Barack Obama Tried to Delay Troop Returns: Negotiated in Iraq

Barack Obama is under fire for trying to negotiate delayed troop withdrawals until “his administration” was in place while he was over in Iraq.

Enough is Enough

;”>”Today, he claimed that the Congressional stimulus package was his idea. That’s news to those of us in Congress who supported it. Senator Obama didn’t even show up to vote.

Before you view this remember that the Dems have been in control of congress in the two years leading up to the latest financial debacle. Remember that Joe Biden’s committee should have prevented this, but instead encouraged it. Remember that Barack Obama’s favorite housing advisor is Franklin D. Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae who got out before the community outreach bad loan stack of cards collapsed. Remember that when the bad news hit Wall St yesterday that Obama was enroute to hobnob with Hollywood Highrollers.

John McCain’s 8 part economic plan, “Jobs for America” can be found here.

Here’s John speaking in Ohio today:

Transcript:

John McCain
Remarks
Vienna, OH
September 16, 2008

John McCain: “We’ve seen a telling moment in this campaign today. Senator Obama saw an economic crisis, and he’s found a political opportunity. My friends, this is not a time for political opportunism; this is a time for leadership.

“Too often, we hear people say America’s in decline. I reject that. I believe America’s best days are ahead of us. Governor Palin and I are going to reform Wall Street. We’re going to reform Washington. I’m going to fight for you, and I’m going to lead our nation forward in the greatest periods of prosperity in its history.

“And let’s have some straight talk. Senator Obama is not interested in the politics of hope, he’s interested in his political future and that’s why he is hurling in insults and making up facts about his record.

“Today, he claimed that the Congressional stimulus package was his idea. That’s news to those of us in Congress who supported it. Senator Obama didn’t even show up to vote.

“He talks a tough game on the financial crisis, but the facts tell a different story. Senator Obama took more money from Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac than anyone but the chairman of the committee they answer to, and he put Fannie Mae’s CEO, who helped create this problem in charge of finding his Vice President. That’s not change, that’s what’s broken in Washington.

“He talked about siding with the people, siding with the people, just before he flew off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbara Streisand and his celebrity friends. Let me tell you, my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than here, with the working men and women of Ohio. I’m going to fight for you and together we’re going to win in November.”

More on who really created the crisis at Hot Air
UPDATE: Here’s Chuckie Schumer and Jesse Jackson teaming up back in 2001 to help create this mess can you say “community organizer?”
Under the guise of stopping “predatory lending practices” Obama also participated in legislation like this in 2000. These programs supposedly stiffened controls, but at the same time took away all profitability from higher risk loans. By making it mandatory to treat risky borrowers just like borrowers with good credit through neighborhood HOME and HELP projects they created this crisis.
From the Chicago Tribune, 10-1-2000:

The senator believes that these inclusions will help reduce the number of foreclosures that have occurred in the state. The senator stated that “foreclosures started by subprime lenders in the Chicagoland area increased from 131 in 1993 to 4,958 in 1999, an increase of more than 3,600 percent.”

The senator obtained his foreclosure information from the National Training and Information Center, a non-profit organization in Chicago that does research on housing and other community related issues, including lending and neighborhood safety. It also provides training for those interested in how to do community organizing.

The NTIC currently also works with several affiliate groups, including the Indianapolis-based Organization for a New Eastside which compiles information that it receives from borrowers about their particular lending issues, as well as provides them with education, counseling and advocacy. O.N.E provides no funding to borrowers, though it refers them to local lenders and credit unions after counseling.

O.N.E recently took on the plight of a local family that felt it had been victimized during the purchasing of its home. The organization went to the local branch of the lender for a protest rally, demanding that the loan be looked at again.

So how can I say that when supposedly they were just worried about predatory lending practices and protecting borrowers? One of the things they enforced against was mandatory credit insurance for high risk loans. Without that they guaranteed more foreclosures even though they were supposedly preventing them.

UPDATE: Boston Globe reminds us of the other housing iniatives of Barack Obama
UPDATE: Who Supports Barack Obama’s Amazing fund raising abilities? Investment Bankers.
UPDATE: McCain Called for reform two years ago, See HERE.
UPDATE: Just a reminder that Republicans were calling for oversight of Freddie and Fannie five years ago but were blocked repeatedly by Democrats in Congress:

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.

Obama Sex Ed for Kindergartners Ad is True

Last week the McCain campaign released an ad that I also carried stating that Obama supported teaching comprehensive sex education to kindergartners. The Obama camp immediately went into high dudgeon and hysteria, calling the ad a lie, and by implication McCain a liar. The ad turns out to be true, it did miss another Obama education “accomplishment”, but more on that later.

First Byron York at National Review Online investigated the ad, and you can read the article here, below is Byron’s conclusion:

Obama’s explanation for his vote has been accepted by nearly all commentators. And perhaps that is indeed why he voted for Senate Bill 99, although we don’t know for sure. But we do know that the bill itself was much more than that. The fact is, the bill’s intention was to mandate sex education, especially concerning contraception and the prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases, for children before the sixth grade and as early as kindergarten. Obama’s defenders may howl, but the bill is what it is. [* note that the reply is much more extensive than this, please go to the site and read the full detail]

You can also see the key provisions of the K-6 additions that bill 99 added at McCain’s campaign website in their detailed reply:

Please find the facts below:

In the Illinois State Legislature, Barack Obama voted for legislation to alter Illinois’ Sex Education standards to include instruction in any grade from Kindergarten through 12th grade. The legislation passed Barack Obama’s Illinois Senate Health and Human Services Committee that he chaired. As the Chicago Daily Herald stated, “the legislation included a provision to allow students from kindergarten through fifth grade to be added to the middle and high school students receiving sex education.”

Despite the Obama campaign’s claims, this bill was intended to provide children as young as Kindergarten with sex education. According to the legislation itself, “Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.” This legislation stated expressly that children in grade 12 were to be education about sexually transmitted diseases.

In 2007, Barack Obama told Planned Parenthood that he supported sex education for Kindergarteners as long as it was “age-appropriate.” Thus on two separate occasions we have Barack Obama supporting the expansion of sex education to Kindergarteners.

Defending Barack Obama’s statement, the Obama campaign cited far-reaching SIECUS curriculum as the model. The SIECUS curriculum goes far beyond appropriate touching. The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) supports a comprehensive approach to sex education, beginning as early as ages 5-8. For Level 1 sex education (ages 5 through 8), the guidelines include much more than appropriate touching. The curriculum includes lines that are not appropriate for us to state here but please see the link to the guidelines here: http://www.siecus.org/_data/global/images/guidelines.pdf. This is the model provided by the Obama campaign and no one else.

You can also reference the Chicago Tribune article on the bill from that time:

Chicago Daily Herald: “At one point, the legislation included a provision to allow students from kindergarten through fifth grade to be added to the middle and high school students receiving sex education. Obama was chairman of the Senate committee that voted along party lines to move along the measure, which ultimately went nowhere.” (Eric Krol, “Obama Clarifies Sex Ed Views At Benedictiine,” Chicago Daily Herald, 10/6/04)

Will Barack Obama’s reply be that this was one of those days when he wasn’t there but voted “present?” There’s no real comeback for Barry, he either was there and wasn’t paying attention even though he was chair, or he supported teaching comprehensive sex ed to Kindergartners.

Barack Obama doesn’t have many actions due to his lack of experience, so we have to judge him by the few we can find — this is one, the only other education accomplishment I can find is his appointment of liberal cronies and leftists as principals in Chicago schools under the Annenberg Challenge with Bill Ayers.

Obama 2nd Biggest Recipient of Fannie Mae Money in Last Ten Years

Barack Obama is the second biggest recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac money during the last ten years, and he’s only been in Washington for four years… is this Change, or the same old corruption? Story at Little Green Footballs.
Recent stories have him raising 66 Million dollars in August — so just who else bought Barry? It’s time to follow the money.

With the questionable home deal with convicted Felon Tony Rezko, and the several years he spent working for “affordable housing” as a community organizer he can’t claim ignorance on what’s going on in financial markets today.

Many of these bad loans bundled together into bad investment vehicles are what’s causing the problems we see now. They came as a result of community outreach and community organizers who crafted programs with banks to lower loan approval hurdles to “disadvantaged borrowers.” Good fiscal practice is just that, so the banks who went overboard on these programs are the ones feeling the pinch now.

Also note that the former CEO of Fannie Mae, who engineered the community outreach defaulted loans debacle is now Barack Obama’s favorite housing advisor. Is this surreal, or just a big freaking coincidence? Did he warn about the earnings mistatement in 2006 because he knew of all the bad loans in system before he left, or because he made an educated guess? You decide.

Obama Tried to Delay Troop Draw Downs Until Post Election

In a fully politically motivated move in July Barack Obama used his trip to Iraq to try extending the negotiations and troop draw downs in Iraq according to Amer Taheri. Full Story at New York Post:

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops – and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion.”

This demonstrate’s Obama’s willingness to say one thing in public and campaign for something entirely different behind closed doors. In other words he’s a coldly calculating machine politician more interested in Party Power than any other cause. It also shows his clear lack of appreciation for separation of powers. The executive branch becomes Commander in Chief exactly so our troops and wars do not become political footballs. It’s neither in Congress’ purview nor powers to manage theater tactics but that’s exactly what Senator Barack Obama was trying to do here.

Another damning conclusion from the story:

Thus, the 2010 deadline fixed by Obama is a meaningless concept, thrown in as a sop to his anti-war base.

John McCain’s Jobs for America: Simpler, Lower Taxes

In this ongoing series I’m examining the McCain Economic plans. There are 8 parts to the Jobs for America plan so I”m looking at them one at a time. The previous article on energy can be found here.

John McCain’s plan calls for simpler taxes, and relief for small business, family farms, and entrepreneurs in the form of tax cuts. Entrepreneurs are the bedrock of american prosperity and in high tax environs they cannot continue to move America forward.

