COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Republicans have overwhelmingly elected their first black member to the Republican National Committee.Glenn McCall is chairman of the York County Republican Party.

McCall says it is time for Republicans to get out of the fox hole and go on the offensive.

After Saturday’s vote showed McCall the heavy favorite, opponent Drew McKissick asked that the convention elect McCall by acclamation.

The State

Glenn McCall is awesome! He is the GOP Chairman of York County where I live. I attended a county Republican committee meeting last summer and McCall called out a County Councilman, who the committee worked to get elected the year before, who turned out to be a complete RINO. McCall was gathering a group of residents from the councilman’s district to have a meeting with him to give fair warning not to automatically assume the committee would support him again. I found that to be admirable because a lot of committee people are total hacks, especially for incumbents.

Political donors report Sen. John McCain complains he is under pressure from President Bush and his former political adviser Karl Rove to select former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his vice presidential running mate.Since losing to McCain in the Republican primaries, Romney has become a strong supporter and helper of the presumptive nominee. During their contest, McCain indicated his dislike for Romney.

Townhall

I am already opposed to Romney anyway, but if Bush wants him that only solidifies my position even more. You can’t trust Romney on any issue because he has changed his mind on just about everything in the past three years and you definitely can’t trust George Bush.

From the Canadian Free Press:

Where Republicans can pick up is in FL-22. Ron Klein won in 2006 with only 51% of the vote against a good incumbent, but one who was loathe to campaign. Klein hasn’t caught on and most of his support comes solely from his party affiliation.

By contrast, Klein’s 2008 opponent, Lt. Col. Allen West, is a strong and affable campaigner. He also spent a year teaching high school in the district. What’s more, McCain is heavily favored over Obama in this district.

A West election has national ramifications. He brings true leadership and integrity to the House. He’s a great speaker, frank, believable and to the point. If elected, he’ll be the first African-American Republican congressman since J.C. Watts.

I wrote about West several months back. He is a 22 year Army veteran, a retired school teacher, and an awesome candidate to reclaim this seat. The 22nd Congressional District is a gerrymander special that encompasses most of the wealthy coastal communities in southeast Florida, including West Palm Beach and Boca Raton.

West is an advocate of alternative fuels, more precisely sugar based ethanol as used in Brazil. Such an alternative could be an enormous cash cow for southern Florida and lessen our dependence on energy from terrorist nations. He advocates immediately addressing the National Debt with budget cuts across the board and an elimination of earmarks. He addresses the need to enforce our existing immigration laws and national borders with an emphasis on moving the Border Patrol out from under INS and under the DoD.

You can visit West’s campaign site here and read all about his other initiatives. He’s the kind of Republican we need to get elected to pull the party back to its ‘94 Contract with America.

It is long but interesting, so I am going to post the entire thing. From the WSJ on May 21st.

While Congress will have a partisan debate over the federal budget this week, there is a growing, bipartisan consensus about the greatest threat to our nation’s long-term economic prosperity: the explosion of entitlement spending. Unfortunately, Washington is not planning to address that problem this week, or any time soon. By doing nothing, we are shackling our future with unsustainable debt and taxes.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest of government will consume nearly 40% of the economy by the time my three young children reach my age (38). This will require more than doubling the average tax burden of the past 40 years just to keep the government afloat. Continuing down this path will eventually strangle our economy.

To meet this challenge and secure our fiscal future, I’m introducing a comprehensive legislative plan called “A Roadmap for America’s Future.” Here are its components:

- Health Insurance. The bill provides universal access to affordable health insurance, by shifting the ownership of health coverage from the government and employers to individuals. It provides a refundable tax credit – $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families – to purchase coverage. Individuals will be able to buy insurance offered by any provider in any state – not just the one where they live – and carry it with them if they move or change jobs.

This will encourage, and enable, people to shop for the coverage best suited to their needs and financial circumstances. Insurance companies will also have an incentive to diversify coverage at competitive prices. The active participation of individuals and families in a national, competitive market will restrain health-care costs.

The plan also establishes transparency in health-care price and quality data, so this critical information is readily available before someone needs health services. It also encourages the adoption of health information technology.

- Medicaid and Medicare. The bill modernizes Medicaid by giving states maximum flexibility to tailor their Medicaid programs to the specific needs of their populations. It also allows Medicaid recipients to avail themselves of the health-coverage options open to everyone else through the tax-credit option.

