Forty-four of 46 Republican Senators vowed they would not approve “any consumer financial bureau director unless the agency was put under a five-member outside board, had its work checked periodically by bank examiners and had its budget approved by Congress rather than the Federal Reserve.”

So when Republicans refused to confirm the President’s nominee, Richard Cordray, to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, America’s number one duffer shouldn’t have been surprised.

Senate Republicans maintained that voting down the nomination of Cordray had everything to do with the Dodd-Frank financial reform agency lacking oversight, and nothing to do with the candidate Obama chose to head it up. In other words, Republicans wanted to take consumer protection a step further than the President was willing to go, vowing that they’d agree to confirm a director, but not before additional consumer safeguards and supervision are put in place.

As for Obama’s nominee Richard Cordray, besides being the former Attorney General of the state of Ohio and acting as chief enforcement officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the last year, Cordray is a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion. Which may be why, when chiding Republicans for blocking his appointment, the President kept mentioning game playing.

(more…)

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2011 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The members of the House of Representatives on the list, in alphabetical order, include:

• Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
• Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
• Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
• Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
• Rep. David Rivera (R-FL)
• Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

Dishonorable Mentions for 2011 include:

• Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
• Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
• Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY)

Spencer Bachus (R-AL): He has become the face of a congressional “insider trading” scandal that has rocked the Washington establishment as 2011 draws to a close. Rep. Spencer Bachus, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was one of the principal targets of a 60 Minutes investigative report on the scandal, which aired on CBS in September 2011.

The report was based, at least in part, on the book Throw Them All Out by author Peter Schweizer, which outed a slew of members of Congress who allegedly profited in the financial markets by trading on insider information. Bachus was not the only congressman cited by 60 Minutes, others included Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, but the Alabama Republican stood out for his remarkable “good fortune” in shorting the stock market. (more…)

Imagine this scenario:  a white Tea Party politician is keynote speaker, addressing an all-white political group with ‘White’ in its name.  Also imagine that same politician appealing to a singular, segregated racial group, telling them to lace up their combat boots and join the fight.

A strikingly similar situation took place at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner attended by 3,000 leaders, some of whom are disgruntled over an economy suffering from Barack Obama’s policy bungles. The President used the opportunity to acknowledge that blacks have “suffered mightily because of the recession, and are frustrated that the downturn is taking so long to reverse.”

In addition to commiserating, America’s “post-racial” president exploited the occasion to agitate a group of racially sensitive people who he must think would be ready to march at his behest.

Speaking passionately, Obama was so worked up that he failed to acknowledge the effect his detrimental ideological policy decisions have had on the people he claims he wants to help.  Rather than come up with viable solutions to the problems he created, Obama’s go-to defense, as usual, was to up the dissension level by reminding his audience, “So many people are still hurting. So many people are barely hanging on. And so many people in this city are fighting us every step of the way.”

One thing’s for sure – Barack Obama is adept at pointing out problems, recognizing that ‘people are barely hanging on,’ and then misidentifying the culprit and trying to recruit fighters for a cause without direction.

(more…)

JAY CARNEY:  Sir, word from the Senate on your American Jobs Act.  Majority Leader Reid is complaining of constipation.  Says he’s been pushing since yesterday, but he can’t pass the bill.

OBAMA:  Merde!  After I did all the heavy lifting.  Damn do-nothing Congress.

VALERIE JARRETT:  Good thing you’re leaving the country next week, sir.  No one can blame you if the measure tanks when you’re abroad on official business.

OBAMA: Where am I off to?

BILL DALEY:  You’ll begin your working tour of Scotland’s golf courses on Monday, sir.  Meanwhile, the First Lady and several dozen close friends and family members are already aboard the presidential yacht, Alinsky, en route to the Galapagos for a holiday.

OBAMA:  Message her confirmation that we’ll rendezvous a week from Friday on the Côte d’Azur.  When do I return home?

DALEY:  Um, we want to be flexible, sir.  Tell him, Poll Boy.

CHUCK TODD:  Recent surveys indicate hiring spikes and an uptick in consumer confidence when you’re away, sir.  It’s as if some great weight was lifted from. . . . .

OBAMA:  I get it, Chuck.  All right.  Add Ireland to my itinerary.  Inform Michelle I’ll join her on the Riviera October 1^st.  Eric, do you have this “Gunwalker” thing under control? (more…)

Jesse Jackson, Andre Carson, Maxine Waters and Walter Fauntroy are the new face of “black-on-black crime.”

The term black-on-black crime was coined in the eighties to publicize shockingly disproportionate amounts of violent crimes perpetrated within the black community.  Now, instead of Bloods and Crips, the new gang threatening black neighborhoods can be called the “Elite Liberal Libelers.”  With political power and acceptance, the ELL holds an even tighter grip on black America’s throat.

The ELL’s rhetorical drive-by shooting style wounds the spirit and kills hope and the notion that blacks can find equality and prosperity by their own toil and purpose. These assaults on character and intelligence, unfortunately, come from within the trusted and intimate quarters of recognized black leaders.

The ELL demands acceptance of life at the bottom, handicapping potential growth and progress., and has no scruples finding a scapegoat or excuse.  Like the neighborhood drug dealer, they figure someone will make the money off poor kids.  May as well be by one of their own.

And words can be deadlier than bullets.  Whereas a bullet only claims a single victim, the reach of words is infinite — infiltrating countless souls and minds. Such ill-will can also have generational consequences — undermining core beliefs and self-worth.  Fatalism and despondency roll off ELL tongues from a poisonous well of lies, self destruction and defeat that’s deadlier than crack cocaine.

Consider ELL attacks on the tea parties:

(more…)

According to my calculations, it’s only a matter of time before tea partiers are called reptilian aliens from outer space. I would say zombies, but sadly that was already done by some charming people and their little video game, “Tea Party Zombies Must Die”. Just in the past few weeks, tea partiers have been labeled “terrorists,” “S.O.B.s,” “hobbits,” and “barbarians” who can go “straight to hell,” of course after they’re done, according to Representative Andre Carson, hanging African-Americans from the nearest tree.

I’m actually starting to lose track of the name-calling, but suffice it to say, the Left and its elected allies like Joe Biden and Maxine Waters, are upping the vitriol of their rhetoric. That’s what people do when they’re losing an argument: they either change the terms of the debate or resort to ad hominem attacks. Of course, name-calling means nothing.  Already bereft of ideas, it seems the Left has also forgotten the little schoolyard chant about sticks and stones.

But beyond the name-calling, it is becoming deadly serious - our economy is tanking. Unemployment has barely budged from between 9-10%, and absolutely zero jobs were added in the month of August. Our President is wandering about between his and Michelle’s vacations, with clearly no idea of what to do. It should be pointed out that we are probably expecting too much from a former community organizer who never understood how jobs and capital are created in the first place. After getting beaten handily in 2009 in Virginia and New Jersey, 2010 nationally, hamstrung in Wisconsin in 2011 (I would say humiliated as well: after dumping tens of millions of dollars into the fight against Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bill, the Supreme Court race and attempts to flip the majority in the State Senate thru re-call elections, the unions failed on all three counts), the Left, particularly the public sector unions, know they’re up against it in 2012.

The incredible, shrinking President’s numbers are, well, shrinking and the Democrats were already going to have a tough time holding the Senate in 2012: with the economy still dragging and unemployment high, it’s hard to believe holding the Senate will get any easier between now and November of 2012.

Seeing the trends in the poll numbers, and realizing the tide is against them, the Left is desperate. When people start flailing about, using harsh rhetoric, it’s an indication that there is mounting frustration. And one gets the sense that the public sector unions, while maybe not on their last gasp, are certainly feeling cornered and very threatened.  The questions I have for the tea party, and those that identify with it, is what do you plan on doing to seize the moment in 2012? If people thought the successes of 2010, and even 2011, was going to fix things, they were mistaken. Our victories in 2010 were just the beginning of a long road back to true American exceptionalism.

American Majority has been planning its Training Bomb (www.trainingbomb.com) for a while now (yes, we swiped the term from the Ron Paul “Money Bombs”), with it having grown to trainings in 14 different states being held on Constitution Day, September 17^th. The point of the trainings is to do the things that move the political dial and lead to political success. We of course believe in free enterprise and limited government, but what will make these ideas become reality? Political victories. Politics is policy.  Those who win politically that make policy.

