Your House Is My House

Little houses on the hillside, little houses made of ticky-tacky, little houses, little houses, little houses, all the same. Anybody beside me remember that song? Well, the gummint is going to take over the business of creating its own communities. The Senate Banking Committee has moved the Livable Communities Act out of committee and on to the full Senate.

The Democrats are not only going to build houses, but they are also going to build a nice, fat new bureaucracy to watch over them, nurture them, put non-creditworthy people in them, and enhance the government's thirst for telling people where and how to live. For starters, the bill institutes $4 billion in "neighborhood planning grants" (guaranteed by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Barney Frank?). Early lame duck committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Ct), who lives in low density, high-priced Connecticut has a wonderful plan for urban and populous suburban areas centering around high-density, "walkable" neighborhoods. I don't know about you, but the few government-created neighborhoods I've seen require running like hell if you value your life. Walking is not a real option.

Democrats don't like what they call urban sprawl and despise traffic congestion caused by people who dare to own their own transportation. So like their eleventy-eleven plans from the past, this plan will eliminate both sprawl and congestion. Why are you laughing? This time they really mean it, and they have very pretty plans. Here's what those plans will do:

Coordinate land use, housing, transportation, and infrastructure planning processes across jurisdictions and agencies. Conduct or update housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy, and environmental assessments to determine regional needs and promote sustainable development. Implement local zoning and other code changes necessary to implement a comprehensive regional plan and promote sustainable development. Good bye private planning. Good bye local government planning. Good bye regional government planning. Uncle Sam knows what's best for you, so drink your Kool Aid. These grants are called "Comprehensive Planning Grants." They're kissing cousins to comprehensive health care reform and comprehensive immigration reform. God forbid anything shouldn't be comprehensive in our bureaucratic, technocratic country.

But wait. There's more. There's a second type of grant being funded in this bill called "Sustainability Challenge Grants." Well, at least they admit that planning anything from the central government in DC for people nationwide is a challenge. This grant sounds a lot like the other grant, but with more bureaucratic incomprehensible jargon. These grants will do the following: Promote integrated transportation, housing, energy, and economic development activities carried out across policy and governmental jurisdictions. Promote sustainable and location-efficient development. Implement projects identified in a comprehensive regional plan (which of course won't be planned by the regional authority because DC will have preemptive authority).

When I was a planning commissioner back in the bad old days, residents within our city were vocal and intelligent, and often gave us input that helped us formulate better plans. Those who were outside the city limits, but within our legal sphere of influence did the same, with the addition of convincing us that some parts of the area should basically just be allowed to evolve by themselves without any central planning. We would not have gotten that input, nor would we local/regional commissioners have any say in projects in the same geographical areas which would now be planned from 3,000 miles away by jargon-slinging bureaucrats who will tell the unfortunate future residents "it looked good on paper."

There is nothing that small, local government can do that huge centralized government can't do much worse and far more expensively. They picture urban heaven. I picture Cabrini Green. In addition, when we made a mistake, we had to fix it because we would have a lot of angry locals banging on our doors if we didn't. Where do those locals go to complain to the DC bureaucrats? We had a moderate-sized permanent paid staff to formulate plans for presentation to us and the public. The commissioners received a very modest stipend for each formal meeting attended. The federal planners are all career bureaucrats, paid very high salaries, and are responsible only to their bosses in DC, but never to the locals who will have the plans jammed down their throats.

The bill creates the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities ("OSHC") inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"). The initial funding, as I mentioned, is "only" $4 billion. But HUD and more importantly the tax-sucking bureaucrats populating OSHC have one goal in mind--self-perpetuation with fat salaries, huge perks, and immense retirement funds. They can't fail, since their stated goal is sustainable development and anything can be sustained if you throw enough good money after bad. Consider the $4 billion as a small down payment.

Notice that all the usual elements of statist central planning are in the bill. Urban development. Public transportation. High-density housing next to high-density commercial. The promoters of the plan promise that this will clean up cities, make them more energy-efficient, and create paradise-like living conditions. Apparently, none of them have seen the South Side of Chicago, or Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco. I'm sure Bev from New York City can supply us with a few good examples there as well.

The planners also talk about efficiency. Where have we heard that before? The bureaucrats can't even get national security to work efficiently, and our lives depend on that. Dodd actually believes that this is really something good for local communities and will increase citizen participation in neighborhood improvement. "It's not a radical idea. What's radical is not doing anything about it." He also thinks that a program funded by the federal government (via overburdened taxpayers) will actually work with local and regional planners to produce different plans tailored to fit the communities which accept the federal funds. Individual taxpayers are not the only ones who quake in their boots when they hear the words "We're from the government, and we're here to help you." "Federal cooperation" invariably means "federal control" in the real world.

"But no, says Dodd, "the OSHC would not be making planning decisions for city and county governments--the office would function as a resource for localities seeking to do the planning themselves." If you believe that, I have this big orange bridge in San Francisco I'll sell you. He goes on to say "That's kind of the resource capacity for the communities. It's not standards. We're not going to apply standards (we all know Democrats have no standards). We're going to stay far away from that. We're not going to sit here and set development standards because you've got to let the flexibility--rural communities,suburban, large urban areas--they need to decide themselveswhat they want do do in terms ofhow they link together housing, transit, and energy needs in their communities."

My first question is "who is this 'we?'" Dodd will be doddering off to his estate in Connecticut at the end of this Congressional term. Or is he planning on becoming the first overpaid chairman of the OSHC? My second question is "since the bureaucrats already have a grand scheme for how the communities ought to be developed and specific requirements (standards?) for where the money is supposed to go, why are we expected to believe that any local or regional authority that doesn't like those plans will be able to change them and still receive the federal largess?" I'm not even from Missouri, but I still say they'll have to show me. I particularly can't wait to see one of those high-density walkable neighborhoods in the middle of farmland in Kansas. That should be a real sight to see.
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Top 10 Scandals of 2009

Every year has its share of scandals. It might surprise you that 2009 was no different. In fact, there were dozens of scandals. But I've picked out the ten biggies of 2009. So without further adieu, here are the top ten scandals of 2009. . . in no particular order.

1. Fake Stimulus Jobs

Democratic President Obama’s sole “achievement” to date has been the massive “stimulus” package. But the stimulus didn’t create any jobs. So Obama came up with the idea that it would “save OR create” jobs. That still didn’t work. So they put together a list of nearly 700,000 jobs that they claimed were saved. But an examination of that list quickly found that many of the jobs did not exist. Then it was discovered that stimulus money was spent in Congressional districts that did not exist. And sometimes, it was spent on people who were owed money by members of Team Obama. At this point, at least 20% of the 700,000 have turned out to be fake.

2. Taxes Are For Little People

Democratic President Obama came to office promising a higher level of competence and ethics. But five of his nominees were blasted right out of the gate for not paying their taxes. Tom Daschle was forced to withdraw his nomination after it was discovered that he failed to pay $140,000 in back taxes, as was appointee Nancy Killefer.

Tim Geithner managed to get confirmed despite not paying his taxes, though he’s now involved in a new scandal. Apparently, Geithner directed AIG to delay publicly disclosing that tax dollars were used to pay $62 billion in insurance-like bets owed to major American and foreign banks, so that the disclosure would not interfere with his nomination.

But taxes weren’t the only problems for Obama nominees. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination after it was disclosed that Richardson was involved in pay-to-play allegation related to bonds issued by the state of New Mexico. According to Bloomberg, a federal grand jury was investigating the relationship between Richardson and a company called CDR Financial Products, Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority after donating $100,000 to Richardson.

3. ACORN

Democratic ally ACORN first came to public attention in 2008, when its workers registered a whole lot of fake people to vote. In 2009, ACORN was exposed as an all around criminal organization that used Federal funds for who knows what. The final straw came when ACORN volunteers around the country advised two reporters, posing as a prostitute and her pimp, how to get away with human trafficking and tax evasion. This caused the Census to drop ACORN’s involvement in the 2010 Census and Congress to cut off their funding, an act ACORN is now challenging in court.