The bill secures the existing Medicare program for those over 55 – so Americans can receive the benefits they planned for throughout most of their working lives. Those 55 and younger will, when they retire, receive an annual payment of up to $9,500 to purchase health coverage – either from a list of Medicare-certified plans, or any plan in the individual market, in any state.

The payment is adjusted for inflation and based on income, with low-income individuals receiving greater support and a funded medical savings account.

- Social Security. Workers under 55 will have the option of investing over one-third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts. These personal accounts are likely to grow faster than the traditional benefit. They are also the property of the individual, and are thus fully inheritable. The bill includes a guarantee that no one’s total Social Security benefits from the personal accounts will be less than if he had chosen to say in the current system.

Combined with a more realistic plan for growth in Social Security benefits, and an eventual increase in the retirement age, the Social Security program can thus become sustainable for the long term.

- Tax Reform. The current federal tax code is complex, burdensome and discourages economic growth. It cannot be fixed with incremental changes; it needs a complete overhaul.

To accomplish this goal, the bill first of all offers individuals a choice of how to pay their taxes – either through the existing law, or through a simplified code with a tax return that fits on a postcard, just two rates and virtually no special tax deductions, credits or exclusions (except the health-care tax credit). Taxpayers themselves choose which code serves them better.

The rates in the simplified code are 10% on income up to $100,000 for joint filers ($50,000 for single filers); and 25% on taxable income above these amounts. There is also a generous standard deduction and personal exemption totaling $39,000 for a family of four. The alternative minimum tax is eliminated. And to promote long-term investment in economic growth, taxes on capital gains, dividends and estates are also eliminated.

On the business side, the bill gets rid of our uncompetitive corporate tax – currently the second highest in the industrialized world – and replaces it with a business consumption tax of 8.5%, which is half the average industrialized world rate.

The roadmap I’m offering is a real plan, with real proposals, real numbers to back them, and real legislation to implement it. Based on the analysis of government actuaries, it is projected to make Social Security and Medicare permanently solvent, lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold Federal taxes to 18.5% of GDP.

Many will disagree with this approach. But it is my sincere hope that it will spur Congress to move beyond simply rehashing the problem – to the politically difficult, but critical task of debating, and implementing actual solutions.

It seems that Al Franken is in hot water over a 2000 appearance in Playboy Magazine. No, he wasn’t the centerfold (that really would make you go blind). He wrote a very tasteless article that appeared in the magazine.

On Thursday, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., called the sexually explicit article offensive and potentially damaging to Franken and other Democratic candidates in Minnesota.

The Franken campaign and backers of the candidate said the work was merely satire and faulted McCollum for dividing the party.

“As a woman, a mother, a former teacher, and an elected official, I find this material completely unacceptable,” McCollum said of Franken’s piece, published in 2000 under the headline “Porn-O-Rama!”

“I can tell you it’s not playing comfortably in St. Paul, and I can’t imagine this politically radioactive material is doing very well in suburban and rural districts,” McCollum said.

Star Tribune

It appears that the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as they are called in Minnesohhhhta, are in a massive state of chaos. We’re talking large scale “human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!” to quote Bill Murray.

Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr fired back at McCollum Thursday, saying “it’s unfortunate that she’s trying to create divisions in our party rather than working with other DFLers to take on [Coleman].”

Some Franken supporters took a similar line. “I know that Representative McCollum was a co-chair of Mike Ciresi’s campaign, but at a time when Minnesotans are hurting, it’s extremely disappointing that she would rather destroy party unity than focus on beating Norm Coleman,” said Javier Morillo, president of Service Employees International Union Local 26.

That’s right. Winning is more important than integrity! Now, the Franken camp claims this article was written in satire and that’s fairly obvious considering the article was about having intercourse with sexbots of the future, but plenty of voters will undoubtedly be turned off by the shear contents and explicit thoughts that were transfered from Franken’s brain to his pen.

At one point in the Playboy piece titled “Porn-O-Rama!” Franken called the Internet a “terrific learning tool,” writing that his 12-year-old son was able to use it for a sixth-grade report on bestiality.

I imagine Senator Coleman will be sleeping well tonight.

