Let bankruptcy work

Jeffrey A. Miron is right on the money about the current Wall Street "crisis."

Obama and a mouthful of ACORN

With all the news coverage about the bailout plan in the past few days, there's one little tidbit you wouldn't have heard from the MSM. The Democrats in Congress wanted money set aside for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Now that's an extraordinary name for a progressive, leftist organization...

ACORN has been caught red-handed many times on voter fraud. Obama used to work for ACORN as a trainer. He also indirectly funded the organization through the Woods Fund and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

Yet the MSM has no reports about this. McCain owning multiple houses isn't news. But Obama having ties to a an organization known for fraud should be.

Finally, the people's voices heard

The House rejected the $700 billion financial bailout plan endorsed by leading politicians in Washington, causing the Dow to tank more than 700 points on Monday. With approval ratings of Congress at an all-time low, this is simply the discontent of the people manifested.

Michael Sherer of Time concludes with the sentiment shared by many:

...Years ago, the trust between the people and their politicians was broken. The credibility was lost. The reserve of goodwill went bankrupt. And when they needed it most, our nation's leaders found they had squandered their ability to exert influence over the people who chose them to lead.

As much as the politicians wanted a non-partisan effort to rescue Wall Street, it seemed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ruined the cooperation from Republicans with her speech blaming the Bush administration's "failed economic policies" (again). Way to go, Nancy! You do realize that Democrats control the House, right?!

Financial scare tactics?

Is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke painting a gloomier financial outlook than it really warrants? The $700 billion bailout plan is now up for a vote. The plan calls for $250 billion to be immediately available for the Treasury Department to buy up bad debts and failing institutions.

Like many others (Irwin Kellner of WSJ MarketWatch, Joseph Calhoun of Alhambra Investment Management, and Pejman Yousefzadeh of RedState), I am not convinced of the severity (near depression!) of the nation's financial landscape. The reason for this mess was government interference in the first place. By letting the government seizing more control of the elements of capitalism would hinder the recovery, in my opinion.

There's nothing wrong with Lehman Brothers collapsing. That's the price it pays for poor investment decisions. There's nothing wrong with Merrill's fire sale to Bank of America, WaMu's sale to JPMorgan Chase, or Wachovia's sale to Citi. They had to do it in order to survive in this market. Godman Sachs was still able to raise $10 billion in one day. JPMorgan raised $10 billion in order to finance the WaMu buyout.

Obviously the engine of capitalism still runs. However, it seems Paulson, Bernanke, and many lawmakers are unwilling to trust it anymore.

Obama campaign predicts landslide victory

Apparently Obama and his team believe they can win in a landslide on November 4. Latest polls have Obama in a five-point advantage over McCain. Many swing states are turning blue.

The Obama campaign has confidence in the new registered Democratic voters turning out on election day.

Hopefully the McCain campaign ground troops are aware of this.

More fallout from Obama's bracelet

The blogosphere is abuzz with commentary on Obama's bracelet from the debate. Apparently there is evidence that the family of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek from Wisconsin had asked Obama not to wear the bracelet during his campaign.

The bracelet

In last night's debate, McCain talked about a bracelet he wears given to him by a fallen soldier's mother. She told McCain to do everything he can to ensure "my son's death was not in vain."

Then Obama said "I've got a bracelet, too." His was given by a mother of a dead soldier who wanted no mother to go through what she'd been through.

Charles Hurt of the New York Post summarizes the difference between these two men:

Obama will accept defeat if continuing on hurts too much. For McCain, any mission where defeat is an option is a mission not worth fighting in the first place.

I couldn't agree with him more.

Post-debate thoughts

I cannot say that I saw the whole thing, but definitely the majority of it.

First, both candidates did a good job in playing offense and defense. I'm glad McCain did not hold back in throwing punches, forcing Obama to play defense on the main issues: national security, foreign policy, and the economy. Many times when McCain was on the attack, you can see Obama shaking his head, signaling to the moderator that he'd like to rebuke, and just looking plain annoyed.

