USN&WR: Democrats Were Wrong On Fannie/Freddie; McCain Was Right

USN&WR

Seventeen. That’s how many times, according to this White House statement (hat tip Gateway Pundit), that the Bush administration has called for tighter regulation of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress has cooperated only once. In spring 2007, as House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank likes to point out, the House did pass a bill in response. The Senate did not act until 2008; Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd spent most of 2007 camped out in Iowa running for president. The legislation passed by Congress in 2008 enabled Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to put Fannie and Freddie into federal conservatorship this summer when they failed. But it didn’t prevent them from spewing a huge amount of toxic waste, in the form of subprime and Alt-A mortgages, into our financial institutions from 2004 to 2007. As Stephen Spruiell points out in The Corner on National Review Online, Fannie and Freddie spewed out $1 trillion worth (face value) of subprime mortgages between 2005 and 2007. That’s a whole lot of toxic waste. For more detail, consult the items referred to in my previous blogpost on this subject (most of the comments seem to have been disputes about the plot line of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, which I should think could be settled by consulting a reference work).

Much if not all of that could have been prevented by a bill cosponsored by John McCain and supported by all the Republicans and opposed by all the Democrats in the Senate Banking Committee in 2005. That bill, which the Democrats stopped from passing, would have prohibited the GSEs from speculating on the mortgage-based securities they packaged. The GSEs’ mission allegedly justifying their quasi-governmental status was to package or securitize such mortgages, but the lion’s share of their profits—which determined top executives’ bonuses—came from speculation.

John McCain has shied away from making this an issue, for reasons my U.S. News colleague Jim Pethokoukis speculates on. This National Republican Congressional Committee Web ad makes the point McCain has been avoiding. Jim Geraghty of the Campaign Spot blog at National Review Online seems exasperated by the McCain campaign’s failure to exploit this issue….

More at the link…

The only word I can think of, in internent parlance, is PWNT.

The Bailout: Say Goodbye To All Of Obama’s Campaign Promises

The past ten days has radically shifted the entire course of the Presidential campaigns… but seemingly not in the way that most people have caught on to yet.

From Firedoglake

I can’t think of any way to sugar coat this, I’m afraid. It’s a bad bill and it isn’t just that Barack Obama voted for it, it’s that everything I’m hearing from the Hill says that he’s been actively whipping it, not just in the Senate but in the House. Barack didn’t hold his nose and vote for this, he made it his bill as much as it is Paulson’s.

With this bill go your chances of having, say, universal health care, or massive infrastructure development, or really getting the US of its dependence on foreign oil, or really rebuilding America’s school system—or whatever other big, expensive project you thought Obama was promising….

….And it’s Barack Obama who turned to Nancy Pelosi and Reid and said “this bill must pass”. It’s Obama who is whipping votes and bending arms for this despite the fact that it is massively unpopular. This is Obama’s bill.

….That’s Obama’s first real act as the presumptive President and as the Democratic party’s de-facto leader.

I both agree and disagree with this article.

While I do agree that the bill as passed is less than great, I disagree with the author’s reasoning behind why the bill is so bad.  As I have said before, the bill is a necessary evil and is better than not acting at all, but the bill as it was passed was terrible because of all the pork.

I do agree with the author that all of the projects that Obama has promised are dead in the water now.

Obama’s proposed projects would cost the United States $1.2 trillion…  and he just signed on to a bill that eats about $815 billion out of the budget.  It will be virtually impossible to add anything else of any size to the budget, even for the god-like Barack Obama.

It’s no wonder that Obama is getting really vague about what he is actually still going to accomplish… especially during the debates

LEHRER: All right. All right, speaking of things that both of you want, another lead question, and it has to do with the rescue — the financial rescue thing that we started — started asking about.

And what — and the first answer is to you, Senator Obama. As president, as a result of whatever financial rescue plan comes about and the billion, $700 billion, whatever it is it’s going to cost, what are you going to have to give up, in terms of the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?

OBAMA: Well, there are a range of things that are probably going to have to be delayed. We don’t yet know what our tax revenues are going to be. The economy is slowing down, so it’s hard to anticipate right now what the budget is going to look like next year.

