[belcherboy]

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10928

The Lynching of the President
By Ben Stein
Published 1/25/2007 1:49:40 AM


So there I was, lying in my bed in Malibu with my dogs, watching Mr. Bush's State of the Union speech. I thought it was darned good. Realistic, gracious, modest, sensible. I happen to think we should get out of Iraq yesterday, but I thought Mr Bush put forward his case well. And Congress responded graciously and generously on both sides of the aisle.

Then, whaam, as soon as the speech was over, ABC was bashing him, telling us how pathetic he was, how irrelevant he was, how weak he was, how unrealistic he was.

Right after that, Jim Webb gave a very short speech biting Bush's head off -- but not making any concrete proposals about anything. No network person mentioned how simple minded and unrealistic he was.

Then, tonight, the next night, I walked into the kitchen where my wife had left the radio going with NPR to amuse the cats. NPR was having a call-in show talking about the State of the Union. The first speaker I heard was a country music legend, Merle Haggard, who said he had never seen things so bad in this country. Then a legion of anonymous callers chimed in with similar thoughts.

And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush. They cannot impeach him because he hasn't done anything illegal. But they can endlessly tell us what a loser he is and how out of touch he is (and I mean ENDLESSLY) and how he's just a vestigial organ on the body politic right now.

The media is doing what it can to basically oust Mr. Bush while still leaving him alive and well in the White House. It's a sort of neutron bomb of media that seeks to kill him while leaving the White House standing (for their favorite unknown, Barack Obama, to occupy).

How dare NPR ask a country singer who hates Bush to spew venom at Bush? Merle Haggard is a truly great singer and musician, but he's just one old guy. There are plenty of country singers who love Bush and would campaign for him right now. And in what sense is Mr Haggard an expert on the state of the union?

The truth is that we are in a huge economic boom. We are coming off a mammoth real estate explosion that put the most Americans in history in their own homes. We have totally full employment. After decades of stagnation, real wages are rising. Gasoline prices are way, way down. The nation is wealthier than it has ever been (although this is very unevenly distributed). Opportunities for subsidized higher education are better than they have ever been.

Most important of all, who would have ever been rash enough on September 12, 2001 to say there would not be one major or even minor successful terrorist incident against the U.S. homeland in over five years? Who would have thought we would escape without more massive terror? But we have, and it is a foolhardy person who would say that's an accident. Bush may not have done it by himself, but he had something to do with it.

True, we are mired in a war without end, costing us far too may great young and old Americans and too many limbs and wrecked families and vastly too much money. But we all know we're getting out soon. It was a huge mistake, but I'd like to see a President who did not make immense mistakes. Compared with the mistakes of Truman and FDR and Kennedy, Iraq is a mistake, but not worse than theirs.

True, we have virtually no federal oversight of corporate looting and executive suite misconduct, but we didn't have any under Clinton either. The rich get away with murder. That's what happens in the real world. Bush is to blame, but all politicians cater to the rich, and Hillary will and Barack Obama will, too. It's nauseating and I fight it constantly, but that's life.

My point: let's be aware that Bush has presided over a lot of success in addition to substantial failure. My second point: no one elected the media to anything. If we let them lynch the man we elected as President we are throwing out the Constitution with the war in Iraq. In the studios and newsrooms, there is a lynch mob at work. Let's see it for what it is. We have a good man who has made mistakes in the Oval Office. He's the only President we have, and I trust him a lot more than I trust unelected princes of the newsroom.

[Sly Fox]

For those who know Stein only from his game show, Visine commercials and Ferris Bueller, he was a presidential speech writer back int he '70s before he headed to Hollywood. He doe sknow what he's talking about in regard to the content.

[RubberMallet]

i got an email that was pretty good quoteing ben sten....something about God and him allowing attacks on our soil or some crap

[Ed Dantes]

For those who know Stein only from his game show, Visine commercials and Ferris Bueller, he was a presidential speech writer back int he '70s before he headed to Hollywood. He doe sknow what he's talking about in regard to the content.

This really isn't the first time I read something along those lines coming from Stein (and that's not a bad thing). After Katrina, he pointed how how ludicrous the hate-Bush crowd was, blaming him for hurricanes and all. It's one thing to say that he's an incompetent leader, but to say that he causes natural disasters is to equate him with being a sorcerer. Good stuff.