He said what? Oh! Yes, he did.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is working with American Solutions for Winning the Future to rally up Americans across the country to start pushing Congress to end the bans on domestic drilling in places like ANWR and offshore areas in both bordering oceans.

There is an online petition you can sign to add your voice to the 154,000 people that have already signed in support of the drilling. I have been told before that Congress doesn’t care about online petitions and that they don’t do any good, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe someone who has recently or currently works on Capitol Hill can comment on that.

The below video features Gingrich talking about the drive. He also reminds everyone to call your representative and Senators and tell them to vote no on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill. It is important that bill not pass! Please do this!

I imagine you have seen this email at some point over the past few years that tells an anecdote as to what the difference is between Republicans and Democrats. I usually get it in my inbox every couple of months. Well, I received it again today, but this time it was modified to specifically include McCain, Hillary, and Obama. I thought the Obama part was funny.

John McCain, Hillary Clinton, And Barrack Obama were walking down a Washington D.C., street when they ran into a homeless man.

John McCain gave the man his business card and told him to come to his office for a job! He then took $20 out of his pocket and gave it to the man!

Hillary was very impressed, so when they came upon another homeless person, she decided to help. She walked over to him and gave him directions to the nearest welfare office. She then reached into McCain’s pocket and took out a 20 dollar bill! She kept $15 for administrative fees and gave the man $5!

When they came upon another homeless person, Obama told him…”to have hope…change is coming…” and gave him nothing!

Now do you understand the difference?

Bob Barr is changing yet another policy position in order to run for President.

Bob Barr’s marriage of convenience to the Libertarian Party gained him the group’s nomination for president and prompted the former Republican congressman to declare he will work to repeal one of his biggest legislative victories, the Defense of Marriage Act.

In his speech accepting the little party’s nomination in Denver last weekend, Barr roundly denounced the law he once championed.

Barr was the sponsor of the 1996 act that (1) says no state is required to give effect to or recognize a same-sex union law of another state, and (2) defines marriage as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and declares “the word ’spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

Barr’s reversal marks the repudiation of key conservative “family values” positions he once embraced. He also now favors legalizing “medical marijuana,” and his new party’s platform calls for repeal “of all laws creating ‘crimes’ without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.” He also opposes the 2001 Patriot Act he originally supported to expand intelligence-gathering powers in fighting terrorism.

Before the convention, Barr declared support for the California Supreme Court’s mid-May decision striking down state laws banning same-sex marriages.

The War on Drugs, The Patriot Act, and now The Defense of Marriage Act. Barr is showing he will change his long held beliefs for political gain.

Considering that Barry will be sitting down with the Iranian president, I am going to boldly predict the opening discussion:

Ahmadinejad: Death to Israel.

Barry: My uncle liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Ahmadinejad: No he didn’t.

Barry: Ok, I was lying. It was the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald.

Ahmadinejad: No he didn’t.

Barry: He didn’t?

Ahmadinejad: There were no concentration camps. This is a Zionist fable.

Barry: I see.

Ahmadinejad: Israel is a stinking corpse.

Today, Dow Chemical announced that they will raise prices by 20% across the board.  Dow is a critical supplier to virtually every industry imaginable.  These costs will be passed right on to the American consumer, who is already bearing the brunt of the economic mess the government has put us in.  Dow CEO Andrew Liveris put the blame right where it belongs:

“For years, Washington has failed to address the issue of rising energy costs and, as a result, the country now faces a true energy crisis, one that is causing serious harm to America’s manufacturing sector and all consumers of energy…The government’s failure to develop a comprehensive energy policy is causing U.S. industry to lose ground when it comes to global competitiveness, and our own domestic markets are now starting to see demand destruction throughout the U.S.”

I’m sure y’all have heard of the global warming skeptic petition that has garnered 31,000 signatures from the scientific community.

That’s a whole lot more than the 2,500-member UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which claims there is a “consensus” on man-made global warming.

Mark Degasperis was furious his mother spent five days on a stretcher at Toronto Western Hospital waiting for a room with 25 patients ahead of her — until the Toronto Sun made a call and she was suddenly moved to a room yesterday.

“They were giving us the same old song and dance why she was in the emergency department with only a sheet draped around her. I couldn’t even call her because she didn’t have a phone,” Degasperis of Georgetown said.

