Biden Palin Don’t Rock The Vote

CNN, always looking for an angle, camped out for tonight’s VP debate at Atlanta’s Hard Rock Cafe, where Rock The Vote held a debate night registration drive.  While young people drank themselves silly, they tried to stave off boredom by playing “Palin Bingo.”

The game was the focus of a group of four friends, all in their 20s and early 30s, as they put Xs in boxes containing keywords they anticipated Gov. Sarah Palin might say during Thursday’s vice presidential debate.

Words like: Special needs, Wasilla, maverick, Main Street, Washington outsider.

“Special needs … I won bingo!” shouted Laura Butler, 30.

Satisfied with her win, and a full hour into the debate between Republican Palin and Democrat Sen. Joe Biden, she headed for the door.

“I thought it was entertaining and so, you know, it was fun,” she said, a White Stripes song blaring in the background.

Can you say, “predictable?”  The word applies to both candidates, too.  Joe Biden pulled out most of the familiar stops: loose facts, manufactured tears, and unfortunately, managed to do it without committing a major faux pas.  Bummer.  Sarah Palin, also avoided “foot-in-mouth” disease, relying on “hockey mom” and other suburban colloquialisms that went a long way to help her connect with the little people, “you betcha.”

The young people were not only bored, they were, like me, completely unmoved.  No minds were changed, in fact, they were, on the whole, way unimpressed.  One of them, Daryll Cordeiro, summed things up this way:

“I’m disgusted by the whole process because I don’t see a difference between either of them: Obama, McCain, Palin or Biden,” Cordeiro said. “[Biden and Palin] are agreeing on so much. You take tax reform, for instance. What did they say that was different, really? They aren’t speaking to me. There’s all this talk about change, change, change. It’s all gimmicks.”

Ahh, there’s hope for the youth of today, after all.  Laura Butler, the young lady who won the “Palin Bingo” game, claims to be an Obama supporter, but if I was Team O, I wouldn’t be popping any champagne about the “youth vote,” if she’s typical:

“If it really mattered, if it was really close between Obama and McCain, I would go with Obama,” Butler said, sipping a tall peach drink. “But that’s not because I like him or that he speaks to me. He doesn’t. They are all the same. But I don’t like McCain. It’s a matter, to me, of who you don’t want.”

Though the Rock The Vote representative claimed the event to be a success, and that young people really care what’s going on, a strong case could be made that he’s either deliriously clueless, or trying to protect his phony-baloney job:

The Rock the Vote event was intended to register new voters. But no one registered to vote during the debate, according to volunteer Demarcus Peters, and most of the tables cleared out before the debate was over.

Good to know my faith in America’s future is not misplaced.

Parrrr-taaaay!

The Debate’s Over, Let The Games Begin

Well, we all just watched a debate that will change absolutely nobody’s mind, and I, for one, am glad it’s over.  Listen, my mind’s made up; I hate Joe Biden and I don’t hate Sarah Palin.  I hate Joe Biden because he’s Barack Obama’s running mate.  I don’t care about Sarah Palin because she’s John McCain’s running mate.  I hate Barack Obama because he’s a creepy, curiously funded, incompetent, inexperienced joke of a candidate who wants to change America in fundamental ways.  I don’t like John McCain because he’s a Republican.

Nothing I saw or heard tonight changed my mind one bit.

All that’s left is to sit back and watch the spinmeisters lay Axelrod’s astroturf.

Bailout BS, Misdirection And Lies

ACORN Caused The Housing Crisis!  Democrats To Blame For Mortgage Meltdown!  Bank Industry Didn’t See This Coming!

Those and other, similar headlines are total bull shit.  ACORN may be a lot of things, but a community service organization, no matter how large and nefarious, simply cannot generate trillions of dollars worth of debt.  Democrats do deserve a share of the blame for the whole mess, they’re just as guilty as the Republicans, the only difference being the modus operandi of the criminals, not the level of criminality itself.  And, if the bank industry didn’t see this coming, they are some lousy bankers.

Let’s say all of the things that have been alleged in all the viral videos and indignant blogs are true.  You’re still missing the bigger picture.  The housing market was flooded with product at the same time that product was being over-valued and massive loans were extended based on that inflated valuation, across the board. USA Today reported in July about the problem in Miami:

Yet, even seen in the most favorable light, the Miami area is still suffering from the rampant speculation that triggered overdevelopment and galloping home prices, followed by a collapse of the mortgage market. What followed was a surge of foreclosures and short sales, in which owners, with a lender’s agreement, sell a home for less than the value of the mortgage and thereby avoid foreclosure.

Therefore, gazillions of dollars worth of second and third mortgages, and renegotiated mortgages were extended based on nothing.  If a home is worth 100,000 dollars, but appraised at 200,000 dollars, 100% financing means that somebody just took out a loan for 100,000 dollars worth of air.  And everybody, from the realtors, to the mortgage holders and all the other credit rapists in between, knew it.

The housing boom that began in 2000 and lasted a full five years looked certain to set up homeowners for a better retirement. Median home values rose dramatically and millions of Americans felt much wealthier because of it.

