[Galveston1]

I am hearing disturbing news, not from the major media that at least deserve some examination.

1. That 2 of the men who had oversight of Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac during the time they were headed for the reef are now financial advisors to Obama. True or false?

2. That Charles Schumer, John Kerry, and one other senator whose name I can't recall at the moment sent a letter to Condelesa Rice when she went to Iraq, opposing any oil deals with our major oil companies until Iraq put environmental policies in place. The news in Iraq picked up on it, and the result is that they have now signed contracts with the Chinese to develop Iraq's oil industry. If this is true, these men have canelled any benefit we may have gotten from Iraq as far as oil is concerned. How much money and how many American lives did they waste by their environmental idiocy? I hope someone will address this in depth.

[tomder55]

# 1 true
the following people are or have been major players in the Obama campaign.

Former Fannie Mae boss ,and former Clintoon White House Budget Director Franklin Raines advises Obama on economic matters .
Byron York at National Review wrote a very informative article about Raines cooking of the books as Fannie.
Politics and the Fannie Mae Piggy Bank by Byron York on National Review Online=

Fannie Mae is the biggest single source of money for mortgages in the United States. From 1998 to 2004, the years covered by the OFHEO investigation, it was headed by former Clinton budget director Franklin Raines, whose top management team included former Clinton Justice Department official Jamie Gorelick, sometimes mentioned as a future attorney general in a Democratic administration. During that period, the report says, Raines and his team grossly overstated Fannie Mae's earnings — to the tune of $10.6 billion — for the purpose of paying themselves big bonuses.

[You remember Gorelick of course. She was the person in the Clintoon Justice Dept that erected a wall between the FBI and the CIA so that they could not share relevant counter-terrorism information. She was rewarded for this effort by having a seat on the 9-11 Commission ;the better to cover up her negligence. ]

more about Gore~lick here :
American Thinker: Mistress of Disaster: Jamie Gorelick

York continues :

Even though his salary never topped $1 million, Raines's total compensation shot from $6.48 million in 1998 to $8.52 million in 1999, to $13.89 million in 2000, to $18.86 million in 2001, to $18.20 million in 2002, to $24.15 million in 2003, all on the strength of EPS bonuses. Investigators found that of the $90.12 million Raines was paid in that six-year period, more than $52 million came from EPS bonuses.

Gorelick's situation was similar. OFHEO found that she took home $26.46 million in the period from 1998 to 2002

Former boss of Fannie Mae Jim Johnson was Obama's lead person for selecting a VEEP . That is until he got caught up in the Countrywide scandal . He accepted over $7million in below market rate loans under a plan at Countrywide that favored friends of the CEO Angelo Mozilo
In 1998, Fannie Mae's Earnings Were Manipulated, Which Resulted In "Maximum Payouts" To Executives Including Johnson, Who Earned $1.9 Million When He Otherwise Would Not Have Earned A Bonus.

Obama threw Johnson under the bus after the Countrywide scandal broke.

But Johnson is not alone. It was revealed that Chris Dodd ;the chairman of the Banking Committee ;the committee that has oversight over Countrywide was also a beneficiary of Countrywide Sweetheart rates . Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee also got in on the act .Also accepters of this largess were former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. A who's who of Clintonoids.

Seems to me that someone else recently got a below market mortgage to finance their home.. . oh yeah... Barack Obama.
He was only able to afford his mansion on Chicago's South Side because his first political sponsor, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, arranged for his wife to buy a strip of land adjacent to the home. Rezko is sitting in jail now, and will receive his prison sentence next month.He was found guilty of 16 fraud and corruption charges in June.

In purchasing the mansion, Obama got a sweetheart mortgage deal from Northern Trust, a big Chicago bank.

#2 true
hattip to Steve for alerting me to this story
No Oil for Blood

we have commented on this further on this thred.
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/curren...aq-260594.html

[tomder55]

There's been an update since yesterday .Franklin Raines has agreed to forego $24.7 million in exchange for dismissing the charges against him by the OFHEO
Raines, Federal Regulators Reach Settlement - WashBiz Blog - A blog about businesses in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, written by The Washington Post's Dan Beyers and Terri Rupar

Let's see... He cashes out to the tune of over $90 million and gives back $25 million to drop charges . I wonder if that includes civil suits by share holders who were deceived by him??

[tomder55]

Another update . Add Penny Pritzker to the list .Penny Pritzker, of the Hyatt Hotel fortune worth more than $2 billion .

Obama talks a lot on the campaign trail about how failing banks have used subprime loans to victimize customers.Turns out Pritzer ,the top finance chairwoman to Obama has been involved in not one ,but 2 failed banks. When she was the boss of Chicago's Superior Bank a lot of subprime loans (in fact she helped create "sub-prime loans ".)were issued even as the bank was failing . 1,400 customers were victims when the bank collapsed leaving them without part of their savings.