Heather Degasperis, 60, has a dangerous bacterial condition and was sent by her doctor to Toronto Western because it has the experts for her condition.

“She is not well and wasn’t able to sleep and she wasn’t getting any better. She needed peace and quiet to sleep.

“This is a terrible environment. I suggested taking her to another hospital, but we were told there are long waits across the region and the doctors we need are here. So there was nothing we could do,” Degasperis said yesterday.

“I’m angry we pay such high taxes and the more money we throw at the health care system the worse it gets. People shouldn’t be lined up on stretchers in the emergency department. If you are sick you should get a room.”

The Toronto Sun

I just astounds me that there are Americans that still support this kind of system here when you constantly hear about these horror stories.  I could post something like this almost every day coming out of one of these Socialist countries and yet the idiots continue to follow Obama around mesmerized by his empty words because they sound good.  The left is definitely succeeding at turning Americans into government dependent morons.

The Club for Growth is working diligently to stave off what will be an economic disaster of gargantuan proportions should it pass the Congress and come to fruition. I am speaking of the Lieberman-Warner Climate bill which is nothing more than a claptrap of anti-Capitalist crap in the name of passing feel good legislation to placate the environmental alarmists and the masses they’ve managed to brainwash with their hype. Below is a press release from CFG. Also, The Heritage Foundation has a state by state breakdown of the economic damage that will be done to each state.

Club for Growth Unveils Ad Campaign to Combat Economy Crushing Climate Change Legislation

Calls Legislation another Mammoth Washington Exercise in Wealth Redistribution at the Expense of Consumers and Taxpayers

Washington - Today, the Club for Growth unveiled a four-state television and radio ad campaign, highlighting the inordinate costs imposed and dubious global benefits gained by pending cap-and-trade legislation, America’s Climate Security Act. The ad also urges Senators in those states to oppose the bill (radio ad can be heard here).Next week, the Senate is scheduled to consider legislation, sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner, mandating steep reductions in carbon emissions. Known as a “cap and trade” scheme, the legislation would cap carbon emissions at 2005 levels by 2012, and then gradually lowers the cap until it hits 70% below 2005 standards in 2050. If passed into law, companies will be granted credits permitting them to emit a fraction of the CO2 they need. In a massive redistribution of wealth, other credits will be granted to states and ancillary government programs. NGOs and other non-emitter “entities” are also positioned to receive free credits. Since most companies will need to emit more carbon than the credits they are given allow, they will have to buy additional credits supplied by the government, other companies, or third party entities at potentially huge costs.

Proponents of the cap and trade legislation argue the bill is crucial to combat global warming, but they don’t tell you that the legislation will impose tremendous costs on businesses, consumers, taxpayers, and workers, and that it will not likely impact climate temperatures in any meaningful way when viewed in a global context. While the new mandates and taxes included in the legislation would require major economic sacrifices from all Americans, rapidly developing nations such as China and India have made clear they have no plans to adopt similar measures - arguably negating the global impact of any emission decreases in the U.S.

“While the benefits of the Lieberman-Warner bill are dubious at best, the costs to our economy will be massive,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “If this legislation passes, Americans can look forward to fewer jobs, lower income levels, rising electricity prices, and higher fuel bills. Congress has a tendency to pass feel-good bills without adequately considering the tremendous costs to American businesses and families. We hope these ads will encourage people to contact their Senators and tell them the country simply can’t afford the Lieberman-Warner bill.”

According to a recent SAIC study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), the domestic economic impact would be severe. National findings include:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) losses of $151 billion to $210 billion by 2020 and $631 billion to $669 billion per year by 2030
• Employment losses of 1.2 million to 1.8 million jobs by 2020 and 3 million to 4 million jobs by 2030
• Household income losses of $739 to $2,927 per year in 2020 and $4,022 to $6,752 per year in 2030
• Electricity price increases of 28% to 33% by 2020 and 101% to 129% by 2030
• Gasoline price increases (per gallon) of 20% to 69% by 2020 and 77% to 145% by 2030

“At a time when our economy is already struggling, the Lieberman-Warner would simply add a heavy drag on growth, giving our global competitors a significant competitive advantage courtesy of the U.S. Congress,” continued Toomey.

The Club for Growth’s $250,000 ad campaign will run in Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina starting today, and in Montana starting next week. The ads call on Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Jon Tester (R-MT), and Max Baucus (D-MT) to oppose this harmful legislation.

