Iraq Today

September 22, 2008
Rebuilding Iraq: Anbar ProvinceBy John Matel
RealClearWorld presents a special series of original, exclusive blog posts by the boots on the ground in Iraq - Baghdad, Anbar Province and beyond. These bloggers include American Marines, soldiers, support personnel and government administrators. The posts also feature exclusive, on-location photographs of Iraqi lives as seen through the lenses of the bloggers.
These posts are provided exclusively to RealClearWorld by the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in these posts are the bloggers' own sentiments.

Rebuilding IraqPart One: Anbar Province
My name is John Matel and I am the leader of a U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Anbar Province, Iraq. A lot has changed in Western Anbar since I arrived here almost a year ago and as my assignment comes to an end, I can appreciate them.
The first big difference is the physical appearance. Last year much of this province looked like what it had recently been – a war zone. Shops and homes were boarded up, in ruins or flattened. People looked shocked and sullen. Anbar is still not up to what most of us would consider acceptable standards, but improvements are phenomenal and the change palpable.

Along the whole Western Euphrates River Valley (WERV) and into the desert oasis cities of Nukhayb and Rutbah markets are open; streets are busy; the shops are full of goods; things are happening. We used to use a “banana index” where we looked at produce in the shops as a proxy for goods being available. Bananas available that were not green or brown indicated a decent distribution network. Today that index is overtaken by events, since shops are full. We now are thinking of going over to a “gold standard” since we now see gold and jewels in shop windows and assume that the owners must feel safe enough from both insurgents and ordinary crooks to be so confident.
Security is increasingly taken for granted by many people and now they are moving on to other concerns, such as economy, traffic and building their lives.
We have much more freedom of movement. I didn't do my first market walk until January of this year. Now we walk in the Iraqi markets on almost every trip, talking to people and finding out about their hopes and problems.
A year ago there were serious fuel shortages. While problems remain (many resulting from government controls on prices and supplies), the refinery at K3 in Husaybah is up and running. This seemed like an impossible dream when I first saw the place a few months ago. K3 produces naphtha, kerosene, benzene and heavy fuel oil. It is still not up to 100% production, but it is way up from ... nothing last year.The crude oil arrives from Bayji by rail. This railroad was not working and was not secure just a few months ago. I remember flying over the rail/highway route in a Huey, with the narration being that it could work, but there were lots of challenges. Getting the rail system up and running is another great accomplishment of the past year. This will essentially clear the lines all across Anbar.
I don’t often see this progress reflected in news reports. I recently saw a CBS segment from 2007, which I suppose reflected the situation at the time. But it is amazing how much things have changed and some mention of that in the follow up segment might have been nice.
The segment shows the bad old days in Hadithah. They said that most people in Hadithah are hostile to coalition forces. Back then maybe; today things are different. I walk through Hadithah a lot. If people are hostile, they don’t show it. People smile and wave at us. I frequently stop to talk to shopkeepers and pedestrians. Not only have I encountered no hostility, but many people thank us for the security we have brought to the place. I have featured pictures of my walks through Hadithah on many occasions.
Sometimes dumpy; no longer scary.
We accomplished a lot. We have created options. At the end of 2006, it was hard to believe success in Iraq was possible. Some thought that our only option was to get out as soon as possible – to end the war by accepting defeat. I disagreed at the time because the consequences of failure in Iraq were too terrible to accept, but I admit that I did not see a clear way forward. I greeted the news of the surge with more hope than real expectation. By the time I volunteered to go to Iraq, about a year ago, I thought that things had turned around, but I expected to be thrust into the middle of a war and I was not sure we could be successful. I never expected that only a year later we would have almost annihilated Al Qaeda in Iraq, neutralized the insurgency and seen such progress and prosperity return to the towns of Anbar - back then called the most dangerous place on earth. Of course, I didn't really know the Marines so well back then and I didn't know the people of Anbar at all. THEIR achievements have been astonishing.


Rebuilding Iraq: Muthanna ProvinceBy Aaron Snipe
RealClearWorld presents a special series of original, exclusive blog posts by the boots on the ground in Iraq - Baghdad, Anbar Province and beyond. These bloggers include American Marines, soldiers, support personnel and government administrators. The posts also feature exclusive, on-location photographs of Iraqi lives as seen through the lenses of the bloggers.
These posts are provided exclusively to RealClearWorld by the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in these posts are the bloggers' own sentiments.