The best line from McCain? Something to the extent that Obama is so far left that he has a hard time reaching that far across the aisle. That's the McCain we know!

Second, Obama follows through on his "Change we can believe in" mantra to paint his opponent as another Bush. Several times during the debate he brings up Bush and labels McCain a "Bush supporter." This is an obvious scare tactic. The Obama campaign wants voters to view McCain as old school Washington. Did McCain hurt himself when he kept on referring to his background and experience? Maybe, but I'd like to think that Americans still long for the comfort of knowing McCain's history and how that's shaped him. We want change, but change in the right direction.

Third, I think McCain kicked butt in topics relating to foreign policy and the military. McCain's vast knowledge and experience helped him substantiate his claim that Obama holds a naive world view.

The V.P. debate in the coming weeks would be closely watched: Palin vs. Biden. Again, we have a younger, less experienced Gov. Palin up against the experienced Sen. Biden. This election surely boils down to Old vs. New.

The bailout drama

Whoa! The supposedly bipartisan effort to reach a deal on the bailout bill is unraveling like a bad soap opera. Treasury Secretary down on one knee begging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? As many would say on the Internet: Pics or it didn't happen! McCain screwing up the negotiations? I don't think he's to blame -- many House Republicans aren't pleased with the bill because their constituents tell them so!

Then there's the tie to ACORN. The Democrats wants 20% of all profits from the bailout to stay in the Housing Trust Fund. They've used that fund to support ACORN and the National Council of La Raza. Being a hard-working, tax-paying, middle-income household, I think all the profits should be returned to the taxpayers. Isn't that only fair?

Of course, Paul Krugman of the NYT just had to bring up the fact that Henry Paulson belongs to the "administration that misled America to war." Get over it, already! Where are the grown-ups indeed, Mr. Krugman? I do agree that the bill should not make Paulson the Finance Czar and that there ought to be the usual checks and balances built into place.

There is no doubt that a rescue plan has to be executed. But the majority of Americans want fairness in the bailout. People nowadays are not walking around with a fat wallet in light of the high gas prices and inflation. We don't like to seeing our neighbors lose their homes or historic Wall Street firms collapse, but all we ask for is some fairness because we followed the financial rules and planned accordingly, yet we seem to be the ones paying for others' mistakes.

McCain suggests postponing debate

The blogosphere is over-analyzing McCain's decision to suspend campaign activities and suggestion to postpone the first presidential debate until Congress and the White House reaches an agreement on the Wall Street rescue plan.

Seriously, what does it matter which date the debate is held? Obama proclaims that the American people deserves to know ASAP how each candidate stands on economic issues, especially pertaining to the Wall Street crisis. Besides inconveniencing the staff at the debate venue (Ole Miss) and the Commission on Presidential Debates, what harm is there in delaying a head-on debate? I'm in agreement with John Podhoretz of Commentary:

This cannot possibly be a major issue. But it is being treated as though it is an unprecedented move, a desperation ploy, a brilliant political stroke, a game-changer, a Hail Mary pass — pick your cliche. Why?

Both McCain and Obama are United States senators. What's wrong with actually doing their job to fly to Washington and be tuned into the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression?

Obama the media darling

We're all aware of the left-leaning bias in the mainstream media (MSM). We should be thankful that there are outlets such as FOX News, conservative talk radio, and crazy right-wing bloggers to balance the information out there.

Tony Blankley of the Washington Times writes an op-ed labeling the MSM as "straight out propagandists for the Obama campaign." And he's right. The major media are infatuated with Obama and have cast their votes for president. Obama is the product of MSM hype. He's a pop star and the MSM writes his songs and scripts.

Obama's secret (unbuilt) garden

The Illinois attorney general is probing a state grant for a botanic garden awarded by then-state Sen. Barack Obama. Evidently the $100,000 was never spent on building the garden. Portions of the money were given to people and organizations with ties to Obama's congressional campaign.

