Powers on Politics Issue II

Readers Beware: For those who are about to embark on this particular issue of Powers on Politics I have to warn you. First, this is going to be one of those things that if you already have high blood pressure you will want to put this down because it could cause your brain to explode. Second, there is so much information that I have had to sort through (and I am certainly NOT complaining) so I can only pray that I can put it out to you so that it is readable. It’s going to be hard to understand, I’m sorry about that, I’ll try to be as clear and make it as simple as possible, but there are so many layers in what I am about to tell you that it will be difficult to keep it easy. Now let me give you a little background before we get started….

Starting early last week a pair of closely related mortgage companies began having huge problems(or rather those problems became public). Stocks were falling, and it seemed that they were going to collapse completely. There were no companies or banks willing to take them over, because of some background information that I will get into more later, and therefore it seemed as though they were doomed to fail. Yet by Monday of this week, so the 15^th, the Feds reached out and took control of Fannie (I never know how to spell Fanny…Fannie…whatever) Mae and Freddie Mac. Now it cost a grand total of taxpayer money that is being rounded to about $1.6 Trillion (yeah that’s “rillion” with a T)mark. On Monday alone the government wrote out a nice hefty taxpayer dollar check of $200 billion dollars.

The next day-Tuesday for those watching their calendars-another mortgage giant by the name of the Lehman Brother’s was filing for bankruptcy. This time no one came to bail them out-halleluiah! However there were plenty of other companies having trouble including Country Wide, AIG, Bear Sterns, etc. In particular AIG began to tank badly on Wednesday and by the end of the day the government had announced that they would be spending $85 billion dollars on saving them as well. Is it just me or are we digging ourselves into a deeper hole? So that’s where we are…the real question is-what’s the WHOLE story?

Fannie & Freddie: Here’s the deal. Fannie and Freddie are a pair of companies that were created by Congress to buy mortgages from lenders then selling them in the form of securities that are guaranteed by them. Because they are sponsored by the government they get a special name-GSE-Government Sponsored Entities(so basically they were never independent-or private-industries they were always government run, now they are going to be MORE government run). In May 2000 Alan Greenspan(a Federal Board Chair member(I know parentheses in parentheses…he sounds important huh?)) said "(The GSE’s) were each chartered with the purpose of smoothing out regional imbalances in mortgage supply and integrating regional mortgage markets into the national capital markets. Much to their credit, they succeeded in accomplishing this goal many years ago." Despite this there were always concerns that these two GSE’s would actually act in the interest of the public…I wonder why? One big reason was due to the arrogance within the company managers, and because of the complexity both companies began to exhibit. For instance Fannie Mae recently admitted to making a $1 billion dollar error on their books (I’m beginning to see a problem…am I alone here?), then to reassure us further Freddie reported an error in the first quarter of 2001 of $111 million dollars and for five quarters between 2001 and 2002 (I’m still working out that math…I thought there were only four quarters in a year…?) Freddie overstated it’s income. Basically it seems both companies have been lying through their teeth.

So when-on the eleventh it was discovered that Fannie and Freddie were going to need a quick bailout and the government took control(or more control) of the pair there were people out there who weren’t happy. But wait it gets better, here’s how the top executives of the companies are doing. A man by the name of Franklin Reines (I’ll just apologize in advance for the spelling) who was a big Clinton budget guy left Fannie in 2004 because he was overstating earnings within the company by $6.3 TRILLION dollars (holy Moses is right!). Yet the case against him was settled for $24.7million dollars and all charges were dropped. Just to make sure justice was upheld, however, he also had to give back stock that he bought with $77 that was only worth $9, and had to pay an additional $2 million for an insurance policy…the only problem with that was that it wasn’t coming out of his own pocket, it was out of…YOUR pocket. $1.8 million was given to financially strapped individuals…except again it isn’t coming out of his pocket because he sued Fannie for it! What he gets in return for giving up all of this is $5.3 million in unspecified benefits, and a $114, 000 pension, and free life insurance for him and his wife until they croak…isn’t justice awesome!

Then we have another CEO from Fannie by the name of James Johnson, this guy was Obama’s Vice Presidential pick strategist, this guy got $1.9 million after cooking the books all in the upstanding quest to get a bonus every time-even when he didn’t make the grade for receiving a bonus. Now he gets big benefits in another office, though he had to reimburse Fannie for less than half of what he swindled from them.

Andy Fasto was a CEO from Freddie, had the same story as the Fannie pair, managed to get a good $37 million. Jeanie Gorlick who is apart of this as well was key in building up a wall to prevent communication between the CIA & FBI so that it was more difficult to charge the two companies on anything. You think these are bad…we aren’t done yet….

Recently three top Fannie executives left or retired from the company and they have some benefits that they are going to be receiving as well. Fannie CEO Daniel Mudd is to receive $8.4 million for compensation, Fannie’s former Chief Executive Richard Syron is going to get $15.5 million though it is said he might give up $8.8 million in a cash grant (he’s too kind!). Fannies former Chief Business Officer is due to get $1.6 million as soon as he’s terminated (we wouldn’t want to toss him out empty handed now would we).

This is some of the stuff that’s been going on behind the scenes, but before I can continue to describe just what caused these companies to fail (though I think we’re seeing some pretty good reasons right now) I need to get into AIG and the other companies first.

Lehman Brothers Gone, Merrill Lynch Taken Over, AIG Saved: On Monday along with everything that was going on with Fannie and Freddie the company Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was filing for Chapter 11 (I’m sorry but I can’t explain anything about this) bankruptcy protection, in an attempt to sell off key business units. Associated Press © 2008.

At the same time the bank Merrill Lynch was taken over by the Bank of America. This deal between the banks would create a banking company bigger than Citigroup Inc, the largest bank within the US, at the same time Merrill Lynch is the largest brokerage firm. The Bank of America chairman CEO Ken Lewis saw this as a HUGE opportunity(who wouldn’t?!)

Then we come to AIG, the world’s largest insurer, was beginning to tank on Monday. In an attempt to save AIG the governor of New York David Paterson allowed the company to get into one of its subsidiaries for an emergency loan. As stocks fell down to 60%, or $20 billion dollars AIG’s shareholder value was destroyed. By this time the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson was as adamant as the Bush administration about not bailing out any other companies on Wall Street. As Paulson put it he “never once” would make the American people save these companies. Come Wednesday, though, stocks were beginning to fall from an opening of around $3.82 to $2.15, then back up to $3.12 by 8:48am Mountain time. To save the day out came the government scooping up AIG into the same boat as Fannie and Freddie to prevent what many believed would be an unstoppable collapse of the financial sector, and worse the US economy; the announcement came on the local news at about 10:00pm Mountain time. Needless to say I died a little on the inside.

What’s Going On:
Okay, so this is all really confusing…at least for me. So I am going to use a story-while giving the full and complete credit to Glenn Beck for coming up with it on his Radio show, to explain. The way he explained it, though good, has a few things in it that I’m not going to put in here…just a little racy I think. Alright so let’s see if we can straighten out what’s been going on, on Wall Street.

Okay so you are living in a nice neighborhood, you are living in a fairly average sized house with a neighbor who has a house the same size. So you and your neighbor, both, are smart people. Then one day your neighbor leaves and comes back, and suddenly your opinion of him is beginning to fall a little. He went to Vegas and got married to…wait for it…Lindsey Lohan. Somehow you don’t think it’s going to work out, but your buddy assures you that everything is going to be okay.

Because your friend now is married to Lindsey Lohan he decides that he can upgrade his living a little, and he goes out and knocks down his house before rebuilding a bigger better one. Now you’re curious about how he can possibly afford this house, I mean yeah Lindsey’s rich but is she really THAT rich? So you ask him if he can really afford the house, and he tells you “Man do you have any idea just how drop dead gorgeous she is, she’s just something to look at!” Uh-okay. The conversation continues and soon you find out that Lindsey has a big-I mean HUGE collection of shoes. She loves shoes and she will spend anything to get herself any pair of shoes she wants. She even goes so far as to go out and buy a new pair of shoes or two every day. Soon you are just wondering how they afford those shoes, and you mention this to your friend who asks his new wife. She assures him that it’s okay because she’s “charging them”. You (and I for that matter) both know that this isn’t a good idea, and you say as much to your buddy who again says. “Yeah but she’s something’ to look at!”

After a while Lindsey has bought so many shoes that they have taken over the house to the point where your buddy is living in his vehicle while Lindsey is in the house with her shoes. Like any good friend you visit him occasionally but he still has it all right? Big house…that he doesn’t live in, lots of nice shoes…that he doesn’t wear because…well he’s a dude, and a wife to look at…livin’ the big life-yep. You know this can’t last so you go straight to Lindsey who tells you simply “The shoes are going to increase in value. We’re going to be VERY rich because these shoes are going for $4,000 a pair right now, but they’re definitely going up right now.” Meanwhile you’re thinking to yourself, uh…no. Those shoes ain’t worth ten bucks out of my pocket, whoever would purchase these for that much is an idiot…wait-Lindsey is buying these shoes…. “They are more than that, they have big brand names all over them!” Lindsey protests, but still you just shake your head she has no idea how the shoe market works. So the happy couple simply thinks you’re stupid because you don’t get it.

Finally you get your revenge (or rather you get to watch their world of shoes burn to the ground). The shoe store decides that it wants it’s money, it wants what Lindsey’s been charging. Nobody’s buying stupid shoes anymore, and they are definitely not buying them for $4,000. Now your neighbor and his wife Lindsey are panicked because they can’t possibly pay for all of those freakin’ shoes. Just when the problem looks insurmountable, however, the Monopoly Man comes over and begins throwing his money all over the place(you know that fun colored stuff that makes you rich in a totally fictional way?). He gives Lindsey all of this Monopoly money and says “here I’ll bail you out.” Happy as a clam Lindsey runs out and continues buying shoes. Now you think you are going to have a brain aneurism. Why is she buying more shoes! They are worthless! But, as usual, you buddy has a solution. “Monopoly money is good, see it’s green, and yellow, and orange, and blue, and it supports gay rights…you know rainbow colors!” You are beginning to wonder if there’s a sharp corner somewhere that you can bang your head on…it would be much less painful I’m sure. All the while Mr. Monopoly just keeps throwing out more fun money.

In the shoe market, however, life isn’t going so good. The shoe stores are getting ready to collapse so they run over to the Shoe Reserve and plead their case. “Our biggest Shoe company is about to fail…HELP US!” Not wanting to let the big shoe store to fail the Shoe Reserve calls up the Monopoly Man and tell him that if he will back up the shoes with the Monopoly money then they will take all the shoes and put them into the shoe reserve. Everyone thinks that’s awesome, I mean where better to put shoes than in the Shoe Reserve? Lindsey and all of her shoe debt is cleared and she’s free to learn her lesson and never do it again. The problem is Lindsey has a terrible disease called the Shoe disease and goes out and continues to buy shoes.

