President Obama’s Brother Arrested on Drug Charges

It seems that the Kenyan half brother of the US President has been arrested for allegedly possessing marijuana and resisting arrest.  Former President Jimmy Carter is available for consultation on how to deal with bad press from a sibling if necessary.

You may remember that this is the man who lives on something like $12 per month and lives in a shack in Kenya.  At the time I thought that is was terrible that our “community organizer-in-chief” couldn’t reach out and help a member of his own family that was living in such terrible poverty.

All that has changed now.  I suggest that President Obama will work with Barney Frank to legalize marijuana in the US and use the tax revenues to help bring poor Kenyans to the US.

Super Bowl 43 Prediction

The Pittsburgh Steelers are favored for a reason and I am not in a position to refute those who are putting their money on this game.

The spread is too high but the Steelers will prevail.  The final score should be something like Steelers 27, Cardinals 23.

Warner will read the Steelers defense correctly but will still be rushed into passing just a bit faster than he wants.  His receivers will be brutalized and will be just a bit off of their routes.

The Steelers running game will perform adequately to eat clock and grind out yardage (Parker will get 100 yards +/- a few unless he rips off a big 75 yard run like a few years ago).  Big Ben will be the Ben that scrambles and doesn’t make too many mistakes.  He won’t pass too often and will probably have a 200 yard day at most with a touchdown and perhaps an interception.

No matter who wins, the students at the beleagured Pittsburgh City School District are the losers – a 2 hour delay for Monday has already been announced – not for cold or snow, but for Super Bowl partying.

With priorities this far off course, it is no wonder the district has problems.

As a Steeler fan, I am happy that they support the team.  As a parent, I am horrified.

Then again, with the poor teaching track record and the usual leftward leaning agenda that is stuffed into our children’s skulls these days, perhaps less time in class can only help them.

Will UN or Spain Charge Hamas with War Crimes?

Hamas used helpless Palestinians as human shields.  The victims claim that Hamas terrorists would shoot them in the legs if they protested or refused Hamas access to their property for use by the militants.

There is no worldwide outrange or condemnation making rounds at CNN, BBC, al-Reuters, or Al-Jezera.  I also don’t see Spain charging Hamas with war crimes or crimes against humanity for thses actions or the attacks on the people of Israel from the hyjacked farmes, apartments, schools and hospitals in the Palestinian territories.

CNN just reports on victory claims by self serving Hezbollah terrorists.

Fixing banking sector less difficult/costly than you think

While everybody is hand wringing about fixing the banks in the US, there is a very simple and effective way to handle it.

Simply set a timetable for banks to sell assets at a % off of their original value.  For example, a mortgage that was originally valued at $500,000 would now be $250,000. Banks have from now until the end of April to send in their list of troubled assets.

Banks would write down the bad debt one time and the newly created government bank (i.e. RTC) would take over the loans.  They get 50 cents on the dollar in May and the US citizens now hold the mortgages.

Banks would then revalue existing mortgages not sold off to the taxpayers after the idiots in congress remove the “mark to market” to a more accurate form of valuation that more closely resembles how you would value a bond (payment history, equity in the primary asset or physical structure, etc.).

The new RTC bank would then hold any mortgages that the banks feared were in or were going to default.  The new bank would then negotiate where necessary and applicable to keep those assets “cash-flow positive” while the market (home prices) stabilize.  So, if I can only afford to pay 10 out of 12 payments, there is still some value to the loan (even though that is less than the original value – it is still more valuable than if I let it go to foreclosure).

That is it – in a nutshell.

Meanwhile, taking the two pronged approach to fixing the banks themselves would alleviate 1/2 of what ails the markets.

The other 1/2 would come in the form of standardizing a more transparent and easy method of valuing and regulating the derivatives or the aggregation of these mortgages.  This should happen much like mutual funds are regulated today.  That should help people make more sensible risk decisions based on how the funds perform and to make certain that no one is made to believe that they are insured or “safety of principle” investments.

With these issues stabilized, there would be plenty of capital to assist companies in need of credit and a sensible way for collateralizing debt based on assets like homes, office buildings, etc.

If they keep it simple and stop spending more of our tax money on garbage programs, we will get out of the morass faster than if we saddle several generations with debt payments for the Democrat re-election programs.

Wheels of Justice Slow? Not In Illinois

Blagojevich was removed from office by the Illinois senate yesterday and his image was removed faster than a statue of Saddam in Iraq after the liberation.

What happens if he is never found guilty of committing a crime?  Worse yet, what if a judge throws out the evidence against him or determines that the case was bogus?

Yes, he is part of the corrupt machine there.  So are those that brought him down.

His message to the legislature should have been, “Judge me as you would want to be judged yourselves.”

More haunting words in Illinois politics could not be pronounced.