Stories by California Yankee
Posted at 8:26pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Complaint Filed Over Obama’s Sweetheart Mortgage Deal
Obama's mortgage may have violated the law and Senate ethics rules
By California Yankee
The Hill reports complaints were filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Senate Ethics Committee against the Democrats' presidential candidate over Obama's Countrywide-like sweetheart mortgage deal he received from Northern Trust:
Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, filed the the complaints after The Washington Post reported that Obama received a discount on a mortgage for a Chicago home valued at $1.65 million:
The complaints said the Illinois senator received a loan at the interest rate of 5.625 percent, which Judicial Watch says is lower than the standard rate of between 5.93 and 6 percent indicated by surveys.
The complaint asks the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether the favorable rates constitute a prohibited “gift” under Senate rules.
“It appears that due to his position as a U.S. senator, Barack Obama received improper special treatment from Northern Trust resulting in an illicit ‘gift’ which has a value of almost $125,000 in interest savings,” wrote Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton in a letter to the Ethics Committee.
The complaint also notes that Northern Trust employees have given $71,000 in donations to Obama’s campaigns.
As noted in the complaints, Northern Trust has supported Barack Obama's political campaigns for elected office since 1990. In addition to the $71,000 Northern Trust employees have donated to Obama, the Northern Trust political action committee gave $1,250 to Senator Obama's 2004 campaign for the United States Senate.
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Countrywide | Ethics | mortgage — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:24pm on Jul. 8, 2008 Record Complicates Obama's "Shift" To Center
By California Yankee
UPDATED
After running a primary campaign from the far left, Obama is now trying to shift right toward the center.
Obama is impeded in this shift by his extreme left wing positions and the voting record that earned him the tittle of the most liberal senator in 2007.
According to Bloomberg:
In recent weeks, Obama said he supports gun-ownership rights, backs legislation giving immunity to telephone companies that participated in an anti-terrorism surveillance program and would consider cutting corporate taxes. On July 3, he said he would ``continue to refine my policies'' on the Iraq War.Obama built his candidacy on the support of his party's liberal base, which favors restrictions on guns and wiretapping, raising taxes for companies, and pulling U.S. forces from Iraq. As an Illinois state legislator, he voted against a law carving out self-defense exceptions to local handgun bans; as a U.S. senator, he opposed business tax cuts and extending warrantless eavesdropping, and backed tougher gun laws. On Iraq, he has long focused on ending the war and withdrawing troops.
Obama denies that he trying to shift his extreme left wing positions toward the center:
"I get tagged as being on the left and when I simply describe what have been my positions consistently, then suddenly people act surprised," Obama told reporters in Ohio on July 1. There haven't "been substantial shifts," he said.
Read on, there is more.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Budget | Center | Shift | taxes — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:12am on Jul. 7, 2008 Economists Support McCain Economics
By California Yankee
Three hundred economists support John McCain's economic plan:
Economists' Statement on John McCain's Jobs for America Economic Plan
We enthusiastically support John McCain's economic plan. It is a comprehensive, pro-growth, reform agenda. The reform focuses on the real economic problems Americans face today and will face in the future. And it builds on the core economic principles that have made America great.
His plan would control government spending by vetoing every bill with earmarks, implementing a constitutionally valid line-item veto, pausing non-military discretionary government spending programs for one year to stop their explosive growth and place accountability on federal government agencies.
His plan would keep taxes from rising, because higher tax rates are exactly the wrong policy to restore economic growth, especially at this time.
Read on.
Posted in 2008 | Economics | John McCain — Comments (54)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:42am on Jul. 2, 2008 Obama's Countrywide-like Sweetheart Mortgage Deal
Obama's Judgment Fails Again
By California Yankee
Shortly after being sworn in as a U.S. Senator in January 2005, Obama bought a Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. Obama bought the house for $300,000 less than the asking price of $1.95
million.
The Obamas' income had just risen dramatically. As a U.S. Senator, Obama got an annual salary of $162,100, Random House agreed to reissue an Obama memoir as part of a $2.27 book million deal, and the University of Chicago Hospitals promoted Michelle Obama and more than doubled her pay, to $317,000.
To finance his new mansion, Obama secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. Obama received a discount on the loan:
He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.
So who cares? Perhaps you should. Read on, there is more.
Posted in 2008 | Obama — Comments (33)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:26pm on Jun. 28, 2008 Obama And Hillary: A False Unity
Obama still has a problem with Democrat deserters
By California Yankee
During the primary fight, before the Rules Committee handed the nomination to Obama, poll after poll found that a significant number of Democrats would vote for Senator McCain in November if Obama was the nominee.
