What are the things that concern you most about the Obama ascendancy?

As usual, this thread is open to other topics as well.

Speaking of “racist hate crimes,” here is an all too typical example from the Louisiana CBS affiliate WBRZ:

Man charged in e-mail threats

FBI investigators trace messages to phony Facebook profile

By JOHN A. COLVIN
Nov 14, 2008

A 19-year-old Mississippi man is facing federal charges after allegedly sending threatening e-mails with racial overtones to  students at several universities, including Nicholls State University and LSU, according to an arrest affidavit.

On Wednesday, FBI agents arrested Dyron Hart, of Poplarville, Miss., and booked him with sending threatening e-mails, stemming from messages he sent to three black students attending Nicholls State, in Thibodaux.

Hart is black.

Hart told the FBI that he wanted to “to create a reaction” after Barack Obama was elected president, according to an arrest affidavit…

Hart allegedly created a false profile of a white man on Facebook, a social networking Web site. He is accused of using that profile to send e-mail messages to people listed as his own friends.

The affidavit included the entire text of the identical e-mail messages sent to two women students and one male student at Nicholls State, along with students at LSU, at universities in Alabama and Mississippi, as well as other recipients in the Poplarville, Miss., area.

It included four racial epithets.

Hart allegedly wrote, “I bet your all proud that you just got a black president huh. Well im here to tell, Barack just maid me your worst nightmare. … Because of him I have to kill you. I have plans to off over three thousand (racial epithet deleted) in a months time because of Barack.”

Hart allegedly went on to say he was debating whether to start off by killing the people he selected to receive his messages.

“By the time you’ve read this I will have already planned on how I will kill you,” Hart wrote, according to the affidavit. “I’m just letting you know so your not surprised when a random white man is walking down the street just split your (expletive deleted) head wide open.”

The e-mails were sent to the Nicholls students in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, just hours after Obama was declared president-elect.

Meeting on the afternoon of Nov. 5, Nicholls officials concluded that the e-mails were sent to a group of individuals based upon their political views and  were not focused on Nicholls or the surrounding community, according to a news release the university issued.

On Nov. 6, Nicholls police contacted the FBI, providing the agents with a list of Internet Protocol addresses, numeric codes given to a computer connected to the Internet, that were associated with Hart’s fake Facebook profile, according to an affidavit.

The FBI investigation led authorities to a home computer being used by Hart, according to an affidavit.

On Nov. 7, Hart told agents that he sent the same threatening messages to students at Nicholls, LSU, the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama, as well as other people in the Poplarville area, the affidavit states.

Hart was booked into the Stone County Jail in Mississippi and made his initial court appearance Thursday, the FBI reported.

The maximum penalty for transmitting a threatening communication is a five-year prison term, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

Nicholls records show that Hart was enrolled for one semester — spring 2008. Rob Bernardi, director of athletics, said that “Hart attempted to earn a walk-on spot on the football team. He practiced with the team from April 3 through April 19, but failed to meet NCAA clearinghouse qualifications, and therefore was never a member of the team.”

Nicholls President Stephen Hulbert issued a statement concerning the incident, saying he was pleased the investigation was quickly completed.

“Our university Police Department worked in complete cooperation with the FBI, Louisiana State Police, the Poplarville Miss., Police Department and the … U.S. Attorney’s Office to resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” Hulbert said.

Funny how stories like these never seem to get carried beyond a handful of local media outlets. Even when they are Associated Press articles.

Wonder what would happen if the races were reversed?

From those guardians of Presidential safety at the Associated Press:

Obama has more threats than other presidents-elect

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer

Sat Nov 15

WASHINGTON – Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president’s security is so sensitive.

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama’s name and the offer of a “free public hanging.” In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into “The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool,” saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. “Let’s hope we have a winner,” said the sign, since taken down…

Racially tinged graffiti — not necessarily directed at Obama — also has emerged in numerous reports across the nation since Election Day, prompting at least one news conference by a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Georgia.

A law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that during the campaign there was a spike in anti-Obama rhetoric on the Internet — “a lot of ranting and raving with no capability, credibility or specificity to it.”

There were two threatening cases with racial overtones:

• In Denver, a group of men with guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Obama and sparked fears of an assassination plot during the Democratic National Convention in August.

• Just before the election, two skinheads in Tennessee were charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxedos.

In both cases, authorities determined the men were not capable of carrying out their plots.

In Milwaukee, police officials found a poster of Obama with a bullet going toward his head — discovered on a table in a police station.

Chatter among white supremacists on the Internet has increased throughout the campaign and since Election Day.

One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an AP count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day. On Saturday, one Stormfront poster, identified as Dalderian Germanicus, of North Las Vegas, said, “I want the SOB laid out in a box to see how ‘messiahs’ come to rest. God has abandoned us, this country is doomed.”

It is not surprising that a black president would galvanize the white supremacist movement, said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who studies the white supremacy movement.

“The overwhelming flavor of the white supremacist world is a mix of desperation, confusion and hoping that this will somehow turn into a good thing for them,” Potok said. He said hate groups have been on the rise in the past seven years because of a common concern about immigration.

Er, Mr. Obama is facing more threats than Abraham Lincoln?

Sure, we believe that.

As always, the Associated Press has found some authoritative but anonymous source to tell us just what they want us to be told:

The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president’s security is so sensitive.

In other words the Associated Press just made this up.

And speaking of which:

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into “The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool,” saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. “Let’s hope we have a winner,” said the sign, since taken down.

One of these days the AP is going to give its reporters cameras — or maybe even cell phones with cameras built in.

Just imagine the possibilities!

And speaking of the AP’s all too familiar ways, here they are once again myth about the sudden rise in popularity of (white racist only) hate sites:

One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an AP count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day.

Once again, let’s look at the Alexa chart for Stormfront’s internet traffic:

For once there was actually a spike in the pageviews at Stormfront. Just like there was on almost every political website on election day.

But notice that their traffic has since gone back down to its normal rate.

Even this brief up-tick was probably due to all of the reporters looking for the fabled white supremacist backlash.

(And note how the source for all of these “hate sites flourishing” stories is always one Mark Potok, who as the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, just happens to make his living decrying these sites.)

But the story of white racism against Mr. Obama must be perpetuated. Along with the terrible dangers he faces.

How else can he be the next Lincoln or FDR?

Meanwhile, a countless number of books, plays, movies and other paraphernalia about assassinating President Bush were promulgated by our one party media with unbridled glee.

Why is that?

From a dejected Associated Press:

Iraq: Negotiators agree on US security pact draft

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on a draft of a security pact that would allow American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years after their U.N. mandate expires Dec. 31, a senior aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday.

The aide said the draft could be put to a Cabinet vote in an emergency meeting Sunday or Monday. Transport Minister Amir Abdul-Jabbar said he had been notified by the Cabinet secretariat that a Cabinet meeting was scheduled for Sunday to vote on the agreement. If adopted by the Cabinet, it would then require parliamentary approval…

The al-Maliki aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the agreement stood “a good chance” of being passed by a two-thirds majority in the 37-member Cabinet…

Passage of the agreement in the Cabinet could bode well for how it fares in the 275-seat parliament, where it needs a simple majority to pass, since the political blocs in al-Maliki’s government dominate the legislature…

The United States last week responded to Iraqi demands for changes in the text, which U.S. officials described as final and said it was up to the Iraqis to push the process further.

Al-Hashemi, the Sunni vice president, said Saturday that the United States made “additional modifications” to the agreement in response to a request by al-Maliki, according to Talabani’s office.

Iraq has demanded guarantees for its right to try U.S. soldiers and defense contractors for serious crimes committed off-duty and off-base and to ensure that the United States does not use Iraqi territory to attack a neighboring country, like Iran or Syria.

It also wanted stronger language to clarify that U.S. troops cannot stay in Iraq after Dec. 31, 2011…

It looks like the Iraqis took Mr. Obama’s advice too literally and only waited until after the elections and not for his coronation.

Of course Mr. Obama probably didn’t realize that the current UN mandate runs out on December 31st, which is twenty days before his ascendency.

Or maybe they actually believe they would get a better deal now than under the new policy of “cut and run.”

Still, it looks like a lousy agreement for the US.

From the erstwhile news magazine, Time:

What Happens If You’re on the Gay “Enemies List”

By Alison Stateman / Los Angeles Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008

Ever since a slim majority outlawed gay marriage in California, opponents have waged national protests and petitions, urging the judicial system to reconsider the results of the Nov. 4 referendum. (Proposition 8 overturned an earlier decision by the Supreme Court of California legalizing same-sex marriages.) While the court weighs whether or not to get back into the fray, the civil unrest ignited by the ban shows no sign of abating. A National Protest Against Prop 8 organized by JoinTheImpact.com is scheduled for this Saturday. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which opponents say donated more than $20 million to the Yes on 8 campaign, has already become a focus of protests, with demonstrators gathered around Mormon temples not only in California but across the country.

