Investor’s Business Daily had a great editorial:

“Should Congress Be ‘Perp-Walked’?”

They say,

“A federal grand jury in New York is probing the accounting shenanigans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It’s about time, and we hope it doesn’t end there. Remember the early 2000s, when companies such as WorldCom, Enron, Tyco and Xerox suddenly and spectacularly were revealed to have been cooking their books? Remember the glee expressed by Washington politicians, especially Democrats, as they watched CEOs and their underlings get perp-walked out of their buildings and into federal custody? Enron became the poster child for corporate misdeeds. In the accounting crisis of 2002, CEO Ken Lay was one of the most loathed human beings on Earth. And no, that’s not an exaggeration.

“Here was California Attorney General William Lockyer, one of many Democrats on the national scene who gloated at the downfall of the Enron chief and others: ‘I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, ‘Hi, my name is Spike, honey.’ Lockyer wasn’t the only one swept up in a spiteful prosecutorial frenzy. Sure, some of the prosecutions were deserved. But some were excessive, part of a corporate witch hunt. As noted in a 2003 study by Kathleen Brickey, a Washington University law professor, the Justice Department brought 50 major fraud prosecutions from March 2002 to August 2003. An estimated 90 corporate officers were involved. That’s a lot of prosecutions. …

“Democrats wasted no time calling this a ‘GOP’ scandal, tarring any Republican official with charges of corruption for taking so much as a dollar from any of the companies. Never mind that Democrats were also prominent on the political gift lists. Fanning the fire were news media highlighting Republican ties to scandal-plagued firms while all but ignoring Democrat links. Here’s how James B. Lockhart III, head of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, described the two companies back in 2006, before the meltdown occurred…” Fannie and Freddie, “We mention all this because we now have an opportunity, thanks to the New York grand jury, to probe perhaps the greatest financial crime ever.”

Do you understand that Fannie and Freddie “dwarfs Enron,” and WorldCom, “in size and scope,” and that’s why we’re fit to be tied here!

The Democrats in Congress can happily frog march Ken Lay all the way to jail and everybody else that they wanted to tar and feather because they thought Lay was only contributing to Republicans. He contributed large amounts to Bill Clinton, too.

But when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored enterprise, ladies and gentlemen, “Why, oh, no, no, no! We’re not going to investigate here. We’re not going to prosecute.”

The differences here are stark, and by treating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as victims, we are only going to perpetuate all of this, unless this is accountability. James Lockhart described the two companies — c before the meltdown occurred — this way:

“‘The result of (Fannie’s and Freddie’s) rapid growth unconstrained by market forces and a weak regulator was years of mismanagement, flagrant earnings manipulation, and systems-and-controls problems.

“Managements of both companies were forced out, earnings were misstated by an estimated $16 billion, fines exceeding one-half billion dollars were imposed, and remedial costs will exceed $2 billion.’ Yet Congress did nothing. Fannie and Freddie continued to enjoy a virtual monopoly of the housing finance market, holding nearly half the nation’s $12 trillion in mortgage assets in 2007.”

Fannie and Freddie are nothing more than Democrat Party piggy banks. They are nothing more than instruments and seeing to it that the Democrats can buy vote after vote after vote from people they can put into houses who cannot pay for them, who are then going to be protected and will be allowed to stay in these houses, what with this new bill — the bailout, the rescue, whatever you want to call it.

“And what happened to Fannie’s and Freddie’s top executives, almost all with deep ties to the Democratic Party? Did they get perp-walked to prison like WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers, Tyco’s Dennis Koslowski, Adelphia’s John Rigas, ImClone’s Sam Waksal, or,” Ken Lay? Nope. As you know by now, “Jim Johnson, former Walter Mondale aide, became head of Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee. Franklin Raines, who headed Fannie from 1998 to 2004, the years of its worst excesses, pocketed nearly $100 million in pay and bonuses from Fannie. He, too, became an adviser to Obama. Other Fannie-Freddie alumni did equally well. Rep. Rahm Emanuel has been front and center in crafting a new rescue bill.

“Ex-Clinton Justice official Jamie Gorelick…” her name is everywhere! I don’t care where you find a Democrat scandal and something that has blown up, be it intelligence prior to 9/11 or be it Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, Jamie Gorelick is everywhere! Who does she have pictures of with a goat? “…Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd repeatedly thwarted reforms. Yet today they stand front-and-center as Democrats try to ‘fix’ a problem they created.”

That’s why blame’s important, Obama. That’s why these things cannot be fixed without attaching blame! Of course you want to shove the blame down the road because you know once this gets “fixed,” quote, unquote, everybody will breathe a sigh of relief and forget about the blame.

We won’t.

