Doin' the Barney Shuffle: Shuffling On Over to Sean Bielat

The Barney Funk Shuffle. See the story below the video.

The Barney Shuffle (video)

Thanks to Bobby at The Camp of the Saints!

The video is by Ladd Ehlinger, Jr. (New York Times), with Stacy McCain and DaTechGuy hanging out. The NYT actually had some very nice things to say about Sean Bielat, the former Marine who is attempting to send Congressman Barney Frank home to Massachusetts (along with his rude boyfriend). 

There's a great story, actually caught on video, of the dancing "Barney" in front of a green screen. You want to see it. The Other McCain has the story, and DaTechGuy has the green screen video.

Sean Bielat is vying for Frank's House seat for Massachusetts' District 4. There are many reasons to sack Barney. Chief among them? Frank is the prime instigator of the Housing Meltdown, and don't let anyone tell you differently without doing your own homework. 

Frank engineered a program known as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). He and a cohort, through the authority of Congress, forced lenders to make mortgages with no down payment, no credit checks, no jobs. If you wanted a house, you deserved it, and Barney, by God, would get one for you.

Vast numbers of homeowners were selling, and vast numbers of unqualified people were buying what they could not afford. Sellers were flying high...prices moved unrealistically upward - all across the Nation. Appraisals meant nothing. Thousands owned homes they could not afford, long before home prices soared. And then it all fell apart. New terminology filled the airwaves: The "SubPrime Mortgage Crises" was upon us. If your neighbor was in crisis with his mortgage, and you were not, sooner or later the value of your neighbor's home would plummet, taking your property with it.

See the crisis timeline here, and note that Republicans warned it was coming over and over, but Barney could not be convinced. He was making homes available in his high-priced market for anyone who wanted one, and don't you think he was ensuring a vote to send him back to Congress? Please watch the video if you are a Massachusetts voter, and if you are not, please watch the video and donate something to Sean Bielat's campaign. Politics are no longer local. Every vote Barney casts, affects my family and loved one in Oklahoma. The whole Barney story is sordid. Read it here.

Sean Bielat

Calling the powerful Barney Frank an "ethically-challenged liberal icon," Sarah Palin endorsed Sean today. The Bielat website lays-out his views. Please donate anything you can to the campaign here. It's easy to do by credit card. Takes only about 3 minutes. Be part of making history and bring sanity back to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

Shariah Finance - Jihad for Money: Video Transcript

I recently had a conversation with my brothers about Shariah Finance. I realized that I did not remember all that I knew about the subject, and it was time for a refresher. I went back to a previous post, the last half of which is about our U.S. Treasury supporting Shariah Compliant Finance, through the Harvard Law School's Project on Islamic Finance leadership. A part of that post included the video below, with the transcription of the video first.

Shariah Finance - Jihad for Money

This is such an important subject. I see one of my family member's investments held in an institution offering Shariah Financing, and one of the holdings is in a Shariah compliant fund shown below.

Here the video from ACT for America and a transcription: (note that the video seems to be from the period of the Bush TARP bill - late 2008)

Hi, I'm Joy Brighton. As a former Wall Street trader, investment professor, a Democrat, and an American concerned for my country and way of life, I'm here to break the silence and tell you about more greed and negligence on Wall Street and in Washington. While you and the government focuses on the subprime mortgage collapse, there is another financial crisis brewing. The same disastrous formula - Wall Street and their lawyers are focusing on profits and not enough on risk, and Washington is paying little attention to what is going on.

It's called Shariah Islamic Finance, the newest, fastest growing financial market in the world, and oh yes, Wall Street is on board bigtime. So you ask what is Shariah Finance? Though Wall Street is focused on the money side of Shariah Finance, Shariah Law is the reason this market exists; Shariah Islamic Law, comprised of rules like Muslim women are the property of men, "polygamy, forced child marriages, death to homosexuals and the obligation to wage holy war or jihad against infidels.

There are rules for infidels like you and me. Either we convert to Islam, pay a protection tax or we are killed. Who practices such inhumane law? The governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and radicals like the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda.

How did Shariah Finance become acceptable in the West? In the spirit of multiculturalism, political correctness, and greed gone way overboard, Wall Street has bought in to a multi-million dollar advertising campaign coming from the Middle East. We are being told that "quote, Muslims have religious banking requirements and if you create investments accord to Shariah Law, 1.2 billion Muslims, loaded with oil money, will beat a path to Wall Street. However, the majority of moderate Muslims worldwide, do not want anything to do with Shariah Law, or Shariah Finance.

Everyday Muslim leaders are warning about the dangers of Shariah Finance.

There is the Muslim Canadian Congress, American Islamic Forum for Democracy,  Muslims Against Shariah and many other Muslim moderates in the West, but no one is listening. You see, Shariah banking was created by Sheiks like al-Qaradawi, a terrorist banned from entering the U.S. and Britain. Yet as I speak, al-Qardawi says:

"I like to call it jihad with money because God has ordered us to fight our enemies with our lives and our money. ~ Sheik Yousuf al-Qardawi

The danger of Shariah Finance is not only that it is welcoming Shariah Law into our society, but a percentage of this money must go to Islamic charities. The problem is that since September 11th, twenty-seven Islamic charities have been identified by the U.S. government as funders of terrorism. Yes, America needs investment dollars, but are we willing to trade national security for it? There are ways to accept oil money into our economy, and protect our democracy without opening ourselves up to Shariah Law.

New evidence shows that al-Qaeda financed 9/11/01 attacks with funds received from Shariah Financing. Let me tell you what Wall Street is doing: First, they are marketing Shariah investment as the hot new product for all American pension funds insurance companies and corporations; Second, they are hiring religious sheiks to sit on advisory boards overseeing where and how to invest dollars to comply with Shariah Law. This is giving Muslim sheiks a seat of power at corporate headquarters all over America. In essence, Wall Street is welcoming Islamic Law into our banking system.

What is Wall Street not doing? First, Wall Street is not disclosing the connection between Shariah Law, the Taliban al-Qaeda and Iran. Second, Wall Street is not telling customers of the jihadi background of the Shariah experts they are hiring.

Many of your are customers of these financial institutions that are offering Shariah bonds, mutual funds, hedge funds, and insurance as legitimate and ethical.

AIG

Arcapita

BNP Paribas

Bank of America

Citicorp

Barclays Capital

BlackRock Shariah Finance

Dow Jones Index

Deutche Bank

Goldman Sachs

HSBC Amanah

JP Morgan Chase

Merrill Lynch

Millennium Finance Corp

Morgan Stanley Capital

Paulson and Company

S&P Family of Shariah Indexes

Shariah Capital

UBS United Bank of Switzerland

Wachovia

What is driving the Shariah banking craze? Money and lots of it. The Middle East takes in over $1 trillion a year in oil profits. This translates to billions of dollars lining the pockets of investment banks, law firms, insurance companies and consultants. Today lawyers and consulting firms are the key drivers of the Shariah banking craze. In fact, Harvard Law School just hosted their 8th Annual Islamic Banking Conference, where these firms learn that this market is very ethical and culturally important. 

My colleagues were there. No one explained what Shariah Law is, it's link to terrorism and human rights abuses. Harvard Law is even teaching the U.S. Treasury about the opportunity of Islamic banking. I've had hedge fund managers and advisers to sovereign (inaudible) and bank CEOs say "if I don't do this deal, someone else will.  Make it illegal and I'll stop doing it."

 Maybe this all sounds crazy, but no more crazy than September 11th would have sounded on September 10th. No more crazy than our government needing to bailout our economy to the tune of $700 billion and the disasters at Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers.

You must wonder: Isn't someone telling the government about this? Yes we have. Over the past year my colleagues have sat down with top officials at the Security and Exchange Commissions, US Treasury, Attorney Generals offices, aides to Pres Bush and CEOs of banks.

We have provided them with detailed documentation. The response from the Treasury Department:

"I don't know what Shariah Law is, but it can't possibly be what you say it is." 

Another senior Treasury official said:

"We are not responsible for disclosure or transparency." 

The SEC said:

 "Wall Street is disclosing. They are saying that these religious investments can't invest in alcohol or pork." 

So let me ask you, how would you react if your pension fund invested in an ethical, no alcohol mutual fund, and then you discover that there is a relationship between your investment and terrorists killing U.S. soldiers and civilians.

In my opinion, that is securities and consumer fraud. We are selling our soul and our security for money. We have no time to waste. We the people must rise up and stop this.

(The end of the video is about joining ACT for America's effort to stop Shariah Finance. ACT is an excellent and effective organization. Just follow the ACT link above)

End transcript.

Other Resources:
The Washington Times: Frank Gaffney: Treasury submits to Shariah

America Must Not Bail Out Sharia Finance (but we will) - Infidel Blogger's Alliance

Obama appoints Sharia Finance Specialist as White House Fellow

U.S. Interest in Shariah Finance Opens Dangerous Doors, Critics Say





ACT Shariah Law (video)

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Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

August Surprise - Vote Buying in Full Gear: Turn Your Upside Down Mortgage Debtless

Indications are strong that the Obama administration will order the flailing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive mortgages when a mortgage is more than the value of the property. The buying of votes never ends. Every election year, Conservatives speculate on the Democrat October Surprise. In this year of extreme heat in the northeastern states, it appears the heat index may soar if we have this August Surprise.

Fannie Mae - October Surprise

This "mainstream bailout" of forgiving the mortgage debt of 15 million mortgages - estimated at $800 billion, flies in the face of this report from the Wall Street Journal saying things are beginning to look better at Fannie Mae, which for the first time in three years, showed loans 90 days behind falling to 5.15% in May from 5.30% in April.

The move, if it happens, would be a stunning political and economic bombshell less than 100 days before a midterm election in which Democrats are currently expected to suffer massive, if not historic losses. The key date to watch is August 17 when the Treasury Department holds a much-hyped meeting on the future of Fannie and Freddie. A few key points:

1) Republican leaders believe this is going to happen since GOPers and Democratic moderates in the Senate are unwilling to spend more taxpayer money on more stimulus. But such a housing plan would allow the White House to sidestep congressional objections and show voters it is doing something tangible about an economy that seems to be weakening.

2) Wall Street banks are alerting their clients privately to this possibility...

3) Keep in mind the political and economic context. The nascent recovery is already running out of steam. Wall Street economists just downgraded the government’s second-quarter GDP estimate of 2.4 percent to around 1.7 percent. And as even Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is warning, the unemployment rate may well begin to rise back toward the politically toxic 10 percent level given such sluggish growth. Many in the White House thought the unemployment rate would be dropping sharply by this point in the recovery.

Here's some history on Fannie Mae from Bryon York at The National Review

Fannie Mae is the biggest single source of money for mortgages in the United States. From 1998 to 2004...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. 

In doing so, the report says, Raines and his team steered Fannie Mae far afield from its original mission, transforming it from a stable business into a risky one....

Fannie Mae is not just any private institution. It is congressionally chartered, meaning its existence is established in law, it does not have to pay state and local income taxes, and it is not subject to bankruptcy laws. It can borrow money at a lower rate than anyone else except the federal government itself. Given all that, there is a public perception that Fannie Mae is a rock-solid government institution. “There is an implied guarantee,” says Sen. John Sununu, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee who has sponsored legislation to reform Fannie Mae. “Investors think they are the next best thing to Treasuries.”

Read Tracking the Mess of Fannie and Freddie for their part in the housing, and subsequent financial meltdown.

What Obama "knows is absolutely true," is paying off home buyers will likely buy him more than a few votes in November 2010.