4. Hiking the Appalachian Trail

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, seen by many as a strong candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, gave us a new euphemism: hiking the Appalachian Trail. In our coarsened culture, there are affairs and then there’s just plain stupid, and Sanford gave us stupid in spades. The scandal began when people realized that no one knew where Sanford was, including his staff. He told them he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but in reality he was getting busy in Buenos Aires, Argentina with his mistress. . . sparking a national game of Where’s Waldo and killing any aspirations he had for higher office.

5. Max Baucus Falls In Love

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus too hiked the Appalachian Trail this year. He then recommended that his mistress and former campaign worker, Melodee Hanes, be appointed as the United States Attorney for Montana. This was after Baucus gave her a $14,000 raise after they became romantically involved.

6. Chris Dodd’s Sweetheart Deal

Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, the creature from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which regulates the financial industry, was discovered to have gotten a sweetheart deal on a loan for a Capitol Hill townhouse from subprime lender Countrywide Financial. Dodd claimed he didn’t know he got a sweetheart deal.

Dodd also claimed he had nothing to do with the AIG bonusgate, though he later acknowledge that he had added the language to the stimulus bill that allowed AIG to pay those bonuses. Dodd also became infamous for insisting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sound and for refusing to reign them in. Not coincidentally, Dodd received more contributions from Fannie and Freddie than anyone else on earth.

All of this has caused Dodd to give up his re-election campaign.

7. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Salesman of the Year

Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached in 2009 after it was discovered that he tried to sell Obama’s seat in the Senate -- he had the power to appoint a successor. Obama initially claimed to have never heard of Blagojevich, but photos soon surfaced of the two doing everything together except hiking the Appalachian Trail. Even for a place as hopelessly corrupt as Illinois, this was a little too much.

8. Climategate

Perhaps the most important scandal of our time began when a hacker exposed a trail of e-mails between a small group of scientists who appear to have been manufacturing the global-warming crisis. (I will finally provide my long-promised article on this on Monday.) This scandal seems to have finally exposed the socialist/climate-change lobby.

9. Charlie “RICO” Rangel

Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel’s problems began years ago, but they really hit their stride in 2009. At the end of 2008, we learned that Rangel, who writes the United States tax code as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, failed to pay his taxes on various properties and that he took improper exemptions. He claimed ignorance. In August 2009, Rangel disclosed that he had previously failed to disclose $500,000 in assets and income, effectively doubling his declared net worth.

It was then discovered that a company called Nabors Industries was using a loophole Rangel was protecting (after fighting to close it for years) to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in taxes by opening a small outlet in Bermuda and calling themselves a foreign corporation. Nabors Industries, coincidentally, donated one million dollars to the Rangel Center at the City College of New York. Only four companies in the USA benefit from this loophole.

Then it was discovered that Rangel gave $80,000 in campaign funds to a company founded by his son that may not do anything.

In September, it was discovered that Rangel had prevented a bill from coming to a vote that would have prevented $2.8 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds from going to British alcohol giant Diageo to make rum in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rangel received significant campaign contributions from Diageo.

10. Bonusgate

After blowing trillions of dollars bailing out huge banks that over-extended themselves, it was revealed that team Obama allowed AIG, which taxpayers had bailed out to the tune of $170 billion, to pay out nearly $1.2 billion in bonuses, even though the company lost $61 billion. Team Obama initially tried to blame Bush, but this fell apart when somebody remembered that Geithner and Dodd made the decision. In fact, Dodd specifically changed the TARP bill to allow these bonuses, something Dodd claimed he did at the insistence of Obama and Geithner -- a claim he made after initially stating that he knew nothing about the issue. This caused the New Haven Register to refer to Dodd as “a lying weasel.”


And there you have it: 2009 was truly a scandalous year. We could hope that 2010 will be better, but with a less intelligent version of Al Capone in the White House there isn’t much hope for improvement. Soooooo grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride.

