Monday, October 13, 2008

Is the Community Reinvestment Act responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown?

The following post is in response to a video link emailed to me:

First, how can the 30 year old CRA be responsible for the mortgage crisis, given the following fact?
More than 3/4 of subprime loans were not governed by CRA regulations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act#cite_note-Yellen-61
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=did_liberals_cause_the_subprime_crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/memo-to-republicans-cra-h_b_127599.html

Now, you assert that ACORN and low-income minorities are at fault in this financial crisis. Therefore, the loan officers and lending institutions are not to blame. The following must merely be tangentially related to the economic mess we are in:

When the Tech Bubble burst, some 8 years ago, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to 1%. This was an effort to stimulate an economic recovery from the recession. The stock market is abysmal, mortgage rates are attractive, and real estate becomes popular. The Housing Bubble begins to expand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XhvG_fD0HA

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20070418_subprime_mortgage_morality_a1.asp?caret=3c
Moral hazard is an economic and insurance term that describes how people behave recklessly when they're insured or protected in some way. If you sell flood insurance, people will build on flood plains. If you make airbags and anti-lock brakes standard in all cars, people will drive faster and tailgate more closely. If you introduce fat-free cookies (fat-free, but still loaded with calories), people will eat more cookies than before, and get just as fat.
...
In the last four years or so, mortgage standards became lax because each link in the mortgage chain collected profits while believing it was passing on risk to the next link in the chain. Brokers weren't lending their own money, so they were pushing risks onto the lenders. Lenders sold mortgages soon after underwriting them, pushing the risk onto investors. Investment banks bought the mortgages and chopped up mortgage-backed securities into slices, with some slices being less risky and other slices being more risky. Investors bought securities and hedged against the risk of default and prepayment, pushing those risks further along. All of these businesses accepted profits and tried to leave the next guy vulnerable to risk. Participants thought they were insulated from the negative consequences of bad decisions. That's an example of moral hazard.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20070315_incentives_mortgage_market_deal_a1.asp?caret=3a
The people who take applications, the companies that lend the money, the appraisers who check property values, the investment banks that sell mortgages to investors and the investors themselves -- all had millions of reasons to keep mortgages flowing to borrowers who couldn't afford them. Each reason had a dollar sign attached to it. As long as each participant kept saying yes to risky borrowers, everyone made money.

Loan Officers
Brokers and loan officers make their livings by persuading people to get mortgages. There's no profit in telling an applicant that he has no business buying a house. Except in cases of flagrant fraud, brokers and loan officers don't suffer consequences if their customers later fall behind on their house payments.
Appraisers
Appraisers are told by mortgage brokers and loan officers: "I'll give you all the work you can handle, but just don't kill any deals," says Jonathan Miller, president and chief executive of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers, in Manhattan. "If you kill just one deal, you won't get any business."

"The lending sector has really driven out a vast number of qualified experts to be replaced by an army of form-fillers -- basically, appraisers that simply 'make the number.' That's their job," Miller says.
Lenders
Behind the brokers and loan officers are the companies that do the actual lending. During the nonprime boom years of 2003 to the middle of 2006, lenders had an incentive to approve mortgages to uncreditworthy borrowers because lenders don't hang onto loans for long. They sell most home loans to investors. Lenders thought they were in the clear after selling loans: If the borrower fell behind on the payments, the investor -- not the lender -- would face the consequences
Secondary Mortgage Market
investment banks and a few big lenders collect fees by packaging and selling bundles of mortgages. As long as borrowers keep getting approved for mortgages, these companies earn fees. It's not in their interest to halt the gravy train.

Bundled loans are sold to investors as mortgage-backed securities. Most nonprime mortgage-backed securities are thought to end up in the possession of hedge funds, pension plans and Chinese millionaires who think they know what they're getting into. These investors clamored for high-yield bonds, and one of the best ways to create high-yield bonds is to underwrite high-interest, risky mortgages. Lenders were responding to demand from eager investors as much as they were responding to demand from nonprime borrowers.

