An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 27 July 2008
The Do Nothings Should DO NOTHING!
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Congress backs rescue package
World markets are poised for a major relief rally today after the US Congress met in a rare weekend session to pass the most far-reaching rescue package for America’s financial system since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
The emergency bail-out gives the US Treasury sweeping authority to inject capital into the giant mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together own or guarantee half the country’s $12 trillion stock of home loans. The ceiling on the US national debt has been lifted by a further $800bn, giving the Treasury almost unlimited resources to prop up the two lenders.
This is utter insanity! Is the federal gubmint going to ‘bail out’ every single business, no matter how large or small, so they won’t go under? The only thing Congress has managed to do is put the nation farther into debt. So many have whined about the national debt, and the inability to pay it down, but what do they do?
In parallel, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) is to guarantee up to $300bn of fresh mortgages for struggling homeowners trapped with soaring loan costs, often the result of “honeytrap” contracts. The scheme aims to avoid an avalanche of fresh defaults as the housing market continues to deteriorate. Over 740,000 homes fell into foreclosure in the second quarter.
The new bill – reluctantly endorsed yesterday by the White House despite lashings of lard for Democratic special interests – should help to calm the markets after wild gyrations last week. Global bourses have suffered the worst mid-summer sell-off since the early 1930s.
While I have sympathy for those folks who got in over their heads, I do not feel it is my responsibility to come to their rescue with my tax dollars. Does that sound harsh? So be it. We have all had times that were tough, and somehow we’ve made it through. Now, with this latest Congressional fiasco, more and more people will believe they can pretty much borrow themselves into the poor house, and the taxpayers will be there to pick them up.
Hank Paulson, the US treasury secretary, brushed aside complaints that the rescue package amounts to a taxpayer bail-out for shareholders, insisting that the new authority to buy stock is merely intended to reassure investors and may never be activated if all goes well. The authority expires at the end of 2009.
Hank Paulson needs to be horse whipped! No, not literally…..maybe. This bill is wrong is so many ways.
A vocal minority on Capitol Hill now fears that the US government is shielding Wall Street from the consequences of its own folly. The risk of default has been taken over by society as a whole, while investors alone stand to gain from any recovery.
“This bill has moral hazard written all over it: we are letting a monster loose,” said Jeff Flake, a Republican Congressman.
“Monster” is an understatement!
To quote the late, great Groucho Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Murder in Church
BREAKING NEWS: One dead in Tennessee church shooting
A gunman opened fire during a Sunday morning church service in Knoxville, Tenn., killing one church member and injuring several others.
The gunman entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opened fire as congregants watched a youth performance Sunday, sending several people to the hospital. One of the wounded has since died.
None of the children were injured, said a church member who arrived moments after the shooting. The gunmen was tackled after firing three times with a shotgun, church member Steve Drevick said.
Police: 1 dead, 8 hurt in church shooting; supect in custody
Greg McKendry has died after a witness said he stood in front of a gunman who opened fire this morning at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, the victim’s foster son said.
“Make sure everyone knows that Greg McKendry was a hero, a total hero,” Taylor Bessette said of the man who has been his foster father just a few months.
Witness Barbara Kemper said, “Greg McKendry stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us.”
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Update:
Second victim dies in church shooting
A Tennessee city official says a second victim has died from injuries suffered in a shooting at a church youth performance.
Knoxville spokesman Randall Kenner says 61-year-old Linda Kraeger died at University of Tennessee Medical Center on Sunday, several hours after the shooting. Sixty-year-old Greg McKendry died earlier in the day.
Fifty-eight-year-old Jim Adkisson is in custody and charged with first-degree murder in the shootings that also left seven injured.
The “Nanny” State of Mind
Good Idea!
Reckon we’ll have to start looking for two DIFFERENT presidential candidates. 
Remove Representatives Who Believe In Global Warming Fraud
We currently have a policy that CO2 is a major player in causing global warming. There have been several recent news stories showing that this is another myth made up by Al Gore. Another major event the warming alarmists use is that the ice cap is melting and thus our world is coming to an end.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported that Artic ice is 1 million kilometers more than last year. We have had many stories pointing out that the South Pole has had more ice the past several years and many countries in South America have been experiencing unusual cold temps. We also know the worldwide temps stopped increasing in 2007.
You can read all the time reports on the dire condition of the ice cap and high temps even though the evidence is against these writers. Each possible cause of global warming has a different pattern of where in the planet the warming occurs first and the most. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back the temperature as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. They show no hot spot. Whatsoever.
If there is no hot spot, then an increased greenhouse effect is not the cause of global warming. So we know for sure that carbon emissions are not a significant cause of the global warming. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None.
The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon.
We have seen many other countries pass more taxes on their citizens to stop global warming and the evidence is all over the place that those citizens have been lied to and now government controls more of their lives. The same is happening to us.
We have this stupid policy requiring bio-fuels using corn to stop warming that isn’t even occurring. This is a huge tax that is hurting our economy and our pocketbooks and it is accomplishing nothing. This is what happens when Congress thinks they know more than we do and they live a lie.
This policy of using food for fuel is also causing starvation around the world since people cannot afford their basic food needs. Change needs to be made in our representatives who believe in this fraud or they need to accept the truth that is out there.
Bruce Caldwell
Signal Mountain
Let’s face it. No one can even predict the weather accurately for next week, much less into the next decade, or two. The Boracle is making MILLIONS off his scam, and there are those who just follow along blindly, bowing when he says bow, and throwing good money after bad. We don’t control the climate. Sorry, that’s just a fact of reality. We never have, and we never will. Yes, we can clean up the rivers polluted by industry, but we can’t change the temperature. We can stop spewing that black crap I see coming out of diesel engines, but we can’t affect the thickness of the ice. What we have are normal changes in the climate. It gets hotter, it gets cooler. Been doing that for millions of years. We just are not that important. The arrogance and stupidity of some people just boggles the mind!
