RSSSmear Campaign Against Sarah Palin on Internet & You Tube … Obama/Axelrod Connection
Busted? The following story is almost too unbelievable to be true, but as Jay Tea states at Wizbang … “But it’s all too plausible, in this day and age.” So much for the most ethical campaign in history.
In this day and age when one wants investigation journalism one needs to look to the internet, not the main stream media. There is a reason why I have always enjoyed and respected the work done at the Jawa Report. Rusty Shackleford and the Jawa Report has done some incredible research into the internet smear campaign directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Smears and allegations made toward Sarah Palin that were patently false. I am not even going to attempt to go into the details as that needs to be done by going directly to the Jawa Report for this is a must READ.
Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.
It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:
Read other bloggers tracking this news story, interestingly enough as the people have been busted, You Tube videos are being taken down.
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Ace of Spades: Anti-Palin Astroturfing Traced Directly to Obama-Connected PR Firm. UPDATE: LIKE CLOCKWORK, VIDEOS TAKEN DOWN!!
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Patterico’s Pontifications: Potential Bombshell: Was Obama’s Chief Media Strategist David Axelrod Behind an Astroturfing Campaign to Promote a False YouTube Smear Against Sarah Palin?
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The Gateway Pundit: Busted… Sarah Palin Smear Video Created/Distributed By PR Firm
Posted September 22, 2008 by Scared Monkeys Barack Obama, Bizarre, Bloggers, Internet, Politics, Presidential Election 2008, Sarah Palin, WTF, You Tube - VIDEO | 21 comments |
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21 Responses to “Smear Campaign Against Sarah Palin on Internet & You Tube … Obama/Axelrod Connection”
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Leave it to the Obama campaign. Oh guess what, all those “grass roots” videos suddenly disappeared. Imagine that!
Makes sense … after all, politics these days consists of advertising. Issues? Forget it … pour money into meaningless TV ads.
So that’s what is seen to matter. Throw stuff, and hope it sticks ….
Image is reality. Except these days, as in a Pirandello play, reality is whatever you want it to be.
Isn’t it wonderful, living in an all-media society? In the old days, when there were fewer outlets, politicians could be held accountable for what they said and did.
God help us.
OBAMA=CRIMINAL
MSM is too busy campaigning for Obama to do any investigative journalism.
Bloggers are doing a better job of it.
#4, that’s as true and succinct as it can be said.
obama is just another corrupt politician straight out of the daly’s corrupt chicago political machine.
dennisintn
very inconclusive.
too many times “evidence (?) suggests…”.
maybe investigate first where all those disgusting and often racist smears against Obama for the last year or so came from.
to me it is encouraging that the RIGHT is panicking, trying all sorts of distraction methods.
you never see them defending McCains plan for the economy for example.
because he has none.
or he makes another one up every other day.
Obama could put a stop to all of the slimy, dirty, lying attacks, I believe he said we need to show respect for the other candidates. What a liar!!!
Now there on McCain’s 13 cars…there are a lot of children in his family and probably all have a car, I thought family was off limits… plus he does have other homes and there is probably a car there or maybe he has a hobby as is car collector…no crime in that…Obama says he has one car, so I guess Michelle drives that and he rides around in a chauffeur drive limousine and counts his 7 million dollars…how else would he get around…Obama seems to forget that Cindy is very wealty because of her father’s hard work…another stab at the family…Besides that, how many President’s have we had that were wealthy…
CAESU: the racism started with the pig remark made by non other than your boy barry soretoe.
so my reply is that you put lipstick on an ape but it is still an ape ! do you get it?
the racism started with barry dissing his own mother & grandmother.
you see, his kind use the racism excuse because it’s the only one they have. after all these years, they still can’t come up with a plan to help themselves, so they just use this excuse.
It isn’t just the ads, it’s the blogs. Type in Sarah Palin, the date, and you won’t get what you got a week or two ago. Fact is, Ms. Palin is being “cleansed” from the Internet. You’ll see page after page of negative posts. And, the posts aren’t even current. Yahoo is more of the same. Here’s a “wildly popular” woman, who I’ve heard described as a combination of the girl next-door, Ms. Right, and “the one that got away,” running for high political office and … we’re seeing outdated rants. It’s been reported the Obama campaign is top-heavy with ex-Clinton staffers. Well, the best credential for governing is that the candidate possesses the will of the people. I think Sarah Palin’s got it, you’re just not supposed to get it: http://theseedsof9-11.com
@SUPER DAVE
give me a break.
almost every remark by Obama gets taken out of context and construed into a racist remark by the RIGHT.
that’s is racist in itself.
and all the racist remarks by the RIGHT over the last year or so just get ignored.
but really, apart from a few crazed wingnuts nobody really cares.
it’s so obvious this is a lame distraction by the RIGHT.
at the end it will come down to who has the best plan for the economy.
and that’s historically the democratic party.
not the money-wasting, de-regulating, no-oversight, acting on their gut instead of brains, republican party.