Ms. Pritzker served as Superior chairman until 1994. During that period, Superior "embarked on a business strategy of significant growth into subprime home mortgages," which were then packaged into securities and sold to investors, according to a 2002 report by the Treasury Department's Inspector General.
"Superior was at the forefront of the securitizing of subprime mortgages," says Timothy Anderson, a retired bank consultant who has studied Superior and other failed thrifts.

A Top Obama Fund-Raiser Had Ties to Failed Bank - WSJ.com

Anderson said that “Superior's owners were to sub-prime lending what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”

Pritzker's brother J.B. Pritzker, part of the trust that owned Superior,was a national co-chairman of Evita's campaign.

To connect this posting to another one running about the Mahdi-hatter's excellent trip to the UN next week;the Grand Hyatt in NYC ,owned by the Pritzers ,will have an "interfaith dinner" for Mahmoud Ahmamadjihad hosted by Penny Pritzer Thursday night .

[speechlesstx]

On Obama's economic advisors, just got an email from the DNC talking up Obama's "solid plan to strengthen the middle class." I guess he can start with Raines' $24.7 million. Add that to Biden's "$120 - $995 per year to charity" and Rangel's back taxes and penalties and they've got enough to give everyone in the country a dime. When will the GOP start hammering on "the Democratic culture of corruption?"

Here's an NRO article on the grand affair for the Mahdi Hatter. I'd guess this hints at the kind of foreign policy we can expect from an Obama administration, feasts and foolishness with real theocratic terrorist tyrants.

[speechlesstx]

Washington Post Faults McCain For Relying On...Washington Post

A number of journalists are trying hard to fit McCain's "Advice" ad into the now-established theme of the McCain campaign employing lies and underhanded tactics. The Obama campaign says the ad is a lie. Writers at Time and the Atlantic have suggested that it has racist overtones, because Franklin Raines is black, and Obama is black, and a photo depicting a generic victim of their alleged financial wrongheadedness is of a white woman.

Now, the Washington Post fact checker takes McCain to task for relying on…the Washington Post. Yes, the paper reported in July that Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters," and in August called Raines a "member of Mr. Obama's political circle." But hey, the Post says now, that information originally came from the Style section, and it came when a Post reporter was "chatting" with Raines at a photo shoot. Raines apparently said he had gotten, in the reporter's words, "a couple" of calls from the Obama campaign. When the reporter asked what about, Raines said, "Oh, general housing, economy issues." So the reporter wrote that Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."

So now, the Post says McCain "is clearly exaggerating wildly in attempting to depict Franklin Raines as a close adviser to Obama on 'housing and mortgage policy.'"

But the McCain commercial never called Raines a "close adviser" or a close anything. As far as "housing and mortgage policy," given that the Post had written — and has not retracted — that Raines had discussed "mortgage and housing policy" matters with the Obama campaign, in what sense is that a wild exaggeration?

Oh, and by the way, just for good measure, the Post brings up the racial issue, too — noting without any other comment that the McCain ad "attempts to link Obama to Franklin Raines, the former CEO of the bankrupt mortgage giant, Fannie Mae, who also happens to be African-American. It then shows a photograph of an elderly white woman taxpayer who has supposedly been 'stuck with the bill' as a result of the 'extensive financial fraud' at Fannie Mae."

P.S. And now, of course, the Obama campaign is sending out emails quoting the Washington Post charge that McCain is "exaggerating wildly."

P.P.S. A reader reminds me that I should have double-fact-checked the fact-checker. The original Post profile of Raines apparently ran in the paper's Business section, not Style, as the fact-checker said.

Did you get all that? LOL, talk about weasels...

[BABRAM]

I am hearing disturbing news, not from the major media that at least deserve some examination. True or false?

Just another stinker.

# 1 true
the following people are or have been major players in the Obama campaign.

Former Fannie Mae boss ,and former Clintoon White House Budget Director Franklin Raines advises Obama on economic matters .

Tom, you forgot to add the tag:

"I endorse this message, John "Skunk" McCain."



----------------------------------------------------------------------


FALSE


Ben Smith's Blog: Obama denies Raines ties, accuses McCain of throwing stones from his "seven glass houses" - Politico.com

"The campaign puts out a statement from former Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines, disowning ties to Obama, after a McCain ad attacked him for the ties.

The Washington Post reported -- with the kind of blind sourcing that suggests the source was Raines -- that Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters."

Raines said in the statement through the campaign, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton added an attack:

This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything -- ever. And by the way, someone whose campaign manager and top advisor worked and lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shouldn't be throwing stones from his seven glass houses."