Lindsey doesn’t see a problem with this, she can get all the shoes she wants without a problem, and she thinks that no one can get hurt here. Wrong, let’s say-if you’re a woman (if not you now have a wife…congratulations!)-you decide you want a pair of shoes for yourself. Nothing fancy just a pair of tennis shoes to go jogging in. The only problem is that you can’t take out a loan from the bank for shoes because all of the Monopoly money is tied up in the Shoe Reserve. Only the big buyers like Lindsey can get to any of these shoes, so that people like you are going to have to be stuck wearing holey sneakers because there’s no money available for small time buyers.

This is-in essence(you know minus the shoes)-what happened with the big companies on Wall Street…hope that cleared something up. (Credit of this story belongs to Glenn Beck).

Blame Game: Now you’re probably beginning to wonder who we can correctly point a finger at so that everyone knows who caused this mess in the first place. First we have to go back to the Community Reinvestment Act started by President Carter in 1970. The idea was to make people like minorities, and poor people able to get loans from banks. In a study by the Boston Federal Reserve in 1992 suggested that there was racism going on within banks. For instance a black man and a white man went in to get a loan for a house for $80,000. The black guy doesn’t get the loan even though he has a net worth of $10 million, it was assumed that because a bank wouldn’t give a loan to a black guy with that sort of net worth it had to be racism. Needless to say it was rushed into Washington as fast as the poller’s legs could carry them, and Congress grabbed it.

Within the space of a couple of months another University came forward to point out some errors made within the raw data. Apparently the black guy who had $10 million in assets actually only had $1,000 in assets (you’d think someone could tell the difference between three zeros and what…five zeroes…if they can’t count maybe they shouldn’t be in such high offices. Just a thought). Because no one looked back and revised it, or ignored it if they noticed, it was just sent right over to Congress.

In 1992 more “discrimination” was documented when there was none. Banks were being accused of being racist because they had minimum lending requirements in place. So they could have a minimum of $10,000 because there’s no money for them at $2,000, or $20 thousand because there wasn’t any money in $10,000. Because of this they were being called racist (seems smart to me). If they asked people to verify their income they were racist. Due to the decision to revise the Community Reinvestment Act was put on the table.

The CRA entered the picture as a way to keep banks from being racist. Banks now had to verify to the bureaucracies that they weren’t being discriminatory, even when individuals simply raised their hands saying “Uh-excuse me CRA…I’m black…and I’m being hated on by the banks…yeah.” May god help the Bankers souls. ACORN-a community activist thing…began saying that things like criteria on income level, income verification, credit history, and savings history were outdated and unnecessary was discrimination. Feeling attacked, or flat harassed, Congress passed the law of sub prime mortgages. Now those who didn’t qualify 30 year fixed mortgage could still get into a home, and the banks were no longer able to be discriminatory. In 1994 there were less than 5% mortgages that were sub prime, the same poll taken again in 2006 showed that it had risen 15 percentage points to 20%. For those who don’t get what a sub prime is (I didn’t) it’s basically a lower mortgage that puts people in homes…you know serves the American Dream? It was forced upon every bank on every loan, and if it wasn’t followed through then you were classified as a racist bank or loan office. Worse if ACORN decided you were racist they would open up a branch nearby and in essence run you out of town by preventing you from defending yourself, as well as disabling your ability to merge with other banks. Because you didn’t do the low interest rate, or didn’t allow a mortgage without verification you were taken to task by Washington.

When J.P Morgan and Chase merged together the first thing they did was pay a huge donation toward ACORN, how better to protect yourself than by paying off those who are after you? Then the CEO of Freddie Mac made mortgage down payments more affordable as well as dropped down payments to all time lows. Everyone was thrilled.

President Bush, not to be left in the dust on the issue, sought to initiate a law that wanted to enact a zero down payment plan which took out the 3% down payment minimum for single family mortgages. Though Obama wants to see affordable housing for every individual that wanted it…you know ‘cause it’s a right….riiiiiight….

2007 brought out Barney Frank who was deeply disturbed by the discrimination within the mortgage grants in Boston saying that they must be addressed. At the same time Chris Dodd took credit in helping pass the Community Reinvestment Act along with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. There seemed to be only one person who was worried about what was going on. In reply to a question asked by Larry Kudlow, John McCain said this about that: “Absolutely there were people that predicted that the Community Reinvestment Act might lead to reckless and unsound lending practices just short of a fill in the amount of I don't like to use the word quota, but certain percentages of a home of the bank's lending practices, it has to be reexamined. It has to be judged by its effect. We need to find out how this particular system affected the overall insolvency of the subprime lending issue and I think I'm not saying it needs to be repealed but it certainly needs to be examined and what its effects have been and we'll be able to figure that out.” This while Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid want to create yet another government agency, this one to monitor mortgage companies, banks, and loan companies even more than it had ever been before.

Going back to Clinton’s presidency it was he who brought the Community Reinvestment Act back and boosted it’s power even further. These sub prime mortgages that were high-risk and are now held by many as greedy and worse “predatory”. These sub primes were on the market and were being traded around on Wall Street, this was doomed to be a train wreck from the beginning. It was also the Clinton administration that mismanaged the quasi-governmental agencies that began taking over the real-estate market in the US.

In 1999 a man (previously mentioned) that came fresh from the Clinton administration-Franklin Raines-took control of Fannie Mae using it for many (also previously mentioned) of his personal money needs. This all before he left in 2005. He wasn’t the only Clinton guy to get into all of this. Janet Reno’s aide Jeanie Gorelick also managed to get off with some $75 million.

