Fannie Wants More Money

Fannie and Freddie have been cash cows for friends of Democrat politicians. They go there and make millions and then leave. These two entities have been bailed out time and again since the stimulus and now Fannie wants more money:

Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under federal conservatorship, said it will seek $15.3 billion in aid from the U.S. Treasury after posting a 10th straight quarterly loss.

A fourth-quarter net loss of $16.3 billion, or $2.87 a share, pushed the company to request its fifth draw on an unlimited lifeline from the government, Washington-based Fannie Mae said in a filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bloomberg

These two organizations are the ones Barney Frank said were not in trouble. These are the ones that Democrats protected and claimed were solvent.

They made these claims despite George Bush’s concern over their financial health.

We know what happened to them and now they want more money from the taxpayers.

Is the government the organization you want running your health care?

Big Dog

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Biden Rewrites History

Obama and Biden opposed much of what George Bush did in Iraq and Obam told us that the surge was not going to work and would only increase sectarian violence. Of course, now that he pulls the levers, Obama employed a surge in Afghanistan. Obama did what Bush did and what he [Obama] said would fail.

Biden was on Larry king’s show and told the crypt keeper that Iraq could be one of the greatest achievements of the administration.

I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

I spent — I’ve been there 17 times now. I go about every two months — three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It’s impressed me. I’ve been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences. LA Times

Biden is happy they are using the political process rather than guns to settle their problems? What happened to the notion that the surge would lead to more violence? The successes there are not the result of Obama magically waving his wand and sprinkling fairy dust.

It seems to me that Bush should get the lion’s share of the credit for the successes in Iraq. Obama has not implemented any tactical changes that made the outcome different.

What amazes me is that when there is a problem the first thing Obama does is blame Bush. He inherited any problem but he takes credit for the successes.

You can’t play the game that way folks. If Obama is going to blame Bush at every turn for things that started when he was in office then it is only right that Bush get the credit for the good things that have transpired from those items which started when he was in office.

Anyone who has trouble seeing this double standard has overdosed on Kool Aid.

Big Dog

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Same Old Democrat Tactic, Blame It On Bush

The race in Massachusetts is getting more and more interesting. Scott Brown is in the lead and has a large group of supporters who want to see him win. There were more of them around than those who showed up to hear Obama stump for Coakley. It is reported that the Brown supporters were able to drown out Obama at times and were heard chanting for Brown while Obama was speaking.

Democrats are privately expressing that they think Coakley will lose the race on Tuesday. They are working on isolating Obama from the blame and will use the same tactic they did with Deeds in Virginia. They are also blaming a usual suspect, George Bush. The former president has not been in office for nearly a year but he keeps getting blamed. Democrats have blamed him for their failures in the housing market and their ignoring his calls for reform and now they want to blame him should Coakley lose.

This race is just absolutely insane. Patrick Kennedy, the substance abusing Congressman and nephew of the substance abusing and now very late Ted Kennedy, spoke on Coakley’s behalf but he kept calling her Marcia Coakley even though her name is Martha. Before we start concluding that it is a bad sign when people do not know the name of the person they are supporting (especially a Kennedy looking to support someone to fill a seat formerly occupied by a Kennedy) let us not forget that it was Kennedy who was all drugged and liquored up when he ran into some car trouble and got a ride home from the police (think they would do that for us). Perhaps Kennedy was just stoned and could not pronounce Martha without slurring it.

Boston.com says Coakley, despite her claims, seems to have vanished during the general election.

The Washington Times reports that Ed Schultz advocates cheating in order to keep Brown from winning:

I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts I’d try to vote 10 times. I don’t know if they’d let me or not, but I’d try to. Yeah, that’s right. I’d cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. ‘Cause that’s exactly what they are.

This should surprise no one since this is how Democrats win. They believe the ends justify the means and that if cheating will get what they want then they should cheat. The dead vote for Democrats.

The New York Daily News reports that if Brown wins it will be full speed ahead to get health care rammed through. Democrats will be running scared if Brown wins but they will still ram this through.

The best way to keep the Democrats from stealing another election is to ensure Brown wins by enough to keep any shenanigans from taking place.

The weather looks like it is cooperating with a chance of snow through Tuesday. That would keep voter turnout down with only the committed making it to the polls.

It won’t be long before we see what happens.

No matter what it will be fun to watch.

Big Dog

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In Obama’s World He Might Actually Be Not Guilty

The young man the Lame Stream Media calls an “alleged” bomber has pleaded “not guilty” to the charges against him. How he can be “alleged” is beyond me when people saw him try to detonate the underwear bomb and he ended up with his chestnuts roasting on an open fire on Christmas Day.

He might actually be not guilty in the world of Obama. After all, when Obama was making one of his pathetic addresses aimed at deflecting blame away from him (the buck “ultimately” stops at him but not until it hits a lot of others along the way) he said:

“We know that he traveled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies. It appears that he joined an affiliate of al Qaeda, and that this group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America.” ABC

This was said as if poverty had anything to do with this and to partially justify the behavior. The “alleged” bomber came from a wealthy family. Poverty had nothing to do with his motivation, a motivation we might never know because his act is being treated like a crime rather than an act of war.

In Obama’s world view through the community organizer lens this guy just needed to be taken care of and nurtured. It would do us well to remember that the terrorists who recruited the Fruit of the Boom bomber are organizing a community as well.

Keep in mind that the Obama minded people believe that Gitmo is the reason behind these kinds of attacks and that closing the facility will reduce terrorism recruitment. None of these intellectual midgets seems to be able to explain how all the terrorists were recruited before we ever held anyone at Gitmo.

