Ben sent this one in.

"Imagine your child screaming in the middle of the night when a convicted felon breaks into your home," the narrator says. "Worse, he comes back a second time. You use a firearm to defend yourself and your family. Unbelievably, Obama voted to make you the criminal..."It goes on from there.
The ad refers to a 2003 incident when a Wilmette, Ill., restaurateur named Hale DeMar shot and wounded a burglar who broke into his house. DeMar was prosecuted by the town of Wilmette, which had, at the time, a ban on the possession of handguns, so some Illinois lawmakers introduced legislation to offer legal protections to individuals who use firearms in self-defense. The bill passed the Illinois state House by a vote of 86-25, and the Illinois state Senate -- where Obama voted against it -- by a vote of 39-20.
Q: What's the cause of the economic crisis from your perspective?
A: There is an awful lot of blame to go around on Wall Street, in Washington, and in the irresponsible behavior of individuals. But stepping back, the critical error was that everyone [thought] there would not be a substantial, nationwide decrease in real estate prices. The whole subprime debacle was predicated on the fact that people said, "Well, this borrower is not really credit worthy and can't afford the house, but in four years it will be up 20 percent or more."
It was widely believed that if you had bad mortgages from different geographic areas that all those [real estate markets] weren't going to go down together. You had a pool of 100 bad mortgages from borrowers with low income or bad credit, that were each a piece of [expletive]. The idea was you put them together and now it's not a piece of [expletive]. People believed that through geographic diversification you can diversify risk. That was what undergirded the entire breakdown, and this was not a 3-year phenomenon, it was building for 10 years. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were absurdities; those firms were recklessly and incompetently run.
* What the heck happened to our economy so suddenly and powerfully that it caused the immense uproar and fear and stock market crashes we have had lately?
Start around 1995. Groups involved with civil rights issues and activities for poor people began to complain that poor people and especially non-white poor people got mortgages much less often than white well to do people. Many economists, including me, explained that it was not at all surprising that poorer, less credit worthy people were often turned down for credit. That's how credit is supposed to work: you lend to people who will pay you back.
But the advocates for poor and black people had immense political clout. Under President Bill Clinton, they passed legislation that called on banks to be required to lend to non credit worthy borrowers. The laws, including the Community Reinvestment Act, the CRA, required two large government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to buy those lower quality mortgages from the banks, guarantee them, and sell them to the public. These were bundled into immense pools of subprime mortgages as they were called, and sold all over the world...
Alrighty Tom, you asked for responses, and here it comes. You sent your "Bob the Banker" email, and how its going to cost a guy making $250k about $257. Perhaps those number are true, and in which case, the $250k a year guy is not going to see much difference. Please read the below carefully, and remember, when I talk politics, I bring it HOME. How will this affect ME???!!!!!
Tom, look at the table. I fall closest to the married, filing jointly, making 60 a year. There is a $7,800 dollar a year difference here. And... and... and... don't forget the $3000 in tax credits I get because I have 3 kids. Don't just trust the table I have here, go to the link, and check out for yourself the tax rates. Going from 15% to 28% is a VERY big difference --- an 86% tax increase!!!
I know you and others without kids living with you don't like that kid tax credit (I understand, I will probably feel the same way when my kids are gone), but obviously you can agree that it is a REAL $3000 to me.
So, here is the rub. All Obama has to do is let the Bush tax cuts go away, and without ever raising taxes, I will see a REAL $10,000 go away.
I am not making enough money to absorb a $10,000 a year loss.
So, when Barack Osama tries to tell me "95% of all Americans will get a tax break", you can see how I really question that. He will let the Bush tax breaks go (bringing rates back to Clinton levels), and then will give me about a $1,000 tax cut. Don't even get me started on the fact that only 60% of Americans pay taxes, thus Obama wants to give MORE money back to people who are not PAYING anything in.
I have to add in here, that I have NO assurance that McCain will keep the Bush tax cuts in place either!
I would challenge you to look at the tables, and see what your taxes will be like under the Clinton-era levels vs. the Bush-era levels and report back just the taxes.