Rebuilding IraqPart Two: Muthanna Province
Muthanna Province, roughly the size of the State of Maine, has a population of 700,000 and is Iraq’s second largest province. Though large in size, it is the nation’s least economically developed. Sharing a border with Saudi Arabia, it is in the Deep South where temperatures can reach 140 degrees. Unemployment is high and agriculture (livestock, dates, rice, and wheat) support the livelihood of many of the province’s residents. Cement, brick, and salt factories comprise the industrial capacity of the province.
While the residents of Muthanna, like almost all Iraqis, certainly wonder when the U.S. will leave Iraq, the question that is first on the minds of folks here is, how can the U.S. help us? The province was largely ignored by the Saddam regime. This means much of the work the PRT is doing to help the people here is well received. Whereas essential services were destroyed or disrupted by war and sectarian violence across much of Iraq, Muthanna simply did not have these essential services to begin with; in many cases, we helped provide these essential services to the residents of Muthanna for the very first time.
PRT Public Diplomacy Officer Aaron Snipe hands food to a widow in Rumaytha City, Muthanna, during the holy month of Ramadan.
Understanding Iraq and the development challenges at the provincial level is a Herculean task. While I cannot speak for the policy-makers in Washington, I can speak for the members of my PRT when I say that we are making a difference in the lives of the residents of Muthanna. I have also come to know that the contributions we make here will probably never reach the ears and eyes of most Americans back home. Providing Arabic books to needy schools in rural Iraq won’t make headlines back home, but it makes news in Muthanna, and more importantly, a real difference here on the ground. Food distributions to needy families during the holy month of Ramadan is common in Iraq and across the Middle East, but when a U.S. diplomat welcomes the needy ��" in Arabic ��" and is the one handing out those bags to widows, people here take notice. Clearing fields of garbage and scrap metal to make way for soccer fields for the youth of Muthanna is a small monetary investment for our PRT, but one made in the name of Iraqi youth that is, without a doubt, worth any amount of time and effort.
Muthanna is an agrarian society at heart and some of our most meaningful efforts are focused in this sector. An example of a project that is making a significant difference in the lives of local Iraqis, but not making headlines, is our effort to help farmers replenish their fleeting livestock numbers. Decades of neglect under Saddam, years of war, and other economic factors have forced many of Muthanna’s farmers to slaughter their livestock for food to feed their families, while stripping them of their main source of income.
The dwindling numbers of breeding bulls have created an agricultural and financial crisis for Muthanna’s farmers. With a PRT-inspired, Iraqi-led program in place, the numbers of livestock will certainly increase. Now, I am painfully aware that this is not a story that sells itself. How do you turn this project into a high-gloss "success story?" Answer: You don’t. But guess what? We don’t really care if the folks back in Washington can’t make a brochure out of this one. Just ask the Iraqi agricultural officials who recognize that this program is helping revitalize a vital part of their agricultural sector, and their economy. They’ll tell you this vital program is no BS.
I know books, soccer fields, and food won't solve all the problems of Iraq. But our mission here is to supplement Iraqi efforts, not solve every problem. We are here doing important work and, in a short amount of time, I can see with my own eyes that we are making a difference. I am happy to report that Muthanna continues to be an oasis of stability in these turbulent times.


Rebuilding Iraq: Babil ProvinceBy Ken Hillas
RealClearWorld presents a special series of original, exclusive blog posts by the boots on the ground in Iraq - Baghdad, Anbar Province and beyond. These bloggers include American Marines, soldiers, support personnel and government administrators. The posts also feature exclusive, on-location photographs of Iraqi lives as seen through the lenses of the bloggers.
These posts are provided exclusively to RealClearWorld by the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in these posts are the bloggers' own sentiments.

Rebuilding IraqPart Three: Babil Province
SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS PALPABLE BUT FRAGILE
I arrived in Al-Hillah in the beginning of March 2008, and the changes since then have been notable. The gains in security during that time are reflected in an improved quality of life for the province's citizens. Babil -- the most populous (1.6 million) province in the south central region -- is the keystone for the south central region. The U.S. maintains a Regional Embassy Office (REO ) in Al-Hillah, one of four in Iraq (together with Basrah, Kirkuk and Erbil). Babil is largely located between the Tirgris and Euphrates and has been Iraq's breadbasket as well as an industrial center. The northern part of the province lies within the so-called "Triangle of Death," south of Baghdad. This was a Sunni area lying on the Sunni/Shia fault line and the stage in which active fighting was still taking place until early 2008. An embedded sister PRT is paired with U.S. forces in northern Babil, where the changes of the last 10 months have probably been most starkly visible. A place like Jurf as Sakr, a Sunni majority town in northern Babil, was the scene of terrible destruction one year ago. I walked down the main street early this summer and was able to visit stores and talk to shopkeepers, escorted by only two soldiers at a distance.
NO SUBSTITUTE FOR ENGAGEMENT ON THE GROUND
The Al-Hillah REO supported three other PRTs, which for security reasons were not able to deploy to the provinces of Diwaniyah, Najaf and Karbala. This year all three of those PRTs are now based in their respective provincial capitals working closely with the provincial authorities to build governance capacity, pursue reconstruction and promote political reconciliation.
SOME IRAQIS RETURNING TO BABIL
Just a few weeks after my arrival in Al-Hillah, the REO compound was shelled twice. The REO compound adjoins a U.S. Army Forward Operating Base, where a battalion of the Third Infantry Division/Fourth Brigade is located. There were also several unsuccessful attempts to rocket our compound.
During the early weeks of spring, the Sadrist Militia, Jaysh Al-Mahdi (JAM), also known as Mahdi's Army, tried to destabilize the situation in southern Iraq with Iranian support and training. Militia groups attacked government and offices of the governing political parties, especially ISCI and Dawa. The Iraqi Security Forces responded forcefully and effectively, disrupting JAM's organizational structure and operational capabilities. It was at this time that Prime Minister Maliki decided to take back control of Basrah.
The fighting in Babil was not nearly as intense as in Basrah, and the ISF never lost complete control of any area of the province. Since that time, the incidence of IED and EFP attacks has dropped by several orders of magnitude. Stores remain open in the evening, and people no longer hustle home after dark. For the first time in several years, some women walk the streets of Hillah without headscarves. Numerous restaurants have opened and you now hear pop music in the streets that the Sadrist militia would prevent, preferring instead religious music. This year, 10 Iraqi expatriates returned to Hillah to take up faculty positions at Babil University, and several others have expressed an interest in doing the same. While we don't have good statistics on the rate of return, this is one indication that Iraq's intelligentsia, which had the ability and good reason to flee, are beginning to come home. WITH IMPROVEMENT COMES NEW CHALLENGES
To be sure, there is a real revival of economic activity in the province. Construction projects are ubiquitous. Numerous housing projects have popped up this year around Al-Hillah like desert wildflowers after the late winter rains. This has been both a blessing and a curse. As the economy revives -- with no small help from increased oil prices over the last two years -- the demand for electricity has grown sharply in Babil. Although the supply of electricity has also grown consistently this last year, the rising demand has maintained the shortages that plague much of the rest of Iraq. Power was available this summer sometimes for no more than six hours a day.
The PRT has been active in helping Iraqis kickstart their economy. At the PRT's initiative, a contractor helped the Iraqi Society of Fish Producers to reenergize this key economic sector with a targeted grant. Fish farming traditionally was a big money maker in Iraq, and Babil has been at the centerpiece. As a result, over five million fingerlings found themselves distributed throughout the province and in neighboring ones too, providing gainful employment to many young males who could otherwise be tempted to work for AQI or JAM.
Caption: Iraqis harvesting carp fingerlings in May 2008 outside of Hillah, as part of a PRT-inspired fish farm project.
A SHIFT IN PRT FOCUS: IRAQI MONEY FOR IRAQI PROJECTS
Until recently, the PRT's work focused on capital projects, using U.S. funding to build schools, roads, water treatment plants. That has changed. For a variety of reasons ranging from poor governance capacity to bureaucratic inertia, the provinces have not in the past succeeded in spending all of their budgets. We have now begun to use Iraqi funds to do this, while we provide the expertise for long-term planning, and operations and training in operations and maintenance of key infrastructure. This shift has not always been easy for the Iraqis or Americans, accustomed to doing business in the past, but it reflects the new reality. Fortunately for Babil Province, it has one of the best records in executing its budget, spending nearly all the funds allocated to it.
Caption: Women with their children line up to receive medical attention at a mobile clinic organized by the PRTs Civil Affairs Unit, in collaboration with Iraqi doctors.
THE TOWER OF BABIL: WHERE IRAQ'S PAST AND FUTURE COME TOGETHER
Today, the PRT's focus is to help the provincial government succeed in providing essential services to the population. Our aim is to strengthen the provinces capacity, not to be a substitute. We have established joint working groups to do long-term planning -- from capital infrastructure projects and water and sewage master plans to investment promotion and the development of tourism. Yes, there is potential for this. It's now possible to envision that one day Americans and others will visit this province -- the site of the Babylonian ruins, of the prophet Ezekiel's grave and of Abraham's home -- as ordinary tourists. It is a land that has witnessed death and destruction for several decades now -- several thousands of Shia were killed in Babil by Saddam Hussein's forces during the 1991 Shia Uprising -- but this is also a land with an incredible history to share with the rest of the world. The Babylonian ruins are just two miles from where I sit writing now, a reminder to me of what was and what could be.
Caption: A view of some of the Babylonian Ruins, which have not been excavated, or maintained, for many years long before 2003.

Return to the ArticleSeptember 29, 2008
Rebuilding Iraq: BaghdadBy Conrad Tribble
RealClearWorld presents a special series of original, exclusive blog posts by the boots on the ground in Iraq - Baghdad, Anbar Province and beyond. These bloggers include American Marines, soldiers, support personnel and government administrators. The posts also feature exclusive, on-location photographs of Iraqi lives as seen through the lenses of the bloggers.
These posts are provided exclusively to RealClearWorld by the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in these posts are the bloggers' own sentiments.

Rebuilding IraqPart Four: Baghdad
It’s 117 degrees, you’re 8 or 10 years old, what’s the most fun thing to do? Go in the water, right? Or you’re 20 years old, madly in love, and desperately want a place to go and sit with your boyfriend/girlfriend without all the relatives around. Where can you go? How about a big park with lots of open space and benches? With plenty of places to hide?
Down at the end of the Karada peninsula, right along the Tigris river, the Iraqi government built a park in 2003, just before the war, that quickly became a popular entertainment destination for Baghdad residents. They came by the thousands to enjoy its two large lakes, playgrounds, open areas for walking, kiosks selling food, and even music festivals at night. Damaged and then looted during and after the war, the park was reopened by the Ministry of Tourism sometime after the initial fighting stopped, but the violence of 2005-06 made it impossible for people to get out an enjoy such luxuries as a park.
Again, the facilities were looted and deteriorated to the point that the lakes drained out into the river, rusting paddle boats and jet-skis collected in a corner graveyard, and nobody could enjoy it.
The brigade I work for set out to do something about this and put together a reconstruction project to renovate the pumps, refurbish many of the facilities, and get the park ready for people to use it again. Our contribution was to help broker a deal between the Ministry of Tourism and the next door University of Baghdad to resolve a property dispute, and then to help in several small ways to get the project completed.
Finally, on Friday August 22, everything was ready. This was in Karada district, and the district council there organized a big district festival. Officially, it was called Karada Day, although it really took place in the late afternoon and evening. (We fondly called it Karada-palooza, although Karada-vaganza was also thrown around.)
The festivities started with a “marathon” -- actually an 8 kilometer run through the streets of Karada ending up at the park. We got there around 4:30 in the afternoon and the first runners began arriving around 5:30 p.m., having run for the better part of an hour in 115 degree heat!
The only-in-Iraq part of the run came next. After the first few runners crossed the finish line, here came several hundred more, escorted by a phalanx of motorcycle cops and police trucks belching fumes into the air for the runners to breathe.
Everybody -- strong runners, wheelchair runners, kids gasping their way to the finish line, motorcycles, police trucks, even fire trucks -- tried to fit through the narrow finish line. Runners were careening off of pick-up trucks, wheelchairs collided with motorcycles, and race officials desperately tried to orchestrate the finish while dancing around the vehicles and runners.
Miraculously, nobody was hurt, and the runners were soon parading around proudly to the applause of many guests.
The inclusion of so many wheelchair runners was a nice touch, though it was sobering to realize that most of these participants were men who had lost one or both legs, most likely to terrorist violence.
Once the race was over, there were the usual speeches and ribbon-cutting that you would expect at an event like this. A small marching band played an Iraqi anthem, kids in costumes danced an Iraqi folkloric dance, and artists showed their wares at a small exhibit set up in the grass. Many of the runners, at least the boys, decided to test out the lake and found it greatly to their liking! One enterprising young man managed to get one of the jet-skis working and took turns giving rides to the younger kids. And once the formalities were over, people stayed for hours into the evening, and as we were leaving just after the sun went down, we could see hundreds of parents, children, and people of all ages streaming into the park.
In the language of post-conflict reconstruction, this was an important “return to normalcy” event. That residents of Baghdad could and did gather in such large and enthusiastic numbers for such a visible event really brought home how much security has improved in the capital and how strongly most of the people here want to live their lives free of worry over their basic security. We were not sure how this big event would turn out but as we left we knew it had been enormously successful in ways we couldn’t have predicted.

