Fannie & Freddie: Obama's Inconvenient Truth

As you may recall from my previous posts, I have a problem with lobbyists. They have corrupted our system of government and have stacked the deck against the middle class in America. If it were up to me, 22,000-37,000 federal lobbyists would be looking for work today. Unfortunately, its not up to me. It's up to the people the lobbyists are hired to spin. Conflict of interest? I'll let you answer this question yourself.

Why do I feel the need to discuss this today? Well, it looks like the champion of "clean," "lobbyist-free" elections was DEEP in the pockets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. How deep, you may wonder?

Let's look at the statistics, shall we? According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, since the 1990 election cycle, Freddie and Fannie's employees and PAC have given $19.5 million to federal candidates and committees. Of these donations, 53% have gone to Republicans and 47% have gone to Democrats. Not surprisingly, Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate banking committee, collected the most from the two companies totaling $133,900.

The eye opening stat to me was that the Messiah collected the second most with donations totaling $122,850! More staggering is the fact that Chris Dodd amassed those donations over a 19 year period while Obama has amassed his war chest in just 5 years! Dodd received just over $7000 a year while Obama has received nearly $25,000 annually since he declared his Senate candidacy. By contrast, McCain has received only $21,300 in total donations since 1989. (Just over $1000 annually.)

Now, I understand, in the whole scheme of things, $25,000 is a minimal amount when compared to the HALF BILLION DOLLARS Obama is spending to try to buy the presidency. However it does underscore the fact that with Obama you are not getting good change, you are getting politics as usual. Personally, I'm disappointed.

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchngeyourgovernment.com

This Freddie/Fannie disaster...

Is why, combined with the Bear Sterns bailout, I have left the Republican Party. Make no mistake about it, this move by Paulson on Sunday does much more for the bond holders on Wall St. and around the world than it does for the American taxpayer.

I am familiar with the counter argument that this move was necessary to keep the mortgage industry from crumbling and causing a panic in the markets. Obviously, a market correction is not fun for anyone, but ultimately these poor investments need to bear losses on someone and I would prefer China or Japan suffer the loss in bond value. The stock holders were crushed by this move. Why not the bond holders?

We are now in a time where Paulson is being praised for a move that once again challenges the free market economy we Americans hold dear. I cannot believe I am actually saying this, but I agree with Jim Rogers statement that this is a communist type move intended to benefit the rich.

Think about it. Who are going to suffer the greatest losses under this plan? The bond holders are now protected by the full faith and credit of the US government. The share holders have lost 97% of their value and all ownership voting rights! This is a bad deal, shortsightedly structured to prop up the market.

I wonder if history will look at this moment in time as the point where the free market stopped, and socialism began. If our leaders in Washington continue to bail out their rich buddies with deals like this, the middle and lower classes will have no choice but to counter act their nefarious plans. Unfortunately, my fear is that the counter punch will be election of leaders like Obama who is hell bent on creating a form of socialism 180 degrees the opposite of the Bush plan. The problem is, us in the middle will still be paying the freight. We will be treading water the same as today, just in a different pool.

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchangeyourgovernment.com

Going dark...

I'll be out of town in the Berkshires tonight and tomorrow. I'll return on Sunday with my thoughts on McCain's speech and the RNC in general. (Holy cow were there a lot of ugly white people there.)

Have a great weekend.

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchangeyourgovernment.com

I have no words...

To describe how outraged I was when I saw this CNN.com had posted on its from page this morning along with a story about Sarah Palin and her speech last night. Who can defend this obvious act of photographic slander? If a picture means a thousand words, what does this picture say? Sarah Palin is a Nazi, two hundred times? Shame on you CNN.

I watched her speech with a friend of mine last night and I have to say I was impressed. Going in to the speech I had my reservations about the small state governor, small town mayor and what qualifications she would bring to the game. After the speech, I was a lot less concerned.

Consider this, since Friday's announcement, she and her family had taken more shots for the liberal left and the media (I know that is redundant) than Sylvester Stalone took in Rocky I & II combined. Yet despite all the scrutiny and attacks on her family and character she stood up there poised to deliver the speech of her life, and boy did she not disappoint. I thought the speech was a home run. For once I felt like a politician was speaking to me, not above me.

At the end of the day, I think that is my biggest issue with our political leaders, they talk to us, the taxpayers, their bosses, like they are somehow superior to us. They think we can't figure out the games they are playing when they refuse to answer a direct question. They think they are smarter and more important than us and that they are not accountable to us.

But last night, at least for one night, I felt like a politician reached out to the American people as if to say "I hear your concerns, and I'm going to do something about it." It was refreshing. I know the cynical left is saying the words were not her own, and that the words held no answers. I get that, this is often the case with convention speeches and campaign promises. But I can't help but think she must have, at a minimum, inspired more than just me with a sense of idealism, at least for a moment. Sure she is imperfect, but is she real? Will she be part of the solution?