(more…)

Maxine Waters’s startling call for a trillion-dollar jobs bill this past week sent shudders down the spines of Democrats–for more than one reason. In addition to her ubertransparency about the progressives’ Keynesian desire to heap debt upon debt, you have to wonder if they’re hoping no one remembers what happened almost exactly one year ago this week.

It was September 16, 2010, when President Obama signed into law the Democrats’ Small Business Jobs Bill, a behemoth lending program in the mold of the TARP bailouts with a soaring price tag–and even more soaring promises from the promoters of this spending.

Clocking in at a sobering $30-billion, The Small Business Jobs Act was touted as the last, best chance for the Democrats to show the country how their solutions would restore our economy’s strength. The premise was that the Treasury would flood banks with capital, in the hopes that they would lend the money to small businesses–despite the lack of any requirements for banks to use this money to lend.

Some of the claims made exactly one year ago this month, as part of the full-court-press marketing for The Bill to End All Jobs Woes:

“Democrats estimate the measure could create 500,000 new jobs,” one reporter noted in September of 2010.

From the Democrats’ House Committee on Financial Services website:

From Politico:

Just hours before President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress on his jobs plan, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is demanding the nation’s first African-American president prove he cares as much about unemployed blacks as he does about Iowa’s swing voters.

“There are roughly 3 million African Americans out of work today, a number nearly equal to the entire population of Iowa. I would suggest that if the entire population of Iowa, a key state on the electoral map and a place that served as a stop on the president’s jobs bus tour were unemployed, they would be mentioned in the president’s speech and be the beneficiary of targeted public policy,” Waters said in a statement to POLITICO on Thursday.

“So, one question to be answered this evening is, are the unemployed in the African-American community, including almost 45 percent of its youth, as important as the people of Iowa?” Waters asked.

(more…)

If you thought the class warfare tactic was being used successfully by the Progressive Left to instigate strife between the upper and lower classes in the United States you need to re-examine what you think you are seeing. With declarations by three Congressional Black Caucus Progressives that target the TEA Party, we witness a pathetic attempt by special interest Progressive Leftists to re-package the contrived charge of racism against what is essentially Middle Class America.

Over the past two weeks we have experienced some incredibly caustic declarations by three Congressional Black Caucus members: US Rep. Maxine Waters (P-CA), US Rep. Frederica Wilson (P-FL) and US Rep. Andre Carson (P-IN). All three, evidently, have little respect for their own President who, just after the shooting of US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), called for “toning down the rhetoric.”

On August 20, 2011, while speaking to a friendly audience at a Los Angeles “community summit,” Maxine Waters, a member of both the Progressive and Congressional Black Caucuses in the US House said:

“I’m not afraid of anybody…This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to Hell.”

On August 22, 2011, at a Miami, FL, town hall meeting, Frederica Wilson, again, a member of both the Progressive and Congressional Black Caucuses in the US House said:

“Let us all remember who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Tea Party…The Tea Party holds the Congress hostage. They have one goal in mind, and that’s to make President Obama a one-term president.”

Also in attendance was one Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH, a community organizing group that pressures institutions – both financial and otherwise – into doing things that would otherwise be considered ridiculous, like offering low-interest housing loans to unqualified buyers and coercing municipalities into hiring lower-scoring minority applicants to positions regarding public safety in the name of “diversity.” Rev. Jackson, a leader in the community organizing movement of social justice before he was eclipsed by one Barack Obama, compared the TEA Party to opposition to the civil-rights movement. “The Tea Party is a new name on an old game…Dr. King fought a ‘tea party’ in Alabama.”

(more…)

These charges are very serious and very false.  Rather than try to address these CBC charges myself, I have decided to ask someone much more talented in the language arts to answer the Congressional Black Caucus.  I’ve channeled the Bard himself, William Shakespeare to answer the CBC’s  reprehensible, divisive rhetoric. This morning I went to a medium-rare and spoke to the spirit of the Bard of Avon, below is what he told me to write:

To call me names if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my resolve. The CBC hath disgraced me, and
hindered me with their mistruths; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my policy, scorned my constitution, thwarted my
honest dialogue, cooled my supporters, heated mine
enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a tea party patriot.