The Hillary/Obama Unity charade didn't seem to do much to change Obama's deserter problem:
Obama still has a problem with Democrat deserters. Report after report about the Hillary/Obama Unity charade details a continued lack of unity within the Democrats' ranks:
Miller wasn't buying Clinton's plea for unity in Unity. “Obama is a fraud, and I'm going to vote for John McCain, the first time I've ever voted for a Republican.” She told me “the Democratic Party is a house divided. It's not over" and that she wouldn't rest until "Hillary and Hillary's supporters have their voices heard.” (Portsmouth Herald, June 28, 2008)
“I don't believe he's the right person for the job,” said Thomas, 49, of Merrimack, N.H., who showed up at yesterday's event wearing a Clinton campaign button. “Even in this speech it's promises, promises, promises. Realistically, how does he think he’s going to make all these changes?” (Valley News, June 28, 2008)
Read on, there is more.
Posted in Archived — Comments (19)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:35pm on Jun. 27, 2008 Obama's Gun Obfuscation
Obama Sraddles On
By California Yankee
Yesterday, reporting on reactions to the Supreme Court's decision striking down the D.C. gun ban, the Associated Press headlined "McCain backs gun decision, Obama straddles issue."
Here's video of Obama straddling the issue:
Just before the Supreme Courts decision was public, Obama disavowed his "inartful" statement calling the D.C. gun laws constitutional.
Wait. There's more.
Posted in 2008 | Guns | Obama | Supreme Court — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:17am on Jun. 26, 2008 Obama Should Confront His Muslim Issue Head On
It Shouldn't Matter If Obama Was Muslim
By California Yankee
Hardly a day goes by when you don't see some reference to it -- the "smear" that Obama is a Muslim. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal posed the question, "It is inaccurate to call Barack Obama a Muslim. Is it a slur? On Tuesday, the New York Times headlined an article "Muslim Voters Detect a Snub From Obama." Wednesday, Ed Morrissey asked, "Obama running from Muslims?" Even the broadcast media interviews Mulsims about the issue.
I'll get back to those articles in a bit. First, I call on Obama to face his Muslim issue head on. Nothing else will make this "smear" rumor go away.
Like Romney did with the Mormon issue, and Obama himself did with the race issue, Obama must deal with these rumors head on. Obama should give a speech, in which he repeats that he is not Muslim, and goes on to explain why but it should be fine with Americans if Obama were Muslim.
Before the Obamatons launch the hate mail, let me say that I was raised to respect others and was taught that I should strive, like God, to be "no respecter of persons." I've always tried to do that. It does not matter to me what a person's religious beliefs are. What is important to me is that our leaders have some religious belief. And I am comforted by the recent Pew findings that most Americans agree with the statement that many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life.
In the 20 or so months since Obama caved and broke his word that he would not run for president in 2008, he has been unable to dispel the "smear" that he is Muslim.
Read on, there is much more.
Posted in 2008 | Muslim | Obama — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:42am on Jun. 25, 2008 Obama's Padding
Padding A Resume Is Lying
By California Yankee
Padding A Resume Is Lying.
Obama has spent about $75 million on about 140,000 airings of ads so far. So of course last week he found it necessary to launch a new ad to introduce himself:
About 46 seconds into the ad, we are told that Obama “passed laws” that “extended healthcare for wounded troops who’d been neglected,” and in the usual manner of these political commercials we are given a little citation at the bottom.The citation reads “Public Law 110-181 1/28/08”. That law is the only federal legislation cited in the ad — the other two items mentioned were from the Illinois legislature and referred to other issues raised in the ad.
The problem is Senator Obama never voted for that legislation. Public Law 110-181 is part of the defense authorization bill which passed the Senate in January by a vote of 91 to three with six senators not voting. Obama was one of those six absent senators.
Some in the media overcame Obamamania and highlighted Obama’s false ad claims [Read on, there is more]:
Posted in 2008 | Obama — Comments (16)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:51am on Jun. 25, 2008 Breaking His Word - Change That Works For Him
Don't tell us words don't matter
By California Yankee
McCain's presidential campaign released a new web video, called "Words."
The new video focuses on Obama's broken commitments to accept public financing.
Posted in 2008 | Obama — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:08pm on Jun. 24, 2008 Obama Gets The Communists
By California Yankee
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
It's one thing when Obama, the Democrats' standard bearer to be, is identified as the most liberal senator. It is something else, something quite extreme, when Obama is recognized as the darling of the Communist Party USA.
That's right, Joelle Fishman -- chair of the Communist Party USA Political Action Commission and the Connecticut Communist Party -- backs Obama.
Perhaps it is no surprise. After all, except for public financing of campaigns, Obama's positions are very similar to those of the Communist Party USA:
Among the points in the party's "Immediate Program" are a $12/hour minimum wage; for all workers, universal health care, and opposition to privatization of Social Security; economic measures such as increased taxes on "the rich and corporations," strong regulation of the financial industry, "regulation and public ownership of utilities," and increased federal aid to cities and states; opposition to the Iraq War and other military interventions; opposition to free trade treaties such as NAFTA; nuclear disarmament and a reduced military budget; various civil rights provisions; campaign finance reform including public financing of campaigns; and election law reform, including Instant Runoff Voting
This may not be a shock to the few who bother to do appropriate due diligence on Obama. Nevertheless, it is too much out of the mainstream -- too much progressivism liberalism socialism -- for me.