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Rajjpuut's Folly: Recent Poll Data Yields Surprising Portrait of TEA Party Voters

Posted by Bob VanDeHey on April 6, 2011 at 3:00pm


 

 http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/racepolitics_research2011.html
 
TEA Party Voters Constitute
a Different Breed of Conservative
 
 
            Wiser Research and Rasmussen Reports recently published new polls with intriguing depictions of TEA Party voters and society’s perceptions of them . . . . Of course, literally hundreds of surveys about the TEA Party have been conducted. Dozens more comparing TEA (“Taxed Enough Already” or “Taken Enough Abuse”) Party folks to typical conservatives or to typical Americans, typical Republicans or to Independents have also been done in the last year. Some of the most common claims of the mainstream media about the TEA Party were absolutely and quickly refuted by the mainstream polling organizations . . . the following “generic” poll information comes from numerous surveys on the subject which will be followed by the two recent and more specific surveys about the TEA folk from Rasmussen Reports; and Wiser Research . . . we’ll look far more closely at the Rasmussen and Wiser data. Here are the conclusions about the make up of the TEA Party that can be drawn from mainstream research thus far:
1) TEA Pary members were not stupid as liberal pundits suggested, but more highly educated than the general populace and than other conservatives.  
2) They were not racists, but less likely to be hold racist views than the general populace. 
3) They were more likely to be older than 45. 
4) The other demographics of the TEA Party vary somewhat from region to region. However, in general they are older -- more than 150% as likely to be over 65 as under age 28. Men outnumbered women by about 56-44 among TEA Partiers. Blacks and Hispanics are represented among the TEA Party but around 50% less frequently than found in the general populace for both groups. Catholics are found among the TEA Party about 30% less frequently than in the general populace;  Jews are found about 60% less frequently than among the general populace. Asians are found at about 10% less often than in the general populace. TEA Party events are often family events for younger couples that are involved.
5) TEA Partiers are more likely to be successful and enjoy higher earnings. 
6) More likely to own a business or represent a profession such as doctor, architect, engineer, computer-programmer etc. than the general public.
7) The mainstream media were right about one thing:  TEA Partiers were far more likely to watch FOXNews regularly and far more likely to question the “fairness” of other popular media sources of information such as the traditional broadcast networks.
8) They come from all over the political spectrum but typically described themselves as Republicans 54% of the time; as Independents or “Other” 28%; as Democrats 12%; and as Libertarians 6%.
9)   Despite efforts to portray them as extremists, recent surveys show that 47% of the voters regard their own views as closer to the TEA Party then to those of our representatives or senators and 54% say the TEA Party views are closer to theirs than what they perceive to be the views of President Obama.
10)   TEA Party people are far more likely than other voters to call themselves “Fiscal-Conservatives”; “Constitutional-Conservatives”; or “Libertarians.”
11) TEA Party people are far more likely to describe themselves as “well-informed on the issues” than regular conservatives 58% to 41% and than the general public where only 30% agreed with that self-description.
12) While studies by groups like the Huffington post seem to aim at portraying TEA Partiers as “trailer trash” and “100% sold on” the Republican Party: TEA Partiers “perhaps because of their age” come from a higher than average income levels and largely describe themselves as previously “inactive” politically.
13) Perhaps because of their age, TEA Party members are more likely than members of the general public to have owned or managed a business or to have served in managerial positions than the general public.
14) TEA Partiers are more likely to regard themselves as “very well-informed politically” and “economically” than the general public. About 78% of them agree with the statement “Lower taxes creates jobs.”
15) The single-most consistent aspect of the TEA Party that everyone agrees upon is that they are overwhelmingly conservative. Studies have shown that only 6-10% of TEA Partiers consider themselves “liberal” and only 22-25% consider themselves to have “centrist” political views.   When the word “moderate” is used, however, a large amount of the TEA Party considers themselves to be fiscally-conservative moderates.
16) Under-represented professions among TEA Partiers include teachers and lawyers.  Union involvement is found, but less than among average voters.  Many are involved in the computer industry or information technology.
17) TEA Party people are far LESS likely to describe themselves as “Socially-Conservative” and more likely to call themselves “Social- Moderates” or even “Social-liberals” than regular conservatives. They are far less likely to think that total bans on abortion; absolute right to prayer in public schools; teaching creationism in public schools; or gun control are “major issues at this time” and far more likely to point to debt; jobs; runaway government spending; and expansion of government as the most serious issues of our day. While both types of conservatives are highly likely to oppose gay marriage, TEA Party conservatives are more likely to approve of or be neutral toward the gay lifestyle. These numbers and attitudes have been fairly consistent for the last year regardless of who’s doing the polling.
18) While we’ve seen no polling data on this, Rajjpuut has done a lot of “informal polling” and would describe the “level of violence” found at TEA Party demonstrations (perhaps in keeping with their age) as “virtually non-existent” especially compared with that of the left-wing activist and Union activist demonstrations he’s seen. Similarly examining the “rhetoric” found on signs at such demonstrations shows the TEA Party placards generally “staying on topic” and complaining about policies and events in comparison to left-wing activism (say in Wisconsin) as vitriolic and often aimed at personalities . . . which is diametrically opposed to the viewpoints expressed by mainstream pundits characterizing the two groups.  
The only “violence” ever seen by Rajjpuut at a TEA Party event was when someone tried to infiltrate a TEA Party group (with photographers in tow) bearing a racist reference to Obama. The young man was physically conducted off the premises by four athletic-looking young TEA Party men and his racist sign destroyed completely. The mainstream media didn’t cover that on the nightly news, however. That’s concludes our broad outline of who the TEA Party is . . . .
http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/racepolitics_research2011.html
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2011/48_say_their_views_closer_to_tea_party_than_congress
           In the two surveys linked above, the pollsters zeroed in on some specific beliefs or specific impact of TEA Party conservatives compared to regular conservatives. The second link is to a recent Rasmussen Reports poll on the TEA Party which tracks the public perception of TEA Partiers very closely. The top link from Wiser Research really aimed to zoom in on a few areas where the TEA Party is claimed by the media to be “more extreme” than Republicans or other conservatives.
            Rasmussen leads off his poll with this comment: “In the ongoing budget-cutting debate in Washington, some congressional Democrats have accused their Republican opponents of being ‘held captive’ by the Tea Party movement, but voters identified with the Tea Party more than Congress. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters say when it comes to the major issues facing the country, their views are closer to the average Tea Party member as opposed to the average member of Congress. Just 22% say their views are closer to those of the average congressman. Even more (30%) aren’t sure.”
            Results of the Rasmussen polling added that 49% of likely voters see the TEA Party movement as “good for the country; while 26% see it as bad for the country; and 16% see the TEA Party as a neutral entity neither good nor bad. 78% of Republicans and 54% of Independents see the TEA Party as good for the country; while 48% of Democrats see it as bad for the country. 45% of likely voters believe the average TEA Party member has a better understanding of the problems (and their solutions?) facing the country than the average member of congress; while only 31% see the average member of congress having a better understanding.
            At present 22% of the populace claim they are part of the TEA Party movement; 12% say that someone close to them is a TEA Party Member; and 14% say they aren’t sure. 94% of the political-class have no ties to the TEA Party and 69% of the political class believe the TEA Party is a bad thing. (Over the years depending upon the economy, between 6-15% of voters identify themselves as part of the political class by their answers to three specific questions from Rasmussen pollers, while 54-70% respond to those same three questions in keeping with “mainstream” views. 59% of mainstream voters see the TEA Party as good for the country. 
The Rasmussen Reports poll concludes saying, “41% of all voters think the Tea Party will play a bigger role in the 2012 election campaigns than it did in 2010; 30% see the TEA Party’s role “about the same”; while 21% say they expect a smaller role in 2012. Voters see the words “Tea Party” a bit more positively as a political label these days, while the terms “liberal” and “progressive” have lost ground even among Democrats. “Conservative” remains the most popular description. While Rasmussen has earned a reputation for professionalism and accuracy and beaten all other polling groups in predicting the final vote percentages over the last three presidential election cycles . . . some have claimed that Rasmussen is “conservative-leaning.” For balance we’ll look at a recent poll on the TEA Party conducted by a supposedly independent and neutral survey group: Wiser Research . . . .
            In the Wiser Research the survey concluded that it appears that there is “an emerging split among conservatives” and asked “how will this affect Republicans in 2012?”   While admiring the polling’s ingenuity, Rajjpuut finds such conclusions, highly questionable largely because of the way the polling was conducted.   Wiser sought responses to opinion statements from regular conservatives and from TEA Party conservatives and then sought to assess the differences in response. Since Wiser was looking for differences, it’s not at all surprising that they found them. Rajjpuut’s totally different conclusions are found below; here are the Wiser opinion-generating statements:
A)        “Barack Obama is destroying the country.”
B)       “Obama is a socialist.”
C)        “I want to see Obama’s policies fail.”
D)        “Obama is a practicing Christian/Muslim.”
E)       “Obama does not have a U.S. birth certificate.”
As stated above, Wiser Research was looking for differences and found them. Except for the first three questions, however, they got a lot of “not sure” responses. Across the board the TEA Party members were more likely to agree with the statements and to believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim than regular conservatives were. First let’s look at those responses according to Wiser:
A)       “Barack Obama is destroying the country” elicited a huge difference between regular conservatives and the TEA Party. 6% of regular conservatives agreed with the statement while 71% of TEA Party Conservatives agreed.
B)       “Obama is a Socialist” showed another great divide, but not quite so marked this time: 75% of the TEA Party members believe Obama is a Socialist compared to 40% of regular conservatives.
C)        “I want to see Obama’s policies fail” was agreed to by 76% of TEA Partiers, but only by 32% of non-TEA Party conservatives.
D)       “Obama is a practicing Muslim” was agreed to by 27% of the TEA Party and 16% of other conservatives; and the corollary “Obama is a practicing Christian” was agreed to again by 27% of TEA Partiers; but 46% of other conservatives. Note: Among all voters various studies have shown that Obama is considered a Muslim by roughly 16% of the populace.
 