It turned out that investors can force lenders to buy back loans that go bad soon after the loan is sold. Buybacks were relatively rare until 2006 because house prices were rising quickly. Troubled borrowers could sell their houses quickly and for a profit, removing bad loans from investors' books.

But in many places, house prices stagnated or fell in 2006 and fewer people applied for mortgages. Subprime and Alt-A lenders became more reckless in their lending decisions in an intensely competitive market. Lots of new borrowers fell behind on their house payments within just two or three months. Rather than lose money on the inevitable foreclosures resulting from these "early payment defaults," investors forced lenders to buy back hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans.

More than 20 subprime lenders have gone out of business or declared bankruptcy since December because they didn't have enough cash to buy back bad loans.



The Republicans have been having a lot of fun at the expense of ACORN recently:
ACORN pays poor people for each voter they register. Some poor people register fake voter names to get paid more money. To result in true voter fraud would require a person to show up at the polls with a fake ID showing that they are a fake person living at a fake address. ACORN loses money, and it gets blamed for "massive voter fraud" by the Republicans.

Do you know anything about ACORN? www.acorn.org

ACORN did not want poor people losing their homes.
ACORN fought to help prevent poor people from ending up in foreclosure.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/story_content.asp?story_uid=12525&prodtype=mtg
Friday, August 1, 2003
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency wants national banks to be exempt from state and local laws that aim to curb predatory lending.

A few cities and some states -- most notably, Georgia, New York and North Carolina -- have ordinances and laws that restrict certain lending practices. Among the forbidden practices: very high interest rates, long periods in which prepayment penalties apply, and lending on the basis of a home's foreclosed value rather than the borrower's ability to repay.
...
In a news release announcing the proposed regulation, Comptroller John Hawke says, "We have no evidence that national banks are engaged in predatory lending practices."

Hawke's see-no-evil statement draws rueful laughs from the likes of Lee and of ACORN, the Association of Communities Organizations for Reform Now. Lee's organization has filed complaints to the OCC about subsidiaries of Citigroup, and ACORN is campaigning against the lending practices of some affiliates of Wells Fargo.

The OCC's proposed pre-emption policy "is a backward approach," says David Swanson, ACORN's communications coordinator. "States are very carefully enacting good legislation protecting their homeowners, and that's because, you might argue, the federal government is not doing its job."


Rumors are rampant that 'low income minorities' caused this meltdown
  • What is another word for 'low income minority'? Black.
  • Why is this not racist? It is.
Recently, the Republican Party has been KKK-lite (half the flavor, all the calories).

Why are the Republicans spreading these false rumors?
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Thursday, October 9, 2008

A Stupid, Racist, Anti-Obama Piece of Spam (ASRA-POS)

I received an email from a relative today:

To All My Friends, this is very important, please take the time to read it.

This election has me very worried. So many things to consider. About a year ago I would have voted for Obama. I have changed my mind three times since than. I watch all the news channels, jumping from one to another. I must say this drives my husband crazy. But, I feel if you view MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with. About six months ago, I started thinking 'where did the money come from for Obama'. I have four daughters who went to College, and we were middle class, and money was tight. We (including my girls) worked hard and there were lots of student loans.

I started looking into Obama's life.

Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. 'Barry' (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan. During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a 'round the world' trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate's family, then off to Africa to visit his father's family. My question - Where did he get the money for this trip? Nether I, nor any one of my children would have had money for a trip like this when they where in college. When he came back he started school at Columbia University in New York. It is at this time he wants everyone to call him Barack - not Barry. Do you know what the tuition is at Columbia? It's not cheap to say the least! Where did he get money for tuition? Student Loans? Maybe. After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000 a year. Why Chicago? Why not New York? He was already living in New York.