Before Raines was kicked out he had managed to gone over to talk to a sub prime giant company Countrywide Financial, a company which ended up having to be saved from bankruptcy by Banks of America. During this same period Clinton was pushing for Fannie and Freddie to buy mortgage from low income households. This corruption is getting ready to really cost the taxpayers some big money, and the funny thing is…no one is calling for these individuals to get roasted like their counterparts at Enron did during that scandal.

Bailout, Yes or No?: Here’s the truth on my opinion on these bailouts. I don’t like them; I don’t think the government should have run to the aid of these companies because they were the ones that were stupid. I say out with the bad and let’s bring on the good guys. Besides this we are running up an incredible bill here on the credit of the US. I just plain don’t trust the government to do something right, after all they screw up so much stuff. Besides that I don’t want to see the American taxpayers get stuck with paying off these companies and those crooks that got them into this in the first place. But it has been brought to my attention by Glenn Beck(yeah I know I am a radio buff) that perhaps these bailouts are a necessary evil. Now I’m not just saying this information comes from Glenn, in fact I also am getting this from Mitt Romney as well. So here’s what they have to say.

Two days after announcing that they were bailing out AIG the Officials made an announcement that there would be some changes to their original plan. Now they are looking to allow the purchasing of car loans, credit card debt, and other devalued assets as well as the mortgages that could end up forcing the price tag on this lovely package to shoot up to $2 trillion. (Don’t have an aneurism, please, just stick with me.) So with all of this here is what makes the bailout a potential need.

Last week Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson(you know the Secretary Treasury guy) were trying VERY hard to bail out everyone. They were trying to build up a firewall without putting out the all too important figurative fire. After trying to throw up so many things that were meant to stop the meltdown nothing worked and the problem just kept getting bigger. These two were in the room with a bunch of democrats and republicans who are trying hard to just figure out what to do.

The big problem was that Wednesday night the entire market froze up, with everything beginning to collapse around the ears of the Wall Street guys. It was like a replay of October 30^th 1929, the day after the stock market collapse with stocks shooting up and down and no one really able to control it. So Bernanke-a guy who is an expert on the Great Depression-comes into the room and informs the room that the credit lines in the financial system have gone cold; they aren’t moving period. It was this close from totally ending the ebb and flow of lending within the United States, and people were running out of the country with insanely huge amounts of money.

Bernanke made it clear that if this wasn’t taken care of the complete failure of countless numbers of businesses, including those small mom-and-pop businesses would be wiped out within days. What was equally upsetting was that those BIG businesses that the US runs on were going to all out collapse and lay in ruins at the bemused feet of those in the room. When those who were within the meeting got out they were looking weak and shaken, Chris Dodd summed it up by saying “it was as sobering a meeting as any of us have ever attended in our careers here.”

This is all happening behind the curtain while we are all waiting for the show. What they are trying to do in Washington right now is slow down the crash. We are going to crash, but depending on what those in Congress and the Senate decide we might crash a little softer. Instead of slamming headlong into the cliffs we’re going to land in the lake. It’s going to hurt, it isn’t going to save everything, but rather than letting the entire thing to go down in a ball of flame we’ll sacrifice some to save the most important portion of the economy. Unfortunately we have to let some of this stuff burn to the ground, just like in a forest fire, you’ve gotta let the fire clean up the earth, but you also have to protect the important buildings in the nearby town.(Thanks again to Glenn Beck for such a useful metaphor!). You won’t be keeping every building safe, you’ll definitely lose homes, businesses, but those important can’t-lose buildings like the hospital will remain protected. We’ve gotta go for the lesser of two evils. If we don’t let it go out and burn down something then it’s going to burn down everything.

If any good news can come out of this it has to be that if those weasels in Washington can keep their greed in check then we might be able get through this looking like holey-cheese but without totally disintegrating ourselves. Basically what needs to happen is only those who are behind this whole mess-aka Mr. Raines, etc. should get roasted-THEY should be paying this not us. There are actually some individuals-you know the good guys-in Washington who want to keep the payment for all of this away from the American people, they want to see the evil people who were crooked paying for their mess.

However, at the same time-as of yesterday-the weasels are beginning to prevail. They are trying to shove all of this extra stuff into the bill, or law, or whatever, that they are trying to pass up on the Hill. They want to expand the loans and money stuff that’s covered in this bill from just mortgages and real estate to credit card debt, and a few other things that I mentioned momentarily above. That can’t be allowed to happen. In essence if this passes the way it is it will change our entire financial system, and it will bleed into the government as well, into a socialist system. People we need to stop this. We can-maybe-accept the bailout, but we can’t let our country be changed away from the democracy that it is. If you want to stop this I encourage you to go over to your phone and call your Senator or Congressman. Please help us stop this!

So Here’s the Scoop: This is most of the information that I could shove into this without totally overwhelming you…well that’s not true…but I hope no one suffered from a brain explosion. If you did I’m sorry, though you might not be able to read that I am at this point. Oh well, I warned you. If more information comes up I will bring it to you, for now…try not to scream. Again don’t forget that you can comment on this, I readily invite every comment from anyone. Thanks for reading, and again try not to have a panic attack.

Chene’

Works Sited: A friend who read the first issue suggested that I should put a way to show where I got my information from-you know a sort of Works Sited page, so that everyone can see what I’m talking about. She also suggested that I should put statistics in this, I think these links should cover it. Please feel free to look into all of these for yourselves.