But there’s no doubt that we’re not going to be able to do everything that I think needs to be done.

Lehrer went on to press Obama even further and Obama got even more avoidant. The sidestepping during the debate was really interesting to watch though.

With those few deft phrases, Obama has basically absolved himself of actually having to deliver on any promises what-so-ever if he becomes President.

As the author from Firedoglake said… say good by to “universal health care, or massive infrastructure development, or really getting the US of its dependence on foreign oil, or really rebuilding America’s school system—or whatever other big, expensive project you thought Obama was promising.”

The fact is that, because of the price tag of the bailout bill, Obama cannot fulfill a single promise he has made and has as much as admitted it.

John McCain on the other hand can still deliver on his promises.  He wants to cut spending and increase oversight to stimulate the economy, increase job creation and keep industry honest and on track.

And, so I will leave you with this…

Knowing all of the above…  what is your answer to Bill Clinton’s question now?

For example, you’re a voter, and you have Candidate X and Candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything. But you don’t think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that, on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom will you vote?

Ever wonder what is in the $800 Billion Bill being voted on 10/3?

If you are like me, you occasionally wonder what our Congress is spending our tax dollars on.  I’ve been searching for an official copy of the bill and the usual summary that accompanies these things – and have not found it.  So in the interest folks knowing what is going on, I thought I’d offer up a two cent summary of the $800 Billion bill that will be voted on tomorrow. 

 

The bill is a combination of the 110 page House bailout bill with a FDIC temporary increase in the account size that can be insured  limit (which is not published – only Sunday’s 103 page House bill draft is available) plus various add-ons that are mainly tax bills already “approved” by both House and Senate but stuck and not passed because of various reasons (“tax cut not offset with expense cut” Blue Dog plus GOP opposition in House, “political timing must be post-election” in the Senate).  But there are a few additional items that I am told that are also already “approved” by both House and Senate, such as:

* The bill deals with creating parity for the insurance treatment of mental health problems.

* The bill details how state and local government will be given funds in lieu of taxes on federal lands within their boundaries.

 

 

And there are two National Security provisions that read like they are CYA for Bush Administration crimes and may well appeal to the House GOP:

* The bill makes permanent authority for undercover operations,

* and the bill makes permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to terrorist activities.

 

And then we have an “Energy” section that reads like more tax spending and has its own title in the bill – The Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. which would:

* Extend the renewable energy tax credit for wind and refined coal facilities, and expands use of biomass.
* Extend tax credits for marine and hydrokinetic research, which involves energy created from waves and tides, as well as solar and fuel-cell research.

* Allow energy credits to be counted against the alternative minimum tax.

* Give steelmakers tax credits for purchase of renewable fuels.

* Let utilities issue tax-free bonds to promote use of clear, renewable fuels.

* Expand tax credits for investment in coal gasification programs.

* Extend by four years a temporary increase in the coal excise tax to fund black-lung disability programs for miners.

* Provide tax credits for carbon sequestration efforts.

* Allow producers of cellulosic bio-fuels to seek accelerated tax depreciation.

* Double the tax credit for production of bio-diesel and renewable diesel fuels.

* Extend a tax credit of $2,500 to plug-in electric hybrid vehicles. (should be larger IMHO!).

* Allow fringe benefit reimbursement for qualified bicycle commuters.

* Broaden the scope for issuance of conservation bonds.

* Extend current deductions for energy efficient commercial buildings and homes.

* Provide small tax credits for purchase of energy efficient dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators.

* Accelerate tax deductions for use of smart meters that help a consumer regulate energy use to reduce peak-hour consumption.

* Reduce by 3 percent the tax deductions on income enjoyed by producers, refiners, transporters and distributors of oil and natural gas.

* Eliminate the difference in tax treatment of foreign oil and natural gas production and foreign oil-related income.

* Extend and increase by 3 cents a barrel the oil spill liability tax.

 

 

 

And then there is a section that admits it is specifically directed at the Tax Code which would:

* Raise the exemption level of the alternative minimum tax from the current $66,250/$44,350 for joint or single filers to $69,950/$46,200.

* Extend tuition deductions.

