Who do we blame....

Okay –so, I guess an article is circulating around the internet blaming Clinton and minority poor people for the debacle in finance that precipitated the crap going on in the financial world right now.
The whack-job, fear mongering, parrots of no-change are viral emailing this information around … and most of the senders never seem to do any of their own research.

The story appears to have been agitated by a FAR right wing, Republican, Evangelical Christian, radio talk show host and writer named Joseph Farah.

( BTW Farah is so right wing, he does not approve of McCain because he remembers that McCain is not too picky about his beliefs [as long as they get him elected to something]. Farah has spent a good part of his life involved in bringing down Bill Clinton and has been involved in forming something called the Arkansas Project.”)

To support his case he uses an article that was in the New York Times called Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending from 1999, written by Steven A. Holmes. Now, I am not sure if he (and the people who forward this information) are using this information to shift the blame from Republicans to Clinton or to poor minority borrowers. But it is an obvious move to shift the blame away from the GOP.


To shift the blame away from the GOP requires readers with complete ignorance about the 1990’s and too lazy to do their own research before sending on this babble to others as if it had some validity.

( Reminder – I am not a Democrat. I am a registered Republican who is an Economic Republican that has not been able to vote for a Republican since the Reagan era – when the party was hi-jacked by religious nutcases.

I am no champion of Bill Clinton because of his boorish behavior to his wife and family after infidelity ordeal; And the amount of embarrassment that they had to endure because he did not deal with that matter quickly, decisively and honestly.

I have always felt that he just should have said – “This is a private matter between my wife and I – I will not answer any questions about this matter”. Instead, the lie, though understandable, put the family in a very bad situation.

Now, since his wife and he have apparently dealt with it and comparing it to the president we have had since – I have dropped it from problems with Mr. Clinton.)

To review the salient history, Bill Clinton and the current financial situation.

When President Clinton was in office the Republicans controlled the legislative part of our government. The 104th US Congress, in 1995, controlled everything for the first time since the 1950’s. The Speaker of the House was Republican Newt Gingrich. The President Pro Tempore of the Senate was Strom Thurmond (who was a Democrat, then a Republican).


Even if “Fannie Mae has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans” as the article in the NY Times states – so, what? The Clinton Administration was not in a position to do one thing - the Congress had the power.

If not Clinton then, who was the power for financial change at that time? Number one on my list is, Republican Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm was Texas Senator from 1985 until 2002 (also served as the Democratic Congressman from 1978 – 1983 and Republican Representative from 1983 until 1985). Senator Phil Gramm is also the holder of a doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia and taught Economics at Texas A & M.


The good Senator served on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and Senate Budget Committee from 1989 until leaving office in 2002. Significant to this discussion is the fact that Gramm authored the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999. This Act removed safeguards that were put in place in the 1930’s (Glass-Steagall Act) to separate banking, insurance and brokerage industries.

Glass – Steagall Act of 1933 – formed the FDIC, changed banking and tried to end speculation that had factored in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. This Act stopped banks from owning things like mortgage companies, insurance companies other financial businesses. The Gramm-Leech-Bliley Act reversed this law. Gramm was not alone in this debacle though – the vote was 362 to 57 in the (Republican controlled) House and 90 to 8 (Republican controlled) Senate .

– Clinton signed it into law.

Back to the viral information being passed on like gospal.

According to Farah “ Who pushed the button? Bill Clinton did. He has an uncanny knack of emerging unscathed from the scandals he creates. So far, this is another one.” He does go on to say there is “plenty of blame to go around.” But then says “It's clear who made that decision initially, who got the ball rolling down the cliff, who pressed the wrong financial button. It was Bill Clinton”.

Can anyone say “Vendetta” -- - I bet you can Ven-det- ta……

……….watch out folks. When you buy into other people’s crud - maybe even mine, folks, this is the internet - we can say anything we want … do your own research.

Our son sent me this one....

Back on September 26th, CNN's Jack Cafferty let us into his thoughts about Sarah Palin and her threat to our country...... "One 72 year old's heart beat away from the Presidency"





The go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile Scroll down to September 26th, and read the comments - if the world were not in so much peril from this woman's placement on the brink of 'leadership' I would be tickled by this quote "She’s no more qualified than Marge Simpson." said Jennifer in Winnipeg - then again Marge would present herself much better.

McCain would call these "gotchas" we will just "Oh Sarah - say it isn't so..."

Just Rambling - 'how you gunna keep 'er, down on the farm - after she sees Pair-ee"!

Of course, I have to remember, we are voting for President in November, not Potential President, and there’s no reason to believe that a Potential President Palin would have significant influence over policy in a McCain Administration.

(Even if Chaney did have a lot of influence on the current President Bush -- but she could.)

And maybe, if the Moose Hunter gets the Potential President job, and moves to the big city, she will experience the big world and find out she is not so sure about things. People do that, you know. From my life experience it was easier for me to be cock sure about the world before I had seen it, and when I felt I had control over all of what mattered to my family and I.

But, don't you think that, just being in Washington D.C. could expose her to things her family has never had to deal with. She will see poverty on a grand style -( much bigger than the local church can deal with by throwing a food drive); Violence, drug use, illiteracy, multi-generational dependence on social resources -- remember, this is a city that re-elected a mayor who was affected by drugs. 55% of the population in Washington DC is African American; Whites are a very small minority; One third of the population of Washington DC is functionally illiterate; according to Wikipedia the murder rate has declined to 169 for 2006. (The Alaska Law Enforcement Agency reported that the whole state of Alaska reported 36 murders in 2006 --- 36 for the whole state!).

What I am saying is that the good part of getting a Potential Presidential Candidate that has not been out of her own small town much is that there is a potential for learning. Maybe she will really be a 'loose cannon' and when she sees that she can't just send her kids off to school, or let them go out and do things -- (I know, I know -- the Secret Service are pretty good baby sitters) -- okay, so maybe if she lives in a town where the local news on the TV is about more than Salmon - she will start thinking about a world bigger than her self.

Maybe with the travel of campaigning she will see that people who will lose their houses this year, or have to stay in houses that are in lousy neighborhoods - or see people who are functionally illiterate but having children because they don't know about choice, or maybe do and don't have the money for "the pill"; maybe she will meet people who are less afraid of Al Qaeda than where food will come from next month; Working people, of every economic and educational group, who are making choices between filling prescriptions and making house payments.

I know I am probably a twit that I have a fantasy that the possibility that becoming part of Washington’s power centers will change Palin enough that she will see that her record will be meaningless if she ever does become President - or even Vice President. I have a vision where one day she will see that she needs to grow and grow FAST!

I guess McCain but he could have done worse -- but not much. The one good thing I see is that it might be hard to keep her down on the farm - after she see Pair--ee!

Service and Parenting (II)

I just realized that I left off part of my "point" about answering questions about 'whose going to watch the kids, honey?" And that omission probably says something about me -- I will work on it.

When I first started that other blog I was going to also make the point that every candidate that is offering to give up 100% of their time to service, (Like President and potential Presidents)-- should actually be required to fill out Parenting Plans (like they fill out financial disclosures) -- but that because this never came up before (compare to Desert Storm) -- no one ever thought of it.

So, since Mr. Obama, Mr Biden, and Mr. McCain are also candidates - they should just fill out the papers too. As should all candidates from now forward...