Glenn Beck on Big Brother, Barney, Chris, Fannie, Freddie Video

In this video Glenn Beck points out that all of our financial troubles stem from the house crises, as orchestrated by Barney Frank (D-Mass-4th), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Reminder: Senator Chris Dodd engineered the fatal financial reform bill. The entire video is good, but at about 8 minutes-in, it gets really serious. Between 8 min and 12 minutes is a must see. Beck is asking what we are all asking...or if you are not asking these questions, you should be. At 11 minutes in, you begin to see your future.

If you haven't seen the video, I hope you watch. It's important. Okay, the vid isn't working here. I'd deleted it, but you can view it at this link.

Peter DeFazio Tim Geithner: Michael Burgess Tim Geithner: Kevin Brady Tim Geithner:

Democrat Congressman Peter DeFazio (Oregon) told MSNBC that America needs a new economic team. Even Chuck Schumer says "the world economy is at stake"  Congressmen Kevin Brady (R-TX), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Michael Burgess (R-TX) actually spoke the minds of the American people. See video below.

 

Peter DeFazio

Rep. DeFazio appeared on The Edge and was asked:

Should he [Geithner] stay in his job, Congressman?

[DeFazio] No. We need a new economic team that cares more about jobs, Main Street and the American people, than it does about Wall Street and about huge bonuses.

Rep. Kevin Brady to Tim Geithner:

"for the sake of our jobs will you step down from your post?" "This is your budget, your bailout, your act."

Geitner's only answer was a haughty "I agree with almost nothing you said."

After Geithner blamed Bush for an "economy falling off the cliff, Brady asked:

Remind me Mr. Secretary, what post were you holding when President Bush left office?

Geithner: I was the president of the Federal Reserve in New York.

Rep. Michael Burgess:

I don't think you should be fired, I thought you should have never been hired.

Republicans, especially when appearing on C-SPAN, as they did here, should be talking about what brought the economy down, just a mere two months before the election. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters should be mentioned in every conversation about the economy. We should be relentless in pointing out that, without the housing bust, brought on by Frank, Dodd and Waters, the American people and Wall Street would not be in the middle of the struggle we have today. A reminder:

Barney Franks - recipient of $40,000 from Fannie Mae since 1989: Allegedly sleeping with head of Fannie Mae, Herb Moses, probably didn't have a thing to do with his complicity in the failure of housing. Right? Franks stood on the the floor of the House and railed against all Bush proposals to rein-in the wobbly companies.

Franks said the problems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "exaggerated, and five years later, the "problem" was estimated to be in the hundreds of billions.

Let's talk about Maxine Waters - not as guilty as Barney Frank...she is simply one foolish woman, but you can bet her constituents received the Community Reinvestment Loans, and you can bet some couldn't afford them, and you can bet that she was well aware of the situation. See Barney and Maxine here.

Maybe you haven't thought of the criminal actions of Mary Schapiro, appointed by President Bush, the former head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority who did not regulate, even when she had a whistleblower turning blue in the face from blowing the darn thing. What did Obama do, he promoted her - all the way to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chief. J.C., Obama promoted her!!! All that regulating she was paid very big money to exercise, was over the SEC. You can read more on this here, and see an excellent video about the obscenities committed by "oversight."

Senator Chris Dodd: The Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee postured and puffed...and he is the biggest recipient of campaign monies from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, (and the second largest recipient of AIG donations, not to mention his wife's AIG Board of Directors income.

At this moment, the Senate and the House are in the middle of a giant cover-up for Dodd, who raise a campaign buck in his own home town.

The Community Re-Investment Act - the legislation that allows those with no credit and no money to buy homes they cannot afford, has bankrupted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so Franks and Dodd just moved the program to the FHA. Coming up next: a bankrupt FHA.

When I think of Geithner stepping down, I have to ask who would follow him. This president and this administration have one goal. Break the country then control it for life. I applaud these men who spoke boldly: Reps. DeFazio, Brady, and Burgess.