Return to the ArticleSeptember 29, 2008
Rebuilding Iraq: Baghdad IIBy Vicente Valle
RealClearWorld presents a special series of original, exclusive blog posts by the boots on the ground in Iraq - Baghdad, Anbar Province and beyond. These bloggers include American Marines, soldiers, support personnel and government administrators. The posts also feature exclusive, on-location photographs of Iraqi lives as seen through the lenses of the bloggers.
These posts are provided exclusively to RealClearWorld by the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed in these posts are the bloggers' own sentiments.

Rebuilding IraqPart Five: Baghdad II
Our ePRT 4 works in southern Baghdad province in a district (Qada) known as Mahmudiyah and includes the sub-districts of Yusifiyah, Lutifiyah, and Al Rasheed as well as Mahmudiyah. After 2003 and until early 2007, the area became known as the triangle of death because of the extreme violence carried out by Sunni and Shia extremists and assorted terrorists and thugs. Until last year, it was rife with kidnappings, murders, bombings, and other mayhem.
What a difference a year makes. Today, the 450,000 inhabitants of the district reside more or less peacefully together. Of course they are concerned about security and stability, but they now have time to think about making a better life for themselves and their families. Our Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team (ePRT) works with Iraqis and help them to improve governance, foster economic development, provide essential services to the population, and promote the rule of law. We are embedded with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division, the Rakkasans, on which we rely for security and other support.
Because of the greatly improved security, our team is able to operate relatively freely throughout the region, or Qada. I won’t kid you. This is still a volatile area. A few months ago, for example, a young female suicide bomber blew herself up near the town of Yousifiyah, killing an Iraqi Army captain and wounding several others. But security is vastly better. This Ramadan, in the past a time of increased insurgent activity, has been noticeably calm.
We have been taking advantage of this increased stability, and are partnering with the Iraqis in providing essential services to the population of the province.
The district will not be able to satisfy all the pent-up demand for basic services anytime soon. But it’s making progress. The government has just finished installing a 9-kilometer pipeline connecting the principal town of Mahmudiyah to a water treatment plant in Al Rasheed that will provide 25% of the district’s water. This was a joint project: the US provided the pipe, and the Iraqis laid it. On power, and water, and sanitation, we are helping the Iraqis develop long-term development plans to address shortages and advising on them on shorter-term, interim solutions, e.g., using smaller diesel- or solar-powered water treatment units. We’ve also brokered agreements with government officials and local sheiks to facilitate the cleaning and rehabilitation of canals for use in agriculture.
Yusifiyah Number 1 Pump Station on Tigris
We’re proud of a project to revive the poultry sector, a critical element of the region’s economy. This is a perfect example of the “day-to-day” projects that don’t make headlines, but make real economic progress in the country. When fully launched, this project should generate thousands of jobs. And it has brought together different tribal and religious factions in a way that only a successful business venture can. Under Saddam, Mahmudiyah district was a big poultry producer, but it was a command-economy style of production. We set about fostering a private, market-based poultry industry. With the Iraqis, we created a poultry association and gave it a jump start. We imported 90,000 eggs that hatched into chicks, rehabilitated 20 poultry houses, used high-protein feed, and sent ePRT experts to work with the farmers to raise the chickens under the right conditions.Vaccination of day-old chicks
The results have been positive and our support has been limited to providing technical support and advice. The plan is to expand to at least 100 poultry houses and to integrate the industry with a parent farm, hatcheries, a feed mill, and a processing plant. We’re working with the association to find credit and investment and to benefit from agricultural extension services to continue its growth.
Broilers Nearly Ready for Sale
We’ve provided loans and grants to small service businesses and factories in the area and helped to form business associations to foster economic activity. We’ve supported job training programs, particularly those focused on assisting women. Several markets in the district, some of which had been closed for years, are thriving again.
Evening shoppers in the Mahmudiyah market
We’re also working to revive several medium-sized industries in the area, e.g., helping a clothing factory to win supply contracts that have allowed it to grow its work force. Even more exciting, we’ve worked with the National Metallic and Bicycle Factory (NMBC) and a U.S. Task Force to build a special wheelchair for Iraqi children under rigorous specifications. This project could eventually help up to 150,000 Iraqi kids. We’re helping with other contracts for a heavy-duty adult wheelchair (the “Rough Rider”) and skateboards.
Rough Rider Wheelchairs
This is only the beginning. There is so much more that can be done here to promote agriculture and economic activity. We are planning a business expo with the Mahmudiyah Business Council to showcase the district and attract Iraqi and foreign investors. Sure, there are plenty of frustrations and challenges, but this is an exciting time to be working with the Iraqis and watch them continue their amazing progress.

