Much is being said today in the media about a home that had been built as part of the ABC television show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. Seems the family used the two-story mini-mansion as collateral for a $450,000 loan that they’ve now defaulted on and foreclosure proceedings have begun. And as part of the narrative regarding this whole mortgage meltdown, the MSM is portraying the homeowners as “victims“.

More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” team demolish a family’s decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.

Three years later, the reality TV show’s most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.

Let’s see. The family received a $450,000 home completely free. In addition, employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family. Then they went out and secured a loan against the house for nearly half a million dollars which they didn’t pay back.

Yet, they’re the victims.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand they had some horribly tough times before going on the show - in fact, it was their trials and tribulations that landed them on the show. But that victimhood doesn’t necessarily extend to their financial mismanagement of over a half million dollars. It was nice that they could receive all the benefits of a new home - bigger and nicer than most Americans will ever dream of owning - and a quarter of a million dollars, free of charge, because private citizens donated their time and energy to help a family in need.

The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home’s door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.

But they got greedy with that charity. Here was a family who virtually had nothing before the show and received a $450,000 house for free and donations totalling $250,000. But that just wasn’t enough for them. So, instead of being thankful for a beautiful, free home that most Americans couldn’t afford, and a bundle of money it would take most people many years to earn, they needed more.

Yet, they’re the victims.

But never fear, here comes Congress and President Bush, just in time, to help folks like the Harpers. Courtesy of you, me and every other financially-responsible taxpayer, the Harpers aren’t going to have to feel the consequences of their greedy financial mismanagement.

The measure, regarded as the most significant housing legislation in decades, lets homeowners who cannot afford their payments refinance into more affordable government-backed loans rather than losing their homes.

It should read, “the measure bails out many homeowners who greedily bit off more than they can chew at the expense of financially-responsible taxpayers around the country.”

Yet, they’re the victims.

RFK, Jr. and some other dimwitted liberal published a post on Huffington Post a few days ago entitled, “Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report“. And they provide a host of links to the stories that the MSM is apparently trying to hide from the public. So from where did these journalistic detectives “unearth” the stories?

CNN, Washintgon Post, and the New York Times, of course.

Caution: Liberal genius at work.

The star of the movie, The Rainmaker - yes, that’s a gratuitous side note - sees Barack Obama for the radical, inexperienced, Socialist that he is. Even in liberal cesspools like Hollywood, there is the occasional beacon of common sense.

We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up.

Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away.

Those same leaders who were in the streets in the ’60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that.

Thank God, today, we have a strong generation of young soldiers who know exactly who they are and what they must do to protect our freedom and our democracy. And we have the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, who has brought hope and stability to Iraq and prevented the terrorists from establishing a base in that country. Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we’ve almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake.

If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there’s not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend.

Gen. Wesley Clark, who himself has shame upon him, having been relieved of his command, has done their bidding and become a lying fool in his need to demean a fellow soldier and a true hero.

This is a perilous time, and more than ever, the world needs a united and strong America. If, God forbid, we live to see Mr. Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way.

Couldn’t have said it much better, myself.

By now you’ve probably heard of “The Last Lecture”. Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist, gave the lecture as part of a series where speakers were asked to give a lecture as if it were their last lecture of their life.

For Randy, this was significant. Because he was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September, 2006. Doctors told him he would live 3 - 6 months. A year later he delivered “The Last Lecture”:

The speech last fall was part of a series Carnegie Mellon called “The Last Lecture,” where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk. The name of the lecture series was changed to “Journeys” before Pausch spoke, something he joked about in his lecture.

“I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it,” he said.

Randy died at his home in Virginia today. Below is the full lecture. It’s a little over an hour long, but I promise you won’t be disappointed. Be sure to stick around until the end for what Randy calls, “the head fake”. A word of caution, you might want to grab the kleenex.

R.I.P. Randy Pausch (October 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008)

Face it, there’s a liberal bias in mainstream media. The actions of the New York Times this week in publishing an editorial for their darling, Barack Obama, while initially refusing to do so for John McCain is just the latest evidence. In addition, McCain is getting the standard election-cycle treatment by the media, enjoying 1 minute of coverage for every 3 minutes for Obama… to say nothing of the fact that much of that single minute is negative coverage to boot.

Of course, the liberal media defends itself with claims that the “liberal” charge is merely an unsubstantiated rightwing talking point. They also casually dismiss the charges by claiming Obama is simply “more newsworthy“. They want us to think that Obama’s “historic” campaign is the bias-neutral reason for the slanted coverage, yet the coverage has been slanted for many campaign cycles, so there’s got to be another reason. Unfortunately for them, it’s the reason that undermines the credibility of their profession. Bias, plain and simple.

- The amount of money “journalists” contributed so far this election cycle favors Democrats by a 15:1 ratio over Republicans, with $225,563 going to Democrats, only $16,298 to Republicans.

- 235 journalists donated to Democrats, just 20 gave to Republicans — a margin greater than 10-to-1. An even greater disparity, 20-to-1, exists between the number of journalists who donated to Barack Obama and John McCain.

- Other newsroom categories (reporters, correspondents, news editors, anchors, newspaper editors and publishers) produces 311 donors to Democrats to 30 donors to Republicans, a ratio of just over 10-to-1. In terms of money, $279,266 went to Dems, $20,709 to Republicans, a 14-to-1 ratio.

- Discounting contributions to Paul and Giuliani, who was a favorite son for many folks in the media, the totals look like this: $315,533 to Democrats, $3,150 to Republicans (four individuals who donated to McCain) - a ratio of 100-to-1.

And it’s not even like the Democrat candidates need these overwhelmingly lopsided campaign contributions, because the very people making such donations are responsible for providing hours and hours of free, positive campaign coverage for the candidates anyway.

It’s not bias… it’s, it’s… deliverance!

It will probably come as no surprise that Barack Obama is more interested in bar-hopping in Berlin than meeting with brave American war heroes.

Sen. Barack Obama scrapped plans to visit wounded members of the armed forces in Germany as part of his overseas trip, a decision his spokesman said was made because the Democratic presidential candidate thought it would be inappropriate on a campaign-funded journey.

So he blames it on being a campaign trip… But in order to have it both ways, he makes it clear in his speech that he’s not there as a candidate…

“Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world,”

You could almost set your watch by this guy’s inconsistencies…

And what’s he going to do, now that he’s cleared his schedule of the annoying visit with wounded soldiers? A night on the town, of course.

Obama noted that in a break from his whirlwind schedule, “we’ve got some down time tonight. What are you guys gonna do in Berlin? Huh? Huh? You guys got any big. plans? …I’ve never been to Berlin, so…I would love to tour around a little bit.”

Ah, the priorities of a Democrat.

The Obama campaign is trying to have it both ways with respect to his foreign campaign tour through the Middle East and Europe. On one hand, they’re making it a big campaign event and on the other hand they’re trying to portray it as some sort of official Congressional tour (the fact it’s coinciding with his Presidential campaign is just pure coincidence, of course).

Yet, a campaign aide at the briefing said the Berlin speech “is not for campaign purposes.”

“I don’t think the fact that large numbers of people gather to hear a speech makes it a campaign speech,” the aide said. “The substance of what he addresses is what’s important. And what he is addressing has nothing to do with campaigns. It has to do with his view of where we are today in the world.”

Aides suggested the speech would not target Republican John McCain, but might draw contrasts with President Bush’s policies.

When pressed by reporters, aides could not rule out that the campaign might use a film crew to shoot footage for an ad.

It seems to me that the Obama campaign is trying to portray this political campaign tour as an official Congressional trip so taxpayers will foot the bill and he doesn’t have to dip into his campaign donations to fund it…

It would be interesting to know who he’s charging for this political campaign trip.

And some in his campaign don’t realize that Obama isn’t actually the President:

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.

Hell, he’s not even officially the Democrat nominee. But the arrogance of his campaign bubbles over yet again.

It’s always their answer…

WASHINGTON — The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.
…
Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on

Despite the claim (by the Democrats pushing for a gas tax hike) that they need it to plug a shortfall in funds for infrastructure and the usual cry that lots of jobs will be lost, the reality, as Ed points out, is that this move is backed by big unions in the construction industry and the money is not just for infrastructure, but also massive amounts of government pork.

But rest assured that if Democrats pass this gas tax hike, the blame for the resulting economic pains to average Americans will undoubtedly be placed squarely on Republicans, President Bush, Halliburton, or Karl Rove.

Barack Obama is gearing up for his trip to Iraq in an effort to provide cover for his shifting position on the current state of Iraq. Over the weekend, his campaign purged the campaign website of all the articles, quotes and reminders of Obama calling the surge a failure.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a “problem” that had barely reduced violence.

“The surge is not working,” Obama’s old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province.

The News reported Sunday that insurgent attacks have fallen to the fewest since March 2004.

Obama’s campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an “improved security situation” paid for with the blood of U.S. troops since the surge began in February 2007.

Once again, a Democrat candidate thinks the American public is simply too stupid to remember what this guy’s entire campaign has been about since the beginning. And once again, the public will see right through this latest whitewash.

Pelosi has asked President Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to “combat high prices”. So she’s finally acknowledging that prices will come down if supply is increased…

Interesting.