E)       “Obama does not have a U.S. birth certificate” garnered 26% agreement from the TEA Party but only 17% from other conservatives. Note: study after study have shown that 18-20% of all American voters believe the president cannot produce a legitimate American birth certificate and that independents are far more likely than Democrats and only slightly less likely than Republicans to believe this is true.
The “self-fulfilling prophecy” aspect of human affairs (and human polling) has been documented for at least the last eighty years  -- we tend to find what we expect to find and the truth be damned.  Rajjpuut sees these Wiser numbers, especially in response to the first statement, to be far, far out of line with reality as he or anyone he knows has experienced it. He’d daresay that it would be impossible to find any group of self-described conservatives anywhere who’d respond to the statement “Barack Obama is destroying the country” with less than 30% agreement. If the statement was rephrased, “The policies of Barack Obama are destroying the country,” than it’s doubtful that less than 60% agreement could be found among any group of self-described conservatives in America. What exactly is this “opinion” of Rajjpuut based upon? 
A)   Despite attempts to portray America as a racist nation, Barack Obama got more White votes than John Kerry or Al Gore. Almost 48% of White voters supported him. In contrast less than 5% of Black vote backed McCain . . . racism, seems to come from the other direction or should we call it Black backlash?
B)    Barack Obama got a huge benefit of the doubt after his election in 2008. 72% of Americans approved of his performance when polled on Inauguration Day including 45% who highly approved (in contrast only 15% of Americans highly disapproved of Obama’s performance at that time). Rajjpuut backed “the lesser of two evils” McCain-Palin ticket; but admits feeling good about the country electing a Black man as its president.  Unfortunately, that feeling was gone within six weeks . . . .
C)   Things have changed for Mr. Obama, his level of support has fallen dramatically. Mr. Obama didn’t somehow get “blacker” or otherwise racially objectional overnight; nor did White voters suddenly become more racist. Mr. Obama’s policies quite frankly and simply are hurting the country and the voters have noticed and become angry or at least disappointed about that.
As everyone knows, the honeymoon was over rather quickly.   Almost immediately Obama’s actions made it clear that the man practiced highly dubious politics, especially his economic actions and policies. By mid-March of 2009, the TEA Party had arisen out of nowhere in objection to government policies these individuals regarded as anti-American; socialistic; anti-common sense; anti-Constitutional and expansive. That Barack Obama was at the center of these policies was obvious to all . . . so once the political opposition arose, it’s natural that he, personally, would be the center of the debate. 
Again, if the statement “Barack Obama’s policies are destroying this country” had been used, it’s likely that very little rift would have been shown between conservatives. The TEA Party arose first against Mr. Obama’s policies while the entire nation didn’t think about repudiating them until a couple months before the last election. With eighteen extra months to crystallize their understanding, it’s natural that the TEA Party would be slightly more likely to see Obama as personally responsible.  Rajjpuut would prefer not to impugn the motives of Wiser Research, but clearly sloppy interview technique and dubious methodology seem to be involved.
            The task that Wiser Research took upon itself: to find major differences between TEA Party conservatives compared to all conservatives seems to have shown success. However, since in study after study . . . conservatives of all ilks regard protecting the Constitution and American Way of Life; growing the economy; stopping the growth in government; creating a balanced budget; dealing with the National Debt and unfunded liabilities; and ethics in government as the most important issues of our day -- and TEA Party conservatives have consistently shown themselves the most adamant in desiring the government to face up to these issues . . . .
The Wiser Research study’s final conclusions that a rift is developing between Republicans (notice their research was on self-identified “conservatives,” but their conclusion talks about Republicans) and the TEA Party may be of little import since currently fiscal-conservativism and Constitutional-conservativism seems to be the driving impetus of the broader electorate. IF such a wide rift actually exists it’s not likely to manifest itself when such a huge area of “easy” agreement lies before the two groups and the general voting public as well. Additionally, the central fallacy of the Wiser Research conclusion emerges from their polling technique in which clearly Barack Obama (and not his policies specifically; or progressive political policies in general) was the focal point. So long as the man’s policies are seen as antithetical to conservative values, no rift matters.
The one key finding of the Wiser study (that the TEA Party believes more strongly that “Obama is destroying the country” by a ratio of 71% to 6% over ordinary conservatives) puts their whole study in question in Rajjpuut’s mind until it can be replicated by a more respected polling organization. When it is further revealed that Wiser comes to this conclusion and another conclusion (from a different study) that the TEA Party harbors more racial resentment than other conservatives – something none of the other more accredited studies has ever shown . . . one cannot be blamed for suggesting that it looks likes Wiser went out of its way 1) to back the Obama administration’s “party line” about the largely “unsavory” nature of the TEA Party and 2) actually attempted to incite a rift amongs conservative voters which could only benefit Barack Obama. Rajjpuut would suggest that Rasmussen and other more respected polling outfits take up this Wiser study and conduct a similar one of their own. The numbers 71% and 6%, however, are so out of line with real life that, as mentioned, the whole Wiser study is made suspect.
 
 
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
 
 
 
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Why are we getting the legislation we are getting? (Yes, the answer lay within)

Posted by Allen Toepfer on April 5, 2011 at 6:00pm

Ladies and Gentlemen,

     For a good many years I have wondered why we, as Americans, have been losing so much ground. It seems as though there is a never ending siege and assault on our freedoms, and we are powerless to stop it. I believe I have the answer, and I believe it is simply because we have been looking in the wrong place. As an example, I will use a current vein of thought regarding the "green economy". I am sure you have heard our President state it, as well as seen the endless, mindless commercials stating that we need to go green, and green shovel ready jobs will save the economy, even though where ever it has been tried, a given economy will lose from 2.8 to 3.7 jobs per green job created. Does that sound like its working? I dont think so either. Did you know that the green economy is a done deal? Yes, it has already been signed sealed and delivered. Do you recall voting on this as a focus on our economy? Thats good, because we havent. I will warn you, that this post and the resultant posts will not be for the feint of heart, as they will be relaying a great deal of information. It is my contention that if we dont know where the impetus for the laws are coming from, how in the world will we ever begin to formulate a plan to combat it when it comes to our Congress? How will we be able to beat Obama when he talks about a green economy, or "common sense" gun laws, or we need to allow the International Community to have a more expansive role in world affairs? How will we be able to refute the idea that healthcare is a "right", or that collective bargaining is a "right" or that housing is a "right"? Would you like to know where the ideas come from? Good, because I am going to post a new section each week. This should allow you enough time to read, digest, and disseminate the information. I have used .gov websites, organizational websites, and substantial documentation to provide you the proof you need to go after politicians, legislators, and different leaders who are signed on to the agendas.

 

Whether you know it or not, YOU and I are signed on to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. What are those you might ask? Please go to the following website to substantiate what I am saying:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
The MDGs are:
1 Eradication of poverty
2 Universal Primary Education
3 Gender Equality
4 Child Health
5 Maternal Health
6 Combat AIDS/HIV
7 Environmental Sustainability
8 Global Partnership for development

Believe it or not, these goals go back to the year 2000. However, we havent been involved in them to a great extent. From the inception of the Obama administration we have signed on in a much greater fashion.
“I had an opportunity of meeting Senator John Kerry yesterday in Poznan and I was very much encouraged by meeting him. He is going to be the next Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate and he assured me that, as next Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he will fully cooperate with the United Nations. And also it is my expectation that, again, the new Administration will be much more actively engaged with the United Nations, on climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, and many other major United Nations issues”
Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki Moon.
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp?nid=1235

You might state that this is nice but it isnt the US Government stating this. Sadly, it is true. Go to the websites, at the end of each quote where you will be able to substantiate what I am saying:


During the campaign, Barack Obama stated that "....we are just five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America" Little did we know how right he was. I would like to show you a few quotes from his National Security Strategy from 2010:

National Security Strategy 2010:
“We will expand our support to modernizing institutions and arrangements such as the evolution of the G-8 to the G-20 to reflect the realities of today’s international environment. Working with the institutions and the countries that comprise them, we will enhance international capacity to prevent conflict, spur economic growth, improve security, combat climate change, and address the challenges posed by weak and failing states. And we will challenge and assist international institutions and frameworks to reform when they fail to live up to their promise. Strengthening the legitimacy and authority of international law and institutions, especially the U.N., will require a constant struggle to improve performance.
Furthermore, our international order must recognize the increasing influence of individuals in today’s world. There must be opportunities for civil society to thrive within nations and to forge connections among them. And there must be opportunities for individuals and the private sector to play a major role in addressing common challenges—whether supporting a nuclear fuel bank, promoting global health, fostering entrepreneurship, or exposing violations of universal rights. In the 21st century, the ability of individuals and nongovernment actors to play a positive role in shaping the international environment represents a distinct opportunity for the United States.”
Pg 13 National Security Strategy

III. Advancing Our Interests
To achieve the world we seek, the United States must apply our strategic approach in pursuit of four
enduring national interests:
•• Security: The security of the United States, its citizens, and U.S. allies and partners.
•• Prosperity: A strong, innovative, and growing U.S. economy in an open international economic
system that promotes opportunity and prosperity.
•• Values: Respect for universal values at home and around the world.
•• International Order: An international order advanced by U.S. leadership that promotes peace,
security, and opportunity through stronger cooperation to meet global challenges.
Each of these interests is inextricably linked to the others: no single interest can be pursued in isolation,
but at the same time, positive action in one area will help advance all four. The initiatives described
below do not encompass all of America’s national security concerns. However, they represent areas of
particular priority and areas where progress is critical to securing our country and renewing American
leadership in the years to come.
P 17 National Security Strategy 2010.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf


Did you know this was part of our Security Strategy? Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, John Paul Jones and Abraham Lincoln must be TERRIBLY disappointed with us!.

"President Obama has asked the State Department and USAID to accomplish
more through diplomacy and development than ever before. I am confident that
we are up to the challenge. We have a President who sees the world as it is, while
never losing sight of the world as it should be; a global corps of dedicated
diplomats and development experts; and a country—open and innovative,
determined and devoted to our core values—that can, must and will lead in this
new century."
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/158267.pdf

Does this sound like the America you and I grew up in? It sure doesnt sound like the one I have come to know and love. Here is more:

"Obama Administration and Preparations for the 2010
MDG Summit
President Obama, who stated during the 2008 presidential campaign that under his leadership the
MDGs would be America’s goals, appears to have elevated the significance of the MDGs
relative to his predecessor. Administration officials no longer carefully distinguish the goals of the
Millennium Declaration from the MDGs. President Obama’s National Security Strategy states
that “the United States has embraced the United Nations Millennium Development Goals,”32 and
Congressional Budget Justifications for Foreign Operations submitted under the Obama
Administration frequently discuss attainment of MDGs in conjunction with U.S. development
policy goals.
The Obama Administration’s four major foreign assistance initiatives appear to reflect
consideration of the MDGs. The Obama Administration’s Feed the Future Initiative is aimed at
ending hunger (MDG 1). The Global Health Initiative (GHI) focuses not only on HIV/AIDS,
malaria, and other diseases (MDG 6), but also on child mortality (MDG 4) and maternal health
(MDG 5).The Global Climate Change Initiative targets environmental sustainability (MDG 7)
and the Global Engagement Initiative, designed to create economic opportunities and security in
Muslim communities abroad, is intended to support entrepreneurship and create jobs through collaborative partnerships (MDG 8) and involve women in the social and economic development
of their communities (MDG 3).
The Obama Administration’s recently published strategy for meeting the MDGs, like the Bush
Administration strategy, does not focus on specific MDGs, explaining that “we do not treat the
MDGs as if they were separate baskets” and “the purpose is to emphasize that the MDGs are all
connected.”33 Rather, it identifies four “imperatives”—(1) innovation, (2) sustainability, (3)
measuring outcomes rather than inputs, and (4) mutual accountability among donor and recipient
countries—and discusses ways that U.S. agencies apply them. The strategy appears intended to
demonstrate to the international community a greater U.S. interest in the MDG discussion, while
maintaining the U.S. position that the MDGs can best be achieved by focusing on cross-cutting
aid effectiveness issues rather than funding targets. However, the Obama Administration, like its
predecessor, has not embraced the target associated with Goal 8, which calls for donor nations to
reserve 0.7% of their GNI for development aid."
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/148796.pdf

"      And today, I’m announcing our new U.S. Global Development Policy -- the first of its kind by an American administration.  It’s rooted in America’s enduring commitment to the dignity and potential of every human being.  And it outlines our new approach and the new thinking that will guide our overall development efforts, including the plan that I promised last year and that my administration has delivered to pursue the Millennium Development Goals.  Put simply, the United States is changing the way we do business.
 
     First, we’re changing how we define development.  For too long, we’ve measured our efforts by the dollars we spent and the food and medicines that we delivered.  But aid alone is not development.  Development is helping nations to actually develop -- moving from poverty to prosperity.  And we need more than just aid to unleash that change.  We need to harness all the tools at our disposal -- from our diplomacy to our trade policies to our investment policies.
 
