be the sales tax, but they can't afford to be big consumers, and food and prescription drugs are exempt."



At this point he also ignores the money the illegals are sending back to their home countries that does not stay in the California economy. Also like the stated number of illegal immigrants in the country his costs numbers may also be low. But, it is a start that even a papers like the LA Times are starting to realize there is a downside and a cost to taxpayers for unchecked illegal immigration. As Skelton rightly observes:



"Meanwhile, California should be honest about the costs. Illegal immigrants are not the sole cause of the state's deficit. But they are a drain."



That truth is a refreshing start.

This is a problem? It is for the New York Times

Another crazy headline from todays New York Times:

Only the ultra liberal editors at the New York Times could find a problem with the fact that the welfare system of the U.S. is not growing and costing U.S. taxpayers more tax dollars. That is what President Bill Clinton and the Republicans had hoped would happen in 1996 when Bill Clinton pledged to "end welfare as we know it". Hello New York Times the system is working there is no need to fix it.

Quote of the Day

I'm on the Long Island Railroad the other day heading as part of my commute to the BCP Washington bureau. I overhear a fellow talking to his friend with a lilting Caribbean accent about women who are calling him claiming that his brother made them pregnant. He's telling them why are you calling me? I did not make you pregnant! Exasperated he tells his companion:

"My life is good but, my family makes it a mess!"

It's kind of the way I feel about whats going on with Washington some days!