[Rhodes22-list] Political - special post for Stanley since he has some ti...

[R22RumRunner at aol.com]

Blah blah blah and more blah. Don't you ever get tired of writing this  crap?
 
Rummy
 
 
In a message dated 10/5/2008 2:57:57 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
ekroposki at charter.net writes:



American History By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted  Wednesday, September
10, 2008 4:20 PM PT 

Jimmy Carter became  our 39th president at the young age of 52.  He was a
one-term governor  from Plains, GA, where he managed the family peanut farm
and taught Sunday  school.  He was also a graduate of the Naval Academy and
served seven  years in the Navy, leaving as a lieutenant. 

He came to power in  the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the resignation
of President  Nixon.  The public wanted change and someone new, and Carter
was an  ambitious, hands-on politician who promised better days.  As good  as
his intentions were, however, the things he tried were not  successful.  In
fact, he created far more serious problems than he  ever solved. 

The centerpiece of Carter's foreign policy was  human rights, and he did
achieve one noble success peace treaty between  Egypt's Anwar Sadat and
Israel's Menachem Begin.  Unfortunately, that  later led to Sadat's
assassination at the hands of Muslim radicals.  

Many people felt Carter was a good man who worked hard and  meant well. 
But he was naive and incompetent in handling the enormous  burdens and
complex challenges of being president.

He wrongly  believed Americans had an 'inordinate fear of communism,' so he
lifted  travel bans to Cuba, North Vietnam and Cambodia and pardoned  draft
evaders.  He also stopped B-1 bomber production and gave away  our
strategically located Panama Canal. 

His most damaging  miscalculation was the withdrawal of U.S. support for
the Shah of Iran, a  strong and longtime military ally.  Carter objected to
the Shah's  alleged mistreatment of imprisoned Soviet spies who were working
to  overthrow Iran's government.  He thought the exiled Ayatollah  Khomeini,
being a religious man, would make a fairer leader. 

Having lost U.S. support, the Shah was overthrown, the Ayatollah  returned,
Iran was declared an Islamic nation and Palestinian hit men were  hired to
eliminate opposition. 

The Ayatollah then introduced  the idea of suicide bombers to the Palestine
Liberation Organization,  paying $35,000 to PLO families whose young people
were brainwashed to kill  as many Israelis as possible by blowing themselves
up in crowded shopping  areas. 

Next, the Ayatollah used Iran's oil wealth to create,  train and finance a
new terrorist organization, Hezbollah, which later  would attack Israel in
2006. 

In November 1979, Mahmoud  Ahmadinejad and other Iranians stormed the U.S.
embassy in Tehran and took  52 Americans hostage for 444 days.  Not until six
months into the  ordeal did Carter attempt a rescue.  But the mission, using
just six  Navy helicopters, was poorly executed.  Three of the copters  were
disabled or lost in sandstorms.  (Pilots weren't allowed to meet  with
weather forecasters because someone in authority worried about  security.) 
Five airmen and three Marines lost their lives. 

So, due to overconfidence, inexperience and poor judgment,  Carter
undermined and lost a strong ally, Iran, that today aggressively  threatens
the U.S., Israel and the rest of the world with nuclear weapons.  

But that's not all.  After Carter met for the first time  with Soviet
leader Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR promptly invaded  Afghanistan.  Carter, ever
the naive appeaser, was shocked.  'I  can't believe the Russians lied to me,'
he said. [Does that sound like  Bush's opinion of Putin?]

The invasion attracted a 23-year-old  Saudi named Osama bin Laden to
Afghanistan to recruit Muslim fighters and  raise money for an anti-Soviet
jihad.  Part of that group eventually  became al-Qaida, a terrorist
organization that would declare war on America  several times between 1996
and 1998 before attacking us on 9/11, killing  more Americans than the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

On  Carter's watch, the Soviet Union went on an unrestrained rampage in
which  it took over not only Afghanistan, but also Ethiopia, South Yemen,
Angola,  Cambodia, Mozambique, Grenada and Nicaragua.

In spite of this,  Carter's last defense budget proposed spending 45% below
pre-Vietnam levels  for fighter aircraft, 75% for ships, 83% for attack
submarines and 90% for  helicopters. 

Years later, as a civilian, Carter negotiated a  peace agreement with North
Korea to keep that communist country from  developing nuclear weapons.  He
also convinced President Clinton and  Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
to go along with it.  But the  signed piece of paper proved worthless.  The
North Koreans deceived  Carter and instead used our money, incentives and
technical equipment to  build nuclear weapons and pose the threat we face
today. 

Thus did Carter unwittingly become our Neville Chamberlain, creating  with
his well-intended but inept, unrealistic and gullible actions the  very
conditions that led to the three most dangerous security threats we  face
today:  Iran, al-Qaida and North Korea.

On the  domestic side, Carter gave us inflation of 15%, the highest in 34
years;  interest rates of 21%, the highest in 115 years; and a severe energy
crisis  with lines around the block at gas stations nationwide. 

In  1977, Carter, along with a Democrat Congress, created a worthy project
with  noble intentions the Community Reinvestment Act.  Over strong  industry
objections, it mandated that all banks meet the credit needs of  their entire
communities. 

In 1995, President Clinton imposed  even stronger regulations and
performance tests that coerced banks to  substantially increase loans to
low-income, poverty-area borrowers or face  fines or possible restrictions on
expansion.  These revisions allowed  for securitization of CRA loans
containing subprime mortgages.  

By 1997, good loans were bundled with poor ones and sold as  prime packages
to institutions here and abroad.  That shifted risk  from the loan
originators, freeing banks to begin pyramiding and make more  of these
profitable subprime products. 

Under two young,  well-intended presidents, therefore, big-government plans
and mandates  played a significant role in the current subprime mortgage mess
and its  catastrophic consequences for the U.S. and international economies.  

Hardest-hit by the mortgage foreclosures have been the citizens  that
Democrats always claim to help most inner-city residents who fell  victim to
low or no down payment schemes, unexpected adjustable rates,  deceptive loan
applications and commission-hungry  salespeople.

Now we're having to bail out at huge cost Fannie  Mae and Freddie Mac, the
very agencies that were supposed to stabilize the  system.  In time, this
should improve the situation.  But the  party of Carter and Clinton that
midwifed our mortgage mess now wants to be  trusted to take over and have the
government run our entire system of  health care! 

And everyone is blaming Bush for our current  problems.

Posted by 
Ed K
For Stan's  enjoyment




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