     Second, we are changing how we view the ultimate goal of development.  Our focus on assistance has saved lives in the short term, but it hasn’t always improved those societies over the long term.  Consider the millions of people who have relied on food assistance for decades.  That’s not development, that’s dependence, and it’s a cycle we need to break.  Instead of just managing poverty, we have to offer nations and peoples a path out of poverty.
 
     Now, let me be clear, the United States of America has been, and will remain, the global leader in providing assistance.  We will not abandon those who depend on us for life-saving help -- whether it’s food or medicine.  We will keep our promises and honor our commitments. "
President Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/remarks-president-millennium-development-goals-summit-new-york-new-york

Does this even sound like WE THE PEOPLE ? Read on, theres more
"The Obama Administration’s strategy for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), “Celebrate, Innovate, and Sustain: Toward 2015 and Beyond”, lays out a determined, strategic and results-focused plan that promises to both reenergize efforts to achieve the MDGs and strengthen the United States’ voice in the global development dialogue."
http://geneva.usmission.gov/2010/08/02/mdgs-us-strategy/

This isnt the first administration either:
"While the Millennium Declaration was agreed to during the Clinton Administration, the MDGs
themselves were published in a report by the U.N. Secretary-General on September 6, 2001—
about nine months after President Bush took office and only days before the September 11th
terrorist attacks dramatically altered U.S. foreign policy priorities.23 The U.S. commitment to the
MDGs during the Bush Administration was nuanced. As explained by a 2005 State Department
cable to all U.S. embassies and USAID missions, the United States agreed to the development
goals included in the Millennium Declaration adopted at the 2000 U.N. Millennium Summit. It
did not, however, commit to the goals, targets, and indicators issued by the U.N. Secretariat in
2001.24 These are the eight goals and related indicators that are generally referred to today as the
MDGs, but were described by the State Department as “solely a Secretariat product, never having
been formally adopted by member states.”
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/148796.pdf
So, I believe I have shown, without a doubt, that we ARE signed on to MDGs, and that no matter what you or I think, we are being kept out of the loop simply because, as an American, NOT a global citizen, we would throw a wrench into the works.

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Courage

Posted by Junior Sampson on April 5, 2011 at 2:26pm
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak.
Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
                                                                     

 Winston Churchill
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Rajjpuut's Folly: As Couch-Potato America Snores, "THE Revolution" Proceeds

Posted by Bob VanDeHey on April 5, 2011 at 7:00am
 
                 The so-called "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" that attempted to run an Israeli naval blockade  and was funded by a feminine-Marxist organization called Code Pink; and planned by Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadette Dorn (you remember them, the bomb makers) celebrates its first anniversary this May 15, 2011.  What else is so special about that date?
 
 
 
Beware the Ides of May, 2011? Yep!
 
 
            As reported right here in Rajjpuut’s Folly several times already in the past year . . . “THE Revolution” is underway. “THE Revolution,” you say, “Hold it, hold it, when did this start? Why wasn’t I informed? . . . er’ what revolution?” Note to self:  ignorance is not bliss. Long-form headline:   The Radical Left has Now Joined with Radical Islam to Initiate “THE Revolution” NOT Only Here in the United States, but Around the World . . . these moves are a culmination of several trends long in evidence . . . details to follow, and for those interested in marking your calendar: May 15, 2011 is the key date . . . .
 
ITEM: If you’ve been plotting something for at least 65 years and been piling up successes furtively under the cover of dark, you must become pretty emboldened to finally come out into the open in the bright light of day . . . that’s the story for socialist and communist Americans and the union LEADERS who are right now openly calling for and planning open revolt.
 
ITEM: if you’ve got a grievance 63 years in the boiling (since the creation of Israel, the Jewish State) and been pretty damn violent about it the whole time without success, you’ll welcome anyone who promises to join with you in common cause . . . that’s the story for the Islamic Jihadists who since Sayyid Qutb first came to Greeley, Colorado (see: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11) to attend the University of Northern Colorado (then called “Colorado State College of Education”) shortly after publishing his first book Social Justice in Islam have been looking for a chance to martyr themselves to bring about an Islamic Caliphate and Mohammed’s Paradise on Earth. Qutb succeeded in 1966 and before his hanging remarked, “Thank God!   I performed Jihad for fifteen years to earn this martyrdom.”
 
ITEM: Osama Bin Laden, founded Al Qaeda in August, 1988, (even before the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan less than a year later; largely accomplished thanks to huge cash and weapons influxes and military training from the United States) but the organization was kept a secret. That date is important because already at that date Bin Laden had his eye on western targets even while the war with the Soviets was still raging. Even at that date the ultimate goal was world conquest for Islam. That goal has NOT changed. 
            A believer whenever possible in pure Muslim activism, Bin Laden (a Saudi) went to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in late 1990 asking to be allowed to free Kuwait from the conquest of Saddam Hussein with a purely Islamic military from many Arabian nations. He was sent away. 
When Bush #1 sent in the coalition forces to neutralize and defeat Saddam Hussein’s forces, Bin Laden was aghast that “infidels” could be invited onto sacred Islamic territory to defeat Muslims. He publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the U.S. military, saying that the presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia) profaned sacred soil.  Not liking to have their monarch criticized publicly, the Saudis tried to catch and silence Bin Laden. Soon after U.S. troops were allowed on Saudi soil, Bin Laden’s organization in Saudi Arabia was raided by Saudi secret police and information released to the American FBI which on November 8, 1990 led to a raid on the New Jersey home of El Sayyid Nosair, a man with numerous Al Qaeda ties, which uncovered a great deal of evidence of terrorist plots against America including plans to blow up New York City (NYC) skyscrapers.  Just a few months later, in 1991 Osama publicly declared unilateral war against the United States.   The Arab world knew about this. The CIA and top level politicians knew about this; you were never told. 
            Despite Bin Laden’s declaration of war and the information discovered from the Nosair raid, the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 was a partial success for Al Qaeda. The CIA and top level politicians, of course, knew all about all of this; again you were never told. During the next decade Osama and his buddies were responsible for attacks all around the world; most notably for several dozen terrorist attacks in the Middle East, Africa and Asia; and for blowing a hole in the side of the American destroyer USS Cole at port in Yemen in 1998; he and Ayman al-Zawahir co-signed a fatwa that same year declaring the killing of North Americans and their allies “an individual duty for every Muslim”; and most infamously for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon in Washington. D.C. Note to self: it does not take two to make a war . . . .
 
ITEM: “THE Revolution,” (like the attacks from Al Qaeda) constitutes a war whether you like it or not or whether or not you’re even aware of it. You now -- in this blog -- have been given information that the main launch point for highly visible and irrefutable assaults upon you, our Constitution and the American way of life is May 15, 2011. Up to now “THE Revolution” has been going on all around you for forty-four years. 
The ground for the battlefield was originally scouted and prepared by self-proclaimed “neo-Marxist” Saul Alinsky of Chicago with his two books Reveille for Radicals (1946); and Rules for Radicals (1971). The two were how-to primers on radical activism aimed at community organizers in big cities. Alinsky dedicated Rules for Radicals to Lucifer (a.k.a. “Satan”) . . . that dedication has been removed in modern editions but there are still plenty of the old books around and Rajjpuut checked one out of the library less than six years ago, yep “Satan with a starting capital of just one snake” who “won his own kingdom” was lauded as “the first radical.”  Alinsky “tactics” (sometimes called “street theater”) were seen all over the New Left movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some thought they were too “tame.” 
Most notable among these were terrorist Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadette Dorn/Dohrn (both spellings are very common and she’s also given her first name often as ‘Bernadine’) who once they left the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS -- because they were “too busy examining each other’s navels”) joined the Weather Underground sometimes called the Weathermen for whom they made and planted bombs during that era killing and maiming some police and others and losing more than a few Weathermen to incompetence.  Both Ayers and Dorn are still alive; both are close friends of the President of the United States; more on those two later.
ITEM: “Tactics” is how you wage war on a day-by-day basis. “Strategy” is what the long-range goals of the daily tactics aim to accomplish. With Alinsky’s ugly tactics now well-polished, what the progressive- (we must ‘progress’ beyond the ‘outdated and ill-conceived Constitution’ if we are ever to make ‘progress’ toward Utopia on earth) leftists needed now was a grand strategy defining how to make the goal (takeover of the United States and destruction of Capitalism) over time become a reality. Two Columbia University (NYC) Marxist professors Richard Andrew Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven provided that strategy with their May 2, 1966 article in The Nation magazine The Weight of the Poor: a Strategy to End Poverty. Suddenly everything fell into place.   Almost immediately the ideas they espoused became known as “Cloward-Piven Strategy” and C-P Strategy has remained the radical left’s most powerful, albeit slow, strategic idea ever since.
 
ITEM: The theme of the article was that the poor should be used as shock-troopers and only by making the rest of the nation fear them could the poor gain their rightful economic equality. The intermediate goal should be according to Cloward and Piven GNI (a guaranteed national income).   The basis for their strategy was that Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson had the previous year not only got us into war in Southeast Asia; created the two government spending boondoggles Medicare; and Medicaid (with a state side as well as a federal one which now constitute UNfunded liabilities of $75 TRillion); but also launched a “War on Poverty” dramatically expanding old and adding new welfare programs. Cloward and Piven decided that with Alinsky street tactics they could dramatically increase the number of welfare recipients, virtually bankrupt the nation and then get the Democratic Party (where they owned the most influence) to pass a GNI law  . . . POOF! SNAP! Abracadabra! ending poverty and advancing the revolution, they thought, dramatically virtually overnight.
 
ITEM: It took them part of eight years to know semi-success. The full story is found here in a recent Rajjpuut’s Folly in its painfully-detailed entirety:
 
 
The short version is: After creating something called the NWRO in 1967 with Black militant George Wiley, Cloward and Piven crapped in their own nest by bankrupting NYC which was bailed out by the federal government in 1975; and almost bankrupted the State of New York and many other states and big cities by doubling welfare rolls by 1970 from eight to sixteen million recipients. 
C&P and Wiley declared victory even though GNI was never seriously discussed in Congress. They publicly bragged about the great thing they’d done. They told their followers to now concentrate their attention on voter registration and federal housing. In 1977, one of the first things the new progressive president, Jimmy Carter, did was pass a bill called CRA ’77 (the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977) forcing lenders to knowingly make bad loans to unqualified would-be home owners. Wade Rathke, a Wiley Lieutenant sent to Arkansas in 1970 was in 1977 assigned to be the lead in creating a model organization in Arkansas to follow-up 0n the new C&P marching orders while taking advantage of CRA ’77 with C-P Strategies just as they had originally done with the welfare laws. Again the full version of events is found here:
 
 
 
ITEM: The nutshell version is that ACORN (Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now) was created in 1977. Using voter fraud** they elected an up and coming young Arkansas lieutenant governor to governor in 1978 and kept him in that post for 12 of the next 14 years until getting him elected president in 1972. Along the way they perfected their voter registration shenanigans and housing corruptions Alinsky-style so well that Rathke’s organization was expanded to every state and renamed (Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now). They were so successful on the housing front that just by them operating in Arkansas they began to change the face of federal housing very quickly. In 1975 only one in every 404 home loans in the country was considered “suspect.” Typically, this suspect loan was made at 3% down payment to someone considered a very good risk such as an ex-military officer going to college on the GI Bill. After ACORN got involved (just in Arkansas, remember) by 1985 one in every 196 home loans was “suspect” and over half of those suspect loans were CRA ’77 loans in Arkansas and in other states that ACORN had recently spread to. These Arkansas loans were made to absolutely unqualified buyers.
 