The problem was that for many their newfound wealth was only on paper. Only homeowners who got the money out by selling their homes actually built wealth.

From USA Today, 7/27/05:

Sharply rising home prices are making a risky housing market even riskier. Six hot markets now face a greater than 50% chance of price declines the next two years, says a study to be released today by PMI Mortgage Insurance.

Rapid price escalation has outpaced income gains and rent increases, making homes less affordable and increasing the odds of a price correction, PMI found.

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“Certain markets … are getting riskier,” says Mark Milner, PMI’s chief risk officer. “Prices can’t keep going up at the current rates of appreciation. It doesn’t have to end badly, but it is pretty clear there will be a flattening out.”

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PMI economist Marco Van Akkeren says the use of exotic mortgages, such as interest-only loans and those that allow borrowers to pay lower monthly payments for an initial period, is creating greater risks for buyers and inadvertently pushing prices even higher. If interest rates rise, “Affordability is going to be much more of an issue,” he says.

The Washington Post, September 27, 2005:

U.S. home sales and prices surged again last month, an industry group reported yesterday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that the growing use of riskier new mortgages could result in “significant losses” for lenders and borrowers if the market cools.

And some cooling is likely, Greenspan suggested in remarks delivered via satellite to the American Bankers Association convention in Palm Desert, Calif., repeating his view that “home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels” in certain local markets.

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One driver behind price appreciation, Greenspan said, is the popularity of new types of mortgages that enable many borrowers to buy houses at prices they could otherwise not afford — and that may be hard for some borrowers to repay if interest rates rise and home prices stabilize or fall. He mentioned as examples interest-only mortgages, 40-year mortgages and “option ARMS” — adjustable-rate mortgages that permit borrowers to decide how much to pay, how long the loan term should be, and when they can convert between a fixed rate and a variable rate.

“These products could be cause for some concern both because they expose borrowers to more interest-rate and house-price risk than the standard 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage and because they are seen as vehicles that enable marginally qualified, highly leveraged borrowers to purchase homes at inflated prices,” Greenspan said.

The article goes on to warn about the consequences of issuing so many “exotic” loans (approx. 1 in 5) at inflated prices, but doesn’t mention ACORN, the Community Reinvestment Act or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at all.  In fact, another analyst, U. S. Comptroller of the Currency, John C. Dugan, speaking directly to the banking industry, echoed Greenspan’s concern:

Dugan reinforced Greenspan’s message to the banking industry, expressing concern that “looser underwriting standards and the more widespread penetration of riskier mortgage products have raised questions about how these loans will fare in the event of a rise in interest rates or a softening in house prices.”

The banking industry, in concert with the real estate industry, deliberately took advantage of the public for fun and profit.  Period.  Now that the debt has come due, the bankers are resorting to extorting the government to cover their asses, and everybody else wants to point fingers and assign blame away from the guilty guys who grease the wheels on their gravy train.  And the gullible public gets screwed again.  By everybody.

h/t: Uppity Woman

Topsy-Turvy Political World Spinning Off It’s Axis

Don’t tell me I’m crazy; it’s the freakin’ political world that’s gone nuts.  The media is so in the tank for a “politician” who wants to “remake America“, who supports a Civilian National Security Force, has little kids singing creepy songs in praise of his name, while adults chant like supplicants possessed, that they ignore his complete lack of experience, questionable associations and miles-long list of incomprehensible gaffes while they excoriate another politician for her more extensive resume,  though she’s not even running against him.  Meanwhile, the guy running with this “politician” is so known for sticking his foot in his mouth that even their political allies call him stupid.

If that’s not bad enough, if elected, this “politician” would preside over a country undergoing a complete restructuring of it’s banking industry, a country that is about to bailout Wall Street with 700 billion dollars plus of taxpayer money.  This comes after re-naming the “bailout” a “rescue” in an attempt to placate disgruntled voters who expressed their displeasure to lawmakers, only to seem to change their minds after the overloaded House website was shut down.  Makes you wonder how Congress got the message.

Yet, nobody mentions the other bailouts, like the one in March for JP Morgan Chase, or the 630 billion the Fed pumped into the global financial market Sept. 29, or the other 630 billion dollar government spending bill, including 25 billion bucks for automakers, that Bush signed Tuesday.  And, heaven forbid anyone from talking about monies paid to Congress by companies involved in the big bailout, or question donations to the “politician” benefiting most with voters from the country’s economic troubles, even when those donations come from the same banking industry whose executives advise him, like Jamie Dimon and William Daley (Chicago mayor, Richard’s brother) of JP Morgan Chase.  If you’re not going to ask about those guys, you certainly won’t pay attention to donors to the “politician” like Mr. Good Will or Mr. Doodad Pro.  Naaah, everything’s fine.

Even a couple of documentaries about voter fraud the “politician” might have committed wouldn’t matter.  He is The One, he must not be questioned!  Even people he has trashed and accused of horrible things will bow to him and do his bidding.

So, while I may seem to be a tad irrational in my daily ranting about this “politician,” I assure you, I am not.  In a society gone mad, when the deck seems stacked against you, and the other side is just as bad, insanity is relative, anyway.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal