Sorry, I’m feeling silly tonight.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I remember complaining because I had student loans. But, I kept telling myself that it went towards a good cause. However, had I not gotten loans, I might not have been able to finish college.

Today, I read something that showed me how close to home this credit crunch is going to hit Americans.

It appears that some banks are now no longer offering student loans.

In the past fortnight, some banks, including HSBC, have pulled out of the $85 billion (£42 billion) a year US student loans market, fuelling anxiety that the turmoil that hit debt markets on Wall Street last summer is spilling over into the wider economy and making credit more difficult to secure for ordinary American households.

In the US, many undergraduates take out a federal guaranteed loan and top up their financial needs with a private loan from lenders such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citi-group. In the academic year 2005-06, $17 billion in private student loans was used to finance higher education.

Banks have become reluctant to offer private student loans because worsening credit conditions have meant that they cannot package up the loans and sell them on.

Although the brightest students who win places at America’s rich Ivy League universities will be affected less because of generous bursaries - which do not have to be repaid – less able students applying to other institutions are expected to face difficulty in securing private loans to fund their study. At one end of the field is Harvard University, with $34 billion of endowments, and at the other are many community colleges and low-tier universities with limited resources.

So, unless you kid’s in an Ivy League school, chance are that securing a loan is going to be a problem. Mark my words: this will be the next cause for a major credit crisis. When scarcity becomes an issue, you’ll see the vultures swoop in, offering student loans at bad rates. When things subside in the housing market, these bad loans will be sold to them and default rates will skyrocket.

Why do I think this? It is because the current presidential administration’s answer is to bail out big business and leave the little guys to fend for themselves, which leaves them vulnerable to unscrupulous practices. So, I will not be surprised when the issue arises again, in a different form.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Pat Buchanan is a racist. He tries to dress it up the clothes of the old, codgerly uncle but, it’s clear to me that the man knows exactly what he’s doing. More sad is the fact that, via outlets like MSNBC, he is given legitimacy. But, it seems to me that he saves his greatest vitriol for his writing. Previously, I shared an excerpt from one of his books where he thought America was doomed because black and brown people would soon be in the majority.

More recently, he outdid himself. While chiming in on the Rev. Wright controversy, Buchanan used his blog to go on a racist screed. You can read the entire post for yourselves but, here’s one passage that really caught my attention:

“First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?”

Translation: Slavery was good for black people and, since then, all black people have been are welfare cases. Needless to say, Buchanan has an audience for this garbage and many, no doubt, will cosign this mess. However, I am glad that he’s been called on this. On Friday’s Real Time, host Bill Maher brought up the issue and Tavis Smiley weighed in on it. He used a phrase to describe Buchanan that I will adopt — he called Buchanan a “racial arsonist”. There couldn’t be a more appropriate term. Here’s a clip from the show.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Well, as much as I hate spring cleaning, it’s always good to get rid of unnecessary things. Speaking of unnecessary, it looks like HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson is on his way out.  Jackson, citing personal and family reasons, will resign effective April 16th.

Jackson seemingly typified the cronyism so prevalent in the Bush administration.  He first came under the microscope when it appeared that he might have been using a Bush loyalty test to determine to whom HUD would grant contracts.  More recently, he was under fire for allegedly creating problems for the city of Philadelphia, PA for not hooking a friend of his up with a plum land deal and for paying another friend $392,000 as a contruction manager in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

So, yet another loyal Bushie is out the door. I’m just looking forward to the grand exit in January when we will hopefully turn a new page in this country.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Okay, I have done enough of these stories about white college students in blackface to make it clear that this is an issue. However, while most of these incidents I talk about occur at off-campus parties, what should happen if such an incident takes place at a school-sponsored event.

This brings us to a recent event at North Dakota State University. With a student population that is 92% white, diversity is probably not high on the list of priorities. Okay, maybe this is not a fair statement but, it certainly makes for a fertile breeding ground for those who harbor acrimony towards people of color, as well as other groups.

Which, again, brings us to the incident in question. At the Mr. NDSU pageant on March 18, which was to benefit diabetes research, there was a skit performed by the NDSU Saddle and Sirloin Club. While it lasted only 30 seconds, they packed a lot of hate into such a short time. Here’s one account of the skit:

People who attended it said a pageant contestant from Saddle and Sirloin dressed as a woman from the Internet video “I Got a Crush on Obama” and performed a strip tease for another student who was wearing dark makeup and an afro wig.

In the background, two male students dressed as cowboys simulated anal sex while holding an Obama sign that one student ripped at the conclusion of the 30-second performance…

In a word…”wow!” I don’t know where to begin but, I get the impression that the school is not about to do much because of the following:

(NDSU Dean of Students Janna) Stoskopf said she expected the investigation could take until May 9, the end of the school year.

“One of the issues here is how do we balance what our policies and expectations about behavior are with the issue of freedom of speech,” Stoskopf said. “Where does all of that get us?”

It sounds like somebody’s getting a free pass. I wonder if one of the 1.5% of the black student population had gotten up and said something like, “God d*mn America” during a skit, would this be allowed to pass?

Popularity: 14% [?]

In this picture, you see Hillary Clinton,in 1996, along with her daughter Chelsea, hugging a child in Bosnia. Now, as you can see, it seems like a pretty ordinary trip for the then-First Lady.

However, according to Clinton, this was the trip that Ms. Clinton referred in these terms:

“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

Okay, I won’t be snippy and ask how everyone would be hanging around on a tarmack, out in the open, with children about if there all this sniper fire going on. I also won’t ask about why news accounts from that day make no mention of the First Lady being under fire in Bosnia. I won’t even ask how she was outed on this by none other than the comedian Sinbad, who accompanied her on this trip.