ITEM: after five expansions of CRA ’77 (four expansions by ACORN president Bill Clinton alone) the financial meltdown of 2007 would hit the country like a kidney kick from a mule. As for Barack Obama, he was not only a community organizer in Chicago . . . he was also:
 
A.     An ACORN attorney in 1994, '95 and '96 shaking down home mortgage companies not only for bad loans now; but for long-range promises of bad loan quotas for the future and even donations to ACORN itself.
B.    An attorney-professor teaching both Constitutional Law and Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals in Chicago.
 
ITEM: After two legislative expansions of CRA ’77 in 1995 Bill Clinton (he also made a huge regulatory expansion of CRA ‘77 in 1993; and passed the Motor-Voter Act^^ in 1993 with Cloward and Piven standing behind him in the official photo) paid off his ACORN allies handsomely with a steroid-version legislative expansion of CRA ’77 in 1998. By 2005 more than one in three home loans was now suspect (34%) many of them made at 0.0% down payment for homes costing over $300,000 made to virtually homeless## clients.   The full details again should be known by every voting American:
 
 
That brings us almost up to date: So what exactly do we mean by “THE Revolution” and why do we say May 15, 2011 is so important? The answer to that question goes back roughly a year ago. About that time, the “near-ground-zero mosque was floated as a trial balloon to see if the American Mainstream media would back it and they did. Shariah Law in America as a viable option has been pressed by the extreme left and Eric Holder’s INJustice Department since that time. On the other end in early spring, 2010, several powerful American Union personalities and other prominent American leftists visited a few European capitals and roughly 17-18 Middle Eastern predominantly Muslim countries. They arranged discussions about forming a coalition to destroy what they hate most -- American Capitalism. Out of that discussion came the wave of so-called Democratic revolts across the Middle East; the so-called “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” blockade run; Shariah$$ Law- acceptability being promoted (it’s actually already part of law in some places in Europe); and plans to unite because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” 
What we mean by “THE Revolution" is exactly the same thing the left has meant by “THE Revolution" since before Alinsky, Ayers, Cloward, Piven, Wiley and others could talk. It means the downfall of the United States of America; the expansion of leftist efforts in many countries and introduction of a global government believing as they, the leftists do. By the way, the Jihadist will be fine with just the downfall of the United States but they want an Islamic Caliphate and to behead all who fail to capitulate to Islam on some glorious day in the future. But you knew all that . . . here’s what you didn’t know:
 
Item: The so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla funded by a feminine Marxist organization called Code Pink; and planned by Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadette Dorn (you remember them, the bomb makers) celebrates its first anniversary this May 15, 2011. 
This was the first known incidence of leftists in America and radical Jihadist Muslims joining forces. They (a group of Jihadist members of the Muslim Brotherhood (an organization that first became serious in Egypt under Sayyid Qutb) attempted to run the Israeli naval blockade (aimed at preventing arms and other military supplies getting to Gaza and to Jihadists elsewhere) and although the violence that naturally followed was at each step of the way begun and escalated by the Jihadists (each of whom had made video wills for their relatives before sailing that were captured by Israeli agents) the mainstream-lamestream media in America covered the whole affair as if it was an Israeli-provoked atrocity. Naturally the Arab press went hog-wild with the story . . . oh, sorry; Muslims don’t go hog-wild, so uh, camel-wild . . . 
Among other results of this evil-vile collaboration:  Mubarak is out and the “Democracy” that follows looks to be a Jihadocracy for Egypt similar to what rules now in Iran with no more enforcement of the (neutral toward) Israel peace agreement or the Trade (with Israel) agreements that Mubarak had long upheld despite their unpopularity among his people; there are now serious uprisings in almost all the Muslim Middle East; and the old version of Moammar Gadhafi is now looking pretty good as America seriously contemplates funding the Jihadist rebels out to oust his despotic butt. Anyway the first anniversary of that blockade-run attempt (May 15, 2011) will see a confluence of openly atrocious events in the Middle East and in America. Four in particular need to be exposed right now: 
            #1 Code Pink, Ayers and Dorn again are uniting once again for a repeat of the blockade-running event on May 15, 2011.
            #2 As SEIU Union bigwig Stephen Lerner promised (it’s all on videotape at my Rajjpuut’s Folly blog site in a different blog): 
 
 
the assault on the American banking system he’s planned . . . and designed to deal the ultimate crippling blow to capitalism is scheduled for May 15, 2011.
            #3 A whole range of nasty union demonstrations are scheduled to coincide with . . . wait for it . . . May 15, 2011.   The Union movement has now gone global (Workers of the world unite!) and far more Marxist. Go to the websites of the AFL-CIO or SEIU and see all their propaganda about all the countries “standing with Wisconsin.” They believe that Capitalism is on the ropes and all they have to do now is keep attacking the free market system until they can land a haymaker . . . and move their twisted statist philosophies into the forefront.
            #4 A restoration of lost land in which Muslim Arabs on all sides of Israel are supposed to simply walk into the country and “reclaim their acreage” is also scheduled for, yep, you guessed it . . . May 15, 2011. Beware the Ides of May.
 
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
 
** ACORN ran a very successful voter registration drive across Arkansas; unfortunately, those who signed up as Republicans never had their paperwork delivered to the voting authorities and that’s how young William Jefferson Clinton won the state governorship in 1978. He lost the post in 1980 during the Reagan landslide, but got elected the next twelve years before becoming our first ACORN president.
^^ Motor-Voter was called “a twelve-lane highway to voter fraud” by those who understood it.
## After Clinton’s Steroid-expansion of CRA ‘77 legislatively in 1998, ACORN found it much easier to put unqualified home loan recipients into $440,000 homes in 1999 than they could into $110,000 homes five or six years earlier. These folks were typically:
A.      Without jobs
B.     Lacking decent credit ratings
C.      Often without even a rental history
D.     Welfare recipients, and especially . . . .
E.      People whose only “income” was food stamps
F.      Even illegal aliens
 
Even though this blog involves a lot of reading, every educated American voter should know the full details here: 
 
 
$$ That means things like total control and oppression of women and the burkha requirement; and solely “mosque activities” of Shariah law be allowed and left alone as long as only Muslims are involved. In other words the U.S. Constitution would NOT apply to Muslims in the country.
 
 
 

 
 
 

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HERE'S A FOOD STAMP GRAPH THAT WILL RUIN YOUR DAY

Posted by Cathy O'Brien on April 4, 2011 at 8:02pm

If ever we wondered just how out-of-control this administration's spending is, nothing makes an example better than the number of people now dependent on government.  This includes government jobs (doubled), food (off the charts), housing (in the tank), transportation (non-existent), energy resources (doubled), loans (pray), welfare, unemployment, and the list goes on.

At this point, it is becoming clear our real battle is in the budget and reducing the debt limit -- not increasing it. I'm done with what has become another $30 or $40 billion dollar reduction in the grand scheme of things.  This is getting serious, but the politicians are playing Monopoly, rather then their constitutional role of advise & consent.

In line with the upcoming budget and deficit battle, this Food Stamps graph is just from 2008! A clear example of Obama's spending problem.

Here's a Food Stamp Graph That Will Ruin Your Day http://bit.ly/icMB62

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Global Government meeting in June 2011

Posted by Allen Toepfer on April 4, 2011 at 12:15pm
Whether you or I like it or not, we are going to be given a Global Government. You may ask how I know this, and how that can be possible since we havent even had the 2012 Presidential election yet, nor have we voted on the idea of a Global Government. Did you also know that it is public knowledge. Yes, thats right, PUBLIC knowledge. So how is it that our "leaders" arent telling us this? It is my opinion that most are simply unaware or, they are in bed with the following:
"Later in the session, the Assembly adopted an orally revised consensus resolution on “the United Nations in global governance”, acknowledging the importance of an inclusive, transparent and effective multilateral system to address urgent global challenges. In that vein, it welcomed the Assembly President’s proposal to designate that topic as the theme of the session’s general debate, and his plan to organize an informal thematic debate on global governance in 2011."
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ga11045.doc.htm
The "debate" meetings are:
"Initiatives

In his opening statement of the 65th session of the General Assembly, the President (UN President Joseph Deiss, not Barack Obama insert mine)identified the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), global governance and sustainable development as his key priorities in office.

To support these priorities and complement other ongoing processes and discussions of the General Assembly, the President will organize the following informal events with a view to reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in global governance:

* Interactive Dialogue with G20 (October/November 2010)
* Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction (9 February 2011)
* Thematic Debate on Investment In and Financing of Productive Capacities in LDCs (11 March 2011)
* Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly with the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability (16 March 2011)
* Thematic Debate on the Rule of Law (11 April 2011)
* Thematic Debate on International Migration and Development (19 May 2011)
* Thematic Debate on Green Economy (2 June 2011)
* Thematic Debate on Global Governance (28 June 2011)
* Interactive Dialogue on Responsibility to Protect (12 July 2011)"
http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/65/in ... ndex.shtml

Please note that one of the first meetings is being held on 11 April 2011. It is the "Rule of Law". Have you heard that term before? Good, because this is the framework which will provide "legitimacy" to the coming meetings. Better yet, lets see what the President of the 65th Session says it is:
“The rule of law is a principle of governance which lies at the heart of the United Nations’ mission. It is an end in itself as well as a means to attain the fundamental goals of the Charter in the fields of peace and security, human rights and sustainable development. In the 2005 World Summit Outcome (A/RES/60/1), Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter and international law and to an international order based on the rule of law, which is essential for peaceful coexistence and cooperation among States. They also acknowledged that the rule of law at the national and international levels is essential for sustained economic growth, sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and hunger. Since the 61st session of the General Assembly, the Sixth Committee has considered every year the agenda item “The rule of law at the national and international levels.”
http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/65/in ... flaw.shtml

Now, lets see what is in store for you and me as AMERICANS from a government WE didnt vote for:
31 March 2011 - The United Nations and its General Assembly have a central role to play in shaping a global governance structure that is efficient, open and representative, the President of the 192-member Assembly said today.
“The United Nations enjoys unique legitimacy,” Joseph Deiss said in a lecture delivered in Geneva. “The UN is a Charter-based organization, with purposes and principles, membership and organs, and a budget that are clearly defined.”
At the same time, Mr. Deiss, who made reaffirming the UN’s central role in global governance the theme of last year’s General Debate in New York, added that there are several aspects to consider for the UN to fulfil its central role in the global governance system and thus avoid being marginalized.
First, a strong UN requires a decisive effort to revitalize the General Assembly, to reform the Security Council and review the work of the Human Rights Council.
A second aspect is to strengthen the UN’s economic bodies, particular the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Thirdly, it is necessary to find the appropriate means of communicating, consulting and cooperating with the new actors that have emerged from the private sector, civil society and academic bodies and think tanks, which are playing an increasing role in shaping today’s global world.
Mr. Deiss announced that he will convene an informal debate of the Assembly in June to further reflect on the architecture and the functioning of the global governance system.
“My vision is of a strong United Nations with a strong General Assembly, which should be the main forum for global debate,” said the President.
“With this condition fulfilled, Geneva – as a significant part of the United Nations system – will be in a position to serve as a platform to further shape and influence global governance in its areas of excellence, such as human rights, migration and trade.”
http://www.un.org/news/dh/pdf/english/2011/31032011.pdf

From the IMF:
"What is global governance?

The ideal of global governance is a process of cooperative leadership that brings together national governments, multilateral public agencies, and civil society to achieve commonly accepted goals. It provides strategic direction and then marshals collective energies to address global challenges. To be effective, it must be inclusive, dynamic, and able to span national and sectoral boundaries and interests. It should operate through soft rather than hard power. It should be more democratic than authoritarian, more openly political than bureaucratic, and more integrated than specialized.