Interestingly, the terrorists held at Gitmo would rather stay there because they are being held under the rules of the Geneva Convention. They know that if they are moved to a federal prison they will be under near lock down conditions. According to one of the attornys; “As far as our clients are concerned, it’s probably preferable for them to remain at Guantánamo,” he [Falkoff] says.

Mark Hemingway of the Washington Examiner also notes:

“The strident left-wing critiques of the Guantanamo facility have all centered around the fact that detainees there are horribly mistreated and conditions unbearable. But when push comes to shove, it would seem concerns about Guantanamo are overblown, and the prisoners there know that being held under the Geneva conventions outside the U.S. is much preferable to a maximum security prison in the U.S.”

So the kid from the wealthy family “allegedly” tried to set of a bomb aboard a US airliner because of poverty and Gitmo, the prison Obama said he would shut down in a year (won’t happen), is the place where the terrorists would rather stay if they can’t go home.

Interesting. I wonder if they can sue Obama for torture because he forced them to leave the warm, tropical place where they have some freedom to move about for a freezing cold prison where they will not have so much mobility…

All of this is coming at a time when Obama is overwhelmed by failures. The terrorist got on a plane, CIA agents get blown up by an “alleged” informant, his administration gives conflicting information, and the administration pushes the idea that intelligence people allowed the bomber to get on the plane because they do not like Obama.

Sounds bad. It is but not as bad as Obama having to put in place the things Bush already had in place and that were working. These are the things Obama weakened when he took office:

In a revealing admission, President Barack Obama said today he was directing U.S. intelligence agencies to begin to do something many had assumed they were already doing: “[A]ssigning specific responsibility for investigating all leads on high priority threats so that these leads are pursued and acted upon aggressively.”

“That is a shock because we had such a follow-up system when I was there,” said Richard Clarke, the White House counter-terrorism director in the Clinton and Bush administrations. Clarke, who worked on the Obama transition team, is now an ABC News consultant. Ace of Spades

I have been told by the liberals that it will take Obama a while to clean up the mess left by George Bush. That is all well and good because the mess is defined by one’s politics and, quite frankly, Bush left some messes. However, it is important to note that the office of the president is a continuous one and no person who holds that office ties everything up neatly before leaving. It is supposed to carry over with a smooth transition.

I also doubt Obama will clean up any messes by discarding policies simply because they were ones Bush instituted. Ace points out nicely how Obama pulled back from what we were doing only to see his actions nearly result in the death of hundreds of people, in the air and on the ground. Instead of keeping things that worked in place Obama removed them. He allowed his ego and liberal belief that open fists mean people play nice to get in the way.

In his zeal to show he is on top of things Obama released a declassified report showing how the Fruit of the Boom bomber was able to board the airplane. Basically, Obama told us he was on top of things and that we would stop this from happening again by publishing the instruction manual on doing it. [Big Dog Salute: Just One Minute]

Heck of a job Barry.

At least Barry told us this in a clear, concise manner. He didn’t go speaking negro on us.

Big Dog Salute to Don Surber

Big Dog

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Obama’s Response To Attack Is Amazingly Quick

The United States was attacked on Christmas Day in what turned out to be a failed attempt at blowing up an aircraft. The response from the Obama people was disjointed and insincere. Obama was informed of the attack a few hours after it happened and he responded three days later. Some folks have made a big deal about the time it took to respond but that is not as important as what was said when the response actually arrived. Obama contradicted his Homeland Defense Secretary and became increasingly irate at the accusations that he was weak. Regardless of how long Obama waited to respond the real problem was that his response looked more like damage control than national security.

George Bush did not respond until six days after the shoe bomber made his fatal attempt. I do not know if there were legal reasons (the shoe bomber is an American citizen and perhaps they could not make statements that would jeopardize the investigation) or if the White House Press Secretary said anything prior to Bush. When Bush finally addressed it I don’t recall it being about damage control. I just remember that I had to start taking my shoes off every time I went through airport security.

News for TSP, I am not taking my underwear off because of this incident…

Regardless of the time involved, Obama should have been more concerned with the incident and not worried about damage control and he should not have had to clean up the gaffes of his DHS Secretary. Obama and his people (including his media wing at the MSM) should have spent less time defending how long it took Obama to say something with childish comparisons to how long it took Bush and spent more time telling people how they would be kept safe and at the same time inconvenienced as little as possible during the heavy holiday travel period.

One thing that Obama and his people were quick about responding to were the attacks on Obama. Team Obama responded nearly instantaneously when Dick Cheney came out with his criticisms of Obama. Dick Cheney is not a threat to airline safety, terrorists with underpants bombs are. If it took three days to address the real threat it should have taken longer to address Cheney. It should have taken longer to address the other criticisms leveled at the Obama administration. I think Cheney was spot on but that does not mean he could not be ignored by the administration until after they addressed the threat.

By taking its time with addressing the threat but responding in near real time to criticisms the Obama team comes off as being in campaign mode and not in leadership mode. Being president is a tough job no matter who is in there and if it takes them a while to address a situation then when they do address it they should look like they know what is going on. Obama was hurt by the ineptitude of Napolitano. That made them look more inept and added fuel to the fire.

We have already figured out that Obama does not do anything regarding leading the country quickly. It has taken him days or months to come to decisions (except for the crisis spending bills) and while his supporters like to claim he is a deliberative person he does not appear as such when he is able to immediately respond to criticism.

It also did not help the cause for Obama to say; “We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable” and then leave his press conference to play golf. I realize he is on vacation so it might have been prudent to maybe leave that “we will not rest” part out of the speech and save it for a time when he is not, you know, resting…

The left was quick to point out George Bush discussing the seriousness of the terrorism threat while playing golf but remain silent about Obama’s very similar situation.

Sources:
Washington Examiner
Swamp Politics

UPDATE: Excellent article by Charles Krauthammer.

Big Dog

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