The Mormon Church is not the only group being singled out for criticism. African-Americans, 70% of whom voted yes on Proposition 8, according to a CNN exit poll, have become a target. According to eyewitness reports published on the Internet, racial epithets have been used against African-Americans at protests in California, directed even at blacks who are fighting to repeal Proposition 8. Said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, “In any fight, there will be people who say things they shouldn’t say, but that shouldn’t divert attention from what the vast majority are saying against this, that it’s a terrible injustice.” (See the Top 10 ballot measures.)

In addition to protests, gay activists have begun publishing lists online exposing individuals and organizations who have donated money in support of Proposition 8. On AntiGayBlacklist.com, individuals who gave money toward Proposition 8 are publicized, with readers urged not to patronize their businesses or services. The list of donors was culled from data on ElectionTrack.com, which follows all contributions of over $1,000 and all contributions of over $100 given before October 17. Dentists, accountants, veterinarians and the like who gave a few thousand dollars to the cause are listed alongside major donors like the Container Supply Co., Inc. of Garden Grove, Calif., which gave $250,000. “Anyone who steps into a political fight aimed at taking away fundamental rights from fellow citizens opens themselves up to criticism,” said Wolfson. “The First Amendment gives them the right of freedom of speech and to support political views, but people also have the right to criticize them.”

Even before the passage of Proposition 8, Californians Against Hate compiled and published a “dishonor roll” of those individuals, along with their company affiliations, who gave $5,000 or more towards supporting the measure. Telephone numbers and Web sites were added along with commentary about some of the larger donors to public information obtained through the California Secretary of State’s Office. “My goal was to make it socially unacceptable to give huge amounts of money to take away the rights of one particular group, a minority group,” says Fred Karger, a retired political consultant and founder of Californians Against Hate. “I wanted to make the public aware of who these people are and how much they’re giving and then they could make a decision as to whether or not they want to patronize their businesses.”

The negative publicity is having effects on both companies and individuals. Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, whose $1,000 donation was listed on ElectionTrack, chose to resign from his post this week to protect the theater from public criticism. Karger says a “soft boycott” they started against Bolthouse Farms, which gave $100,000 to Proposition 8, was dropped after he reached a settlement with the company. Bolthouse Farms was to give an equal amount of money to gay political causes. The amount ultimately equaled $110,000.

Meanwhile, lists of donors to Proposition 8, once trumpeted on the Yes on 8 Web site, have been taken down to protect individuals from harassment. “It’s really awful,” says Frank Schubert, campaign manager for Yes on Proposition 8. “No matter what you think of Proposition 8, we ought to respect people’s right to participate in the political process. It strikes me as quite ironic that a group of people who demand tolerance and who claim to be for civil rights are so willing to be intolerant and trample on other people’s civil rights.”

Oddly enough, what Time magazine calls a slim majority when describing the no vote for Proposition 8 (52 to 47%) is almost exactly the same majority that Mr. Obama won by (52 to 46%). And yet the Obama victory is hailed as a landslide which signifies a tremendous mandate.

Moreover, while we constantly hear about how much money the opponents of Prop 8 raised ($37.6 million), we seldom hear how the proponents raised almost as much money ($35.8 million).

Where are their lists? The boycotts of the pro Prop 8 contributors?

But worst of all, this article pretends that the groups like “Californians Against Hate” are limiting themselves to “protests” and boycotts, whereas in truth they are doing far more.

At last count a dozen Mormon Temples have been physically damaged. And who knows how many have received envelopes with “white powder” and other such love notes.

But these are “Californians Against Hate.” They are demanding tolerance while giving none .

Still, perhaps the most amazing thing here is that Time magazine would even dare to notice.

From an outraged (at this audit) Associated Press:

Audit: Sharpton campaign owes US nearly $500,000

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

Sat Nov 15

WASHINGTON – Federal auditors have concluded the Rev. Al Sharpton’s 2004 campaign owes the government nearly $500,000 for illegal donations and other financial improprieties. Sharpton has been feuding with the Federal Election Commission for years over his accounting in his failed run for president, for which he received $100,000 in so-called government matching funds that authorities later concluded he did not deserve because he hadn’t followed campaign laws.

The auditors have now determined that Sharpton owes $486,803 to the U.S. Treasury because of his campaign’s taking improper donations, largely from the National Action Network, a not-for-profit corporation that Sharpton leads but is separate from his campaign committee…

Sharpton’s campaign finances came under scrutiny as he campaigned, speaking at churches where he collected “love offerings” that are common to traveling preachers…

Some of the costs were paid by the National Action Network, some by a different company called Rev-Als Production Inc.

“Virtually no effort appears to have been made by Sharpton 2004, the candidate, NAN, or Rev-Als. Production Inc. to keep any sort of detailed records demonstrating what payments paid for which travel,” the report found, noting what it called the campaign’s “nearly complete failure to produce any information on this subject in the course of the audit.”