Neither the concept nor the difficulty of global governance is new. After the First World War ended, the leaders of the victorious allies gathered in Paris in 1919 for six months of talks aimed at redrawing many of the world's national borders and establishing a permanent forum—the League of Nations—to deal with future issues and problems. More than 30 countries sent delegations to the Paris peace conference, but the four great powers of the winning side—France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States—dominated and controlled the proceedings.

A quarter of a century later, as the Second World War drew to a close, allied delegations gathered again to set up new institutions to replace the failed League and to prevent the economic disasters that had characterized much of the interwar period. From those storied discussions, most of which were held in and overwhelmingly influenced by the United States—at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; at the Dumbarton Oaks mansion in Washington, D.C.; and in San Francisco, California—emerged the multilateral agencies that would mold economic and political relations for the next six decades: the United Nations, with its Security Council and its specialized agencies; the Bretton Woods institutions—the World Bank and the IMF; and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This model of global governance, in which the few countries that sat at the apex of the world economic pyramid invited others to participate without ceding much control, became the prevailing paradigm for the postwar era."
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fan ... ughton.htm


Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[without reference to a Main Committee (A/64/903)]
64/301. Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly
The General Assembly,
Reaffirming its previous resolutions relating to the revitalization of its work,
including resolutions 46/77 of 12 December 1991, 47/233 of 17 August 1993,
48/264 of 29 July 1994, 51/241 of 31 July 1997, 52/163 of 15 December 1997,
55/14 of 3 November 2000, 55/285 of 7 September 2001, 56/509 of 8 July 2002,
57/300 of 20 December 2002, 57/301 of 13 March 2003, 58/126 of 19 December
2003, 58/316 of 1 July 2004, 59/313 of 12 September 2005, 60/286 of 8 September
2006, 61/292 of 2 August 2007, 62/276 of 15 September 2008 and 63/309 of
14 September 2009,
Stressing the importance of implementing resolutions on the revitalization of
its work,
Recognizing the role of the General Assembly in addressing issues of peace
and security, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations;
Recognizing also the need to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness
and efficiency of the General Assembly,
Noting the important role and the activities of the Office of the President of the
General Assembly,
1. Welcomes the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization
of the General Assembly;1
2. Decides to establish, at its sixty-fifth session, an ad hoc working group
on the revitalization of the General Assembl y, open to all Member States:
(a) To identify further ways to enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and
efficiency of the Assembly, inter alia, by building on previous resolutions and
evaluating the status of their implementation;
(b) To submit a report thereon to the Assembly at its sixty-fifth session;
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.as ... 301&Lang=E
And
http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/65/is ... tion.shtml
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Rajjpuut's Folly: Expensive, INeffective Pet Obama Housing Program Repealed

Posted by Bob VanDeHey on April 3, 2011 at 4:05pm

 

“There are lies, damn lies, statistics . . . and then there are damnable statistical lies from politicians.” 
Rajjpuut
 
“When you combine ignorance and borrowed money, the results can get interesting.” 
Warren Buffet
 
 
 
Wide-spread Housing Collapse Underway
Main Obama Program Fails, ‘Cash for Keys’ Proposed
 
 
NOTE:  CBS Moneywatch today, ran an article entitled “Why the Housing Market is three times worse than you think.” Since Rajjpuut has several times mentioned that when it comes to housing, the situation is probably seven or eight times worse than the administration wants people to believe, it’s time to clear the air.   This blog concerns HAMP and other failed big government housing initiatives and how they’ve destroyed the U.S. housing market now and possibly well into the future. Many American readers know very little about the background of the situation which is provided in the next few paragraphs. If you’re well-informed, skip the introduction and head right down to the “red” paragraph below and start reading there . . . if you’ve foolishly been thinking over the years that politics and the economy don’t matter – don’t affect you, read and understand every word and continue to the footnotes and read and understand that as well. As the Kingston Trio once sang, “Citizens, hear me out, this could happen to you!”
            As every would-be bride knows, it’s “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" . . . and yes, a similar pattern is starting to develop. The “old” is the outdated Keynesian idea that government can create real and meaningful jobs in free markets and that government interference could actually save free markets in times of duress; can improve the free market system. 
The “new” under Obama was a series of handouts and bailouts bearing his signature ‘zero oversight, zero results’ label . . . first came the Obama $787 billion second-stimulus.  Then “Cash for Clunkers” in mid-2009 proved itself an expensive program that accomplished little or nothing and absolutely destroyed the used car market so badly that’s its effects are still in place today: the average used car today costs $1,778 more than an average used car cost in 2009, hurting poorer Americans more than all others. Then came HomeStar, unofficially known as “Cash for Caulkers,” launched later that same year to encourage economic growth by offering incentives to homeowner and retailers and small business owners for improving their homes’ etc.’s energy efficiency.  The program got all tied up in bureaucratic red tape when Republican oversight indicated that the beneficiaries would mostly tend to come from a narrow-range of construction firms that had contributed to the Obama presidential run in 2008. “Cash for Keys” (more below) is a similar program which has an importantly distinct “wrinkle.”
“Something borrowed” includes all the same lies that made Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) such a left-wing hero even though he took an ordinary recession and extended it out to 12.5 years until Pearl Harbor finally jump-started the economy and ended the country’s horrific malaise. In this age of real information available in real-time, however, the slick lies that allowed FDR to confiscate the nation’s gold coinage from citizens and then to re-peg the price of an ounce of gold from $20.76 up to $35 an ounce (a theft of the wealth of the citizens and an overnight inflation of roughly 69% which mugged 92% of all Americans <gold coin holders> on the one hand; and then impoverished 100% of the nation on the other) aren’t able to fester so long as there are now in the information age watchdogs like The Wall Street Journal and Fox News (and to a lesser extent USA Today) defying the liberal media’s cheerleading for the Obama administration and holding their feet to the fire every single day; 24 hours a day.  Even though most citizens don't bother to educate themselves as to political reality; the 24-7 news cycle makes it impossible eventually for the majority to stay ignorant forever.  When they "wise up" often their bitterness toward the liars in government can be dramatic:  as we saw on the last Election Day.
Under real media scrutiny, Joe Biden’s remarkable rhetorical statement (“Are we going to have to borrow trillions, to keep from going bankrupt? Yes!”) was quickly revealed for the preposterous notion it was and not repeated.  When a poll earlier this week showed that 60% of Americans do NOT approve of Obama’s economic programs and then virtually identical results came from the always trustworthy Rasmussen Reports, it shows that Americans sooner or later get the picture.   Only 36% of Americans think the Obama economic programs are sound.  57% are so convinced that they're in favor of a government shutdown so long as substantial budget cuts result.
Something “blue” is the result of all the government interference in the once great American housing market. We’ll only touch briefly here on the well-documented fact that it was government interference** which created the crisis in the first place (see the footnote if you’ve been too busy watching sitcoms and IRreality shows to notice how the government stuck it to us . . . and pay attention from now on). We will mention that the job-killing government interference that supposedly was designed to expand job opportunities in the free market has had the exact opposite effect. The money that normally would sit on the sidelines during the initial stages of a recession and then come into play has stayed there on the sidelines for two and a half years now. The bottom of the recession, as shown by the American stock markets which usually get it close to right, was in mid-March, 2009 six months after the height of the financial crisis. Typically in normal times within another nine or ten months (that would mean at the end of 2009 or January of 2010) an all-out recovery is well underway. 
However, thanks to all the new government regulation and interference and all the confusion and uncertainty that’s been created . . . even larger amounts of capital has stayed uninvested by small business, the engine of economic recovery. This is money that would have been working in the free markets for fourteen or fifteen months already which is too frightened by the economic assault Barack has lain upon them. Obamacare, is one of the administration’s worst moves ever. The new law all by itself created 384 new government agencies (in 12+ years FDR only created 39 new agencies) – no, that is NOT a typo, 384 new agencies and all their red tape anti-business bureaucracy Americans now have to deal with. Now let us move on to something’s “double-blue.”
On Tuesday, March 29th, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to end HAMP one of president Obama’s most ambitious housing programs. HAMP (the Home Affordable Modification Program) was designed to keep homeowners in their homes despite being on the road to foreclosure for not paying their mortgages. Republicans and virtually all so-called “Blue-dog” Democrats agree nearly 100% that HAMP was a fiasco, a monumental failure. There are lies, damn lies, statistics . . . and then there are damnable statistical lies from politicians . . . such as when Janet Napolitano tells us with contrived data that the borders are safer than ever; or President Obama assures us that his approach to the housing approach is actually working quite well; and justifying his request to modify and expand the program . . . .
“Real” (meaningful numerical information designed to highlight a problem and point at a solution) statistics tell a different story than the Obama folk would have you believe. As soon as the repeal HAMP bill was passed in the House, fifty Democratic reps sent a message to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urging that he reform HAMP: “HAMP must change to meet its potential.” The real stats show a deeply flawed program. Besides the few Blue-dog Dems voting for the bill, most Democrats know that HAMP is the poster boy for failed government interference and government spending boondoggles, but they feel they must vote with their caucus and their president . . . so the HAMP repeal vote faces a highly uncertain future in the senate . . . not to mention that Barack Obama has said he will definitely veto the HAMP repeal bill should it reach the Oval Office.     What is it about HAMP that Democrats find to love? First, the facts . . . .
The outgoing special investigator general for TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program), Neil Barofsky, called HAMP a "failure," in an interview with CNN on March 24th. He said HAMP was supposed to help 3 to 4 million underwater homeowners stay in their homes. But so far, it has only managed to help less than half a million do so despite immense expenditures of time and money.   "It's really one of the deep failures of TARP," Barofsky said. "TARP wasn't supposed to just help the banks return to profitability, it was also supposed to help people stay in their homes." Mr. Geithner at the Treasury has pointed out, on several occasions, that while the HAMP program could be better, it's the only federal program spurring mortgage servicers to help homeowners. 
What goes unmentioned among all the administration spin is that because of the huge amount of time and red-tape involved with HAMP and the refusal of many aggrieved foreclosed owners to leave their properties the possibility of a genuine recovery in the American housing market is years away. Until these depressed properties are handled, their shadow hangs over all potential dealings as the vast majority of Americans paying their mortgages every month find that their once “most valuable asset” (their home) has now become a monstrous drag on their personal finances. Should they want to sell, they face depressed prices and/or long periods of uncertainty before a buyer can be found. If they hold onto their homes they face 3%-10% drops in value that threaten in many cases to put them “underwater” on their mortgage despite their homes’ built-up equities. 
Barack Obama’s refusal to insist that reasonable foreclosures be allowed to proceed is a huge black cloud hanging over the nation’s real estate marketing. Of course, Barack as an ACORN lawyer in the mid-90’s was helping shake down lenders and setting up a lot of these very same loans to ignorant and unworthy clients by extorting banks to abide with the federal government’s CRA ’77 legislation forcing them to make horrifically bad home loans so perhaps his judgment in the matter is clouded. Besides clearing this nebulous situation up, the Republican HAMP repeal bill will knock $1.3 billion off the federal deficits. So why does Obama and why do the progressives Democrats love HAMP? Despite all their claims about Bush and “the car in the ditch,” most Democrats know who really caused the financial meltdown we saw beginning in late 2007. They’d prefer, however, to continue to lie to themselves and to the American voter.  
HAMP is their last ditch effort to prove to themselves that despite the obvious facts on display . . . government interference works; that they really did NOT undermine and cut the legs off the U.S. economy with all their constant mortgage industry interference beginning with CRA ’77 (see the earlier mentioned footnote** below). Of course the fact that the original CRA President was Jimmy Carter; and our first ACORN president Bill Clinton, expanded Community Reinvestment ACT ‘77 legislation once by regulatory fiat in 1993; twice by separate legislations in 1995; and by a steroid-version expansion of the law in 1998; and the fact that Barack Obama was an ACORN lawyer for parts of three years shaking down banks and mortgage companies to extort their involvement in CRA 77 and grant knowingly unsound loans to knowingly terribly fiscally-unworthy clients . . . these facts should not color your evaluation of progressive politicians and their competence now, should it?
So what is the big picture here? What’s going on in the housing markets? When can we expect a full recovery? Recent reports show that new home sales hit a record low in February, 2011. Last week we found out that 19 of the 20 largest metros areas according to Standard and Poors, experienced a pricing slump in January. This is horrible news three years into the financial meltdown and almost by itself guarantees a “double-dip” recession. Ah, but the situation degenerates even more . . . .
The good news is that besides some job growth and a tiny wage growth . . . American banks are finally looking at the economy with a rosier perspective and are now far more likely to grant home loans.   However, the fly-in-the-ointment is the nasty situation with depressed and foreclosed homes mentioned above. It’s what the mortgage industry calls “shadow inventory.” Besides the alarming backlog of older homes on the market and the relative DEPRESSION in new home turnover, there is this nagging shadow inventory that can’t be dealt with properly because of the government red tape; Obama’s intransigent belief that his programs are infallible; and Eric Holder’s “INJUSTICE DEPARTMENT” standing in the way, protecting the unworthy ACORN-inspired borrowers over the forced-to-loan-‘em-money-by-your-stupid-CRA ’77-law banks and handcuffing the entire U.S. economy as a result.
Here’s what the statistics tell us: A) 3.5 million existing homes are being tracked by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) which, at their current prices, are homes that would sell on average only after 8.5 – 9 full months’ exposure on the market. B) The “shadow inventory” that the government and the banking industry would like to pretend isn’t fouling their nets is, if you press them, another 1.8 million homes definitely likely to hit the market sometime soon in our futures. Why? Some people will eventually “just walk away” from their underwater mortgages; or from their job losses which have made them unable to continue paying on older homes in which they’ve some real equity; most of these people are now anywhere from three months to nine months behind in paying their mortgages and foreclosure is now a definite prospect. And what is the likely result of all this shadow inventory eventually? A large chunk of these homes will appear on the market and the NAR’s projected nine month turnaround will then jump to an average of two years . . . a literal disaster for home-sellers and C) in reality the biggest lie of our time concerning the mortgage industry is now coming to light: it appears that a hither-to unreported severely underwater shadow inventory has been glossed over until now. 
These are two million homeowners who now find themselves at least 50 percent underwater on their mortgages. A huge percentage of these folk were the “beneficiaries” of the CRA ’77 legislation and ACORN’s efforts to put the jobless and poor credit risks and even illegal aliens into expensive homes (that statement is zero exaggeration, but LITERALLY 100% true). A leftist rebellion has charged many of these folks with a zeal for ignoring the facts of life and staying in their homes (despite years of not paying their mortgages in many cases) despite the official proceedings. To say that this element is a severe drag on the housing market is to underestimate reality by 600% in Rajjpuut’s opinion. IF they are allowed to get away with this the banks are really in trouble. IF they get away with this, what’s also to stop normal, honest debtors who can afford their mortgages but who find themselves underwater from saying “Screw it? I like their idea!” What would prevent that? This sort of widespread collapse of private property would mean the end of America as we know it.
Rather than facing reality, the Obama administration is looking at creating another government-spending and government-interference boondoggle called “Cash for Keys.” Their idea is to give $21,000 to all the bad loan recipients from CRA ’77 so they’ll vacate their homes and the housing market can finally start to return to normalcy. So the progressives in the federal government almost bankrupted the banks and mortgage companies by forcing them to make horrifically bad loans to those people (many of whom could not honestly afford an $800 used car) and after bailing out the banks, they’re going to bailout these fools who couldn’t figure that there was no way in hell they could ever pay off their home loans . . . . Now do you still believe in making government bigger? What do you think of government-forced redistribution of wealth schemes now?
For the home-sellers in the worst-hit states: (New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Florida, Delaware, Georgia, Connecticut, Alabama, California and Washington) those turnover numbers are beginning to drag out already. Only four states seem to have a semi-healthy housing industry outlook for 2011-2012: the aforementioned North Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming and Montana. Sugar-coating all this information is the Obama strategy to get him through the next nineteen months and re-elected . . . excess sugar is terrible for your health.
As a quick side note: if you’re in the market for a home, present mortgage rates are very much on your side, so take your time, look over the available housing carefully; don’t be afraid to offer 50%-60% of asking price. After initial refusal you might find a bargain home in five or six weeks. If you’re selling a home, make sure you live in North Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming or Montana; or look to hold onto it for 8-10 years when the markets might hopefully rebound and stabilize at a higher level. Of course, if we wind up with hyper-inflation in the next decade, your home and its present ridiculously high mortgage might just prove to be your saving grace if you can survive the ravages of 80% or higher inflation. Good luck, America!
 
