Ha! Most, make that ALL< wealthy people I know who claim to be happy to pay their increased burden of taxes have also told me at different times how they use the code to reduce their tax burden. Meanwhile, true patriots like me have to pay full freight.

some of the wealthy I know won't even buy lemonade from the neighborhood kids these days.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/03/11/fleischer_matthews_get_heated_...

lotsajizz wrote on Mar 12^th, 2009 at 3:42pm:

Lost of wasted space in that post, Jizzy.
Can you please tighten that up in the future?
Thank you for your cooperation & support!

WASHINGTON -- When Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to "stay out of it," he says.

The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank.

Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited's executives and criticized its government regulators during congressional hearings. Last fall, she helped secure the bank a meeting with Treasury officials.
[Rep. Maxine Waters] Getty Images

Rep. Maxine Waters, center, with Earvin "Magic" Johnson, left, and Ms. Waters's husband, Sidney Williams, at the 2009 BET Honors Reception in Washington, D.C.

Her involvement isn't new. Ms. Waters has detailed her financial ties in a series of federal disclosure forms and has been vocal in public in support of the bank. Those ties, however, have received little public attention. Nor is it well known how the influential lawmaker has over the years acted to support the bank and its executives.

Such potential conflicts of interest are more serious as the banking system's crisis has led the government to take an increasingly active role in overseeing financial institutions, including OneUnited. The financial-services committee on which Ms. Waters sits oversees banking issues, and the lawmaker is a potential future chairman.

Representatives of the bank and Ms. Waters didn't return calls seeking comment. Ms. Waters's congressional staff didn't respond to written questions about her and her husband's relationship with the bank.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group, says Ms. Waters should have recused herself from any matters involving the bank. If her support helped OneUnited, "it was a disservice to her constituents," Ms. Krumholz says.

Ms. Waters, who represents inner-city Los Angeles, hasn't made a secret of her family's financial interest in OneUnited. Referring to her family's investment, she said in 2007 during a congressional hearing that for African-Americans, "the test of your commitment to economic expansion and development and support for business is whether or not you put your money where your mouth is."

OneUnited's executives have donated $12,500 to Ms. Waters's election campaigns.

Through a series of acquisitions, OneUnited grew to become what it says is the largest African-American-owned bank in the country. It once counted the late Motown Records boss Jheryl Busby as a vice chairman.

Ms. Waters and her husband, Sidney Williams, were investors in two African-American owned California banks that merged with other lenders in 2002 to form OneUnited. Congressional financial-disclosure forms show Ms. Waters acquired OneUnited stock worth between $250,000 and $500,000 in March 2004, as did Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams joined the board of OneUnited that year.

Each sold shares in September 2004 -- including Ms. Waters's entire stake -- but Mr. Williams continued to hold varying amount of the company's stock. In the lawmaker's most recent financial-disclosure form, dated May 2008 and covering the prior year, Ms. Waters reported that her husband held between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of the bank's stock.
[Rep. Maxine Waters] Getty Images

Mr. Williams also received interest payments from a separate holding at the bank, also worth between $250,000 and $500,000. The 2008 form doesn't specify what that is. Mr. Williams stepped down from the bank's board last spring. It couldn't be learned whether he still owns stock in the bank. Mr. Williams didn't return calls seeking comment.

At a hearing on minority lending in 2007, Ms. Waters criticized regulators for not doing enough to help minority banks stave off mergers with non-minority institutions. The lawmaker said she had contacted the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2002 over such concerns and "I was told that there was nothing that could be done."

In her 2007 remarks, Ms. Waters alluded to two banks, Independence Bank of Washington, D.C., and "another bank that was about to be acquired by a major white bank out of Illinois."

Ms. Waters didn't mention that OneUnited had been an unsuccessful suitor of Independence, which had been taken over several years earlier. The second bank, which she didn't name, appears to have been Family Savings Bank of Los Angeles. In 2002, that bank backed out of a merger agreement with FBOP Bank of Oak Brook, Ill., and shortly afterward was acquired by OneUnited.