More insults from Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had the nerve to sensationalize our current economic troubles and lobbed another insult at President Bush while proclaiming "Socialism is the only route to the salvation of the world."

No thanks, Mr. Chavez. Capitalism may not be perfect and has its ups and downs, but most Americans know socialism is far worse.

Liberalism helped bring down Wall Street giants

We are now in a $700 billion debacle as Wall Street giants and mortgage kings fell one by one. As Congress still debate over the rescue (or bailout) bill, many liberals are blaming the current administration for lack of financial oversight and regulation. But that's certainly not the case as Stan Liebowitz points out on New York Post:

Pushed hard by politicians and community activists, the regulators systematically and deliberately altered financially sound lending practices.

The mortgage market was humming along just fine when, in the late 1980s, progressives decided that it needed to be "fixed." Their complaint: Some ethnic groups got approved for mortgages at lower rates than others.

So what was done to "fix" this? Banks were forced to adopt "relaxed lending standards" or face the consequences of violating the federal Community Reinvestment Act. Essentially, banks had to take on much greater risks in lending to people who cannot afford to. These high-risk mortgages were sold to Fannie and Freedie for decades, increasing home ownership and inflating home valuation, until finally the day when the owners cannot pay.

Just another example of the harm of liberal influence in government policy. Leave the market alone and it will run itself.

Dissecting Obama's leftism

Joshua Muravchik has a good article on Commentary detailing what Obama believes in from his "voting record" and also his "intellectual evolution."

Obama's income redistribution plan

The Obama campaign would like to refer it as the "tax cut" plan, but Ken Blackwell calls it what it is: income redistribution. He adds that

Some pundits argue that this is Keynesian demand-side economics. It is not. Having the government take money from business entities or affluent individuals and giving it to those who pay no federal income taxes is not Keynesian. It's Marxist.

You don't have to be an economist to understand this, just need a dose of common sense. Obama has promised universal nationalized health care and money for college education, but where would that funding come from? The government relies on income tax revenues. Paying for those government programs would then require money from taxpayers. But low-income families don't pay taxes, so the burden falls on everyone else.

Exposing the Palin smear campaign

Dr. Rusty Shackleford and his crew over at the Jawa Report did some excellent research into who's behind the Palin smear campaign with all the online videos and the effort to promote them.

The 269 tie

The Washington Times has an interesting scenario which I'm sure both campaigns are aware of: the Electoral College 269 tie:

On Nov. 5, the presidential election winds up in a electoral-college tie, 269-269, the Democrat-controlled House picks Sen. Barack Obama as president, but the Senate, with former Democrat Joe Lieberman voting with Republicans, deadlocks at 50-50, so Vice President Dick Cheney steps in to break the tie to make Republican Sarah Palin his successor.

How crazy would that be for Sen. Lieberman and V.P. Cheney to ultimately shatter the Democrats' White House dream? Based on recent polls, the most plausible scenario would be New Hampshire turning red with its four electoral votes. I'm betting that N.H. is getting a lot of attention from both campaigns because of this.

Palin to meet world leaders, Bono at U.N.

Gov. Sarah Palin is getting up to speed on foreign policy with the help of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as she has appointments with the Colombian president, Afghan president, Georgian president, Ukrainian president, Iraqi president, Pakistani president, and Indian prime minister.

And U2 singer Bono, too.

Explaining the Wall Street meltdown

Neal Boortz explains it well on Townhall.com:

Right now this crisis is being sold to the American public by the left as evidence the failure of the free market and capitalism. Not so. What we’re seeing is the inevitable result of political interference in free market economics. Acme bank didn’t want to loan money to Joe Homebuyer because Joe had a spotty job history, owed too much money on his credit cards, and wasn’t all that good at making payments on time. The politicians told Acme Bank to figure out a way to make that loan, because, after all, Joe is a bona-fide minority-American, or forget about opening that new branch office on the Southside. The loan was made under politicial pressure; the loan, with millions like it, failed – and now we are left to enjoy today’s headlines.

It's a good read and it's something the MSM won't report on.