McCain's Role in the Mortgage Meltdown: Hit Him With Facts

[amborin]

all those folks in foreclosure.....

need to see how McCain helped create it:


see this The Nation article:

<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080922/scheer >

[amborin]

1. And....more Media Fraud and Skewing.....

from The Nation:

"Parts of the media are so obsessed with the "Palin bounce" that they're ignoring or mislabeling the very facts they claim to cite.

A case in point is this latest headline from Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, based on new battleground polling from Quinnipiac University: "Palin Boosts McCain in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania." Yet a closer look inside the polling shows that Obama has actually widened his lead in Ohio, from a one point advantage in August to a five point advantage now. So how exactly is Palin giving McCain a bounce in Ohio?! This is just sloppy journalism.

True, McCain has widened his lead in Florida and cut Obama's margin in Pennsylvania. But a more accurate headline might read: "McCain Opens Lead in Florida, While Obama Expands Margin in Ohio, Race Tightens in Pennsylvania."

And, by the way, if Obama wins Ohio and Pennsylvania and McCain wins Florida, Obama most likely wins the election. But of course Halperin doesn't tell you that. "

<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/359050/media_skews_obama_mccain_polling>

[amborin]

2. AND....why it was really NOT the SURGE.....

(gad, i wish O had not said the surge worked)

"The Secret Behind the Surge
Tom Hayden : Iraq War

Bob Woodward's new book on the Bush years in Iraq raises the possibility that extrajudicial killings--not the surge--were the biggest factor in reducing violence."

<http://www.thenation.com/>

[amborin]

3. And....GET the FACTS our about the TAX cuts....

"What's Your Obama Tax Cut?

posted by Peter Rothberg on 09/10/2008 @ 6:21pm



According to a recent Gallup poll, fifty-three percent of Americans expect their federal income taxes to increase if Barack Obama is elected president.

The truth: The Democratic candidate's plan would cut taxes for roughly 95 percent of American families, reports the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. How much would Obama save you? Check out ObamaTaxCut.com, a project of AlchemyToday.com, to use a nifty new tool that lets you calculate exactly what the Obama tax-cut would be worth to you."

<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/358663 >

[G_j]

4. a crucial argument for Obama: the top economic person near McCain...

as the architect of the housing disaster...

Gramm left his role as the top economic person near McCain ONLY after he made an embarrassing statement blaming the current economic downturn on "whiners," an awkward reference to the victims of his disastrous legislation.

[PA Democrat]

9. Phil Gramm who along with his wife Wendy are key architects of the deregulation of

trading of energy commodities (the Enron loophole).

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/051908Leopold.shtml

<snip>

Clearing the way for that California price gouging, Gramm, as a powerful Texas senator in 2000, slipped an Enron-backed provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms.

Then, over the next year, Enron – with Gramm’s wife Wendy serving on its board of directors – worked to create false electricity shortages in California, bilking consumers out of an estimated $40 billion.

<snip>

The “Enron loophole” also has become part of the debate over the soaring price of oil. Last week, a study sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, concluded that speculative futures markets were partly to blame for the surge in oil prices that have pushed gas at the pump toward $4 a gallon.

At a May 15 news conference, Levin said the skyrocketing price of oil is “not the result of supply and demand. Speculators have taken over most of the futures market."

[G_j]

5. oops dupe delete

[amborin]

6. dems have to get the word out to voters

voters may have short memories

[hughee99]

7. I'm not sure I'm looking at the right votes here,

but if I am, for the "Commodity Futures Modernization Act" referred to in the article, McCain ducked the vote, and Biden voted for it.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00354

For the "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act" referred to, McCain voted for it and Biden against in a vote that was strictly down party lines.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00105

[amborin]

8. okay

you did more research than i did

we better not use this then,

since the 'modernization' bill was the real culprit, i think

[hughee99]

10. I think they were both responsible...

but the first one without the second one wouldn't have made the problem as bad. In the end, IMHO, it really comes down to the banks themselves making suspect mortgages knowing they could just sell it to another company (or to investors as a commodity) to cover their risk.