“There’s lots of evidence that the [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] had become little more than taxpayer-guaranteed front companies for Democrats, who used them to reward supporters with cheap loans and to provide jobs for out-of-work politicians.”

The election’s over, Chuck Todd said so today on MSNBC. All the polling data, a tipping point’s been reached, folks, it’s all headed in the direction of Obama. The only good sign for McCain is that the debate is tonight with Palin, but Palin is so incompetent and unqualified, that’s a loser. Gwen Ifill is going to be totally fair, we got nothing to worry about here. It’s over.

That’s what they want you to believe. Don’t buy it. That brings me to the vice presidential debate tonight. You’re being told by the media propagandists that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be vice president. You’re being told she’s dumb. You’re being told she’s a religious extremist, that she’s dangerous.

These attacks on Governor Palin are attacks on you and attacks on me.

They are attacking every single person outside the Beltway, outside the New York-Washington axis, outside their social circle of elitist friends that represents what’s great about this country.

Sarah Palin is a real story of accomplishment. She is a real fresh face, a fresh voice in this election. She is genuinely American. Her story can be vouched for by hundreds.

Obama’s story must be hidden. Obama’s story must be rewritten. Obama has no one vouching for his story.

She, Sarah Palin, she is the real citizen activist. She got involved in government at the local level, first at a PTA, ’cause the school was screwing up; then the city council; then as mayor, and she did it all on her own. She took on several well-heeled and well-known politicians to win the Republican primary and then the general election to become governor. She took on corruption in her own party. She is not only as far from the Washington cesspool as anybody can get, but she doesn’t think like a Big-Government Washington politician. And this is what distinguishes her so profoundly from Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

She thinks like we do, you and I. She reacts like we do. She talks like we do. And by that I mean she brings a citizen’s perspective to issues. Not the perspective of people who have been in government their entire lives or who have been around those who advocate government control of private property all their lives.

This is precisely why Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, and most other anchors, so-called reporters, are repulsed by her. They are repulsed by her just as they are repulsed by you and your averageness.

I hear ’em downplay her record as governor. Well, I understand she didn’t get some massive spending bill passed through Congress, which the Democrats love. I understand she didn’t promote the appointment of left-wing activist judges to the federal bench like Biden. I understand she wasn’t wrong on every major foreign policy issue as Biden has been. And I understand that Sarah Palin did not block drilling for more oil offshore or anywhere else. No wonder they hate her. She is a one-woman wrecking crew of their agenda.

I’ll say this, though, in her 20 months as governor, she negotiated a deal for a new pipeline in Alaska involving Canada and the oil companies that will do more to provide and increase supply of natural gas to the people of this country than anything Barack Obama or Joe Biden have ever done or will ever do.

In other words, in that one act alone she has done more than Obama or Biden have ever done for this country. So naturally it’s ignored and downplayed. These debates have become setups.

Just listen to how the media talk about them in the lead-up. The tie goes to Obama last week, and why is that? Well, because they say so?

I thought Obama was the chosen one based largely on his ability to have people eating out of his hand, his great persuasive skills, his great oratory skills; and yet, it’s a tie? It’s a tie and it goes to Obama? He was beaten soundly by that 72-year-old guy we were previously led to believe can’t hold his own against Obama. Now it’s the vice presidential debate.

Today on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos appeared with co-host Robin Roberts, who asked Stephanopoulos, “Let’s move ahead to tonight’s great debate. New poll numbers out there, George, what do they tell you?”

STEPHANOPOULOS:

That Sarah Palin is becoming more and more of a drag on Senator John McCain as she heads into this debate tonight. We asked voters, uh, “Do you think she has the experience it takes to serve as president?” and there’s been a big shift. Look back on September 7th, it was a close call: 47% said yes; 45% said no. Now today — on September 29th — 60% of voters say that she does not have the experience it takes to serve as president. That’s a big jump, and that is starting to hurt John McCain. A third of voters, just about a third of voters now also in our ABC News poll, say they are less likely to vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin.

This dovetails right along with Chuck Todd earlier today saying (summarized): “Hey, the race is over. We’ve reached the tipping point. This is it. The polls are all favoring Obama. Palin’s become a big drag. It’s over. It’s fini. There’s only one chance that McCain has, the debate tonight with Palin,” and, of course, Palin has become a “drag on the ticket,” so there’s no hope for the McCain campaign.

One thing the AP poll that’s similar to this one and nobody is talking about: only 56% think that the Democrat PRESIDENTIAL nominee is ready to be president. That’s bigger news than what people think of a vice presidential nominee, and that’s going to change after tonight anyway. But of course notice that nobody, nooooobody out there is talking about what Biden has to do tonight.

Nobody is talking about what expectations we have of Biden. Nobody is talking about what a drag on the ticket Biden might be. Biden’s big challenge tonight is, is to avoid being himself.