The Government get's out of the way

I guess Chris Cox is doing his job after all, better than the rest of our government. This move alone could add trillions to our liquidity as a nation:

SEC Clarification May Help Markets
Some economists are attributing much of the current financial crisis to something as mundane-seeming as accounting.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have just made an announcement that, dry as it sounds, may mean a great deal: "When an active market for a security does not exist, the use of management estimates that incorporate current market participant expectations of future cash flows, and include appropriate risk premiums, is acceptable."
The SEC is not telling holders of hard-hit mortgage-backed securities that they can willy-nilly slap any value on them they want.
What the SEC is saying is: You can take other factors into account when valuing them.
There is no market right now for the worthless mortgage-backed securities -- that's one of the reasons we're in this crisis. That means financial institutions that are holding them must value them well below their former value, sometimes near zero. That makes the institutions themselves worth much less.

Is it 1992 all over again?

There are a great deal of similarities between this election and the Clinton election in 1992. For those of you who remember in 1992 we had a fresh face or Washington outsider running against the old guard or establishment. People were ready for a change! What is remarkable to me is how similar the situation is between Clinton vs. Bush and Obama vs. McCain.

Of course McCain is part of the old guard Washington establishment and like Bush Sr. never really completely comfortable with the Conservatives in Congress. Both are war hero's with incredible resume's. Neither are great on the stump or in a formal speech but both have an incredible understanding of the world and how it really works.

The real focus is the remarkable similarities between Clinton and Obama in a number of areas:

ASSOCIATIONS:

Bill Clinton had his financial improprieties in the Whitewater land deal with Jim McDougal and that later had many indictments and almost lead to Clinton's own downfall. Barack Obama has his connections with Tony Rezko who is waiting sentencing right now for some illegal activities due to real estate. Most of Clinton's other improper relationships were sexual in nature but Obama's appear to be ideological. First we have the Rev. Wright who ran a very radical church that had associations with left wing groups and Louis Farrakhan. Why a Christian church would have anything to do with the Muslim Farrakhan is unusual to say the least. Then you have Obama's relationship to former Weatherman Underground head William Ayers who bombed the Pentagon and NY city Police Headquarters. These are unusual characters for a political up and comer to hang around with. At least Bill Clinton stopped hanging around with radicals after his College days.

TAX POLICY:

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama ran for President on a promise of cutting taxes for the so called middle class. Please recall that after a very short time in the White House Bill Clinton said "I have never worked so hard in my life" and no middle class tax cut was delivered. Of course that happened a few years later but there was a different political dynamic then. I suspect since Obama is telling us that he will cut taxes for 95% of us and yet only approximately 60% of us even pay federal taxes this will not come to pass. Not to be pessimistic but when the guy is running on raising the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare that means a tax increase, sorry middle class.

WIVES:

This is a most interesting comparison. What is it about these Democrats and the women they choose to marry. Hillary Rodham seems like the "Goldwater Girl" she describes herself as in comparison to Michelle Obama. Though before Mrs. Clinton decided to become Senator Clinton or President Clinton #2 she had some radical and self promoting problems herself. There have been numerous books on Mrs. Clinton and her radical notions and to call her a marxist would not be flamboyant. Her years at Wellsley are littered with leftist connections and unlike her husband she did not seem to outgrow them until well into his second term. This was most likely due to the trouncing he took in the 1994 elections which was mainly her fault. Mrs. Obama's leftist leaning appears to come from the black pride movement. For example, her comment to a crowd during the primaries when she said "this is the first time in my adult life I am proud to be an American". This would have to mean she was not proud when we won the Cold War and freed millions of Eastern Europeons from tyranny. This would mean she was not proud of when black and white members of the military freed a tiny country called Kuwait from an unprovoked attack by Iraq. This would mean she was not proud when the 1980 American Hockey team beat the Soviets. This would mean she was not proud of the Firefighters and Police of New York ran into a building that was about to come down to save any person they could. Not unlike Mrs. Clinton post 1994 Mrs Obama is no where to be found these days.