The FEC audit is just the latest in a long list of money problems for Sharpton.

Last summer, federal prosecutors decided not to seek criminal charges against him over unpaid taxes after a lengthy grand jury investigation.

The IRS obtained a $931,397 lien against Sharpton. City and state officials said he owned them another $933,577. Separately, the National Action Network said in its most recent tax filing that it owed at least $1.9 million in payroll taxes and related interest.

This is absurd. The Reverend is simply redistributing our wealth to himself.

Why shouldn’t he get a piece of our pie?

And speaking of pie, remember that the Obama campaign will not be audited. Ever.

Even though Obama raised more than three quarters of a billion dollars — much of it from highly questionable (probably illegal) sources.

That’s what’s known as “transparency.”

Isn’t the Third World grand?

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Buried in the “Top Of The Ticket” blog of the Los Angeles Times:

Barack Obama taps ex-Fannie Mae lobby boss to review the State Department

by Dan Morain

November 13, 2008

Way back in the 2008 presidential race, John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, got lots of unwanted attention for his ties to the failed home mortgage lender, Fannie Mae.

But McCain was not the only candidate whose advisors included Fannie alumni.

Barack Obama had his share, and now the president-elect has tapped one of them, Washington attorney Thomas Donilon, to help lead the transition team’s review of operations at the State Department.

The move, announced Wednesday, makes some sense. Donilon was assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration. But Donilon also had his hands in Fannie Mae.Home foreclosure

After the Clinton years, Donilon worked as executive vice president for law and policy at Fannie Mae, a post he held until 2005. In that role, Donilon helped oversee Fannie’s massive government lobbying operation, called a very aggressive one.

According to Obama’s aides, Donilon was an unpaid advisor during the campaign focusing on foreign policy. He also donated $2,300 to Obama’s presidential campaign.

But as campaign watchers may recall, it was Davis’ role at Fannie that gained far more attention.

Attention turned to Davis in part because Bill Maloni, Fannie’s former chief lobbyist, wrote a letter that was published by the online publication Politico in September as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Wall Street were melting down.

In the letter, Maloni took issue with McCain for attacking Obama over receiving advice from one former Fannie Mae executive — “as if there is some guilt in the association with Fannie Mae’s former executives.”

Shortly after the letter was published, Maloni spoke to The Times and explained a bit about the hierarchy during his tenure.

Maloni pointed out that Davis was not paid out of Fannie’s lobbying budget, but rather from the communications budget. He explained that Davis’ job as head of Homeowners’ Alliance was but “one of many things we were doing,” and it was “small potatoes” in Fannie’s overall lobbying and external communications effort.

Maloni, who retired in 2004, headed Fannie’s lobbying operation for 20 years. He had as many as 20 lobbyists and consultants reporting to him.

And for a time, Maloni’s boss was, tah-dah, Donilon, the current Obama advisor and transition expert.

“We were very, very aggressive lobbyists,” Maloni said. “It wasn’t an accident. If you lost, you lost. The mission was too important.”

Please not that during the campaign there were countless stories in the news about McCain having Rick Davis, a Fannie Mae lobbyist, as a top advisor. (Even though he was not really a lobbyist, per se.)

Indeed, a Google search of Rick Davis and Freddie returns 138,000 hits:

(Click to enlarge)

Meanwhile there was not one report that Mr. Obama was being simultaneously advised by the biggest Fannie Mae lobbyist of them all. The boss of Fannie Mae’s head lobbyist.

Think about that whenever you ponder the utter duplicity of our one party media.

From an understanding Washington Post:

Democrats Benefiting From Post-Election Lobby Boom

By Matthew Mosk
Friday, November 14, 2008; Page A01

Barack Obama spent much of his presidential campaign decrying the influence of Washington lobbyists. In the 10 days since he was elected, he already has had an impact: He has touched off a mini-boom on K Street.

Top lobbying firms are gearing up to handle increased demand from corporate clients who fear that the Obama administration will expand its regulatory reach and target them for tax increases. Some firms, such as Patton Boggs, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and Alston & Bird, are also preparing for new business resulting from the ongoing effort to stabilize the economy.

And who is cashing in on this boom? Democrats who supported Obama…

The shadow transition on K Street really began two years ago, when Democrats won control of Congress…

Laura Sheehan, who recently became vice president of marketing and communications for the American Gas Association, had been policy director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and a top aide to Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.).

“After the last election, when the House flipped, I got three to four serious job inquiries on election night just because of my party background,” she said. She did not take any of those positions, but said the phenomenon has been compounded this year.

