Yeah.

Not short, but no longer than it needs to be -- worth a read.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWE1YTg0N2I5OTQ1ZWNkYjFmYTNjZjQ2ZmMzYmM5ZjA=

Planning For When You Can't Plan

"Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."

- Milton Friedman

This Seems Quite Fair To Both Parties . . .

. . . who both deserve a flogging:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business/20prexy.html

Dateline 2000

http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_the_trillion_dollar.html

I've worked around housing issues for 16 years, and never seen CRA do a bit of good for actual people, just programs and organizations.

courtesy National Review Online, Sept. 17

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) wrote:

It’s not as though this couldn’t be foreseen. It was. By the same guy who called for (years before it happened) a surge of troops to turn things around in Iraq.

John McCain. 25 May 2005, speaking to the Senate [Congressional Record]:

"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."

* * *

The legislation was blocked by Democrats, with the assistance of a few Republicans.

James Johnson, former CEO of Fannie Mae and current Obama advisor, has cost us many tens of billions of dollars we can’t afford.

Franklin Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae and current Obama advisor, has cost us many tens of billions of dollars we can’t afford.

Barack Obama: if we can’t afford his advisors, we certainly can’t afford him.

September 17, 12:52 pm

07:17 PM

McCain Did Anticipate Problems with Fannie and Freddie [Mark Hemingway]

ABC's Jake Tapper:

"Two years ago, I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CBS this morning. "The influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside the Beltway, old boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable and I warned about it a couple of years ago.”

How does this claim of foresight square with this interview that McCain gave to the Keene (NH) Sentinel, discussing the subprime mortgage crisis, in December 2007?

Tapper goes on to quote McCain saying of the broader subprime/liquidity crises that occurred at in the last few months of 2007, "So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not."

A couple points — in the quote above McCain is clearly referring to Fannie and Freddie explicitly. While they're arguably the lynchpin of the current financial crises, anticipating problems with Fannie and Freddie is hardly the same as foreseeing the overall extent subprime crises.

And if Tapper googled a little harder he would see that McCain's not making a "claim" — he really did anticpate the problems with GSEs and see them as a systemic financial problem. He even sponsored legislation to deal with it:

"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."

McCain deserves credit for being on the right side of this. Meanwhile, Obama in just four years in the Senate raked more contributions from Fannie and Freddie than any other Senator in the last 19 years — save Dodd. McCain should pummel Obama with this. He's right on Fannie/Freddie where Obama has done nothing but take their money look the other way.

A Dissident View From Great Britain

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/17/do1705.xml

Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

By the way, i trust y'all have seen the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator -- http://personal-space.com/script/script.php

I would be "Log Justice Palin," while my wife is delighted with "Torpedo Vindicator Palin."

Helloooooooooo Obama Campaign

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09172008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/obama_objects_129453.htm?page=0

Um, this looks like the kind of reaction a campaign gives to a developing problem, not a rabid unhinged columnist who is making wild, unsupported accusations.

Grim Joy For Nov. 4

http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-audacity-of-defeat

What Do You Do With Stuff Like This?

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080914_Intolerance_thrives_in_Palin_s_Pacific_Northwest.html

Words. Fail.

Camille Amazes, Again

If reading this doesn't make your head hurt (in a good way), you need to read it a second time, slowly -- this is an original, if incredibly self-absorbed thinker if you've never run into Camille Paglia before. Set all categories aside and prepare for a brain-scrambling ride, since she has a consistency and integrity to her writing that makes it hard to not take what she says very seriously.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/09/10/palin/print.html

Someone from "the liberal media" took a deep breath...

....and dove into what they seem to think of as the shallow end of the gene pool, and came back to the surface with a fair and insightful account --

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/no-laughing-matter/index.html

Brie for breakfast? Has she no irony?

Don't answer that.

Double whoa.

With friends like these, Obama needs no enemies a'tall -- and to think i once thought of attending this school:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/wendy_doniger/2008/09/all_beliefs_welcome_unless_the.html

Two Big Steaming Piles

These would be funny if they weren't so horrible -- do Democrats really not get this country to the extent these comments indicate?

Don't answer that. Well, not right away, anyhow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/obama-and-the-palin-effec_b_123943.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/07/russell-brand-mtv-vma-hos_n_124684.html

On the other hand, Jordin Sparks and the Jonas Brothers come off rather well. Maybe even Britney Spears has a clue, too; i did not expect to write that sentence in 2008.

God is Funny, All the Time

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/09/my_base_instincts_and_gods_lov.html

Oh ho ho ho . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/us/politics/09donate.html

Yeah, just read it and snicker.

