Patch_W_Adams's St Louis Blog

Obama sought HUD grant for donor's project

Letter to Bush ghostwritten by development consultant

Jim McElhatton (Contact)
Monday, October 6, 2008

EXCLUSIVE:

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images In a speech in Reno, Nev., Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama blamed the financial crisis on a "failed philosophy - a philosophy that we cannot afford to continue."

Sen. Barack Obama, who vows to change Washington by trimming wasteful spending and disclosing special-interest requests, wrote the Bush administration last year to seek a multimillion-dollar federal grant for a Chicago housing project that is behind schedule and whose development team includes a longtime political supporter.

Mr. Obama's letter, however, was never disclosed publicly. In fact, the letter was ghostwritten for him by a consultant for the Chicago Housing Authority, which wanted the money - a practice ethics watchdogs have frequently criticized.

The housing project through July had completed fewer than one-sixth of the 439 public housing units it had planned, court records show.

The Bush administration obliged Mr. Obama's request, awarding a $20 million competitive grant last month from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It called the project a “shining example” of urban revitalization. The Washington Times learned of the letter from Republican operatives.

As Mr. Obama campaigns for president as an agent of change who promises to clean up Washington's money game, his role in the Stateway project raises questions about the appearance of a conflict of interest and whether he has been participating in the very system he criticizes, watchdogs say.

• Explore different election-night scenarios with our 'Road to 270' interactive electoral college map

“It's not just Senator Obama; it's endemic to Capitol Hill. It's a broad issue, where lawmakers are just simply rubber-stamping something through,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, referring to the practice of consultants writing funding requests for lawmakers.

To Read The Whole Article Go To :

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/06/oba
ma-sought-hud-grant-for-donors-project/

ACORN Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation

 ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters has been raided by Nevada authorities looking for evidence of voter fraud. 

FOXNews.com

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

An investigator enters the ACORN office in Las Vegas Tuesday, as part of a voter fraud raid. (AP Photo)

Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud. 

Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state's office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about "erroneous" registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN. 

The group was submitting the information through a voter sign-up drive known as Project Vote. 

"Some of them used nonexistent names, some of them used false addresses and some of them were duplicates of previously filed applications," Walsh said, describing the complaints, which largely came from the registrar in Clark County, Nev. 

Secretary of State Ross Miller said the fraudulent registrations included  forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team. 

"Tony Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada, and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4," Miller said.

To Read the Whole Article Go To:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/07/acorn-vegas
-office-raided-voter-fraud-investigation/

Did Biden Get It Wrong? You Betcha

Monday, October 06, 2008

By John R. Lott, Jr.

When you interview for a job, here is a hint: make sure you know what the job is. Joe Biden failed that test last Thursday. He couldn’t even get right what a vice president does, but the media didn’t notice.

The media is all over itself about how smart and experienced Biden is. Political analyst Charlie Cook is quoted in the Washington Post on Saturday as saying “Biden is clearly so much more knowledgeable, by a factor of about a million.” Saturday Night Live does a skit about Biden being smart, if slimy. Meanwhile, Governor Sarah Palin is treated as being nothing more than a simpleton.

Yet, take Biden’s statement from the debate on the role of the vice president:

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

One should be careful when throwing around terms such as “most dangerous” and “bizarre.” But Biden is confusing which part of the Constitution covers the Executive Branch (it is Article II, not Article I). More importantly, the notion that the vice president can preside over the Senate only when there is a tie vote is simply wrong. Nor is it true that the only legislative involvement the vice president has is to break tie votes. The vice president is the president of the Senate, where he interprets the rules and can only be overridden by a vote of 60 senators.

Early vice presidents spent a lot of time in the Senate. Thomas Jefferson even spent his time writing “A Manual of Parliamentary Practice: for the Use of the Senate of the United States.” Modern vice presidents may show up only when they think tie votes will occur, but that is their choice.

This isn’t rocket science. The Constitution on this point is very straightforward: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.”

Instead, it was Palin who got it right. Besides correctly stating that the vice president holds positions in both the executive and legislative branches, she also noted that:

Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and [I] will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chooses to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.

But just as the vice president’s job includes more than simply being ready to assume the presidency if the president dies, the Constitution merely states what the vice president’s minimum responsibilities are.

To Read the Whole Article Go To:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,433314,00.html

Friday, October 03, 2008

By Bill Sammon

WASHINGTON —  Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

"It’s absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

"If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard."

A top GOP House aide agreed.