You see, this is part of the so-called “experience” that Clinton has over Obama. However, these “embellishments” (let’s be real and say that she’s just not telling the truth) are raising some questions about just what real experience she holds over Obama, at least in regards to foreign policy experience.

Now, one can’t diminish the role of a First Lady but, we also have to be real. Being First Lady meant that Hillary Clinton had no security clearance so, she wasn’t privy to the information that goes into shaping our foreign policy. She was there to be a ceremonial leader. Now, this is not to say that she did not travel extensively and that she did not meet with foreign dignitaries. She did. However, to say that somehow makes her a shaper of foreign policy is ridiculous. This is like saying that Laura Bush and Barbara Bush, before her, where key shapers of our foreign policy. Again, this role is important but, not in which policy decisions get made.

So, what experience does this leave her? Well, this does give her some life experience that is greater than Obama’s, she has a two-year lead on Obama in terms of U.S. Senate experience and, obviously, she is very politically-savvy. However, by no means, does this mean that the experience gap is as wide as she would like us to believe.

Now, that this had come to the surface, Clinton is hoping to nonchalantly dismiss this as a her having merely “misspoken”. Her spokesperson pointed to the following passage in her book to indicate that this was merely a misstatement:

“Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find,”

However, the problem is not that she was being honest then but, that she is being dishonest now. Had her recent telling of this story been allowed to stand, you might have been left with certain notions like:

1. Hillary Clinton was bravely risking her life on a diplomatic mission to Bosnia and
2. Bill Clinton must have not minded sending his wife and daughter into certain danger.

Okay, that last statement was my being facetious but, this kind of goes to the point of this story not really holding up.

By itself, this is not a deal-breaker but, it does lead me, and others, to ponder just what experience Hillary Clinton is really touting.

Popularity: 13% [?]

“The surge is working”…”we are succeeding in Iraq”. We continue to hear these things from President Bush, Vice President Cheney, John McCain and any Republican automaton who’ll spew it.

However, one thing is becoming more apparent — the fragile cease-fire there is starting to crumble. What is being seen now is the resurgence of a Mahdi army that had once lay dormant.

Check this out:

A cease-fire critical to the improved security situation in Iraq appeared to unravel Monday when a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in west Baghdad and issuing demands of the central government.

Simultaneously, in the strategic southern port city of Basra, where Sadr’s Mahdi militia is in control, the Iraqi government launched a crackdown in the face of warnings by Sadr’s followers that they’ll fight government forces if any Sadrists are detained. By 1 a.m. Arab satellite news channels reported clashes between the Mahdi Army and police in Basra.

The freeze on offensive activity by Sadr’s Mahdi Army has been a major factor behind the recent drop in violence in Iraq, and there were fears that the confrontation that’s erupted in Baghdad and Basra could end the lull in attacks, assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

So, let’s see what excuses will pop up, now, to allow Bush to continue to run out the clock and leave this mess to his successor.

Popularity: 9% [?]

It should be pretty clear how I feel about the current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson (if you don’t know read here, here and here). Jackson has made it clear that there has been, more or less, a Bush loyalty test in regards to the awarding of HUD contracts and that he has, on at least one occasion, exerted his influence to get a buddy a sweet property deal in Philadelphia.

In other words, like other members of the Bush Administration, he has undermined the mission of the very office of which he was trusted to run.

However, Jackson can’t hide in his office, now. You see, in America, we have a terrible crisis in the housing market and there are some leadership questions being raised anew. Senators Patty Murray of Washington state and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut are calling for Jackson’s resignation. Their rationale is clear — Secretary Jackson’s behaviors in office call into question his competence at a time when American’s need a credible voice regarding this home mortgage crisis.

Here’s an example of what the Senators are calling into question:

At a subcommittee hearing last week, Murray repeatedly asked Jackson about the Philadelphia deal and other allegations of wrongdoing, including an investigation by HUD’s inspector general that was triggered by Jackson’s boast that he once revoked a contract because an applicant said he did not like Bush.

The inspector general, after a four-month inquiry, turned up no evidence of a canceled contract. But the report found what it called “some problematic instances” involving HUD contracts and grants, including Jackson’s opposition to money for a contractor whose executives donated exclusively to Democratic candidates.

Will a resignation come? Who knows? But, what is obvious is that Jackson’s priorities are with his political party and not with HUD or even the American people.

Popularity: 9% [?]

“…Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment — yet, it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other, made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.”

–George W. Bush, May 1, 2003

Reading these words again, I wonder how many chickenhawks patted themselves on the back that day and thought they were showing us how wrong we were to be against the war. They must have felt quite vindicated on that day.

However, what I remember is thinking was how I hoped that it all was over. I was wrong, as well.

The next week, the reality of the war set in on me. I remember hearing a name mentioned on the news. I caught the end of the segment but, I did hear that this person was from my hometown and I got a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I search the local TV and newspaper sites to confirm what I thought was true — the nephew of an old friend was killed while guarding a bridge in Iraq. He was 23, recently married and due to come home. Naively, I thought it was particularly terrible because the war was over and the troops would be coming home soon.

Again, I was wrong.

So, here we are, 5 years later and we have to admit that the mission was not accomplished and since that day, the day Bush declared the war over, the lion’s share of casualties and deaths in Iraq have occurred. Prior to the announcement of “Mission Accomplished”, 140 soldiers had died. Today, that number stands at 4,000 and counting.

Of course, if you ask Bush and Co., this was all worth it.

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From the Springfield (Illinois) Journal-Register.

Popularity: 12% [?]