Iraqi Elections Today!!

I haven’t found a lot of buzz on the web on this, but today is the day Iraqis get to vote.  According to the Washington Post, the provincial elections will be one of the tests of whether the Iraqis can build a stable democracy.  During the last election, the Sunnis did not vote because they felt they were not going to be treated fairly.  This time the Sunnis are running for office.  Hopefully the result of this will be shared power and lively, but peaceful debate.

According to the article:

 “In Fallujah, Anbar’s second largest city, women were arriving to polling stations to cast votes, unprecedented in a conservative tribal society where women are not allowed to mingle freely with men. Many wore customary veils; female volunteers searched the bodies of each woman for weapons and bombs. Female suicide bombers have committed numerous attacks in Iraq over the past year.

“I came to vote because I want to see women representing women of Fallujah and Anbar and to prove through my participation that women are here and will play an important role,” said Iman Karkaz, a college professor in Fallujah and women activist. “For sure this election will bring changes. The more women who take part in the election that more likely this change will happen.””

Thank you, George W. Bush and General David Petraeus for your wisdom and dedication to the cause or Iraqi freedom. 

Real History Vs Made-Up History

History can be a nasty thing that gets in the way sometime.  Charles Krauthammer reminds us of this in a column in the Washington Post on Friday.  President Obama has said that he wants to return to “same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.”   Hmm.  Now let’s see.  Thirty years ago was 1979, the year Muslims stormed the American Embassy in Iran, took approximately seventy hostages, and held them for more than a year.  The Marine barracks in Lebanon were blown up in 1983.  There was the oil embargo of the US in the 1970’s.  This does not sound like a loving relationship.

So let’s see what we have done lately to change from this ‘loving relationship’ to the tension that we have now.  According to the article:

“The two Balkan interventions — as well as the failed 1992-93 Somalia intervention to feed starving African Muslims (43 Americans were killed) — were humanitarian exercises of the highest order, there being no significant U.S. strategic interest at stake. In these 20 years, this nation has done more for suffering and oppressed Muslims than any nation, Muslim or non-Muslim, anywhere on Earth. Why are we apologizing?”

“George W. Bush went to the Islamic Center in Washington six days after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the fires of Ground Zero were still smoldering, to declare “Islam is peace,” to extend fellowship and friendship to Muslims, to insist that Americans treat them with respect and generosity of spirit.

“And America listened. In these seven years since Sept. 11 — seven years during which thousands of Muslims rioted all over the world (resulting in the death of more than 100) to avenge a bunch of cartoons — there’s not been a single anti-Muslim riot in the United States to avenge the massacre of 3,000 innocents. On the contrary. In its aftermath, we elected our first Muslim member of Congress and our first president of Muslim parentage.”

“Iran has already responded to the Obama overture. In perfect tune with Obama’s defensiveness, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that better relations might be possible — after America apologized for 60 years of crimes against Iran. Note the 60 years. The mullahs are as mystified by Obama’s pre-1979 (or 1989) good old days as I am.”

Americans are smart enough to remember where we really are (I hope). 

 

 

How Things Sometimes Work

One of the ways that politicians have gotten away with things in the past has been to distract us from the actual facts.  Sleight of hand is an amazing thing.  It’s found in Saul Alinsky’s RULES FOR RADICALS a number of times:

3.  Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent.  Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

5.  Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.  It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

11.  Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.  Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies.  Identify a responsible individual.  Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

Take a close look at Rule 3 above.  How many times have we heard, “We are unchartered waters, we must pass the stimulus bill”?

Take a look at Rules 5 and 11.  What is being done to Rush Limbaugh now and to Republicans who oppose the stimulus?

One of the cures for corruption in government is an educated, informed voter.  All of us need to become that as quickly as possible.  The above rules are being used against us to take our money and eventually our freedom.

Can Wage And Price Controls Be Far Behind?