"C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws."

Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

To read the Rest of the Article Go To:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html

By JEANE MacINTOSH

Last updated: 10:27 am
October 7, 2008
Posted: 9:34 pm
October 6, 2008

CLEVELAND - Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.

The huge effort by a pro-Obama group, Vote Today Ohio, takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency.

Republicans have argued that the window could lead to widespread voter fraud because officials wouldn't have an opportunity to verify registration information before ballots were cast.

Among the volunteers were Yori Stadlin and Vivian Lehrer of the Upper West Side, who got married last week and decided to spend their honeymoon shepherding voters to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Early today, Stadlin's van picked up William Woods, 59, at the soup kitchen of the Bishop Cosgrove Center.

"I never voted before," Woods said, because of a felony conviction that previously barred him from the polls. "Without this service, I would have had no way to get here."

To read the Comments Go to :

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10062008/news/nationaln
ews/homeless_driven_to_vote_obama_132395.htm

I said to my wife,  I am sooooo sick of Politicians and their Corrupt Bull and lack of Representation of the people ...that I wanted to march on Washington....

I would love to grab my Don't Tread on me Flag...and March from St. Louis to Washington...I have had enough...

But can 1 Man make a difference??? 

Would it really matter?    Would I March on Washington Alone?

We have come to another Crossroads in Our Country.   What Path we choose will effect not only yourself, but future generations, even the world.

The current events of the Bailout Bill should prove to every Person, not in a Coma, that the Politiicans Do Not Listen to the People they are supposed to represent.  The fact that Both Presidental Canidates voted for this Bill speaks Volumes.    None of them understood it, they just wanted to do something...for the sake of doing someting.....Our Freedom and Liberty are now at stake to a Degree that Few realize. 

The system is Broken, since those sworn to uphold and defend, have ignored and destroyed the Constitution.   They have failed to do their Duties in Representing the People in their Districts and have used the Idea's of Freedom and Liberty for a Doormat.  They have committed a Sin in the Eyes of the Constitution, Legislation..without Representation!   It is bad enough that the people in Washington spend OUR money like it was a Game of monoploy...but to Ignore the Cries and Shouts of the Same People whom They are suppsoeed to Represent...IS UNFORGIVABLE!    THEY HAVE DOOMED US TO FAILURE.   They have Destroyed the Foundation of THIS GREAT COUNTRY!  It is not just One Party...But Both that carry the Blame, Both that have Destroyed OUR Constitution and  the Ideals of Freedom and Liberty!  Both that have told the American People....That WASHINGTON KNOWS BETTER!   They have Spit in the Eye of All of those that have Fought for Freedom and Liberty . They have thumbed their Collective Noses at the Founding Fathers!   THERE IS NO CHANGE RUNNING FOR PRESIDEN!!!!!   Just POLITICIANS!   

Those that Love this Country and the Ideals that it was Founded Upon have a Hard Decision to Make.   Those of Us that Can Not Stand By and watch as Our Country is Destroyed by Those supposed to protect it!

One Road, leads to the Destuction of the Constitution  as to be replaced by Socialism if not Communism.  The other Path, Freedom and Liberty for all....not just the Politicians.....

But the Path to Freedom and Liberty is the Harder of the two, it requires Sacrafice and Hardship, while the other just requires us to fall into a lulled sense of Hoplessness.

Who will Fight?  Who Will say ENOUGH?!?   Who will stand to be the Guardian of the Light of Liberty????

I know not what path Others May Choose......

As For Me.........

Yesterday I had an interesting phone call, no it was not the one at 3 a.m.    It was from a Friend of mine and the First thing out of his mouth was,

"This is how it Dies...."  

 I was a little taken aback and blurted out...,"Who Died?"  

"Not Who, What......This is how Freedom dies and Socialism happens."

Now my Friend grew up in Communist Yugoslavia and he and I have had many debates on Socialism, Communism and Freedom.   He has told me his story many times how Tito's Communist Government after WWII came and took his Grandfather's Farm and divided it up.  They were left with one room in their house while other families lived in the others.   He is the one that told me Communism is a Pipe Dream and Socialism is really Communsim in Practice.   

He went on to say," Change comes packaged as something needed, something we can't do without.   And it comes fast so people don't have time to think.   Almost Overnight......When you go to sleep, you have a "free" Market and when you awake it's run by the Government."

