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1. 

   RyanED

   10959 Kudos

   10/31/08

   

   I'm sending you some Kudos.

   Have fun and thank you!

   

   
   

2. 

   Sacred is the Wind

   2906 Kudos

   10/18/08

   
   
   Enjoy your Sunday.

3. 

   KENTUCKY REDBONE

   172 Kudos

   10/13/08

   

   Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest

   Friday , October 03, 2008

   By Bill Sammon

   

   ADVERTISEMENT

   WASHINGTON -

   Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank's efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

   So did Frank's partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency's push to relax lending restrictions.

   Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie's assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

   Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

   "It's absolutely a conflict," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. "He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

   "If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what's not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane," added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. "But everybody wants to avoid it because he's gay. It's the quintessential double standard."

   A top GOP House aide agreed.

   "C'mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?" the aide told FOX News. "No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank's political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley's wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain's wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation's housing and banking laws."

   Frank's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

   Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

   "I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus," Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. "On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover."

   The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae's affordable housing and home improvement lending programs."

   Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month's government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

   Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

   Three years later, President Clinton's Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today's economic crisis.

   "I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said recently.

   Bill Sammon is FOX News' Washington Deputy Managing Editor.

4. 

   tomr94

   295 Kudos

   10/01/08

   kudos!
   

5. 

   ncgirl8luvsnascar

   566 Kudos

   09/02/08

   
   
   

6. 

   KENTUCKY REDBONE

   172 Kudos

   08/30/08

   

   Published on NewsBusters.org (http://newsbusters.org)

   CNN's John Roberts: Palin Might Neglect Her Disabled Infant?

   By Matthew Balan

   Created 2008-08-29 13:41

   CNN's John Roberts, after briefly alluding to the issue of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's experience he called into question earlier [0] on Friday's "Newsroom" program, asked correspondent Dana Bash about how the Alaska governor's newborn son with Down's syndrome might be affected if she were elected: "There's also this issue that on April 18th, she gave birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome.... Children with Down's syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of Vice President, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?"

   Bash deftly answered this question, which has the implication that Palin could neglect her infant son, and made a possible counter-argument the McCain camp would use, that a question like Roberts' would be sexist: "That's a very good question, and I guess -- my guess is that, perhaps, the line inside the McCain campaign would be, if it were a man being picked who also had a baby, but -- you know, four months ago with Down's Syndrome, would you ask the same question?"

   The CNN correspondent continued by briefly describing the Palin's family situation and the thinking that may have gone into the situation for both McCain and Palin herself. She concluded by reporting on the Alaska governor's appeal to social conservatives because she is "very staunchly anti-abortion," in Bash's words.

   The full transcript of the exchange between John Roberts and Dana Bash, which began 7 minutes into the 11 am Eastern hour of CNN's "Newsroom" [audio available here [0]]:

   JOHN ROBERTS: You know, there's one other issue -- we've talked about her experience and what depth of experience she has; the fact that maybe she tries to peel off a few women voters on the Democratic side, who really wanted to see a woman in the White House in some way, shape, or form. There's also this issue that on April 18th, she gave birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome.

   DANA BASH: Yes.

   ROBERTS: The baby is just slightly more than four months old now. Children with Down's syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of Vice President, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?

   BASH: That's a very good question, and I guess -- my guess is that, perhaps, the line inside the McCain campaign would be, if it were a man being picked who also had a baby, but -- you know, four months ago with Down's Syndrome, would you ask the same question? And that might be another way to kind of, you know, kind of close the gender gap in trying to make the point that, yes, she not only has, unfortunately, a baby with Down's Syndrome, but she has five children, the oldest of whom is apparently going -- is in the Army and going to head off to Iraq in the fall. So, you know, it absolutely is going to be a question that she is going to have to answer, and there's no question that she had to do soul-searching and figure out if she could take this on when John McCain made clear that he wanted her to be her [sic] running mate, and it is going to be one of the interesting things that we are going to be able to hear from her when she finally does speaks, whether she does address these things here or in subsequent interviews.

   That's going to be a fascinating thing, but it also does -- it also does appeal to social conservatives in another way, and that is that, you know, part of her story, if you read her discussions about that baby, is that, you know, she knew before she gave birth to that baby, that it had Down's Syndrome, and she chose to keep the baby. And that is -- that is because she is somebody who is anti-abortion. She is somebody who is very staunchly anti-abortion. That kind of story, also, can help appeal to the social conservatives that John McCain is still trying to win over in his own party.

   ---

   Source URL:
   

7. 

   KENTUCKY REDBONE

   172 Kudos

   08/19/08

8. 

   hallak

   2075 Kudos

   06/28/08

   
   

   
   

9. 

   hallak

   2075 Kudos

   06/20/08

   
   

   
   

10. 

    hallak

    2075 Kudos

    06/08/08

    Happy day
    
    
    

11. 

    mariel1958

    1193 Kudos

    06/08/08

    
    

    
    

    06/09/08

    Reply from tenn88:

    I had good sunday.
    

12. 

    LostInEternity99

    8856 Kudos

    06/05/08

    
    

13. 

    Shimay

    350 Kudos

    05/03/08

    
    

    
    

14. 

    Sacred is the Wind

    2906 Kudos

    04/20/08

    Hello
    

15. 

    PiggiesR4Me

    3109 Kudos

    04/05/08

    Thanks :)

    
    Original comment »

16. 

    PiggiesR4Me

    3109 Kudos

    04/04/08

    Kudos 2 You

    
    

17. 

    azule

    1095 Kudos

    04/04/08

    
    
    

18. 

    Shimay

    350 Kudos

    04/04/08

    
    

    
    

19. 

    NewfieRose

    440 Kudos

    04/03/08

    
    

    04/04/08

    Reply from tenn88:

    thanks.

20. 

    NewfieRose

    440 Kudos

    04/03/08

    
    

    04/04/08

    Reply from tenn88:

    .thanks

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