Hot Air ran an article yesterday containing statements by Senator Claire McCaskill on the stimulus bill.  She is justifying capping salaries and bonuses for executives of any company or bank that takes bailout money.  Why not?  Money rarely comes without strings attached.  Every move being made in the Democrat Congress right now is against free enterprise.  Since free enterprise is what has made this country great, we need to preserve it–not ruin it.  If you look at the causes of the housing bubble collapse, it was not the free market–Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were government entities who just happened to enrich a number of prominent Democrat politicians.

Senator McCaskill also admitted that a portion of the bill was pork (and she felt, unwise).  However, her justification for the pork in the bill was that some programs had simply been starved for cash, and that is why they were added.  Four million dollars to ACORN and fifty million to the National Endowment for the Arts are not stimulus–they are PORK!  For the sake of every American, their children, and their grandchildren, this bill needs to fail. 

 

Is Compromise A Good Idea?

According to an article in today’s Power Line Blog, the Senate may follow the footsteps of the House of Representatives and show bipartisan opposition to the current economic stimulus bill.  (Even though the adds put out by George Soros are claiming that only the Republicans opposed the bill, the fact remains that eleven Democrats also opposed it.  Since only one party voted for it, and two parties voted against it, the opposition was bi-partisan, the support was partisan.)   Democrat Ben Nelson seems to be trying to put together another ‘gang of 14’ effort to change the bill in order to make it acceptable to more Democrats and possibly some Republicans.  I am not totally comfortable with this idea.  I didn’t support the original ‘gang of 14’–I felt it was an example of the Republicans choking and ignoring their conservative base.  This might turn out to be equally bad, but at least both parties are beginning to see how awful this current bill is.

Stimulus Package?

There is an opinion piece in yesterday’s New York Times about the current stimulus package being debated.  Evidently, during the Obama campaign, Larry Summers, the Harvard economist, built the case for a big but surgical stimulus package. Summers warned that a “poorly provided fiscal stimulus can have worse side effects than the disease that is to be cured.” He proposes three clear guidelines–first, the money should go out immediately, second, it should help middle and low-income people, and third, deficits caused by the stimulus package should not last for more than a year or two.  Good grief–I could vote for that stimulus package!

Larry Summers has become a top economic advisor to the Obama administration, and his suggestions are being totally ignored!  That is a shame–the man is making worthwhile proposals.  This bill permanently and drastically increases the size and intrusiveness of the federal government.  It needs to be stopped before it does serious damage.

Just a note–who are middle income people?  It seems to me that middle income in Kansas is different than middle income in Boston, New York, or Los Angeles.  I suspect that in Kansas you could live reasonably well on $ 40,000 to $ 50,000 a year; in Boston, New York, or Los Angeles that would be a struggle.  In the case of economic stimulus, one size does not fit all, and the only size that will benefit everyone is a decrease in taxes on corporations and on people who actually work.  Four million dollars given to ACORN is a political payback–not an economic stimulus.

Fannie Mae Records At Risk?

Breitbart.com is reporting today that a fired employee of Fannie Mae planted a vicious virus in their computer system that was intended to destroy all mortgage records.  Fortunately, somehow, the virus was found and stopped.  The employee was fired at the end of October, and the virus was scheduled to destroy all records this Saturday.

This is a very interesting story.  The employee is scheduled for arraignment Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on one count of computer intrusion.   I suspect (and I may be wrong on this) that there are a lot of people who would like to see Fannie Mae’s mortgage records disappear.  Remember that many of the executives who made millions in bonuses from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for increasing the number of subprime mortgages during the runup to the failure are still very active and powerful in Democrat party politics.

About Those SUV’s

We all remember the quote:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times . . . and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.”

That was Barack Obama on the campaign trail.  That was then; this is now.  As a not-so-young person who is very sensitive to cold, those words were not comforting.  My house is probably at 70 degrees or so (thanks to two pellet stoves), and I like it that way.  I really have no intention of letting the rest of the world vote on what they think my comfort level should be.  Unless they are willing to pay my utility bills, I really don’t think they should have a voice.  Ok, so why am I bringing this up?

On his first full day at the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket on.  That’s not a problem for me– he’s allowed to be comfortable in his own office–but there was a comment with the photo.  Barack Obama hates the cold and had cranked up the thermostat.  I can totally identify.  I wouldn’t even by complaining except that his campaign quote sounded as if he was not willing to afford me the same privilege.  Tell you what–I won’t complain about his warm office if he won’t complain about my warm house.

