Don't throw capitalism's baby out with the bath water!

Ari Shavit challenged Netanyahu to be a statesman and not another petty politician
like those Netanyahu accuses. Wonder what Shavit would have to say about our politicians and all those Acorns. (See 1 and 1a below.)

Two below was sent to me. It is a "You Tube" expose' of a hearing at which a La. Representative warned about Fannie and Freddie and how his comments were ignored and the cover up began. You hear about 'there is enough blame to go round' and I am sure there is but I wish Democrats, led by Pelosi and Reid etc., could buy into owning some of theirs. (See 1b.)

Just as there are no free lunches there are also no free markets. Government's imprint is everywhere. We face a choice - more government which has spent everything and more capitalism has produced or a freer system left to sort things out combined with heavy jail terms for those guilty of abusing it. I prefer allowing the markets to correct the excesses and the justice department to pursue the crooks - even those in Congress.

We are in a mess but I would suggest much of the mess is due to the fact that executive behaviour has been scoped by Congressional rules, restraints, restrictions etc. That is not to say unbridled markets are not capable of creating serious problems - we know they can. Therefore, before we throw "the capitalism baby" out with the water it would be wise to stop and ponder - what economic system devised by man could ever have funded the stupidity generated by our many Congresses? (See 2 and 2a below.)

What is going on? Are we so in need of money even those in the Pentagon, who distrust Israel, have caved? (See 3 below.)

Dick



1) If Netanyahu were a statesman
By Ari Shavit


If Benjamin Netanyahu had any real greatness in him, he would have convened a dramatic press conference this week in which he would have said the following:

"Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak are petty politicians. They are trying to form a government that is a continuation of the failed Olmert-Peretz government. I hear the things being said by Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence Brig. Gen. Yosi Baidatz. I understand that Iran has accumulated about half the fissionable material it needs to build a nuclear bomb. I understand that Iran has mastered the technology for enriching uranium, and that it is now galloping forward on the way to nuclear capability. I know that in the next 18 months Israel will have to make one of the most difficult decisions in its history. Therefore, like Menachem Begin in 1967, I am setting aside personal considerations and party interests. I prefer the good of the country to my own good. I hereby declare that I am willing to serve for a limited period as Tzipi Livni's deputy in a national emergency government."

If Benjamin Netanyahu had any greatness in him, he would also have said the following at the press conference that he would have convened: "The global economic crisis is only at its beginning, and Israel's economic crisis is around the corner. The Olmert-Hirchson-Bar-On government did nothing to anticipate the problem, and to fight the coming recession. However, I am not a politician, I am a patriot and a professional. I'm not looking to get even. Rather, I am ready to place my abilities and reputation at the disposal of my country. I hereby propose to prime minister-designate Livni that she appoint me, on an emergency basis, finance minister and head of an economic cabinet."

If Benjamin Netanyahu had any greatness in him he would have used the press conference to define the four goals of the proposed emergency government: confronting the Iranian threat, confronting the economic threat, an educational revolution and a change in Israel's system of government. In front of the TV crews, Netanyahu would have admitted that there are profound differences of opinion between Likud and Labor on the Palestinian question, but proposed that for a year and a half these differences of opinion be set aside. The chairman of the opposition would have proposed that the national unity government to be established immediately focuses on the other four topics on the national agenda.

He would have said the following: "After a period of hard work in which we will ensure security and rehabilitate the economy, improve the education system and amend the government system, we will be able to return to the penetrating ideological debate concerning the division of the country, which will be decided in the coming elections. However, until the 2010 elections, we have to do what the Alignment, Rafi and Gahal did on the eve of the Six-Day War. We must overcome personal and sectarian disputes and work together in order to guarantee national survival."

If Benjamin Netanyahu had any greatness in him, such a press conference would also have helped him politically. It would have made him look good. The unexpected move would have shuffled the cards of a miserable and inferior inter-party game. While Livni and Barak would have been seen as pathetic players, he would have posited himself as the true Israeli leader. His purely ethical act would have shattered his dubious image and granted him broad support and sweeping popularity. Bibi would have become the new Sharon. Even the media would have treated him with kid gloves. Although he would have been forced to postpone his move to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem by about a year, he would have guaranteed that transition. And no person and no force would have been able to block his path to power.

But Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen to behave differently. The press conference he convened midweek was that of a politician rather than a statesman. It was a disappointing press conference of the head of a small party rather than the leader of a country. In the face of an historic challenge that Netanyahu understands well, he chose to behave like a petty person who concerns himself with petty matters.

That's a shame. Because there is much more to the son of Benzion Netanyahu. The brother of Yonatan Netanyahu is capable of much more. Bibi is really one of the most talented people among us. He even has a degree of greatness. However, only when the former prime minister knows how to extricate this certain greatness from the considerable number of personal and personality weaknesses he also possesses, will he be a leader of stature. This week he was unable to do so. Will he be able to do so next week?

