Team America's 10th District Blog: Don't Panic! (yet)

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Don't Panic! (yet)

Good morning, everyone. I seem to be having some problems with Blogger software, which is not letting me publish more than a few sentences in a post. So for now, let's do what we do best here: assign blame! Who's responsible for the financial crisis? What to do next? Discuss.

14 comments:

Team America said...: I seem to be reduced to making comments on my own blog, since Blogger software is having fits. I just wanted to add that The News-Sun this morning has a scathing editorial against Congressional Republicans, as if this were all their fault for the bill not passing. They do give Mark Kirk credit for voting for the bill, though.

But, why are the Republicans the only bad guys here, and why not rail equally against the 40% of House Democrats who their fearless leader Nancy Pelosi could not put on the bill? Where was Barack Obama in getting the Dem Majority to back this thing???; September 30, 2008 at 7:07 AM
Anonymous said...: Placing blame will get us nowhere, that's a certainty. Mark Kirk stood to be counted because he understands the dire consequences of posturing instead of passing something that protects all of us. It's also interesting to note that when others cry out about regulation, the most regulated entities have been Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and we know the results of that regulation. Oversight is an imperative. This will get a second and third look on Thursday when they return to DC.
Let's hope that Pelosi can muster the leadership she lacked yesterday in her partisan rant that caused votes to disappear. Let's stop the blame and fix this egregious problem before everything we have worked for, strived for, comes to an even more screeching halt. If everyone could reach across the aisle as Mark Kirk has done for his entire tenure in Congress then real advances could be a reality. Unless and until we have legislators of conscience like Mark Kirk my fear is that what happened yesterday will be a repeat issue. Our nation deserves better.; September 30, 2008 at 7:22 AM
Anonymous said...: First you fix the problem. Then you assign the blame.

Pelosi and the gang want to assign the blame first then try to fix the problem. That is called "putting the cart before the horse."

This problem started well before George W. took office when everyone thought that those with high credit risks were worthy of mortgages. Special mortgages were invented just for them.

Who is to blame? The Democrats including the Clinton Administration for instigating all of this. The Republicans for joyfully going along with all of this.

But honesty is in short supply in politics these days.

Louis G. Atsaves; September 30, 2008 at 9:06 AM
Anonymous said...: We all are to blame. Lou A. gives a good timeline of where it started. The question is who would tink getting a loan for 120% of the value of the home is responsible policy. Debt levels have hurt the value of the dollar which led to further pain in the economy. In the end there will have to be some corrections and that means more pain. So be it.

The government should step in when fraud is found because quite frankly the government is somewhat to blame for allowing this problem to persist. In the end greed is the unduing of our economy.; September 30, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Anonymous said...: The Pajama Party-that's team Ellen found out yesterday that it's really easy to put your mediocre education to use sitting on a blog spouting absurdities and quite another thing to govern. It's their congress, their caucus that bailed on them, and Dan's failure.

My biggest fear for Mark right now is that if Palin screws up Thursday, and Obama does well in the debates this could be a route.

Also it's time to dump the Republican House and Senate Leadership, McConnell and Blunt spend more time at the Palm than they do governing and Eric Cantor looks like a 12 year old who didn't get the grade he wanted.; September 30, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Anonymous said...: Both Republican and Democratic leaders need to know how to count to 218 before they call a vote.

I blame them all for poor leadership, but was pleased to see Mark Kirk voted the correct way. I haven’t heard a peep from the pup. No way to criticize our Congressman on this one, but someone will find a way.; September 30, 2008 at 2:19 PM
Anonymous said...: The root of this whole problem began with the Community Investment Act (CIA) started under Carter and enhanced under the Clinton administration.

While this CIA was underway, the left wing group ACORN was picketing banks and lending institutions demanding low rates and no down payments for folks who cannot afford them.

Obama, the lawyer for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) during the mid 90's was defending his clients demanding the low interest no money down mortgages.
Google ACORN and you will find they are the largest radical group in America with ties to Code Pink and MoveOn.org. This was Barack's period of Community organizing(kind of like PETA requesting Ben & Jerry's use breast milk instead of cow's milk for their ice cream).

And yes, ACORN did receive monies from the radical anti-American thug Bill Ayers, through an organization he founded, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, of which Obama served as Chairman. ACORN was paid to teach radicalism (great!?)

Then, the radical Dems push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept bundles of these mortgages.

Background on Fannie and Freddie - they are GSE or government sponsored enterprises that are privately owned and operated by shareholders but protected by the Government. They are the only 2 Fortune 500 companies that are NOT REQUIRED to disclose financial problems to the public (go figure).

