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It’s that time of the election year again, and reportage sizzles like the video clip of Madonna doing her sexual gyrations just before she fell on her fanny. This month’s New York magazine has hatchet jobs on Sen. John McCain and an analysis of the mess Sen. Barack Obama will confront if he wins the presidency (after the two year reign of ineptitude displayed by a Democrat-led Congress). There are lurid tales about Palin and Obama in a popular tabloid, and the writers are not sympathetic.
If the economic news is blowing your mind, rest easy. We’re electing a new president and one candidate’s main focus is the economy. It’s the election, stupid.
If you didn’t catch Uri Dadush, director of the Economic Dept. of the World Bank this morning on CSPAN, go watch the video right now. Advance it to around 24 minutes and listen—Dadush said a best case scenario for the US economy is a “relatively mild slowdown.” Dadush also noted the stock market is a balance between “greed and fear.” Right now, courtesy of 24/7 news cycles and media’s love affair with a charismatic Democratic candidate, all you’re hearing about is fear. Dadush backed his statement up with facts.
The Washington Times broke an exclusive story on Friday, claiming that Sen. Barack Obama “tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations” that President George W. Bush should not be able to seal a deal to keep the U.S. military in Iraq. The Times says the UN mandate sanctioning troop presence expires Dec. 31. Already there’s a back and forth between Iraqi leaders and the Obama camp, a classic case of 'he said we said.'
The Times said specifics of the conversations Obama had with Baghdad “remain the subject of dispute.” But Iraqi leaders told the paper, “Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office.”
During the Presidential Debate at Belmont University (Tenn.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the “catalyst” for the economic meltdown. It’s my opinion McCain is right and Congress is abandoning its duty in investigating these Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). I believe Congress is doing that purely for political purposes—otherwise why would they start hearings with corporations before cleaning up the US government body that created this problem in the first place? And not much has changed; it's amazing lenders haven't learned a thing. Watch the video at the end of this post and a light bulb should go off in even the most basic brains.
For quite some time I’ve heard rumors among conservative and centrist bloggers that their content is pushed to the bottom of search engine results and in some cases about two years ago, conservative news sites were removed altogether from results listed on a major search engine news site. And of course, I’ve experienced moments myself, when referrals from a search engine decrease after I’ve written an Op-Ed criticizing our “leaders” in Congress or the current Democratic presidential ticket. I’ve noted the top search results from a major engine on just about any subject almost always includes Wikipedia, where anyone can edit and a mistake may not be corrected immediately, and often, left-leaning sites are presented as news, with no notation as to their obvious and declared political slant. Wikileaks is almost always at the top of political search results, and it's my impression that's a site that not only leans left, but whose data cannot be completely validated by traditional means. Why would I want to read about Gov. Sarah Palin at a website like Wikileaks?
I’ve done my best to ‘optimize’ for the top search engine. I certainly have credibility in my profession and I think I have a fairly well-done site. But I am basically writing off the top search engine on the Web.
This video says more than I can ever say about what happened with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. As pundits and mass media praise certain Democrats, don’t be fooled. There were key legislators whose inaction helped spur this meltdown. Furthermore, had Sen. John McCain not gone to Washington, the House Republicans would have not even been heard. It’s my opinion we got a far better deal when they followed McCain’s advice to appoint a representative and demand participatory rights. After McCain decided to return to Washington before the debate, Sen. Barack Obama returned as well. Thanks to Ant at RedState for finding this.
Don’t be fooled by politicians’ promises to return any of this money to the majority of American taxpayers. In the outline supplied by Reuters, the following provision shows Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid and friends are returning the money to the same socio-economic and financial sector that figures in this meltdown. The bailout, “Would direct 20 percent of any future profits from the bailout fund to the Affordable Housing Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund to meet U.S. housing needs.” This is the provision House Republicans oppose and this is part of what Pelosi means when she aims to return money to the “taxpayers.”
Note: the video is from a partisan perspective and interviews have been truncated. But it’s still an impressive piece of information you are not likely to find covered by mainstream media or within news pages of certain large Internet search engines. Moreover, a spokesperson for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign told The Washington Post Franklin Raines has "never advised Senator Obama about anything, ever." You can read analysis on that at the newspaper website. Click on 'References' below for sources related to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the injustices levied by these programs on the American taxpayer.
The first Presidential debate didn’t have one of those zinger revelations, when you look at your candidate and yell the same way you do when your favorite football team intercepts the ball and heads for the uprights. But there was a memorable moment—Sen. John McCain’s dry humor on Iran. After a back-and-forth with Sen. Barack Obama about preconditions, McCain said, “So we just sit down with Ahmadinejad and he says we’re going to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and we say no you’re not?” McCain also suggested Obama had misconstrued former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s advice on meeting with Iran, and it’s a sure thing Kissinger will clarify that. I think one of McCain’s best foreign policy ideas is a league of democracies. Frankly, I think our resources would be better applied than some of the wheel spinning we do with the UN. If you spend any time on the UN website, you’ll begin to see the U.S. is basically a checkbook as well as a political target.