Charles Rangel, Nincompoop

People get desperate when they're backed into a corner. Representative Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, knows about this situation. He is accustomed to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants, with no repercussions and no pushy reporters asking questions. So it is understandable that, after his pattern of lawlessness has become known (using a rent-controlled apartment in Harlem as a campaign office, using official stationery to solicit donations for an education center built in his honor, filing fraudulent Federal tax returns and failing to pay taxes on a rental property he owns in the Caribbean), he would lash out. The problem is that Charles Rangel made himself look like an absolute idiot in the process.

Mr. Rangel was being interviewed last weekend by WCBS TV Channel 2 in New York when he was asked about GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Since her nomination, Governor Palin has become wildly popular but has also become the target of vicious criticism from the American Left, and rather than attempt to debate her qualifications reasonably, Mr. Rangel dove for the gutter by describing her as "disabled." Here is the exchange:

CBS 2 HD: "Why are the Democrats so afraid of Palin and her popularity?"
Rangel: "You got to be kind to the disabled."
CBS 2 HD: "You got to be kind to the disabled?"
Rangel: "Yes."
CBS 2 HD: "She's disabled?"
Rangel: "There's no question about it politically. It's a nightmare to think that a person's foreign policy is based on their ability to look at Russia from where they live."

Mr. Rangel has since issued a statement "clarifying" his slur but even with the TV reporter trying to help him out, his instinct was to insult Governor Palin with the foulest terms. He knew, as we all do, that Governor Palin gave birth to a Down Syndrome child only last Spring, so to use this kind of crude language to demean her speaks volumes as to Mr. Rangel's desperation and his character. It also speaks volumes about liberals in general, that rather than debate the issues in a reasonable, adult manner, befitting the gravity of our times, they resort to mud wrestling. If this is the sort of leadership the citizens of Harlem and the Bronx expect from Mr. Rangel, then they should be humiliated, and if I were Todd Palin, I'd punch Charles Rangel in the mouth.



Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/18/rangel-ethics-woes-take-scandal-spotlight-off-gop/



Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iPOYv8qrqUwMbJfQ487S2_dSyHLwD93A6OC80

Paving the Road to Hell

President Bush's announcement Saturday morning of a new massive Federal agency that will buy bad loans from financial institutions in an attempt to stabilize the United States economy is the latest sad episode in our national soap opera, General Insanity. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson estimates that it will cost the U.S. taxpayer about $700 billion to sort out this mess, which averages about $2333 for every man, woman and child in the United States over and above the trillions of debt we've already accumulated, or, since the bottom thirty percent of Americans pay no Federal income taxes at all (a dirty little secret that Senator Obama and his liberal colleagues don't like to advertise), about $3333 for every tax-paying American. If there's a better word than "staggering" to describe such a figure, someone please tell me.



The near-collapse of the financial market - Federal bailouts of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG, the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, frantic reorganization for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs - is of course tied to the struggling American housing market. Millions of people have either defaulted on their mortgages or are close to it, so that the institutions who own the mortgages or insured them are also threatened. So why are so many people in this financial distress, how did they get here? Because they were bad credit risks to begin with, and were approved for home loans that they couldn't afford. Bankruptcy, late payments, missed payments, heavy consumer debt, prior defaults, judgments, nothing seemed to completely disqualify this demographic for a mortgage, and if we multiply this scenario by two or three or ten million, we arrive at our current pathetic state. So then we ask the next question: Why would so many otherwise responsible institutions loan money in the trillions to people who wouldn't or couldn't pay it back? Because of that bulwark of social engineering, the United States Congress.



During the Clinton administration, those wonderful years of Whitewater, Travelgate, Elian Gonzalez and the stained blue cocktail dress, Congress got it in their collective heads that the American dream of owning your own home should not be reserved for those who could actually pay for it. The idea was that home owners make better citizens, which is a pretty traditional view, and if "underserved" people could somehow obtain a mortgage, helped by the Federal government, then they and America in general would profit. Look at this quote from the HUD website:



Voluntary Activities


The Fair Housing Act requires HUD to develop voluntary programs to achieve fair housing goals. For example, HUD's Voluntary Affirmative Marketing program is designed to engage the private sector, including builders, developers, lenders, and the real estate industry, in national and local efforts to improve housing choice. Voluntary efforts include local agreements to further fair housing, the establishment of citizen Community Housing Resource Boards (CHRB) to maximize communication among racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the real estate industry, in connection with enforcement of the agreements.



Source: http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/promotingfh.cfm



This means that the Federal government coerced banks to lend lots of money to people whom they knew would have a hard time paying it back. Congress didn't consider the disaster that would ensue if the scenario played itself out, as we face now, they didn't consider the cesspool of bankruptcy, foreclosure, the tens of thousands thrown out of work and the Everest of debt now heaped upon America: Congress just thought it was a good idea, and so here we are. So if you're looking for someone to blame for this train wreck, call (202) 225-0100 and ask for Nancy.

The Bullet Train to Hell

Last Thursday the 18th, the Episcopal Church ejected Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, from its ordained ministry. The House of Bishops voted 88-35 for Mr. Duncan's removal, which is a pretty clear majority, and this body has full authority to take such action, but what is remarkable about this situation is that Bishop Duncan was removed not for disobeying Scripture or some personal misdeeds but for his obedience to Scripture. Bishop Duncan has been a leading conservative dissident within the Episcopal Church over the past five years, a vocal and active opponent of its lurch to the Left and was advocating the alliance of the Diocese of Pittsburgh with a larger conservative movement with that denomination. Thursday's action, timed as it was before the Diocese's vote to split from the official Church, is viewed as a preemptive strike by the Episcopals' liberal leadership to prevent such a split.

Just as liberals have spent the past forty years trying to reinterpret the U.S. Constitution to find rights that don't exist (abortion) and to bury rights specifically and explicitly included (the right of individual citizens to own and carry firearms), liberals have spent the past 1900 years trying to reinterpret Scripture to justify conduct otherwise strictly prohibited. The Episcopal Church wants to recognize and perform gay marriages and to ordain gays into their active ministry, actions that clearly contravene the Bible, so rather than address the behavior itself, the Church "reinterprets" Holy Scripture to their advantage and suppresses dissent thereto. (Isn't it odd how Inquisition-like the liberals behave - the same liberals who find the Inquisition everywhere within conservative organizations - when people disagree with them?) Bishop Duncan is being punished for adhering to the Bible, not for departing from it; for preaching the Word, not liberal dogma; for obeying Christ, not his temporal superiors; and for worshipping the great and glorious King of Creation, not the false and corrupt god of "tolerance." Thus I applaud and salute Robert Duncan, formerly Bishop of Pittsburgh, and wish him well...he will fare much better and be rewarded more handsomely than those who rejected him.