Classical Values :: Ripping Them A New One

October 22, 2008

Ripping Them A New One

Orson Scott Card is a Democrat. He is also a fierce critic of the press. The in the tank for Obama press.

An open letter to the local daily paper -- almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor -- which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house -- along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

And then he goes on to name names. You know. The usual suspects. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, Franklin Raines (referred to as Freddie Raines). And then he says that the media today has no honor because it is helping to blame the crisis on Republicans when the Democrats were in fact the main drivers. That by not treating both parties at least somewhat equally they have lost their way.

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe -- and vote as if -- President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans -- then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.

Sorry to say Mr. Card, but the internet is taking over the function of your local daily paper. Just a bunch of ordinary Joes with an interest in having their point of view heard. However, as is already obvious to you, there is a place for you on the internet. Keep up the good work. Oh yeah. Read the whole thing. En Fuego.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

posted by Simon on 10.22.08 at 02:20 PM

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Comments

wow.

I knew there were Democrats like that out there, lots of them. But they seem to be getting buried under the snowdrifts these days.

Honest Democrats are the best thing that could happen to both parties.

Assistant Village Idiot · October 22, 2008 03:22 PM

Simon

Just because a gay-obsessed hack like Orson Scott says the housing crisis was the "direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people" doesn't make it so.

You should post something from Hank Williams Jr. next. He's another prominent economist and intellectual who has carefully analyzed the sub-prime mortgage crisis and concluded that it isn't actually the fault of unrestrained greed on the part of multi-billion dollar institutions, an unsustainable credit default market, or investors' insatiable hunger for mortgage-backed securities. Nope. It's all Clinton's fault.

You're in some fine company on this one, Simon.

Dr. Nobel Dynamite · October 22, 2008 03:30 PM

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.

That would assume the editors and managers had integrity which they obviously don't. The only remotely accurate or reasonable thing they could do is change their jod titles from reporter to campaigner.

bandit · October 22, 2008 03:41 PM

I believe OSC is also an atheist, or has written science-fiction with an anti-religious sub-text. Good to see, unlike many atheists, he can also go after the Cult of the State, too.

Bilwick1 · October 22, 2008 04:44 PM

"gay-obsessed hack" - my, but we're catty today.

By the way, Card is merely repeating what everybody knows. Everybody but you, apparently. Watch this and weep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Short story: back on 2004, Republicans wanted to have more oversight on FNMA and Freddy Mac. Democrats cried "foul", insisted that nothing was wrong, that the system was working just fine, and "we don't need no stinkin' investigation".

One Democrat after another got up and repeated the party line.

Result: no oversight.

Result: too many bad loans. (What good does it do to give a loan to someone who cannot repay it?)

Result: meltdown.

Cause: Democrats.

ZZMike · October 22, 2008 04:57 PM

Shame McCain never bothered to make that case and instead let everyone assume it's all the Republican's fault because the Republicans were the party in power during most of this period. (It's a fair assumption, I think, but not the entire truth.)

tim maguire · October 22, 2008 05:00 PM

Ad hominem attack? Check.

Illegitimate appeal to authority? Check.

Tu qouque? Check.

Must have been written by a Leftie.

Are you a Leftie, Dr. Dynamite? Or, perhaps a member of the media?
.

OregonGuy · October 22, 2008 05:01 PM

ZZMike

I believe you'll find that Mssr. Card is in fact, both (a) obsessed with homosexuality and (b) a hack. Which brings me no joy to say, by the way, having loved Ender's Game as a child.

I'll repeat for your benefit what Orson, M.Simon, and a bunch of other less than intellectually honest folks are apparently having a hard time coming to grips with: the number of bad loans that were a result of government mandate is minute compared to the number of bad loans that were a result of unregulated greed.