Courtesy of Fox News Sunday on May 25:
WALLACE: Congressman Cole, it’s not my position to give you advice, but let me suggest one idea that you — that the Republican Party could embrace that would send a message, “We’re going to do things differently.” A complete ban on all congressional earmarks. Are Republicans prepared to campaign for November banning all earmarks?
COLE: I think your advice is good, and we’ve actually taken that position as a conference and offered that to our Democratic colleagues.
WALLACE: You’re saying the position — wait a minute. You’re saying the position — you’re saying the position of the Republican Party in the House is no earmarks?
COLE: We have taken that position. There’s actually a piece of legislation — and we’ve said — we’ve challenged the Democrats to join us in that. That is, let’s have a ban on all earmarks, let’s have a special committee set up to examine the problem and then let’s come to a common agreement on it. So far, we haven’t heard a word from the other side. So you know, we’re not in a position to unilaterally make these decisions anymore. We’re not the majority. So frankly, I think that ball rests with them. When they respond to our challenge, I think we could have a really fruitful dialogue.
WALLACE: And I want to bring Congressman Van Hollen in. But you could unilaterally decide each Republican member of Congress not to put in any earmarks.
COLE: You don’t unilaterally decide anything. That’s like unilaterally deciding on term limits or something of that nature. Congress has to work together on common solutions. We’ve put forward a ban. We’ve asked the Democrats to respond. Last time I looked, we hadn’t even had the courtesy of an official response, even though we’d sent a letter to the speaker on this issue. (end quote)

This is yet another example of the “woe is me” caucus in the House. No sir, the Republican party could not stop inserting earmarks without Democrat approval. Yes Congressman, we know that you would legislate in a principled way, if only Speaker Pelosi would respond to your letter.

And my first post is available here:

Bob Barr is not an alternative | The Next Right

Finally! I’ve been waiting for these. The annual ratings of the American Conservative Union are out for 2007. Who stood by principle? Who didn’t? Who may as well just become a Democrat? All that and more will be covered. Read on.

Starting with the Senate, there are five Republican Senators who scored a perfect 100 for 2007. I doubt any of these names will surprise you:

• John Barrasso (R-WY)
• Tom Coburn (R-OK)
• Jim DeMint (R-SC)
• James Inhofe (R-OK)
• Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

The lowest scoring Republican should also be of no surprise. That is Maine Senator Olympia Snowe who scored a 28. She actually scored lower than two Democrats. The highest scoring Democrat has changed this year. In years past it has always been Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) but he was beaten this year by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) who scored a 40. John McCain got an 80 for last year. And these so called moderate Democrats have turned out to be not so moderate. Bob Casey (D-PA) showed us how conservative he was with a rating of 8. John Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) both scored a 16. Evan Bayh (D-IN) got a 12. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) also got an 8.

Presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-IL) scored a 7 and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) scored a big fat ZERO.

In the House there were lots of hundreds! I guess being in the minority makes principle a priority again.

• Trent Franks (R-AZ-02)
• John Shadegg (R-AZ-03)
• Jeff Flake (R-AZ-06)
• John Doolittle (R-CA-04)
• George Radanovich (R-CA-19)
• Devin Nunes (R-CA-21)
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-22)
• Ed Royce (R-CA-40)
• Gary Miller (R-CA-42)
• Duncan Hunter (R-CA-52)
• Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO-04)
• Doug Lamborn (R-CO-05)
• Tom Tancredo (R-CO-06)
• John Mica (R-FL-07)
• LynnWestmoreland (R-GA-03)
• Tom Price (R-GA-06)
• John Linder (R-GA-07)
• Nathan Deal (R-GA-09)
• Paul Broun (R-GA-10)
• Phil Gingrey (R-GA-11)
• Bill Sali (R-ID-01)
• Dennis Hastert (R-IL-14)
• Donald Manzullo (R-IL-16)
• Steve King (R-IA-05)
• Richard Baker (R-LA-06)
• Charles Boustany (R-LA-07)
• Tim Walberg (R-MI-07)
• Mike Rogers (R-MI-08)
• John Kline (R-MN-02)
• Michelle Bachmann (R-MN-06)
• Todd Akin (R-MO-02)
• ScottGarrett (R-NJ-05)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Steve Chabot (R-OH-01)
• Jim Jordan (R-OH-04)
• Robert Latta (R-OH-05)
• John Boehner (R-OH-08)
• John Sullivan (R-OK-01)
• Frank Lucas (R-OK-03)
• Tom Cole (R-OK-04)
• Mary Fallin (R-OK-05)
• Joe Pitts (R-PA-16)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• David Davis (R-TN-01)
• Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07)
• Louis Gohmert (R-TX-01)
• Sam Johnson (R-TX-03)
• Jeb Hensarling (R-TX-05)
• John Culberson (R-TX-07)
• Kevin Brady (R-TX-08)
• Mac Thornberry (R-TX-13)
• Randy Neugebauer (R-TX-19)
• Michael Burgess (R-TX-26)
• John Carter (R-TX-31)
• Rob Bishop (R-UT-01)
• Robert Wittman (R-VA-01)
• Thelma Drake (R-VA-01)
• Eric Cantor (R-VA-07)
• Doc Hastings (R-WA-04)
• Cathy McMorris (R-WA-05)
• Barbara Cubin (R-WY-AL)

