Good news: “Capitalism will be different” now, declares Geithner

Obama on pork: Gone With The Change

WSJ survey: Economists give Obama, Geithner failing grades so far

Hypocrisy Thy Name Is Obama

By all means Obama, keep talking about Rush, or make more promises you have no intention of keeping.  Newsflash..Half of those that voted to get you in are not following what you do, which is good news for you.  The bad news is that the other half is paying attention

Yes, he has a potty mouth, but aside from that, he has the best grasp on the issues..

From Best Of The Web

• “I believe . . . that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week.”–Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, April 19, 2007
• “Resolved, that this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretence of military necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States.”–1864 Democratic platform

And just some that are fun to throw out there:

They Won the War Before They Lost It
“I am proud of these troops and what they have done. They won the war and the mission was accomplished. We cannot win it militarily.”–Rep. John Murtha, April 20

An Interesting Theory About the Motive
“Brian Williams of ‘NBC Nightly News’ told PBS’s Charlie Rose on Tuesday that the shootings at Virginia Tech proved that viewers still wanted traditional network anchors.”–New York Times, April 19

C’mon, He’s Not Insane, Just Inane
“Keep Guns From the Insane: Obama”–headline, Chicago Sun-Times, April 20

Here is one of their posts: Ninja Attack on Mammoth!

It is a breath of fresh air compared to what the grown ups are talking about these days!

Love,

Aunt Pam

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, Right Truth, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, , Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Nuke’s, Pet’s Garden Blog, Allie is Wired, Political Byline, third world county, McCain Blogs, Woman Honor Thyself, , DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, , , The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D’ITALIA, and Dumb Ox Daily News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Brock Bucklin, an Army specialist, was killed May 31, 2006 in Iraq.

Through my parents, I met Brock’s parents, Duane and Dawn Bucklin. When told by Duane about The Folds of Honor Foundation, I walked away inspired. His son’s death inspired an act of kindness committed by all who donate to this very worth cause!

Here is the story:

A foundation hopes to turn tragedy around by helping families of men and women fighting for our freedom who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

It began with the death of 28-year-old Brock Bucklin, an Army specialist from Caledonia. He was killed May 31, 2006 in Iraq when fellow soldiers were lifting heavy equipment and a hoist broke.

His sacrifice was etched on the hearts of the passengers on the flight that returned his body home.

When the plane landed, Bucklin’s 4-year-old son, Jacob, rushed to the casket carrying his hero’s body. That image stuck with Capt. Dan Rooney who was on that flight and has been on several tours in the Middle East.

“I was on a United Airlines flight, 664. You don’t remember the numbers of many flights in your life, but this was a night that my life changed,” Rooney told 24 Hour News 8. “For me, being an F-16 pilot, I’ve seen combat, I’ve seen death and destruction in Iraq. But I’d never seen that side of it. And having three daughters of my own, it was something that really struck me.”

Rooney decided to combine his two passions – patriotism and golf – and started the Folds of Honor Foundation, a scholarship to help pay for school for some of the 187,000 dependents left behind by war.

Jacob, whose young face that got Rooney’s wheels turning, is fittingly the first recipient.

“I cannot imagine that there’s anything else that could be any more worthwhile,” said Duan Bucklin, Brock’s father. “In the fact that I think my son couldn’t be more happy than to have his death inspire the foundation.”

The Folds of Honor hosts Patriot Golf Day during the Labor Day weekend. The annual event raised $8,000. Last year it expanded, about 3,400 golf courses around the country, charging an extra dollar for green fees or asking for donations. The total swelled to about $1.1 million.

They are hoping to raise more during this year’s event.

“This small seed that started right here in West Michigan, in Grand Haven of all places, that has gone across this country,” said Rooney.

A statue of Jacob’s father stands in Veterans Memorial Park in Grand Rapids. The boy and Rooney posed Wednesday afternoon during a photo-shoot with People Magazine. The magazine highlighting them is expected to hit the stands in early August.

“He’s our son. That’s the extension of our son. So if we can’t have our son, Jacob is what we have,” said Duan Bucklin.

“I think Brock would be really happy and very happy and I think he’d be very proud of who Jacob is and what he’s becoming,” said Jacob’s mom, Michelle Price.