Pro-Life Can Be a Complicated Thing

This isn't red meat for the right, but an interesting wider view of trends by David Frum -- http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/09/06/david-frum-sarah-and-todd-palin-and-the-quiet-success-of-the-pro-life-movement.aspx

I've been bemused by the number of liberal commenters in the MSM who try to say that somehow the conservative and even "religious right" is now hypocritical because we're pro-life and pro-family, but now we've created part of the setting for an increase in single motherhood (which Bristol Palin won't be, but anyhow), which is the heart of Charles Blow's op-ed in the Saturday NYTimes -- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/opinion/06blow.html.

Frum answers -- true. Pro-life as a higher value has necessarily meant a wider acceptance and even affirmation, up to a point, of single motherhood, and that creates some interesting tensions that are still working themselves out.

Myself, i think the tension is less than it looks, and was never there -- young unmarried mothers have always been in the picture, and sending them out the church door alone on a winter night barefoot, shunned by all, is good Silas Marner-type material, but just hasn't been true among evangelicals and even most stripes of fundamentalism. The tension is in going from shame perhaps once overplayed to now celebration . . . perhaps a bit overplayed. We can affirm and support without being thrilled that the number of one-parent households is going up, but it will continue to be a delicate balance.

How Blow and others can say with a straight face that "we" on the right should accept more abortions in order to have more two-parent families, or we're inconsistent, is another sign that we tend to talk past each other on this particular divide, but Frum makes a good attempt at putting some guide ropes up across the chasm.

Owwwwww -- That'll Leave a Mark

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/06/the-recycled-flags-of-the-dncc/?print=1

I have nothing more to say.

Talk About Your One-Stop Shopping

http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors

He Cooks. End of Story.

http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/story/8924080p-8824177c.html

Sarah the Riveter

There's the art; here's the science of governing -- i continue to be even more impressed by Gov. Palin as a (wait for it) governor, as in "one who governs."

http://www.anchorrising.com/barnacles/006280.html

A Snapshot of Sarah Palin's Domestic Governing Experience
Carroll Andrew Morse

A review of Sarah Palin's administrative orders (what many other states call "executive orders") shows action taken on a range of statewide issues. In two years as Governor of Alaska, she has implemented policies in areas ranging from healthcare reform to housing policy to mental health reform to energy production. Here are the highlights.

Very soon after taking office, Governor Palin issued Administrative Order 232 (February 15, 2007), establishing the Alaska Health Care Strategies Planning Council and giving it a broad mandate to create an action plan. By the end of 2007, the Council had reported back with an extensive set of proposals; Governor Palin had obviously selected commissioners who weren't afraid of detail. The first area the commission focused on -- even coming up with some proposals that are economically rational -- was lowering costs…

* Increase the place of consumerism in health care purchasing by giving people control over their health care dollar – the foundations are accessible, transparent, evidence-based price/quality information about providers and services (short-term).
* Create an easily accessible and constantly updated website containing evidence-based price and quality information about health care providers and services (short-term)
* Increase community-based health care services, both public and private sector
* Stabilize the costs of health care by reducing the rate of increase relative to other states (national increase is 6%, decrease Alaskan rate to 4% annual increase)

The report contains similar lists in six other areas; creating a sustainable health care workforce, guaranteeing clean and safe water and wastewater systems, making quality health care accessible to all Alaskans, making personal responsibility and prevention in health care a top priority, developing the statewide leadership necessary to develop and support a comprehensive health care policy, and increasing the number of Alaskans covered by health insurance.

Following the release of the report, Governor Palin introduced legislation to begin implementing of the recommendations. To facilitate an increase in community-based health services, she has proposed repealing Alaka's certificate-of-need (CON) program, which prohibits new health care facilities from being constructed unless the government determines that there is a "need" for a new facility in a given area. To make costs and prices more transparent, Governor Palin has proposed requiring that all health care facilities in Alaska make accurate and updated lists of the costs of their procedures available to the public. The Governor explains her initial legislation here, in an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News.

In response to the discovery of unexpected corrosion in Alaska's oil-pipeline system, Governor Palin issued Administrative Order 234 (April 18, 2007), creating a Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to monitor and coordinate the maintenance of Alaska's oil infrastructure. The office was up and running quickly enough so that by July 6 of 2007, the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office Coordinator was the go-to person when the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce wanted detailed answers to questions on dangers to pipelines, for example...

1. Does the build-up of sediment in a pipeline send up a red flag, since bacteria can flourish under sediment and lead to aggressive microbial corrosion?

Yes. Sediment in a pipeline can cause or contribute to problems, including providing an environment in which corrosion-causing bacteria can grow, creating difficulties with intelligent pigging, and blocking of corrosion inhibitor interface with the pipe wall. The presence of sediment is therefore a red flag for consideration of these issues, and generally calls for measures to remove it and to prevent its build-up.

