15 Comments Add your own

• 1. echo4charlie  |  October 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am

  I am not a fan of this proposition, either. As a matter of fact, I didn’t like it at all.

  I guess I should have gone out and bought more house than I could afford, as well, instead of taking the responsible route (obviously errant); assessing my net income vs. projected monthly expenditures, examined both my wife’s and my income, and then projecting what we could afford to pay if both drew unemployment.

  I could be living in a house with a helicopter landing pad right now……………….

• 2. DingDong  |  October 8th, 2008 at 11:04 am

  This sucks. But this election is about buying votes. Obama has carefully picked his class of people to pander to. He is going to give tax breaks to people who don’t pay taxes(welfare). Percentage wise not many people make 250K+ a year, so he does not have to worry about their votes. 50K year exempt for seniors, that covers most of them. It goes on and on.

• 3. echo4charlie  |  October 8th, 2008 at 11:30 am

  Here are a few more examples of Senator Obama’s questionable associates, turned conveniently denied acquaintances (for campaign purposes):

  Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae’s accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, ‘ Raines, who long defended the
  company’s accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn’t proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that ‘mistakes were made’ and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised.

  News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of
  findings that the company’s books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years.’ Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion.

  Raines left with a ‘golden parachute estimated to be worth $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear.

  The Government noted, ‘The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements a and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner.’

  These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits.

  Tim Howard was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard ‘was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a stable pattern of earnings’ at Fannie Mae. In everyday English - he was cooking the books.

  The Government Investigation determined that, ‘Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key
  control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae,’

  On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant’s income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company’s board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004.

  Howard’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million.

  Jim Johnson, a former executive at Lehman Brothers, was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you’ll see some interesting things about Johnson.

  Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson’s 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million.’ Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae.

  Johnson’s Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million.

  Where are they now, and what does this have to do with anything, you may ask?

  Franklin Raines works for the Obama Campaign as Chief Economic Advisor. He and Senator Obama state that he doesn’t, but they have admitted Raines taking calls from Senator Obama who was seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters

  Tim Howard is (reprtedly) an Chief Economic Advisor to Senator Obama

  Jim Johnson is Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama’s Vice Presidential Search Committee, who ultimately selected Senator Joe Biden.

  Check it out for yourselves.

  Are these the guys who will advise on future Wall Street matters?

  I sure hope not………………………………….

• 4. Pat Cunningham  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

  Charlie: You’re a gullible dimwit who will believe any kind of right-wing nonsense you read. Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson and Tim Howard are not now and never have been economic or finance advisors to the Obama campaign, and you can’t prove they ever were. Jim Johnson was one of three members of a panel tasked with vetting potential vice-presidential running mates. In June, long before the nod went to Biden, Johnson was shown to the door after news surfaced that he received home loans at below-market rates. The McCain camp, too, has fired advisors because of bad publicity. My God, don’t you ever get tired of scrounging around the underbelly of the Internet in search of some kind of scandal against Obama? You invariably come up with nothing, and your sources invariably are certifiable wackos. You and DingDong and a few of the others are the most gullible people I’ve ever encountered. You’ll believe anything if it reflects badly on Obama.

• 5. Billybeermonicagar  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

  I can’t believe either candidate would think that health care is a right. Freedom of relgion is a right–telling taxpayers they must build you a church is not.

• 6. Pat Cunningham  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

  Charlie: One other thing: You might want to consider that my standards of veracity are a lot higher than yours. On numerous occasions, I’ve declined to post reports and rumors about McCain and Palin that seemed to me to be insufficiently documented. I won’t even mention the subjects here, but they covered matters that, if true, would reflect very badly on the Republican nominees. The latest such example arose just this morning. I was tempted, I’ll admit, but I took a pass, because the evidence was a little iffy. You see, the left-wing blogosphere too often trafficks in unfounded rumors. But the right-wing blogosphere is far worse — especially the rabid racists.

• 7. DingDong  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

  Pat: Your gullible one, a lifelong liberal. For the most part I back my comments with facts. I also use credible sources. Your the one who thinks the Huffington Post is a reliable source.

• 8. Peter Andrew  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

  For the turth about Conservatives (Sorry Pat) check out ConservativeAmerican.org

• 9. Milton Waddams  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

  Saw this today, found it pretty interesting and very believable considering what I have seen of John McCain.

  The Make believe Maverick

  It is pretty long, but then again short soundbites are most of the problem these days…

• 10. Pat Cunningham  |  October 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

  Peter Andrew: Coincidentally, ConservativeAmerican is one of the blogs to which I linked in the above post. (It’s the third of the four links
  in the last paragraph.)

• 11. echo4charlie  |  October 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

  Pat,

  I see your point, and I (try to) do the same (however disagreement and debate will arise).

  I haven’t seen too many racists on his page, though (of which I am not). I don’t care if they are Black, White, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, South American, or what (in heritage), as long as the candidate was born a US citizen, on US soil.

