But Could Obama Hit The Curveball?

If politicians were held to any measurable standards, such as the individual statistics that evaluate baseball players' performance, by the end of his first term Obama would be sent down to the minor leagues, his unaccomplished four year career no more than a few lines in baseball's record books. O was brought up to the big leagues with great promise and unlimited potential but it soon became evident that he couldn't hit a major league curveball.

His simple statistical performance, documented game by game in the daily newspapers, wouldn't have warranted a new contract and his fans's loyalties would have unceremoniously shifted to better, more deserving players.

Even the "great uninformed/misinformed" can understand a low batting average, no home runs, strikeouts, failing to sacrifice bunt, and getting caught stealing.

Albiwan..

GRAY LADY DOWN

Have been reading Gray Lady Down on my Kindle.

We are all aware of the liberal political pablum the New York Times feeds to its hungry readership whose mother's milk is conservative blood. Well, after the highly respected Sr Sulzberger years at the helm of the 'paper of record', G L D details the years of its ever increasing liberal bias leading up to its current and continuing journalistic and editorial demise under Jr.

Just when I thought I'd reached the max in revulsion from reading about the Times' political bias, it got worse as I read about the NYT "reporting" and "editorializing" on the Iraq war, both of which made me want to vomit. Sorry for being so indelicate but the inaccurate accounts of the war were nauseating, from Jr Sulzberger to the editorial pages to Frank Rich to Krugman and Dowd. Mistake after mistake, mischaracterizations after mischaracterizations, misrepresentations after misrepresentations, and finally, NYT APOLOGY AFTER APOLOGY buried on "page 19". The Times might have fooled some of its readers most of the time, or most of its readers some of the time, but the Gray Lady's embarrassing transgressions could never fool or escape reality and are now part of an HISTORICAL record.

Read the book. The political accounts of bias were so numerous that after while my eyes glazed over. But when I got into the Iraq sections, replete with statistics and NYT admissions of error after error in its reporting, the pages turned themselves.

Reading G L D is like pushing the reset button, refreshing. And if a liberal who swears by the NY Times has the opportunity to read G L D the experience might even alter one's mindset regarding ingesting pablum during adulthood.

Albiwan..

The Man In The Middle...cogito ergo sum: TOO BIG TO FAIL-did the movie fail?

The Man In The Middle...cogito ergo sum: TOO BIG TO FAIL-did the movie fail?: "Since I have nothing better to do as I am recuperating from the poke to fix a medial meniscus in my left knee, sit back and relax because t..."

TOO BIG TO FAIL-did the movie fail?

Since I have nothing better to do as I am recuperating from the poke to fix a medial meniscus in my left knee, sit back and relax because this politically motivated movie review might be even longer than some of my usually long winded posts.



The Too Big To Fail made for TV movie had a riveting story and some of the actors were outstanding. BUT, moviemaking is the business I came from, so while seeing how the cast of characters worked thru the financial crisis that threatened the world economy was engrossing TV, it might be wise to remember that Liberal Hollywood wrote and directed the film. I mention this because agenda driven people tend to avoid that which might harm their cause. TBTF is no exception. A friend wrote to me in an email "the story is clear"; to me the operative word is 'story.'

The TBTF "story" began when it hit the fan in late 2008. But the real history began when President Carter established the CRA in 1978. The CRA, perhaps a well intended social program, but definitely a calculated political move, was kept alive and occasionally embellished by presidents and Congresses that succeeded Carter. Ipso facto the housing bubble and banking crisis evolved over a 30 year period, finally bursting in 2008. Now, as much as a group of genetically deranged people are convinced Bush caused the financial crisis, it's just not the way it happened.

As we all know, once a social program is established by the Feds, no matter how fiscally damaging it might be to the nation, it will live forever because there isn't a politician alive (or dead) with the courage to publicly say "sorry, we no longer can allow banks to approve loans unless the applicant can afford a 20% down payment or has the collateral to back the loan." The long line of gutless politicians, Democrat and Republican, queued up long before Bush graduated college. To say there was no Fin Reg before Bush is a joke because there was none before Bubba, 41, or Reagan either. And actually, the previous statement is wrong because there were banking rules in place since FDR but as we know the interpretation and enforcement of "rules" depends upon who is doing the interpreting and enforcing them...which brings us to another politically driven omission in the TBTF "story."

I mentioned that there was a long line of politicians who perpetuated the financial credit scam by looking the other way. But one Congressman was asked the question in front of a video camera a few times and each time gave the same answer. The question was, "are Fannie and Freddie in jeopardy of failing?" The answer on all occasions was "the institutions are solid." The Congressman answering the question was Barney Frank, who in 2003 was the ranking member of the House Ways and Means (Banking) Committee. When the Dems took over the Congress in 2006 Barney was rewarded for his outstanding service and promoted to Chairman of the Committee by Nancy Pelosi. So what?, one might ask; well, Barney's pronouncement that F&F were "solid" was either a cover-up or a remarkable misjudgment on Frank's part. The two institutions backed 98% of the home loans in the US. So Barney's flip and incorrect evaluation had literally set the stage for the upcoming crisis. Had Frank told the truth when he was first asked the question in 2003 then in 2005, etc., some of the crisis might have been averted. The 3-5 years leading up to the crisis allowed the derivatives business to crystallize to the point of no return. Had the Senate and House banking committees investigated Fannie and Freddie in 2003 or 2004 or 2005 the obvious would have been discovered and the crisis might have been mitigated to some degree.