“In this climate, Democratic backgrounds are attractive to people,” Sheehan said. “This town, that’s what it runs on.” …

[A]lmost from the start of his campaign, Obama made clear that he would not be slamming the door on interactions with lobbyists. In a December 2007 speech in Iowa, he said he was “running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won’t work in my White House.” But the candidate quickly backed away from that second part. A few days later in Waterloo, Iowa, he changed the phrasing to say that lobbyists “are not going to dominate my White House.” …

Steve Elmendorf, a former top adviser to former House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), said that he understands why Obama took that approach, but that he does not believe lobbyists will be turned away…

Elmendorf is one of several who foresee a boon for the industry. A new Democratic administration and an increasing Democratic tilt in Congress means more activist government, he said. “That means businesses will have the potential for more things to happen to them. If they think that’s coming, they will be hiring people to figure out how to contend with that.” …

Tony Podesta, John Podesta’s brother and a top Democratic lobbyist, said the party’s expanding ranks are not going to force him to curtail his work. “I’m not studying for the priesthood or thinking of opening a doughnut shop,” he said.

Indeed, we should start a new category of news articles.

“Forget what Obama said about [fill in the blank].”

Something tells us this is going to be a common refrain for the next eight years.

From those defenders of the faith at the Associated Press:

Acid attacks keep Afghan girls away from classes

By NOOR KHAN and HEIDI VOGT

Fri Nov 14

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – No students showed up at Mirwais Mena girls’ school in the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace the morning after it happened.

A day earlier, men on motorcycles attacked 15 girls and teachers with acid.

The men squirted the acid from water bottles onto three groups of students and teachers walking to school Wednesday, principal Mehmood Qaderi said. Some of the girls have burns only on their school uniforms but others will have scars on their faces.

One teenager still cannot open her eyes after being hit in the face with acid.

“Today the school is open, but there are no girls,” Qaderi said Thursday. “Yesterday, all of the classes were full.” His school has 1,500 students.

Afghanistan’s government condemned the attack as “un-Islamic” and blamed it on the “country’s enemies,” a typical reference to Taliban militants. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, denied the insurgents were involved…

Qaderi said he believes there were multiple teams of assailants because the attacks took place at the same time in different neighborhoods. Provincial Police Chief Mati Ullah Khan said three people have been arrested. He would not provide further details because the investigation was not completed.

The country has made a major push to improve access to education for girls since the Taliban ouster. Fewer than 1 million Afghan children — mostly all boys — attended school under Taliban rule. Roughly 6 million Afghan children, including 2 million girls, attend school today…

“They don’t want us go to school. They don’t like education,” said Susan Ibrahimi, who started teaching at Mirwais Mena four months ago. She and her mother, also a teacher at the school, were wearing burqas on their walk to work when the motorbike stopped next to them.

“They didn’t say anything. They just stopped the motorbike and one of the guys threw acid on us and they went away,” Ibrahimi said in a telephone interview.

The acid ate through the cloth covering Ibrahimi’s face and left burns down her left cheek. The acid also burned her mother’s hand.

“I am worried that I will have scars on my face,” said Ibrahimi, who is 19 years old and not married.

Fifteen people were hit with acid in all, including four teachers, Qaderi said…

The United Nations called the attack “a hideous crime.” …

The attacks are “contrary to previous assurances Afghans have been given that there would not be further attacks against schools or students,” the U.N. said in a statement.

Arsonists have repeatedly attacked girls’ schools and gunmen killed two students walking outside a girls’ school in central Logar province last year. UNICEF says there were 236 school-related attacks in Afghanistan in 2007. The Afghan government has also accused the Taliban of attacking schools in an attempt to force teenage boys into the Islamic militia.

In Wednesday’s attack, three young women were hospitalized for burns. Two were released Thursday morning, but 17-year-old Shamsia Husainai was still lying on a hospital bed unable to open her eyes. Her brother Masood Morbi said her body shook about every 10 seconds.

She could talk, but her brother said her words were mangled. Her face was covered with a cream to treat her burns. The doctors were giving her pills to blunt the pain.

Husainai’s younger sister told The Associated Press on Wednesday that they had been walking on the street with a group of friends, all of whom were wearing a typical Afghan school uniform of black pants, white shirt, black coat and white headscarf.

Fourteen-year-old Atifa Bibi was also badly burned on her face but she was released from the hospital late Wednesday…

A handful of teachers showed up Thursday, but Qaderi said the only students who tried to attend were about 20 primary school students who arrived late in the afternoon and were sent home because the school had already decided not to hold classes.

Ibrahimi, the young teacher who was burned, said she and her mother stayed home.

“Yesterday we didn’t go to school. Today we didn’t go to school. I don’t know about the future,” she said.