This Is Dedicated To Anyone Feeling Cold Out There

According to an article in Power Line Blog yesterday, the snowy owl, a native of the far north has been moving south.  In Tennessee, bird watchers spotted the first snowy owl to be seen in the state in 22 years.  I’m not sure what this means long term, but it is obvious that at least for this winter, global warming has taken a holiday!  It seems as if the predictions of the late 1970’s which heralded a coming ice age may have been more accurate.  I guess the bottom line is that you really can’t expect a science that cannot successfully predict next week’s weather to tell us what is going to happen twenty years from now. 

As I have said before, one of the best websites to refute global warming is wattsupwiththat.com.  Today, their lead article is about a mature Arctic Ivory Gull spotted in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  A mature Gull of this species has not been spotted in Massachusetts since the 1800’s.  The entire article can be found at PatriotLedger.com.

So much for global warming.

About That First Bailout

There is a very interesting article at Townhall.com about the money from the initial bank bailout.  It seems that a number of local banks are backing out of the government bailout.  They are looking at the strings attached to the money and deciding that they are not interested.  One bank, Fidelity Bank in Dearborn, Michigan, had originally applied for bailout money in November, but when the directors realized that if they took the $29 million they had applied for, the government would have owned 25 per cent of the bank’s stock, they decided to refuse the money.  Many of the smaller banks were not involved in the subprime market, so they are not in trouble, and the strings attached to the bailout money make it very unattractive unless a bank is desperate.

Congress is pushing any bailed-out bank to make loans to help the economy, but if the jobless rate is high, the number of good loans applied for goes down.  The smaller banks did not want the government telling them to loan money when they did not consider the loan wise.  It was pressure put on banks by the government and by such groups as ACORN that caused many banks to make bad loans and caused the lending crisis in the first place.

The smaller banks are also leery of the government changing the rules in the middle of the game.  Government regulations on banks and businesses are a nightmare now, if you add to that bailout money, the freedom of business to operate independently from government will be in jeopardy.  Just a note along those lines–I have heard it suggested that judges in bankruptcy court be allowed to change the terms of mortgages in order to avoid foreclosure.  Has anyone considered what that will do to contract law?  If a mortgage can be changed without the consent of the lender, what good is a mortgage contract?

What First Amendment?

There is a posting at CNSNEWS (I had a lot of trouble linking to their website, hopefully whatever problem there was is fixed by now)regarding the dustup about the misquote of Rush Limbaugh last week.  If you listen to the whole quote, what Rush essentially said is that he hoped that if Barack Obama’s policies were socialist, they would fail.  There was nothing in the quote saying that he wished failure for Barack Obama.  He further stated that his wish was for the success of America.  If you listen to the network news, that was not the quote you heard.  Well, the Democrats know a political opportunity when they see one, and their view of opposition is that it needs to be silenced.

The Democrats have launched an online website where anyone can express their outrage at the comments of Rush Limbaugh.  Why?  Isn’t he entitled to an opinion just as everyone else?  He has earned his place in the political discourse, and to use a misquote to try to discredit him is dishonest and unAmerican.  Where was the website to express outrage at the comments of Jeremiah Wright or William Ayers?

The Wall Street Journal On The Stimulus Bill

Today’s Wall Street Journal has the information on what is in the current stimulus bill.  I also found information at the Republicans House Budget Committee Website

This is what I found in the Wall Street Journal.  There is $1 billion for Amtrak, $2 billion for child-care subsidies, $ 50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $ 400 million for global warming research, $ 2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects and $ 650 million to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.  Less than 5% of the bill (about $ 30 billion) is for fixing bridges or highway projects.  There is also $ 40 billion for broadband and electric grid development.  There is $20 for business tax cuts.  According to Wall Street Journal estimates only about $ 90 billion out of the $ 825 billion (about 12 cents out of every dollar) is for something that could possibly be considered growth stimulus.

There is also a considerable amount of money for “transfer payments”.  These are benefits given to individuals who are doing nothing to help the economy.  Some of these may be a good idea to help people in need, but they are not stimulus.  These benefits include an $ 83 billion earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax.  We are reaching a point where it will pay not to work in America. 

There is also $66 billion for education–$ 6 billion for university building projects.  Written into this part is the stipulation that none of the money shall go to provide financial assistance to students attending private elementary or secondary schools.  The Democrats have never liked voucher programs, but how many of them send their children to public school?

According the the Republican Caucus Committee on the Budget  (these figures are based on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the bill) only 7 per cent of this money will be spent in 2009 ($ 26 billion), and less than half–38 per cent–will be spent in the first 2 years.  The plan spends about $ 54 billion on 19 programs that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has analyzed and described as “ineffective” or “results not demonstrated”.

This bill is going to create massive debt and little or no positive results.  The President can get this passed without the Republicans.  Let the Democrats pass it and take the credit for it.  If it succeeds (which will happen right after pigs fly), they can bask in their glory.  If it fails miserably (about a 99.9 per cent possibility), the Republicans may be able to pass something that might actually do some good. 

 

Economic Stimulus

I haven’t said much about the economic stimulus package that will be voted on tomorrow because I’m not really sure I understand it.  It seems to be changing as it goes.  There is a short article at AskHeritage.org detailing the amount of the bill and some of its effects. 

According to the article, passage of this bill would add $6,700 in debt to every household in America.  Barack Obama is stating that spending $800 billion will create 3.7 million new jobs.  This works out to a cost of over $200,000 per job.  Where can I go to find a job like that?

Basically, the plan has a lot of pork–it transfers wealth from the private sector to the government, which is not the way to grow an economy.  We have learned from history that growth comes when you shrink government–not when you grow it.

Move Along, There’s Nothing To See Here

The New York Post is reporting today that former President Clinton received 5 million dollars from overseas sources for speaking engagements.  One of the main sources of the income was Saudi Arabia.  The former President is entitled to earn as much as he can legally, so I guess it makes no sense to complain, but it does make you wonder, when the situation is so volatile in the Middle East if we should have the spouse of the Secretary of State receiving large amounts of money from some of the countries in the region.

 

Brazil Understands What A Stimulus Package Is

According to Monday’s Investor’s Business Daily the country of Brazil is going to expand offshore drilling as well as continue to lead in biofuels.  Brazil understands the concept that energy independence is a part of prosperity and economic growth.  The article recommends that we in the United States learn from the Brazilian example.  Offshore drilling would probably end the financial crisis in California within a year.  There are areas of the California coast where there is so much oil available that it is seeping up through the ground naturally.  The US Department of Interior has a website which talks about this phenomenon, see seepage.  Why not simply grab the oil and refine it?

We need to remember that reasonable prices of energy are not guaranteed.  We have learned this a number of times over the past thirty years.  Developing our own sources of energy makes sense financially and as a security measure.  Anytime the price of oil and gas has gone down, it goes right back up as soon as we get used to its being low.  We need our own sources of energy.

President Obama Does First Formal Interview With Al-Arabiya

According to ABC News, Barack Obama’s first formal television interview will be with Al-Arabiya, the Middle East cable channel.  Al-Arabiya is based in Dubai and has an estimated potential audience exceeding 23 million in the Gulf region.  I know he wants to reach out to the Arabs in the Middle East, but I wonder about the wisdom of this.  One of the things we need to remember is that there are cultural differences between western and Arab societies.  Any action in an Arab culture seem as weakness results in an attack on the person perceived as being weak.  I hope this interview is not viewed by the Arab street in that light.

Timothy F. Giethner Is Now Secretary Of The Treasury

According to Hot Air Timothy Geithner has now been confirmed as Secretary Of The Treasury.  The vote was 60 to 34 (ten Republicans voted yes).  The list of Republicans who voted yes is:

Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Ensign
Graham
Gregg
Hatch
Shelby
Snowe
Voinovich

Susan Collins stated that she could not vote for a tax cheat as Secretary of The Treasury.  Orin Hatch commented that he thought there was a double standard for nominees–if Giethner had been a Republican, he would have been attacked by the Democrats and the press, and would never have made it out of committee.