Now, whether or not you believe you should be paying more for the common good or not, is another story. I just grow weary of being told how McCain is all about the rich, and Obama is all about the "common man". Read below: I would say married, 2 kids, $40k a year IS the common man.
As always -- I await your replies... cause I enjoy this stuff. I feel like I have some pretty good facts stated here. You being the guy who looks for facts, I cant wait to see what you come up with! I copied some more buddies (including LIBERAL ONES). I assume this is going to be a good thread!
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FYI, when you go to the tax tables (click on the link below) and look up, for example, a married filing jointly for $40,000, the current tax rate is 15% (under Bush) and it was 28% in the mid to late 90's (Clinton era). I checked them and this does appear accurate. So beware when you pull the lever or pop the chad, as to the burden you are placing upon yourself.
Most voters are completely ignorant of the pertinent facts that should be considered when one enters the voting booth. Based on using the actual tax tables (see link below), here are some examples of what the taxes were/are on various amounts of income, for both singles and married couples, during the Clinton and Bush administrations. Let's see if the Bush tax cuts only helped the rich. For verification check out the link below.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
Taxes under Clinton (1999) Taxes under Bush (2008)
Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Single making 125K - tax $38,750 Single making 125K - tax $35,000
Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 60K - tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250
It is amazing how many people that fall into the above categories think Bush is screwing them. Now you know the rest of the story. Share this with your friends.
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Hey!!! you are still reading... SWEET!!! Looking at the tables above, let me add this. No one can argue that the Democrats always talk about the Republicans giving the rich breaks, and hosing the middle class. Look at those charts above. There is a $7500 difference for the married guy making over 125k a year--bush let him keep 6% more of his income (7500/125k). Looking at the poorest listed, the single making 30k, there is a $3900 difference. Bush let him keep 13% more of his income.
Can you hear the commercials now?? George Bush wants to crush the little man. George Bush is all about the rich. George Bush gives the guy making 125k ONE HUNDRED and NINTEY-TWO percent MORE than the guy making 30k (3900 times 1.92 is 7500). George Bush wants the middle class to be crushed.
I would look at it this way. The married making 125 paying 31250, is paying just under 7 times more in taxes than the single guy making 30.
And that my friends, is a lot of money.
Some cultures believe that when the messiah comes, the dead will walk the earth.
I just didn't know the dead would cast votes and get paid by ACORN.
I would rather trust a man who would not sell out his fellow prisoners, even during 5 years of torture, than to trust a man who betrayed a 20 year friendship for personal ambition. --(commenter Howard)
I can name six reasons there have been no investigations of Fannie and Freddie.
Democrat Jamie Gorelick. Democrat Franklin Raines. Democrat Jim Johnson. Democrat Chris Dodd. Democrat Rahm Emmanuel. And Democrat Barney Frank, who was in a deep relationship with a Fannie employee? (Errrr, that didn't sound right).
Best. Congress. Ever.
Gird your loins?
If Obama gets elected, I wonder how long it will be before the Obama logo replaces the presidential seal?
OBAMA: In both his case and Father Pfleger's case, they've done great work in the community, and I worked in some very poor communities. That's how I got to know these folks because I was working in these neighborhoods. Now, on this Ayers thing, would you — you know, you've been hyping, Bill, pretty good.O'REILLY: Not that much. You know, you were on the Woods Foundation.
OBAMA: Well, but here's the bottom line.
O'REILLY: Yes.
OBAMA: This guy did something despicable 40 years ago.
O'REILLY: You know, he did something despicable last week. He said he didn't do enough bombings. That's last week.
OBAMA: I haven't seen the guy in a year-and-a-half. But…
[Ed: That would be March of 2007!]
O'REILLY: But you know who he was. He's on the Woods Foundation board. You know he…
OBAMA: Let me finish my point, all right? Here's a guy who does something despicable when I'm 8 years old.
Anyone care to ask why Obama was meeting with Ayers in 2007?
Perhaps Nancy Pelosi is printing these up at CafePress. She did say that Obama's chances of winning are "100%."Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign the read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed--just imagine the coincidence.
When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.
I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.
At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.
I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.
May have to try this next time I'm out on the town. And be packing I might add.