By 'chance' he met Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, born in Aleppo Syria, and a real estate developer in Chicago. Rezko has been convicted of fraud and bribery this year. Rezko, was named 'Entrepre neur of the Decade' by the Arab-American Business and Professional Association'. About two years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Do you have any idea what tuition is for Harvard Law School? Where did he get the money for Law School? More student loans? After Law school, he went back to Chicago. Rezko offered him a job, which he turned down. But, he did take a job with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Guess what? They represented 'Rezar' which is Rezko's firm. Rezko was one of Obama's first major financial contributors when he ran for office in Chicago. In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama which Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendelland claims was instrumental in providing Obama with 'seed money' for his U.S. Senate race. In 2005, Obama purchased a new home in Kenwoood District of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than asking price). With ALL those Student Loans - Where did he get t he money for the property? On the same day Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price. The London Times reported that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born Billionaire loaned Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before Obama's new home was purchased. Obama met Nadhmi Auchi many times with Rezko.

Now, we have Obama running for President. Valerie Jarrett, was Michele Obama's boss. She is now Obama's chief advisor and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz, Iran! Do we see a pattern here? Or am I going crazy?

On May 10, 2008 The Times reported, Robert Malley, advisor to Obama, was 'sacked' after the press found out he was having r egular contacts with 'Hamas', which controls Gaza and is connected with Iran. This past week, buried in the back part of the papers, Iraqi newspapers reported that during Obama's visit to Iraq, he asked their leaders to do nothing about the war until after he is elected, and he will 'Take care of things'.

Oh, and by the way, remember the college roommates that where born in Pakistan? They are in charge of all those 'small' Internet campaign contributions for Obama. Where is that money coming from? The poor and middle class in this country? Or could it be from the Middle East?

And the final bit of news. On September 7, 2008, The Washington Times posted a verbal slip that was made on 'This Week' with G eorge Stephanapoulos. Obama on talking about his religion said, 'My Muslim faith'. When questioned, 'he made a mistake'. Some mistake!

All of the above information I got on line. If you would like to check it - Wikipedia, encyclopedia, Barack Obama; Tony Rezko; Valerie Jarrett: Daily Times - Obama visited Pakistan in 1981; The Washington Times - September 7, 2008; The Times May 10, 2008.

Now the BIG question - If I found out all this information on my own, Why haven't all of our 'intelligent' members of the press been reporting this?

A phrase that keeps ringing in my ear - 'Beware of the enemy from with in'!!


I thought the Snopes.com response was so terse as to be lame:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/money.asp



1.) What is the source of this email?
Would you believe information from Philip Morris about how tobacco prevents lung cancer? Who authored this email, and did they really change their mind 'three times'?

Relying upon spam as a source for news and information is bad form. This practice will result in your medicine cabinet being full of bust and penile enhancers and your bank account being moved to someone Nigerians account.


2.) Money For School
Obama's educational background is radiant (source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama):
  • Columbia University - majored in political science with a specialization in international relations.
  • Held a position as a research associate at Business International Corp. in its financial services division, where he edited Financing Foreign Operations, a global reference service, and wrote for Business International Money Report, a weekly financial newsletter.
  • 3 years as a community organizer in a poor area of Chicago.
  • First black president of the Harvard Law Review.
  • Graduated with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School
  • 12 years teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School
  • Worked at a law firm specializing in civil rights litigation during the 12 years he taught at the University of Chicago
Obama told the crowd that when she and her husband left law school, the monthly payments on their school loan debt was more than their monthly mortgage payment. She said they only got out of that debt when Barack Obama wrote his two books, "The Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams from My Father."
...
Both Obamas graduated from Harvard Law School.


So, how did the Obamas pay for all this education?
  • they worked their way through school
  • they took out student loans
  • their families helped out
  • they qualified for scholarships

Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School. Let the that sink in. Now, doesn't it seem like a stupid question to ask how he paid off his student loans?


3.) Drugs
Is this relevant to anything? Perhaps your reasoning is:
Obama did drugs and yet he is a brilliant Presidential candidate.
Therefore, you must not vote for Obama, because doing so is promoting drug use.
Interesting logic...

Obama on America's addiction to prisons:
Obama on medical marijuana:
John McCain on medical marijuana (stark contrast):

So, while we are on the subject of drugs, did you know that America has the largest prison population in the world? Yes, even larger than China in terms both of number and ratio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_the_United_States#Incarceration_rate
Nearly 1 million of America's 2.3 million inmates is serving time for a non-violent offense.

In 2002, 93.2% of prisoners were male. About 10.4% of all black males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 29 were sentenced and in prison, compared to 2.4% of Hispanic males and 1.3% of white males.

In 2005, about 1 out of every 136 U.S. residents was incarcerated either in prison or jail.[14] The total amount being 2,320,359, with 1,446,269 in state and federal prisons and 747,529 in local jails.

Prisons are big money. They generate lots of jobs. Ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the might of California's prison guard union:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/08/MNL512Q96A.DTL

Support the Prison Industrial Complex by making more laws and mandating tougher sentencing. Overturning Rowe v. Wade will boost the incarceration numbers.


4.) Traveling Abroad & Foreign Friends
Scary fact: When I attended university, I had a couple friends from India and Pakistan. In fact, we discussed my traveling abroad to visit their homes. It would have been a great experience. BOO!

Where did the money come from? His family.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/us/politics/10obama.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
According to his campaign staff, Mr. Obama visited Pakistan in 1981, on the way back from Indonesia, where his mother and half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, were living. He spent "about three weeks" there, Mr. Obama's press secretary, Bill Burton, said, staying in Karachi with the family of a college friend, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo, but also traveling to Hyderabad, in India.

Mr. Obama appears not to have previously cited his travel in Pakistan in speeches during the campaign. In "Dreams from My Father," he talks of having a Pakistani roommate when he moved to New York, a man he calls Sadik who "had overstayed his tourist visa and now made a living in New York's high-turnover, illegal immigrant work force, waiting on tables."

Mr. Obama, the campaign and his publisher have not provided any details about the identity of Sadik.

During his years at Occidental College, Mr. Obama also befriended Wahid Hamid, a fellow student who was an immigrant from Pakistan and traveled with Mr. Obama there, the Obama campaign said. Mr. Hamid is now a vice president at Pepsico in New York, and according to public records, has donated the maximum $2,300 to the Obama campaign and is listed as a fund-raiser for it.

Mr. Chandoo is now a self-employed financial consultant, living in Armonk, N.Y. He has also donated the maximum, $2,300, to Mr. Obama's primary campaign and an additional $309 for the general election, campaign finance records show.


5.) Tony Rezko
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rezko
  • Rezko was born in 1955 in Aleppo, Syria to a prominent Catholic family.
  • Rezko has raised funds for many politicians, both Democrats and Republicans:
    • Gov. Blagojevich, Comptroller Dan Hynes, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, former Chicago Mayors Daley and Washington, former Cook County Board President John Stroger, former Illinois Governors Jim Edgar and George Ryan, Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephens and he co-chaired a multimillion-dollar fund-raiser for President George W. Bush in 2003.
  • Rezko put together endorsement deals for Muhammad Ali, became the executive director of the Muhammad Ali Foundation, and traveled the world with Ali for five years.
  • Rezko and several others were indicted on federal charges in October 2006, for using their connections to the state boards to demand kickbacks from businesses that wanted to do business with the state. While the others pleaded guilty to the charges, Rezko pleaded not guilty and was found guilty of 16 of the 24 charges filed against him.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-rezko-storygallery,0,1028378.storygallery
Between Jan. 15 and Jan. 23, Obama submits three bids: $1.3 million on Jan. 15; $1.5 million on Jan. 21; and $1.65 million on Jan. 23.
...
Obama raised the possibility that he was the first to bring the lot to Rezko's attention.
...
"Tony asked me during the course of one of these conversations why I might not be interested in buying the lot and keep the property intact. And I said that, you know, it wasn't worth it to us to spend an extra $600,000 or so on a lot next door when Michelle and I were really interested in the house. So, he said, 'Well, I might be interested in purchasing the lot.' And my response was, 'That would be fine.'"
...
"And my thinking at the time, and this is just to sort of flag this, this is an area where I can see sort of a lapse in judgment. Where I could have said, 'You know, I'm not sure that's a great idea.' But my view at the time when he expressed an interest was that he was a developer in this area that owned lots, that he thought it was going to be a good investment. And my interest, or my motivation was here's somebody that I knew who, if this lot was being developed, it'd be better to have somebody who knew, who I knew, who you know would give me schedules, keep me apprised of what was taking place and so forth. So I didn't object."
...
"A larger lapse of judgment existed when it came to the strip of property," Obama said. "Because at that time, it became clear that Rezko was getting into bigger problems. And this was now a business transaction with him. And this is what I've referred to as a 'boneheaded' move. But it is in the context of, somebody, again, that I had known for a long time, who I was now a neighbor with; who, frankly, I did not think was doing me a favor because I was paying a substantial amount of money, and he continued to have a developable piece of property. In retrospect, this was an error. And I've said so publicly and repeatedly."