I worry for our country when we put men in leadership who do not respect the laws they are supposed to be willing to support.

Why Should Congress Spend Time On Anything Important?

Representative John Conyers of Michigan has subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the Bush administration’s firing of U.S. attorneys and prosecution of a former Democratic governor.  According to the Washington Times:

“The subpoena commanded Rove to appear for a deposition on Feb. 2 on the firings of U.S. attorneys for political reasons. Conyers also demanded testimony on whether politics played a role in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat.”

With all the current financial issues the country is facing, I believe that this is a total waste of time and money.  The U. S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President.  There is nothing wrong with firing them.  This is not only a waste of time, it is a witch hunt designed to take attention away from a very unsuccessful Congress.

Whatever Happened To?

Remember that ethics investigation of Charles Rangel that was supposed to be completed by early January?  Don’t look now, but it’s late January and nothing is happening.  According to an article in today’s New York Post:

“The panel created on Sept. 24 to probe the Harlem Democrat’s alleged ethical lapses has been virtually disbanded, after meeting only twice in four months on the matter, The Post has learned.

Of the four congressmen named to look into the powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman, only one remains – Alabama Republican Jo Bonner. The three others left the Rangel probe last month when they were “rotated” off the 10-member Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.”

The investigation is currently inactive and won’t become active until three incoming committee members are assigned to it later this month (they don’t have much month left).  Congressman Rangel is charged with income tax evasion, failing to report income on his financial disclosure statements and various other financial missteps.  Since the Democrats choose not to deal with this problem, it will be left up to the residents of his district to remove him by voting someone else in.  Unfortunately, that is not going to happen, and there in a nutshell is the problem with Washington–the voters.  If the American voter does not care enough about ethics to vote an unethical congressman out of office, why should the congressman care about ethics? 

Guantanamo ?

There is an article in todays New York Post written by former Army Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Cucullu detailing some of what actually happens (and does not happen) at Gauntanamo.  According to the article:

“Considering that Guantanamo is one of the most inspected, highly supervised and stringently disciplined facilities in the world, I’m surprised it continues to be so misrepresented. I toured Guantanamo five times over the past three years and was greeted with absolute transparency. “Where do you want to go, what do you want to see?” authorities asked. “We’ll take you any where with no notice.” I took them up on their offer and walked all of the blocks, hospital, library, food prep, and interrogations.”

The article lists the details of the care of the detainees–they receive medical care and they are given special meals to celebrate their religious holidays.  The article also relates the fact that the detainees routinely mistreat the American military personnel guarding them there.

Before we spend too much of our energy sympathizing with these detainees, we need to look at what has happened when supposed ‘innocent’ detainees are released.  About 11 per cent of them have been recaptured on the battlefield.  One released detainee is now heading Al Qaeda in Yemen.  We need to think more carefully about what will happen to these people if we close Gauntanamo.

Vacation Notes

There is nothing more boring than hearing about someone else’s vacation, so you have my permission to stop reading now; however, I might have some interesting notes.

I spent the last week in Jacksonville, North Carolina, visiting children and grandchildren.  Jacksonville has the youngest population of any city in the United States.  That’s because of a rather large Marine base hosting the majority of that population (and a few other military installations in the area).  During my week there, I was privileged to meet some of the young (and sometimes not so young) men and women who proudly serve this country in the military (and their families).  To say I was impressed is a total understatement.  If they are the future of our country, we are in good hands.

Just a few thumbnail sketches:

A Cobra (attack helicopter) pilot who had a college degree in Foreign Service Studies.  She was planning to get out before retirement because she believed in the concept of the “citizen soldier”. 

A Cobra pilot who had gotten back from Iraq recently who had extended his tour there because he was single and wanted to give a married man a chance to go home before him.

An aircraft mechanic (of some sort) (actually, I met his wife) who had just left for Iraq.  She was proud of her husband and what he was doing and was calmly keeping things running smoothly at home.

An enlisted person about to enter training to be a drill instructor–sharp as a tack and dedicated to serving her country.

There were many others–these are the highlights.  My conclusion was that we need to thank all of our soldiers and their families for the sacrifices they make.  We can be proud of the soldiers who are defending us–they are a class act!

Addendum To Article Below

As we watch Barack Obama remove any blocks to abortion, I would like to post a quote from a letter written by Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, many years ago.

“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Margaret Sanger’s December 19, 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon’s Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.

According to the CDC/National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion/Division of Reproductive Health, 1600 Clifton Rd., N.E., MS K-21, Atlanta, GA 30333. (E-mail:cdcinfo@cdc.gov.)–

“In the 35 reporting areas for which race was provided, classified according to the same categories used in previous years, approximately 53% of women who obtained legal induced abortions were known to be white; 36%, black; and 8%, other; for 3%, race was not known (Table 9). The abortion ratio for black women (491 per 1,000 live births) was 3.0 times the ratio for white women (165 per 1,000), and the ratio for women of the nonhomogeneous “other” race category (347 per 1,000) was 2.1 times the ratio for white women. The abortion rate for black women (29 per 1,000 women) was 2.9 times the rate for white women (10 per 1,000), and the abortion rate for women of other races (19 per 1,000 women) was 2.0 times the rate for white women.”

The above information is taken from 2003.  To summarize all of the above numbers, we are legally killing three times as many black children as white children through abortion.  Is that the racial equality we want in this country?

Sometimes Moral Issues Are Also Financial

On Friday, President Obama issued an executive order to rescind what is knows as the “Mexico City policy”.  According to Yahoo News, there will no longer be a ban on giving taxpayer money to overseas organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion information.  At a time when America is struggling financially and Americans are struggling financially, why are we sending more money overseas for a purpose that many Americans do not support.  I have a few questions on this issue.

In reference to the war on terror, the supposed gripe the terrorists have with America is that we are an immoral culture (the great satan)–doesn’t this ruling further justify their claim?   Is abortion a moral issue?  Now that we have ultrasound pictures of babies in the womb from a very early age, should we acknowledge that this is a human life that we are ending?  Has anyone noted the irony that our most pro-abortion president is a black man and that abortion statistics show that a disproportionate number of black babies have been killed by abortion.  

I firmly believe that if the life of a mother is at stake and a child needs to be aborted, the woman and her doctor should be allowed to make that decision.  I question the idea that killing a child for the sake of convenience is good for society or good for the woman involved (not to mention the child). 

Bailout = Pork

One of the problems with the idea of the taxpayer bailout of any industry or financial institution with the right connections is that the right connections matter.  Many (not all) Congressmen love to bring home pork or money for their districts or states.  Massachusetts  was the poster child for that idea with the ‘big dig’, a highway project that went massively over budget and then had major problems.  Well, Massachusetts is still looking for federal money (despite high state taxes and major revenue problems of its own).

According to the Wall Street Journal, Representative Barney Frank interceded on behalf of Boston’s OneUnited Bank, and the bank received $12 million of the TARP program money. The Treasure Department had stated that it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending.  OneUnited Bank was not a healthy bank.  Aside from its cash flow problems, there were other issues.  According to the article:

“On Oct. 27, the FDIC and Massachusetts bank regulatory officials, alleging poor lending practices and executive-compensation abuses by OneUnited, slapped it with a strong enforcement action, a cease-and-desist order. Among other things, the officials told the bank to get rid of a 2008 Porsche for executives.

Mr. Cooper, the bank’s attorney, dismisses the order as a “hastily cobbled together” action. “What we are talking about is a hiccup, a blip on the screen of an otherwise-stellar enterprise,” he says. Asked whether the bank had sold the Porsche, he said only that it was complying with the order.”

This is not wise spending of our tax money.  It leads me back to the idea that the only way to fix Congress is with term limits.  With few exceptions, our Congressmen are not working for us–they are working to fill their own pockets and to stay in office.  It would be interesting to check the net worth of an incoming Congressman with his net worth upon leaving office and see how the two numbers compare.