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
 
** “When you combine ignorance and borrowed money, the results can get interesting.” Warren Buffet                  Buffet’s comment not only applies to the unworthy and ignorant borrowers (perhaps worthy of a 55% down payment loan for an inexpensive home if they won a lesser part of the lottery some day, but definitely NOT worthy of a 0.0% loan on a $400,000 home) blogged about here . . . but also to the ignorant and heavily mortgaged Federal Government. Are you far better off now, than you were $5 TRillion ago? I’m not and neither is the country. How did we get into this mess? It’s a long but very interesting story . . . .
 
ITEM:  In 1975, 64% of American private citizens owned their own homes, then the highest in the world. Only one loan in 404 was considered “suspect.” 90% of home loans were granted with 20% to 33% down payment. Even the “suspect” loans were special cases, typically military officers attending college on the GI bill who received mortgages in some cases with 3% down payment. In short our private home ownership mortgage system was NOT broken. But progressive politicians of both parties would soon fix that, and us.
 
 
A decade earlier, a progressive president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, not only got us deeply involved in war in South East Asia, but also launched an expensive “War on Poverty” which included Medicare and the Federal side of Medicaid that today face a combined $68 TRillion in unfunded liabilities; a broad expansion of Social Security benefits (now with $36 TRillion in unfunded liabilities); and a sweeping and, of course, overly generous and anti-work-incentivized welfare set of expansions. About the time this was happening, a husband and wife neo-Marxist team, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, published an article in The Nation magazine in 1966 entitled The Weight of the Poor: a Strategy to End Poverty which has come to be popularly known as the “Cloward-Piven Strategy;” the two were Columbia University professors not opposed to crapping in their own nest (New York City) as you’ll soon see. In C-P Strategy the poor are unwittingly used as leftist storm troopers in their attempt to bankrupt the federal government of the United States. 
Their stated goal -- when they established the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) in 1967 with Black militant activist George Wiley – was to bankrupt the welfare system by creating a huge welfare state and thus to cause such financial chaos they’d get the Democratic Party to institute a Guaranteed National Income (GNI). This approach they said would SNAP! eliminate poverty; totally destabilize American capitalism; and set the country on the fast lane to “the Revolution.” Frances Piven, by the way, is still alive and still calling for “The Revolution” and violence and blood in the streets today. Rajjpuut bets “Nana Frannie” makes a wonderful peachy-keen grandmother – wanna bet she knits some wonderful Afghans?
Their Alinsky street-battling worked wonders in the welfare offices (self-proclaimed “neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky is famous for Reveille for Radicals in 1946; and Rules for Radical in 1971 he also was a mentor to Hillary Clinton and his “Rules for Radicals” course was taught in Chicago by Professor Barack Obama) and C-P strategy worked “wonderfully,” welfare rolls were doubled within three and a half years and by 1975, New York City was bankrupt; New York State itself was on the verge of bankruptcy and numerous large metropolitan areas and big-city states around the country were also in dire fiscal straits. NYC was bailed out by the federal government in November that year. 
Wiley and Cloward and Piven took to publically boasting of the “great things they’d accomplished” even though their stated goal (GNI) was never an idea discussed seriously in Congress;” then they called upon their followers (using the “Saul Alinsky street tactics” Wiley had perfected for future endeavors) to now get involved in federal housing and in voter registration. Therein hangs the meat of our tale . . . .
ITEM: As new president Jimmy Carter took office in January, 1977, a Wiley-NWRO lieutenant sent to Arkansas about 1970, Wade Rathke, was assigned the task of coming up with a Cloward and Piven type organization along the lines of the NWRO to test out in Arkansas. Arkansas was chosen because it was far from the “media glare” and because they had an up-and-coming young politician whose thinking ran to progressive aims that C and P and Wiley strongly believed in: Bill Clinton, at 30 years old one of the youngest Lieutenant Governors in the country and one of the nation’s most promising Democrats. 
                The stimulus for the Rathke assignment was that Carter and the Democrats had promised CRA ’77- (Community Reinvestment Act of 1977) type legislation designed to spread the wealth by forcing mortgage companies to make home loans to bad risk clients (at that time just in the inner cities) who, as they saw it, might otherwise not be in the housing market for ten or twelve years. Perhaps 4% of Americans understand the whole big picture of Cloward and Piven and of Carter’s CRA ’77 legislation and how it led inexorably to the financial meltdown of 2007. It’s a fascinating story. But first consider this: it took Cloward and Piven’s NWRO parts of eight years to bankrupt NYC and nearly bankrupt New York State and with Bill Clinton’s unending support, it took ACORN roughly 30 years to bring down the USA and almost ruin it irreparably. 
ACORN (originally the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now) was created at virtually the same moment as Carter’s CRA ’77 law was signed. At first ACORN was largely ineffective in getting housing action but they went out almost immediately and began registering voters for the 1978 Arkansas election. They signed an enormous bunch of people up; many of them were even real people really eligible to vote in Arkansas. They also threw all the Republican registrants paperwork in the trash which threw the 1978 election dramatically to William Jefferson Clinton, the state’s new governor. At that time Arkansas governors were only elected to two-year terms, later that changed. Nevertheless with ACORN’s backing Bill Clinton remained Arkansas governor for 12 of the next 14 years and became president of the United States in 1992. Meanwhile ACORN had figured out how to get lots of bad home loans for risky clients. In a little while, ACORN was found in all 50 states and now stood for: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.  By 1985, the action of ACORN limited only to Arkansas had made a big difference in overall mortgages in the entire United States. The number of suspect loans was roughly doubled: from 1 in every 404 in 1975, to 1 in 196 by 1985.
ITEM:  The election of Bill Clinton in 1992 was a welcome relief for progressives after the fiasco that was Jimmy Carter in 1980; and the non-electables Walter Mondale in 1984 and Michael Dukakis in 1988. Even though Clinton made the CRA ’77 situation much worse, it would be unfair to give Democrats all the blame. About 80% of Democrats were progressives in the early 1990’s but progressive Republicans played a role every step of the way and, even a non-vigilant conservative president caused us a lot of problems. George H. W. Bush who succeeded in upholding 45 out of 46 presidential vetoes against a big-spending congress saw a bill pass his desk that he approved of except for two or three small details. Instead of standing his ground, Bush #1 signed the bill into law instead of vetoing it and sending it back to Congress for removal of the offending parts. Too bad, part of that bill was an expansion of CRA mortgage legislation into the big federal mortgage programs Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac -- a huge mistake. The good thing was that the original CRA ’77 was a poorly constructed law that mostly any conscientious mortgage company could largely ignore.
                Bill Clinton came into office in January, 1993 aiming to put across a very ambitious conservative agenda including government health care. He was beholden to ACORN and to all the Cloward-Piven people and more importantly he largely believed as they did. His first two major actions were aimed at re-paying them.   You’ll recall that ACORN was created in response to the C-P call for their supporters to get involved in voter registration and in federal housing after their success in bankrupting NYC . . . Clinton passed the “Motor Voter Act” called by opponents “a twelve-lane highway to voter fraud.” No doubt the ACORN people considered Motor Voter to be a great help to their registrations scams. If you’ll visit this picture of the Motor Voter signing ceremony you’ll see something very important in the picture:
Yes, if you visited the Wikipedia link given earlier you’re right, that is Frances Fox Piven in the green sweater standing almost directly behind President Clinton with her husband Richard Cloward the tall man with glasses to her immediate left watching the Motor Voter Act get signed into law.
                Clinton also used the regulatory fiat of his office to turn the rather cumbersome CRA ’77 legislation into a powerful and more easily enforceable law. Now it would not be so easy for mortgage lenders to laugh off the notion of making bad loans to unqualified would-be home buyers . . . now it would become part of their everyday life. Twice in the year 1995, Clinton was able to sneak bills further expanding CRA ’77 through Congress even though it was dominated by Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Newt Gingrich the Speaker of the House did a horrible job and allowed almost anything the Democrats could dream of into numerous “compromise bills.” During this time a Chicago attorney named Barack Obama was working for ACORN and shaking down home loan companies. Obama was reputed to be so good at his job that court appearances never happened. The Banks just caved in, agreed to a certain pattern of loans and usually even offered up a donation to ACORN thanks to Barack’s persuasiveness. By 1995, one in every seven home loans was suspect and also offered at less than 3% down payment.
Finally, in 1998 Clinton passed the steroid version of CRA ’77 in 1998. Obama was long gone but the ’98 Clinton expansion of CRA put ACORN in the driver seat. From now on they’d have less trouble getting unqualified loan recipients into $440,000 homes than they had getting them into $110,000 homes a decade earlier. ACORN had elevated its shake-down processes into a science. Where before loans for moderately bad risks had been common, the new law made it easy for ACORN to get home loans for people without jobs; people with bad credit ratings; people without even rental histories; people whose only “income” was food stamps; or other welfare roll recipients; and even illegal aliens. By 2005, 1 in every 3 home loans (34% to be precise) was granted to unqualified loan recipients at 3% down payment or less . . . many of them at 0% down. The housing bubble was accelerating and America was in trouble.
Perhaps the first person to write about the seriousness of the bubble was investech.com guru James Stack out of Whitefish, Montana. As early as late November, 2003, Stack was upon the problem like ugly on an ape. He soon began including a graph of the Housing Industry bubble which he said had been created by senseless sub-prime loans that could never be expected to be repaid. That graph slowly changing month after month was a regular part of the investech weekly reports for roughly the next 5 ½ years. The Republicans of the Bush #2 administration figured things out by late December, 2004 and presented Congress with a bill undoing the 1998 Clinton expansion and many of the most harmful features of all the CRA ’77 legislation. President Bush gave nineteen separate speeches about the unraveling of the American economy that CRA ’77 was bringing about. The bill was defeated every time and the liberal press virtually totally ignored the story. Rajjpuut, who had been warning people since December, 2003 was aghast. Here was the most serious financial debacle of our time and no one cared. 
Finally, 30 months after their first try, the Republicans passed a seriously watered-down version of the anti-CRA ’77 bill in July, 2007 just about the time the problem became Unignorable. It was, of course too little, too late. Nevertheless, according to a speech Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made in August, 2010, Bush’s efforts probably saved the nation from absolute financial Armageddon and he credits Bush in particular for preventing a total meltdown in housing prices. So as far as that little fable Mr. Obama delights in about the Republicans, conservatives and Wall Street driving the economy in the ditch . . . the truth is quite different. Here it is:
George W. Bush seeing the progressives, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and most Democrats deliberately pushing the car (the economy) toward a 500 foot-cliff,  jumped into the front seat grabbed the steering wheel and hit the brakes and guided it into the nearest friendly-looking ditch.  Amen.
 