News reports at the time credited the intervention of Ms. Waters and others for Family Savings's change of heart.

At the hearing, Ms. Waters praised OneUnited's senior counsel, Robert P. Cooper, as "typical of the young, brilliant minds that have been amassed at OneUnited Bank."

OneUnited's minority-lending record is mixed. The bank received "outstanding" Community Reinvestment Act ratings for lending in Los Angeles. It has weak ratings in Massachusetts and failed to meet minimum standards in Florida.

In January, Ms. Waters acknowledged she made a call to the Treasury on OneUnited's behalf. The bank's capital, which was heavily invested in shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, was all but wiped out with the federal takeover of the two mortgage giants, and the bank was seeking help from regulators.

OneUnited eventually secured bailout funds under the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was set up later that month.

In a brief interview in January, Ms. Waters said she was unaware the bank received $12 million of TARP money, which arrived in December. OneUnited was "just a small" bank, she said.

A provision designed to aid OneUnited was written into the federal bailout legislation by Mr. Frank, who is chairman of the financial-services panel. Mr. Frank has said he inserted the provision to help the only African-American owned bank in his home state. He said in an interview that Ms. Waters's interest "had zero impact on the outcome because I would have done it anyway."

In October, regulators demanded that OneUnited raise fresh capital and name an independent board. The bank was ordered to stop paying for a Porsche used by one of its executives and its chairman's $6.4 million beachfront home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., a luxury enclave between Malibu and Santa Monica.

Quote:



While this cut and paste was more than I care to read, I think I got the point. I would just respond than I know corruption occurs on both sides (not knowing if this article points to corruption). However, the message from Dems matters to me more than the message from Reps. The Reps message was more of the same policies. I witnessed 8 years of that. Plus I could never have voted Palin in. Never. I supported Obama, but never really had a choice.

fuman wrote on Mar 12^th, 2009 at 5:16pm:










Well Reagan did and he won the two most desisive landslide elections in US history. He also created 21 million jobs in the process, but hey, don't learn from history or anything.


Here's a good read about just how radically left this man/child really is. Do yourself a favor and read it, and don't dismiss it out of hand. The guy makes some great points. Scary points thouigh because they are all true.


Riffy
____________________________________________________________

Lies in plain sight
Exclusive: Erik Rush compares Obama executing 'Marxist agenda' to a cellblock rapist

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

Posted: March 12, 2009
1:00 am Eastern



By Erik Rush



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



"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.
– President Barack Obama, inaugural speech

In all honesty, I thought I'd be back to covering broader topics by now, meaning, this far out from the inauguration. Despite the evidence that Obama was a closet communist, at this point I presumed he'd have settled into being something slightly more to the left than Bill Clinton and work his evil incrementally.

But Obama's been very bold. "Decisive action" (a phrase he favors) toward that which will raze our economy with all due speed (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Omnibus Spending Bill) speaks to his intent to execute a quiet revolution through which he and Congress will surely "remake America." Consequently, there are several poignant instances of his duplicity every week.

It makes my job easy, but is small consolation.

Last October, one of my colleagues cited the strategy implemented by far-left members of Congress (and continued by the Obama administration) wherein entitlements and legislation such as the Community Reinvestment Act would be used to bring down America's economy. This plan is quite unambiguous in its purpose and scope; in the desired scenario – which is being played out right now – the federal government steps in and nationalizes vast sectors of business.


Still, most Americans do not perceive the extremity of Obama's exploits or the gravity of our situation. Why?

Yes, it's becoming tedious, but nonetheless remains true:

1. The man is a pathological liar.
2. The establishment press has become his bureau of propaganda.

Each day, the president declares an intended purpose for a given action, yet neither history, nor reason, nor his track record suggest truth or the likelihood of a favorable long-term result for the nation. The agenda can't even be called "hidden." It's in plain sight – assuming one's eyes are not being misdirected.

That, as they say, is the rub.