  I just think Senator Obama is the worse of two bad choices. In hypothetical, I’d support Colin Powell in two seconds, but, I’d pass on Wesley Clark. I’d support Condoleeza Rice, but pass on John Edwards. I, actually, liked John Kerry. And, in his concession, he showed real class. I thought he was a class act through the entire campaign. But, I didn’t agree with all of his politics, either.

  It’ll take a while, but, we’ll see, down the road, that President Bush isn’t as dumb as many think. There are things we don’t know, and shouldn’t know. He and Vice President Cheney have a pretty clear picture of our global crisis, threats, and those whom pose upcoming threat if not addressed.

  There are just too many more questionable and denied connections to radicals and criminals on Senator Obama’s behalf that Senator McCain’s. I truly think he is a Jimmy Carter reincarnate (in office).

  Ultimately, though, on election day, we’ll tell the world our (popular) choice, thorough our vote, and the Electoral College will tell us who they have decided that we get (regardless of popular vote).

  And, we’ll get the pros and cons with whomever they choose.

• 12. DingDong  |  October 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

  Milt: a second hand account from an editor at Rolling Stone Magazine? Give me a break.

• 13. echo4charlie  |  October 8th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

  Let’s look at it from another angle. Let’s call what the central defining issue in this election should be.

  I say judgement. That’s where I’m basing my decision.

  -Protecting American lives and American interests from serious threats in Iran, Iraq and Russia

  -Helping the U.S. establish real energy independence in the years ahead

  Those are the two factors most focal to me. I understand different things are more important to different people, so the focal issue is up for debate, and there are a lot of other important issues as well.

  Senator Obama and his chief advisors have absolutely all but conceded that Senator Obama has next to no foreign policy experience. He was, after all, a community organizer, and has spent most of his time in the Senate running for President.

  Senator Obama’s camp maintains experience is not that important. I don’t think that any of us can argue that. That is in the open.

  The central and defining issue, in their arguement, is a candidate’s judgment. Senator Obama, himself, said in his acceptance speech in Denver: “If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.”

  I think that this is definately a debate worth having. And, one that be disastorous for Senator Obama’s campaign.

  Senator Obama has shown disastrous judgment on Iran, Iraq, Russia and energy independence, as Governor Palin and Rudy Guiliani so effectively noted

  Look at his judgement on the Russian invasion of Georgia, as example. Senator Obama`s judgment was wrong. It was flawed. His first instinct was to tell a Democratic free country to show restraint in defending itself from Vladimir Putin`s invasion. What kind of a judgment is that?

  Let’s move to Iraq. We`ve got the Anbar province. Nobody in the media is covering this, but we do, and have for a while. This was undisputedly the most dangerous place in all of Iraq. Most resigned to the mindset that it could never be done. Senator Obama was one of them, as I remember him stating that more troops wouldn`t help. Approximately one U.S. soldier was dying per day in Anbar, at that time.

  When we handed the keys to the city over to the Iraqis, our soldiers weren`t even wearing Kevlar, As a matter of fact, they didn`t even carry a gun to the ceremony, and everything was fine.

  Senator Obama has been horribly wrong, and yet he`s still claiming victory.(?)

  To this day, though, Senator Obama will not admit that he had flawed judgment. An ABC news reporter, I think that it was Terry Moran, had brought to light that Senator Obama had still refused to acknowledge that the surge had worked (I think that this was his second trip to Iraq>). And yet, as we can all plainly see, and know, the surge has worked, I think that we can all agree, phenomenally well.

  Senator Obama, when the surge policy was announced in January 2007 said not only said it wouldn`t work, but it would make things worse. That is very clearly wrong. It was proven, last month, that 11 out of 18 provinces in Iraq are now under Iraqi military control.

  Senator Obama opposes drilling for American oil in America, and offshore. “Offshore oil drilling will have little impact on prices,” Sen. Obama said in an August 2008 speech in Iowa. “It won’t lower prices today. It won’t lower prices during the next administration. In fact, we won’t see a drop of oil from this drilling for almost 10 years.” Without drilling for American oil in America, how does Sen. Obama plan to wean us off of Middle Eastern oil and protect our energy security? After all, we actually have a lot of oil we could use for ourselves — if we could only drill for it.

  It just really leads me to question what type of foreign policy judgment, or judgment with respect for our best interest (both as a people and a nation), our community activist junior senator is bringing to the table.

  I’m not all so comfortable, right now.

• 14. DingDong  |  October 8th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

  You also forgot that Obambi recommended a UN resolution, which Russia can stop with its veto. You know how effective the UN can be.

• 15. echo4charlie  |  October 8th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

  Right you are, sir.

  The “Blue Helmets” sure do have a tremendous peacekeeping record, don’t they……………………….

Leave a Comment

Name Required

Email Required, hidden

Url

Comment

Security Code:

Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed