Oy!: You'd think they would learn; perhaps not….

Think the Democrats will learn from their prior mistakes, and won’t make them again?

Perhaps not:

(Reuters) – Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said.

In March, Fannie Mae (FNM.N)(FNM.P) said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70 percent of the units have been sold, up from 51 percent, the paper said. Freddie Mac (FRE.P)(FRE.N) is due to implement similar policies next month, the paper said.

In a letter to the CEO’s of both companies, Representatives Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Anthony Weiner warned that a 70 percent sales threshold “may be too onerous” and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments, according to the paper.

The legislators asked the companies to “make appropriate adjustments” to their underwriting standards for condos, the paper added.

In an interview with the paper, Weiner said the rules have “had a real chill on the ability to get these condos sold,” at a time when prices of condos have fallen enough to attract potential buyers.

via Fannie, Freddie asked to relax condo loan rules: report | Reuters.

This is the same sort of stupidity that got us into the mess that we are in now. You would think that the Democrats in question would learn from their prior mistakes. So much for that idea. :roll:’

Of course, when you’re dealing with a party, that has been taken over by people, who are essentially Communist-lite in nature. What do you expect?

Is America turning Japanese?

This comes via Reason.tv:

Article mentioned in this video is Here

Cue the Music!

The Southern Avenger on "The Problem with Sotomayor"

Yeah, I know what I wrote here, But Jack does bring up some vary valid points.

How President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, will place identity politics and liberal ideology above the Constitution.

The Far Left is now realizing the awful truth about President Obama

I have said many times on this blog; in no way, shape, form or another that Obama would never change any polices of George W. Bush.

Well, outside of a few “window dressing” changes; nothing has changed at all.

Here’s proof: ( H/T to Freedom’s Phoenix)

I don’t agree with all of her positions. But I humbly submit this as proof that I was correct and as state’s Evidence of my vindication. I also present this as a humorous view at the utter breakdown of the left, as their personal black progressive Messiah lets them down from the election induced stupor.

It is truly a site to behold. Nerd

The Southern Avenger says "Just Say No" to Government

When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was attacked by Republican state leaders for not accepting federal stimulus dollars, it was worth pointing out the utter uselessness of GOP politicians who refuse to follow through on their conservative rhetoric.

Terrorist plot to blow up Jewish Synagogues in the Bronx thwarted

This news broke last night, but I was not in any mood to write about it.

Video Report, showing NY’s Mayor Bloomberg:

Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.

The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said. But the men did not know the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.

The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.

“This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor was expected to appear at 6:45 a.m. Thursday at the Riverdale Jewish Center morning services, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The charges against the four men represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.

Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt, the senior rabbi at the Riverdale Jewish Center, a modern Orthodox congregation, said the police informed him on Wednesday evening that his synagogue was a target of the plot, as well as the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue that is a short distance away, on Independence Avenue. The two buildings are about six blocks apart, each with a brick facade. Outside the synagogues on Wednesday night, the streets were eerily quiet.

Rabbi Rosenblatt said in a phone interview that he took the news with “shock, surprise — a sense of disbelief that something which is supposed to belong to the world of front pages and the evening news had invaded the quiet world of our synagogue.”

via 4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues – NYTimes.com.

Of course, the Neo-Conservative Blogs are all over this one. A couple of things to point out:

  1. There’s no proof at all, that these guys were connected to any sort of formal terrorist group
  2. They never were able to obtain any sort of real weapons

So, what we have here is a group of wanna-be’s who got caught. This is what, the second time? The first was the much hyped Fort Dix plot; which turned out to be a great deal of nothing. I am sure that the Conservative media and blogs are going to hype this for all it is worth. The liberal-controlled media; hopefully, will take a more reasoned approach to the situation and report the facts, and shy away from the hype.

Do not misunderstand me here. I personally believe that the war on terrorism, as George W. Bush rightfully called it, is quite real. However, I have a hard time believing that this group of bumbling idiots were a part of it formally. If anything, these guys were a group of morons who could not even make a pipe bomb; much less a damn bomb capable of causing any sort of real damage.