6.) Nadhmi Auchi
Nadhmi Auchi graduated in Economics and Political Science from Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, in 1967. He also worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development. In 1979 he founded General Mediterranean Holding SA of Luxembourg.
...
In recent years he has entered into several partnerships with Chicago-area businessman Tony Rezko, effectively coming to his rescue as his various investment schemes began collapsing. Auchi bought about 15 of Rezko's pizzerias in Wisconsin, according to court records. In 2005 he took a stake in Rezko's South Loop development at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street, a deal estimated by observers familiar with the details at $170 million.


What is his relationship to Barack Obama?
We are really stretching here. If there were actually a relationship, why would it matter?
Perhaps you are worried that Nadhmi Auchi is an Arab and a Muslim? Isn't that racist?
  • Nadhmi Auchi has business relations with Tony Rezko.
  • Tony Rezko has political relations with Barack Obama
  • so... if Barack Obama has a relationship involving even second degree connections to an arab of Islamic faith, then Obama is what? A terrorist sympathizer? Stupid.

7.) Valerie Jarrett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett
  • Valerie Bowman was born on November 14, 1956 in Shiraz, Iran, where her father, Dr. James Bowman, ran a hospital for poor children.
  • Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, is Professor Emeritus in Pathology and Medicine, University of Chicago.
  • Her mother, Barbara Bowman, is an early childhood education expert and co-founder of the Erikson Institute for child development.
  • Her maternal grandfather, Robert Taylor was the head of the Chicago Housing Authority in the 1940s. At age 5, the family moved to London for one year, then returned to Chicago in 1963.
  • She received a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.
  • She is a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, civic leader, and a senior adviser to 2008 Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

This is just extremely stupid. Valerie Jarrett was born in Iran, and that makes her what? A friend of arabs? We need to have a lynching, because we've got a damned Arab lover here. Get the rope.


8.) In an interview, Obama referred to his "muslim religion".
Here is the video of the interview being referred to, and if you believe that this is Obama claiming himself to be Muslim, then your intellect is undeserving of respect. Seriously.

Watch: ABC's Stephanopoulos interview with Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqIpdBOg6I


9.) An Obama advisor meets with Hamas
Perhaps you care to enlighten me as to why an expert on things "Middle East", learning from the actors in the theater and transferring his is knowledge to Obama, is threatening to you?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/943467,CST-NWS-Sweet11.article
Rob Malley, a Middle East policy adviser to likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, resigned after news surfaced that he had been meeting with Hamas -- something Obama pledged he himself would never do.
...
Malley is an analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based International Crisis Group, specializing in the Israeli-Arab conflict. He told NBC News that his job "is to meet with all sorts of savory and unsavory people and report on what they say. I've never denied whom I meet with; that's what I do."