It's that key word "deliberately" that is most disturbing on two levels:  first, that one of our major parties has been hijacked by people (progressives) who put their own agenda totally and utterly ahead of the nation's because they know best for all of us; and secondly, the fact that only two main news sources in the country have considered this story important enough to cover.  Just in case you don't know what progressivism is:  it's the conviction that we must "progress" beyond the 'outdated and ill-conceived U.S. Constitution' if we are to make necessary "progress" toward an earthly Utopia.
 
 
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leadership

Posted by Jeff Klitzner on April 3, 2011 at 12:17pm

I’m no anarchist but I do believe in freedom and this country needs help a little bit of crazy is needed now more than ever.  In days of yore when men were men battles were fought with words and backed up with pistols, swords, fists, and cannons.  The economy can be fixed rather easily stop trading with communists.  People who have no concept of individual thought therefore give no question to making cheap replicas and selling them back to us at twice the price.   Human rights are unheard of in a village mentality which is how communism is works, the greater good.  You want greater good and peace well you gotta be ready to pay the price.  The crusades never ended for islamists, they still want the holy land and Jews have it and christians make the occasional pilgrimage while the russian mob runs the country.  In Japan they kill whales and spill nuclear waste because nobody thought ahead.  But guess what they ought to be used to the radiation by now.   How can we have world peace when we have 12 year old boys raping 2 year old girls.  Lets start getting our guns out and using them bring back the power of a lynch mob and let the cops turn a blind eye for acts such as these.  No hoods and sheets rather a six shooter and a rifle, lets turn the clock back a bit start breeding horses and using them for transport stop giving money to people who would cut your head off if you didn’t convert.  Take all the cars and line’m up on the mexican border and remember the Alamo. Fight back send a message to the drug and human traffickers No More.  Davey Crockett was a drunken states man with more honor than the entire United Nations.  Sam Houston lost his wife ran off with an indian woman to texas and laid down the law with the help of others.  Its time to a little farther south the war on drugs needs to be a war on drugs.  Lets go after the cartels with same intensity as we did when Nuked Japan and leveled half of Europe. Lets play the game of risk, the world needs leadership and nobody seems to see it.  Its enough to drive men crazy, but lets face it with the Absence of Leadership we have nothing to look forward to.  In America people look upon the government as God and that my friends is the Golden Calf.  We need leader who speaks softly and carries a big stick. Yeah Churchill said it he was nothing more than a drunk who saw the truth about an evil man.  You want to find real leadership find me a drunk who isn’t ashamed of his past and know right from wrong.  Yeah in school your taught play follow the leader but we have no leader thats why the world is in chaos.  I want our next president to be shepherd whose not afraid to fight off the wolves.   Leadership comes with a price and until we have a president who is willing to pay it we will be wandering in the wilderness.  Yeah the way the world used to come up ideas on how to make things better was to sit down with a bottle of whatever  and have a debate but if you crossed the line you had to pay the price.  Ask Aaron Burr about what happens when you crossed the line.  I Honestly believe Congress would be better off if they were all drunk.  We need statesmen who can have a debate and come to a conclusion even if it means pistols at dawn.  It days of yore wars war often fought by the two men representing their particular sides.  I’ll take Hulk Hogan vs the Iron Sheik any day of the week.   Our experiment with democracy was a failure,  somebody needs to speak the truth Russia, Canada, England, Australia and anybody else you could name aren’t our allies we have no allies its a dog eat dog world and we are the pit bull that has been castrated by the absence of leadership.  We need to fix america and the only way to do that is to expand and find the leaders among us that are hidden because if the speak the truth they will get yelled at by some one and discredited.  The muslims hate us, asians think were idiots, south america sell us our drugs and cheap labor while we have all the children on pharmaceutical drug it’s depressing. We have become slaves to the government and worse we are also slaves to technology we need some one to unite us we need some ex-patriots to step up and protect our boarders start hijacking all the ships coming in from china and learn how to build things with our own two hands.   When I was in university my professor in ethics asked me what my goal was, “I want to raise an army and conquer the known world so that it can be run the right way.”   Help me help america, stop electing idiots, stop putting your faith in the government put it in God or at least a God fearing man.  Money is power that corrupts all men, I would rather be broke running around in the hills I’d probably have a higher life expectancy.   We need ordinary people in congress, you can’t have this modern aristocracy running around like spoiled brats.  “How can you help the poor if you never been poor, how can you stop crime if you don’t know any criminals,”  as Chris Rock said.   We need ordinary people to put an end to this special interest garbage because no matter which side wins the elections everybody loses.  We have an Education system thats broken down and we keep trying to fix it with a hammer, let just tear it down and rebuild it.  Actually it would more sense to do that with all of the government.  I call for new elections and lets rise up like egypt and demand all of our leaders step down cause they aren’t leaders.  All over america is broke and we are try to fix it with a butter knife and duct tape.  Lets get the pitch forks out lights some fires and raise a little hell until the elected officials all resign and we put real people into the decision making process.  The constitution needs a little amending right about now who is going to man up and do what needs to be done.        I been all around the world met all kinds of amazing people and only three of them made me tremble.  1 Mike Huckabee 2 Harold Ford Jr. 3 was an old rabbi, I trembled because I knew I was in the presence of great men who cared more for their flock than for themselves.  Politics aside we need people to start acting right and that will come only when we start over again with the real issues, Poverty leads to Violence and life is beautiful we don’t need more millionaires we need more people who just want that nice pink house with the white picket fences.  In order to teach the banks a lesson we should allow squatting rights in foreclosed homes. Will a couple of true leaders step forward and a few great men sit down and have a civil conversation on a Sunday afternoon in a parlor room with out attempting to attack other peoples honor.  I would like to see a day when people realize we are all different and regions have different problems, for example out west try selling cars that run on solar power, and in the mid west how about some wind power and guess what for the rest of us on the Mighty Mississippi hydro power, we can still use coal and natural gas but stop the insanity.  Think for yourselves, communism has its ups and downs but remember even they had to have people who could think for themselves.  I don’t want millions I just want a nice world to live is that so hard to imagine.  Its going to take either the threat of force or the actual use of force to do this which is why we need leaders and statesmen from different breed.  Read your history books empathize and emulate the heros of our past and maybe we will get that better breed of man.

Jeff KLitzner and this is  my gift to the world
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Sign the Pentagon Petition

Posted by tom whitmore on April 3, 2011 at 8:35am

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Sign The Pentagon Petition 

 

Please, sign the Committee For The Republic Petition to tell the 112th Congress that no department or program is sacred; they must all remain on the table as we seek ways to cut spending, including Pentagon, and reduce the deficit.  CUT SPENDING NOW!!

 

   Here's proof that when government grows too big, it will lose control, you have it here: In January 2011, at a news conference, Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “My own experience here is that in doubling (the Pentagon budget over the last decade), we’ve lost our ability to prioritize, to make hard decisions, to do tough analysis, to make trades.”  Adm. Mullen leads the largest government agency in the U.S.A., indeed, the whole world.

 

   "Our exploding federal debt is the greatest threat to the Republic.  Republicans are in a unique position to make spending cuts in our largest federal department. Pentagon savings will enable Republicans to exact greater domestic spending cuts from Democrats. By adding your name to The Petition, you are helping address the $14 Trillion plus debt Washington politicians have run up.

   Before CPAC, The Pentagon Petition was signed by dozens of leading conservatives, including Grover Norquist, David Keene, Richard Viguerie, Matt Kibbe, Tim Phillips and Al Regnery. By coming together with one voice, The Petition persuaded Congressional Republicans to reverse their policy of exempting the Pentagon from spending cuts.

