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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (45436)	8/31/2010 8:57:40 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Open mouth insert foot. Before Obama / Biden I used to think I did that too often. I have not gotten that much better, but they raised the bar for what is considered too embarrassing.

To: sandintoes who wrote (45436)	9/1/2010 9:53:43 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Sharpton, not Beck, distorts MLK's legacy By: Gregory Kane Examiner Columnist August 29, 2010 Al Sharpton has GOT to be putting us on. Sharpton had a problem with the rally Fox talk show host Glenn Beck held on the D.C. Mall this past Saturday. And on the same date and near the same spot that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his immortal "I Have A Dream" speech, no less! Here's Sharpton's reaction to Beck's rally, taken from a story on the Web site huffingtonpost.com: "They have a right to rally. But what they don't have the right to do is distort what Dr. King's dream was all about." Now there may be plenty of black talking heads, spokespersons and so-called "leaders" across the country qualified to make that assessment. Unfortunately for Revvum Al, he ain't one of 'em. King came of age -- and gained his fame -- as the symbolic and spiritual leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. It was a struggle that saw the black citizens of Montgomery, Ala., with dignity and courage stage a disciplined, principled boycott that led to the desegregation of buses in that city. Sharpton came to fame as a result of the Tawana Brawley mess, where the words "dignity," "disciplined" and "principled" never applied. Sharpton and others accused a white prosecutor of raping Brawley, who was then a teenager. Charges that the white man raped the black girl were never proved, and some claimed they were downright false. King's "I Have A Dream" speech of Aug. 28, 1963, was hailed for his exhortation that his country judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. Sharpton gained notoriety during the boycott of a white-owned business in Harlem. The good revvum called the owner a "white interloper." I viewed King's speech in its entirety that summer day in 1963. I must have read it a dozen times since then. The words "white interloper" aren't in there. No, Sharpton isn't the guy fit to preach to Beck or anyone else about "distorting" King's dream. Sharpton and other black activists, leaders and pundits are fond of chiding conservatives who quote King, claiming we take his words out of context. But there are some King words Sharpton and other blacks absolutely wouldn't dream of quoting. Even conservatives have steered clear of them. "Our crime rate is far too high." That's a King quote, taken from his 1957 book "Stride Toward Freedom". No black "leader" would dare utter that statement today. Most are too busy lamenting the number of black men in jails and prisons. Actor, singer and activist Harry Belafonte, who considers himself enough of a spokesman for black folks that he felt it necessary to chide former Secretary of State Colin Powell for being a "house slave," even said in a speech at Johns Hopkins University that there are more black men in prison than in colleges or universities. The assertion is demonstrably untrue, but the Harry Belafontes and Jesse Jacksons of the country need it to be true. Sharpton, to his credit and to be fair to him, has tried to break from that mold. He's openly criticized the "gangsta rap" culture that demeans black women, runs the N-word into the ground, and, with its obsession with "snitches," all but celebrates criminality among young black men. In many ways, Sharpton has tried to break with his sordid past and become closer to the leader King was. He's not there yet, but if he can see the problem black people have with gangsta rap culture, then he must be able to see that Beck is the least of our problems. Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan. washingtonexaminer.com

To: sandintoes who wrote (45436)	9/8/2010 9:09:11 AM
From: Peter Dierks	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

Political Fables By Thomas Sowell September 7, 2010 President Barack Obama boldly proclaims, "The buck stops here!" But, whenever his policies are criticized, he acts as if the buck stopped with George W. Bush. The party line that we are likely to be hearing from now until the November elections is that Obama "inherited" the big federal budget deficits and that he has to "clean up the mess" left in the economy by the Republicans. This may convince those who want to be convinced, but it will not stand up under scrutiny. No President of the United States can create either a budget deficit or a budget surplus. All spending bills originate in the House of Representatives and all taxes are voted into law by Congress. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before Barack Obama became president. The deficit he inherited was created by the Congressional Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, who did absolutely nothing to oppose the runaway spending. He was one of the biggest of the big spenders. The last time the federal government had a budget surplus, Bill Clinton was president, so it was called "the Clinton surplus." But Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, where all spending bills originate, for the first time in 40 years. It was also the first budget surplus in more than a quarter of a century. The only direct power that any president has that can affect deficits and surpluses is the power to veto spending bills. President Bush did not veto enough spending bills but Senator Obama and his fellow Democrats in control of Congress were the ones who passed the spending bills. Today, with Barack Obama in the White House, allied with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in charge in Congress, the national debt is a bigger share of the national output than it has been in more than half a century. And its share is projected to continue going up for years to come, becoming larger than national output in 2012. Having created this scary situation, President Obama now says, "Don't give in to fear. Let's reach for hope." The voters reached for hope when they elected Obama. The fear comes from what he has done since taking office. "The worst thing we could do is to go back to the very same policies that created this mess in the first place," he said recently. "In November, you're going to have that choice." Another political fable is that the current economic downturn is due to not enough government regulation of the housing and financial markets. But it was precisely the government regulators, under pressure from politicians, who forced banks and other lending institutions to lower their standards for making mortgage loans. These risky loans, and the defaults that followed, were what set off a chain reaction of massive financial losses that brought down the whole economy. Was this due to George W. Bush and the Republicans? Only partly. Most of those who pushed the lowering of mortgage lending standards were Democrats-- notably Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd, though too many Republicans went along. At the heart of these policies were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who bought huge amounts of risky mortgages, passing the risk on from the banks that lent the money (and made the profits) to the taxpayers who were not even aware that they would end up paying in the end. When President Bush said in 2004 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be reined in, 76 members of the House of Representatives issued a statement to the contrary. These included Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel. If we are going to talk about "the policies that created this mess in the first place," let's at least get the facts straight and the names right. The current policies of the Obama administration are a continuation of the same reckless policies that brought on the current economic problems-- all in the name of "change." Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still sacred cows in Washington, even though they have already required the biggest bailouts of all. Why? Because they allow politicians to direct vast sums of money where it will do politicians the most good, either personally or in terms of buying votes in the next election. realclearpolitics.com