I now understand what Matt Damon was talking about during the following conversation in "Good Will Hunting:"

Will: I went on a date last week.
Sean: How'd it go?
Will: It was good.
Sean: Going out again?
Will: I don't know.
Sean: Why not?
Will: Haven't called her.
Sean: Christ, you're an amateur.
Will: I know what I'm doing. Don't worry about me I know what I'm doing. Yeah, but this girls like you know, beautiful. She's smart. She's fun. She's different from most of the girls I've been with.
Sean: So, call her up Romeo.
Will: Why? So I can realize that she's not that smart. That she's fucking boring. This girls like fucking perfect right now. I don't want to ruin that.
Sean: Maybe you're perfect right now. Maybe you don't want to ruin that. But I think that's a super philosophy Will, that way you can go through your entire life without ever having to really know anybody.

I guess, I'll take Robin Williams advice and take the chance to get to know her. Hopefully she is as she seems, an imperfect person, for an imperfect time.

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchangeyourgovernment.com

Dividedwefail.org

A friend of mine asked me a simple question today. He asked how many bankruptcies are filed in the US every year? He asked the question because the adds for Dividedwefail.org claim there are 1.85 million filings a year because of medical bills. 1.85 million! That's a big number!

If there are 1.85 million filings from medical expenses alone, surely the total number of filings must be 2.5 to 3 million. Right?

Wrong! I did a quick Google search to get the answer and guess what I found? I found that our friends at Dividedwefail.org are telling us a fib. Guess what the real number is? Try nearly 1 million total filings from July 2007 to June 2008, including business filings. Is there a new rounding rule in math I am unfamiliar with? There must be? AARP wouldn't delibrately lie to us about this 1.85 million number would they?

I think we all know the answer here. It's just lobbyist spin. No, that's not right, it's a bold faced lie. When are we as a nation going to hold advertisers accountable for conning us? I don't care what their intentions are, this type of advertising would get a used car store brought up on charges. Why not do the same to the lobbyists at the AARP?

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchangeyourgovernment.com

I don't quite have the words to explain my disdain for the media.

First, I thank God things in Louisiana were not worse yesterday. I know there was $10 billion in damage, but the human loss was minimal, and we can rebuild. That's what we Americans do, we deal with tragedy and we move forward. That is why I love my country.

The media in this country however, I could do without. This Bristol Palin story needs to go away and it needs to go away now. I don't care what side of the ideological coin you fall on, if you believe using this story to promote your candidates agenda is appropriate, I pray for your cold hearts. The saddest part of this story is that while the right is using it to show how "real" Sarah Palin and her family is, the left is using it to show how poor John McCain's vetting process and judgement is.

Seriously people, we are talking about a 17 year old girl who is going thru one of the most emotionally and physically straining experiences any teenager could go thru and our media is falling over themselves to use this trauma as spin. I don't know how most of them can sleep at night.

The real problem I have with this is because I knew this would be the result the moment I first heard the story. They simply cannot help themselves. What ever happened to reporters with honor. The kind of reporter that would not write a story about something because it was not relevant to the news, it was simply a private matter.

Maybe those times are gone, I have hope they are not, but I suspect they are. But for now I will say a quick prayer for Bristol and her unborn child and hope this story goes away and quick. Maybe one day the media will realize that the end does not justify the means.

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchangeyourgovernment.com

Shame on you Don Fowler and Michael Moore...

I have to admit, I am not surprised Michael Moore is shameless and heartless enough to try to capitalize on the plight of our brothers and sisters of the Gulf Coast region by taking a cheap shot at Republicans. If you are unaware he was quoted as saying Gustav's arrival during the week of the RNC convention is proof of God and that he favors the Democrats. I am not surprised, but I am still appalled.

What was surprising to me was to then to see Don Fowler, former head of the DNC, reiterating the same point in a youtube video. Are you serious? He has since apologized claiming he was joking, but the statement was still made.

These reckless statements are further proof we need an upheaval in our government. This is politics as usual and is unacceptable. Its not just on the Democrat side either, a couple weeks ago GOP religious leaders prayed for a hurricane like rain storm to hit during Obama's speech last week.

Have we really become so intolerant toward each other that we are beginning to pray for natural disasters to befall each other? I hope and pray these instances are isolated on the fringes of our society, in the extreme left and right. Unfortunately since the extremists run the two power parties in our nation, this is representative of the message being put out on our behalf should we choose to align ourselves with either party.

I am now an un-enrolled voter. I encourage you all to do the same. Though I still consider myself a conservative, it has been amazing to me how liberating it has been to no longer consider myself a member of the Republican party.

God Bless America,
EG
erik@exchangeyourgovernment.com