Obama up 8 points

[Ramo]

More from Palin:

“[Obama] said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are ‘air raiding villages and killing civilians,’” Palin said, mischaracterizing a 2007 remark by Obama. “I hope Americans know that is not what our brave men and women in uniform are doing in Afghanistan. The U.S. military is fighting terrorism and protecting us and protecting our freedom.”

Shortly afterward, a male member of the crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, yelled “treason!” loudly enough to be picked up by television microphones.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/07/obama-hatred-on-display-a_n_132572.html

These douchnozzles are running a campaign based on associating their opponent with treason and terrorism. They are crappy excuses for human beings. It'll be satisfying watching them lose.

[Jon Miller]

I know quite a few people who just don't 'trust' Obama.

I think that is code for "I don't think he is american" or "He is black" and I don't trust him.

JM

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Ramo
Bush and Greenspan blocked GSE regulation, not the evil Democrats...

New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: September 11, 2003
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

...

Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

McCain in 06: For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

Democratic response to cries for reform:

[Zkribbler]

Man shot three times in street by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt

A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.
Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend 'Believe'. The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back.

Realising what had sparked the increasingly violent assault, the terrified Mr Egwuatu zipped up his jacket to cover the image of Mr Obama and walked to his car.
But the shaven-headed man, who was white, followed Mr Egwuatu and after pulling open the passenger door pointed the gun at him.

After pleading with the man to leave him alone, the married former street warden put the keys in the ignition and turned the engine on.

The attacker then fired the gas-powered ball-bearing pistol three times, hitting the civil servant in the face, hand and shoulder.

Fearing for his life and bleeding heavily, Mr Egwuatu raced away in his car and found somewhere safe to call for help.

He was taken to hospital and later sent to have a piece of metal removed from his jaw.

Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: 'The venom in his voice was frightening.
'He was telling me that he was going to kill me.
'I couldn't believe it was happening - and just because I was wearing an Obama T-shirt. He was trying to make me walk somewhere quieter, saying: 'I've got something for you,' and 'I'm going to kill you.'
He added: 'Obama inspires me, his educational track record alone is quite unbelievable - that is why I was wearing the T-shirt.

'I did not think for one minute it could stir up such powerful feelings of hatred and I never said a word to him.'

Mr Egwuatu's wife, Angela, 35, said neither of them had experienced anything like it during their childhood in Nigeria.

Mrs Egwuatu, an immigration officer, said: 'At first my feelings were pure horror and now it is pure anger.
'If he had been carrying a real gun I would have been a widow. It is just ridiculous.

'I don't know how a person's mentality works. Why would a T-shirt get you to the point where you want to shoot someone.'

To the untrained eye, ball-bearing guns like the one used in the attack look every bit like a real firearm.
The potentially lethal weapons are often converted by criminals to fire real bullets, and can be bought easily in high-street shops and on websites.

The Met said it was investigating the incident, which took place in South Norwood, and that police searched a nearby house which the attacker was seen going into.

No one has been arrested.

[Ramo]

New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House (something like 3-1), getting a large majority from the Dem caucus. Artur Davis didn't kill the bill. Bush and Greenspan did. Here's the article I posted in the last Drake troll thread:

Oxley hits back at ideologues
By Greg Farrell in New York
Published: September 9 2008 19:25 | Last updated: September 9 2008 19:25
In the aftermath of the US Treasury’s decision to seize control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, critics have hit at lax oversight of the mortgage companies.

The dominant theme has been that Congress let the two government-sponsored enterprises morph into a creature that eventually threatened the US financial system. Mike Oxley will have none of it.

Instead, the Ohio Republican who headed the House financial services committee until his retirement after mid-term elections last year, blames the mess on ideologues within the White House as well as Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The critics have forgotten that the House passed a GSE reform bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis, says Mr Oxley, now vice-chairman of Nasdaq.

He fumes about the criticism of his House colleagues. “All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this,” he says. “What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute.”

The House bill, the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership.

Mr Oxley reached out to Barney Frank, then the ranking Democrat on the committee and now its chairman, to secure support on the other side of the aisle. But after winning bipartisan support in the House, where the bill passed by 331 to 90 votes, the legislation lacked a champion in the Senate and faced hostility from the Bush administration.

