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You know damned well that the Black writer, Thomas Sowell, does not spell his name "Soul." <br><br>Keely<br>http://keely-prevailingwinds.blogspot.com/<br><br><br>> Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 10:50:18 -0230<br>> From: no.weatherman@gmail.com<br>> To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>> Subject: [Vision2020] And now a word from Thomas Soul<br>> <br>> Do Facts Matter?<br>> By Thomas Sowell<br>> Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time<br>> and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people<br>> all the time."<br>> <br>> Unfortunately, the future of this country, as well as the fate of the<br>> Western world, depends on how many people can be fooled on election<br>> day, just a few weeks from now.<br>> <br>> Right now, the polls indicate that a whole lot of the people are being<br>> fooled a whole lot of the time.<br>> <br>> The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back<br>> into a substantial lead over John McCain — which is astonishing in<br>> view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing<br>> on this crisis.<br>> <br>> It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and<br>> the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?<br>> <br>> Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher<br>> Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years — including the<br>> present year — denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big<br>> risks that could lead to a financial crisis.<br>> <br>> It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who<br>> for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an<br>> agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.<br>> <br>> It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years<br>> pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting<br>> subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial<br>> crisis.<br>> <br>> Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the<br>> Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary<br>> of the Treasury, five years ago.<br>> <br>> Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration<br>> "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the<br>> financial crisis. Do facts matter?<br>> <br>> We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the<br>> facts show that it was the government that pressured financial<br>> institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such<br>> things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal<br>> action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like<br>> the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.<br>> <br>> Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?<br>> <br>> Then there is the question of being against the "greed" of CEOs and<br>> for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head<br>> of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis.<br>> <br>> Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines? Liberal Democrats, including<br>> Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of whom<br>> referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him<br>> to the same standard as white CEOs.<br>> <br>> Even after he was deposed as head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines was<br>> consulted this year by the Obama campaign for his advice on housing!<br>> <br>> The Washington Post criticized the McCain campaign for calling Raines<br>> an adviser to Obama, even though that fact was reported in the<br>> Washington Post itself on July 16th. The technicality and the spin<br>> here is that Raines is not officially listed as an adviser. But<br>> someone who advises is an adviser, whether or not his name appears on<br>> a letterhead.<br>> <br>> The tie between Barack Obama and Franklin Raines is not all one-way.<br>> Obama has been the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's financial<br>> contributions, right after Senator Christopher Dodd.<br>> <br>> But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.<br>> <br>> Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.<br>> <br>> The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public.<br>> Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to<br>> counter-attack. They deserve to lose.<br>> <br>> But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and<br>> cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the<br>> advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years<br>> allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed<br>> their hatred of America.<br>> http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/do_facts_matter.html<br>> <br>> =======================================================<br>> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br>> http://www.fsr.net <br>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>> =======================================================<br><br /><hr />Get more out of the Web. Learn 10 hidden secrets of Windows Live. <a href='http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_getmore_092008' target='_new'>Learn Now</a></body>
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