1a)ACORN, Obama, and the Mortgage Mess
By Mona Charen

The financial markets were teetering on the edge of an abyss last week. The secretary of the Treasury was literally on his knees begging the speaker of the House not to sabotage the bailout bill. The crash of falling banks made the earth tremble. The Republican presidential candidate suspended his campaign to deal with the crisis. And amid all this, the Democrats in Congress managed to find time to slip language into the bailout legislation that would provide a dandy little slush fund for ACORN.

ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a busy hive of left-wing agitation and "direct action" that claims chapters in 50 cities and 100,000 dues-paying members. ACORN is where Sixties leftovers who couldn't get tenure at universities wound up. That the bill-writing Democrats remembered their pet clients during such an emergency speaks volumes. This attempted gift to ACORN (stripped out of the bill after outraged howls from Republicans) demonstrates how little Democrats understand about what caused the mess we're in.

ACORN does many things under the umbrella of "community organizing." They agitate for higher minimum wages, attempt to thwart school reform, try to unionize welfare workers (that is, those welfare recipients who are obliged to work in exchange for benefits) and organize voter registration efforts (always for Democrats, of course). Because they are on the side of righteousness and justice, they aren't especially fastidious about their methods. In 2006, for example, ACORN registered 1,800 new voters in Washington. The only trouble was, with the exception of six, all of the names submitted were fake. The secretary of state called it the "worst case of election fraud in our state's history." As Fox News reported:

"The ACORN workers told state investigators that they went to the Seattle public library, sat at a table and filled out the voter registration forms. They made up names, addresses, and Social Security numbers and in some cases plucked names from the phone book. One worker said it was a lot of hard work making up all those names and another said he would sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out the forms."

ACORN explained that this was an "isolated" incident, yet similar stories have been reported in Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado -- all swing states, by the way. ACORN members have been prosecuted for voter fraud in a number of states. (See www.rottenacorn.com.) Their philosophy seems to be that everyone deserves the right to vote, whether legal or illegal, living or dead.

ACORN recognized very early the opportunity presented by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. As Stanley Kurtz has reported, ACORN proudly touted "affirmative action" lending and pressured banks to make subprime loans. Madeline Talbott, a Chicago ACORN leader, boasted of "dragging banks kicking and screaming" into dubious loans. And, as Sol Stern reported in City Journal, ACORN also found a remunerative niche as an "advisor" to banks seeking regulatory approval. "Thus we have J.P. Morgan & Co., the legatee of the man who once symbolized for many all that was supposedly evil about American capitalism, suddenly donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN." Is this a great country or what? As conservative community activist Robert Woodson put it, "The same corporations that pay ransom to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pay ransom to ACORN."

ACORN attracted Barack Obama in his youthful community organizing days. Madeline Talbott hired him to train her staff -- the very people who would later descend on Chicago's banks as CRA shakedown artists. The Democratic nominee later funneled money to the group through the Woods Fund, on whose board he sat, and through the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, ditto. Obama was not just sympathetic -- he was an ACORN fellow traveler.

Now you could make the case that before 2008, well-intentioned people were simply unaware of what their agitation on behalf of non-credit-worthy borrowers could lead to. But now? With the whole financial world and possibly the world economy trembling and cracking like a cement building in an earthquake, Democrats continue to try to fund their friends at ACORN? And, unashamed, they then trot out to the TV cameras to declare "the party is over" for Wall Street (Nancy Pelosi)? The party should be over for the Democrats who brought us to this pass. If Obama wins, it means hiring an arsonist to fight a fire.



1b) No one's clean in this mess: Democrats and Republicans must share the blame for the failure to pass a $700-billion bailout plan.
By Jonah Goldberg

On Sunday evening, Republican House Minority Leader John A. Boehner explained his considered opinion on the $700-billion Wall Street bailout plan: It's a "crap sandwich," he said, but he was going to eat it.

Well, it turned out he couldn't shove it down his colleagues' throats. The bill failed on a bipartisan basis, but it was the Republicans who failed to deliver the votes they promised. Some complained that Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi drove some of them to switch their votes with her needlessly partisan floor speech on the subject. Of course Pelosi's needlessly partisan. This is news?

The Republican complaint is beyond childish. Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, a man saturated with guilt for this crisis, nonetheless was right to ridicule the GOP crybabies on Monday. "I'll make an offer," he added. "Give me [their] names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they'll now think about the country."

Would that Frank had been imbued with such a spirit earlier. Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has spent the last few years ridiculing Alan Greenspan, John McCain and others who sought more regulation for Fannie Mae's market-distorting schemes -- the fons et origo of this financial crisis. Now he says "the private sector got us into this mess." His partner in crime, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), a chief beneficiary of Fannie Mae lobbyists' largesse, claims this mess is the result of poor oversight -- without even hinting at the fact he is in charge of oversight of banks. They sound like pimps complaining about the prevalence of STDs among prostitutes.