10.) Foreign Campaign Contributions
It is not surprising that people of color across the globe may be excited at the prospect of a non-WASP in the White House. I would bet that some foreign campaign dollars have slipped into the campaign coffer. However, there is oversight by the FEC.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/05/rnc_to_file_fec_complaint_on_o.html?hpid=topnews
Obama campaign aides said today that a number of steps have been taken to safeguard against foreign or illegal contributions coming in in smaller increments. The measures include: requiring donors to present a passport at fundraising events held for Americans overseas, ending contributions to the Obama Store from contributors with addresses outside the U.S. or its territories, and requiring donors to enter a U.S. passport number when contributing via the Americans Abroad page.
...
And aides note that Sen. John McCain had his own foreign fundraising issues, having been forced to refund about $50,000 in donations solicited by Jordanian Mustafa Abu Naba'a, who was raising money on behalf of one of McCain's top Florida bundlers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/us/politics/07foreign.html?ref=politics
A New York Times analysis of campaign finance records, however, found $3.3 million in contributions in which the donor listed an abbreviation other than that of one of the 50 states or an American territory. That is about 1 percent of the $270 million in itemized donations over $200 that the Obama campaign has reported. The largest amount, about $2 million, came from people who list NA, presumably for not applicable, in the space where they would normally list a state. The other abbreviations listed included UK, for United Kingdom, and JP, for Japan. Others could simply be data entry errors.

Senator John McCain’s campaign received about $517,000 in contributions from such donors.

Donations from overseas are legal if the donor is an American citizen or has a green card. But federal candidates are barred from accepting contributions from other foreign citizens.

The Republican National Committee was hard pressed to furnish definitive proof that this was occurring with Mr. Obama.


11.) Beware of the enemy from within?
George W. Bush & Co.:
  • War Crimes
  • Torture
  • Patriot Act
  • Wire-tapping & surveillance of citizens
  • National Debt
  • Response to Hurricane Katrina
  • Firing non-Republican State Attorneys

"Terrorist!", "Treason!", "Kill Him!", "Off with his head!" -- (the McCain base is scary):





Who is Sarah Palin? (because McCain might not expire during his term... maybe)
  • Sarah Palin has a 4 year communications-journalism degree from the University of Idaho.
  • Participant in 1984 Miss Alaska pageant:
  • Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla for 9 years.
    • Wasilla, Alaska. Population: 5,469 (2000 census)
    • Georgia Dome: 75,000 seats
  • Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for almost 2 years.
    • Alaska. Population: 683,000
  • Can Sarah Palin respect the separation between Church and State? Only John McCain would risk that gamble.
    Separation of Church and State is what separates us from the likes of Shariah Law. America is not the Middle East. If something is against your religion, then refrain from it, but do not sign legislation forcing your religious beliefs upon others. If God's will was free-will for mankind, then mankind preventing free-will cannot be God's will. Leave non-violent acts of consent out of the legal system. Let God remove the wheat from the chafe. Leave your Religion at the State's door.
    • Palin would appoint activist judges to the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent women from having control over their private parts and their destiny:
      • Bristol made a choice to have a teenage pregnancy
      • Sarah Palin made a choice to give birth to a child with down syndrome
    • Anti-abortion extremist: even in cases of rape and incest
      • America already has the largest prison population in the world - we do not need to create religious punishments that expand it further.
  • The Interviews:
  • The 2006 Alaska Governor's Debates (hey, where is her folksy accent?):
    • This is a 1 minute video clip from a 2006 debate when Sarah Palin was running for governor of Alaska ('thanks but no thanks'):
    • The following is a 10 minute video clip from same 2006 debate:
      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1-B-OyQ-KI
        • against equal health care benefits for state employees with homosexual partners (she has no problem with discrimination against homosexual couples. From where does she derive her authority and superiority over homosexuals? Leviticus.)
        • anti-abortion, even in cases of rape and incest (she would choose life, and she would sign legislation that would force everybody to make her same religion-based choice)
        • anti-assisted suicide (she would choose life, and would sign legislation that would force everybody to make her same religion-based choice)
  • Mayor Palin abuses her power to help sell her house:




If the election goes forward without interruption, it appears doubtful that your voting against Obama will matter, so you might as well get to know the man you fear:
All your base are belong to us:
Political positions of Barack Obama:
Get to know his grandparents (he was raised by them from age 10):
His mom, an amazing woman, died of cancer at age 53 (health care is important to Barack Obama)
Health Care:


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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Pentecostalism: The Palin Doctrine


Why is the Pentecostal Religion important to the 2008 election?
Because Sarah Palin may be your next Vice President, and you owe it to yourself to know how she views the world. In a White House in which a 72 year old with a history of skin cancer would be President, the odds are against John McCain seeing the end of his term. The McCain/Palin ticket is heavy on the Palin.