[Wondergirl]

Who's Phil Gramm and how does he figure in all of this mess?

[BABRAM]

Who's Phil Gramm and how does he figure in all of this mess?

Foreclosure Phil is part of the good ol'boy network along with Dubya and McCain.

NEWS: Years before Phil Gramm was a McCain campaign adviser and a lobbyist for a Swiss bank at the center of the housing credit crisis, he pulled a sly maneuver in the Senate that helped create today's subprime meltdown.

Think Progress » McCain Adviser Phil Gramm Shaped McCain's Economic Policy While Lobbying For Foreign Bank

[tomder55]

Did the Washington Compost lie in July ?
On the Outside Now, Watching Fannie Falter - washingtonpost.com

Guess where I got that link ? From Ben Smith .
Ben Smith's Blog: Advice from Raines - Politico.com

Steve:
I guess it's OK for the Compost (a solely owned subsidiary of the Obama Campaign now) to fact check and publish a retraction 2 months after they published this information about Raines.

As far as that worm Rangel... well let's say this could be an excellent time for Obama to have a Sista Soulja moment and demand Rangel step down from Chair of the Ways and Means Committee... but he won't .

Wondergirl I did not talk about Gramm because the question was about Obama's ties to this mess. Gramm as you know no longer advises McCain but if I was asked about McCain's ties I would've added him. You forgot to mention Carly Fiorina ;Obama didn't ;even though she has no ties to the banking scandal. Obama's big beef is that she left HP after receiving a golden parachute.

For the record ;Gramm-Leach-Bliley was great legislation. Democrats supported it at the time, and Bill Clintoon, signed it. Now the "whiner" Democrats claim it's a Republican bill that helped send the nation into this mess.Phil Gramm is a free market advocate and I think the solution is in the free market and not these unfettered government bailouts. JPMorgan Chase absorbing Bear Stearns and Bank of America merging with Merrill Lynch would not have been possible if there was no Gramm-Leach-Bliley .Without those 2 mergers it would've been up to the government to bail them out also ;or to let let fail like they did with Lehman Brothers.

[NeedKarma]

Yep, Raines is NOT an advisor to Obama, another McCain lie.

Obama's Fannie Mae 'Connection' - Fact Checker

The Obama campaign last night issued a statement by Raines insisting, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters." Obama spokesman Bill Burton went a little further, telling me in an e-mail that the campaign had "neither sought nor received" advice from Raines "on any matter."

[tomder55]

So the Washington Compost lied in July ?Why didn't the Obama campaign and their rapid response team take them to task then ?

[NeedKarma]

But... but.. the left biased media got it wrong?? The big vast Obama-loving MSM conspiracy got it wrong? Stop the presses!

[speechlesstx]

Yep, Raines is NOT an advisor to Obama, another McCain lie.

Obama's Fannie Mae 'Connection' - Fact Checker

I take it you missed my post where the fact checker can't even check their own facts right. And it wasn't just once, but at least twice that WaPo claimed that not only Franklin Raines, but James Johnson also of Fannie Mae, are part of Obama's "political circle."

Meanwhile, Democrats were not only politically but intellectually committed to the companies, seeing them as innovative public-private institutions that have been a boon to homeownership. In the current crisis, their biggest backers have been Democrats such as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (Mass.). Two members of Mr. Obama's political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae.

I guess the fact checker missed that, too? Let's see you acknowledge the facts, NK. The McCain ad was no lie.

[NeedKarma]

What part of Raines not being part of Obama's political circle do you not understand?

[Choux]

Phil Graham, McCain's friend and major adviser(remember him... Americans are whiners... )wrote much of the law that governs the markets... leaving a free wheeling Capitalism. We all know that freewheeling, unregulated Capitalism leads to booms and busts.

We are now facing a huge bust and we have to turn to SOCIALISM to try to save us.

Will Endless War be the Republican answer to America's bust?

[speechlesstx]

What part of Raines not being part of Obama's political circle do you not understand?

The fact that the Washington Post said as much 3 times by their own admission and as far as I know has not made a retraction. The fact that Raines himself admits taking calls from the Obama campaign.

By Raines's own account, he took a couple of calls from someone on the Obama campaign, and they had some general discussions about economic issues.

The American Spectator also claimed Raines was an adviser to Obama:

Both Raines and Johnson have served as CEO of Fannie Mae, with Raines taking over from Johnson. Both are key political and economic advisers to Obama.

This column also points out that not only Raines and Johnson were advisers, but "Rahm Emanuel, who served on the Board of Directors for Freddie Mac after leaving the Clinton White House. According to Freddie Mac insiders, Emanuel during his time on the board opposed every reform proposed by the Bush Administration that would have impacted Freddie and Fannie Mae."