Glenn Beck Transcripts: www.glennbeck.com

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/09_14-61/BUS

Alan Zibel AP Business Writer-Sept. 14, 2008 Answers To Your Fannie & Freddie Questions

http://www.creativeinvest.com/fnma/index.html

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac and Corporate Welfare

www.ibd.com

The Real Culprits in This Meltdown Mon. Sept. 15, 2008

www.cnn.com

By Glenn Beck Wed. Sept. 17, 2008

Powers on Politics Issue I i/2....

Remember 9/11/01 (9/11/08):
Today is the seventh anniversary of September 11, 2001. Last night as I said my prayers I didn’t forget the families of those who died in the terrible attack on the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and in that Pennsylvanian field. I knew that today would be especially hard for them, but it would be hard for everyone who remembers as well.
I started my morning by turning on Glenn Beck. I knew that for the first time since the attacks I would shed tears when I heard the old audio, and saw pictures, and heard memories. That’s what happened. Immediately Glenn Beck began talking about that day, he played a piece of audio that he has played every year since the first anniversary of the attacks. I was right-I did shed tears this time.
I remember where I was that day-I’m sure everyone who was old enough to understand does. I was only eleven(how long ago that seems) and I was with my mom in the car as she drove me to school. She had the radio on, and we heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York. I had never before heard of the Trade Centers, but New York was here. It was here in my country, it was in America. It was near enough to Boston, a place my mom used to live, that she had been there before. I knew New York.
Whatever happened that day at school is a mystery to me. I don’t recall if I watched footage, if it was talked about, if I just acted like I didn’t know because it seemed no one else did. I don’t remember that. I do remember waiting. I had to get home, and the day wasn’t ending fast enough. I wanted to be with my family, but there was no way I could get there until the school day was over. So I waited.
I arrived at home and found the television on, that’s where my memory returns. Seeing a deep horrified sadness on my mother’s face I could only ask- “Mom, what’s going on?” Thinking about it now I can only admire my mom for being able to give me an answer, for somehow making me understand. I don’t think I could explain it to a child, how could you? But she did, and I understood.
I hardly moved from the television screen that day. I sat, I stood, I paced, I asked questions all the while video of people’s bleeding and dirty faces running as a huge cloud of dust engulfed others behind them while the Towers fell, as well as other clips that we all can recognize played in front of my eleven year old eyes. I think I became an American that day.
Never again will I forget that even as a young sixth grader I knew that we had to fight back. I wasn’t going to just lie down dazed and wonder what had happened, I wanted us to do something back. I wanted us to defend ourselves.
At this point in my life I wasn’t listening to talk radio, but I did watch the news with my mother occasionally. It was through the news that I found out that our president George W. Bush would not allow America to shiver in fear, he wouldn’t just let us be attacked, he would fight for us. I watched his address to the nation when he told us all that we would be going to war, and I-like so many other Americans-was ready.
Now on the seventh anniversary I’m still ready. I know that the war we are fighting is right. We need to be over there, and we are doing good in the Middle East. I also know that I will not stand by while so many try to forget about September 11, 2001. The news will refer to it, all the memorials, in small stories that will be quickly passed over. They will not show us the images that covered our television screens that day. They are afraid of reminding us. They make pathetic excuses for not showing them. “It’s too fresh. It will hurt too much.” That, my friends, is exactly why they should show us those images. They should have been running them all day long on every news station on television. If we are not reminded we forget. If we aren’t shown how are we supposed to understand what we’re fighting for? We are not children, we don’t need protection. Sometimes we need to be shown things that could make us feel. Americans need to feel anger, pain, sorrow, all of the emotions that we felt as a single nation that day when those people died. Americans cannot forget.
I hope you remember where you were that day. I hope that you can picture in your mind the exact moment you found out. I hope that you see those images of the Towers falling as sharply in your mind’s eye as though you were watching it all over again. I hope you never forget. I hope you shed tears for your fellow country-men who died that day. And I hope you cheer for the victories we are achieving in a war that we never started, but was brought to our home. I hope you never forget who you are. Remember we are Americans.

Powers on Politics Issue I

About Me:
Hi, my name is Chene’ Tayler Powers. I live in a small town in Southern Utah called Gunlock and I’m eighteen years old. This is something that I never thought I’d be doing, but it has become extremely obvious that I need to do something to free myself from having to constantly yell at the radio when no one can actually hear my opinion. Not that the opinion of an eighteen year old matters to anyone. I have a few great passions in my life. First I love to write, I have written and am working on getting published two books-both fantasy-and I write about anything that comes to mind. I also like to read, I’m a fantasy genre buff, but lately I’ve been looking for more variety and am looking at some of the political books with interest. I also draw, I’m by no means an artist, but I enjoy drawing animals as often as I can, and I have a notebook full of them to prove how often that is. Next I play the violin, I love it! There is nothing better than music, if you cannot enjoy at least a single type of music than you aren’t living right. One day I hope that I could play for a movie Soundtrack. That goes straight to movies and acting. I’m an actor and have competed in school and done very well. I love movies too, there are few things as entertaining to me as going to watch a movie with friends, or even alone just to get away for awhile and relax. Besides that, I want to go into the science field sometime in my life. I want to study genetics, and do some good in that area of study. The possibilities in that realm are endless, and I have always loved the topic of genetics. Obviously I also like politics.
I was introduced to politics in the womb. My parents were listening to Rush before I was born, and afterward it never stopped. I listen to such greats as Rush, Glenn, Hannady, Lavine (pardon the spelling), and occasionally Savage. But it was mostly the influence of Rush and Glenn Beck that got me started on the possibility of sharing my opinions with others. I can only hope to at least be semi-entertaining in my small attempts to emulate my two biggest heroes.
As far as my family goes it’s actually rather large. My parents were divorced when I was eight, and both remarried so I have officially…wait gotta count on my fingers…soon to be twelve siblings besides myself…the twelfth is on it’s way by the end of this month. Luckily they don’t all live with me, that would be one crowded house! My brother Tyler, sister Ashton, and the twins Sage and Autumn live in Roy Utah with my mom and Step-Dad Chad. Here in Gunlock I’ve got three little brothers Hudson, Traycen, and David, and the one on the way. Chad has four kids, including Ariana and Skyler who live in Florida, McKaden who lives up north with his mom, and Alexis who lives with her mom-those are all my step siblings. Sometimes it’s hard, but it’s always fun.
That’s that, let’s get into the meat of this….