I realize that in these trying times, and that people are making sacrifices, but these men and women paid the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. Please find it in your hearts to make a tax deductible donation to Folds of Honor Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, it would be appreciated. Not only for Jacob Bucklin, but for the 187,000 dependents left behind by war.

Godspeed to Brock’s twin brother Brad. Brad will be deployed to Iraq in the coming months.

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Political Byline, third world county, A Newt One- Congressman Frank Wolf!, Right Truth, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, , Dumb Ox Daily News, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Trackposted to Pirate’s Cove, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Amboy Times, Rosemary’s Thoughts, McCain Blogs, and Woman Honor Thyself, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Will it be Mitt?

Obama Stands Against Lobbyists?

There is a ton of news that I have not touched on so pick a topic and let’s chat!

Perhaps the most biting commentary was written by Democrat David Kahane, a National Review Online columnist whose lasting impression of Sen. Dodd is “his shock of white hair, his vaguely New England-ish accent, his hazy demeanor and his utter lack of shame.”

“I know you’re as shocked as I am,” Mr. Kahane told his readers, “to discover that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Countrywide) has been identified as a ‘Friend of Angelo,‘ amid charges that the Enron of subprime mortgages gave him a sweetheart deal. … You’re probably also stunned that Dodd ” the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and the alleged other half of the Edward Moore Kennedy Memorial Waitress Sandwich ” had to admit the other day, ‘I don’t know what interest rates are today.’”

Moreover, he wrote, “it will no doubt astonish you to learn that Dodd, who some say ran for the Democrat nomination for president this year before his campaign collapsed from terminal anti-charisma, along the way shook down ” excuse me, ‘collected millions of dollars in campaign contributions from’ ” various subprime lenders and other real-estate types whose activities he oversaw.

“Is this a great racket ” excuse me one more time ” country, or what? The whole thing makes me proud to be a member of the Tammany Party. Yes, the party of Slavery, Segregation, Secularism, and Sedition ” that Tammany party. … The Tammany Party as in Tammany Hall, which was once led in its earliest days by none other than that great Democrat, Aaron Burr, who nobly served his country as Thomas Jefferson’s vice president, shot and killed Alexander Hamilton, and was later tried for treason. … And while the Tammany party ain’t what it used to be, it sure is great to see Chris Dodd emerging as a throwback to our glory days.”

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, third world county, Faultline USA, Allie is Wired, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, , Conservative Cat, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Former major league baseball player Jose Canseco:”said on Thursday he had lost his California mansion to foreclosure ” one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis,” the Associated Press said.

In comments to the TV show “Inside Edition,” Canseco says, “It didn’t make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else.”

More from the Associated Press: “Canseco, 43, one of the most flamboyant U.S. baseball players until his retirement from the major leagues in 2001, told the celebrity TV show ‘Inside Edition’ that it did not make financial sense to keep his 7,300-square-foot home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. ‘Inside Edition’ said it had foreclosure documents showing Canseco owed a bank more than $2.5 million on the house.

What part of the housing crisis is he a portion of? He had the means to pay the mortgage but chose not to.

MM points out:

political rhetoric absolving borrowers of their responsibilities ” and encouraging them to spend, spend, spend even more ” has made it possible. And so has federal legislation intended to “help.” The omnibus spending bill passed last year prevents the IRS from taxing mortgage forgiveness as income up to $1 million for a two-year period. Some people are bailing because they’ve lost equity and value in their properties; some are bailing for cheaper homes in the same neighborhoods. There’s even a term that’s become popular over the last couple of years ” “Jingle Mail” ” that describes when homeowners cut loose and mail in the keys to the bank. Ho, ho, ho. The true victims in this “crisis” are those who paid for homes within their means and those who waited to enter the housing market.

As she was typing that, the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday approved a sweeping bill to enable the government to finance $300 billion in distressed mortgages with the aim of helping 2 million homeowners.

The legislation, approved by a 46-21 vote, would provide an infusion of capital and new mandate for the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee home loans when a property has sunk in value since the mortgage was written.

Lenders would have to erase a portion of the original loan in order to secure a government guarantee on future payments.