In the area of housing policy, Governor Palin issued Administrative Order 236 (May 1, 2007), continuing the work of a commission created in 2004 by former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski. The major recommendation from Murkowski's commission had been the creation of a housing trust fund to assist people in need, but he never implemented it. Palin proposed $10 million dollars in her 2009 budget, to be overseen by a new body created through the administrative order, to be used to jump-start the trust fund. Her actions won plaudits from Alaska's housing advocates.

The Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet was created by Governor Palin through Administrative Order 238 (September 14, 2007). Among the areas where the sub-cabinet is to develop recommendations on are…

* The assembly of scientific research, modeling, and mapping information in ways that will help the public and policymakers understand the actual and projected effects of climate change in Alaska, including the time frames in which those effects are likely to take place.
* The prioritization of climate change research in Alaska to best meet the needs of the public and policymakers.
* The policies and measures to reduce the likelihood or magnitude of damage to infrastructure in Alaska from the effects of climate change.
* The potential benefits of Alaska participating in regional, national, and international climate policy agreements and greenhouse gas registries.
* The opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Alaska sources, including the expanded use of alternative fuels, energy conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, land use management, and transportation planning.

The sub-cabinet has opened the civic dialogue about the science and the potential impacts of global warming to a broad cross-section of Alaskans.

Finally, Governor Palin reshuffled the governing board of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, "the only public inpatient psychiatric hospital" in Alaska, through Administrative Order 241 (July 1, 2008). What's interesting about this reshuffle is who the Governor added to the board…

Six members representing the general public; members appointed under this paragraph must be or have been consumers of behavioral health services and have been diagnosed with one of the mental disorders [defined elsewhere in law].

…or, as the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services described it…

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute is forming a new advisory board with a unique feature: at least seven seats will be held by people who have used the state’s mental health services.

The new board will focus on patient rights and responsibilities, as well as continuing the transformation of the hospital to a recovery-based organization. “To accomplish this, we need — at the table — the very people we serve,” API Chief Executive Officer Ron Adler said.

Let's cut to the chase now. Did Barack Obama get so many changes underway as a community organizer? How about as a United States Senator?

Palin - Not a Creationist, But Wired Wants Her To Be (Updated)

And if the facts aren't getting the job done, hey, just make stuff up --
http://www.getreligion.org/?p=3870

Of course, now that it's out there, we'll hear this for years, just like James Watt and the End Times -- http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/009475.php

Update -- from the NYTimes' "The Caucus" blog:

From NYTimes "The Caucus" --

Several conservative Web sites circulated this post by Jeff Goldstein, who wove together on Protein Wisdom many of the themes that emerged today among Republicans in the wake of the Palins’ disclosure:

Many on the left will believe, quite mistakenly, that such an announcement is likely to weaken Palin’s support among “the hard-right conservative base”. But in fact, it will do no such thing — first, because the “hard-right conservative base” that liberal Democrats consistently invoke is largely a caricature that lives only in their minds and as a convenient trope in their rhetoric, from whence it can be trotted out as a foil and a boogeyman on cue; and second, because those energized over the choice of Palin include many disaffected libertarians and classical liberals who were, until the announcement of the Governor’s candidacy, set to either sit the election out, or else cast a protest vote for Bob Barr.

That the Palin family — by dint of ugly rumor mongering from “progressive activists” and a compliant left-leaning press that was cynically situating itself to pretend that these rumors “needed investigating” — was all but compelled to release information about their teenage daughter, is precisely the kind of thing that drives real civil libertarians and privacy advocates crazy, especially because the information has nothing whatever to do with Governor Palin’s candidacy, but instead invades the privacy (and quite possibly affects the “choice”) of a minor.

This kind of savage smear campaign by leftists and so-called “feminists” — a campaign that forced a young woman to make public a very private matter in order to stop vicious rumors about the Palin family — suggests that, when it comes to “privacy concerns” (NSA data mining for terrorists = bad; demanding the release of a Governor’s medical records = good; parental notification for abortions performed on women under a certain age = bad; insisting that the world be privy to the private sexual and family concerns of the seventeen-year-old daughter of a conservative = good), “progressives” care about such things only insofar as it protects their political interests and advances their political agenda.

Not My Favorite Point About Her

UPDATED (see above, i got sucked in to a false story! jbg)

Not good, but not as bad as i could easily envision --

"During a 2006 debate, she said she was a proponent of teaching both evolution and creationism in schools. She later clarified her stance in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, saying that she doesn't think creationism needed to be part of the curriculum and that she would not push the state Board of Education to add such alternatives to the state's required curriculum."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4-w_DCWffagBaQb8Il9a0R2hkPAD92SL7E00