DH
• Campaign Spot: "Obi Wan: 'Believe me, there is someone in the Obama campaign who is deathly afraid of the 'McCain pulls even or goes ahead' poll.'"Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf. While the man was away the assistant told the villagers.
"Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere.
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.
• But we also believe that his philosophy of "spreading the wealth around" is an ill-disguised form of socialism that undermines everything America holds dear.
• We believe that the Obama campaign's efforts to intimidate WGN (on two separate occasions) when it interviewed his political foes endangers free speech.
• We believe that Obama made a series of very poor choices by serving on boards and sharing an office with Bill Ayers (for three years); Ayers' organization killed three police officers, bombed numerous government facilities and nearly detonated a nail bomb at a Fort Dix Officer's Dance.
• We believe that Obama's advisers and contributors -- from Tony Rezko to Valerie Jarrett to Allison Davis -- cost taxpayers millions in development fees for failed (and often uninhabitable) apartment complexes.
ZombieTime: The Left's Big Blunder -- The disastrously counter-productive strategy of Obama's supporters.
The American Thinker: Buying of the Presidency 2008 (Richard Baehr) and Stealing the Presidency (Kyle-Anne Shiver): "The minute Barack Obama is sworn in as the Chief law enforcement officer in America, the FBI will no longer be investigating ACORN. Neither will the Justice Department. "These allegations and efforts to hurt Cindy have been a matter of public record for sixteen years...
It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama’s drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father. Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here.
I suggest to you that none of these subjects on either side are worthy of the energy and resources of The New York Times. They are cruel hit pieces designed to injure people that only the worst rag would investigate and publish. I know you and your colleagues are always preaching about raising the level of civil discourse in our political campaigns. I think taking some your own medicine is in order here.
I ask you to let Cindy McCain carry on in her usual understated, selfless and dignified way. The fabrications and lies of blackmailers are not fit to print in any newspaper but particularly not in The New York Times.
Pull out of Iraq?
Perhaps the U.S. should pull out of Chicago!
Body count in the last six months:Chicago - who runs it?
- 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago
- 221 killed in Iraq
Senators: Barack Obama and Dick Durbin
Representative: Jesse Jackson Jr.
Illinois Governor: Rod Blogojevich
Illinois House leader: Mike Madigan
Illinois Attorney General: Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike)
Chicago Mayor: Richard M. Daley (son of Mayor Richard J. Daley)
...our leadership in Illinois: all Democrats.
Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course, they're all blaming each other!
Can't blame Republicans. There aren't any!
State pension fund is $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County (Chicago) sales tax is 10.25%, the highest in the country. The Chicago school system is rated one of the worst in the country (despite the $160 million that Obama and terrorist Bill Ayers slathered around to various leftist causes during the Chicago Annenberg Challenge).
This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. And he's gonna 'fix' Washington politics for us? Wake up America! We've already sacrificed Chicago!
In Barack Obama’s July 2, 2008 speech calling America to national service, Obama proposed “a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military... This has prompted some in the blogosphere to raise the specter of a huge new domestic paramilitary organization. Others suggest that he may have been talking about our “current non-military security agencies...
He said: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."






If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have $33 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0 today.
But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for the recycling refund, you would have received $214.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.
A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.
This Chicago Annenberg Challenge website from 2002 shows the total amount of funds given to Bill Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop from 1995 to 2001. The amount is not the $175K I had reported earlier. According to this page, the total given under Barack Obama’s direct supervision was $1,056,162. Adding that amount to the money given by the Joyce Foundation and Woods Fund during Obama’s tenure brings the grand total to $1,968,718. Just shy of two million dollars! That’s a lot of scratch, to put it bluntly. And don’t forget, this doesn’t count the 3/4 million that went to John Ayers during the same time period...Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop, the one Obama directed all that money too is located at 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607...
...In 1998, the address for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama presumably worked, was 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinios 60607. Here’s a copy of their 1998 tax return with that address:..
And according to this memo dated 1996, Small Schools Workshop was also on the 3rd floor...
I won't spoil the fun, biznatches. You can review the results at C&D.