It’s much easier to be who you are than it is to fake it and try to not be who you are, and Biden’s got to do the latter. Biden has got to avoid being himself. We’ll see.

This woman is gutsy. She is courageous. She is fearless. She has been here before in debates. We’ll just see all of this Media conventional wisdom. We’re told that Governor Palin has an impossible hurdle to jump. She has to prove she’s ready to be vp. She has to prove she deserves to be on the same stage as the sage Joe Biden. Who decides all this for us? Well, Gwen Ifill, the partisan moderator! Charles Gibson, Katie Couric, the flunkies is the NBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post.

That is the same people that endorse Obama and Biden are telling us what she has to prove. If this debate is about who knows how to name all the federal agencies and legislation ever been proposed in the last 35 years, Biden wins the brass ring for that. If this debate is about who can name all the leaders of every fifth-rate power that means nothing to our future, I’m sure Biden can win the brass ring on that. If this becomes a Trivial Pursuit pop quiz, then it makes a mockery of this whole procedure and will establish what I maintain all along, which is these are just made-for-made-by-the-media events.

But if this debate allows the public to take the measure of the candidates, to see who will bring the best temperament, judgment, character to making decisions that no single person can know tonight will have to be made, then Palin will win the brass ring.

She is so superior to Joe Biden and Obama when it comes to common sense and representing the values and traditions of this nation and its people.

There is no contest between Sarah Palin and Obama and Biden in understanding us, and the traditions and the institutions that made this country great. She has lived them! Sarah Palin’s problem with the Media is that she did not become successful the right way. She’s gifted, highly accomplished, but she didn’t follow the path of those who have to struggle to become successful. See, she’s a natural. Governing is not rocket science. Americans knew that bright, grounded, decent people were needed in public office, and there weren’t any.

Sarah Palin did not follow the prescriptions necessary. She’s good at virtually everything she does: daughter, athlete, outdoors person, musician, wife, mother, businesswoman, mayor, governor. But she doesn’t approach those things the way others that sit in judgment might have.

According to a Media poll from AP and the GFK Group, a German marketing firm, eight in ten Americans are afraid the financial crisis will affect them. Right in time for the elections — why, what a surprise!

The majority of those surveyed blame banks for issuing risky mortgages and the federal government for not regulating enough. Some blame those who actually took mortgages that they couldn’t afford. The bad actors responsible for the policies that actually got us here, liberal Democrats?

Well, of course, they’re blameless!

But the fear is widespread. A third believe their jobs are at risk. Half believe they’ll have to work longer because their retirement plans have tanked. Eighty percent fear the increased federal debt from the bailout will burden their kids and grandkids — though they’re not worried enough, apparently, to demand the government stop spending so much.

But this is troubling news because, soon after the election, we’re going to be smack dab in the holiday season. Even before this so-called meltdown began, the media were running stories about the coming bad Christmas season. Can you imagine the forecast now? Total gloom, total doom — obliteration at Christmas time!

We can head this off; we have the formula now. This year, we need a $700 billion Christmas Bailout Plan targeted to America’s retailers. If you people won’t spend your money in stores, let the government spend it for you!

I mean, hey: if it’s good enough for Wall Street, it should be good enough for Main Street.

Right?

(Except Wal-Mart — let that fail. The libs would love that.)

My little man <2-1/2 yr old>, has been sick for the last week. Tending to his needs, has left little time to update blog.

With so much happening, im going thru POLITICAL withdraw…

I’ll be back up to speed soon… patience.

Last week — just outside Baghdad, at a palace once occupied by Saddam Hussein — Defense Secretary Robert Gates presided over an understated ceremony attended by top Iraqi and American officials. There, General David Petraeus handed over the flag of his command, the Multi-National Force, and said his farewells.

The farewell came almost a year to the date that a full-page ad, sponsored by MoveOn.org, ran in the New York Times insulting General Petraeus as “General Betray Us” and accusing him of “cooking the books for the White House.”

In a Senate hearing that week, Senator Hillary Clinton followed with her own insult, telling the general that his progress report on Iraq required “a willing suspension of disbelief”

— in essence, calling him a liar.

Despite these insults, General David Petraeus held firm in his confidence that the United Sates military could turn around conditions on the ground and win a war in which Democrats had already surrendered.

His faith — in his troops and his cause — never wavered. The surge worked. And a year later the victorious general is coming home.

Now, friends, there will be no ticker-tape parades down New York’s Canyon of Heroes for General David Petraeus when he returns to American soil — but there ought to be.

There will also be no apologies from those who disparaged this American giant; there won’t even be a simple “thank you.”

But history will mark his place…

and also mark the shameful place of those who really betrayed us.