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Night Of A Thousand Retirements

Ladies and Gentlemen, 2010 is starting off as a banner year. We’re only a few days in and already we’ve seen a series of surprising retirement announcements. The most recent: Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and the creature from Connecticut, Chris Dodd. What does this mean? It means the writing is on the wall and the Democrats are in serious trouble.

With the Democrats’ poll numbers hanging lower than a gangbanger’s pants, a large number of the rats have started leaving the Obamatanic. Over the past couple months, we’ve heard stories of one House Democrat after another deciding that they would not seek re-election. Even a few governors seem to have discovered the writing on the wall, like Colorado’s dipsh*t Democratic governor Bill Ritter. And now the Senate Democrats are getting into the act.

Some Republicans are leaving their seats too, but there is a difference. Those Republicans are leaving their seats to challenge for a higher office and they tend to be leaving safe Republican seats. Many of these Democrats aren’t. Indeed, many of them are in districts that McCain carried by a significant margin. Four such “McCain Democrats” have already announced their retirements (Kansas, Washington and two in Tennessee). One, Alabama House Democrat Parker Griffith, jumped parties.

Just as interesting, Democratic recruits are headed toward the exits as well. In a number of races, the Democrats lined up heavy hitters to challenge incumbent Republicans or to challenge for open seats, and now those people are deciding not to run.

The Hill identifies five such challengers who have withdrawn in recent weeks in Kansas, Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and California -- candidates that the DNC touted as evidence of their recruiting success.

Now the Senate is getting into the act. Polls show that the Democrats are in trouble in Senate races in Illinois and Delaware (Obama and Biden’s old seats), Colorado, Ohio, Nevada (Harry Reid’s seat), Pennsylvania, Arkansas and New York. Even Ted Kennedy’s seat appears to be in reach -- though I put no faith in that remaining true.

Now we add Byron Dorgan to the mix. Dorgan is another of the supposed moderates in the Senate, though there are no moderates in the Senate if you look at their voting records this year. He is retiring because early polls show him trailing Republican Gov. John Hoeven should Hoeven run. This should now become a fairly easy pickup for the Republicans.

Dodd you all know. He’s a crook and an as~hole and recent polls show that he would lose to Hitler. In a way this is a bad development for the Republicans because it allows the Democrats to find a candidate who would be palatable to the electorate. And in a state that appears to be 94% Democratic, such a candidate has a much better chance than Dodd. But that’s not clear. Looking at the national mood, it’s possible that this election will be much worse than the Democrats expect, and this wave of retirements is the evidence that their internal polling has shown them the light.

Consider the following. Republicans continue to lead in the generic polls. Obama’s polls are at a low and continue to fall. The Democrats are slightly less popular than herpes. And they seem intent on moving further left in the hopes of “energizing” a base that has been turned off by their corruption and failures. Indeed, there has been a lively (hateful) debate recently, unnoticed by the media of course, in which various Democrats argued about whether or not to move toward the center or keep moving further left. Further left appears to be winning.

With a massive gap in the enthusiasm of voters foretelling a huge anti-Democrat wave in 2010, and little resistance from the faithful, this could become an interesting election. Right now, the Republicans do not stand to retake either the House or the Senate, but that could change.

If the Republicans sweep the ten seats mentioned above, they would only have 49 seats in the Senate (and they may lose New Hampshire). At the same time, the four seats above leave them with a 36 seat gap in the House, though the DNC identifies 40 House Democrats at risk (the Republicans identify 25 of their own as at-risk).

In the end, this will all depend on turn out. If the left remains indifferent and the right turns out in force, 2010 could sweep the Republicans back into power in both chambers, but that will take a strong turn out on the right. If the left does turn out, or if the right keeps whining rather than joining the campaign, then the Democrats and Obama will get two more years of doing whatever they please.

It should be an interesting election.

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The Polls They Are A Fallin'

Like a countdown in a James Bond film, Obama’s approval rating keeps working its way toward zero. This week he hit a new low -- 45%. But he’s not the only one in trouble with the voters. Nosiree.

