This is going to get very interesting, very quickly I fear.

Quoted Text

U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, was among those in the House of Representatives who voted down a proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry Monday, said her chief of staff, Jess Fassler.

Fassler said Gillibrand would issue a statement explaining her vote.

House members ignored urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial services industry. Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home.

When the critical vote was tallied, too few members of the House were willing to support the unpopular measure with elections just five weeks away. Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle.

http://dailygazette.com/news/2008/sep/29/0929_bailout/

OK people grumble about the bail out.    Now the bail out seems to be voted down.

What are the ramifications with it voted down?   Arent’ we then in more serious trouble?

What I'm having a problem with is that Pelosi and the Democrats are all over TV blaming the Republicans for voting it down.

BUT ... democrats control both houses - and >40% of the democrats voted AGAINST this.

THEY GAVE YOUR MORTGAGE TO A LESS QUALIFIED MINORITY
September 24, 2008


On MSNBC this week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter tried to connect John McCain to the current financial disaster, saying: "If you remember the Keating Five scandal that (McCain) was a part of. ... He's really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country."

McCain was "in the middle of" the Keating Five case in the sense that he was "exonerated." The lawyer for the Senate Ethics Committee wanted McCain removed from the investigation altogether, but, as The New York Times reported: "Sen. McCain was the only Republican embroiled in the affair, and Democrats on the panel would not release him."

So John McCain has been held hostage by both the Viet Cong and the Democrats.

Alter couldn't be expected to know that: As usual, he was lifting material directly from Kausfiles. What is unusual was that he was stealing a random thought sent in by Kausfiles' mother, who, the day before, had e-mailed: "It's time to bring up the Keating Five. Let McCain explain that scandal away."

The Senate Ethics Committee lawyer who investigated McCain already had explained that scandal away -- repeatedly. It was celebrated lawyer Robert Bennett, most famous for defending a certain horny hick president a few years ago.

In February this year, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," Bennett said, for the eight billionth time:

"First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on (McCain's) side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five. ... And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him."

It's bad enough for Alter to be constantly ripping off Kausfiles. Now he's so devoid of his own ideas, he's ripping off the idle musings of Kausfiles' mother.

Even if McCain had been implicated in the Keating Five scandal -- and he wasn't -- that would still have absolutely nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis currently roiling the financial markets. This crisis was caused by political correctness being forced on the mortgage lending industry in the Clinton era.

Before the Democrats' affirmative action lending policies became an embarrassment, the Los Angeles Times reported that, starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains."

Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.

Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named "Caylee."

Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn't a joke -- it's a fact.

When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound business practices.

In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration's affirmative action lending policies as one of the "hidden success stories" of the Clinton administration, saying that "black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded."

Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their houses.

A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it's gone off.

In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's "implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.

Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but these entities still had "important political allies" in the Democrats.

Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats' two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.

Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry.

COPYRIGHT 2008 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
4520 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111

Quoted from 147

What I'm having a problem with is that Pelosi and the Democrats are all over TV blaming the Republicans for voting it down.

BUT ... democrats control both houses - and >40% of the democrats voted AGAINST this.

Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation, while just 65 Republicans backed the bill and 133 opposed it.

Quoted from Sombody

Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation, while just 65 Republicans backed the bill and 133 opposed it.

I understand that ... but that's still 40% that DIDN'T vote for it ... they have the majority - why couldn't they get this passed?

The plan stunk anyhow

I think that all who voted no to this ridiculous bail out, for whatever reason, should be commended. I am a believer in the free market and capitalism and allowing it to adjust and correct itself. I also believe in accountability and consequences for all the greedy bast**ds that allowed this to happen and get rich from it.

So I do not want this country to lose it's free market, capitalism foundation for the greedy few. WE WILL SURVIVE!!

Get ready for the babylon tower to topple......as for the rest of us.....we dont have far to go......those that are Paris Hilton's BFF's will feel a pinch.....
those folks expect caviar at the highest level......I can eat potatoes and pasta every day......there is a chasim and those elected are playing tug-o-war
over it........let's see who is real and who is not......dont let the parties fool you....just because they stretch out their hand doesn't mean they will
finish it......we are PIONEERING AMERICANS and let's not forget that........the system is what the system is.....people will ALWAYS trade and barter that is
what we are......the CONTROL of that is what the minority on top fight for........the smoke is clearing for a short time....everyone better take a good
look and see....then listen and hear..........

Quoted from bumblethru

I think that all who voted no to this ridiculous bail out, for whatever reason, should be commended. I am a believer in the free market and capitalism and allowing it to adjust and correct itself. I also believe in accountability and consequences for all the greedy bast**ds that allowed this to happen and get rich from it.

So I do not want this country to lose it's free market, capitalism foundation for the greedy few. WE WILL SURVIVE!!

You will survive...long enough to regret them not passing it.  I responded more fully though not completely on Kevin's blog.  I'll post my own piece eventually on my blog.

Quoted from Sombody

The plan stunk anyhow

No plan stinks more.

Quoted from mikechristine1

OK people grumble about the bail out.    Now the bail out seems to be voted down.

What are the ramifications with it voted down?   Arent’ we then in more serious trouble?

The consequences of not passing a bailout grow more serious each day.  Think Road Warrior.  See my comment on Kevin's most recent blog post.

Quoted from bumblethru

Nothing needs to be done. This government has already put into place a nation built on capitalism. Let capitalism correct itself. For the first time in this generation let us all stop for a minute and think about future generations and stop the 'IT'S ALL ABOUT ME' mentality. THAT is what got us in this spot to begin with. So it is time for US to pay the piper. And for those in 'higher places' that caused this collapse...their heads should roll.

You're dead wrong, in my opinion.  If you think you'll feel pain as a taxpayer because of a bailout, you'll feel 100x more pain w/o one.  You say "recession- been there, done that."  Ever done a Depression?  The last one will look like a walk in the park in comparison to what we're on the brink of.

Quoted from Michael

You're dead wrong, in my opinion.  If you think you'll feel pain as a taxpayer because of a bailout, you'll feel 100x more pain w/o one.  You say "recession- been there, done that."  Ever done a Depression?  The last one will look like a walk in the park in comparison to what we're on the brink of.

Those who are really sweating are the boomers closing in on retirement age.  Their dreams of a summer home in Florida or enjoying their golden years RVing across the country have been dashed away.  People in their 20's and 30's look at this as a buying opportunity, since they still have enough time to recover their losses before retirement.  Sure things are going to be tough in this depressed economy, but then again I've lived in upstate NY my whole life and it's been a depressed economy for the past 25 years.