Hillary possessed by strange spirits.

Spreading Democracy Everywhere

Ms. Clinton, candidate to be our leader, came out with a bold but supremely ironic plan to deal with the nation's housing mess.   She wants to make former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan in charge of the "foreclosure crisis."   That's simply mad.  She's lost it.

If she'd bother to read the New York Times or Washington Post, she would know that Greenspan was warned about subprime loans and the anger to the housing market.  She would have learned that Greenspan ignored those warnings from 2001 through his departure from the Fed.  

By 2004, Greenspan KNEW that there were going to be big problems in housing due to subprime lending, yet he announced that people should go out an get an Adjustable Rate Mortgage.  Considering that he made his reputation by being annoyingly cryptic about our money system, Greenspan was clear in 2004:

"American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage. To the degree that households are driven by fears of payment shocks but are willing to manage their own interest rate risks, the traditional fixed-rate mortgage may be an expensive method of financing a home." Understanding household debt obligations, Federal Reserve Board, Feb. 23,

He was right there pitching ARMs putting down 30 year fixed rate loans.  Why?  I don't know   But maybe the FBI has a clue.  They're investigating a "conspiracy" going right to the top involving subprime loans. 

But no, Hillary wants to make Greenspan Czar of foreclosures.  He is already - he started the movement.

From CBS News
Jan. 19, 2006
"Report:  Fraud Marred Iraq Elections"  But I'm forgetting something.  This from CBS two years ago, almost.  The elections in Iraq were "marred by fraud."  We controlled the country ergo we must have known, at least, or maybe we were the fraudsters.  This war started with Bush I, was continued by Clinton in the bombing and murderous embargo during his term, and then set aflame again by George W. Bush.  There were 1.3 million civilians killed by the Clinton supported food and supplies embargo and U.S. bombing from 1992-2000.  Then Bush policies resulted in a 1.2 million death total for Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops and many injuries. 

And with all that sacrifice, the White House crew couldn't even the election right.

From "Numerian" at The Agonist
The war against the New Deal has just won an Astounding Victory

"Is there anything the Republican Party loathes more than FDR and the New Deal? How many times have people like Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist vowed to dismantle the regulations, entitlement programs, and safety nets created by the New Deal? Time and again we've seen assaults on all aspects of FDR's legacy, including a Social Security "reform" effort in 2005 that might have succeeded if George Bush hadn't been hobbled by the Iraq War.

"Last month the Republicans had a great victory in their effort to undo the New Deal, by eliminating completely any distinction between commercial banks and investment banks, while at the same time giving investment banks unfettered access to the public treasury with none of the responsibilities or burdens placed on commercial banks. All of this was accomplished in the same way as 9/11 allowed the administration to claim unheralded executive powers - by using an "emergency" to justify a power grab perpetrated with no reference to you the taxpayer, or your representatives in Congress.

Snip

"We have learned two other surprising bits of information this week. The Fed has guaranteed $29 billion in losses that may be incurred by JP Morgan Chase in their purchase of Bear Stearns' assets, but the Treasury has issued very quietly a side letter to the Fed notifying them that they will be reimbursed by the Treasury for any such losses. Did anyone ask you - the taxpayer - for permission to use your tax dollars for this purpose? Of course not.  All of these revolutionary changes are being done without your consent or that of Congress.

"The second thing we have learned comes from Henry Paulson's proposal this week regarding reform of the regulatory system for financial firms. This "reform package" is dressed up to look like it is going to give the Fed much more power to regulate the investment banks, now that they have all the protections of commercial banks. But this is far from the truth. Paulson proposes to expand the Fed's franchise as to which financial firms it can look at, but at the same time - and this is very crucial - the Fed is to be stripped of its power to exercise day to day oversight. No more extensive examiner audits or regulatory directives for commercial banks or anyone else. Fed supervision will be like SEC supervision - regulatory light practices of the type that allowed the investment banks to balloon their balance sheets, ignore fundamental risks, reap obscene profits, and then raid the public treasury when things went wrong."

Read the entire article at "The Agonist"

This is what is was all about - all the sacrifice, all the dead and injured, all the money ... the minute the local security forces get a chance, they change sides.  Why wouldn't they, it's their country.  They can't be aligned with an occupying power.  This is simple stuff.  Just as simple as this.  We bombed Iraq from the end of Gulf War I through the start of Gulf War II.  Who in their right mind would expect the people of Iraq to welcome us with open arms.  The same uncritical press and lying politicians have seized on the line from the general in charge  that loads of Iraqis are joining the "security forces."  Well, that may be true but as soon as they get a chance or have a hard choice, they'll choose their own native faction over a collective identity forced on them by George W. Bush.

From the article:  "

Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.

His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.

Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Army's policy in southern Iraq. The military hoped that local forces would be able to combat extremists and allow the Army to withdraw gradually from the battle-scarred and untamed oil city that has fallen under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists, oil smugglers and petty tribal warlords. But if the British taught the police to shoot straight, they failed to instill a sense of unwavering loyalty to the State.

"We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw to their base," Abu Iman told The Times.