The lowest scoring RINOs were Mike Castle (R-DE-AL) and Chris Shays (R-CT-04) both with a score of 20. The highest scoring Democrat was Gene Taylor (D-MS-04) with a score of 72. I also took interest in some of these supposed “conservative” Democrats that picked up many Republican seats in 2006. Heath Shuler (D-NC-11) got a 44. Nick Lampson (D-TX-22) scored a 20. Tim Mahoney (D-FL-16) scored a 16. Nancy Boyda (D-KS-02) got a 28. Joe Donnelly (IN-02) got a 44.

Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”

Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is requiredto “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies.

The fingerprint provisions are contained in a “manager’s amendment” that was hammered out by committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn, and Ranking Member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., on Monday and attached the next day to a broader housing bailout bill that had been scheduled for a comittee vote. That bill, the “Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008,” expands the lending authority of the Federal Housing Administration and the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance the mortgages of troubled borrowers and banks.

The amendment adopted the fingerprint provisions in a section called the “S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act.” The fingerprints will be part of what the amendment calls “a comprehensive licensing and supervisory database.”

And the database would cover a broad swath of individuals involved with mortgage lending. The amendment defines “loan originator” as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” It states that even real estate brokers would be covered if they receive any compensation from lenders or mortgage brokers. Since many jobs in both real estate and mortgage lending are part-time and seasonal, even some of the most minor players in the mortgage market may have to submit their prints.

Justifications listed in the bill for this database include “increased accountability and tracking of loan originators,” “enhance[d] consumer protection,” and “facilitat[ing] responsible behavior in the subprime mortgage market.”

Open Market

Here we go with another attack on our privacy.  I guess Real ID isn’t enough for Shelby, he has to sit down with Chris Dodd and plot some more invasions into our lives.  Why don’t they just get it done with and print the bar codes on our foreheads already?

They mask this onslaught of our personal liberty as S.A.F.E.  How exactly is storing the fingerprints of employees who work with mortgages going to keep us safe?  In what way is that possible?  Is it going to stop someone from writing a bad mortgage?  Will having someone’s fingerprints on file prevent another subprime housing crisis?  Of course not.  It’s like asking for a DNA swab in order to get your driver’s license.  There is no relevancy.  I’m also curious as to how many degrees this requirement would extend.  I work for a bank even though my job has nothing to do with finance.  Does that mean they want my fingerprints too just because I work there?  That’ll be the day.

And what of Chertoff’s comments?  Fingerprints aren’t personal data?  Last time I checked everyone’s fingerprints were unique.  It doesn’t get more personal than that.  Republicans have really let the Bush Administration slide on this kind of stuff.  This has been one of the most secretive administrations in recent memory and this constant push for more and more government authority over us in the faux name of security is getting ever so frightening.

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia won the Libertarian nomination for President at their national convention in Denver this afternoon. The question now is will Barr have a Perot affect on the presidential race this year? He is more of a conservative libertarian so we won’t come off as a kook like many of them do at times and with many disaffected conservatives who abhor John McCain, could Barr be a popular enough candidate to pull them over? Since he is also decently well known in political circles, will he be invited to the debates?