My Response to Him was, " Now you know how the Colonists Felt 5 years before the Revolution. The Crown and Parlament stopped listening to the Colonists and Dictated Policy while stripping their Freedoms.  Taxation without representation"

He Replied, " There won't be a Revolution...."

"Funny,"   I chuckled,"  The King of England thought the same...thing.."

Senate Passes 'Sweetened' Economic Bailout Bill in Hopes of House Support

Obama, McCain Depart Presidential Campaign Trail for Economic Crisis

By JAKE TAPPER

Oct. 2, 2008

Now that the Senate has overwhelmingly approved the $700 billion Wall Street bailout -- fattened with "sweeteners " into an $800 billion bailout -- Congressional leaders are "cautiously optimistic" that the House won't reject it for a second time this week.

The economic rescue plan breezed through the Senate Wednesday night on a 75-24 vote, a move that was intended to put pressure on the House to also approve the measure. House rejection of an earlier version triggered a told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that they are "cautiously optimistic" that the bill will pass. The White House said that Bush has made two dozen phone calls to House members who had initially voted no and pursuaded several of them to switch their votes to yes, Stephanopoulos said.

 A second rejection of the bill was "unthinkable," according to congressional leaders.

The House will be voting on a bill packed with $100 billion worth of extra incentives than Monday's proposal had.

Some of those additions have been assailed by spending watchdogs as "pork," like the $6 million for the makers of kids' wooden arrows, according to a summary of the bill released by the Senate Finance Committee.

Other goodies intended to attract the votes of individual members of Congress include $192 million for the rum producers of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, $128 million for car racing tracks, $33 million for corporations operating in American Samoa, and $10 million for small film and television productions.

The bill also now includes an extension of numerous tax breaks for research and development and renewable energy companies, as well as personal tax breaks for college tuition and disaster victims.

It proposes adjusting the Alternative Minimum Tax, so it doesn't hit more than 20 million middle class Americans in 2009.

Another key modification is a one-year increase in the limits of personal bank savings the government insures up to $250,000.

With the additions, the bill could achieve its goal of appealing to the 133 disapproving House Republicans. Rep. John Shaddeg, R-Ariz., who voted against the bill Monday, has changed his mind.

"At this point, I am assuming they don't change it, strongly leaning towards voting for it," Shaddeg said.

Nevertheless, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, told "Good Morning America" that she will still vote "no," calling it "the wrong medicine."

"I think that the worst part is, this is adding over $1 trillion to our deficit," Kaptur said. She believes the crisis can be handled without saddling the voters with Wall Street's debts.

To Read the Whole Article Go T o:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Business/story?id=59
31648&page=1

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

By Robert Roy Britt

If you've never heard of the exciting field of synthetic biology, you're not alone, but you might want to get wise to the field's controversial promise to create life from scratch.

About two-thirds of U.S. residents are clueless as well, having never heard of synthetic biology.

Only 2 percent in a new telephone survey of 1,003 adults said they have heard a lot about the work, which crosses biology with technology and promises to create forms of life that Nature never thought of.

Synthetic biologists engineer and build or redesign living organisms, such as bacteria, to carry out specific functions.

The field is a scientific playground for the genetic code, where previously nonexistent DNA is formulated in test tubes.

By taking genetic engineering to the extreme, synthetic biologists aim to make life in the lab.

The promise is that the novel organisms will fight disease, create alternative fuels or build living computers.

"We face daunting problems of climate change, energy, health, and water resources," a group of 17 leading scientists in the field stated last year. "Synthetic biology offers solutions to these issues: microorganisms that convert plant matter to fuels or that synthesize new drugs or target and destroy rogue cells in the body."

Now you know.

But why should you care?

For one, the field "is potentially controversial because it raises issues of ownership, misuse, unintended consequences and accidental release," according to a report earlier this year commissioned by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in England.

In a nutshell, some fear microscopic lab freaks might escape and wreak havoc.

To Read the Whole Article Go To:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,431401,00.html

Foreign economists urge 'global plan'

Nicholas Kralev
Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Leaders and economists from Western Europe to East Asia Tuesday urged the United States to go beyond reviving a failed domestic bailout and start working on a new global financial system.

Associated Press Traders at MICEX, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, watch and wait during a tense session in Moscow on Tuesday when stock indexes sank despite a two-hour trading halt.

"The Americans don't have a choice — they must absolutely have a global plan," Christian Noyer, head of the French central bank, said in Paris.

David Smick, a global strategist and author of "The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers of the Global Economy," said the next U.S. president should immediately call for a second "Bretton Woods" conference to devise a new doctrine of international finance.