* Extend certain deductions for elementary and secondary school teachers.

* Extend an additional standard deduction on real property taxes for non-itemizers.

* Continue tax-free distribution from retirement plans to charities.

* Extend and modify the research tax credit.

* Extend restaurant improvement credits.

* Extend the tax credit for mine-rescue team training.

* Extend the tax credit for advanced mine safety equipment.

* Accelerate depreciation of business property on Indian reservations.

* Extend cost recovery period for motor racing tracks.

* Extend work opportunity tax credit for Hurricane Katrina employees.

* Extend increased rehabilitation credit for structures in Gulf of Mexico opportunity zone.

* Extend tax credit for investment in the District of Colombia.

* Increase tax deduction for charitable contributions to food inventory.

* Increase tax deduction for charitable book giving.

* Raise to $8,500 the income threshold for calculating the refundable portion of a child tax credit.

* Exempt from excise tax certain wooden arrow shafts for use by children. (prior tax on hunting arrows accidentally hit kid arrows killing industry in Oregon).

* Clarify income averaging for settlement amounts received in connection with Exxon Valdez litigation.

* Provide temporary tax relief for areas damaged by Midwestern storms, tornadoes and flooding and by Hurricane Ike.

 

 

And finally we have the House Bailout Bill as adjust for yjat FDIC insurance change that would:

* Provide the government an equity stake, through non-voting or preferred stock, in companies that are unloading bad assets. If these companies go bankrupt, these warrants convert to a type of debt that places the government at the head of the list of creditors in any bankruptcy proceeding.

* Give the Treasury secretary broad discretion to buy virtually any distressed asset in an effort to get it off the books of a troubled bank or financial firm and help unclog the credit markets. This is called the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

* Provide $250 billion immediately to purchase mortgage-backed securities and other troubled assets, another $100 billion with the president’s authorization and the remaining $350 billion would be subject to separate congressional approval.

* Give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. the ability to borrow without limit from the Treasury to help stabilize banks it regulates, both large and small. This isn’t in the House legislation.

* Allow the FDIC to raise deposit insurance to $250,000 from the current $100,000. Affects the sum of deposits, not each account, in a depositor’s name at any given bank. This too isn’t in the House legislation.

* Require the comptroller general to monitor and evaluate TARP’s performance, especially whether it is helping to prevent foreclosures, providing stability in financial markets and protecting taxpayers. The Government Accountability Office will have authority to order corrections in the TARP effort.

* Order the comptroller general, the nation’s chief auditor, to report back to Congress by June 2009 on whether the government should curtail the ability of banks and others invest with borrowed money. Investment banks borrowed $30 to $40 against every $1 of their own capital they invested, helping create today’s global financial crisis.

* Limit courts from issuing restraining orders or injunctions against the Treasury secretary unless alleging a constitutional violation. In those cases, injunctions would have to be handled on an expedited basis by federal courts. Significantly, there is no limited liability expressed that would necessarily protect the federal government from lawsuits by investors when the government purchases distressed assets.

* Create a special inspector general for the TARP program, to supervise and audit the purchase of distressed mortgages and other bad assets.

* Raise the nation’s debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion.

* Hold hearings on the effectiveness of the program and issue a special report on proposed regulatory reform.

* Reaffirm that the Securities and Exchange Commission has the authority to suspend an accounting rule that some critics think has exaggerated the deflated prices of the toxic mortgage bonds at the heart of the financial crisis. The practice, called mark-to-market reporting, requires banks and other financial firms to report the present-day value of distressed assets that have a hold-to-maturity value. This also is called fair-value reporting, and it was implemented after the Enron scandal to discourage reporting of inflated prices.

* Limit the tax write-offs for executive compensation above $500,000 for companies that sell distressed assets to the government.

* Prohibit “golden parachutes” for executives of firms that are selling assets directly to the government. If the government purchases from a firm, via auction, $300 million or more in troubled assets, similar limits on bonuses and other executive compensation would apply.

 

 

There is still no salary cap on the CEO – remember the promise that the CEO should  “make no more than the highest paid government employee – the President’s $400,000”,  and the bill will be presented to the House under a no amendment rule, so our Financial CEOs will continue to get their 10’s of millions annual salary despite the mess they have caused and their use of the bailout bill to save their company and their job.