EXPERIENCE:

Although Bill Clinton came into office with much more experience and a better understanding of Washington than Barack Obama the lack of understanding how the world works is what is most concerning. You get the impression we were loved in the world when we had Bill Clinton as President. That is mostly true in the capitals of Europe but were we respected and the answer would be a resounding NO. The answer to that is simple. We had embassies and battle ships bombed by Al Queda. Saddam Hussein frequently fired at our plains flying in his portion of the world which was against the law as imposed by the United Nations. The Chinese certainly did not respect us or our wishes for freedom and democracy. What will Barack Obama do? We truly do not know the answer and it does not appear he knows the answer either as he had not given any clear direction during his campaign of the last 17 months.

Typically you will get out of a President what we see during a campaign. George H.W. Bush and John McCain clearly think of the big picture of world affairs. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama will put forth an image of "he cares about me" but what voters really need to think about is where is he going to take America. If Bill Clinton really cared about us in 1998 he would have resigned and quite frankly Al Gore would have won the election in 2000. Clinton and Obama are patriots but to think they really care about the common citizen is off base. They should care about all citizens instead of focusing on one class or another. John McCain, agree with him or not, has a sense of what America is supposed to stand for and look like internally and externally and that is what we need during for the road ahead.

Global "Warming"

Here is an interesting study that I am sure will not be reported by the major media"

Recent studies by the Hadley Climate Research Center (UK), the Japan Meteorological Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of East Anglia (UK) and the University of Alabama Huntsville show clearly that the rising trend of global average temperature stopped in 2000-2001. Further, NASA data shows that warming in the southern hemisphere has stopped, and that ocean temperatures also have stopped rising.

Oops! I guess it is all Bush's fault...

Good Read On The S&L Crisis

SEPTEMBER 25, 2008
What We Learned From Resolution Trust
By L. WILLIAM SEIDMAN and DAVID C. COOKE
As individuals who were intimately involved in the resolution of this country's last financial crisis, we follow with great interest Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposal to acquire distressed real-estate assets from financial institutions.
The current situation threatens our economy more than the savings and loan and banking crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s. The Treasury secretary should be congratulated for moving quickly and decisively.
We would like to offer some thoughts based on our experiences in starting up and operating the government-owned Resolution Trust Corporation, as well as a similar type of operation undertaken by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for dealing with failed banks.
The RTC was charged with resolving nearly 750 failing savings and loan institutions holding $400 billion in assets, and the FDIC had an additional $200 billion from failed banks. Most of these assets were loans to homeowners, builders and developers. Many of the assets, especially construction and development loans, had no established market or "fair value."
The major difference between then and now is that the RTC was, with only a couple of exceptions, dealing with S&Ls closed by their chartering agency. This meant the RTC took over the assets after the institution failed, not before. So the RTC did not have to first negotiate a "fair value purchase price" with a troubled seller. Our experience with past U.S. bank and S&L assistance efforts, as well as those of other countries, leads us to believe that deciding what price to pay -- and which institution to "assist" by buying their assets -- will not be easy.
Guidelines should be established regarding which institutions will be assisted, and how the government will minimize losses, should "fair value" prices prove too high. One option is to not pay all cash upfront. Another method of protecting the taxpayer against overpayment would be for the government to have the right to recover some part of losses suffered on the later sale of assets. Other countries with asset-acquisition programs found themselves conflicted between paying too much to help the bank and trying to avoid losses eventually realized.
Clear guidelines for the management process should be established as promptly as possible for the real-estate loans and/or mortgage-backed securities acquired by Treasury. Like those owned by the RTC, all will require some level of active management.
Buying and managing home mortgages acquired by Treasury will be very challenging. Valuation will be heavily influenced by local real-estate markets and the actions available to the lenders. Restrictions on lender actions or sale prices should be avoided to help maximize recoveries and minimize taxpayers' losses. Restructuring loans often provides an attractive option that avoids foreclosure and keeps families in their homes. But it is important that the lender be allowed to pursue other options when determined to be in the best interest of the taxpayer.
The most difficult loans for the RTC to manage were loans to developers and builders. Our guess is such loans are a looming problem that has not yet been fully recognized. While it is not clear if the proposal currently addresses such loans, it should. Their treatment will impact the property values underlying loans acquired by Treasury.
The RTC started a number of sales initiatives. For the more difficult real-estate loans and properties, we started hiring contractors to manage and sell the assets. But aligning the interests of contractors with the RTC proved very difficult.
The RTC saw that the larger its inventory of distressed assets became, the more the overhang impeded the ability of the markets to determine value and function effectively. We concluded that the only way to stimulate markets as well as avoid conflicting mandates was to quickly move assets into private-sector ownership and expertise, by selling them in bulk in an open and competitive manner.
Here are the most important lessons we learned from our experiences in the late '80s and early '90s:
- Acquired assets require active management. Assets tend to lose value while in government hands, as the government seldom can duplicate a private owner's interest in enhancing value. The RTC employed over 10,000 people in the first year of operation.
- Holding large inventories of assets will lead to depressed prices. No one wants to buy when the market has a large overhang of assets just waiting to be dumped when prices improve.
- To get the market started, assets have to be sold at very low prices. Such sales will attract buyers, with a resulting increase in prices. At the same time, selling at low prices could trigger accusations that the agency is "depressing the market."
- Every government sale or purchase creates winners and losers. This results in intense political and economic pressures to influence the actions of the agency. The RTC's independent governance and operations protected against fraud and political influence.
The Treasury proposal will undoubtedly raise many conflicts similar to those seen by the RTC. In our experience, government ownership and management of assets rarely increases value. Moving assets openly, fairly and promptly to sound private-sector owners is the best way to minimize taxpayers' losses. If the RTC hadn't adopted this approach, it might still be around today.
Mr. Seidman is former FDIC and RTC chairman. Mr. Cooke is former deputy FDIC chairman and RTC executive director.

