The grass-roots activists powering the movement have become increasingly divided on core questions such as whether to focus their efforts on shaping policy debates or elections, work on a local, regional, state or national level or closely align itself with the Republican Party, POLITICO found in interviews with tea party organizers in Washington and across the country.

The philosophical and strategic disagreements have been present within the tea party movement almost from the beginning. But they were hidden — or at least overshadowed — by the initial explosion of activist enthusiasm, which has dissipated somewhat, exposing and widening the rifts.

In Granbury, Texas, local tea party organizer Josh Sullivan says he believes the movement’s effectiveness is being compromised by extremism.“You have some interesting folks in the Tea Party movement — some of them I can support, but some of them are kind of out there and radical, and I don’t want to associate myself with them,” he said.

Ain’t that a bitch.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Republican Party’s favorable rating among Americans is at lowest level in at least a decade, according to a new national poll.

Thirty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, with 54 percent viewing the GOP negatively.

Former President Bush hired James K. Glassman, a longtime journalist and former administration official, to be executive director of his new “action-oriented think tank,” the New York Times reports.

“The George W. Bush Institute will be housed along with the library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. While presidential libraries are eventually turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration to be run as educational centers and storehouses of documents and artifacts, the institute Mr. Bush envisions will become his main organizational vehicle for continuing to participate in public life and trying to shape his legacy.”

Glassman is perhaps best known as the co-author of Dow 36,000 in which he urged people to buy stocks because they were dramatically undervalued. The book came out in October, 1999 just months before the Internet bubble crashed.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Maybe Palin can make him her “economic advisor” when she becomes Madam President in your conservative wet dreams!

Why do conservatives worship idiots? Kind of explains why your policies are such an economic disaster!

The Community Reinvestment Act and the Recent Mortgage Crisis

Over the years, the Federal Reserve has prepared two reports for the Congress that provide information on the performance of lending to lower-income borrowers or neighborhoods—populations that are the focus of the CRA.3 These studies found that lending to lower-income individuals and communities has been nearly as profitable and performed similarly to other types of lending done by CRA-covered institutions. Thus, the long-term evidence shows that the CRA has not pushed banks into extending loans that perform out of line with their traditional businesses. Rather, the law has encouraged banks to be aware of lending opportunities in all segments of their local communities as well as to learn how to undertake such lending in a safe and sound manner.

Recently, Federal Reserve staff has undertaken more specific analysis focusing on the potential relationship between the CRA and the current subprime crisis. This analysis was performed for the purpose of assessing claims that the CRA was a principal cause of the current mortgage market difficulties. For this analysis, the staff examined lending activity covering the period that corresponds to the height of the subprime boom.4

The research focused on two basic questions. First, we asked what share of originations for subprime loans is related to the CRA. The potential role of the CRA in the subprime crisis could either be large or small, depending on the answer to this question. We found that the loans that are the focus of the CRA represent a very small portion of the subprime lending market, casting considerable doubt on the potential contribution that the law could have made to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Second, we asked how CRA-related subprime loans performed relative to other loans. Once again, the potential role of the CRA could be large or small, depending on the answer to this question. We found that delinquency rates were high in all neighborhood income groups, and that CRA-related subprime loans performed in a comparable manner to other subprime loans; as such, differences in performance between CRA-related subprime lending and other subprime lending cannot lie at the root of recent market turmoil.

In analyzing the available data, we focused on two distinct metrics: loan origination activity and loan performance. With respect to the first question concerning loan originations, we wanted to know which types of lending institutions made higher-priced loans, to whom those loans were made, and in what types of neighborhoods the loans were extended.5 This analysis allowed us to determine what fraction of subprime lending could be related to the CRA.

Our analysis of the loan data found that about 60 percent of higher-priced loan originations went to middle- or higher-income borrowers or neighborhoods. Such borrowers are not the populations targeted by the CRA. In addition, more than 20 percent of the higher-priced loans were extended to lower-income borrowers or borrowers in lower-income areas by independent nonbank institutions—that is, institutions not covered by the CRA.6

Putting together these facts provides a striking result: Only 6 percent of all the higher-priced loans were extended by CRA-covered lenders to lower-income borrowers or neighborhoods in their CRA assessment areas, the local geographies that are the primary focus for CRA evaluation purposes. This result undermines the assertion by critics of the potential for a substantial role for the CRA in the subprime crisis. In other words, the very small share of all higher-priced loan originations that can reasonably be attributed to the CRA makes it hard to imagine how this law could have contributed in any meaningful way to the current subprime crisis.

Of course, loan originations are only one path that banking institutions can follow to meet their CRA obligations. They can also purchase loans from lenders not covered by the CRA, and in this way encourage more of this type of lending. The data also suggest that these types of transactions have not been a significant factor in the current crisis. Specifically, less than 2 percent of the higher-priced and CRA-credit-eligible mortgage originations sold by independent mortgage companies were purchased by CRA-covered institutions.

I suspect most of you stopped reading after the first line. Clinging to ignorance is a mainstay of the conservative personality disorder.

(From Paul Krugman’s blog)

Commercial real estate facing worse days

Well now here’s a story about the ugly future of commercial real estate loans and I can’t for the life of me find any reference to the CRA, poor people, Freddie, Fannie or any of the bogeymen you conservatives believe are hiding under the bed! Can you help me to understand?

The Commercial Loan Nightmare Facing U.S. Banks

Banks are in for another ugly year in 2010. But this time the problem will be the big batch of deteriorating commercial real estate loans on their books. That’s because the big banks were operating with the same loose standards—and aggressive behavior—as the investment banks in order to compete in the real estate market during the boom years.

But, but I thought the banks were FORCED to make loans to poor minorities? That’s what the great conservative minds here said!

Carrick, Kenny, Jvette? Can you help?

The republicans will look like the shits that they are and will regret the amount of effort they put into opposing it.

Your kids will look back and wonder what the f*ck was wrong with you and how you could be so short-sighted and ignorant.

Then how will the conservative slugs explain the collapsing commercial real estate market? Did the CRA force banks to loan money to rich developers to build malls and office buildings we didn’t need? Did Barney Frank’s pot-smoking boyfriend cause it? Was it sunspots? FDR? Carter?

3 signs of the next real estate collapse

CRE and the CRA

Maybe Carrick would like to weigh in on this since he’s an expert on, well, everything it seems.

Well, time to make lemonade then! Play up the mock outrage that Obama didn’t show enough sadness when talking about the shooting!

Such resourceful little sore losers you conservatives are!

Capisce’?

Why do you slugs expect the gubmint to get you your vaccine? Do you think this is a socialist country? Obama should have let the “free market” prepare for your piddly-ass little flu vaccine. Just sat on his hands and let the for profit corporations do it all.

I certainly would make sure that not one conservative man, woman or child gets any of it. That is, unless they pay through the f*cking nose for it.

Give em a taste of the capitalism they love so much.

But hey, you got two governors from states that often elect republicans! Woo Hoo!