Where are the human rights groups? Amnesty International? The ACLU? Where is NOW?

Afghanistan’s government condemned the attack as “un-Islamic” …

If only.

The attacks are “contrary to previous assurances Afghans have been given that there would not be further attacks against schools or students,” the U.N. said in a statement.

Where would we be without the UN?

From those celebrants of open borders at the New York Times:

A Killing in a Town Where Latinos Sense Hate

By KIRK SEMPLE

Published: November 13, 2008 

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — It was an occasional diversion among a certain crowd at Patchogue-Medford High School, students said: Drink a few beers, then go looking for people to mug, whether for money or just for kicks.

Friends of Jeffrey Conroy, a star athlete at the school, say he was known to do it, too. And last Saturday night, after drinking in a park in the Long Island hamlet of Medford, Mr. Conroy, 17, and six other teenagers declared that they were going to attack “a Mexican” and headed to the more ethnically diverse village of Patchogue to hunt, according to friends and the authorities.

They found their target in Marcelo Lucero, a serious-minded, 37-year-old immigrant from a poor village in Ecuador who had lived in the United States for 16 years, mostly in Patchogue, and worked in a dry cleaning store, sending savings home to support his mother, a cancer survivor.

After the boys surrounded, taunted and punched Mr. Lucero, the authorities say, Mr. Conroy plunged a knife into his victim’s chest, fatally wounding him.

The attack has horrified and puzzled many in this comfortable Suffolk County village of 11,700. Prosecutors have labeled it a hate crime and County Executive Steve Levy called the defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, “white supremacists.” And some immigrant advocates on Long Island have described the attack as a reflection of widespread anti-Latino sentiment and racial intolerance in Suffolk County…

Friends of Mr. Conroy and the other suspects insisted that the defendants were not racist and said they were shocked that a frivolous escapade by bored, drunken teenagers had quickly turned tragic. They pointed out that one of the defendants, José Pacheco, 17, is the son of an African-American mother and a Puerto Rican father, and that Mr. Conroy counted Latino and black classmates among his closest buddies…

The bulk of this typically verbose New York Times article is spent chronicling what a hotbed of anti-Latino racism is Suffolk County, Long Island.

Never mind the facts.

As the article notes, this same group had a practice of mugging people for kicks. They just happened to choose a Hispanic this time.

Consequently, this becomes an official hate crime. — As if killing someone for no reason isn’t bad enough.

And what is the moral? Juvenile delinquents run amok? (Even ones with college scholarships?)

Not according to New York Times.

No, according to The Times this is yet another tragic parable in the endless struggle of (illegal) aliens.

Any port in a storm.

From an approving Washington Post:

FDIC Details Plan To Alter Mortgages

Treasury Opposes Using Bailout Funds For Proposal to Ease Monthly Payments

By Binyamin Appelbaum
Friday, November 14, 2008; A01

Officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. yesterday detailed a plan to prevent 1.5 million foreclosures in the next year by offering financial incentives to companies that agree to sharply reduce monthly payments on mortgage loans.

The proposal, which has the support of leading congressional Democrats, would considerably expand the scope and force of the government’s efforts to stem foreclosures. Agency officials estimated the cost to the government at $24.4 billion.

FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair continues to face opposition within the Bush administration. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said Wednesday that he opposed funding the plan from the government’s $700 billion financial rescue fund, which has been used primarily to rescue banks and encourage lending. FDIC officials say they are still in talks with the Treasury, but proponents increasingly view the Bush administration as a roadblock with an expiration date…

Borrowers who have missed at least two monthly payments would be eligible for a reduction in their payment. The new payment would require that they spend no more than 31 percent of their monthly income, a relatively conservative standard. By comparison, lenders historically calculated that borrowers could afford to spend up to 28 percent of monthly income before taxes on housing.

In exchange, mortgage companies would receive a basic guarantee: If the borrower falls behind on the new monthly payments and the company ends up losing money on the loan, the federal government will cover half the loss in most cases.

The estimated cost of the plan is based on the assumption that only one in three borrowers who get a modification will be unable to make the lower payments. That would require a higher success rate than existing modification programs have achieved. About 45 percent of borrowers who received loan modifications from mortgage companies last fall already have slipped back into default, according to a Credit Suisse research note…

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) also said that he planned to introduce legislation that would allow bankruptcy courts to modify mortgage loans, another step long sought by consumer advocates and strongly opposed by the banking industry.