 

 

 

The Greatest YouTube Ever

Via Divine Democrat

Ok, So I Just Read The Senate Version Of The Bailout Bill…

UPDATE:  To Read The Latest News On The Status Of The Bailout And The Market CLICK HERE

 

 

And it’s a crock of crap.

The bill has now been expanded to 451 pages, from the House version of 110, which was expanded from the original 2 pages submitted.

God, Congress has a way of adding bunches of irrelevant crap and window dressing…

So, basically, the Senate Bill is exactly the same as the House Bill…  with all the same hinkey provisions for “NOT Acorn” groups to “help” the poor, but it has basically added an energy bill and a tax bill on the back of it.

The “Mark to Market” rule is still there, which leads to total crap accounting practices.  Basically this rule says that you have to claim all the assets you have in your accounting based upon the current market value of those assets in a normal transaction in the market today (or at the time of the accounting)…  fair, right?

Yeah, except for the exception, which says that in the case of an asset being in a sector that is experiencing a “firesale” that any of these assets that you hold don’t have to be valued at the current market, but rather what the companies internal measures of the value are…  basically, if you have a mortgage security on your books, you get to make up a number and use that as the value in your accounting.

WTF???

Anyway, the energy bill is strangely irrelevant to the topic at hand but has some ok stuff…  here is an exerpt from the table of contents to the energy section…

Sec. 101. Renewable energy credit.

Sec. 102. Production credit for electricity produced from marine renewables.

Sec. 103. Energy credit.

Sec. 104. Energy credit for small wind property.

Sec. 105. Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.

Sec. 106. Credit for residential energy efficient property.

Sec. 107. New clean renewable energy bonds.

Sec. 108. Credit for steel industry fuel.

Sec. 111. Expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit.

Sec. 112. Expansion and modification of coal gasification investment credit.

Sec. 115. Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.

Sec. 117. Carbon audit of the tax code….

Blah, blah, blah, you get the point.

Some good stuff in there, but I don’t know why this is in the Mtg Bailout Bill, it doesn’t really seem germane to the discussion, but…  ok, i guess.

Then there is some weird temporary and irrelevant FDIC provision where the increase coverage from 100k to 250k…  ok…  but it doesn’t really give the money to the FDIC, just the authorization to borrow it from the Treasury if needed.

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But here is where we get to the good part…  the tax bill and all the nifty little earmarks…

First, my personal favorite…

SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b) is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following new subparagraph:

‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any shaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold separately or incorporated as part of a finished or unfinished product) of a type used in the manufacture of any arrow which after its assembly—

‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in diameter, and
‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date of enactment of this Act.

This is a friggin joke right?  We are dealing with what is perhaps the most severe economic crisis our nation has ever faced and someone is worried about the excise tax on wooden arrows (as in Bow And Arrow) used by kids?  Seriously?

Then there are earmarks and tax breaks for the

-Hollywood Producers and Filmmakers,

-Rum Producers,

-Racetracks

You know…  because that what America needs more of… alcoholics watching movies about motocross while sipping a fruity drink that has a paper umbrella in it.

Seriously…  can we get a clean bill without all the earmarks please?

How about an actual energy bill, a tax bill, a mtg bailout bill, and a bow/arrow bill instead…

not a nonprofitenergytaxarrowbailout bill.

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No wonder DC is all screwed up.  I am starting to buy into how big of a problem pork is more and more every day.

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Update:  I cant believe they actually passed this boat of crap…  with all the christmas presents it contains.

Oh, and I hear tell that Feinstein recieved 95,000 emails regarding the bill, 85,000 of which asked her not to vote for the bill….  She voted for it anyway.

Nice.

UPDATE:  For a much more detailed account of what is in the bill, CLICK HERE

Update:  Hot Air has the full bill and some additional information

Bill O’Reilly… My New Hero?

I must say that this election season has been the craziest I have ever seen.  I feel like I have stepped through the looking glass and what was down is now up.

In the most recent of unexpected twists…  I think Bill O’Reilly might be my new hero?

via MOUNTAIN SAGE

Reverse Auctions in Bail out – designed to not screw taxpayer?