   Unfortunately, our work has just begun. While paying lip service to The Pentagon Petition, the Republican leadership is timid and continues to rubberstamp Pentagon spending. That is why we need you to spread the word among fellow conservatives. We urge you to direct your friends and colleagues to http://committeefortherepublic.org/?page_id=9 and ask them to sign The Pentagon Petition.”                                        

The Pentagon Petition

The 112th Congress, tasked with a clear mandate to cut spending, must look to not only cut spending now, but permanently arrest the bias towards the careless wastefulness, bred of cronyism, that has plagued Washington for too long. To that end, lawmakers must dismiss the erroneous assumptions that have led to sacrosanct budgeting; no longer can select departments and programs enjoy protected status in the appropriations process. Conservatives should enthusiastically reject the notion that any area of the federal budget should be protected from examination. Attempts to isolate departments or programs from scrutiny undermine any serious efforts for positive spending reform — for this and many generations to come. Any policymaker determined to cut government spending must commit to keeping spending cuts in all departments on the table — whether efficiencies can be realized in the Department of Defense or the Department of Education, they must all be considered fair game in the battle to instill fiscal prudence in federal spending.

 

http://committeefortherepublic.org/?page_id=9

Thank You, for all that you do, for Liberty

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laws for Muslims

Posted by larry J. kelso on April 2, 2011 at 6:07pm

I have the perfect solution to the Muslim problem here in the united states.

 

Pass a law so they would have to go door to door like the little Mormans and the holyrollers and the born again whatever.

 

Cant you just see what would happen if they knocked on the door of some old hairey assed motorcycle rider, Bhahahahahahahahaha

 

Perfect solution.

:)

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A New Age God

Posted by Joseph Whitworth Smith on April 2, 2011 at 4:19pm

I recently purchased my own domain, “mymiraclemessage.com” .  . . I’m selling something intangible that is selling like hotcakes.  The following comments are from people who are selling something tangible on the Internet from all over the world.

 

“The Meaning of the 9-11 Event”  2011/04/02 “Finally, a blog that didn’t contradict itself.”

 

“A God for Tomorrow” 2011/04/01  “Love what you have done with your site.”

 

“My Miracle Message” 20ll/04/01  “Wonderful details. I’ve been looking for something like this.

 

“A God for Tomorrow” 2011/04/01 “The layout is what really caught my eye. Then I looked at the writing and think you did a very nice job.”

 

“Nature’s Law” 2011/03/31  “I’m impressed.”

 

“America’s Lost Soul” 2011/03/30 “This is absolutely excellent.”

 

“The Meaning of the 9-11 Event”  20ll/03/30 “This blog was—how do I say it—relevant. Finally, something that helped me.”

 

I’ve been blogging on this site for some time. I’m ahead of the times. I’ve received 157 comments like like the above in the few weeks I’ve been blogging on my own site.  I’m strengthened in my belief a groundswell is building that is going to sweep away the old and bring in the new, an age of peace and prosperity beyond our wildest dreams.

 

 

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Afghanis kill UN people over koran burning

Posted by Scott Chester on April 2, 2011 at 2:59pm
How about inviting those responsible for the murders to our country, all expenses paid, so we can give them a taste of their own medicine, only this "taste" will be one that will insure they won't go to where ever those ugly third grade girls are, ya now like death by seeing how many pigs heads we can stuff up their asses before they reach room temperature. I know they deep down inside like pigs, cause that's what most of them marry. Been there, seen that. Allah be praised, piss be upon him.
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What happened to the tea party?

Posted by Sean McElroy on April 2, 2011 at 2:45pm

I have become more saddened by the lack of focus on what this movement should be on. I agree terrorism is an important now adays but to focus what seems like 99.9% of posts on subject is a bit much. We should be making our politicians accountable and calling them out for doing nothing on important issues.

 While we have the health care issue up in the air a budget that is still not balanced or even real plans to correct it coming down the pipe we have our congress doing hearings on rediculous issues. Lets return our focus on what this movement was founded on. Upholding the constitution making politicians accountable for their actions. Listening more to those these policies affect and not the lobys that donate millions. I am sure if the movement stops regurgitation some glen beck inspired rant and instead talks about the real issues.

 The issues that made the tea party a talking point during the ellection are still unsolved. Healthcare is in limbo, the debit is out of control no big cuts are done. We have an unconstitutional tax of income as outlined in the constitution. We have two wars going on and still have unchecked spending and waisting billions of dollars there. We have states now legislating against unions. I ask if the whole party stood up and said hey we pay our members of congress 180,000 a year they dont pay for their health plans and have pension plans when 90% of americans lost theirs if they even had it to begin with. Turn up the heat make them know they have hundreds if not thousands of people who want action want a plan and not just during an election year. We deserve someone who says what they mean and has a plan.

 I sent a full plan to washington and my senators a plan to cut the amount the major drug manufactures can use to advertise for drugs people will have to see a doctor for anyways. I outlined over the next 10 years the savings on drug prices and less advertising money combined with lower amount paid out for the drugs would save 1.3 billion dollars. Now on a state level it would save 200 million. We need more people thinking of real ways to get us moving in a dirrection. Please stand up make some calls write some emails tell them we are watching them and tired of this from both partys.

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We must be active now.

Posted by Laurence M. White on April 2, 2011 at 12:08pm

We must be out there talking to people today.  Have the neighbors over, have a pot luck dinner and start the conversation about 2012.  The key to completing our message we sent last year is to start getting the voters educated and committed now.  Then follow up, follow up, follow up with them until election day.  The truth is that it will be even harder this time.  If you are a member of a local Tea Party group, stay active.  November 2012 is closer than you think.  I heard someone say the other day well anyone will be better than what we have now.  That is only partly true.  While a rock could do a better job than Obama we do not want just anybody.  We must have a candidate who can ignite the uncommitted voters.  We need a leader again.  In my view the same old guard folks who are considered "front runners" are not about to be true to what we want accomplished.  I will not work for or support any of them.  They are just more of the same.  No matter who you support get out of your chairs and be active because our future does depend on it.  If we do not dominate the election we will have lost the best chance we will ever see in our lifetime.  It is up to us. 

 

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Boiling Frog Syndrome

Posted by Thomas Sutrina on April 1, 2011 at 9:23pm

The honorable Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell represent the mind set of long seated Republicans and Democrats.  Picture John and Mitch relaxed in a bath tub with a small fire keeping the water at hot tub temperature.  The fire represents spending exceeding revenue.  Obama and the Democrats used the recession to added a lot of fuel to the fire.  John, Mitch, and the representatives and senators that have been in Washington DC for years are comfortable in the hot tub.  They will not change their actions as the water is heated to a boil.  The leadership keep telling the new representatives to get into the relaxing hot tub and that the water is still comfortable.  In reality they may be able to stand the hot water, however; stay in it and the heat will dull feelings.  Their first responds is to jump out.  Its our job to remind them to get out and stop putting fuel on the fire.  Ask them if removing a few twigs will reduce the heat from the large chunks of wood, spending from the fourth branch of government added by Obama, Boiling Frog Syndrome?

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Obama, Mystery man....................

Posted by Tea Party Founder on April 1, 2011 at 2:16pm
Here is something for the Nobama folk.  I have no idea whether any of the facts stated are accurate, but it makes interesting reading. 
Does this make you wonder?

 

 

 Obama, Mystery man .....................

 

 
The great mystery..............

        Ever wonder why no one ever came forward from President Obama's past saying they
knew him,    attended school with him, was his friend, etc. ??  Not one person has ever come
forward from his past.

              VERY, VERY STRANGE..

              This should really be a cause for great concern.  To those
who voted for him, you may have elected an unqualified, inexperienced shadow man.
Reminds me of The Manchurian Candidate....

            Let's face it.  As insignificant as we all are .. someone
whom we went to school with remembers our name or face ... someone
remembers we were the clown or the dork or the brain or the quiet one or
the bully or something about us.

          George Stephanopoulos of ABC News said the same thing during
the 2008 campaign.  He questions why no one has acknowledged the
president was in their classroom or ate in the same cafeteria or made
impromptu speeches on campus.

          Stephanopoulos also was a classmate of Obama at  Columbia -- the
class of 1984.  He says he never had a single class with him.

          While he is such a great orator, why doesn't anyone in Obama's
college class remember him?  And, why won't he allow  Columbia to release
his records?

          NOBODY REMEMBERS OBAMA AT  COLUMBIA !

        Looking for evidence of Obama's past, Fox News contacted 400
Columbia  University students from the period when Obama claims to have
been there, but none remembered him.

        Wayne Allyn Root was, like Obama, a political science major at
Columbia who also graduated in 1983  In 2008, Root says of Obama, "I
don't know a single person at  Columbia that knew him, and they all know
me. I don't have a classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at  Columbia .
EVER!

        Nobody recalls him.  Root adds that he was also, like Obama,
"Class of  '83 political science, pre-law" and says, "You don't get more
exact or closer than that."  Never met him in my life, don't know anyone
who ever met him.  At the class reunion, our 20th reunion five years ago,
who was asked to be the speaker of the class?  Me.  No one ever heard of
Barack! And five years ago, nobody even knew who he was.

        The guy who writes the class notes, who's kind of the, as we say
in  New York , the macha who knows everybody, has yet to find a person, a
human who ever met him."

        Obama's photograph does not appear in the school's yearbook and
Obama consistently declines requests to talk about his years at  Columbia ,
provide school records, or provide the name of any former classmates or
friends while at  Columbia .

        NOTE:  Root graduated as Valedictorian from his high school,
Thornton-Donovan  School , then graduated from  Columbia  University in 1983
as a Political Science major in the same class that Barack Hussein Obama
was supposed to have been in.

        Some other interesting questions..

        Why was Obama's law license inactivated in 2002?

        Why was Michelle's law license inactivated by Court Order?

        It is circulating that according to the U.S. Census, there is
only one Barack Obama but 27 Social Security numbers and over 80 aliases.
 WHAT!!  ???   The Social Security number he uses now originated inConnecticut where he
is never reported to have lived.

        No wonder all his records are sealed!

        Please continue sending this out to everyone.  Somewhere, someone knew him in school...
before he "reorganized"  Chicago & burst upon the scene at the 2004 Democratic Convention
& made us all swoon with his charm, poise & speaking pizzazz.
Pass this on to everyone on your mailing list ... pass it across  America !
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Trust Who?

Posted by John Kinder on April 1, 2011 at 10:09am
Trust Muslim, trust christian, the trust issue begins and ends at the polling places. With the full realization that it will never happen, I would love to see polygraphs conducted on each politicians elected.I have long since ceased to trust any political personality who makes a promise while running for office. Much like a teen seeking sex for the first time, he will say what she wants to hear. Our problems are many and vary in degree depending on each individual.Donald Trump stated that our problems are OPEC and China. I respectfully disagree, our problems are politicians, and apathy.
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Trusting Islam in America???

Posted by larry J. kelso on April 1, 2011 at 8:42am

Throughout all of the recorded history of Islam, we find extreamism.

Frankly, What does it take for the average American to finely understand that

our constitution is being used against us by this "so called religion".

 

They come to our country, in which religious freedom is a constitutional law, and start building the underlying structure for the progression of there religion and are within the laws of our land in doing so.

 

My observation is clear on this issue but what i would like everyone to try to understand is the "so called religion " demands death to the infidel with a reward in Heaven for those who preform these acts.

 

Wake up America, This "so called Religion" Has no place here in America,

Fight for our country through the vote, Make your voice heard, Like our forfathers did.

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