Hath not a patriot eyes? hath not a patriot hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a CBC Democrat is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
expose you for what you are? If we are like you in the rest,
we will resemble you in that.

If a tea party patriot wrong a Democrat,
what is his humility? Lies.
If a Democrat
wrong a tea party patriot,
what should his sufferance be by
the Democratic example?
Why, TRUTH. The villainy you teach us,
we will execute the opposite, and will expose you
for what you are,  frauds
who bully American voters like us lest we remind the public
you have no entitlement to your position
Nay we hold the power and you sit at our whim and will

Remember November, the Second of November remember:

(more…)

Enough with the nonsensical term of “racers” they are racists!  Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)  joined by other prominent African Americans  supposedly for a series of job fairs.  What they are really doing is spewing vile false racist charges against the tea party.  Prominent in this pack of traveling racists is Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who was recently caught on tape telling the tea party to go to hell… pretty strong words for a woman charged with misusing her office to help her husband’s bank get some TARP funds.

The most recent stop for this group of African American racial agitators  was Miami Beach.  The night before the jobs fair they held a town hall so they could talk politics. Rather than  discuss politics this group set up on their objective widen the racial divide in America.

From Accuracy in Media’s Ben Johnson:

Have you ever been taken hostage by an 86 year old white haired lady in pink glasses?  I have.  I am lucky to be alive today and writing this after my near death experience with the terrorists of the Tea Party in Waco, TX.  AIM present’s to you, the face of evil in America.

With elected officials scrambling for a cross to hang their economic failure upon, the Obama administration has declared open season on the Tea Party.  This is our generation’s form of McCarthyism.   Witch-hunting at its finest.  Attack, blame and demonize the Tea Party for all of America’s troubles.  Never mind the fact that the TP has never acted violently and is packed with veterans who served our country and sweet old ladies who love America.  The administration is enthusiastically joined by a chorus of vitriol and hate by the likes of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) and every on camera personality at MSNBC.

I guess innocent American citizens are an easy a target for Washington when policies fail.

(more…)

From The LA Times:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) came out swinging against Republicans in Congress on Saturday as she addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood.

The event occurred a day after new statistics were released showing that California’s jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%. California now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation, trailing only Nevada at 12.9%, and its jobless rate is well above the U.S. average of 9.1%.

Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs. “I’m not afraid of anybody,” said Waters. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell.”

(more…)

On his Wednesday show, Adam Carolla interviewed Andrew Breitbart to discuss Andrew’s new book, Righteous Indignation.  Let me assure you, you’ll LOVE this duo. Andrew’s been a guest on Carolla’s show before, but this was hands down the most entertaining so far.

Check out some of the comments from Carolla’s regular listeners – not surprisingly, some aren’t exactly Breitbart fans (which makes it that much more enjoyable for me, at least).

Carolla tackled topics with Andrew on just about everything – from Righteous Indignation to Communism, the Left’s Racist meme, the racket of building permits and greenwashing, and unions, just to name a few.  And a whole lotta LA, which, as Andrew illustrates for us, ain’t what is used to be.  The two were on such a rant roll over our waning freedoms, Carolla, who has described himself as having libertarian leanings, almost sounded like another grassroots activist.  Who knows? Sounds like he may just have a bit of Presidential appeal.  Andrew certainly thought so!

“By the way, are you aware that the Republican Party has nobody running for the presidency right now, and if you had put that out there by mistake and people heard that, and that was your spiel, you would have gone up to Donald Trump level, you would have gone up to 17%?”

Oh yeah – Carolla’s also not a big fan of Maxine Waters.  Not. At. All.  Which reminds me, this audio is NSFW.

(more…)

Last year Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) landed on Judicial Watch’s “Washington’s Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians,” and for good reason. Waters (and her partner in crime, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)) helped secure a TARP grant for the failing Massachusetts bank OneUnited — a bank in which her husband had a significant investment. (Michelle Malkin reports that Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams held a $350,000 stake in OneUnited as recently as June 2008.)