I'm certain there are instances in which a government anti-discrimination policy resulted in a lender giving a mortgage to someone who should not have received a loan. Those instances, however, do not even come close to explaining the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

And, for the record, I believe both parties share responsibility for the ridiculously short-sighted economic regulation that led to this catastrophe. It may not be an equal share, but I recognize Democrats are far from blameless in the deregulation that that allowed the sub-prime mess to cripple our economy.

Dr. Nobel Dynamite · October 22, 2008 05:10 PM

OregonGuy

You're right, I did make an ad hominem attack which demonstrated that Simon was using a gay-obsessed hack science fiction author to bolster an utterly specious argument. I'll cop to that.

Appeal to authority? Huh? Where did I do that?

Tu qouque? Double huh?

Did you assemble this post with Mad Libs?

Dr. Nobel Dynamite · October 22, 2008 05:21 PM

No Bell,

Are you saying that Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, B. Obama, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, and Daniel Mudd had nothing to do with the housing crisis?

That Bush hasn't been trying to do something since 2001 and McCain since 2003? All shot down by the Democrats with the help of a few Republicans?

I suppose categorical denials are all you have left. It may not be much but under the circumstances it will have to do.

M. Simon · October 22, 2008 07:24 PM

Unregulated greed is limited by the odds of profit and loss.

If you regulate such that loss is not possible (GSE's) then of course there is no limit.

M. Simon · October 22, 2008 08:01 PM

M. Simon

Perhaps you missed my post where I made clear that I believe both parties share responsibility for the ridiculously short-sighted economic regulation that led to this catastrophe.

Simon, at this point I question your basic understanding of the financial crisis in which we find ourselves. Frankly, I don't think the comments section of a blog is the place to explain to you how credit default swaps function, how investors' thirst for mortgage-backed securities drove sub-prime lending, or how deregulation allowed for our financial system to become a house of cards. I don't want to sound like an elite here, god forbid, but you really need to lay off the Limbaugh/McCain/Hannity/FoxNews talking points and look at some analysis by people who actually know about the economy.

If you want a good starting point, I suggest listening to

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242 and http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

A little knowledge about this subject might do you some good.

Have a lovely evening.

Dr. Nobel Dynamite · October 22, 2008 08:34 PM

bandit - actually, OSC is a Mormon (if you'd actually read a few of his columns, you'd know that).

Dr Nobel Dynamite - care to actually give an example of his supposed gay obsession, or his hacky qualities? I'm assuming you won't cite his review of "School of Rock", which he criticized for having a STEREOTYPED gay boy.

Calvin Dodge · October 22, 2008 08:50 PM

Calling Card a "gay obsessed hack" does not rebut his position on housing -- any more than calling Barney Frank a "gay obsessed hack" would rebut his.

Whatever Card's thoughts about gays may be, and however wrong he may be on that issue, it is an abuse of logic to suggest that has any bearing on something else.

This is an old issue here:

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2006/11/post_144.html

I liked what Eric R. Ashley said at the time:

If your favorite color is not blue, then I'm not going to listen to you. See how that works? Sounds silly when I say it.

Eric Scheie · October 22, 2008 11:05 PM

Don't get sidetracked by this Orson fellow.

The real issue is that the MSM no longer pretends to be any more balanced than the blogosphere or congress.

And this is good for who?

Penny · October 22, 2008 11:27 PM

where was the implication of being " gay - obsessed " ever present ? if it was, I sure missed it - and how does THAT have ANY possible bearing on this subject ? too bad the wielder of that particular pen doesn't realize how UNcredible he sounds, using that as an opening remark.....makes it easy to dismiss.....

Len · October 24, 2008 06:31 PM

"... if it was, I sure missed it - and how does THAT have ANY possible bearing on this subject ?"

It's a favorite old rhetorical trick of the Left. I call it the "shape-shifting argument". Others may call it a non sequitur. It's usually used when there's no substance to work with, so they throw in something completely irrelevant. Of course, attacking the messenger is a tactic older than Moses. But we eventually got wise to it.

Long about the Middle Ages.

I'd say that the youtube video speaks for itself.

ZZMike · October 24, 2008 08:50 PM