I don't usually ask for help with rw emails, but

[shraby]

my cousin sent me this to verify..she tried snopes but couldn't find it. There are so many parts to refute that if anyone has links I could use them.

Ostensibly to aid the poor, the Clinton administration and Congress encouraged lenders to give mortgages to poor credit risks. The combination of easy money and the expansion of the number of borrowers by extending loans to poor credit risks sent housing prices through the roof, creating the bubble whose bursting has led to this crisis.

Congress in 1999 repealed the law (the Glass-Steagall Act) that established a bright line between commercial and investment banks. This meant bad investments by banks could jeopardize depositors. Wall Street created "derivatives" which multiplied profits in good times, but which also multiplied risk if there were defaults.

Most important was corruption and mismanagement at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), which together controlled 90 percent of the secondary mortgage market.

Once your bank has lent you money to buy a house, it can't lend the money again until you pay it back. But if your bank sells your mortgage, it can make another loan right away. Without the secondary market, most of the funds for home mortgages would dry up.

Fannie and Freddie went broke because they had bought billions of dollars worth of subprime mortgages, on which borrowers defaulted when the housing bubble popped. Fannie bought most of its bad mortgages from Countrywide Financial, whose CEO, Angelo Mozilo, gave sweetheart loans to senior executives of Fannie Mae.

Fannie and Freddie cooked their books so senior executives would be paid millions of dollars in bonuses to which they were not entitled. Inadequate regulation kept the book-cooking from being discovered until the crisis had become a catastrophe.

President Bush proposed regulatory reforms in 2003, but Congress took no action. In 2005, John McCain and three other GOP senators proposed a strong reform bill. It died when Democrats threatened a filibuster. When the bill was reintroduced in this Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd, the new Democratic chairman of Banking Committee, refused even to hold a hearing on it.

Democrats opposed reform in part because they feared it would mean fewer loans to poor people.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, told the New York Times when the Bush bill was introduced. "The more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Democrats and some Republicans opposed reform because Fannie and Freddie were very good at greasing palms. Fannie spent $170 million on lobbying since 1998, and $19.3 million on political contributions since 1990.

The principal recipient of Fannie Mae's largesse was Sen. Dodd. Number two was Barack Hussein Obama.

Sen. Dodd was also the second largest recipient in the Senate of contributions from Countrywide's PAC and its employees. The number one senator on Countrywide's list?

Barack Hussein Obama.

Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines was forced to resign in December, 2004, because of "accounting irregularities." The Washington Post reported July 16 the Obama campaign has called Mr. Raines "seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."

Sen. Obama appointed Mr. Raines' predecessor, James Johnson, as head of his vice presidential search committee, until he was also implicated in "accounting irregularities," and it was revealed he'd received cut rate loans from Countrywide.

Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, chairman of Sen. Obama's finance committee, cooked the books to conceal losses from subprime mortgages at her now defunct Superior bank. The holding company her family owned collected $200 million in dividends on phony profits.

The trouble with crony capitalism isn't capitalism. It's the cronies.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Part true and part lies. Be sure to research each statement and point out that it's McSame's

champaign manager, Rick Davis, with the closest ties to Fanny and Freddie. Phil Gramm's association with deregulation of banking, commodity trading, and lobbying for UBS.

[shraby]

2. I'm trying to tear it into managable

sections to refute point by point. Thanks

[Warpy]

3. I got as far as the derivatives lie

Those bets were created about the time the hedge funds were, back in the 70s. Economists who hadn't sold their souls to the right wing rich started to warn about them in the 80s.

At least he credits Congress with the repeal of Glass-Steagall. He just forgot to say it was a GOP Congress pushed by Magoo's financial guru, Phil Gramm.

The last sentence is accurate, though. It's why we heavily regulated the cronies in the first place. He forgot to say that, too.

[Blue_Tires]

4. how can you be both a marine and a green beret?

i thought green berets were army special forces....and this:

"President Bush proposed regulatory reforms in 2003, but Congress took no action. In 2005, John McCain and three other GOP senators proposed a strong reform bill. It died when Democrats threatened a filibuster."

you expect me to believe the dems threatened a filibuster in 2005? and the repbubs, who steamrolled every other filibuster 'threat' ceded? what fuckin' ever...

