Yep…that’s right.
That figure was overly inflated to “alarm” you…and most are falling for it.

DONT!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/bailout-plan.html
(snip)

You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?

Here’s a quote from that Forbes story:

“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone into rapid action.

Were YOU alarmed when you heard that number?
Was it because it made you think “Geez, maybe we DO need a bailout of some sort”? Then you’re not alone. They played the American public like a violin.

Read the rest here and here.

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Well, it seems that The Monster of All Bailouts now has a pulse, a heartbeat and a voice. However, since it was crafted by the same menaces that brought us the GREATEST CRIMINAL FINANCIAL SCANDAL IN WORLD HISTORY, it obviously has no brain.

As expected, the original price tag from this behemoth has grown from the original $700 billion that Hitman Hank Palson originally requested to well over $1 trillion, with I am sure, much more to be added, as there will God knows how many goodies attached to it Sort of like a Michael Moore side dish. The Cubs will win 10 World Series in a row before the original budget of a government proposal actually goes down.

The Little Mafia Provisions (meaning ACRON funding et. al) have been reportedly removed from the latest draft of the bill. Of course, that means nothing, as nothing is on paper yet and with both this and the budget still needing to be passed, you can bet that the Scumocrats will try very hard to sneak those money laundering provisions back into it someway. After all, Obama cannot win more than five states if he cannot even have the funds to promote massive voter fraud via ACORN and their Alinsky sister groups.

Michelle Malkin’s take:

It’s full steam ahead for the trillion-dollar-plus bailout boondoggle. Washington is euphoric.

If you didn’t already have a sick feeling in your stomach all week, the photos of the late-night press conference announcing that a tentative deal had been struck should make your innards churn:

As I’ve said throughout this past year of stimulus-palooza giveaways: God save us from bipartisanship.

Nothing is on paper yet. The ACORN funding provisions have reportedly been stripped. But God knows what Pelosi/Reid’s draft bill writers will slip into this behemoth before the day is over.

I’d refer you to a copy of the bill, but…there is none.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Those present said the bailout plan still needs to be drafted in its final form, a process staff members were expected to continue throughout the night in what one aide called a “marathon drafting session” in Speaker Pelosi’s office just off the rotunda in the Capitol building. A formal announcement is scheduled for some time Sunday, though an exact time and location was not immediately available.

A summary of the tentative agreement released by Sen. Pelosi’s office said the plan “gives taxpayers an ownership stake and profit-making opportunities with participating companies; puts taxpayers first in line to recover assets if a participating company fails; (and) guarantees taxpayers are repaid in full — if other protections have not actually produced a profit.”

The $700 billion would be available in phases. The first $250 billion will be “immediately available” to the Treasury Secretary, and $100 billion available “upon report to Congress,” and $350 billion “available only upon Congressional action,” according to a summary from the office of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), the No. 2 House Republican who was at negotiations.

One of the Lone Wolf GOP Heores. Sen. Richard Shelby speak out:

Some lawmakers have made clear that they will not vote for the bailout plan under virtually any terms. “I didn’t want to be in the negotiations because I object to the basic principles of this,” said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee who would normally be his party’s point man.

Pressed about his role, Shelby replied, “My position is ‘No.’ “

Keep giving them Hell, Shelby.

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Well, it seems that the entire Obama Stasi and KGB agents have been totally unleashed now. To intimidate, libel, slander, lie and harass any and all who dare speak just one negative against The Second Coming of Uncle Joe. It was bad enough that the Obajihadists tried to have the Bush DOJ, not once but twice, lodge criminal investigations against American Issues Project, for daring to expose the very close and disturbing relationship between Obama and William Ayers. After following that up with trying to sic the IRS on them, ala the Clintons and their Enemies Database of over 250,000 names, they are now lining up legal big guns in MO to not only go after the American Issues Project, but to silence all dissent.

(Left: Not my best work, but I put it together really fast)

From Michelle Malkin:

Chicago-trained thug Barack Obama has recruited musclemen in Missouri to intimidate critics.

It’s just the latest example of his bare-knuckle, speech-chilling bully tactics.

Missouri-based Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has an overview of how “St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both Obama supporters, are threatening to bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President.”