#10: what’s wrong with you and your cohort is that you have been given breaks all your life. it’s time to man up and stop hiding behind barry’s skirt.
you are too easy to rile & you should calm yourself. it’s not good for your heart.
Good story.. and rather funny..that Obama is blaming John McCain for this..
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — The financial crisis of the past year has provided a number of surprising twists and turns, and from Bear Stearns Cos. to American International Group Inc., ambiguity has been a big part of the story.
Why did Bear Stearns fail, and how does that relate to AIG? It all seems so complex.
But really, it isn’t. Enough cards on this table have been turned over that the story is now clear. The economic history books will describe this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some fatally.
Fannie and Freddie did this by becoming a key enabler of the mortgage crisis. They fueled Wall Street’s efforts to securitize subprime loans by becoming the primary customer of all AAA-rated subprime-mortgage pools. In addition, they held an enormous portfolio of mortgages themselves.
In the times that Fannie and Freddie couldn’t make the market, they became the market. Over the years, it added up to an enormous obligation. As of last June, Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more than $388 billion in high-risk mortgage investments. Their large presence created an environment within which even mortgage-backed securities assembled by others could find a ready home.
The problem was that the trillions of dollars in play were only low-risk investments if real estate prices continued to rise. Once they began to fall, the entire house of cards came down with them.
Turning Point
Take away Fannie and Freddie, or regulate them more wisely, and it’s hard to imagine how these highly liquid markets would ever have emerged. This whole mess would never have happened.
It is easy to identify the historical turning point that marked the beginning of the end.
Back in 2005, Fannie and Freddie were, after years of dominating Washington, on the ropes. They were enmeshed in accounting scandals that led to turnover at the top. At one telling moment in late 2004, captured in an article by my American Enterprise Institute colleague Peter Wallison, the Securities and Exchange Comiission’s chief accountant told disgraced Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines that Fannie’s position on the relevant accounting issue was not even “on the page” of allowable interpretations.
Then legislative momentum emerged for an attempt to create a “world-class regulator” that would oversee the pair more like banks, imposing strict requirements on their ability to take excessive risks. Politicians who previously had associated themselves proudly with the two accounting miscreants were less eager to be associated with them. The time was ripe.
Greenspan’s Warning
The clear gravity of the situation pushed the legislation forward. Some might say the current mess couldn’t be foreseen, yet in 2005 Alan Greenspan told Congress how urgent it was for it to act in the clearest possible terms: If Fannie and Freddie “continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road,” he said. “We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.”
What happened next was extraordinary. For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.
Different World
If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed.
But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter.
That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the Democrats was obscene even then. Wallison wrote at the time: “It is a classic case of socializing the risk while privatizing the profit. The Democrats and the few Republicans who oppose portfolio limitations could not possibly do so if their constituents understood what they were doing.”
Mounds of Materials
Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda convincing.
But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.
Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.
Clinton, the 12th-ranked recipient of Fannie and Freddie PAC and employee contributions, has received more than $75,000 from the two enterprises and their employees. The private profit found its way back to the senators who killed the fix.
There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.
Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that’s worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess.
(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He is an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Kevin Hassett at khassett@aei.org
Last Updated: September 22, 2008 00:04 EDT
@super dave
is that all you have?
“giving breaks all your live”
while a Republican government is about to socialize the entire banking sector after screwing up royally.
i am not ‘faking outrage’ like most do on wingnut blogs.
if it is genuine outrage it is even more pathetic.
Another bit of info about Bush and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae..
Bush’s Calls for Financial Reform Ignored
Monday, September 22, 2008 3:06 PM
By: Ronald Kessler
For many years, the President and his administration have not only warned of the systemic consequences of financial turmoil at a housing government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), but also put forward thoughtful plans to reduce the risk that either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac would encounter such difficulties.
President Bush publicly called for GSE reform 17 times in 2008 alone before Congress acted. Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded, as the president’s repeated attempts to reform the supervision of these entities were thwarted by the legislative maneuvering of those who emphatically denied there were problems.
2001
April: The Administration’s FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is “a potential problem,” because “financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity.”
2002
May: The President calls for the disclosure and corporate governance principles contained in his 10-point plan for corporate responsibility to apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (OMB Prompt Letter to OFHEO, 5/29/02)
2003
January: Freddie Mac announces it has to restate financial results for the previous three years.
