Rep. McCotter Nails the Dems with the Facts

Via Ace:

How’s That Transparency and Accountability Working Out?

(Thanks to the indispensable Anchoress for pointing this one out.)

Did anyone actually believe these people at the time?  That’s what’s so frustrating about this administration and their collaborators in Congress.  It didn’t take a Ph.D. in nuclear physics to understand what these people intended to do once they got power.

Obama Continues to Profit From His Celebrity Status

From the Washington Times:

As he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children’s book project, a disclosure report shows.

The terms of the book deal were disclosed in a Senate financial disclosure report filed Tuesday.

There’s nothing wrong with someone trying to make money.  However, it’s somewhat unseemly to profit from being elected president.

I don’t recall any sitting president entering into a book deal,” said campaign finance lawyer Jan Baran, former general counsel to the Republican National Committee. “They all have historically done that after they leave office.

“I recall the only ones who did sign book deals while living there were first ladies, and my recollection is they gave it to charity.”

It’s unlikely any mainstream media outlet will follow up on the Washington Times’ reporting.  This would be major news for weeks until President Bush gave the money away, but the media yawns when it’s something that might hurt the ObamaMessiah.  The Messiah is so compassionate for the underclass but has no problem profiting from the fame he’s received for his faux compassion.

Maxine Waters – Another Corruptocrat

Michelle Malkin points readers to this Wall Street Journal article on Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ conflict of interest concerning the bailout that helped her bottom line.

When Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to “stay out of it,” he says.

The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank.

Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited’s executives and criticized its government regulators during congressional hearings. Last fall, she helped secure the bank a meeting with Treasury officials.

Of course, she’s not the only Democrat with questionable ties to the banking industry.  In fact, it’s funny that Barney Frank had to be the voice of reason to Maxine Waters.  Frank literally was in bed with the man who created the banking collapse.

The July 3, 1998, Reliable Source column in The Washington Post reported Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for the now-government controlled Fannie Mae. The column revealed the two had split up at the time but also said Frank was referring to Moses as his “spouse.” Another Washington Post report said Frank called Moses his “lover” and that the two were “still friends” after the breakup….

Moses was the assistant director for product initiatives at Fannie Mae and had been at the forefront of relaxing lending restrictions at the company for rural customers, according to the Feb. 23, 1998, issue of National Mortgage News (NMN).

“Herb Moses, who helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs, has left the mortgage industry,” Darryl Hicks wrote for NMN. “Mr. Moses – whose last day was Feb. 13 – spent the past seven years at Fannie Mae, most recently as director of housing initiatives. Over the course of time, he played an instrumental role in developing the company’s Title One and 203(k) home improvement lending programs.”

Barney Frank and Maxine Waters aren’t the only ones.  Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan got sweetheart loans from scandal-plagued Countrywide Financial, a key player in the banking collapse.  And Dodd of course is now immersed in a scandal involving a former Bear Stearns exec – Dodd received a cottage in Ireland from the guy after Dodd helped secured a Clinton pardon for his insider trading conviction.

We could add to this list all the Obama appointees with financial scandals, but getting back to Maxine Waters, here’s more:

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group, says Ms. Waters should have recused herself from any matters involving the bank. If her support helped OneUnited, “it was a disservice to her constituents,” Ms. Krumholz says.

Water’s entire career has been a disservice to her constituents, filled with cronyism for her family and despicable race-baiting.  As Michelle predicts, it’s only a matter of time before Waters accuses the WSJ of racism.

Russia Challenges Obama

Putin is wasting no time with the neophyte community organizer sitting in the oval office.

First, he persuaded Kyrgyzstan to kick us out of a strategic base in which they hosted our troops, providing a key transportation hub for US and NATO troops to travel into Afghanistan. Putin took this action almost immediately after Obama took office.  Obama shrugged and apparently did nothing to prevent this.

Now, he’s looking to use bases in Cuba and/or Venezuela for Russia’s strategic bombers.    Will Obama throw away the Monroe Doctrine?  After all, he’s all about “resetting” our policy with them.  I guess the Monroe Doctrine is outdated in this era of hope and change.

Putin made this provocative move shortly after Obama’s disastrous letter to Medvedev in which he caved to Russia without even negotiating.   Obama slapped our European allies in the face with his promise to give up strategic missile defense in Europe in exchange for a promise from Russia to try to get Iran get rid of their nuclear weapon program.

The Russians gladly indicated a willingness to discuss an American surrender on the issue of missile defense but rejected any talk of linking it to the Iranian issue.  Of course, they’d be happy to have Obama surrender Europe to Russian influence, especially Eastern European countries who used to be under their boot.  But Russia has no interest in having Iran give up their nuclear ambitions.  One, they benefit financially from Iran’s pursuit.  And two, having the US focus on that issue means Russia can pursue their interests elsewhere while the US is distracted.  Three, as Iran gets closer to their dream, tensions will rise in the Mideast and drive up the price of oil; of course this will help Russia stave off bankruptcy.

Obama, however, is too naive to think that Russia would have interests that diverge from the liberal dream that everyone would just get along Rodney King-style if it weren’t for the Bush Neo-Cons ruining everything.

Ed Morrissey points out that Biden has really proven prophetic with his prediction that Obama would be tested.

At the rate things are going under Obama, we are going to be a third rate power with a third rate economy.