Tag: mccain

Political

Senator McCain Warned Americans Of The Pending Fannie/Freddie Financial Fiasco

I heard Democratic supporters blasting away against John McCain for his “Bush” like financial policies and how only Barack Obama has the answers to the current economic crisis facing us due to the collapse of financial giants like Freddie Mac, Fannnie Mae, Bear Sterns, and AIG .

In his speech, which I have included below, McCain somehow managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to bail out (with tax-payer money) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and now, AIG.

McCain pointed out the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom are now financial advisers to Barack Obama.

Senator McCain also pointed out the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

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.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

Now I ask you … who is more intuned to the financial pulse of the nation and the problems it is having. Senator John McCain, who warned us five years ago, of this disaster … or, Barack Obama, the Messiah who will step down from his Greek Temple and turn us all into truly holistic, enlightened, spiritual beings singing Kumbaya and chanting, “Hooooopppppeeeee …. Chhhhhaaaaannnngggeee …. Hooooopppppeeeee … Chhhhaaaannnngggeee!

P.S.

Oh Yeah … About TrooperGate … Folks, this is a non-issue. If that Alaskan State Trooper tasered a 10-year old, he should have been fired. More importantly, the governor should have been pushing for it because the troopers work for, and represents, the governor. Regardless of whether the said trooper was a relative, in-law, or a total stranger … he should have been fired

Political

Barack Obama: God’s Chosen Candidate

Nancy Pelosi has announced that Barack Obama is a leader that God has blessed us with!

Maybe Nancy Pelosi actually meant to say … Allah?

Not too long ago, the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report inadvertently disclosed the ties of Mazen Asbahi, a close adviser to Barack Obama, to several Muslim Brotherhood (MB) affiliated groups. This led to Asbahi’s immediate resignation as an adviser to the Obama campaign.

This should cause some alarm among real Americans because of the Muslim Brotherhood’s historical ties to radical Islamic terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda. Other MB affiliated groups in the United States have been connected to multiple terrorist cases, investigations and convictions.

It is important to point out that this is not simply bashing Barack Obama. The revelation would have been just as serious had Mazen Asbahi surfaced as a member of the McCain camp, Clinton Camp, or any other major political campaign organization.

Typically, the left is already hard at work portraying the entire thing as anti-Muslim bash-fest by the far right (you can read this wildly inaccurate and deceptive piece by James Zogby in the Huffington Post) and, just as typically, are failing to address ANY of the troublesome issues this associations has raised.

The most gut-wrenching decision Obama had to make was to not support the War in Iraq? He wasn’t even a Senator at that time! He didn’t even have to make that decision. That pales in comparison to John McCain’s painful decision to stay in the Hanoi Hilton despite the North Vietnamese offer of early release due to his father Admiral status, because of his sense of duty to his fellow POWs.

At least Obama agrees that there is “evil” in this world, or at least in Darfur and on American city streets. But, according to Obama, we should not confront that evil … because that might make that “evil” more angry … which would, of course, then be our fault. Why are our American streets evil, but the radical Islamists that murdered 3000 Americans not evil? Because, like his Pastor of 20-years … Obama blames America first … he hates America … and wants to change it into something unAmerican …. a socialist, multicultural, globalized non-Nation.

Right now … Kobe Bryant is my hero! He, at least, understands what our country stands for!

In an interview Friday on NBC, the world’s most famous basketball player told Chris Collinsworth how he got “goosebumps” when he received his Olympics uniform. “I actually just looked at it for a while. I just held it there and I laid it across my bed and I just stared at it for a few minutes; just because as a kid growing up this is the ultimate, ultimate in basketball.” The Los Angeles Laker went on to call the U.S. “the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it’s just a sense of pride that you have; that you say, ‘You know what? Our country is the best.'”

Mr. Collinsworth seemed either startled or impressed by such sentiment, and asked, “Is that a cool thing to say in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you’re fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by.”

To which Mr. Bryant replied: “No, it’s a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor.”

Cynics will claim that this is merely about marketing, with Mr. Bryant hoping to use the Games to burnish his public image. On the other hand, he and his rich teammates on the basketball squad are giving up their offseason to play for nothing save possible medals. Mr. Bryant has also been an enthusiastic spectator for other U.S. Olympians, waving the Stars and Stripes at various events.

To the kind of Americans who consider themselves primarily “citizens of the world,” nationalism at the Olympics is déclassé, even embarrassing. We’re with Kobe.

Political

America Has Lost A True Hero!

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Charlton Heston, the actor who played such memorable roles as Moses in “The Ten Commandments” and who met Jesus Christ face-to-face as a Jewish slave in the 1959 film, “Ben Hur,” a role which earned him an Oscar for best actor, died Saturday night at his Beverly Hills home. He was 84-years-old.

Heston “was seen by the world as larger than life,” his family said in a statement.

The actor is also remembered for his political activism, including his involvement in the civil-rights movement and his stand for the right to bear arms. He was at one time a Democrat (before the democratic party took a hard left turn) having campaigned for John F. Kennedy. During the 1972 American presidential election, Heston declared his support for Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate … and later, became a strong Reagan Republican. Charlton Heston marched with civil rights leader Martin Luther King against segregation. And, like Ronald Reagan, served as president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Charlton Heston had a prolific second career as a strong gun-rights activist, and helped to legitimize gun issues in the national conscience.

“He put a good, honest, legitimate face on the great majority of legal gun owners in this country,” said Bob Baumann, a Long Island regional director of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.

Heston led the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. In one speech, Heston famously would say that the only way his gun would be taken away is “from my cold, dead hands.”

“It put it in those simple terms, ‘You’re not taking this from me,'” said Brian Pemberton, president of the Matinecock Gun Club in Glen Cove. “It put a lot of weight into that feeling. His legacy is that; that he’s a man that stood firm.”

Heston often defended the NRA against attacks from gun control advocates.

Senator John McCain stated that, “Off-the-screen, Charlton Heston was also a real-life leader. He served his country and proudly gave his voice in support of some of our most basic rights.”

Frank Sinatra once remarked that Charlton Heston had better watch out … if he’s not careful, he’ll give actors a good name.

Heston stood opposed to abortion and appeared in the introduction to a 1987 pro-life documentary on late-term abortions.

Charlton Heston also spoke frequently of the culture war waged by liberals. In a speech in 1997, Heston charged that a generation of liberal media, educators, entertainers, and politicians were waging a war against “the God-fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant, or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern, or even worse, rural, apparently straight, or even worse, admitted heterosexual, gun-owning, or even worse, NRA card-carrying, average working stiff, or even worse, male, working stiff because, not only don’t you count, you are a downright obstacle to social progress,” according to The Times Online.

President Bush, who presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Heston in 2003, praised Heston as “one of the most successful actors in movie history and a strong advocate for liberty.”

“He was a man of character and integrity, with a big heart,” Bush said.

I say Charlton Heston was a patriot warrior!