The tiny New Hampshire town hosted a conference shortly after World War II that established rules for economic interchange among the world's industrial powers and created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"I am convinced that the sickness runs deep and that we need to rethink the entire financial and monetary system, as we did in Bretton Woods ... to create the tools for worldwide regulation made necessary by the globalization of trade," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in the French city of Toulon on Monday.

He said that officials from France, Britain, Germany and Italy will meet next week in Paris with the Continent's top financial officials to prepare for a proposed global summit on the economic crisis. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will participate.

The 27-nation European Union said Tuesday that the crisis "has become a global problem" and Washington has a "special responsibility" to resolve it.

To Read the Whole Article Got To:

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/foreign-e
conomists-prod-us-on-global-plan/

Failed firms gave big to both parties

Both McCain and Obama, industry critics, got donations

Jim McElhatton and Jennifer Haberkorn
Friday, September 19, 2008

Before the government committed billions of taxpayer dollars to rescue troubled corporate giants, executives at those firms were directing millions of dollars in lobbying efforts and campaign donations to the very politicians who now blame Wall Street's excesses and greed for America's financial crisis.

The corporate largesse flowed to members of Congress, the political parties, the nominating conventions and the two presidential candidates through the summer, even as many of the companies and their executives were teetering toward collapse.

An analysis by The Washington Times found that both parties cashed in heartily, with Democrats slightly more likely to benefit.

For instance, executives of four companies bailed out by the government — American International Group, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns — donated nearly $2 million to politicians, political action committees and political parties since last year, including nearly $369,000 to the major presidential candidates, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CPR).

They also spent more than $7 million on lobbyists, Senate records show.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama received $226,611 from employees of the failed companies, compared with $142,575 to Republican Sen. John McCain, the campaign reports showed.

To Read the Whole Article Go To:

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/19/failed-fi
rms-directed-millions-to-politicians/

EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds $99,000 for rent, utilities, accounting fees

Jennifer Haberkorn (Contact)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008

 EXCLUSIVE:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.

Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history.

To Read the Whole Article Go To :

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-p
ac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/

So No Bailout in the House....The People have Spoken....But of Course, Congress thinks it knows better.   So Now the Senate is having a Crack at it.   I have read the 110 Page House Bailout Bill, it sucks....It Creates a Whole New Department inside another Department of the Governemnt...along with a whole bunch of New Powers and with some "oversite"  from Congress...But who gives Oversite to Congress???   Us, Their Bosses....the one's they don't appear to be listening to...So how is that Oversite if there is No Oversite of the Overseers??

So far there has been a Huge amount of Money that has gone to International Banks and Institutions from Our Tax Money, without ANY Vote...where is the Oversite there?? 

They Want us to Print More Money so the Market can Keep doing what Got us in this mess to begin With....Are They Kidding???  At this rate of Printing Money, we will take No Time in Catching up to Zimbabwe and their Horrible Inflation Rate.....

We Don't Bail out Wall Street and things fail the Economy slows, but the Dollar isn't completly Worthless.  So rebuilding isn't impossible.  But the Thought of a Global Economy is Out the Window.   We will have to Rebuild OUR economy, but at least the Dollar will be there to do it....

We Bail Out Wall Street and the Global Banking System, it just compounds the Problems that Got us here and we cause Crazy Inflation as the Dollar becomes no Better than Toilet Paper...and the economy stalls and the Federal Government, that is already Broke....Fails.  The World decides it needs to base things on the Euro or some other New "World" Currency instead of the Dollar....and we are one step closer to One World Government.

During the Depression we were not in Debt, the Dollar was not tanking..it was a whole different scenario.   That is why this Depression era Bailout will not work now, like it might have back then.

Funny thing,  Last Time the Democrats agreed with Bush, we ended up in a War.....

What will we end up with....Now?

So the Bailout..Bombed..because common sense Citizens Flooded the Phones, e-mail and mailboxes of Congress.

So what I want to know is........if every Member of the House had their office flooded with calls screaming for NO BAILOUT...then who did 200 or so Reps vote for???

This has been seen time and again, Politicians deciding they know better, without telling us why they think they know better.    We elected these "People" to represent the point of View of the Citizens in their District.  But when the Citizens speak, all to often only a Few Listen...then even if they Listen, they don't follow through.......or like some are saying now...a Deal WILL go through...that means even though WE the Citizens DO NOT WANT ONE.   

So WHO is the BOSS of WHO???????