February: The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) releases a report explaining that “although investors perceive an implicit Federal guarantee of [GSE] obligations,” “the government has provided no explicit legal backing for them.” As a consequence, unexpected problems at a GSE could immediately spread into financial sectors beyond the housing market. (”Systemic Risk: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Role of OFHEO,” OFHEO Report, 2/4/03)
September: Fannie Mae discloses SEC investigation and acknowledges OFHEO’s review found earnings manipulations.
September: Treasury Secretary John Snow testifies before the House Financial Services Committee to recommend that Congress enact “legislation to create a new Federal agency to regulate and supervise the financial activities of our housing-related government sponsored enterprises” and set prudent and appropriate minimum capital adequacy requirements.
October: Fannie Mae discloses $1.2 billion accounting error.
November: Council of the Economic Advisers (CEA) Chairman Greg Mankiw explains that any “legislation to reform GSE regulation should empower the new regulator with sufficient strength and credibility to reduce systemic risk.” To reduce the potential for systemic instability, the regulator would have “broad authority to set both risk-based and minimum capital standards” and “receivership powers necessary to wind down the affairs of a troubled GSE.” (N. Gregory Mankiw, Remarks At The Conference Of State Bank Supervisors State Banking Summit And Leadership, 11/6/03)
2004
February: The President’s FY05 Budget again highlights the risk posed by the explosive growth of the GSEs and their low levels of required capital, and called for creation of a new, world-class regulator: “The Administration has determined that the safety and soundness regulators of the housing GSEs lack sufficient power and stature to meet their responsibilities, and therefore…should be replaced with a new strengthened regulator.” (2005 Budget Analytic Perspectives, pg. 83)
February: CEA Chairman Mankiw cautions Congress to “not take [the financial market's] strength for granted.” Again, the call from the Administration was to reduce this risk by “ensuring that the housing GSEs are overseen by an effective regulator.” (N. Gregory Mankiw, Op-Ed, “Keeping Fannie And Freddie’s House In Order,” Financial Times, 2/24/04)
June: Deputy Secretary of Treasury Samuel Bodman spotlights the risk posed by the GSEs and called for reform, saying, “We do not have a world-class system of supervision of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), even though the importance of the housing financial system that the GSEs serve demands the best in supervision to ensure the long-term vitality of that system. Therefore, the Administration has called for a new, first class, regulatory supervisor for the three housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banking System.” (Samuel Bodman, House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Testimony, 6/16/04)
2005
April: Treasury Secretary John Snow repeats his call for GSE reform, saying “Events that have transpired since I testified before this Committee in 2003 reinforce concerns over the systemic risks posed by the GSEs and further highlight the need for real GSE reform to ensure that our housing finance system remains a strong and vibrant source of funding for expanding homeownership opportunities in America…Half-measures will only exacerbate the risks to our financial system.” (Secretary John W. Snow, “Testimony Before The U.S. House Financial Services Committee,” 4/13/05)
2007
July: Two Bear Stearns hedge funds invested in mortgage securities collapse.
August: President Bush emphatically calls on Congress to pass a reform package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying “first things first when it comes to those two institutions. Congress needs to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused, and then I will consider other options.” (President George W. Bush, Press Conference, The White House, 8/9/07)
September: RealtyTrac announces foreclosure filings up 243,000 in August – up 115 percent from the year before.
September: Single-family existing home sales decreases 7.5 percent from the previous month – the lowest level in nine years. Median sale price of existing homes fell six percent from the year before.
December: President Bush again warns Congress of the need to pass legislation reforming GSEs, saying, “These institutions provide liquidity in the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital they operate safely and operate soundly. So I’ve called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs – and ensures they focus on their important housing mission. The GSE reform bill passed by the House earlier this year is a good start. But the Senate has not acted. And the United States Senate needs to pass this legislation soon.” (President George W. Bush, Discusses Housing, The White House, 12/6/07)
2008
January: Bank of America announces it will buy Countrywide.
January: Citigroup announces mortgage portfolio lost $18.1 billion in value.
February: Assistant Secretary David Nason reiterates the urgency of reforms, says, “A new regulatory structure for the housing GSEs is essential if these entities are to continue to perform their public mission successfully.” (David Nason, Testimony On Reforming GSE Regulation, Senate Committee On Banking, Housing And Urban Affairs, 2/7/08)
March: Bear Stearns announces it will sell itself to JPMorgan Chase.
