We've had about all the "big thinking" we can handle for the day, thanks. (UPDATED)

As we noted previously, its heady days for the big government set who have busted their shovels out of storage and are gleefully tossing dirt on “free market’s” grave in one big ol’ “told you so” moment. Of course, these people are full of crap as there was nothing “free market” about Congress purposely trying to manipulate the housing market for their desired results.

But beyond the obvious, we’ve noted a tone of wonderment and awe when people like Rosa Brooks write here about the redeeming and cleansing powers of government and the salvation afforded to all us little people by the state from the battering and bruising of the “free market”.

Are government programs needed? Absolutely. That whole interstate system was/is a great idea… makes road-trips a heckuva lot easier but we like the interstate highway system and government involvement in the same for strictly utilitarian purposes.

Because of this we never understood this juvenile fascination that some people have with “Government” as some sort of overarching national psychological healer. These people get glassy-eyed talking about the good ol’ days of the Great Depression and FDR’s programs that did not do one damn thing to actually lift us out of the Depression. Sorry, we just don’t get it. Oh, that’s right… he had to do “something”. Sound familiar?

And forgive us the shakes when people like Parks want Government to “think Big”. Some of the greatest atrocities, no, the greatest atrocities ever committed against mankind have occurred when people or individual men have affected sweeping change through the Government by “thinking Big”. The Final Solution, The Great Leap Forward…. Burning Food…

Are we making an equivalency between Mao and current big government-philes like Parks? No. But by the same token we are not letting big government types off the hook for failing to explain how it is we are going to pay for all this big thinking, especially in light of the crushing un-funded liabilities facing future generations that are now on the not-too-distant horizon because of previous well-intended bouts of “thinking big”.

$300 million for mortgage assistance, Fannie, Freddie, Bear-Stearns, AIG and now the $700 billion “we voted against it before we voted for it” financial market bailout. We haven’t seen this much “thinking Big” in our entire life.

So just tack all that on to…

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Universal health care… who is going to pay for all this? And once we figure out who’s getting stuck the bill… how? Now, that would be thinking Big.

(UPDATE #1): In the article, Brooks smugly asks: And hasn't this week made you glad the GOP didn't succeed in privatizing Social Security? (Isn't it ironic the woman recoils from the same outside-the-box thinking she appears to be advocating) The woman intimates the lies that scared off many voters in the first place regarding privitization. First off, the privitization plan would only be for a portion of one’s Social Security account. We’ve forgot the exact percentage but we believe no more than half of your account could be privitized. Secondly, and most importantly, the decision to privitize your account would be entirely voluntary…. 100% your decision.

We continue to be amazed by people like Parks who will tell you they are for individual choice and for the “little guy’s” ability to get ahead by his/her own wits and hard work and then, at every turn, deny the same means to be able to do so.

And to answer her question: No, we’re not glad the GOP didn’t succeed in privitizing a portion of our account at our discretion. In fact, we wish we could opt out of the whole thing altogether. The money we have amassed to date in our account, we’d gladly have it payed forward to impending retirees, or better, commit to our nieces and nephews’ accounts in return for not having the 6% tax taken out of our paycheck and our employer not having to pay the 6% tax on our name in way of payroll tax.

For those of you 40-45 and under who think you are going to see all of that money that the SSA says you will on that account statement that gets delivered every 6 months, you are completelty delusional.

Its time this decrepit Depression-era dinosaur gets a serious make-over or taken out at the knees altogether.

Business as usual in the Windy City

It would seem the mortgage lending industry is not the only unregulated industry rife with greed and in need of reform. Blue Crab Blvd. has more here.

Only 79 more shopping days left...

We’ve still got a couple-three months left on the ’08 sports calendar but InGameNow decided to get their wish-list in early and ranks the biggest moments in sports thus far. If by biggest moments one means commanding one’s opponent, cancer, oddmakers, NATO ally, etc. to perform self-inflicted reproductive acts.

Our personal fave based upon nothing more scientific than height off deck lept from the seated position on the couch (sofa?) is the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay victory over the French in the Beijing Olympics. And yes, we stuck the landing.

H/T: East Coast Bias

"Hey, who loves ya, baby? No down? No problem"

Who We Are

National non-profit ACORN Housing has been providing free housing counseling to low and moderate income homebuyers since 1987. We have opened HUD-certified, Fannie Mae-approved (ed.: now there's a confidence booster) housing counseling offices across the US, helping over 50,000 families to achieve homeownership.

ACORN Housing provides one-on-one mortgage loan counseling, first-time homebuyer classes, and helps clients obtain affordable mortgages through our unique lending partnerships. (ed.: that would be one way of phrasing it)

We look at your savings and credit history to see if you qualify for a mortgage. We can help you with credit problems and to create a downpayment savings plan.
When you qualify, we can help arrange a mortgage with lower interest rates, lower down payments and lower settlement costs than what banks usually offer.

Our Homebuyer’s Program

Counseling

Mortgage Programs

With AHC you get:
· Lower down payments and closing costs.

· No Private Mortage Insurance. (ed.: fully standard everywhere else... this insurance is there precisely in case of a default)

· Banks generally require 3 months of mortgage payments in the bank at settlement. (ed.: this equates to approx. a 2% down payment)

· With our program, they don't, which allows you to buy a home sooner. (ed.: Which they will still waive.)

· Most banks won't count public assistance or voluntarily child support in determining if you'll qualify for a mortgage.

· With our program, all steady income counts. (ed.: Yee-hah!)


We’d never believe it if we didn’t read it with our very eyes. The text above has been lifted directly from the ACORN website and spells out as clear as day some of the ingredients in the recipe for disaster that has been the mortgage meltdown.

That ACORN, the community organizer umbrella group that has been the subject of investigations which have resulted in indictments and convictions regarding voter registration fraud and which now sits squarely among the guilty parties in the finance crisis and which also has been the training ground for one particular Presidential candidate would leave all that up on their website is either brazen, incompetent or careless. We cannot decide which.

They have been able to accomplish all they claim they will for low and moderate income prospective homeowners through a combination of HUD grants (your tax dollars), corporate shakedowns and a relaxing of standard mortgage lending practices which the ACORN (in concert with Fannie Mae malfeasance) literature above makes plainly obvious.

We’ve been saying all along that this mortgage/finance crisis was not a failure of the "free-market" so add one more log to the bonfire of crony capitalism, kleptocracy and out-of-control quasi-governmental institutions that ACORN begins to resemble upon closer inspection.

Smog, Traffic, Gang violence, Mayor Villaraigosa... and all they've got to show for it is this lousy newspaper. Pt. II

Hey, do you know who probably wasn’t the greatest aviator in U.S. Navy history?

…. John McCain, that’s who?

The Pulitzer prize-winning L.A. Times goes back as far as nearly a half century to document John McCain’s pilot mishaps.

...because Chicago is just so far away, man.

Fanciful flights of conspiracy hit the pages of Harper's

Occam's razor: "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."

First, the charges against Ifill would lead to her being extremely passive in her questioning of Palin and permissive in her moderating the debate.
.
This strategy succeeded on both points. Ifill’s questioning and moderating was, as The Atlantic’s James Fallows remarked, “terrible.” She asked open-ended, utterly predictable questions which presented very little challenge to the candidates.

... or, perhaps Gwen Ifill is just a "terrible" moderator, period.

H/T: Free Darko

Breathlessly indignant gay harassment double-standard post narrowly averted… for now

A mistrial was declared in the sexual harassment suit brought against the city of San Diego by four SD firefighters who believed they were the subject of lewd and harassing language and actions at the 2007 Gay Pride Parade in the Gay Alps of Hillcrest here in San Diego. (Previous posts here and here)

The jury (6 men, 6 women) was apparently dead-locked 8-4 on the question of sexual harassment and voted 11-1 to reject the claim of one of the firefighters who charged he suffered retaliation for complaining about the parade assignment.