Gateway Pundit weighs in:

Missouri Sheriffs & Top Prosecutors Form Obama “Truth Squads” & Threaten Libel Charges Against Obama Critics

More Hope and Change for Missouri…
St. Louis and Missouri Democrat sheriffs and top prosecutors are planning to go after anyone who makes false statements against Obama during his campaign. This is so one sided I can’t even begin to describe how wrong this agenda is.

It’s one thing if they want to keep the campaign fair for both sides, but they clearly only want to enforce the issue for the Obama Camp.

American Issues Projects responds:

September 26, 2008 – Barack Obama is now using local law enforcement officials to carry out his campaign of legal intimidation by assembling a group of high-ranking Missouri police officials and prosecutors – including St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce – to identify and target anyone the campaign determines is producing “misleading” political advertisements.

“This is an outrageous and shocking attempt by the Obama campaign to again employ Stalinist, police state tactics against those who dare to disagree with Barack Obama,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Projects president. “I am frankly stunned to see public officials like McCullough and Joyce abusing their official prosecutorial positions to serve as attack dogs for a national political campaign. I am quite certain Missourians elected these individuals to enforce the laws and arrest criminals, not to throw people in jail for daring to practicing free speech.

“The Obama campaign continues to provide a chilling preview of what would happen to political freedom in an Obama administration.”

This new effort is only the most recent attempt by the Obama campaign to crack down on free speech. Obama’s lawyers twice demanded the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute the American Issues Project, its officers, board of directors, and donors. The campaign also threatened stations running American Issues Project’s ad in an unsuccessful attempt to compel them to pull the spot, and ran its own ad in response.

Notably, this ad failed to dispute a single fact the American Issues Project has put forth.

About American Issues Project

American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 organization representing a coalition of conservative activists committed to raising important issues that deserve deeper examination given their impact on policy and politics. In accordance with federal law, American Issues Project only solicits and accepts contributions from individuals and not from any business corporation. For more information, visit: www.americanissuesproject.org.

About the Ad

The American Issues Project’s ad describing the relationship between Obama and Ayers aired 7,307 times from August 21 – 29 on 69 stations in 14 markets within Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The total ad buy was $2.8 million, making it the largest third-party expenditure to date in this election cycle. An electronic version of the ad and full documentation of all statements in the ad are available at American Issues Project’s website: www.americanissuesproject.org.

I wonder if, by some Act of Satan that Oburkha steals this election, will he move Election Day to October 17, to commemerate the Second Bolshevik Revolution?

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As a slight diversion from the Lard, Pork and Sugar Phony Bailout, is this humorous little piece from NewsBusters. It would seem that even the crossword writers and editors of the The Slimes have been sufficiently assimilated by the OBorg and it’s main man, The Moronchurian Candidate. It is bad enough to see The ManChild’s face and on every and any liberal rag newspaper page or Dinosaur Media report, as well as hearing his Political Tourette’s Syndrome voice delivery (listening to him makes me think I am at a regatta what with all of the of “Uhms, uhhs, uhhms” sprinkled throughout his Barbie pull-string oral missives). But now it seems that they have gone from the sublime to brown-shirt speech codes when it comes to something as innocuous as a crossword puzzle.

From the story:

Even the crossword puzzles in The New York Times are biased in favor of Obama and Biden finds David Levinson Wilk in Politico. Wilk did a little research to see how many times McCain has been an answer in the NYT puzzle since 2005. He came up with zero entries. When he looked for Obama he found the name “regularly appeared” in the puzzle. Does this prove that the Times is “150 percent in the tank” for Obama as McCain adviser Steve Schmidt recently claimed?

I find it a bit amazing that neither McCain’s name, nor Palin’s name (unless it is referring to Monty Python alum Michael) appears in the Times puzzle. But, there you have it. Wilk gives us his findings but tries to make light of the whole thing.

According to the puzzle database maintained by Cruciverb.com, ever since that game-changing day in 2005, OBAMA has appeared regularly as an answer in New York Times crossword puzzles. With its wonderfully convenient alternating series of commonly used vowels and consonants, OBAMA has been the answer to the clues “Senator who wrote ‘Dreams From My Father,’” “Future senator who delivered the 2004 Democratic convention keynote address” and “Presidential candidate born in Hawaii.”

