I think I’m on the side of the Democrats on this one…

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Sue Nace thought election volunteers were joking when they told her she would have to remove her T-shirt to vote in the presidential primary last spring.

But it was no laughing matter to the poll workers-turned-fashion police, who said Nace’s Obama shirt was inappropriate electioneering — and made her cover the writing before casting a ballot.

Now, a political fight over what voters can wear to the polls is headed to court in Pennsylvania — with the Republican Party favoring a dress code and Democrats opposed.

To the GOP, the lack of rules could open the door to all kinds of questionable displays — even, one Republican leader suggested, something as outlandish as a musical hat.

To the Democrats, voters should be free to express themselves. They fear a dress code could scare away some new voters.

The political showdown was triggered by a Pennsylvania Department of State memo advising counties last month that voters’ attire doesn’t matter as long as the “voter takes no additional action to attempt to influence other voters.”

Because the memo is not legally binding, some counties have kept past restrictions on clothing and political buttons.

But two Pittsburgh-area elections officials sued to have the memo rescinded. Their lawsuit warned that if the memo stands, “nothing would prevent a partisan group from synchronizing a battalion of like-minded individuals … to descend on a polling place, presenting a domineering, united front, certain to dissuade the average citizen who may privately hold different beliefs.”

A musical hat would be very convincing, I think.  There’s nothing like a musical hat to get people to vote the way you want them to, especially if the hat in question is playing folk music…backwards.

This is silly.   If liberals show up in a ’synchronized battalion’ dressing like they just ducked out of a Moveon.org rally for a quick vote, they may just convince more folks to switch to McCain.  Let the moonbats wear their protest attire. 

Women with unshaven legs wearing pink slips (ala ‘Code Pink’) has never been that convincing, as far as I can tell.  But hey, that’s just me.

I’ve known Kent personally for a few years now, and I can honestly say that I can’t think of a better person to represent the 28th district. Kent is running against incumbent Ann Hraychuck.

Kent is a strong advocate of less taxation and fiscal restraint in our state government . As a small business owner, he understands what it means to have to live within a budget.  I don’t know about you, but considering our nation’s current economic crisis and government’s hand in the whole mess, it’d sure be nice to have someone out there who is an advocate for the common taxpaying citizen.

If you’re in the 28th District, please stop over and visit Kent’s website to see where he stands on the issues that matter to you, and please consider voting for him on November 4th!

Halle Berry is the worst, IMHO. 

Many of you have now seen the YouTube video where Bill O’Reilly socks it to Congressman Barney Frank for playing a large role in our current economic crisis.  If not, watch it here:

All Bark and No Bite

First of all, I want to address this ‘very tough’ regulatory bill (H.R. 1461) that Barney Frank speaks of, which was proposed in 2005.  The truth is that the bill allowed even more goodies to Freddie and Fannie, including a slush fund to transfer monies into the campaign coffers of the elected officials:

[H.R. 1461] was basically a dream come true for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  They’d get to continue to grow their portfolios to juice their earnings; they’d have a new affordable housing slush fund to reward legislators who played ball; their new regulator wouldn’t have much sharper teeth than the old one; they wouldn’t have to raise capital or sell assets to meet stricter capital requirements; and they’d get a year without much of anyone looking over their shoulders.

This supposed ‘tough reform bill’ would have made the GSE’s Freddie and Fannie even more powerful, and more of an economic risk.  Oxley and his pals did nothing more than shift the deck chairs around a bit by creating a new regulatory agency so as to make it appear as if  they were doing something ‘tough’, but in all actuality the deck chairs were a mere smokescreen to what was going on at the helm.

The Bush Administration offered the now infamous scathing ‘one fingered salute’ to the plan, as well as a counter solution to the anticipated economic issues these entities would eventually cause.

The Administration has long called for legislation to create a stronger, more effective regulatory regime to improve oversight of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks (”housing government-sponsored enterprises” or “housing GSEs”) and appreciates the considerable efforts of Chairman Oxley and Chairman Baker in crafting H.R. 1461. However, H.R. 1461 fails to include key elements that are essential to protect the safety and soundness of the housing finance system and the broader financial system at large. As a result, the Administration opposes the bill.