By allowing first year deductions to business on capital equipment and techology investments  Jobs for America allows American workers to have the newest equipment, and helps put us back into a building and growth mode across the country. This also opens up opportunities for manufacturers who make those tools, those products, and that equipment.

That’s exactly what the Democrats do not like, they don’t like a growing America – they’d rather America be cloistered and isolated in a no-growth philosophy of decay like Europe. Barack Obama’s “Green Jobs” plan is code for hiring activists, lobbyists, and community organizers to lobby for more controls on business, more of your tax dollars, and less growth through energy initiatives and lifestye tailoring through legislation. These “green jobs” will choke growth and innovation in proven energy sectors like Nuclear, and keep us in the energy stasis we’ve been in for 35 years. It’s just more of the same with a new name. Jobs don’t come in colors, and if you artificially pump up just one sector of the economy you cripple others and stifle true innovation.

Trickle down Taxation:

Barack Obama’s plan would tax those small businesses, decrease the jobs they can offer, and increase the prices you have to pay when you buy gas, milk, bread, or school clothes. Barack’s plan is to use business as a surrogate and to indirectly tax you through them. These are the Democrats favorite tools: trickle down taxes. Barack doesn’t think you are smart enough to figure out that when you “tax the rich” you tax family farms, small business, and most American’s retirement plans and 401-k’s as corporate stock prices accomodate the higher taxation. If you work for a business, or buy things from a store then Barack’s tax plans will impact you thousands of times throughout the year — each time you go to a store. Barack Obama’s plan hits the poor, people on fixed incomes, and the middle classes the hardest in the end.

By cutting corporate tax rates, John McCain insures a growth economy, contrasted to the Obama plan which would throttle the engines of american productivity, and your pension plan or 401K by raising corporate taxes. If you are in a union, if you are in a pension plan, if you have savings, if you have a retirement account, Obama’s plan will indirectly and negatively impact those.

John McCain will ban internet and new cell phone taxes, the benefit of that should be clear to all.

Jobs for America will encourage private investment in research and development, and challenge American industry. Instead of all research coming from government grants we need to take the binds off private research by allowing tax credit for Research and Development. It is technology that keeps us strong in the world economy, and we must challenge US business’s to do much more of that.

Below you can see the Jobs for America tax reduction plan from John McCain’s campaign site:

Keep Tax Rates Low: Entrepreneurs are at the heart of American innovation, growth and prosperity. Entrepreneurs create the ultimate job security – a new, better opportunity if your current job goes away. Entrepreneurs should not be taxed into submission. John McCain will keep the top tax rate at 35 percent, maintain the 15 percent rates on dividends and capital gains, and phase-out the Alternative Minimum Tax. Small businesses are the heart of job growth; raising taxes on them hurts every worker.
Innovation Tax Policy
Ban Internet Taxes: John McCain believes we must make a farsighted, robust, and fervent commitment to innovation and new technologies to sustain our global competitiveness, meet our national security challenges, achieve less costly and more effective health care, reduce dangerous dependence on foreign sources of oil, and raise the quality of education in the United States. John McCain has been a leader in keeping the Internet free of taxes. As President, he will seek a permanent ban on taxes that threaten this engine of economic growth and prosperity.

Ban New Cell Phone Taxes: John McCain understands that the same people that would tax e-mail will tax every text message – and even 911 calls. John McCain will prohibit new cellular telephone taxes.

Cut The Corporate Tax Rate From 35 To 25 Percent: A lower corporate tax rate is essential to keeping good jobs in the United States. America was once a low-tax business environment, but as our trade partners lowered their rates, America failed to keep pace. We now have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, making America a less attractive place for companies to do business. American workers deserve the chance to make fine products here and sell them around the globe.

Allow First-Year Deduction, Or “Expensing”, Of Equipment And Technology Investments: American workers need the finest technologies to compete. Expensing of equipment and technology will provide an immediate boost to capital expenditures and reward investments in cutting-edge technologies.

Establish Permanent Tax Credit Equal To 10 Percent Of Wages Spent On R&D: This reform will simplify the tax code, reward activity in the United States, and make us more competitive with other countries. A permanent credit will provide an incentive to innovate and remove uncertainty. At a time when our companies need to be more competitive, we need to provide a permanent incentive to innovate, and remove the uncertainty now hanging over businesses as they make R&D investment decisions.

Obama Gets a Helping Hand on Faith From the MSM

h/t Little Green Footballs.

Nice help there George, Nice Lie there Obama:

“He has suggested that I am a muslim.”

 John McCain never suggested that you were muslim, and has decried the attempts to paint you as one.

Newt Gingrich Grills MSM Reporter Over Sarah Palin

This is really must see TV — watch about 2:30 into this interview when the reporter brings up the experience question.

The list and litany of things Sarah Palin has done that Obama has not could go on a long, long while. It has always been the case for most of our history that the best apprenticeship for a high level Executive position isn’t a legistlative career, but rather another executive postion. Our stronger presidents and vice presidents have almost always come from Governorships or Mayorial positions. It stands to reason that Sarah is much more qualified than Barack Obama.