Adamant that the only solution to the problems posed by Fannie and Freddie was their privatisation, the White House attacked the bill. Mr Greenspan also weighed in, saying that the House legislation was worse than no bill at all.

“We missed a golden opportunity that would have avoided a lot of the problems we’re facing now, if we hadn’t had such a firm ideological position at the White House and the Treasury and the Fed,” Mr Oxley says.

When Hank Paulson joined the administration as Treasury secretary in 2006 he sent emissaries to Capitol Hill to explore the possibility of reaching a compromise, but to no avail.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8780c35e-7e91-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=&nclick_check=1

Edit:
Turns out Artur Davis voted for this legislation.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2005-547

[Asher]

Originally posted by Ramo
More from Palin:

“[Obama] said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are ‘air raiding villages and killing civilians,’” Palin said, mischaracterizing a 2007 remark by Obama. “I hope Americans know that is not what our brave men and women in uniform are doing in Afghanistan. The U.S. military is fighting terrorism and protecting us and protecting our freedom.”

Shortly afterward, a male member of the crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, yelled “treason!” loudly enough to be picked up by television microphones.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/07/obama-hatred-on-display-a_n_132572.html

These douchnozzles are running a campaign based on associating their opponent with treason and terrorism. They are crappy excuses for human beings. It'll be satisfying watching them lose.

The moral depravity of republicans never ceases to amaze me.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Ramo

New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House (something like 3-1), getting a large majority from the Dem caucus. Artur Davis didn't kill the bill. Bush and Greenspan did. Here's the article I posted in the last Drake troll thread:

I thank you for providing evidence that the cries of McCain = Bush are full of hot air at least on this issue.

[Kidlicious]

The republicans are now the regulation guys. I guess we don't have to hear about teh invisible hand anymore.

[Kirnwaffen]

Out of curiosity, is anyone willing to admit that perhaps government inspired loosenig of lending standards combined with loose oversight of complex derivatives combined to create this crisis, and that BOTH parties share some culpability. Just a crazy, out there thought...

[Ramo]

I thank you for providing evidence that the cries of McCain = Bush are full of hot air at least on this issue.

Bush != McCain on GSE regulation. But as Oxley pointed out, no one in the Senate (including McCain) gave enough of a **** to put any effort into this. And Vel, AFAIK, hasn't suggested that GSEs were the root of the problem.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Kirnwaffen
Out of curiosity, is anyone willing to admit that perhaps government inspired loosenig of lending standards combined with loose oversight of complex derivatives combined to create this crisis, and that BOTH parties share some culpability.

Yes.
Ramo: And Vel, AFAIK, hasn't suggested that GSEs were the root of the problem.

Vel has been stupid enough to suggest the deregulation = McCain when history suggests otherwise and that the man isn't opposed to regulation he feels is needed to protect taxpayers.

[Asher]

You better tell McCain that. Deregulation is his buzzword in his speeches.

[Boris Godunov]

Illinois Republicans are coming to Obama's defense wrt Ayers, noting that the smear has absolutely no substance:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95442902

Regardless of his background, it was never a problem for anyone — including Republicans and Chicago's most powerful business leaders — to work with Ayers on Chicago's public schools. In fact, Ayers is widely respected in the field of urban education.

"It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier," said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. "It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

"I don't remember ever hearing anyone raise concerns or questions or concerns about [Ayers'] background," says Anne Hallett, who has worked closely with Ayers on the Annenberg Challenge grant and with Obama on education and other community and legislative matters. "And that included everybody I was engaged with," including prominent Republicans, and corporate and civic leaders in Chicago, Hallett adds.

Hallett calls this attack on Obama's association with Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge by further association, "a smear campaign. It's a political diatribe that has no basis in fact. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was an extremely positive initiative. It was well-vetted, thorough, and the fact that it is now is being used for political purposes is, in my opinion, outrageous."

There's definitely no "there" there with this story.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Asher
You better tell McCain that. Deregulation is his buzzword in his speeches.

He talks out of both sides of his mouth constantly on the issue. Why anyone would take him seriously, when he's been all over the map, is beyond me.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Asher
You better tell McCain that. Deregulation is his buzzword in his speeches.

I prefer Palin's position of more oversight and less regulation to get government out of the way of business while reining in the greed of Wall Street.