“It is confounding to me why the Secretary of the Treasury and others refuse to understand that this is the heart of the problem,” Dodd said. “Until we solve the foreclosure problem, we will not have any hope of solving the larger problem.” …

The mortgage industry is concerned that any new modification plan would persuade some people to stop making mortgage payments in addition to helping people who already have stopped making payments. The industry argues that this would translate into higher interest rates because investors would demand compensation for the increased risk of loan defaults. That, in turn, would limit the number of people who can afford mortgage loans.

The industry has particularly opposed the idea of allowing bankruptcy courts to modify mortgage loans. The courts have the power to modify other kinds of debt to levels that are affordable for the borrower, including mortgage loans on second homes, but the industry won an exception years ago for mortgage loans on primary homes. Consumer advocates want Congress to change the law, viewing the court system as an efficient way of modifying loans at no cost to taxpayers. The industry continues to caution that the consequences would be considerable…

President-elect Barack Obama expressed support for allowing bankruptcy courts modifications during the campaign. He has not commented on a plan of the kind proposed by the FDIC…

Under the terms of the proposed FDIC program, lenders would reduce monthly payments primarily by cutting the borrower’s interest rate to a minimum rate of 3 percent. If necessary, the company could also extend the repayment period on the loan beyond 30 years, reducing each monthly payment. Finally, in some cases, companies could defer repayment of some principal. The borrower still would be on the hook for the full value of the loan.

Officials said their experience at IndyMac showed that principal reductions were not necessary. So far, the FDIC has modified about 20,000 IndyMac loans. In 70 percent of the cases, the FDIC was able to create an affordable payment solely by reducing the interest rate. In 21 percent of the cases, the agency also extended the life of the loan. In 9 percent of the cases, it delayed repayment of some principal.

The plan includes a careful mix of carrots to encourage industry participation and sticks to encourage maximum modifications. Mortgage companies would be paid $1,000 to modify each loan, but participating companies must agree to modify as many loans as possible.

The loss sharing guarantee begins only after the borrower has made six payments on the modified loan. And the government would not cover losses on loans where the modification did not lower the monthly payment by at least 10 percent.

$1,000 per loan doesn’t sound like much of an incentive for the mortgage companies. But of course the real incentive is that the government will pick up half of the amount when the creditor finally defaults for good.

It sounds very much like this is where the bulk of the $700 billion dollar bailout is now going to go. To pay for mortgages of people who are going to probably end up defaulting anyway.

Agency officials estimated the cost to the government at $24.4 billion

Does anyone believe this number?

Moreover, won’t this approach reward bad behavior and encourage more of the same?

If we want to completely collapse the housing market, this sounds like exactly the way to go.

Which of course would suit ACORN, who lest we forget, were formed to find ways to destroy the American system any way they can.

And they are finally getting their way.

Meanwhile, we’re off to buy our dream house on Maui.

It is so comforting to know that we will never have to pay more than 31% of our income in mortgage payments and that we will never be foreclosed.

From a concerned Washington Post:

Aid to Fannie, Freddie May Top Expectations

Firms’ Health Has Worsened During Crisis

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Friday, November 14, 2008; A01

The first of the Bush administration’s major financial takeovers, the seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is poised to get more expensive and some analysts are warning that it may ultimately cost more than the government has suggested.

Mounting troubles in the financial and housing markets have further undermined the health of the companies in the months since the government seized them in September, making it likely the Treasury will be required to pump billions of dollars into the mortgage-finance giants.

Though not a cent has been spent, some analysts are warning the tab could exceed the $200 billion that the government set aside for capital infusions into the two companies…

Under the government’s agreement with the companies, the Treasury is required to inject money in any quarter when the companies’ liabilities exceed their assets, up to $100 billion for each firm…

“Depending on what happens with housing, you could see scenarios where the $100 billion comes into the question,” said Rajiv Setia, an analyst with Barclays Capital. He said McLean-based Freddie Mac may need $40 billion by the end of the year.

On Monday, District-based Fannie Mae reported a whopping $29 billion loss, bringing it close to triggering a government cash injection. Most of that loss was because the company wrote down the value of tax credits it is unlikely to use…

Many analysts consider Freddie Mac to be in worse financial shape and, if it makes the same decision as Fannie Mae regarding tax credits, would report today that it owes billions more in obligations than it has in assets, triggering a government injection of cash.

In addition to pledging capital, the government has offered the companies an unlimited line of credit.

In return for these backstops, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each agreed to give the Treasury $1 billion in preferred stock and pay a $100 million a year as a dividend. The companies’ boards also turned over control of the firms to the Federal Housing Finance Agency…

Fannie Mae said this week that home prices are about halfway through their decline. The firm said prices are down 10 percent from their peak in 2006 and likely to fall as much as 19 percent before stabilizing.