About Election 2008:
For those who may not be as on top of things in this election here is what you need to know….
On the Democratic ticket the Presidential candidate is Barack Obama. What’s he got going for him? Not much. Barack Obama served in the senate for a grand total of 736 days and during this space of time he passed no legislation and voted neutrally on almost everything that passed his way. He is most widely known for is a speech that he gave in 2002 (some credentials eh?) A few of his stances are these: He is pro-choice-which also means that any baby’s born after an abortion is failed he is willing to kill (I’m liking him more and more), he hates the rich, and wants to Change…(I wonder if he means his underwear…?) and he Hopes (don’t we all?). Not only will Barack Obama support the killing of your botched abortion baby but he also will proclaim himself on high as the One. That’s right the Lord Barry Obama is running for your votes. If you don’t vote for him he’ll sick a hurricane or earthquake on you…that’s just how good he is. Speaking of egos meet Mr. Joe Biden. This is a man who has been around almost as long as McCain (for those of you who haven’t seen McCain think Father Time), and when running on the ticket of Change doesn’t seem to really fit well. Despite all this he is for everything Obama is and more. The reason Obama chose him as his VP is because he has more experience than Obama does, and seemed like a safer bet when it came to foreign policy(since Obama wants to have a tea party with the terrorist leaders without pre-conditions…scary). Besides all of this he believes that “he is VERY much smarter than you!” You know I think we could run this country off of all the hot air on this ticket for at least the rest of my life-time. Take that Global Warming believers! Clean energy that!
Then we have the Republicans. Running for President is John McCain. What does he have that Obama doesn’t you ask? Well let me enlighten you. John McCain has been a senator for a long time, he has worked hard in Washington to “bridge the gap between the two parties” and is notoriously bipartisan (which is a fun word that means he likes to flirt with the democrats and liberals no matter how upset that makes republicans and especially conservatives). McCain most recently co-headed a bill with Ted Kennedy in the Senate asking for the legalization of all the illegal immigrants in our country so that they might be able to have equal opportunities (in the infamous words of Glenn Beck…riiiiiight). What’s worse is he tried to sneak it past the American people who, needless to say they didn’t exactly jive with this idea, and it was thrown overboard. Other than that McCain wants to keep the Bush tax cuts (yeah…), finish what we started in Iraq (yeah…), and is pro-life (YEAH!) He isn’t all bad, but he’s a little scary on immigration, the economy, and Global Warming (another fun topic we’ll discuss later). With McCain on the Republican ticket is a woman by the name of Sarah Palin. She is the governor of one of our most natural resource rich states in the country-Alaska (yay polar bears!). She has been governor for only one year, but has worked in the government system of Alaska for a few years now as a mayor, and before that she worked in her town as a PTA member who was out to fix the school system. She is a conservative through and through, she enjoys shooting animals in the wilderness (in fact I have a picture…maybe I’ll show it to you sometime), is pro-life, and is all for the death penalty. Not only that but this lady has fought corruption in Alaska ever since she started in politics, and she does it against both Republicans and Democrats…this woman isn’t picky. Now that we know whose running for President and Vice President we can make some more informed decisions.