But what about MCCAIN? Shockingly, not once has MCCAIN been an answer in a crossword in the New York Times, The Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times. No MCCAIN, no JOHNMCCAIN, no SENATORMCCAIN, not even his most recent sobriquet, the presidential-sounding JOHNSMCCAINIII.

Wilk also found a few Biden entries but no Sarah Palin additions.

While hardly of any national importance, it just goes to show the inane depths that the Zoloft-Deprived at the NYT will go to.

I cannot wait to see what the next Jumble puzzle will contain.

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(h/t to Mark Krikorian over at NRO’s “The Corner” for the post title)

Many of us may be too young to remember the days of old, when banks and other lenders didn’t make loans with the knowledge that they’d eventually sell those loans to another financial institution. We may not recall when banks gave you a loan, solely based on your credit score and your income level, and then kept the loan, increasing their portfolio and their return-business.

That’s how things were done, back in the days of sane fiscal practices. And it worked.

Then, along came the “Community Reinvestment Act”. This act forces lenders of all types to give loans to people who might not otherwise qualify, based on their ethnicity, and either a low-income level or poor credit rating. This act assumes that if one is a minority, with either a low-income or a poor credit rating, that more than likely you may have a hard time getting a loan and lenders aren’t “being fair” with you. It then forces lending institutions who supposedly “aren’t fair”, (and who normally wouldn’t give loans to people who fall into those categories), to go ahead with those risky loans, because it’s the “right thing to do”. “Don’t worry”, the government tells the lender, “We’ve got your back. Just sell that loan to another institution that can handle the bad debt, and we’ll take care of the rest”.

Gag me.

The banking and investment industry does not exist to carry out social experiments mandated by the federal government! If you cannot afford the loan you’re seeking, you shouldn’t get it, and lending institutions shouldn’t be made to “feel your pain” and give it to you anyway! Suck it up, and deal with it! Life isn’t fair!

As Mark Krikorian over at NRO’s “The Corner” puts it:

(snip)

Credit Is Not a Civil Right (Mark Krikorian)

…we’re in this mess, ultimately, because our political elites thought it was good social policy to encourage banks to give mortgages to uncreditworthy people,

—

In other words, if poor people in general, or blacks or Hispanics in particular, were less likely to be approved for a mortgage, the only possible reason was racism or classism or whatever.

—

Therefore, I propose any bailout bill start with these words: “It is the sense of Congress that credit is not a civil right.”

You get loans based on good credit, and the ability to pay the loan back. Not because you should be treated “with sensitivity to your financial situation”!

Suck…it…up!

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Well, this is good to see. The Obamedia being barred from Palin’s meetings with world leaders and not a moment too soon. It is well past time for these slime merchants and Obama’s PR department to be treated just like the irrelevant pieces of you-know-what that they are. Cut off their access and allow them to continue their slow decline into buggy whip obsolescence. I know that I would not want cockroaches crawling around on my wedding cake, so why should Palin have paid “journalisitic” assassins be anywhere near when she is conducting business of far more import than who wore what dress at the latest Emmy awards? Hopefully, Media Lover McCain will get it as well and do the same thing.

From NewsMax.com (via AP)

NEW YORK — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is banning reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew.

Palin plans to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in New York on Tuesday.

The TV producer, print and wire reporters in the press pool that follows the Alaska governor were told at the start of the day they would not be admitted with the photographers and camera crew when they are taken in to photograph the meetings.

At least two news organizations, including The Associated Press, objected and were told that the decision had already been made and was not subject to discussion.

Exactly. The media needs TO BE TOLD what and where their place is. And it is not as infiltrators.

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Long overdue, but well worth the hear.

A female audience member at a McCain Town Hall meeting today in Scranton, PA chided in no uncertain terms the Tass/Pravda media and their “like a whore running down the street naked” treatment of OBurkha.

After thanking McCain for selecting Palin, (and a long round of cheers and applause from the audience), she said this to the assembled Obamedia:

(Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit)

Real democracy in action. Nothing makes the press and Left scoff and shake more.

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