The regulatory regime envisioned by H.R. 1461 is considerably weaker than that which governs other large, complex financial institutions. This regime is of particular concern given that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently hold only about half of the capital of comparable financial institutions. In order for a financial regulator to be respected and credible, it must have the authority and ability to adjust capital requirements of the institutions it oversees as circumstances dictate to ensure prudential operations. An effective oversight regime must also provide for clear review of business activities to ensure the integrity of the housing finance system and consistency with the GSEs’ housing mission. The Administration does not believe that the housing GSEs should be exempt from these important standards of world-class regulation.

Had Congress not been controlled by the Republicans at the time, we’d certainly be in a much worse situation than we are now.  The only thing the majority Republican Congress should be blamed for is for not fighting back hard enough against Frank and Oxley. 

Also of note is the fact that Oxley, that ‘tough-on-regulations’ guy Frank speaks of, was the recipient of a special fundraiser at an upscale D.C. restaurant hosted by Freddie Mac’s chief Washington lobbyist, Robert Mitchell Delk.  All you have to do is follow the money, folks.  If this supposed ‘tough’ regulatory proposal were so tough, why would Freddie be showering the proposal’s originator with campaign funds and elaborate fundraising events?

The Homeowner Equity Protection Act of 1994

Frank also cites a single bill that was passed in 1994 that supposedly exonerates him from the rest of his shady dealings over the last two decades.  The idea that one piece of legislation that most people have little to no background knowledge of could make up for Frank’s shameless quid pro quo relationship with Fannie, Freddie, and ACORN is ridiculous on it’s face.  Once you discover exactly what that bill was supposed to do, you’ll realize that Frank’s involvement in its writing and subsequent passage had little affect at all in reigning in people’s poor decisions regarding home-ownership…and that’s exactly the way he wanted it.

Frank knew that if we ever found ourselves in an economic disaster largely because of the Community Reinvestment Act expansion under the Clinton Administration (which he was instrumental in nurturing and which subsequently led to a risky loan quota system within the lending industry), his support of this 1994 legislation would be his ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, since the overwhelming majority of Americans would not take the time to examine and research exactly what this bill was supposed to do. 

The bill Frank is alluding to in the video above is the Homeowners Equity Protection Act of 1994, or ‘HOEPA’.  What HOEPA was designed to do was offer fuller disclosure during the borrowing process when a loan fell within HOEPA guidelines.  This disclosure is the mortgage industry’s version of the ‘Surgeon General’s Warning’  you see on every pack of cigarettes.  Some types of loans which fall under HOEPA would be reverse mortgages, REX loans, ARM’s, and various other ‘creative’ lending products.  Although we often hear about how horrible these creative lending practices are (and for good reason), the fact remains that when offered in the ideal situation, many responsible people who understand the pros and cons of these products can benefit from them.  And as with any written legal agreement, the success of it is solely contingent upon the level of responsibility of the signer, since they are the party who has the choice whether or not to legally commit to said agreement once it has been presented. 

Smokers don’t care about the warnings on packs of cigarettes, just as financially irresponsible people don’t read the disclosures in their mortgage documents before they sign their name to the single biggest financial decision of their lives…and Frank knew it.  He knew that GSE’s (Freddie and Fannie) would not see a decrease in their loan buying prospects (and astronomical bonuses) because he counted on irresponsible Americans to continue ignoring the warnings, and he knew that if the GSE’s got into trouble, they’d be bailed out by the government.  It was a win-win for Frank and his cronies.  You get your  money for nothing and your chicks–oops, I mean ‘male prostitutes’–for free.