Oh, I almost forgot, the person who asked Barney the question about the solvency of Freddie and Fannie multiple times was President Bush.

Re: the problem with the recently passed Fin Reg, which I have stated many times over the past couple of years is that incredibly, I repeat, incredibly Fannie and Freddie were OMITTED FROM THE LAW passed by the Democrat controlled Senate and House. And President Obama actually signed it. Begs a question or two, doesn't it? Sorry, friends, these are facts and you can look 'em up. If you want to give Obama credit for signing a toothless bill into law, fine. By the way, Bush is off the hook; and as hard as they tried the Democrats and the NYT couldn't lay the blame on him for the banking crisis. And one can only imagine how hard they tried, probably to the point of being hospitalized to treat exhaustion.

Back to TBTF. So my questions about the movie were: why didn't the producers create the perspective with the entire time frame of events beginning in 1978?; and why were Barney Frank's comments/evaluations glossed over?; and why weren't thirty years of federal politicians called to task? The answers are probably where this screed began; the project was produced by an agenda driven Hollywood.


THE END

Albiwan...

PERFECT CANDIDATE FOR 2012

Allen West is unlike any other candidate with respect to qualifications, ethics, aspirations, electability:

1- First of all, there is too much ridiculous talk about the qualifications of a candidate to federal office. The Democrats' "Palin is not qualified to be President" is laughable because all of those "qualified" candidates from the 2006 Congress are seriously responsible for the current $14.4trillion national debt. If that is what "qualified" can accomplish, then give me one of the Three Stooges; they could not have done worse than the 2006 Democrat Congress and President Obama.

2- Allen West, although a junior Congressman, is eminently qualified because he is smart, logical and understands honor and ethics, two qualities in very short supply in the federal government because the concept of career politician is not conducive to either being honorable or being ethical, not to mention operating a republic. When a person goes to work every day and compromises his principles in order to gain re-election, the result is a corrupted system. When excellence is not the goal, why bother. Allen West is not the type of man to compromise his principles for personal gain to the detriment of the country.

3- Allen aspires to be the best public servant he can be rather than being the best politician he can be. He is better than that; and having put his life on the line to defend his country, it is inconceivable that he would place his own self interest ahead of that of his country, as have too many of the 536 currently in office.

4- Allen separates himself from the current group of GOP candidates because none of them can win and Allen can. He will split the ethnic vote with Obama but will win the majority of conservative and independent voters and consequently the Presidency.

I would also hope that he will take the time to do what Obama shamelessly wouldn't and that is to lift up the poor urban communities. Over two years ago I wrote a blog entitled "Obama's Indelible Mark." Obama had an opportunity to leave an indelible mark on his presidency that no other President in history could have even attempted. He could have walked down the middle of 110th Street in Harlem and given Bill Cosby's "Dutch Uncle" speech. Remember when Cosby gave his speech urging the black community to accept responsibility, to get an education, stop selling drugs to black youth, stop having children out of wedlock, and stop black on black crime. For his concern he was excoriated by the black community's leadership for speaking his mind. You see, the so called community "leaders" were first in line to suck on the teat of the public dole and did not want to lose their supporters and potentially their offices or positions. How dare Cosby challenge blacks to accept responsibility for their economic plight and the crumbling of their community. It was the white man's oppression at the blame. No doubt the reaction to Cosby's speech was enough to convince President Obama not to attempt any action such as Cosby's even though the President knew Cosby's analysis of the black community was spot on. Obama feared losing the black vote and the 2012 election so it would have taken courage for Obama to press that hot button. And since courage has generally not been a word associated with the President, instead he forced through convoluted healthcare and financial regulation while the country was hemorrhaging jobs. Some indelible mark...

I believe that Congressman West will do the right thing even if it might cost him an election. The black community cannot dig out from the hole it is in with 70% of its children born out of wedlock. The family in the black community is destroyed and must be resurrected or the community will remain down. Allen West is the man who can turn the momentum to the positive.

5- Allen West is also an excellent communicator. He speaks with wisdom, knowledge, empathy, strength and straight from the heart, not lifelessly as does Obama from a tele-prompter.

Albiwan..

WE'RE #2 !!!!

I do not agree with any of the President's major policies (heavens, that must mean I'm a racist) but he is a lock for re-election. The GOP has not been able to develop any viable candidates, which is a shame because with no prominent opposing voice the US will continue on this rudderless political course and we will continue to have 536 people running around with campaigning #1 on their priority lists rather than you and me.