Could the conflict of interest be any more egregious?

We didn’t think so. And for a while it appeared the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (a.k.a. The House Ethics Committee) agreed. The Committee announced last fall there would be a speedy trial to consider the charges against Waters. And, on the heels of the massive investigation and very public trial of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), there was reason to be somewhat optimistic that Waters would be held accountable.

That is until House Ethics Committee Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) started meddling in the process. Not only did Lofgren fail to issue subpoenas for records related to the scandal, but she also delayed the ethics committee hearing after doing everything in her power to undermine the professional committee staff leading the investigation. And, as if that were not enough, Lofgren then improperly fired two attorneys working on the investigation.

Now the Waters investigation is stuck in the mud.

(more…)

As the Chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, and a 28-year inhabitant of Washington, DC, locked in a surprisingly tight race for re-election, one might expect Barbara Boxer to avoid controversial figures like the plague.  But the challenges facing Boxer as she seeks to win a fourth term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday apparently haven’t stopped her from buying the endorsement of her close friend, embattled Rep. Maxine Waters, once again.  Below the fold are images of the pages of Waters’ 2010 general election “slate mailer” obtained by Big Government on Saturday, which showcases her endorsement.  On page three of the mailer itself, Boxer is prominently recommended by Waters.

Waters, of course, is embroiled in an ethics scandal and will proceed to a full ethics trial following the election.  The case against Waters is focused on her alleged use of her elected office as a U.S. Representative for the financial benefit of a family member.  This is relevant to Boxer’s “purchase” of her endorsement not only because it is unseemly for a sitting Senator who chairs her chamber’s ethics body to be buying the endorsement of someone facing such charges, but also because Waters’ slate mailer “business,” which appears to focus entirely on the sale of Waters’ endorsement for sometimes large sums, is a financially lucrative enterprise that involves her using her political position again to financially benefit her family.

The slate mailer “business” is run by Boxer’s daughter, and has been criticized by (among others) good government groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Sunlight Foundation.  Karen Waters has benefited to the tune of over $400,000 since 2004 by virtue of her mother’s willingness to hawk her political backing to various high-bidding Democrats, including Boxer.

(more…)

The document trail below reveals some extremely troubling questions for Representative Barney Frank. Is the GAO report cited below truly the first serious investigation of the mortgage meltdown? Did Congress or the Financial Services committee he chairs have access to mortgage meltdown information from other sources, especially with said GAO report already well on its way to completion?

Why was Barney Frank pushing for his “expanding home ownership bill” in the midst of this looming crisis he already has good reason to suspect was going to get worse? Was he pushing it for purely political purposes prior to the 2008 election, while knowing full well the American housing market was headed for disaster and American taxpayers would be left on the hook as a result of his policies?

While not quite a smoking gun, an examination of the record suggests that while Rep. Barney Frank had good reason to be concerned of a pending meltdown in the housing sector, either out of sheer incompetence, or political maneuvering, he did the exact opposite of what he should have done as a representative of the people of Massachusetts.

Via Mortgage News Daily, on April 24, 2007, problems within the mortgage industry were already coming to light. And it was happening right in front of Barney Frank’s committee.

(more…)

Remember at the outset of the financial crisis when the government told us only “healthy banks” were going to receive bailout funds? Well apparently that requirement does not apply to banks with friends in high places.

Judicial Watch received new documents from the U.S. Department of Treasury about the controversial $12 million bailout grant provided to Boston-based OneUnited Bank.

We got the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit we filed against Treasury. Included are internal Treasury emails describing the substandard condition of OneUnited prior to the taxpayer funded bailout, which allegedly occurred at the behest of Reps. Maxine Waters and Barney Frank.

Here’s what we found out in a nutshell: OneUnited Bank was in deep trouble due to incompetence and mismanagement. Government officials knew all about it. And yet, they bent the rules for Waters and Frank and “invested” taxpayer funds in the floundering enterprise.

Consider this September 15, 2008, email from former Treasury Senior Advisor Michael Scott to Director of the Office of Financial Institutions Mario Ugoletti. It includes a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) evaluation administered by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) noting serious issues with OneUnited’s lending practices:

(more…)