The establishment press gives no airtime to experts with a pragmatic sense of economics. They don't report the lavish soirees the Obamas have been throwing, or the harridan Nancy Pelosi's squandering of taxpayer money on military jets to ferry her family and friends around the country. Not a word has been spoken with respect to Obama lying about banning earmarks and curtailing the influence of lobbyists. Most Americans would be amazed to learn that aggressor nations such as North Korea and Iran – which were supposed to have changed their tunes as soon as Obama was sworn in – have stepped up their anti-American rhetoric.

Most importantly, we don't hear that Congress and the Obama administration are wiping their behinds with the Constitution and quite literally stealing billions of dollars from us on a weekly basis.

So, what does the press think ought to be important to Americans? An unbalanced baby machine with an Angelina Jolie complex, Rihanna's Stockholm Syndrome, Miley Cyrus and, of course, global warming.

A few weeks ago, a television commentator in the alternative press suggested that Obama seemed to be attempting to "ram it through," in reference to the urgency with which he promoted the stimulus bill. Indeed – like the proverbial cellblock rapist, our president is "ramming" as much of his Marxist agenda down our collective throats as quickly as he can. One would think he fears that someone might come around the corner at any second and catch him.

Perhaps there is a "point of no return" Obama is hurrying to reach, where the American people will be truly powerless to reverse the final implementation of his designs. Certainly it has been reached in other countries.

On March 10, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly cited calls that Obama is a communist as over the top accusations of the far right.

Really?

If the far left learned anything from the collapse of the Soviet Union – which literally spent itself out of existence – no doubt it was that the best way to bring a powerful nation down was to break it economically.

When the government has appropriated or sufficiently devalued all private resources (read steals all our money):

a. We won't have the means to resist.
b. We will be destitute.
c. We will be beholden to anyone who has the means to provide us aid.
And guess what? That very government will be the only entity capable of providing that aid. They will declare that the system (capitalism) has failed us, and that state control is our only hope.

We will be slaves.

While greed has been the motivating factor for many power brokers in government, this dismantling of the system has been the goal of those on the far left for decades. It is the vilest of conspiracies. I'll leave it to the reader to decide what the penalty for this treason ought to be – for all concerned.

I have a much brighter vision of our future. To each their own . . .

Please don't have a heart attack worrying about all of this, your children need you to be around.

Starbuck wrote on Mar 12^th, 2009 at 7:45pm:



Oh yeah how could I forget about Alf Landon! Well let's just say that Reagan had the two most decisive back to back lanslides then. That works for me. The point remains though.

Hey Bucky did I ever tell you that my mom went out with Mondull for two dates when they went to UM together? Tis true! She claimed that he was, get this, the "dullest man I have ever met in my life!" My mom's mom was the president of the Minn Democrat committee back in the 1950's and early 1960's! My brother has a hand written letter from JFK written on White House stationary to Grace Napier (my grandmother) thanking her for all the hard work she did for the 1960 election. It hangs above his fireplace mantal. That puppy's gotta be worth a mint I'd think. Hand written baby! I wonder what JFK would think about the state of his once great party now? Hell, he wouldn't even be allowed in these days! My dad was a Golden Gopher as well, and he swept my mother up after her two horrible dates with Mondull. Anyway. Thought I'd share a liberal moment or two with you.


Riffy

It's encouraging to see that the Magic Negro has been able to introduce a modicum of optimism into the markets. 
Perhaps I've been hasty in judging him.
- Rush Limbaugh



Hope to see more of this piece of shits comments make the nightly news. What a disgraceful American.

Oh no he's not a socialist! That's just a bunch of conservative talk! Right? Riiiiiight? Well, in a word no. He is a socialist. For those that haven't figured it out yet perhaps you should read his third book. He lays it all out.


Here, read this. Dan Henniger nails it using Barry's own words to explain the wholly unAmerican path that he intends to take all of us.

Read it or forever be an Obamadrone! Read it damnit! Your country needs to you to understand what's at stake! So too do your children!


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123681860305802821.html


Riffy

eric wrote on Mar 10^th, 2009 at 10:27am:

Let's invade Iraq!