Calling John Galt

So, it was over regulation that caused the fiscal crises.  That certainly blows a hole in the “we need more regulation” point of view.

The CRA coerces banks into making loans based on political correctness, and little else, to people who can’t affordt them.  Enforced like never before byt he Clinton administration, the retulation destoyed credit standards across the mortgage industry, created the subprime market, and caused the housing bubble that has now burst and left us with the worst housing and banking crises since the Great Depression.

The CRA should be abolished, along with the government-sponsored enterprises that fueled the secondary market for subprimes — under pressure from Clinton, who ordered HUD to set quotas for “affirmative action” lending at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

But powerful Democrats in Washington want to protect the act — along with Fannie and Freddie — and spin the subprime scandal as the result of too little regulation, not too much.

It goes on, in much more detail.  Who are these people in Washington?  Seriously, with leaders like this…

“Repealing or weakening the CRA would be a mistake,” warns Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who argues that the CRA should be strengthened.

Dodd, the top recipient of Fannie donations and himself a beneficiary of a sweetheart mortgage brokered by a subprime lender, recently invited one of Clinton’s top enforcers of the CRA to testify.

I like many others were quite amazed at the number of small donors that Obama was able to fund raise from.  However, that turns out not to be true.  Obama had the same number of small donors as President Bush.  He had 26% to Bush’s 25%.

It comes down to which definition of “small donor” you accept:

Someone who donated to the Obama campaign by scraping together $199, period.

Or someone who donated $199 to the Obama campaign several times, perhaps totaling close to the $4,600 legal limit for the primary and general elections. In aggregate, that would vault him/her out of the small donor category that was so useful to the political campaign’s public relations campaign portraying the donor base as about two times as broad as it really was.

The reported numbers show that Obama actually received 80% more money from large donors (those giving $1,000 or more total) than from small donors.

A Dutch politician was caught traveling on the Dutch taxpayer dime and partying in NYC.  Arriana Huffington was caught being herself on a DC to LA flight.  Is this a good thing or something run amuck.

If the media isn’t going to play it’s role, then it is up to us to keep our leaders, national commentators and even ourselves accountable.  However, it is up to us to keep it sane.  Lets not be petty or vindictive.  Our politicians and even the chattering class are human, and prone to human errors and mistakes.  That being said, when they are caught taking advantage of the public trust, well then they are fair game.

Thanks to Instapundit for the tip.

Lets save Pets.com:

With President-Elect Obama picking many pro-war cabinet members (including the current SecDef) does this mean that President Bush is much more moderate than anybody realized (or we were made to believe)?  If his choices were so extreme then why is Obama choosing people who agree with him…

After all, Obama did vote for FISA, probably isn’t going to close Guantanamo, and will keep us in Iraq and Afghanistan…

For the record, there is no such thing as International Law.  Obviously there are laws on the books, but each nation follows them at their own behest.

Instapundit has a quick post about civility in public debate.  How, people used to be able to argue with others and still be friends afterwards.  I have a similar issue.  Being the only Libertarian in a room, I am often the recipient of one-on-many arguments and fare quite well.  Here are my rules of arguing / debate:

1. Keep your tone level and measured
2. Don’t insult others or call names
3. Listen, actually listen (this is the hardest one) to other’s arguments and then wait to respond (not my strongest ability)
4. Respond, be articulate, rational and respectful
5. Smile (a lot) – keep it friendly

That is it, pretty simple overall.  Also, I like to think I have a better chance to convince others than yelling at them, though who knows…

Any suggestions?

The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.

The fun continues…

The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $23 trillion, or 38 percent, of the value of the world’s companies and brought down three of the biggest Wall Street firms.

More here…