Breeding Corruption by Ignoring the Facts

You’ll continue to see Frank defending himself by using HOEPA and H.R. 1461 as his shield from deserved criticism and public outrage, but I am confident that America will see through it.  In the end, Freddie, Fannie, ACORN, Dodd and Frank’s encouragement and nurturing of regulations which forced banks to loan money to unqualified borrowers, and their quid pro quo relationships that offered no chance of reform or regulation is the real smoking gun in this fiasco. 

Don’t let Barney Frank and his cronies insult your intelligence.  You know better.  If you’re a liberal reading this, pretend your party loyalty doesn’t matter for a moment and examine the facts presented.  Those facts will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that your leaders are making the Enron scandal look like a baby’s baptism, and that’s bad for all of us, conservatives and liberals alike.

Ends shouldn’t justify the means.  Right is right, and wrong is wrong. I know that you liberals want to see low-income people live in affordable housing, own their own homes, and start their own businesses.  I can’t deny that it’s a wonderful goal, and that your hearts are in the right place.  However, you cannot neglect the cold, hard facts that your own leaders are involved in corruption–the level of which is usually contained to the mafia and drug cartels–by using your otherwise admirable political ideology to vote them into positions of power where only they benefit, and where the American people lose. 

(Side Note:  If you’re interested in getting a little more insight and background on HOEPA and how it doesn’t do a whole lot of anything, I would encourage you to read this written testimony given by Joseph R. Mason (PDF), an economist at LeBow College of Business, Senior Fellow at the Wharton School, and Visiting Scholar, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. )

Search Parameters:  “Unicorn Costume”

Reason for Search:  I was looking for a fitting Halloween costume for Barack Obama, for my Halloween/Bailout post.

Why I posted it here:  Because I’m obviously motivated by hate.

Notes:

Do you think she has to walk around all night, holding her date’s back end?  I can already see the scenario by the end of the Halloween party…  Linda here will be sitting on a barstool (obviously intoxicated), crying into her drink while some nerd dressed up as Frodo sees within his grasp the opportunity to finally live out his dream of having a unicorn as a pet…if only for one night.  Bob will be pouting on the other side of the bar, trying to swing his back legs around by himself while knocking over the girls on the dance floor who are all wearing the usual ‘It’s Halloween and my opportunity to dress slutty’ costumes.  They will not be impressed.

Other Notes:

My weakness:  Men in White furry pants jacked up to their armpits.

My other weakness:  Men wearing garland in their hair, particularly if they have mustaches. 

Halloween should prove to be really fun this year.  Our children can enjoy pretending that they’re little Wall Street investors by going house-to-house and holding out their plastic pumpkins for free goodies. 

That aside, I have a few costume suggestions…

Christopher Dodd:

Barney Frank:

Congress:

Hank Paulson:

George Bush:

John McCain:

Nancy Pelosi:

Barack Obama:

Fannie Mae:

Freddie Mac:

ACORN and irresponsible Americans:

And of course…

The average American Taxpayer:

(Side note:  The Average American Taxpayer can dress up for Halloween, but they can’t actually go trick-or-treating.  They have to stay home and hand out the goodies to the rest of these clowns.)

Happy Halloween from Pheistyblog!

There are some great conversations happening on Fox Business channel right now.  I’m getting an economic education.  I highly recommend tuning in tomorrow (if you’re a nerd like me), because it sounds like they’re bringing in a vast array of economic geniuses to hash this thing out.

Here’s Cavuto’s take on what happened today:

My thoughts?  In order for the economy to recover, Americans’ confidence in it needs to be rebuilt.  Unfortunately, the one attempting to do the rebuilding is the government. 

I rest my case.

This is the stuff that drives me insane.

We’re about to lose most of our freedom and more of the fruits of our labor in this bailout, and Republicans are busy worrying about teachers (of all people) wearing blue in support of Barack Obama.

Newsflash, Republicans!  Teachers are in unions…unions have been pro-democrat for decades…teachers are essentially government employees…government employees like more government, and Democrats are paid very well to give it to them.

ARGH!  There’s a million articles like this one all over the internet. 

While Rome burns, I guess.

I’m about one blink away from voting for Bob Barr.  Seriously.