[PeterParker]

The truth is that we are in a huge economic boom. We are coming off a mammoth real estate explosion that put the most Americans in history in their own homes. We have totally full employment.

Stein makes some interesting points, but on the real estate one, the explosion is beginning to give way to an icy unrest due to the subprime borrowing and unsound mortgage lending practices over the last couple of years which have served to artificially prop up the housing market. For reference, check out the massive foreclosure rates rolling down the pike in Colorado and Texas:

1. http://www.denverpost.com/foreclosures read, wait a few months, watch the dominoes

2. http://housingdoom.com/

3. http://bubblemeter.blogspot.com/

4. http://paper-money.blogspot.com/

[Sly Fox]

Texas? Did I miss something in those links?

[PeterParker]

No, I just didn't feel like linking the plethora of links about foreclosures...Texas was highlighted in a morning program as another area getting hit hard...here you go:

1. http://radar.planetizen.com/node/27113

2. http://getforeclosures.blogspot.com/200 ... allas.html

3. http://getforeclosures.blogspot.com/200 ... aults.html

"Nationally, 318,355 properties entered some stage of foreclosure during the third quarter of 2006, a 17 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 43 percent yearly increase from the third quarter of 2005."

"'Higher interest rates and a general softening of the real estate market are the two key factors contributing to the 43 percent increase in foreclosure filings from the third quarter of 2005,' says James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. 'What our third quarter research appears to be showing is that the first wave of adjustable rate mortgages is having a negative impact on the number of homes going into foreclosure. With the volume of these loans, more than $1 trillion of them due to adjust over the next 15 months, this is a trend that definitely bears watching.'"

Understatement of the year.

4. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/12/29/2201574.htm

Biggest worry Home foreclosures

Instead of dreading a drop in home prices, real estate analysts should be fretting about the foreclosure bubble.

More than 15,000 North Texas homeowners lost their houses to foreclosure this year -- the largest number of home loan defaults since the 1980s bust.

As thousands of foreclosed homes come back on the market, lenders could be tempted to slash prices. If that happens, local home values could go into a free fall

And good ol' Virginny...Hampton Roads that is.

5. http://getforeclosures.blogspot.com/200 ... ginia.html

[Ed Dantes]

Stein makes some interesting points, but on the real estate one, the explosion is beginning to give way to an icy unrest due to the subprime borrowing and unsound mortgage lending practices over the last couple of years which have served to artificially prop up the housing market. For reference, check out the massive foreclosure rates rolling down the pike in Colorado and Texas:

The problem is 1) people opted to get adjustable rate mortgages, which was the way to go when rates were down, but you gotta have to understand that "adjustable" means that the rate is going to change, and when things are at the lowest they've been in a long time, that those rates are going to go up.

2) In one story that I heard about, this woman couldn't afford to pay her bills, and rather than cut expenses, she took out a home equity loan. She fell behind in payments again, and then had her house foreclosed.

3) The issue really is that the explosion in housing prices went up too high, and things became too unaffordable. If there ever was a situation of the economy being so good it got bad, this is it. I'm trying to find my first home, and you'd be stunned at how friggin' expensive things are. I mean, while perusing real estate websites, I would take a look at a home for sale, think of how much I would pay for a place like that, and then I'd find out that it is twice that figure. Seriously, I saw something that can best be described as a two-story Unabomber shack... and it was going for $180,000.

After all, there was a report that I read within the last few weeks that showed that in order to afford the median price of a house (meaning that half of homes were priced above it and half below it -- and I think the cost was like $280,000), you'd have to have an annual income in the mid $80,000's. Obviously, that is FAR above the median income.

Doesn't seem right, now does it?

[Purple Haize]