Here are some of the highlights of that:

Eligibility Requirements for Existing Loans (Requires All of the Following):

• Owner-occupied principal residences only (no investors, speculators or second homes), and borrowers must certify that they do not own any other homes;
• Existing senior loan being refinanced must have been originated on or before December 31, 2007;
• To remove any incentive for borrowers to “purposely default,” the borrower must have had a mortgage debt-to-income ratio of no less than 35 percent as of March 1, 2008, and must certify that he/she has not intentionally defaulted on existing mortgage(s) and did not obtain the existing loan fraudulently;
• Participating mortgage holders/investors must waive any penalties or fees on the existing mortgage and must accept proceeds of the new loan as payment in full; and
• Existing mortgage holders/investors must accept their losses – taking substantial write-downs sufficient to: (1) establish a 3 percent loan loss reserve for the FHA; (2) pay the origination and closing costs for the new loan up to 2 percent; and (3) bring the loan-to-value ratio on the new FHA-guaranteed loan down to no greater than 90 percent of property’s current appraised value, resulting in a substantial reduction in debt service to the borrower. Accordingly, to qualify mortgage holders would need to accept a substantial write-down, accepting as payment in full no more than 85 percent of the property’s current appraised value.

Requirements for New FHA-Insured Loans:

• New FHA loans must be properly underwritten and must be based on current appraised value of the house and borrower’s documented income (borrowers with higher – but not disqualifying – debt levels would need to make six months of timely payments at the new payment level to qualify for the guarantee);
• New FHA loan must extinguish all existing liens and substantially reduce the borrower’s mortgage debt service;
• New FHA loans under this program must be within the FHA loan limits now in effect under the stimulus for the duration of this program;
• Oversight Board will set reasonable limits on loan fees and interest rates; and
• To reduce costs to the government – and avoid inappropriate enrichment to the borrower – the government will retain a share of the borrower’s future profits. When the borrower sells the home or refinances the loan, the borrower will pay from any profits the higher of (1) an ongoing exit fee equal to 3 percent of the original FHA loan balance; or (2) a declining percentage of any net proceeds attributable to home appreciation (i.e., from 100 percent in year one to 50 percent in year four and thereafter minus the fees the borrower has paid into FHA).

Trackposted to <a href=”http://poohflingingneocons.blogspot.com/2008/05/is-it-just-me.html”>Pooh Flinging NeoCons</a>, <a href=”http://www.themadpigeon.com/diary_of_the_mad_pigeon/2008/05/thursday-open-r.html”>Diary of the Mad Pigeon</a>, <a href=”http://rosemarysthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/05/to-all-enemies-of-usa.html”>Rosemary’s Thoughts</a>, <a href=”http://allieiswired.com/archives/2008/05/allies-wired-hot-links-79/”>Allie is Wired</a>, <a href=”http://www.womanhonorthyself.com/?p=4987″>Woman Honor Thyself</a>, <a href=”http://mccainblogs.com/2008/05/02/mccainiac-weekend-linkfest-sticky-52-54/”>McCain Blogs</a>, <a href=”http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2008/05/you-cant-fact-1.html”>Right Truth</a>, <a href=”http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/?p=1401″>The World According to Carl</a>, <a href=”http://www.thepiratescove.us/2008/05/02/pirate-weekend-linkfest-sticky-post-5254/”>Pirate’s Cove</a>, <a href=”http://thepinkflamingo.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/5/2/3671428.html”>The Pink Flamingo</a>, <a href=”http://caosblog.com/7752″>Cao’s Blog</a>, <a href=”http://wolfpangloss.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/mayday-poem-and-open-trackbacks/”>Wolf Pangloss</a>, <a href=”http://www.dequalss.com/wp/2008/05/02/columbia-free-trade-agreement-made-simple/”>Democrat=Socialist</a>, <a href=”http://www.anewtone.com/2008/05/war-news-idiots-of-mission-accomplished.html”>A Newt One</a>, and <a href=”http://www.yankeesailor.us/?p=709″>The Yankee Sailor</a>, thanks to <a href=”http://www.linkfests.us”>Linkfest Haven Deluxe</a>.

<a href=”http://www.linkfests.us/”><img src=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/307/106/320/linkfest.jpg” alt=”Linkfest Haven, the Blogger’s Oasis” /></a>

Thank-you!

Pam

Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, The Random Yak, 123beta, Right Truth, Maggie’s Notebook, Shadowscope, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, Phastidio.net, Big Dog’s Weblog, Conservative Cat, Chuck’s Place, D equals S, Nuke Gingrich, Wake Up America, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, , Gone Hollywood, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Use this for topics I miss!