Obamarama
Morning Coffee 07/27/08
Tennesseans look to serve country by signing up for Border Patrol
Tennesseans came to the event for a variety of reasons, but many said their biggest motivation was service to America.
“I really would like to keep serving my country,” said Christian Peters, who spent six years stationed at Fort Campbell. “Border Patrol is a great way to do that. It’s also a good way to make a living.”
An agent’s starting salary generally falls between $36,000 and $46,000. Benefits include federal health insurance, life insurance and retirement and up to 25 percent additional pay in overtime.
Having more Border Patrol would be nice, IF they were allowed to do their job, and protect the country from the continuous invasion. You’ve got a lot a volunteers who are trying to do that, for no pay, and they are being vilified. Something is seriously wrong with THAT picture.
India leaders in appeal for calm
Ahmedabad was the scene of sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in early 2002 which left hundreds dead.
On Saturday, 17 blasts within an hour struck residential areas, market places, public transport and hospitals.
It is thought the explosions were caused by crudely-made devices containing ball-bearings and other shrapnel, hidden in boxes and on bicycles.
Once again, the Religion of Pieces strikes. And Muslims wonder why a large number of people don’t buy into their “peace”?
Housing Bill Won’t ‘Perform Miracles’
Even as a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate voted yesterday to send a sprawling housing bill to the White House, economists, consumer advocates and other analysts said the package of programs for struggling homeowners and shaken mortgage lenders is unlikely to relieve the foreclosure crisis that is driving the nation toward recession.
“This is not the end of the housing crunch,” said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Housing prices have already fallen 15 percent and they need to fall 10 percent more. This bill isn’t going to change that equation.”
Just one more “do nothing feel good” waste of taxpayer money! This is a Congress of very low expectations and lofty ideals. What a bunch of useless waste of good air.
Latest PA Libel Exposed: Israel Dispatches Anti-Arab Rats
According to the PA papers, the Israeli-Jerusalem rat is:
1. Immune to rat poison
2. Aggressive and larger than usual
3. Unafraid of cats and able to scare them away
4. Highly fertile, with females giving birth to 140 young rats a year, four times the normal average
5. Highly selective, as Jewish residents of Jerusalem apparently are not affected by these rats.
Where do they come up with this stuff? If there are rats, the PA might want to look at cleaning up their own filth, before accusing someone else of such stupidity.
Obama Says Overseas Trip Confirmed Foreign Policy Views
Barack Obama said Saturday that his weeklong trip to Europe and the Middle East only reinforced his foreign policy views, telling FOX News that his proposed troop withdrawal timetable and other military strategies will stay in place if he is elected president.
So, I guess he’s still a quitter, and will not stand up for American principles? If he wants to be president of the world, perhaps he should withdraw from THIS race, and move to where the socialists LOVE him. I’m sick of the pussification of the U.S.!
Relatives of televangelist prosper
While Copeland insists that his ministry complies with the law, independent tax experts who reviewed information obtained by the AP through interviews, church documents and public records have their doubts. The web of companies and non-profits tied to the televangelist calls the ministry’s integrity into question, they say.
“There are far too many relatives here,” said Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor who specializes in nonprofit tax law. “There’s too much money sloshing around and too much of it sloshing around with people with overlapping affiliations and allegiances by either blood or friendship or just ties over the years. There are red flags all over these relationships.”
I’d be a lot more impressed with these type of “preachers” if they lived a modest life. Obviously, TV has done a lot of damage to the word “evangelical”. Egos tend to start getting in the way, and that’s NOT what we’re taught.
Muslims buy land for hub in Cordova
Hoping to give Muslims a stronger presence in Memphis, an Islamic group has taken the first step to build a sprawling community center in eastern Cordova.
The Memphis Islamic Center, a nonprofit organization formed nearly a year ago, has purchased 31 acres for $700,000 at Humphrey and Houston Levee.
Honestly, given the events in recent years, I’d rather there wasn’t a ‘hub’ so close. But then, I’m a bigot cuz I’d prefer not to see the possibility of bombs going off in Memphis.
Sweetened pensions beset Atlanta’s budget crisis
As Atlanta politicians address one of the biggest budget deficits in recent history, they frequently say high city employee pension costs are a major part of an economic storm buffeting the city.
But unlike the struggling economy or spiking health care costs, those pension increases weren’t caused by forces beyond the city’s control. The Atlanta City Council, with tacit approval from Mayor Shirley Franklin’s administration, made key decisions to sweeten pensions for city workers that have put Atlanta in a budgetary bind that will take years to escape. The City Council is just beginning to tackle a problem — more than $1 billion in uncovered future debts to the pension system — that it helped create.
Is it so difficult for gubmint employees to save for their own retirement, instead of putting the city on the verge of bankruptcy? We have a serious lack of grown ups in this country.
Dozens of Militants Die in Battle With Afghan Forces Near Pakistan Border
About 100 insurgents raided a government center Sunday near the border with Pakistan, and more than two dozen of the attackers were killed in the battle, authorities said. Two policemen also died.
American troops and aircraft assisted Afghan forces during the battle in Spera district of eastern Khost province, said provincial governor Arsallah Jamal.
The militants attacked the police guarding the district center from four directions before being pushed back, Jamal said. More than 50 militants died, while the rest fled into Pakistan, he said. Two policemen died and four were wounded.
Perhaps one way of curtailing the violence along the border would be to completely close the border. No one in, no one out. At least for a while. It appears the bad guys have free reign in the area.
Verse of the Day
Hebrews 2:1-3
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