There is no certainty that losses will continue to mount at the firms. If the government’s efforts to stimulate the economy succeed and the housing market stabilizes, the companies may require little public money…

The companies could also be put in a more difficult position because the government is pushing them to keep buying mortgages in a weakening economy. The goal is for the firms to help push down mortgage rates by flooding the market with money, which should help put a bottom under housing prices. But that may force them to purchase mortgages given to buyers with declining economic prospects, including possible job losses.

“They’re going to be insuring or buying mortgages that nobody in the private sector wants,” said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. “The only people who would loan money to Americans right now is the government. Nobody would else do it.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator says they are buying only high-quality mortgages.

Finally, the government itself has taken steps that make it more likely Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will need its cash. The government has introduced several programs to protect debt issued by other institutions, such as banks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lack this explicit federal guarantee and that has made their debt comparatively less attractive to investors, increasing what the companies have to pay to raise capital in private markets.

As a result, some analysts are concerned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may run out of funding…

There is nothing to worry about. Former Freddie Mac board member Rahm Emanuel will make sure these companies prosper.

According to reports, he still have quite a lot of stock incentives.

BillK posted this from the Los Angeles Times:

Sacramento theater director resigns in Prop. 8 aftermath

By Mike Boehm

Scott Eckern, the Sacramento theater director whose political donation in support of California’s Prop. 8 ban on same-sex marriage turned into a lightning rod in the debate over gay rights, resigned Wednesday, saying he wanted to protect the California Musical Theatre, his artistic home since 1984, from further controversy.

Word of Eckern’s $1,000 donation — publicly reported under state elections law — spread rapidly on the Internet last week, and Eckern drew criticism from some prominent stage artists, including Tony Award-winning composer Marc Shaiman (”Hairspray”) and Jeff Whitty, the “Avenue Q” librettist.

“I am disappointed that my personal convictions have cost me the opportunity to do what I love the most,” Eckern, the nonprofit stage company’s artistic director since 2003, said in a written statement. By resigning, he said he hoped to “help the healing in the local theatergoing and creative community.” …

As BillK says: Lest you forget how chilling this is, anyone not self-employed may now find themselves out of a job because of the blanks you have to fill out listing your position and your employer for almost any political donation.

So here’s how this game is played:

1) Left sees you have an employee that donated to the RNC (or towards support of say an anti-abortion or anti-union proposition)

2) Left calls for a boycott until said “right wing hate monger” is gone

3) “Right wing hate monger” becomes unemployed, and even if they sue for wrongful termination that will take years to go through the courts, will be hard to prove and generally will end up being cheaper for the company in question than the lost business in heavily left-wing areas like the coasts, and, increasingly, much of the rest of the country.

You know, not unlike what I’m sure local Democrats are already doing to “Joe the Plumber’s” employer.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Catherine Vogt, 14, conducted an experiment in political tolerance at her Oak Park middle school and learned some valuable lessons.

Tolerance fails T-shirt test

John Kass
November 13, 2008

As the media keeps gushing on about how America has finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we’re all united now, let’s consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching “inclusion,” and she decided to see how included she could be.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:

“McCain Girl.”

“I was just really curious how they’d react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters,” Catherine told us. “I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be.”

Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain’s name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.

“People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn’t be wearing it,” Catherine said.

Then it got worse.

“One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed,” Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.

But students weren’t the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.

“In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain,” Catherine said.

If Catherine was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until she goes to college.

“Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said,” Catherine said.

One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her political beliefs.

“He said, ‘You should be crucifixed.’ It was kind of funny because, I was like, don’t you mean ‘crucified?’ ” Catherine said.

Other entries in her notebook involved suggestions by classmates that she be “burned with her shirt on” for “being a filthy-rich Republican.”

Some said that because she supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to kill Obama before the election. And I thought such politicized logic was confined to American newsrooms. Yet Catherine refused to argue with her peers. She didn’t want to jeopardize her experiment.

“I couldn’t show people really what it was for. I really kind of wanted to laugh because they had no idea what I was doing,” she said.

Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, “I really like your shirt.”

That’s when you know America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed.

The next day, in part 2 of The Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment, she wore another T-shirt, this one with “Obama Girl” written in blue. And an amazing thing happened.

Catherine wasn’t very stupid anymore. She grew brains.

“People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today,” Catherine said…

Catherine never told us which candidate she would have voted for if she weren’t an 8th grader. But she said she learned what it was like to be in the minority.

“Just being on the outside, how it felt, it was not fun at all,” she said.

Don’t ever feel as if you must conform, Catherine. Being on the outside isn’t so bad. Trust me.

We were just talking about how Oak Park was called the land of “wide lawns and narrow minds” by Hemingway.

And there they go again.