March: President Bush calls on Congress to take action and “move forward with reforms on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They need to continue to modernize the FHA, as well as allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to homeowners to refinance their mortgages.” (President George W. Bush, Remarks To The Economic Club Of New York, New York, NY, 3/14/08)
April: President Bush urges Congress to pass the much needed legislation and “modernize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [There are] constructive things Congress can do that will encourage the housing market to correct quickly by … helping people stay in their homes.” (President George W. Bush, Meeting With Cabinet, the White House, 4/14/08)
May: President Bush issues several pleas to Congress to pass legislation reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the situation deteriorates further.
• “Americans are concerned about making their mortgage payments and keeping their homes. Yet Congress has failed to pass legislation I have repeatedly requested to modernize the Federal Housing Administration that will help more families stay in their homes, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance sub-prime loans.” (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/3/08)
• “[T]he government ought to be helping creditworthy people stay in their homes. And one way we can do that – and Congress is making progress on this – is the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That reform will come with a strong, independent regulator.” (President George W. Bush, Meeting With The Secretary Of The Treasury, the White House, 5/19/08)
• “Congress needs to pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans.” (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/31/08)
June: As foreclosure rates continued to rise in the first quarter, the President once again asks Congress to take the necessary measures to address this challenge, saying “we need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” (President George W. Bush, Remarks At Swearing In Ceremony For Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 6/6/08)
July: Congress heeds the President’s call for action and passes reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it becomes clear that the institutions are failing.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com.
what’s wrong caesu? strike a nerve ? the truth hit home ? you seem a little desperate today. try being American for one day, it’ll do you good.
you can keep attacking me every day. i’m not going to run like a Democrat. you better run on to school now while the rest of us work.
#15
no desperation here at all.
actually the increasing stream of ‘fake outrage’ is encouraging.
it shows that the RIGHT has nothing else to attack with.
#12 and #14,
Maggie, it almost seems that the dems stonewalled so the could cry about the Bush administaration causing all this, conveniently during the months running up to the elections.
Does anybody remember ACORN suing Citibank a few years back to lower qualification standards for mortgage loans under the guise to “help” the lower income class.
Things that make you wonder.
caesu – are you American? Are you above the age of 14? Did you pass Civics class in 9th grade?
Do you have any clue about what you are talking about?
Republican government? There is no such thing. Your credibility is shot with that stupid commment.
Thing is dipstick, the Democrats control Congress. Congress has a lower approval rating than Bush. The Democratic controlled Congress are the ones who made “affordable” housing “affordable” through sub-prime mortgages because of the “race” card they used. Fannie and Freddie are Democratic based companies run by people who are a part of Obama’s campaign and who have given him over $125K in just 4 years! Two top Democrats control the banking and financial committees that are in direct correlation with the financial sector on Wall Street.
What is more telling is that the all the left can do is try and say the right is being racist because they (Dems) know they have no shot at discrediting Palin. They are scared to death of the Palin phenomenon.
The reason the media brings no race into the equation is because there is no racism to report coming from the right. You clearly are imagining that and pinning your hopes Obama winning by hoping that the McCain campaign will do something racist. You are the one pulling at straws dipstick! The racism comes from the Obama camp as he his MENTOR is a racist and it’s on tape to boot, remember his racist pastor!
Obama has no specific plans on the economy because he can’t talk off the cuff. How come a top Nobel Prize winning economist on Obama’s team has said Obama’s plan would drive this country into further debt and economic woes? Any kind of tax increase with destroy the economy and EVERY tax increase to one class ALWAYS trickles down so with that Obama is clearly lying! He can’t raise taxes on the rich without it eventually hitting the middle and poor classes. You want bigger government to tell you what to do? You want more government in your lives? You probably have one of the bad mortgage loans that the government is buying up so you don’t lose your house! Democrats decry more government involvment while Republicans decry more self responsibility as Americans.
Screw Obama! He’s as dirty as them all! Change my a$$!
Do you think community organizers have more experience working across party lines or does someone who is a known “maverick” even amongst Democrats, including Obama’s VP pick, with 26 years experience?
#18
yes, democrats control the congress now for just over 1.5 years.
before that the republicans controlled it for the first 6 years of the Bush presidency.
and if the approval ratings for the congress are divided by party the republicans score even lower.
no wonder with a president with the lowest approval ratings in recent history.
and McCains campaign manager, Rick Davis was paid millions by Freddie Mac for influence.
no wonder why the McCain campaign is trying all kinds of distractions.
and Bush apologists are seemingly still very easily fooled.
McCain knows better, but he counts on the stupidity of the same group of irrational people that elected Bush twice .
i mean after the Supreme Court didn’t want to allow further recounts.
oh brother we are back to Bush stole the election.. lol..
Read here about the do nothing Congress Caesu.. it was on Scared Monkeys before.. interesting article..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121910897089651793.html?mod=googlenews_wsj