Perspective

Folks, let's keep the housing and economic news in perspective as the the data below indicates:

According to the Federal Reserve, U.S. household net worth fell by $2 trillion over the last year, from $58 trillion in the second quarter of 2007 to about $56 trillion in the second quarter of 2008 (see chart above). But compared to 2002, U.S. household net worth has increased by almost $17 trillion (from $39.2 trillion to $56 trillion), or by almost 43% in the last six years.

Palin like Truman

This will irritate the elite but the comparison is apt. Madam Sarah is ready! She has a quality that is needed today and that is a strong presence. The arrogance of the left is amazing is talking about experience but as Bret Stephens of the Journal notes she brings as much to the table as many other great leaders have in the past.

The Truman comparison seems especially to rankle Mrs. Palin's critics, perhaps because in many respects it rings true. Take vetting. John McCain may have met Mrs. Palin only once before he offered her the job, but Franklin Roosevelt admitted "I hardly know Truman" in July 1944, the same month the "Senator from Pendergast" was put on the Democratic ticket.
Or take foreign policy experience. It's fair to say that Mrs. Palin has none, and the McCain campaign should drop the transparent pretense that Alaska's proximity to Russia, or her nominal responsibility for the state's National Guard, gives her some.
Then again, what did Truman know? "Truman had no experience in relations with Britain or Russia, no firsthand knowledge of Churchill or Stalin," writes Mr. McCullough. "He didn't know his own Secretary of State, more than to say hello. . . . Roosevelt, Truman would tell [daughter] Margaret privately, 'never did talk to me confidentially about the war, or about foreign affairs or what he had in mind for peace after the war.' He was unprepared, bewildered."

And then there are the others:

Mr. Dallek is also a presidential historian, so he must have some acquaintance with the career of Calvin Coolidge. When Coolidge was named to Warren Harding's ticket in 1920, he had been governor of Massachusetts for less than two years. Aside from a largely powerless stint as lieutenant governor and other smaller legislative posts, his chief previous government experience was as mayor of Northampton, to which he was first elected in 1910 by a Wasilla-like margin of 1,597 to 1,409.
Another year-and-a-half governor to be nominated for the vice presidency: Teddy Roosevelt. It's true that TR, as a former assistant secretary of the Navy, had more foreign policy experience than Mrs. Palin, though one wonders what today we would make of a candidate whose proud boast was that he had killed an enemy soldier "like a jackrabbit."

Let's not forget what all of these leaders possess and that is a core of knowing what they want from government and more importantly what they do not. Mr. Obama is lacking in all of this or as he says quite often "you know or uh".