 Kevin Brady and Tim Geithner


Related: Tracking the Mess of Fannie and Freddie

Barney Frank Fannie Mae Assets: Conservative Blog Central Caption Contest

Conservative Blog Central features a caption contest and the latest is hilarious. Forgottenliberty.com wins this one:

Fannie Mae Assets Seem Very Firm to Me

I really admire some of the captions I see around the web. It's always good for a laugh, and a reminder that these very serious conservatives can be spectacularly funny and creative. See also: Tracking the Mess of Fannie and Freddie

July Deficit Grew by $181 Billion: FHA, Fannie, Freddie Continue Irresponsible Track

The July federal budget deficit grew by $181 billion. Just in July. The cause: increased spending to save car companies, banks and mortgage firms, plus lowered tax revenue, this according to the CBO.

Spending through July of 2009 has increased by $530 billion, which is 21 percent over the same period in 2008. The bailout money for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae accounted for almost half of the spending increase. Unemployment benefits have more than doubled, Medicaid spending has grown by a quarter and Medicare spending has increased by 11 percent.

The deficit at the end of July 2009 reached $1.3 trillion. By the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2009, the deficit is expected to reach $1.8 trillion. On September 30, 2008 the deficit was a whopping $455 billion - an atrocious record high at that time.

Bush Deficit on Left - Obama Projected Deficit on Right

Along with the graphic above, The Heritage Foundation says that Obama's claim that his budget will cut the deficit by half by the end of his term isn't much to brag about because he he has already "helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package." Halving after quadrupling cannot claim to be sound economics. Note that the decreasing projected deficit begins to increase in 2013. We continue today, in August 2009, to promote irresponsible home loans backed by the U.S. government, as we did all through the time that Barack Obama sat in the U.S. Senate and supported his comrades, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters in the sham of providing sub-prime home loans for those who could not qualify. Blame who you want for the economic downturn, the truth is it was the legislation known as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to flood the country far and wide with loans for inflated real estate to people should have been renting. It continues now - the "government," the FHA, is still providing home loans to buyers with bad credit, no credit...

Herein lies the problem. The FHA’s standard insurance program today is notoriously lax. It backs low downpayment loans, to buyers who often have below-average to poor credit ratings, and with almost no oversight to protect against fraud. Sound familiar? This is called subprime lending—the same financial roulette that busted Fannie, Freddie and large mortgage houses like Countrywide Financial.

More from the Wall Street Journal:

Fannie Mae said it will need an additional $10.7 billion from the U.S. Treasury after it posted a $14.8 billion net loss in the second quarter, as rising unemployment led more prime borrowers to default on their loans.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asked Congress on Friday August 7th to lift the ceiling on U.S. debt to...whatever...no ceiling at all - saying that the ceiling of $12.1 trillion mandated by statute can be reached my mid-October 2009.

The latest request comes as the Treasury is ramping up borrowing to unprecedented levels to fund stimulus and financial bailout programs and cope with a deep recession that has devastated tax revenues.

It is expected to issue net new debt of as much as $2 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year ended September 30 and up to $1.6 trillion in the 2010 fiscal year, according to bond dealer forecasts.

See the U.S. National Debt in real time here, including government bailouts.

Take a look at how the big-spending President George W. Bush is dwarfed by the high-flying President Barack Obama.

Deficit graphic courtesy Washington Post and The Heritage Foundation

Financial Crisis Timeline: Republicans Warned of Economic Crisis

We've written about it, over and over and over. Here it is on video. Related: Tracking the Mess of Fannie and Freddie. Thank you to Do the Right Thing.

Video: The Financial Crisis: Watch It, Email It, Post It

Burning Down the House: What Caused Our Financial Crisis Thanks to reader midpointman for the link. Please watch to the end - it's important. Post this on your blog, post the link to forums and chat rooms, email it, blog about it. Let's continue to get the message out. Thanks to YouTube.com, The MouthPeace and target="_blank">rcpcindy

Breaking: FBI to Investigate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others

Let golden parachutes fold, Congress be dismantled and campaigns squirm. FBI Investigating Potential Fraud by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, AIG