ED You make good points. A lot of people thought they were getting "free" money when they cashed out the equity in their homes. Plus, they got greedy. They were coming down from a 9 or 10% interest rate and instead of looking at 5 or 6% as good they saw they could get PRIME or a point or two higher on an ARM. Or they REALLY wanted a house out of their price range, bought it interest only, figuring property value would increase, and they would be able to afford it by the time the interest only part was paid. OOOPS.
Also, you have to look at real estate based on where you are. We had some neighbors move in from NJ. The house they bought had been sitting for about a year or so. It was pretty nasty looking, until they showed interest and the agent cleaned it up. Anyways' everyone thought they were asking WAY too much for the house. But it sold for the asking price. We thought they got screwed, they thought they got a steal. Go figure. THey were able to pay cash for the house with some left over. I could never afford Ranch Haizo if it was in a different city. In Richmond it would cost 2 times as much, DC HA!!, Charlottesville would still cost more. Heck, when we bought it, the same type of house, in Goode, (Acreage and House dimensions) cost 30k more and taxes were 2x's as much.
Now I will say that I have an ARM. BUT, it is set for 5 years and even at the HIGH end of the possible bump my interest rate would still be lower than what I paid before I refinanced. Add to that we are using the "savings" to pay down some medical bills, school bills, etc. so their pay offs will coincide with the end of the 5 year term. That way we can afford any bump in monthly payments on our mortgage. Plus, refinancing is always an option. Our broker will charge no fees if we re fi with them. Actually, we won't pay anything, they will just recalculate the payments for us at the "new" rate. Yes it is in writing, and yes I did get it at the start of the loan b/c there was so much competition for business, companies were doing some cool stuff. Unfortunately, it appears that I am the exception to the ARM rule. But hey, who cares LOL

Ok Mortgage Talk soapbox now finished

[Sly Fox]

The whole fiasco is based on people not wanting to live within their means. Unfortunately it is a societal problem not limited to home ownership. So many of our friends are "house poor" its unbelievable.

For those yet to try and finance a home, just because a mortgage company says they will loan you X dollars it doesn't mean you can afford it.

[Ed Dantes]

Good points Haize, and about the 5 year ARM -- not sure if this is what you wanted to hear or not but that's the way Suze Orman recommends. Even if interest rates jump, it's stationary for some time -- and even when the interest rates on your payment do go up, there's a ceiling to how high it can jump.

And Sly -- insensitive, but true.

[El Scorcho]

For those yet to try and finance a home, just because a mortgage company says they will loan you X dollars it doesn't mean you can afford it.

Boy are you not kidding. When the wife and I were prepping to go out with our real estate agent two weeks ago the loan officer told us what we qualified for and then gave us a range we should "realistically be looking at". Both the figure we qualified for and the range they recommended were completely ridiculous. I guess the thing to remember is that the bank has an interest in pushing your budget right to the edge, just hoping you can handle it.

When we bought our current home in 2004, we got a fixed rate mortgage and it seems to have been a good call. In fact, it seems to have been a good enough call that we're having a hard time leaving the place now.

[Purple Haize]

Good points Haize, and about the 5 year ARM -- not sure if this is what you wanted to hear or not but that's the way Suze Orman recommends. Even if interest rates jump, it's stationary for some time -- and even when the interest rates on your payment do go up, there's a ceiling to how high it can jump.

And Sly -- insensitive, but true.

Not really a big Orman fan, or Kramer,or any of them for that matter. It just seemed like the logical choice. It was about 250 a month less to go with the ARM than the Fixed so it seemed worth it. Plus the added savings from the previous rate, it seemed smart. The hard part, as always, is being disciplined to stay on that payment schedule. So far so good. Have 2 1/2 years left on it and we are over 1/2 way on the other stuff. After that I am not sure what I am going to do. We aren't sure we wanna stay here, but aren't sure we wanna move. Probably we will rollup the equity loan, and get a home improvement loan and finish the basement into "MANLAND".
And on a side note, I can drop my PMI now, I am SOOO happy. I just wish my wife could drop her PMS!!! (Did Itype that out loud?)

[Sly Fox]

If Mrs. Haize ever stumbles on this site you are a dead man.

And I agree that there are few things sweeter than eliminating PMI from your monthly payment. The only thing I can think of would be paying off a car or house. I've got 6 more payments left on my Tahoe and I am counting the minutes.

[Purple Haize]

You said HOE You must be practicing for Presbyterian's entrance into the BSC!!!!.
Yeah they sent me a letter, I have since lost b/c I didn't think I was there yet. Then as I was doing taxes I looked at our appraisal we got for our equity loan a year ago, and our prinicple balance and said Hmmmmm....... So I will try that tact if it works. It is "only" 75 bucks a month, but tack that on to another payment and that gets paid down quicker!!!
Soon, I see the 50+" 1080 plasma in my living room!!!! But since we have to re upholster our sofa, recliner, 2 chests of drawers and a rocking chair b/c of HER dog. Uggghh, there goes savings!!!