Reverse Auction Design – will it be in the final bill?

With over 100,000 individual designed  mortgage-related securities, obligations, and other instruments outstanding, further divided  by multiple rated tranches, auctions to price each piece are not workable.  But the Mortgage Bailout Bill depends on price discovery via auction – and as far as I can tell does not have rules for that discovery.  So we are left with “trust me” and regulations to be announced later.  Knowing loan vintage, maturity, loan type, interest rate, location, payment history, FICO score, and initial loan/value ratio will not prevent are narrowly restricted, a package of some degree of heterogeneity in any package of loans.  Prior over-the-counter trading in mortgage-related assets has ended because computer models are no longer trusted for price discovery.

The Paulson program  of auctions for mortgage-related assets seems to be intended to be a one-time event – why I do not know since a standardized investment form and an exchange for that form would seem to be the best way to avoid our current problem in the future.  But as I understand the Bailout Bill, the plan is to have each asset hit the auction block once and then stopping there, or stopping once the money runs out.

In some statements Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke appeared to identify as the objective finding a “hold-to-maturity” value – but that means paying a great deal more than market value – later he indicated he was referring to the higher market value post auction because of US Gov ownership of the asset was the value he wanted to pay – this is a major difference – and still sounds like an “auction” with a floor that is above market value.  Will there be anything  in the Bill to address this? Treasury can not just offer to buy the Banks non-saleable assets – a Bank would be a fool if it did not greatly over price those assets in that situation. Treasury can not commit  to purchasing the entire quantity offered of a given package – it must allocate its budget among the various packages available for sale – buying a portion of each package.

The Packages (packages of assets since individual auctions for each asset design is impractical because every asset is an individual design) will give good price discovery, but by definition, the more heterogeneous the package the more likely the US Taxpayer will be screwed because of the adverse selection problem of relatively inferior assets being disproportionately offered for sale at the lowest prices. Treasury will end up buying the worst of the lot and, if a single price is paid for all units, overpaying, with Banks with higher quality assets asking for a higher bid, and finding they can not sell at that higher price – but with the high quality asset bank being screwed as it is forced to mark down its higher quality asset to the price given for the low quality package.

The order of sale of the packages will determine how badly the taxpayer is screwed – Treasury must start with packages of securities having severely depressed prices in their computer model, relatively simple features, and substantial face value owned  (e.g.,  straight pass-through securities with subprime mortgage collateral),  Will this requirement be in the Bill?

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With luck we will be able to end the now stalled “over-the-counter” markets, replacing it with an exchange and standardized packages, with a non-standard package area in that exchange (as exists now at our exchanges).

We will still need to buy and sell some assets purely by looking at the computer model output – but where that output is not trusted today because input parameters are felt to be possibly incorrect, it will be easier to get to a sale once  the newly available market data generated by auctions are used, to estimate the contribution to value of the various asset characteristics. Applying the estimated models to the non-auctioned assets would then yield a predicted price for each asset. Transparency requires that today’s “proprietary” formulas be reveal – they caused this mess and have no value, so with luck they will be donated to Treasury and we will not pay the Banks for that bit of information.

It’s All About Leadership – McCain Steps Up, Obama Fails

As a follow up to this mornings article about how Obama has failed the leadership test yet again…  yeah, 3 times now, we find out today that John McCain steps up to the leadership plate once again.

From CNN,

Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the “historic” crisis facing the U.S. economy….

He also urged organizers of Friday’s presidential debate at the University of Mississippi to postpone the event….

“I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself,” McCain told reporters in New York. “It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.”

So once again, John McCain is putting off parts of his campaign that are traditionally essential to winning the race to the White House.

The first was when McCain decided to cut short the Republican National Convention in the face of Hurricane Gustav and was even prepared to go down to the gulf coast, skipping the convention all together and giving his acceptance speech by satellite. (Here)

And now, he is calling for the delay of the debate that was scheduled this Friday, a debate whose topic was to surround Foreign Policy (McCain’s strong suit and the debate where he was expected to shine), so that he can return to Washington, DC and lead the debate on the Bailout legislation.