As incredible as this may sound, most people don’t think Congress knows what it’s doing. Imagine that! In fact, only 29% think Congress has a clue, and most of those people are institutionalized.

More interestingly, a full 57% of Americans -- six in ten -- would vote to throw out the entire Congress and start over. Now that’s a vote of confidence you can believe in!

Unfortunately, most people don’t believe it can happen. They think the system is “rigged” to protect incumbents. Fifty percent of respondents believe this in fact. Only 23% believe that “people hate Congress but love their own congressman.” And anecdotally speaking, I’m pretty sure Lawhawk can confirm that this is not true -- he’s never once mentioned making love to Nancy Pelosi, and that’s the sort of thing you tell people. . . like your exorcist.

FYI, speaking of Congress, Republicans now top the Democrats by 7% in the generic poll (43% to 36%). Not bad for a party that has no brains, no policies, no principles, and no leadership. Keep sitting around boys, it’s working!

Well, that’s all we have today. What? You want more? Ok, maybe just a little. . .

Perhaps you’ve heard of an odious little man named Harry Reid, “Dingy Harry” to his friends? Reid considers himself a muckety muck in the Senate, or so he tells his constituents every chance he gets. . . at least when he isn’t telling local newspapers: “I hope that you go out of business.” Right back at you Harry, right back at you.

So what’s up with Harry? Harry is under a great deal of stress. See, every so often, Harry has to answer to the voters. The next so often occurs in 2010. And, sadly, poor Harry is losing. Yep. Harry is losing to someone named Danny Tarkanian, who seems to be the son of towel-biting former NCAA basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. “Tark the Shark” used to coach at UNLV, a much more esteemed institution than where Harry works.

Tark’s boy Danny claims to be something called a “Republican.” Now stick with me here, because I know that’s a new term. According to the wikipedia, “Republicans” are a political party found in some US states. And Harry's losing to one! Ha! What's worse, it’s not even close. Right now this mystery “Republican” is beating the pants off Harry by 11 points (49% to 38%).

Of course, these “Republicans” might want to give Harry a sporting chance. If they feel generous, they’ll run a woman named Sue Lowden, who only leads Harry by 5 points (45% to 40%).

Still, five points is nothing to sneeze at. And either way, it just doesn't look good for The Dinge.

What a shame it would be if Harry had to leave the land of graft and dirty money. Why, what would he do all day. . . all by himself? Well, actually, Harry might not be alone as you might think. Indeed, he might be able to hang out with Joe Biden’s kid (whose name I believe is Kumar). Little Kumar loses to some Republican named Mike "White" Castle, though it’s close -- 21 points.

And if Kumar Biden isn’t to Harry’s taste, he could swap mortgage details with Christopher Dodd, who trails someone named Simmons (possibly Richard? maybe Gene?) in New York’s eastern annex by 9 points. Arlen Specter might be free too. He currently trails something called “Toomey” by 12 points.

So fret not friends for young Harry, he won't be alone.

(P.S. If you do feel like sneezing at the five point lead, check out Writer X's post today on the advice given by Obama about sneezing. God help us all.)

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Countrywide Crooks Are Not Unethical

You'll all be glad to know that the two Democratic Senators from Countrywide Financial have been cleared of wrongdoing by the Senate Ethics Committee. Now mind you, that was a six to nothing vote, and the Committee is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans. So it all must be on the up-and-up, right?

The two Senators who were under investigation for ethics violations were both Democrats, and now that they've been cleared, the mainstream media have started mentioning their parties whenever the subject appears. Previously they were simply Senators, with no discernible political party. When a Republican Senator or Representative gets caught for non-payment of a parking ticket, the press always makes sure you know which party he or she belongs to. But when a Democrat is charged with serious financial hanky-panky during a banking crisis, they don't belong to any party until cleared (which they frequently are not--see William "Freezer" Jefferson of Louisiana, Party Unknown).

Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) had both denied wrongdoing. But Chris Dodd, being the more famous of the two, was very vocal about his utter innocence and lack of knowledge about any possible shadiness in his dealings with Countrywide Financial. The investigation has been going on for nearly a year, but it has been very public for Dodd. Neither of the two walked away completely clean. The Committee "admonished" the two for the "appearance of impropriety."

The investigation began when a watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) complained to the Ethics Committee about a mortgage Dodd had taken out with Countrywide. They charged him with violating the prohibition against knowingly accepting gifts, and loans at special interest rates are defined in the rules as "gifts." The Senators are allowed to take out loans at special rates, but only if those special rates are "generally available to the public at large." They are called "sweetheart loans" for short. By February, with interest rates at an historic low, Dodd did refinance with another financial institution, but will still be paying a rate similar to the original loans which were taken out when interest rates were considerably higher. Getting the new loans at a rate generally available to the public does not make the original loans at the favorable rate any less unethical.

One hundred ninety three days into the investigation, Dodd was taking so much heat from his constituents and the local press that he decided to call a news conference back in February. The Wall Street Journal gave it the name "the peek-a-boo disclosure," and the name stuck. After denying that he had been given any special treatment of any kind, Dodd at the conference conceded that he had been given special treatment, but he thought it was "a courtesy." Calling the special rate a "courtesy" instead of a "gift" is a distinction without a difference. But the underlying ethics question, and the more than 100 pages of documents, concerned a very special kind of treatment. They are known as "Friends of Angelo" loans, and the treatment was given only to very important politicians. And Dodd was indeed very important, considering that Angelo is Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial, and Dodd is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

The peek-a-boo conference was comprised of Dodd taking a few questions, then allowing a few reporters (not including the Wall Street Journal) to take a quick look at the general documents. No copies were released to anyone. But he did release a memo claiming that what he had just let reporters take a peak at proved that the terms he received were not particularly favorable terms. Included with the memo was a consultant's report claiming the same thing. Of course the consultants were hired by Dodd's attorneys. Dodd at the meeting then apologized that he didn't release the documents earlier. Hold on, Chris, you still haven't released them, so what's with this "earlier" stuff?

Dodd also failed to explain in any way the testimony prior to the conference from Robert Feinberg, a Countrywide accountant, that Dodd had been told repeatedly that he was getting very special treatment. Mozilo had said so to Dodd himself, adding "what's the point of being a 'friend of Angelo' if we're not giving you special treatment?" Countrywide for many years had been the largest single customer of Fannie Mae, the gigantic government-sponsored mortgage guarantor governed in large part by Dodd's Banking Committee. Mozilo became an expert in selling very shaky mortgages to Fannie Mae, and Dodd was of considerable assistance by constantly pressuring Fannie Mae to support "affordable housing." Now you know why Dodd was a very good "Friend of Angelo." And now you also know that with friends like Dodd and Barney Frank, Fannie Mae was headed for the poor house. The taxpayers are now shouldering the burden of the Fannie Mae failure and receivership.

The "kind of a courtesy" that Dodd got was completely unavailable to anyone who was not a Friend of Angelo. It was a gift pure and simple under the Rules of Ethics, and very clearly forbidden. But that doesn't stop the old boys network in the Senate from looking the other way. The Ethics Committee looked at documents and took some testimony from outsiders, including Robert Feinberg. Feinberg testified again, under oath, with documentation that both Dodd and Conrad received very special treatment and very favorable loans, that they both knew it, and were repeatedly reminded of it. But golly, the Committee never called either of the two Senators to testify, let alone under oath. Well--that's one way to avoid tainting your buddies with charges of perjury. Instead of a full-on censure, plus contempt charges, removal from office, and subsequent perjury charges if they lied under oath, these two sterling upright Senators got a slap on the wrist.

The Ethics Committee members are the guardians of proper behavior in the Senate. They are there to keep Senators from straying from the path of good stewardship of the public trust. When they do something as blatantly deceitful as this, the ancient question arises: "Who will guard the guardians?"
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