Pardon My Politics

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The Bush administration labels the$15 billion in the Neighborhood Stabilization Act of 2008 (HR 5818)—legislation to help stabilize hundreds of communities swamped by foreclosures across the country—as a bank “bailout.” Advocates of the funding in Congress and around the nation argue that the $15 billion is essential to keep communities from falling into blight, and to help millions of additional American families from losing all equity in their homes and then facing foreclosure.

What is the correct view? The questions and answers below should help clarify the issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 26% [?]

This applies to you, my real estate investing friend! And even if you’re not normally interested in politics, it’s urgent (to protect your own financial interests) that you take 60 seconds and read this article, because it will affect you profoundly.

“Capital gains taxes” are the taxes that you pay whenever you sell your real estate investment properties. Right now the capital gains tax rate is 15%. Obama has stated (and reaffirmed in a debate with Hillary Clinton a few days ago) that he wants to raise the rate to 28%. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 34% [?]

Noah Feldman, who helped advise the Iraqis, educates Stephen Colbert about the Iraqi Constitution. Feldman recently authored The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Democratic strategist and superdelegate Donna Brazile plans a late night rendezvous with Stephen Colbert to prove she is black.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Blood money stains the hands of more than 25% of members of the U.S. House and Senate

Who profits from the Iraq war? More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.

According to the latest reports, 151 members of Congress invested close to a quarter-billion in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the watchdog group OMBWatch. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 34% [?]

Congress can end one fit of idiocy promptly by making English the official language. The English Language Unity Act (HR997), sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and 145 co-sponsors, is pending and the House could act at any moment. It should act at this moment. Two Senate bills (SB 1335 and SB 2715 are also English-only measures.

Unless these measures are passed this year, the next president could act as silly as Bill Clinton. Clinton, you recall, ordered federal applications for welfare, medical care and other tax-payer-funded benefits to be printed, at great expense, in various languages. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 24% [?]

As part of their continuing campaign to keep John Sununu out of the U.S. Senate — an effort which failed in 2002, when then-Rep. Sununu (RN.H.) was first elected to “the world’s greatest deliberative body” — pro-Israel PACs bestowed a whopping $44,000 on would-be Democratic opponent Katrina Swett in 2007.

In case that name doesn’t ring a bell, Swett is the daughter of the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), who was one of Israel’s most ardent champions in the House. Her husband is former Rep. Dick Swett (D-N.H.), who, after two terms in the House and an unsuccessful Senate bid, managed to amass a respectable $95,500 in pro-Israel PAC contributions. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 28% [?]