Contrast this with Barack Obama’s statement yesterday…

Although Barack Obama argues that the financial meltdown is an “emergency situation”, he said today that he may remain on the campaign trail, rather than returning to the Capitol, to vote on the $700 billion plan.

And let’s looks at how he characterizes the rationalization

“Look if we get a consensus and everybody is popping champagne – then I will probably be going back to campaign with folks who are having a tough time in places like Ohio, and Michigan and Pennsylvania,” Obama said adding, “If this ends up being a close vote or a vote where the outcome is an open question then obviously this is a top priority.”

Popping Champagne?  Really?  While the country is going bankrupt, when Obama thinks about legislation getting passed, he thinks of people “popping champagne?”

Is the champagne served with a side of arugula maybe?

Like I said yesterday,

We don’t need someone to hold our hands. We don’t need you in our high school gym telling us that our lives suck and we all need some sort of ambiguous “change” that apparently only you can bring.

We need someone to LEAD US, to DO SOMETHING, to STAND UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT.

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Well, apparently John McCain heard me…  and yet again, as Hillary Clinton put it, John McCain proved that he has passed the leadership threshold, while Barack has not.

John McCain FTW.

Barack Obama Teh Fail.

That is all.

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BTW – I am testing out a Blogger blog…  please go vist and let me know what you think.  HERE
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UPDATE: Obama responds to McCain… nothing new.

From CNN

But he disagreed with McCain’s call for postponing Friday’s first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi.

“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person will be the next president,” Obama said. “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once. It’s more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people.”

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This is an interesting spin on the situation, so let’s talk about the reality.  This is political positioning.

Barack Obama has pulled ahead a bit in the polls for one reason and one reason only…  the economy.

The economy is THE most important issue to voters, getting like 40% polling as the number one issue, as opposed to things like foreign policy and the war on terror, which only gets about 10%.

So when John McCain makes a move like calling off a debate and suspending his campaign to deal with the bailout, he is trying to change the narrative…  trying to show leadership on the economy.

Obama must prevent this from happening.

If Obama agreed with McCain and went back to Washington, that opens up the possible perception that Obama is following McCain’s lead, and that it is McCain and not Obama that is really leading on the economy, that McCain is the real leader. It also allows McCain to have some economic problem solving spotlight, which could potentially help John McCain.

So what does Obama do?  He moves to prevent McCain from being able to move into that economic problem solver mode by attempting to force him to keep the scheduled debate, a debate whose topic is Foreign Policy, keeping McCain out of Washington and forcing him off the subject of the economy.

This is not about Obama not thinking that he is not needed…  it is about keeping McCain from gaining points, and possibly at the expense of the American people.

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We need leadership, Mr. Obama. Not political positioning.
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UPDATE #2

President Bush called Barack Obama and gave him the good old “Dude…WTF? Get back here and take some damned responsibility!”

Obama is now on his way to Washington.
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Way to be a leader Barry…

Man… you suck. Seriously.

Day 3… Hillary Day

Damn that lady is brilliant.

She spoke twice yesterday.  Once at a “Women Count” function and second at the convention.  She absolutely hit it out of the park with her speech.

She also did what she had to do…  threw full weight behind Obama.  Maybe now they will leave her alone now.

Oh, and Bill, a man of pure brilliance, posed a hypothetical yesterday…

“Say you have candidate x and you agree on all the issues with that candidate but you don’t think they can deliver on any of them.  And then you have candidate y and you agree on half the issues with them but you think they can deliver on all of them.  The question becomes for whom will you vote?”

he then quickly added that this has nothing to do with what is going on now….  ROFL.

LOL, I love Bill

Day 2… Ok, So I Gave A Speech At The Rise Hillary Rise Event…

Somehow Darragh Murphy conned me into giving a speech at the Rise event in Cheeseman Park, and it was pretty tough on me.  I have been on a sort of outrage autopilot, but getting up there to give the speech I had to communicate what I saw to others, and it made me very very sad.

I had not prepared a speech, so whatever I gave was completely extemporaneous…  and so here I will recreated as best I can the speech I gave (with a few corrections and clarifications)

Hello, I blog as Texas Hill Country.  Some of you may know me and some may not, so…  hi.