Smearing Palin:
For the past-coming on two weeks now-and ever since John McCain announced that Sarah Palin was going to be his Vice Presidential pick the leftwing media and bloggers have launched an all out attack against her with outrageous allegations. Here is what I think about that…. Some extremely outrageous things are being thrown out there and I for one am disgusted by the lack of caring in the liberal blogosphere, and in the media. To begin with there are stories about her seventeen year old daughter Bristol. It came to light over the weekend that her daughter was five months pregnant, and the bloggers went nuts. Some are just calling her terrible names (the likes of which I won‘t be seen repeating), whereas others are taking it a step further. Palin had, earlier this year, a little boy (the fifth of five children) with Down’s Syndrome. The rumor has been flying around that Trig, the little boy, is not Sarah’s at all but her grandchild, and that Palin has been covering up a period of five months that Bristol was out of school by saying that she had bronchitis. Accusing Bristol of being the mother is absolutely ridiculous. Let’s look at the facts. Sarah had her son earlier this year-April in fact, and her daughter is five months pregnant. Please enlighten me as to how this could possibly ever happen! Besides this a photo of Bristol has been put on the internet highlighting her belly fat as a means of proving that she was pregnant-again let’s put on the brakes and find the truth. This picture, as uncovered by the researchers on the Glenn Beck program, is two years old. How humiliating it is for this poor girl to have to endure people she has never even met saying she looked pregnant at fifteen! I’ve looked at this picture and I can honestly say that she looks like any normal girl you see at school, and would never think was pregnant.
What kind of a sick society are we that we can ruthlessly attack a young teenage girl like this, but when it comes to Hillary Clinton’s daughter who spoke out for her mother during her campaign we aren’t to say a word against her? Or even when Obama makes comments like the reason he supports abortion is because “if my daughter’s make a mistake I don’t want them punished with a baby”? If a republican running for office said that the media would have a feeding frenzy! What sort of insane hypocrisy are these people promoting?!
Another smear has to do with Palin’s husband. The fact that he once had a DWI came up and-again-everyone jumped on that bandwagon as fast as they could. Again the facts were sought and it turns out that the DWI occurred twenty-two years ago, before Palin and her husband even met. I-like many others-would love to talk to Obama about what he was doing twenty-two years ago. Oh wait, we don’t have to, we already know. He was-and he has admitted this in his own biographies-doing drugs. Where’s the big to-do about that I wonder?
It seems the media left (I keep using this term, and I might be confusing people so let me clear this up real fast. Most of the media including news, newspapers, magazines, and a few others lean very left towards their political views and don’t always tell the truth-or rather aren’t always neutral journalists-in this case obviously there are some Obama supporters out there) is floundering for something to nail Palin on. More recently they have tried to blow what they call a HUGE scandal up to epic proportions. It’s called Trooper Gate. Currently Palin is being investigated for allegedly releasing an Alaskan state trooper because of family problems. The truth of the matter is this. This trooper is the husband of Palin’s sister and he has been found guilty of tasering his ten year-old step son, as well as telling his wife that if she tried to file a lawsuit against him he would kill her father. Because of those reasons Palin fired the trooper, I personally don’t see a problem with this. In fact with his record he should have been fired a long time ago. The guy has been given a speeding ticket while driving his police car, along with a long list of other violations and write-ups.
There’s also an e-mail going around claiming that Palin outlawed a bunch of books from the school library for no reason. Another untrue statement. Actually she never outlawed any books, or made any indication to do so. These are just a few of the MANY stories and allegations.
I am sick and tired of watching the media try to ruin the lives of good people just because they are on the opposing side of the isle. I wish that I could be in a place where I could trust the media(who strangely enough are supposed to be journalists)to give me the truth of what’s going on, not stoop to destroying seventeen year old girls. And you know what? Though I don’t think that Bristol Palin made the right choice in getting pregnant (whether it was an accident or otherwise) I am impressed with the way she has handled herself. She has taken full responsibility for her actions and is engaged to be married to the baby’s father. She could have had the child aborted, but instead she is having it because she believes that no life should be taken like her mother. It’s about time we see someone who is willing to own up to what they’ve done, we don’t seem to have enough of that in this country-at least where others can see it.

Drilling For Oil:
Because this is a HUGE topic that’s effecting so many people in our country I think I’ll address it in this first Issue. Actually it’s also because I don’t know what you are supposed to talk about in a first issue of anything….
Okay so here’s the inside scoop: America is a country that is rich in oil. I know that might come as a shocker to many individuals who thought that all the oil in the world was solely located in the Middle East, but it’s true. Alaska, the waters around Texas and Florida, even many parts of the West are known to be full of oil. However, we aren’t drilling there yet.
I believe that our dependence on the oil that is coming from the Middle East is hurting us. Those who run those oil reserves are capable of doing whatever they want with it because they are the ones in charge. America needs to stop depending on some other country for oil when we are very much capable of getting it from our own land, especially after what Russia pulled with Georgia not a month ago. My stand: Drill here drill now! It’s our oil why not use it…oh that’s right I forgot…the polar bears, or even the angry people yelling: “I don’t want to see that out my beach front window!” Eh-Shut up!
Addressing the Polar Bears-and other species-issues first. Up in Alaska there is a place called ANWAR (at this point I don’t know what it stands for but just stick with me here). ANWAR is a huge oil reserve that we are capable of tapping into except a load of environmentalist hippies don’t want us to because- “You’re killing the Polar Bears, save the animals!” This is a load of crap-to put it lightly-the drilling in ANWAR actually would take place in an area that is-one tiny-only a couple thousands square miles in comparison to a VERY huge arctic tundraish (yes I made up a word to make my point…I like the sound of it…tundraish…) landscape. Coincidentally enough, few to no polar bears live in the area….hmmm…sounds like hippy fairy tales trying to create unwarranted public outrage to me. However there does happen to be the occasional large herd of Caribou. “Oh dear lord save the caribou from the evil oil companies!” *smacks hippy across the face* Pull yourself together enviro-hippy (yep, for those keeping track that’s two new words I just made up) and listen to me for a second. Caribou actually love oil-strange as that might seem-but before an oil rig that already exists in Alaska was built there were no caribou, now that the rig is up…jeez you should see them-they’re everywhere! Animals are actually not effected by drilling, that’s because there are enough enviro-hippies out there that have gotten the people who build these rigs to build carefully with the environment always in mind. Good for you people! The excuse that drilling is harmful to the environment is a load-it’s just the hippies not liking what’s going on and throwing a hissy fit.
As for those rich people who live on the beach in their ritzy houses and don’t want to have drilling out in the ocean…well they are pretty much as full of crap as the hippies…probably because they are hippies too! Oil rigs have never had any intention of infringing on peoples “gorgeous ocean view”, mostly because they are always located a considerable distance off shore. Weird, huh, maybe the people throwing a fit have eagle-eyes or something because most normal people would never be able to see it…except for perhaps a spot out on the horizon. “Spots are obnoxious”…I know, I know but DEAL WITH IT!