Speaking in Tongues
The magic phrase for this article is: "Speaking in Tongues". If you are not familiar with the term 'Speaking In Tongues', then you are not alone, and you are in for a delightful lesson.

A core tenet of the Pentecostal religion is that you should be possessed by the Holy Ghost, and as a sign of this possession, you will utter mysterious words; words which are of a tongue foreign to you and foreign to those around you. These words may be of an earthly language, or they may be of an angelic language, but they are not gibberish. This communication is defined as your spirit corresponding with God on a spiritual level that is higher than your conscious self can comprehend. Sometimes, speaking in tongues is merely a one-on-one between the speaker and God. At other times, when 'the Spirit gives the utterance', the words are directed to the entire congregation of the church, and after a brief and silent intermission, a different person in the congregation will be gifted by God with the message that was given in an incomprehensible tongue just moments prior.


Note: The following video clips are not extreme examples. Occurrences such as these happen regularly at your local Pentecostal church. Sarah Palin grew up experiencing this!



The Gift of Tongues
Here is an example of someone displaying 'the gift of tongues', and this scene is a not at all uncommon after a Sunday night sermon:





Slain in the Spirit
Speaking in tongues is but one of the interesting aspects of the Pentecostal doctrine. I grew up seeing grown men break out in a full-speed run around the isles of the church. Here is a clip of folks being 'slain in the Spirit', and this is by no means an extreme example of a Sunday night service (it is the norm):




Here is a clip of "Holy Laughter". This is less common, but I've seen it happen a number of times at different churches:





Revelations
Growing up in the Pentecostal Church was extremely terrifying for me as a child. The second coming of Jesus Christ is central to the doctrine of Pentecostalism. I grew up absolutely terrified that tomorrow the skies would part, trumpets would sound, and I might fail to measure up to God's expectations and be 'Left Behind' to meet with an extremely bad fortune and ultimately be cast into a lake of fire.

It is not surprising that Bristol Palin is a pregnant teen. My sister was pregnant at 16. In my teenage years, I was dumfounded at the number of virtuous girls in my church who wound up pregnant. The kids in these churches want to experience life, yet they are taught that life may end at any second with Christ's return. With a twist of the blade, the poor kids are also told to wait until they are married before having sex. Having been taught that the blood of Christ will hide their sin's from the eyes of God if they beg Jesus to forgive them... (queue the porn music)

How would you feel as a young child if this message was bleached into your mind? Do you have any idea how extremely terrifying this is to a child?

The Second Coming of Christ:


Scare the Hell Out of Your Children:


I cannot embed this next clip, but if you have watched the above clips, you can probably guess why these kids are praying as if their very souls depended upon it:



The Gift of Prophecy
Prophecy plays a big role in the Pentecostal Church. This is far to broad a topic for me to even begin to broach here, and prophecy isn't exactly set in stone from preacher to preacher.

The words of Pastor Kalnin of the Wasilla Assembly of God church:
What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

Perhaps government subsidized beef?
The New Yorker(1998), 'Letter From Jerusalem: Forcing the End'


Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin is a Pentecostal Christian. I wonder if she has spoken in tongues?

Here Sarah Palin addresses members at the Wasilla Assembly of God


What does the worship service look like at the Wasilla Assembly of God? I bet this is a slow night.
source





In Conclusion
You must decide if you can accept that someone whose logic accepts the tenets of the Pentecostal doctrine is of sound mind to serve as President of the United States of America.

If you are a Pentecostal, then you are dancing in the Spirit, knowing that the hand of God will put Sarah Palin into the Oval Office. Because Sarah Palin is a Pentecostal, surely God will exude his will upon the world through her.

However, if you are not a Pentecostal, then this stuff probably seems rather unsettling and odd.

To me, by defining herself as Pentecostal, Sarah Palin has defined herself as a religious extremist. In my view, Pentecostals are to Christianity what Islamists are to Islam. Regardless of political persuasion, I prefer not to see extremists in positions of power.
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