And let us not forget that the Democrats, with a 31-seat majority, could not get 95 of their own to vote for the bailout, largely because it didn't provide enough taxpayer money to their left-wing special interests. Would that they thought about the country.

The one man who truly tried to treat this crisis like a crisis -- McCain -- was ridiculed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who implored him to come to Washington to help in the first place. And the news media, which now treat any Republican action that threatens a Barack Obama victory as inherently dishonorable, uncritically accepted the bald Democratic lie that McCain ruined a bipartisan bailout deal last Friday.

This is not to say that McCain knows what to do. Faced with an unprecedented financial crisis involving frozen global credit markets and a maelstrom of moral hazard, his standard response is to talk about wiping out earmarks and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Memo to Mr. McCain: Waste, fraud and abuse are the only things holding the system together at this point.

Obama is no better. The man has spent two weeks irresponsibly excoriating his opponent for saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong -- a perfectly leaderly thing for McCain to have said during a panic. Then, campaigning in Colorado on Monday, the day the market plunged 777.68 points, Obama proclaimed: "We've got the long-term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows."

Perhaps after Al Qaeda seizes Baghdad, a President Obama would finally declare, "Hey, we can win this thing!"

Meanwhile, President Bush, his popularity ratings stuck at below-freezing numbers, has decided to cling to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for warmth on the grounds that the vaunted former Goldman Sachs chair has the credibility to sell the solution to a problem he's been exacerbating for 18 months. When a reporter for Forbes magazine asked a Treasury spokesman last week why Congress had to lay out $700 billion, the answer came back: "It's not based on any particular data point." Rather: "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

There's a confidence builder.

As for the reputedly free-market firebrands of the congressional GOP, with whom my sympathies generally lie, I cannot let pass without comment the fact that they controlled the legislative branch for most of the last eight years. Only now, when capitalism is in flames, does this fire brigade try to enforce the free-market fire codes without compromise.

I loathe populism. But if there ever has been a moment when reasonable men's hands itch for the pitchfork, this must surely be it. No one is blameless. No one is pure. Two decades of crapulence by the political class has been prologue to the era of coprophagy that is now upon us. It is crap sandwiches for as far as the eye can see.


2) Thought you'd get a kick out of this. All Obama allies involved in the cover up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

2a) The bailout falters: A market alternative


Now that the government-heavy bailout of the financial markets has been thumped by the House, Congress must explore a more market-based approach.

Republicans and Democrats sent a strong message Monday in rejecting the U.S. Treasury's plan to put up, if need be, $700 billion to take bad debt off Wall Street's ledger.

While it was a well-intentioned move to inject some confidence in the American financial system and forestall greater market deterioration, it left the horrible taste of dirigisme -- economic planning and control by the state -- in the mouths of too many.


But in political defeat and financial despair, there is opportunity:

• Cut the growth-killing corporate tax rate, "zero out" the capital gains tax and return a prodigious amount of private capital to the market.

• Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley. The regulations designed to combat fraud only encumbered many thin-margin smaller businesses with millions in compliance costs, damaging job creation where it can be most prolific.

• The "mark-to-market" bank accounting method must be scrapped. It fueled "value uncertainty" that killed confidence.

• Raise the FDIC guarantee on transaction accounts at banks. Without it, the government's deal last week granting an unlimited guarantee on money market funds could cause bank runs.

Government has failed multiple times in the current crisis. It's now time for government to enable the very markets it derides and disrespects to save the day.

3) US approves 25 F-35 fighter aircraft sale to Israel

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency has approved the $15.2 billion sale of 25 F-35 Strike Fighters for Israel with an option for another 50, saying it is vital to US national security interests to assist Israel develop “a strong and ready self-defense capability.”

Military sources report that President George W, Bush, in mid-financial crisis, fully discharged his promise of a defense package for Israeli before he left office. There was no announcement of the date of supply.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon approved up to $330 million in three separate arms deals for Israel and posted its advanced FBX-band radar system to an Israeli Air Force base in the Negev.

Israel is the first foreign nation to receive the up-to-the-minute Lockheed Martin F-35 Strike Fighter, which will replace the older F-16 fighters and enhance its air-to-air and air-to-ground defenses and by virtue of five exceptional features:

1. An advanced radar for striking ground or air targets long distance while destroying any threat in its immediate environment.

2. An electro-optical targeting system (EOTS).

3. The pilot’s helmet-mounted displays (HMD).

4. It is the first fighter plane in the world with a communications system linked to satellites.

5. The capacity for carrying large quantities of ordnance - from joint direct attack munitions to AIM-120 and AIM-132 air-to-air missiles.

The first consignment of 25 F-35’s has a conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) configuration, while the next 50 are short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft. In the event of an armed conflict, the Israel Air Force calculates that its long runways will be in danger of attack by Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas.

The deal was approved after senior Israeli and US officials met in Washington this month and assurances were tendered that sensitive technologies would not be passed to third parties.