Yay! The blog is back!

UPDATE
After 24 hours during which none of my posts showed, things seem to be back to normal here.

But not to worry - first there's my article on Chavez's threat to cut off oil to the EU, which you can read at Newsvine. Then there's yesterday's podcast, where Monica Showalter reminded us that Hugo's threat seems to match Putin's similar threat, too.

Later today I'll have another article at NJ Voices.

On a personal note, I'm looking for a good recipe for Yorkshire pudding; if any of you would like to contribute, please add it in the comments section.

But enought about me (at least for now), let's do a quick roundup:
They say a picture's worth a thousand words, and Brian Faughnan's speaks volumes.

No Mas, Senator, says Cassandra, who's got the race card. Obama says Republicans will use race to stoke fear. It's the Republicans who can't keep themselves from calling attention to anyone's race, I tell you!




Then there's the seal of Obama. Macranger asks,

As I noted before the seal shows what appears to be an eagle in retreat with it’s back turned on the Flag. Couple this with Obama's desire to "Remake" and "Disarm" America and we have all the reason in the world to be alarmed and ask questions.

OBAMA STARTING TO CREEP ME OUT, for sure.

Bonus
Via Alcibiades, The Great Seal of Obamaland?

UPDATE
"Vero possumus"

Considering that most Americans don't speak Latin, and that possums are known for sleeping, having the word "possum" in there is ... unfortunate.

And then there's Dame Edna, who always refers to "possums", too.
Today's issue of Bus and Driver
Obamath: producing more oil won't produce more oil
More on the race card at Nice Deb and Baldilocks

Sunday 22 June
And . . . . Cassandra Blows the Lid Off Melanin-Gate!
Obama blinks on playing the race card
Here comes the race card.

Larwyn's been keeping up with things, and she's sent a truckload of links - here are a few:
The FHA time bomb

The Federal Housing Administration – the very agency the Bush Administration and Congress trumpet as the solution to the mortgage crisis – has announced that it suffered a $4.6 billion loss last year. This is one of the worst financial performances ever for the government's multibillion-dollar mortgage insurer.

Seriously folks, seeing how government does things, do you really want to turn over your health care to them?

Sen. Kent Conrad, (D-N.D.) is angry about negative publicity on his beach cottage, while Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) let his lender write the bailout bill.

UPDATE
In Mahmoud's World



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VDH on The Moral Economy

Via Maria, Victor Davis Hanson writes about The Moral Economy (also at Real Clear Politics) :

...despite the politicians' rhetoric, it is not hard to understand why America is in trouble.

First, there has been too much madcap real estate speculation. In recent years, housing prices were driven sky-high on the expectation that almost anyone, often with little security, could profit by borrowing easy money to buy and sell property.

Too many investors lost the old pedestrian notion that the purpose of a house was to be a home in which to live, to raise a family and to take pride in ownership. Its acquisition used to be a multi-year, if not once-in-a-lifetime, investment — not quite comparable to the easy buying or selling of volatile paper stocks and bonds. Others did not have the means to afford the type of home they purchased, once risky variable interest rates climbed.

Back when I lived in Convent Station, Morris County, NJ, I used to sell houses.

I advised every single one of my two-salaried customers to buy the house they could afford with only one salary.

I always had the customer speak to a mortage rep and discuss not only the no-documentation, low-downpayment adjustable rate mortagages but also the fifteen-year 25% down mortages. Once the customers could make the numbers and see the difference, a surprising number opted for the 15-yr mortagage.

Each one of those customers is free of mortgage debt right now.

A lot of real estate agents (who rely on a commission to make a living, and the commission is paid by the seller most of the time) would insist that their buyers overstretch with the wildest possible financing. Obviously I have a different mindset from theirs.

The reason was simple: I started a carreer in real estate when my husband got laid off from his job at Allied Corporation, and I knew there were more layoffs coming. He was not in a unique situation: within two years, the major employers in the Morris County area, Allied, AT&T, Henkel and Exxon had major layoffs. I mean ALL of these employers, at the same time. I wasn't psychic, I just had enough contacts that worked in managerial/supervisory jobs in those companies to know there was reason to be cautious.

People who had purchased the most expensive house they could - most frequently having only enough money left to buy a kitchen table and chairs, furnish the bedroom(s) they slept in, and purchasing a sofa and a TV for the family room - were left in desperate straits when one of the salaries disappeared.

There was a glut of ten-room houses on the market. Imagine hundreds of ten room houses with most of their rooms empty signalling to the buyers that the owners are hurting and have to sell. The ones that overstretched ended up owing money to the bank when the houses finally sold at a much lower price than they bought them.

Economies are cyclical. As a homeowner, it is your personal responsibility to you and your family to not gamble on your family's basic need for shelter.

In the larger issue of the economy, VDH continues,

First, at this late date, Republicans shouldn't vote for any candidate who promises another tax cut without first offering a matching slash in expenditures. And Democrats should reject any candidate who promises another multi-billion dollar entitlement without detailing how the additional revenue is to be raised.

Second, instead of demanding new billion-dollar programs for health care and education, we should take more responsibility for our own welfare.

Americans need to readjust their budget priorities. One might be able to believe that a $200 dollar a month private catastrophic health plan is out of the reach of most Americans — if we were also to hear that sales of video games, cell phones and plasma televisions have crashed.

Third, we need to ignore the alarmist hysteria, calm down and appreciate that life is better than at any time in the last 5,000 years of civilization. People are living longer; we're healthier; and millions of Americans have the opportunities to travel, communicate and avoid physical drudgery that were once reserved only for a tiny aristocracy. There is plenty of excess in modern American life that can be shed without real hardship.

Finally, we must view our present economic challenges in a larger philosophical and ethical framework — and redefine success as being able to pay off what we owe, and spend only what we earn.

Amen to that!


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Blacks reach for home ownership...

... and liberals get upset (I underlined the good part):

An aversion to affordable housing?

Redevelopment could slow the African-American exodus, but it's unclear how it would address the far more challenging work of attracting blacks to the city.

At $8.82 an hour, San Francisco has one of the nation's highest minimum wages. It offers a tax credit to working families. As of July, uninsured residents under age 65 became eligible for universal health care. Preschool is available free to every child. The city has approved more affordable housing in the past few years than at any other time in its history, Newsom says.

Many blacks here shun buying affordable housing because those homes have "equity restrictions" to keep them affordable, which means they can't be resold at market rates.

"They see homeownership as a chance to gain assets that will grow. So they'll go outside the city," says Ed Donaldson, counseling director for the San Francisco Housing Development Corp.

Betsy:

Shouldn't this be a cause for celebration - that inner city black families don't want government-subsidized housing, but prefer to buy their own house and build up equity?

It should, indeed.

And while you're at it, every city that has rent-control laws in the USA also has chronic housing shortages.