Fannie and Freddie's problems include paying millions of dollars to a couple of top execs including Franklin Raines and James Johnson -both advisers to guess who - Obama!

It's no wonder he received such a handsome payoff from the Fannie/Freddie folks and Wall Street big shots for keeping his mouth shut and turning a blind eye.

Certainly not the first time he did it - remember when he was first elected to the Illinois State Senate? You've got it - Rezko gave him a check for $1,000 and he turned a blind eye on his own constituents that were without heat living in Rezko's slum housing.; September 30, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Anonymous said...: Anon - just read a great piece by Mona Charen on "ACORN, Obama, and the Mortgage Mess" on the National Review.

Quote "in 2006, for example, ACORN registered 1,800 new voters in Washington. The only trouble was, with the exception of six, all of the names submitted were fake. The secretary of state called it the "worst case of election fraud in our state's history".

Can you imagine what they are doing in Cook County - I heard they are working with the YWCA, SEIU and Citizens Action Illinois registering thousands of people to vote - hello - who's doing anything about this?????; September 30, 2008 at 6:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Right on - check out www.rottenacorn.com - 14 states hit by ACORN for vote fraud, forging signatures, etc.; September 30, 2008 at 6:17 PM
Anonymous said...: No way to criticize Mark Kirk on this one?

How about that he has no Republican economic credentials? My kids have to pay a trillion dollar bill with interest to bail out morons who borrowed too much from more morons on Wall Street.

For a flawed plan that won't work, because it buys crappy assets from undercapitalized banks. The proper way to address the crisis is buy stock to recapitalize banks. This plan is a criminal transfer of wealth from savers, the responsible, and our children to the irresponsible and bank shareholders.

Unbelieveable. Thanks a lot Mr Bailout.; September 30, 2008 at 8:15 PM
Anonymous said...: 815, I am a young person who recently worked on capitol hill-not for mark and will have to pay that bill and a number of others my parents generation have left me since they couldn't work together like adults to improve the world my grandparents gave them.

Unfortunately, Mark is not the problem, although I am not totally enamored with him as a party leader. Porter was a great local party leader, Mark is invisible .The real issue from working in Washington is the Jan Schakowsky /Dick Durbin breed of politician that by day services their ideological johns and by night services their corporate benefactors that finance them and their policy failures like the one we are witnessing and that we are so pissed about.

From 9-6 these clowns say nasty things about republicans and refuse to work with them in committees which enables them to go to Ellen and their ideological butt buddies and say, "we showed those right wing facists". Then at night they sit down to thousand dollar dinners with lobbyists from corporations and figure out ways to finance their leadership bids and to fuck you. Rinse and repeat for several years and we are where we are with a messed up economy and 2 wars we should have won by now.

Mark's not perfect, but at least you get a straight story with him because he can't afford to be one of those clowns. Dan won't be, and his choices of mentors and naivete suggests he's not the kind of guy you want.

It's not a perfect answer, but it's a straight story from someone whose been there and who doesn't work for mark's messaging team.

Go Cubs.; September 30, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Anonymous said...: TA- as usual, you jump straight to the usual GOP tactics of
1. making people afraid of a problem and
2. telling them who is to blame.

How about we explore solutions instead of throwing mud?; October 1, 2008 at 12:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Before it gets deleted "over there":

"In Springfield, after 6 six years of total control, Democrats still blame Republicans for the governmental disaster called Illinois Government. Karen May puts out pretty little flyers that do not mention a $1 billion deficit and an additional $800 million in unpaid bills to doctors, hospitals, and clinics.

Expand "health insurance" some more since Illinois won't pay the bills for it anyway! Shut down State Parks and environmental programs and claim you are Ms. environmentalist!

Mayor Daley proclaims Chicago the Greenest City on the planet, while the EPA calls our air the dirtiest in the nation.

The moral of these stories: Democratic spin has little to do with actual facts.

So it comes as no surprise the the "do-nothing" Democratic Congress still blames Republicans and spin that they have only been in office a mere two years.

Two years is a long time. It is one term of office for a Congressman.

It's part of the Democratic playbook. "Never take any responsibility for anything that you do."

Louis G. Atsaves"; October 1, 2008 at 9:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Louis you are right, the team "over there" is a crock. These soccer moms have not been scoring for us lately, and maybe Mark could do us a favor and get Andy McKenna to pull his head out of his ass and recruit a few of the 1.5 million people that voted GOP last time to run.; October 1, 2008 at 11:34 PM