As to why they did it. These guys were upset about our involvement in Afghanistan. We can expect to see this sort of a thing, as that War progresses. Now the idiots on the far liberal left will try and say that this is why we should leave Afghanistan. Which any sane, rational person knows is foolish. We should not leave until Osama and his henchmen are dead and Al-Qaeda is formally defeated. Some say this is impossible. I believe nothing is impossible, if it is done correctly. The far left likes to bring up that Russia tried to fight a war in this region and ended up pulling out. I say; apples and oranges. Different kind of a war, and the Russians did not have nearly the Military that we have and the technology that we have today.

The good thing about all this is, that this terrorist cell was broken up and these idiots are going to jail. Thanks to the fine work of our men at the F.B.I. Good show guys, keep up the good work.

Update: …and then there’s the Libertarian conspiracy theorist angle. No wonder the Republicans think that most libertarians are kooks.

HEH!: Liberal Columnist rips off Liberal Blogger

Gee, I wonder; would this be the 21 century equilivant of “Dog eat Dog?” 😛 or Dog Bites man…. or Dog something… 😀

Oh, it’s funny and you know it! 🙄

It seems that Liberal Columnist ripped off a Liberal Blogger. Talking Points Memo reports:

Maureen Dowd in today’s NY Times:

“More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the Bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17dowd.html?_r=1

Uh-oh.....
Uh-oh.....

(click image for bigger pic)

TPM’s Josh Marshall on Thurs:

“More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.”

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/bubbling.php

Doh!
D'oh!

(click image for bigger pic)

All Dowd did was change “we were” to “the Bush crowd was”.

Now, I’m all for cutting & pasting. As a blogger I do it all the time, but I always give credit.

So, if this isn’t outright plagiarism by a top NY Times Editorialist, than I’m a happily married, straight man with 4 kids, 2 dogs, a lovely 2nd wife of 15 years with a girl half my age on the side.

Which I assure you all, I am not.

Josh has a valid point. When we bloggers use content from other sites, or we copy something, we ALWAYS; well unless someone’s being an prick or something like that, credit the original source and link to that source article. Like I did this piece. What Dowd did was totally unprofessional and just plain rude. Of course, when called on it; Dowd is in full backward cat crawl mode:

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, in an email to Huffington Post, admits that a paragraph in her Sunday column was lifted from Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall’s blog last Thursday.

Dowd claims that she never read his blog last week but was told the line by a friend of hers. In a follow-up email, she forwarded her desire to apologize to Marshall, writing that had she known, she would have gladly credited Marshall.

josh is right. I didn’t read his blog last week, and didn’t have any idea he had made that point until you informed me just now. i was talking to a friend of mine Friday about what I was writing who suggested I make this point, expressing it in a cogent — and I assumed spontaneous — way and I wanted to weave the idea into my column. but, clearly, my friend must have read josh marshall without mentioning that to me. we’re fixing it on the web, to give josh credit, and will include a note, as well as a formal correction tomorrow.

Oh Yeah, the old “I got it from a Friend” line…. Josh chimes in here:

Indeed. Dowd got busted and now she’s trying to walk it back. She’ll be either fired or will take vacation till the heat blows over…. or at wost, end up as lackey over at MSNBC with the rest of the Plagiarizing idiots. (You know who I mean… I hope.)

Boy. Take a break from Blogging and all the cool stuff happens. Wow! 😮

Others on both sides of the political asle blogging about this one: HotAir, NewsBusters.org, Townhall.com, TBogg, theblogprof, skippy the bush kangaroo, Shakesville, Hullabaloo, The TrogloPundit, Crooks and Liars, RedState, the nytpicker, PoliBlog,Grasping Reality …, At-Largely, Roger Ailes, The Other McCain, TalkLeft, Hullabaloo, The Sundries Shack, Balloon Juice, Tim Blair and Lawyers, Guns and Money,Pajamas Media, Redhot,Don Surber, Daily Kos, Founding Bloggers, The Greenroom, ATTACKERMAN, Campaign Silo, JustOneMinute and Commentary

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