Thomas Sowell

The democrats are doing what they do best.  Threaten and humiliate to get their way.  They have been doing that to republicans for a long time now.

 

Thomas Sowell

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Death threats to executives at AIG, because of the bonuses they received, are one more sign of the utter degeneration of politics in our time.

Congressman Barney Frank has threatened to summon these executives before his committee and force them to reveal their home addresses— which would of course put their wives and children at the mercy of whatever kooks might want to literally take a shot at them.

Whatever the political or economic issues involved, this is not the way such issues should be resolved in America. We are not yet a banana republic, though that is the direction in which some of our politicians are taking us— especially those politicians who make a lot of noise about “compassion” and “social justice.”

What makes this all the more painfully ironic is that it is precisely those members of Congress who have had the most to do with creating the risks that led to the current economic crisis who are making the most noise against others, and summoning people before their committee to be browbeaten and humiliated on nationwide television.

No one pushed harder than Congressman Barney Frank to force banks and other financial institutions to reduce their mortgage lending standards, in order to meet government-set goals for more home ownership. Those lower mortgage lending standards are at the heart of the increased riskiness of the mortgage market and of the collapse of Wall Street securities based on those risky mortgages.

via Thomas Sowell.

Washington Times – Conyers suggests probe of ACORN

Wow!  Now lets’s see if they have the guts to do any probe.

Calls fraud charges ’serious’

S.A. Miller (Contact)
Friday, March 20, 2009

In an startling partisan shift, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. on Thursday proposed holding hearings on claims the liberal activist group ACORN engaged in a pattern of crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat and fierce partisan, suggested a congressional probe after scathing testimony about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) during a hearing on various voting issues related to the 2008 presidential election.

Mr. Conyers called the accusations “a pretty serious matter.”

“I think that it would be something that would be worth our time,” he said during Thursday’s hearing. “We’ve never had one person representing ACORN before the committee. … I think in all fairness we ought to really examine it.”

The testimony by Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh accused the nonprofit group of violating tax, campaign-finance and other laws by, among other things, sharing with the Barack Obama campaign a list of the Democrat’s maxed-out campaign donors so ACORN could use it to solicit them for a get-out-the-vote drive.

She also testified that the Democrat-allied group provided liberal causes with protest-for-hire services and coerced donations from targets of demonstrations through a shakedown it called the “muscle for the money” program.

Ms. Heidelbaugh, a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Lawyers Association, spearheaded an unsuccessful lawsuit last year seeking a court injunction in Pennsylvania against ACORN’s voter-registration drive for the 2008 presidential campaign. She appeared as a witness at the request of Republican committee members.

Mr. Conyers, who is known for his drive to continue investigating the Bush administration, previously defended ACORN. In October, he condemned an FBI voter fraud investigation targeting the group. He questioned whether it was politically motivated to hamper a voter-registration drive targeting groups likely to support Mr. Obama’s candidacy.

But Mr. Conyers’ shift was met by resistance from fellow Democrats on the committee, and it was unclear whether a hearing would be scheduled.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties that hosted Thursday’s hearing, suggested there was not enough “credible evidence” to warrant a hearing focused exclusively on ACORN.

via Washington Times – Conyers suggests probe of ACORN.

Biden takes Geithner joke to the bank, as Obama is busy defending him

BY James Gordon Meek

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Sunday, March 22nd 2009, 1:01 PM

Watson/Getty

Bad timing? Joe Biden takes a knock at Geithner, while Obama’s busy defending him.

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden took a tongue-in-cheek shot at Team Obama’s money man Saturday, joking that Tim Geithner coughs up cash “no questions asked.”

Biden’s quip at the white-tie press dinner hosted by the exclusive Gridiron Club came amid questions about the Treasury secretary’s involvement in legislation allowing AIG execs to pocket $165 million in bonuses from taxpayers’ bailout funds.

“I am the experienced veteran,” Biden said at the dinner, the Politico reported. Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel “can be an enforcer, and Tim Geithner is always there when you need to borrow money – “no questions asked.”

Obama was the first president since Grover Cleveland to skip the dinner, an annual opportunity for Beltway bigshots to lampoon each other.

“[Obama] can’t be here tonight, because he’s busy getting ready for Easter,” Biden said. Speaking in a whisper, he added, “He thinks it’s about him.”

In a dig at his powerful predecessor, Biden quipped, “You know how the outgoing president always leaves the incoming president a note in his desk? I opened my drawer and Dick Cheney had left me Barack Obama’s birth certificate.”

Biden also took jabs at himself and at his press hosts.

“I’m going to be brief. Talk about the ‘audacity of hope,’” the notoriously long-winded pol joked.

Turning to the suffering newspaper business, he disagreed with those who say they’re obsolete. “I recently got a puppy, and you can’t housebreak a puppy on the Internet,” Biden said.

via Biden takes Geithner joke to the bank, as Obama’s busy defending him.