Rick Sentelli’s rant for the ages (transcript here) on CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday criticizing the recently passed stimulus package and the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program was marred somewhat by the studio hosts. Though their tone was semi-humorous, it’s telling that their instincts were to characterize the traders present at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as a “mob,” and to assume that Santelli somehow controlled them (”putty in your hands”). When Santelli suggested a Chicago Tea Party, one of the hosts warned that Mayor Daley and the National Guard would be mobilized.
In October of last year, in a memorable exchange on the day that history may decide was when American free-market capitalism entered the point of no return, CNBC reporters seemed somewhat amused that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson had “put a (figurative) gun to the heads” of major bank CEOs to force them to accept government “investment.”
Well if you don’t mind my asking, will we see any reaction out of CNBC’s studio folks to an example of real mob rule in the mortgage marketplace?
In a story at WJZ in Baltimore whose headline and coverage almost seem deliberately understated (”ACORN Trains Citizens To Protest Home Foreclosures”), the station tells us that ACORN “protesters” had broken into and occupied a foreclosed home (HT Inside Charm City via Michelle Malkin):
A community organization breaks into a foreclosed home in what they are calling an act of civil disobedience.
The group wants to train homeowners facing eviction on peaceful ways they can remain in their homes.
Derek Valcourt reports their actions are not without controversy.
“The mortgage went up $300 in one month,” said Hanks, former homeowner.
She says the bank refused to modify her loan and foreclosed, kicking her out of the house in September.
The community group ACORN calls Hanks a victim of predatory lending.
“This is our house now,” said Louis Beverly, ACORN.
And on Thursday afternoon, they literally broke the foreclosure padlock right off the front door and then broke into the house, letting Hanks back in for the first time in months.
The group says it was staging similar demonstrations in six other cities nationwide while urging a moratorium on foreclosures.
The president set a bad example when, while still president-elect, he expressed solidarity (”they’re absolutely right“) with the actions of former employees who occupied the Republic Window plant in Chicago in mid-December. It’s not unreasonable to contend that his support then has emboldened ACORN now.
A reasonable prediction would be that this lawlessness won’t get a lot of notice from the Associated Press or other major establishment news organizations.
If the Obama administration and its assembled economic geniuses want to see the markets really dive, watch what happens if investors start to conclude that the rule of law doesn’t matter any more.
What will the smug studio folks at CNBC have to say then?
Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.
The United Nations “Human Rights” Council is currently chaired by Libya with Vice chairs Iran and Cuba. Does anyone believe the rights of Israel have a chance with this group?
The first “Durban” — named for the South African city where the U.N. held its 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance — was chiefly notable as a virulent display of anti-Semitism. Yet last weekend, the Administration announced it would participate in “conference preparations,” while reserving judgment on whether to attend the conference itself. (WSJ)
We already know that Jimmy Carter embraces Hamas and we have waited to see the Leftist Obama administration tip their hand toward the terrorists in Palestine.
The “Human Rights” Council “Durban Review Conference,” is scheduled for April and is designed to “reaffirm the Durban Declaration.”
Their “Outcome Document” proposes some clues as to what this group of terrorist regimes wish to achieve. 
The Obama/Clinton State Department will join the conference in Geneva claiming their purpose is ”to try to change the direction in which the Review Conference is heading.”
If the Obama administration was so interested in protecting the rights of Israel and the democratic free world why did they choose to release their announcement after 7 p.m. on a Saturday evening? Why does Obama wish to appease terrorist regimes with talk?
Maybe this is new policy at the White House; stealth news releases to avoid headlines and sing Kumbaya with the enemy. Indeed!
Foreign Affairs Pork Watch United Nations War on TerrorForeign Affairs, Pork Watch, United Nations, War on Terror"... the first available data on the performance of loans that have previously been modified to encourage home retention. Data on the performance of modified loans provide insight into the effectiveness of loss mitigation actions.
The conclusion of the report, in brief, is that delinquencies continue to rise, foreclosures and other actions leading to home forfeiture also continued to rise, and loan modifications were associated with high levels of re-default."
For loans modified in the first quarter of 2008, more than 37 percent of modified loans were 30 or more days delinquent or in the process of foreclosure after three months. After six months, that re-default rate was more than 55 percent. For loans modified during the second quarter, the three-month 30+ day delinquent re-default rate was more than 40 percent.
For loans modified in the first quarter, more than 19 percent were 60 or more days delinquent or in process of foreclosure after three months. That rate grew to nearly 37 percent after six months. For loans modified in the second quarter, that re-default rate was more than 21 percent after three months.
Denver, Colo., Feb 20, 2009 / 06:39 am (CNA).- In a startling defense of legal abortion supporter Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Catholics United has attacked Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, accusing him being more interested in trying to score political points against the governor than in crafting effective abortion policy within the reality of politics.(emphasis and editorial commentary added)
The salvo from Catholics United comes as advisors to President Obama have told the press that he has decided on Sebelius as his next secretary of Health and Human Services nominee.
Kathleen Sebelius, who professes to be Catholic, has a problematic record on abortion.
Although Catholics United mentions the Kansas governor’s "tireless support for children's health care and education, and her efforts to provide public financing for adoption and pregnancy support centers," the group fails to mention her 30 years of simultaneously advocating to keep abortion legal.
In the Spring of 2008, Archbishop Naumann met with Gov. Sebelius to ensure that she understood the gravity of her position. After meeting with her, Archbishop Naumann asked her to stop receiving Communion.
As Archbishop Naumann explained to CNA, he requested that Gov. Sebelius stop receiving Communion because of her "30-year history of advocating and acting in support of legalized abortion."
The Thursday statement by Catholics United, which is mostly dedicated to rebuffing the president of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, marks the first time that the organization has targeted a specific Catholic bishop by name.
"Like Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann – who often seems more interested in scoring political points against Gov. Sebelius than crafting effective abortion policy within the reality of politics – Mr. Donohue is doing a disservice to those Americans who will benefit from Gov. Sebelius's leadership as Health and Human Services Secretary." [ED.: I suppose we can count out unborn Americans as being among "those Americans who will benefit from Gov. Sebelius's leadership as Health and Human Services Secretary." But, then again, we can always count on these front groups such as "Catholics United" to not "give a s--t about the unborn".]
….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:
Washington lobbyist Christine Varney is poised to take her third pass through the revolving door of lobbying and government with her nomination by President Barack Obama to be his administration’s top antitrust enforcer.Also, on Thursday, Obama nominated Derek Douglas, a former lobbyist for the O’Melveny & Myers law firm and Center for American Progress, as special assistant on urban affairs.
As with most of the at least 14 former lobbyists nominated or hired by Obama, Varney and Douglas appear to be not covered by his executive order restricting the official activities of former lobbyists.
Obama’s first executive order forbade appointees who had served as registered lobbyists to “participate in any particular matter on which [they] lobbied within the two years before the date of my appointment” or “participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls.”
Over the last few months, we’ve made a hash of all that. The Bush and Obama administrations have compensated foolishness and irresponsibility. The financial bailouts reward bankers who took insane risks. The auto bailouts subsidize companies and unions that made self-indulgent decisions a few decades ago that drove their industry into the ground.The stimulus package handed tens of billions of dollars to states that spent profligately during the prosperity years. The Obama housing plan will force people who bought sensible homes to subsidize the mortgages of people who bought houses they could not afford. It will almost certainly force people who were honest on their loan forms to subsidize people who were dishonest on theirs.
These injustices are stoking anger across the country, lustily expressed by Rick Santelli on CNBC Thursday morning. “The government is promoting bad behavior!” Santelli cried as Chicago traders cheered him on. “The president ... should put up a Web site ... to have people vote ... to see if they want to subsidize losers’ mortgages!”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s blurt during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last week forced the U.S. intelligence and military community to acknowledge on Thursday that the U.S. is targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives using unmanned drones based in Pakistan.
The senator’s slip sent reporters into overdrive and led to the discovery of a 2006 picture provided by Google Earth that appears to show Predator drones at Shamsi air base 200 miles southwest of Quetta.
Feinstein’s remarks, which were characterized as “foolish” by U.S. officials, were unusual for the experienced chairwoman of the intelligence panel.
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