I also think this Hillary supporter's remarks are noteworthy:

"How can Obama go out with a straight face and saw it was Republicans who made this mess, when it is his key advisers who ran the agencies that made the big mess what it is?" says a Democrat House member who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "It's his people who are responsible for what may well be the single largest government bailout in history. And every single one of them made millions off the collapse that are lining Obama's campaign coffers. If the McCain campaign lets this one go, they deserve to lose."

McCain's ad a stretch? Maybe, but certainly based on media reports and it's disingenuous for the Obama campaign to call McCain a liar over this. If Obama and his people weren't smart enough to demand a correction if it weren't true until now they're dumber than a sack of rocks. They didn't cry foul until McCain made it an issue which is par for the course for Obama and now they're in full denial phase.

[excon]

Hello Gal:

Foxes and weasels?? Bwa, ha ha ha ha. You're talking small potatoes here.

Your buddy, the dufus in chief, just stole $7,000 from you, another $7,000 from your wife, plus another $7,000 from EACH of your children. He took THAT money and gave it to his friends who are running bankrupt business's.

That's a lotta bread. That's also, not very conservative.

You really don't want any more of THESE weasles guarding YOUR hen house, do you? Uhhhh, by the way, aren't these weasels REPUBLICAN weasels?? I think they are.

excon

[speechlesstx]

Phil Graham, McCain's friend and major adviser(remember him... Americans are whiners... )wrote much of the law that governs the markets... leaving a free wheeling Capitalism. We all know that freewheeling, unregulated Capitalism leads to booms and busts.

We are now facing a huge bust and we have to turn to SOCIALISM to try to save us.

Will Endless War be the Republican answer to America's bust?

Let's set the record straight on Phil Gramm's law that "destroyed" the financial system...

Democrats Blame Phil Gramm; Ignore 89 Other Senators, Including Joe Biden, Who Voted For Same Bill

The latest...

Democrats and their allies attempted to tie Wall Street's growing financial crisis to the policies advocated by John McCain's former senior adviser.

The critics are pointing to a 1999 law co-sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and that paved the way for consolidation between commercial and investment banks.

Which prompts one of my readers in the financial world to call "horsepuckey."

One can have many, many opinions on Gramm-Leach-Bliley, but to blame it for our current problems is a stretch in and of itself. That's a bit like blaming drunk driving deaths on the repeal of Prohibition. But then to blame Gramm solely for the contents of the bill is ludicrous. Even if it had language in it that said "initiate banking self-destruct sequence in 2008," anyone who knows anything about our legislative process knows that there were 534 other congressmen and women who can alter, add and delete a bill during the process. After that, the President could have rejected the whole thing, but didn't. Phil Gramm did not dream up that act in his basement one night. (In fact, studies on repealing Depression era banking laws had been happening for years. I'm no economics historian, but I believe it was a cottage industry amongst economists and academics at one point in the 80's.)

Don't get me wrong, Phil Gramm was instrumental in getting the bill passed, but the bill passed the Senate 90 to 8. (And only one senator registered as not voting. Any guesses on who the non-voter was? You got it: John McCain!) It passed the House 362 to 57. This was not a squeaker by any stretch. Then it was signed by Bill Clinton. He could have vetoed it, and even threatened to do so, but insisted on language being included in the bill that ensured application of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to the financial institutions that were basically created by the law. (BTW - The deadlock on this amendment was broken by Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd looking out for Wall Street and insurance companies who stood to gain tremendously under the bill.) When he got his way, he signed the bill amidst much hoopla. In fact, looking back on the process, the biggest worry about the bill was in protecting consumer privacy. There was nary a discussion about undermining the banking infrastructure.

Many liberal bloggers tout Biden's opposition to Gramm-Leach-Bliley, a claim that is (surprise!) not quite accurate. He voted against the initial version that passed the Senate, but then voted for the conference report (the final version signed into law).

UPDATE: Two more points: first, from Campaign Spot's Much More Financially Savvy Cousin, the observation, "Gramm-Leach-Bliley, which eliminated the rules that separated commercial and investment banking, is now actually helping to save Merrill Lynch. Bank of America could not buy Merrill if GLB had not taken down the wall."

Second, the "Leach" in Gramm-Leach-Bliley - former Congressman Jim Leach - is one of the founders of "Republicans For Obama."

It's also curious that two of Obama's undisputed economic advisers, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, "were central to the passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley."

But then Democrats denying their role in a failure is nothing new.

[Choux]

The financial system is on the brink of bust.

That is proof of Republican malfeasance.