Arkansas Blog

I watched "Unconventional Wisdom" with David Sanders on AETN last Friday. I was appalled at his having Tim Griffin as guest on that show. I worte them of my displeasure with them giving him credibility by having him on the air. I'll never believe anything that comes out of his mouth. His mentor is one of the lying liars.

The very idea.. putting Tim Griffin on television without revealing who he really is or what he has done.. or without it being a mug shot from behind bars or a photo of him with a new creme pie in his face.. should be considered tantamount to journalistic treason. He couldn't be more harmful to America if he went on Osama bin Ladens payroll. Anyone who worked for Rove to cage votes is anti- democracy.. It's fascism.

ANd that's enough.. without even a need to look at how egregious his DOJ shenanigans have been.

Heil Griffin

Sanders is an idiot. How did he get on TV?

Do you think folks that go to Washington think they are above the law? They can make the rules but not abide by the rules? And then how does one manage the civil service system in parallel with the military? Which one eats our breakfast, lunch and dinner thereby denying our visits to our local, favoirite retailer?

"Arkansas U.S. attorney Bud Cummins 'was not removed for any performance reasons,' the report says. 'Rather, the evidence shows that the main reason for Cummins's removal was to provide a position for former White House official Tim Griffin."

We knew all along that was really the truth about this whole slimy mess. Too bad the Rethugs wouldn't know the truth if it spit in their faces.

The bad news for us is that now li'l Timmy is free to go around the country engaging in voter caging anywhere he wants to. He might not have engaged in that type of activity if he was in the U. S. Attorney position, but then you never know.

>>Sanders is an idiot. How did he get on TV?

Good question and I asked that myself. I asked an acquaintance
at ADG and received a courteous reply that he was the best AETN
could do in terms of balancing the political viewpoints on Ark Week.

Sanders has written about the vote-cager in a few columns.
I think they are buddies.

.

This is the common thread that permeates our entire system and must be eradicated once and for all. This is an ariticle from the NY Times and it is the smoking gun in this entire economic mess. Read it and weep:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 30, 1999

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program b! y next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''F! annie M ae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic tim! es. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''
Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or he! r month ly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.
Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.
In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.
Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.
The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

You can bet one damn thing, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is a Cheney-Rove mole. You can bet the female prosecutor they announced yesterday is a Cheney-Rove mole too. She won't have any more luck getting the White House Gang to testify than anyone else....and you can bet she won't try very hard.

The Cheney-Bush administration has been like the Mafia, minus a lot of Italian names. They do what they want and they ignore those telling them differently. I lived almost 50 years before I saw someone testify without being under oath. I didn't think you could do such a thing! It's like praying with your eyes open....who ever heard of such a thing. And then I found out if you work for the White House even as a gardener....you can ignore subpoenas! Who knew??

I'd think a real easy 1st thing for President Obama to do is say from here on you WILL testify under oath and you WILL answer any subpoena. So ladies and germs, don't be holding your breath for any fireworks this year. If we do indeed have a regime change in '09 then we might see the fur fly. But Mukasey, the lapdog has made sure ain't nothing going to happen while he's still pretending to be running things in the Injustice Department.

September 30, 2000

Fannie Mae Tightens Credit On Mortgage Lending
by Ralph Merser

Fannie Mae, a mortgage repurchase company, announced today a tightening of credit standards for mortgages it acquires from lending institutions. A recent study by Fannie Mae revealed original lenders were employing deceptive tactics when explaining loan terms to potential customers. This continued practice will likely result in too many subprime loans being issued and assumed by the Association said Darrel Rand, a Fannie Mae spokesman.

Deceptive loan practices have been increasing as local banks and other institutions have sought to participate in the real estate boon. Such loans are then "cashed out" by Fannie Mae to allow local banks and mortgage companies to free up capital into other real estate investments.

The fact that democrats have been responsible for the destruction of this nation's economy is no longer debatable. It is established. Many people have paid a very high price for your party's social engineering that rewarded freeloaders at the expense of decent hard working people. Liberalism is a destructive philosophy that has failed and has betrayed the people of this country.

I'm watching several Congressmen/women in 2003 castigating the regulators for trying to stop abuses at Fanniemae and Freddiemac. Two of them are black and the third is Barney Frank. They claim that everything is ok with Fannie and Freddie and that the Regulators are overreacting and trying to over regulate these agencies. Isn't tape great. Isn't it wonderful when you can catch these hypocrites red handed as they successfully keep honest people from doing their jobs. Thank you democrats for destroying this economy. Hypocrites!!!!!!!

What about the U.S. Attorneys that were sacked when Clinton assumed the office of President. Is that different? Is it ok for a liberal president to sack attorneys and not ok for a conservative president?

Again, these attorneys are NOT civil service. They can be fired at will. They have no job protection. They are in appointed positions.

Nobody here is buying your load of bullshit, strangelove. Take it elsewhere, please. I don't have the time to start, engage in, or finish an argument with you, so to save time, PROVE YOUR ARGUMENT that "Democrats have been responsible for the distruction of this nation's economy," and that "liberalism is a destructive philosophy that has failed and has betrayed the people of this country."
Go ahead and try.........but I won't even stick around to see what you say. Because, really, I don't pay much attention to idiots, racists, close-minded people, religious nuts, etc. But maybe others will be convinced.
Maybe you'll change Zelda's mind, maybe it will be NormaBates who will suddenly see the light, hey, even Jazzy (my clone) who'll suddenly say "Strangelove convinced me,,,," or DBI will write a glowing report on how you made perfect sense. Or others - Cato, elwood, ES......ya never know.
Double dog dare ya.
But, I'll leave it to you to convince the blog ( I forgot Rick Baber and a bunch of others who make sense when they type) that liberal Democrats have ruined the economy.
Have a good life..............

kiz

Nobody here is buying your load of bullshit, strangelove. Take it elsewhere, please. I don't have the time to start, engage in, or finish an argument with you, so to save time, PROVE YOUR ARGUMENT that "Democrats have been responsible for the distruction of this nation's economy," and that "liberalism is a destructive philosophy that has failed and has betrayed the people of this country."
Go ahead and try.........but I won't even stick around to see what you say. Because, really, I don't pay much attention to idiots, racists, close-minded people, religious nuts, etc. But maybe others will be convinced.
Maybe you'll change Zelda's mind, maybe it will be NormaBates who will suddenly see the light, hey, even Jazzy (my clone) who'll suddenly say "Strangelove convinced me,,,," or DBI will write a glowing report on how you made perfect sense. Or others - Cato, elwood, ES......ya never know.
Double dog dare ya.
But, I'll leave it to you to convince the blog ( I forgot Rick Baber and a bunch of others who make sense when they type) that liberal Democrats have ruined the economy.
Have a good life..............

kiz

kizzy, can you read English? Do you 'comprende' the article above? It is absolute in terms of guilt. Your party has been exposed. In addition to the damning article above I just saw with my own eyes several of YOUR party members who were in Congress in 2003 castigate a regulator who was alarmed about the abuses in Fannie and Freddie. If you ideology is so rigid that you can't understand absolute proof then you are a pathetic creature who is a slave to your ideology. You should be ashamed of your party and of an ideology that has destroyed this economy.

The only racist that I see today are those who give special privileges to people because of their race or sex. Those are the real racists.

There is no way that you can 'prove' something to someone like you. I have provided documented articles from the NYTIMES in 1999 that totally outlined the problem that we find ourselves in today. The catastrophe was laid out then and now the chickens have come home to roost. You just aren't capable of admitting that your ideology is bankrupt and corrupt.