Global Warming What a Joke:
Lucky for the both of us I believe that you already know what this issue is. A man by the name of Al Gore, a former VP if I’m not mistaken, made a movie. In this movie he said that we evil humans were polluting the world, and if we weren’t careful because of our careless ways the world would heat up, icebergs would melt, the seas would rise, AND WE WOULD LOSE FLORIDA!!!!!!! Cue chaos music. Yeah,(Glenn moment again…riiiiiight…). Because of these dangerous hypothetical’s that are supposedly supported by all of the scientific community (*cough, whatever
cough*…sorry I couldn’t help it.) we have to change our lifestyles. You know the usual…new car that runs off of corn juice, or hydrogen, or chocolate (yeah you think I’m being funny but the chocolate car actually exists…personally I eat my chocolate but…whatever), or perhaps you want some of those odd looking light bulbs that are shaped like the curly cheetos?(If this whole “This is what I think” thing goes anywhere you’ll realize I like food). Or you want to use reusable toilet paper(okay freakin‘ gross!), or not have kids because the environment could be impacted, or not let cows fart because the methane gas released can eat through the ozone and we could all die…yeah things like that. Plus there’s always a way that you can offset those pesky carbon credits (which is a fun term for bad things you shoot into the atmosphere when you do just about anything) by buying huge “Offsets”-another fun term that means a counterbalance to your pollution.
Well now…let’s see where to begin…. Oh I know! Al Gore, the Nobel peace prize winner with the movie. Alright, everyone, here’s the scoop. Al Gore tweaked a lot of the stats featured in his movie, and his claim that the entire scientific community is behind him is wrong. (but we’ll get back to the scientists later). Al Gore is a man who doesn’t exactly practice what he preaches. The guy is a millionaire, and because of this he likes to fly around in private jets. I know what you’re thinking: “Well Chene’ those jets are probably run on alternative fuels, he’s a good man, he’s saving the planet.” Let me take it from here. Al Gore’s jet(s) do not run on alternate energy, in fact he burns through a whole heck of a lot of gasoline when he flies around to his million dollar appearances all over the world. The man also owns an enormous house, this house runs on both solar panels and electrical power, but he’s generated far more electricity than he used in solar energy. Yet he’s still preaching to you(Again as Glenn Beck would say…riiiiiight…).
So here’s what Al Gore doesn’t want you to hear. The truth is that the ozone (I hope we all know what that is ’cause I ain’t explaining it) is a thing that changes. Basically it can open and close all by itself without the “extra assistance” that Al Gore seems to believe we give it throughout our daily lives. Truth be told the CO2 emissions that we all release (strange how we gotta breath right?) aren’t eating away at the ozone, it’s just the ozone doing what it does best…changing. It will open and close according to its own cycle, not because of you. So basically Al Gore is making a killing off of all those individuals who buy into this stuff because you are buying what he’s selling(which includes guest appearances that cost some 25,000 dollars each). He also would like to keep “hush, hush” that not all scientists are behind this little charade. In fact there are many scientists who are fired or discredited because they believe otherwise. If a scientists voices his evidence against Global Warming he is quickly shut down, because we all know that we don’t want the public to wonder…is this true?
Next we move to Carbon Credits. I hate these, they make me feel like I’m going to have an aneurism. First, before I get into my opinion let’s have a little science lesson (all those who are uncomfortable around science may close their eyes and stop reading….now). There are a four elements on the periodic table that are the basic elements of life. These are Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, and…wait for it…Carbon! Carbon is in everything. Rocks, trees, you, me (Oooh, get that carbon out of me! It burns it burn-oh sorry…) it’s everywhere. If carbon didn’t exist life wouldn’t exist, just like if the tires on your bike didn’t exist you would be hosed. So basically this is what I think of Carbon Credits. They’re a sham. All they are is a random total your purchase that is supposed to give you an excuse to pollute as much as you want, because in the end you turn in your little Carbon Credits and it’s supposed to counter everything you did. Again you didn’t DO anything. Yes you lived your life, yes you drove your car, yes you probably farted and blamed it on someone else, but just because you hold a piece of paper saying “you are excused from all the bad polluting you are going to do that will destroy the ozone if you don’t turn this in” doesn’t mean it’s true. People-like Gore-want money and they are willing to lie through their teeth to get it. Carbon Credits mean nothing, in fact I hope you continue using things that burn carbon because that puts it back into the environment so that it can be used for other things…Carbon is good, Carbon Credits are crap!
What further bothers me is that there is a huge push from China, Japan, and India for a Global Warming alliance of nations that would in essence prohibit everyone in the “evil United States” to conform to what the leaders say about Global Warming. This alliance is a ridiculous attempt for other countries to encroach upon ours because they want to over throw the U.S, or at least make us less a super-power. What’s even more scary is that people in the government are open to the idea of potentially having its own peoples rights taken away by a different country. When did that become a sane idea? Seriously we need to stay far away from China, Japan, and India’s plots to rope us in so that we have to comply to their demands. It isn’t safe I tell ya!
Basically Global Warming is a hoax that is created to make you so afraid of something that you run out and buy whatever the people gaining from your little fear-spree want so that they get more money. Period the End.











Extra Information:
In the unlikely event that someone wants me to continue doing this here is what you can do to contact me so that you can talk about your own opinion, tell me what the next topic you want to know about should be, or whatever.
My e-mail addresses are as follows from most frequently used to not used hardly ever:
cheenpowers@yahoo.com
cheenpowers@hotmail.com
cheenpowers@gmail.com
Also you can find me on Facebook and Minekey as Chene’ Powers. I have all sorts of opinions on Minekey…a little searching on any of these topics will easily turn me up.
Again-if this ever goes anywhere-I hope that I do hear from people who read this and get some feedback, how will I know what you think if you don’t talk to me? Huh, huh?
Finally thanks for reading, and I hope it was as fun reading as it was writing.
Chene’