Ironically, those who will prosper in this environment are those who President Obama derogatorily labels "The Wealthy"...those earning over $250k. But "class warfare" doesn't affect the "wealthy"'; it just gets Democrat politicians elected and the President is a master at utilizing this political tool. The loser in the "war" is the middle class. We're #2!!!

In today's Miami Herald the headline screamed that 1,400 Broward County (Ft Lauderdale area) teachers are being fired because of budget cutbacks. Most of the teachers were fired last year but were rehired with the stimulus dollars that were used to prop up municipalities' expenses instead of being directed to accomplish what Obama (with a wink) pitched, which was to stimulate long term job growth. The headline did not read "1,400 wealthy earning over $250,000 fired." This stuff will continue unless politicians are challenged.

So the left will ridicule Trump or Gingrich or whoever the next person is to question the administration's policies (and be marginalized as racists) and as the left ridicule, the effect will be to further bury the middle class. But, the President's ineffective policies will continue and he will be re-elected. His supporters will trumpet their satisfaction "we got his ass, Mr. President!" and Obama will snicker thinking to himself "I win again."

Albiwan..

IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS

Last night on O’Reilly, Chairman of the House Committee for Homeland Security, Rep. Peter King(R-NY) said that road that led the CIA to OBL's compound was paved by his most trusted aide whose name was obtained in 2005 from information coerced from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as a result of his being water boarded. But I thought to myself ‘King is a Republican politician and he is on O’Reilly, so how credible was his statement?’

So, I googled when KSM’s water boarding took place and found it was done 183 times in March 2005. Then this morning’s NYT (my favorite news rag, not!) ran an article:

Clues Gradually Led to the Location of Qaeda Chief
By MARK MAZZETTI, HELENE COOPER and PETER BAKER
The raid in Pakistan was the culmination of years of painstaking intelligence (Yes Martha, the NYT wrote this!)

So I skipped to the middle paragraphs of the article, because experience has taught me that the NYT buries the stuff they do not want you to know at the middle or end of its oft times tedious, in this case, 4 page screed. Sure enough, this is some of what I found hidden in the NYT article to corroborate Rep. King’s assertion:

Years before the Sept. 11 attacks transformed Bin Laden into the world’s most feared terrorist, the C.I.A. had begun compiling a detailed dossier about the major players inside his global terror network.


It wasn’t until after 2002, when the agency began rounding up Qaeda operatives — and subjecting them to hours of brutal interrogation (aka torture) sessions in secret overseas prisons — that they finally began filling in the gaps about the foot soldiers, couriers and money men Bin Laden relied on. (I guess torture can work.)

Prisoners in American custody told stories of a trusted courier. When the Americans ran the man’s pseudonym past two top-level detainees — the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; and Al Qaeda’s operational chief, Abu Faraj al-Libi — the men claimed never to have heard his name. That raised suspicions among interrogators that the two detainees were lying and that the courier probably was an important figure.

As the hunt for Bin Laden continued, the spy agency was being buffeted on other fronts: the botched intelligence assessments about weapons of mass destruction leading up to the Iraq War (maybe Bush didn’t lie...remember the NYT wrote this, not me), and the intense criticism for using water boarding and other extreme interrogation methods that critics(aka liberal media, Democrats and lib Republicans) said amounted to torture.

By 2005, many inside the C.I.A. had reached the conclusion that the Bin Laden hunt had grown cold, and the agency’s top clandestine officer ordered an overhaul of the agency’s counterterrorism operations.(under Bush) The result was Operation Cannonball, a bureaucratic reshuffling that placed more C.I.A. case officers on the ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan.



With more agents in the field, the C.I.A. finally got the courier’s family name. (in 2007) With that, they turned to one of their greatest investigative tools — the National Security Agency began intercepting telephone calls and e-mail messages (aka BUSH’S PATRIOT ACT) between the man’s family and anyone inside Pakistan. From there they got his full name.

Last July, Pakistani agents working for the C.I.A. spotted him driving his vehicle near Peshawar. When, after weeks of surveillance, he drove to the sprawling compound in Abbottabad, American intelligence operatives felt they were onto something big, perhaps even Bin Laden himself.


Yesterday, in a note to a friend, I wrote:

“President Obama did his part perfectly, but it was
on the shoulders of the people who came before him.”

Even that liberal rag, the NYT agrees with me.

And as much as O campaigned against and as hard as O tried to get rid of the Bush Policies, in the end, for the past two years and to the consternation of his liberal base, Obama relied upon and carried out Bush’s defense/security policies, which enabled Obama to be in a position to finally devise the mission to get bin Laden. The Pres even made the critical and courageous decision for the US to go it alone (like a cowboy) without a consensus from our allies (very presidential and I was proud of him for understanding his role as a leader), which he said he would always acquire before ordering military intervention.

In the final analysis, for the first time in his presidency President Obama acted like the President of the United States and not some ordinary slimy politician. For his effort he received his first “A.” Hopefully O likes the way getting an “A” feels, so much so that he will try to do it again with the major problems he faces domestically, the economy, gas prices, healthcare, Medicare, Social Security, etc.

Albiwan..