One juror said she felt the panel could have reached a verdict on the sexual harassment claim if given more time, but City Attorney Mike Aguirre, who was defending the city in the suit, wanted the panel to declare whether it was deadlocked.

Superior Court Judge Michael Anello agreed with Aguirre, and when the jurors said that they were, in fact, deadlocked, Anello declared the mistrial.
The suit could be refilled, however, if the firefighters decide to pursue this further.

City Attorney and all-around sleaze merchant, Mike Aguirre, who is up for re-election was convinced it was not really about harassment:
“That's what this was about. This was about greed,” he said. “This was about getting money in their pockets.”

Comments to attached article were particularly revealing. It would seem, harassment is a one way street and subject to strict codes based upon stereotyping which we thought highly ironic considering the “civil rights”- type struggle the gay community sees themselves fighting.

And commenters bashing the firefighters for wasting tax payer money with this suit…? We want to ask an honest question because, though we think we know the answer, we’re not entirely sure: Who’s footing the bill for this parade, anyway?

Well, almost averted…

But He said He was going to be different...

Big Media slowly awakes from a slumber to report on some, er, irregularities in Suit’s fund raising.

"This summer, watchdog groups asked both campaigns to share more information about its small donors. The McCain campaign agreed; the Obama campaign did not. "They could've done themselves a service" by heeding the suggestions, said Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics."

Of course they didn’t. Dare they question The One?

You can take the boy out of Chicago machine politics but you can't take Chicago machine politics out of the boy.

B-Daddy has more, here.

Smog, Traffic, Gang violence, Mayor Villaraigosa…. and all they’ve got to show for it is this lousy newspaper

The Pulitzer prize-winning L.A. Times scoured their message boards for trenchant analysis of last Thursday night’s debate and decided upon the following to grace the front page of their on-line edition on Friday :

Sarah is given kudos because she didn't screw up. Using that logic, maybe I should get praise every time I drive to the grocery store without hitting a pedestrian along the way. - Loftboy

A very Kerry moment

… because “air-raiding villages and killing civilians” is all part of the master plan over there in Iraq.

And doesn’t “have enough troops” over in Iraq as an alternative to all that indiscriminate slaughter kind of sound like support of the Surge plan which was in full swing at the time he said this back in August of ‘07?

For the Surge before he was against it... or do we have it backwards? Like it matters with this guy.

H/T: Hot Air

What's that funny smell?

No last second heartbreak, no blown calls at the end of the game… the Chargers accomplished their 17-10 loss to Miami completely unassisted as they appeared wholly unprepared, uninspired and basically stunk up the joint down in South Florida today.

Recall earlier in the week when Charger defenders dismissed the Dophin’s “wildcat” package (where running back Ronnie Brown (pictured) takes the snap from the shot-gun in a single-wing set and which generated 4 scores for them in their win against the Pats a couple weeks back) as a “gimmick”. The Charger defense which cannot defend against the pass and has trouble stopping the run has now bagged the trifecta in not being able to contain a “gimmick”, either as Ronnie Brown, many times from this formation, ran for 125 yards and a TD.

The announcers rightly noted that this formation allowed the ‘Fins to have their two best running backs, Brown and Ricky Williams, on the field at the same time. A novel concept, that, to which our head would probably explode if the Chargers ever demonstrated the creativity to maximize pressure on the defense by having LT and Darren Sproles on the field at the same time.

When Miami was not running its “gimmick”, the Charger D made Chad Pennington the model of efficiency as he was 22-29 for 228 yards. And again, the Charger pass rush did not as much dare muss Pennington’s golden locks.

But because the Chargers believe so much in the concept of “team”, the offense decided to lay down as well…. the vaunted offensive line did not generate any push up front which resulted in just 35 rushing yards on 12 carries for LT and Philip Rivers who had looked so good in the Green Bay game just a couple of weeks ago appeared skittish resulting in many errant passes as he completed just 13 of 28 for 158 yards.

There are no more excuses. Everybody’s back from injuries and suspensions which makes this loss that much worse. Unfortunately, because of this fact, there does not seem to be any quick fixes on the horizon.