First, I would like to talk a little be about myself, where I come from and how I ended up here.  You know, I have not had a life that was really all that different from Barack.  I was born to a middle class family.  We didn’t have a lot when I was a kid.  I lived in a muslim country for a few years as a child.  I then got bounced around between family members for a little while.  I have lived in several countries and even more states.  In high school, I worked at a Blockbuster video store right next to a Baskin Robbins.  Oh, and I am still paying on the student loans I took out to go to law school.  I went to Washington DC and worked for more than 143 days…  but, unlike Barack, I don’t think I am qualified to be President of the United States.  (punctuated with a snarky smile btw)

I come from a very old Democratic family.  My great grandfather was a Congressman under Roosevelt and fought to pass the New Deal.  My parents knew the Kennedys and went to the Holy Trinity Catholic church with Teddy and, occassionally, Bobby.  My Dad was going to Georgetown Law and my Mom worked in the Jesuits office.  Every so often, Father McSorley at the school would ask my Mom and a few of the students to help Kennedys and do odd jobs, small clerical stuff and the like.

As a kid growing up I always heard how inspirational and how amazing the Kennedys were and just how much Jack, Bobby and Ted meant to my parents.

Well, fast forward to the 90′s.  Bill Clinton came on the scene, I could vote and I was intensely interested in politics.  Very quickly, the man from Hope, Bill Clinton, became my Jack Kennedy. After Hillary gave her speech in Beijing on how women’s rights are human rights I was floored by her.  She became my Bobby.  I love them dearly.  They have meant so much to me and inspired me in incredible ways.

But I will never forget or forgive how their character was assassinated this year.

It is fortuitous and ironic that we gather here, in Cheeseman Park, the site of a former cemetery, to celebrate the death of democracy.

And, so I stand before you with hope.  Hope for change, but not the type of change Barack Obama wants.

I have hope that I will live in a country where our votes are respected.  I have hope that I will live in a country where our votes cannot be changed.  I have hope that I will never have to look into the eyes of my wife or future daughter and say “You almost made it.  I am sorry the boys held you back.”

And I want change.

I want to change this country back to one where I don’t worry about my vote counting.  I want to change the Democratic party leadership to one where I don’t have to worry about whether or not they will listen.  I want to change this country back to one where I don’t have to worry about the sanctity of the vote.

And I want to change this country to one where we no longer have to hope…

We can just be.

So, there it is…  my speech.  A bunch of crap I put together off the top of my head.  I hope it makes sense to some of you.

love to all.

Breaking – Bill Clinton Gets Key Speech Time At Convention

Looks like the Obama camp and the DNC is starting to bow to the power of the Clintonistas…

From MSNBC:

CHICAGO – In a hurried move to put an end to the tensions between supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and those of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Obama campaign has offered former President Bill Clinton a speaking role at the Democratic National Convention, NBC News reported Thursday.

The Clinton’s have accepted the offer, and Bill Clinton will speak before the vice presidential running mate speaks, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported.

Earlier Thursday, Obama told reporters that their staffs were working out mutually agreeable convention logistics. At the same time, Clinton was assuring her supporters in an online chat that she and Obama were “working together to make sure it’s a big success.”

The PUMA’s have them runnin’ scared!

Well, I say “Be afraid…  be very afraid.”

 

 

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Obama Lies His Ass Off… Again. Oh, sorry… Obama had poor word choice.

Obama is a man that is well known for taking the credit of other legislators.  The incident with Chris Dodd a few months ago was the most obvious and egregious, but stories abound about Obama’s years in the Illinois State Senate and how he was handed legislation right before it passed.

Well…  this time, he straight up lied his ass off in Israel… From AP

Obama said Israelis could be certain of his commitment to Israel’s security by looking at “my deeds.”

“Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Nice statement right…  judge him for his actions and his deeds…  good stuff, except for one problem…  From the AP once again.

“Not only is it not his committee, but he’s not even on the committee, he didn’t vote on the bill, and he had nothing to do with its passage,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement issued Wednesday.

 

YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!?!?!?!

And now with video goodness…