[JHB]

10. Sourcewatch on Jack Kelly:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jack_Kelly

Douglas Anders wrote February 14, 2004, in the seeingToledo Blog:

"Every Saturday morning I look forward to the Jack Kelly column on the Op-Ed page of the Blade. As surely as things fall down, Kelly can be counted on to recycle half-informed (not to mention half-formed) arguments from the right side of the blogosphere, and dutifully march forth to make the GOP sanctioned argument of the week. His modus operandi is simple and unvarying: report the facts that support his thesis, ignore everything that undermines it and end with an overblown claim that Democrats (or the 'nay-sayers' or peacenicks or Bush-critics) are nothing more than unrepentant liars. He rarely lies outright (though I have caught a few), but his one-sided presentation of the facts always produces a deeply deceptive column. I warn you, if you try to make pro-Republican arguments based on what you read in a Jack Kelly column, you will quickly establish that you are an easily hoodwinked fool. There are good honest conservatives out there, but Jack Kelly isn't one of them, he exists to regurgitate the GOP line of the day."


The "Profiles" section outlines his service in the Marines and with the Army Special Forces. Typical to form he's taking bits of truth and puffing them up wildly. Not to mention whether his particular service trajectory would have been possible without the political connections he's made.

The Sourcewatch article also contains links to his coverage of Hurricaine Katrina and the battle of Fallujah (and to dissection of his "coverage"), so that on can better evaluate his track record.

[The Straight Story]

5. Just throw this right back at em:

"Congress in 1999 repealed the law (the Glass-Steagall Act) that established a bright line between commercial and investment banks. This meant bad investments by banks could jeopardize depositors. Wall Street created "derivatives" which multiplied profits in good times, but which also multiplied risk if there were defaults."

Okay, that was 9 years ago. If we all knew it was bad and bush has been in power this long why didn't he fix the problem back then?

[guitar man]

6. just ask them this

If what Clinton supposedly did was so damn bad, why didn't *Bu$h bother to fix it in all the time that has passed since? Espacially when the rethugs had both houses of Congress to boot? Should have been easy enough to do if they wanted.

[The Straight Story]

7. Oh and this gem:

"President Bush proposed regulatory reforms in 2003, but Congress took no action. In 2005, John McCain and three other GOP senators proposed a strong reform bill. It died when Democrats threatened a filibuster. When the bill was reintroduced in this Congress, Sen. Chris Dodd, the new Democratic chairman of Banking Committee, refused even to hold a hearing on it."

He could get the iraq war he wanted, fund it, eavesdropping, patriot act, create a whole new dept of homeland security and he couldn't get this one thing passed??

Uh yeah.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. That quote is a lie. The 2005 bill, S. 190, died in a GOP majority committee without a vote.

[pretzel4gore]

8. here's some balm...

the forces of good and evil are facing off, and, like with Katrina, the forces of good are hamstrung by....well by being labelled 'the bad guys' in gopig media. Thus you have a situation where, though you KNOW who is the good guy, and what is true, the gopigs' claim to virtue trumps your knowledge, so; you gonna lose! Just like in Katrina. But the gopigs lost New Orleans too- the city was a jewel world famed and irreplaceable. Now if they win this battle (and successfully blame subprime ripoff mess on the dems, and the american people) what do they get? A disasterous continuation of gopig criminal activity. And they will end up not only totally crushed by results, but also knowing they were the reason for it.
they lose by winning. lol

[NoGOPZone]

9. some of this should help

The Congress in 2003 that took no action had GOP majorities in both houses.



A New York Times article on the campagin ties to http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/us/politics/10fannie.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">loan giants





Obama campaign has denied that Raines is an adviser and has a copy of an email from Raines to one of McCain's own advisors, Carly Fiorina, stating this.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hC9O6sRspcMU1TS3H0CL...

Several people affiliated with Freddie and Fannie have contributed to McCain. see graphic at

graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/10/us/politics/10fannie.graphic.jpg

[shraby]

11. Thank you all for the help. I sent her

enough to check for herself and she can then inform the one who sent it to her what the deal is.