Jessica Rabbit

I waited for the budget petition canvassers to ring my doorbell yesterday and yet the bell never rang. Nobody knocked on my door either. I was expecting little Democratic National Committee members to be popping out of the woodwork to seek my approval and have me sign their petitions to support the president's budget. But, nobody showed.

I wonder why that is? Any guesses?

I was waiting all day for one of the petition canvassers to ring my doorbell. It never rang. Nobody ever knocked on my door. Did you have the same result where you live?

Tatiana Del Toro has been placed in the final 36 because Simon Lithgow knows a "ratings magnet" when he sees one. True or False?

While I like music as much as the next person I was somewhat disappointed when I heard loud guitar music issuing forth into the night around 10PM New Year's Eve. When I went outside to see where the ruckus was coming from I found the neighbor's 15 year old son and a couple of his amigos on the front porch serenading the entire neighborhood with their electric guitars.

I stood there while the kid next door waved at me and calling me by my first name, asked if I liked their music. While it would have been nice if one of them actually knew how to play the guitar in the first place, I responded "not really" and then told them to "have fun" to which I turned and walked back in the house.

Imagine my joy when this repeated itself at 1AM....at loud volume.

I began to think that I had been a bit of a jerk and thought that I should have called him over and told him that while I did enjoy the music that it might not have been appropriate to share it with the entire neighborhood; that perhaps they could turn it down just a touch.

Perhaps I should have ignored it as other neighbors seem to have done.

Any thoughts?

On a scale of 1 to 10.

1 = Most talentless POS ever to play the game.

10 = Best to ever lace up shoes and pick up a ball.

Now that Tampa Bay has managed to go from 9-3 to 9-7 and missed the playoffs, I am curious as to where folks feel that they need help the most.

Now that the dust is starting to settle and the Big 10 season is about to swing into gear, Indiana is sitting at 5-7. I'm curious if anyone feels that they have a shot at winning 10 games this year.

It seems that the football game ran over and my DVR only recorded the first half of the show. Can someone fill us in on what happened tonight? Who got sacked, etc?

I have been reading tripe from democrats and republicans alike blaming the current administration for this country's financial woes. Allow me to set the record straight on some of it.

1977: Pres. Jimmy Carter signs the Community Reinvestment Act into Law. The law pressured financial institutions to extend home loans to those who would otherwise not qualify. The Premise: Home ownership would improve poor and crime-ridden communities and neighborhoods in terms of crime, investment, jobs, etc.

Results: Statistics bear out that it did not help.

Question: How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing market?

Answer: See below to find out who is covering up their guilt !

1992: Republican representative Jim Leach (IO) warned of the danger that Fannie and Freddie were changing from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the principals and the stockholding few.

1993: Clinton extensively rewrote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules turning the quasi-private mortgage-funding firms into semi-nationalized monopolies dispensing cash and loans to large Democratic voting blocks and handing favors, jobs and contributions to political allies. This potent mix led inevitably to corruption and now the collapse of Freddie and Fannie.

1994: Despite warnings, Clinton unveiled his National Home-Ownership Strategy which broadened the CRA in ways congress never intended.

1995: Congress, about to change from a Democrat majority to Republican, Clinton orders Robert Rubin's Treasury Dept to rewrite the rules. Robt. Rubin's Treasury reworked rules, forcing banks to satisfy quotas for sub-prime and minority loans to get a satisfactory CRA rating. The rating was key to expansion or mergers for banks. Loans began to be made on the basis of race and little else.

1997 - 1999: Clinton, bypassing Republicans, enlisted Andrew Cuomo, then Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, allowing Freddie and Fannie to get into the sub-prime market in a BIG way. Led by Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, congress doubled down on the risk by easing capital limits and allowing them to hold just 2.5% of capital to back their investments vs 10% for banks. Since they could borrow at lower rates than banks their enterprises boomed.

With incentives in place, banks poured billions in loans into poor communities, often 'no doc', 'no income', requiring no money down and no verification of income. Worse still was the cronyism: Fannie and Freddie became home to out-of work-politicians, mostly Clinton Democrats. 384 politicians got big campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie. Over $200 million had been spent on lobbying and political activities. During the 1990's Fannie and Freddie enjoyed a subsidy of as much as $182 Billion, most of it going to principals and shareholders, not poor borrowers as claimed.

Did it work? Minorities made up 49% of the 12.5 million new homeowners but many of those loans have gone bad and the minority home ownership rates are shrinking fast.

1999: New Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, became alarmed at Fannie and Freddie's excesses. Congress held hearings the ensuing year but nothing was done because Fannie and Freddie had donated millions to key congressmen and radical groups, ensuring no meaningful changes would take place 'We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage our credit and interest rate risks,' Fannie CEO Franklin Raines, a former Clinton official and current Barack Obama advisor, bragged to investors in 1999.

2000: Secretary Summers sent Undersecretary Gary Gensler to Congress seeking an end to the 'special status'. Democrats raised a ruckus as did Fannie and Freddie, headed by politically connected CEO's who knew how to reward and punish. 'We think that the statements evidence a contempt for the nation's housing and mortgage markets' Freddie spokesperson Sharon McHale said. It was the last chance during the Clinton era for reform.

2001: Republicans try repeatedly to bring fiscal sanity to Fannie and Freddie but Democrats blocked any attempt at reform; especially Rep. Barney Frank and Sen Chris Dodd who now run key banking committees and were huge beneficiaries of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants.

2003: Bush proposes what the NY Times called 'the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago'. Even after discovering a scheme by Fannie and Freddie to overstate earnings by $10.6 billion to boost their bonuses, the Democrats killed reform.

2005: Then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan warns Congress: 'We are placing the total financial system at substantial risk'.

Sen. McCain, with two others, sponsored a Fannie/Freddie reform bill and said, 'If congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to th

My spouse and I have been Smallville fans for years now. We have the box sets for all of the seasons and started watching Season 7s shows this evening. We were both a little puzzled as to which episode it was that Lana found out that Clark possessed his special abilities.

We were also kinda stumped about the creation of the Fortress of Solitude because they never really showed it being created. I pieced it together as being created in the last episode of Season 4 and being used to save Chloe in Episode 1 of Season 5.

In any event we are looking for the episode in which Lana discovers Clark's secret and also looking for comments pertaining to the creation of the Fortress of Solitude because the two of us sure thought they could have done better with that.

What are your thoughts on 50 Cent suing Taco Bell over them asking him to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent as part of their "Under a dollar" promotion?