Obama will take nation in wrong direction

Enough of Barack Obama already. When I see Obama or his supporters on TV they appear to be mocking conservatives — our values, religion, work ethic, morals, sense of right and wrong and small-town America. In short, all that has built this country and made it great. I fear that if Obama assumes office he will make changes all right: gut the Constitution, institute a socialist system, begin stripping individual rights from citizens, increase citizens’ dependence on government support and continue the decay of our society.

Obama is divisive and will continue taking this country in a direction it has been headed for the last 40 years. He embodies all that I see that is wrong with this country now. I want leaders who understand our history and culture, who want to restore pride in America and who are patriotic. I see none of these qualities in Obama. 

McCain tried to set economy on right path

In trying to pin the bailout debacle on Republicans, political science teacher Larry Meacham’s lengthy opinion piece (Insight, Oct. 5) omitted multiple salient facts while ignoring a web of connections linking Democrats and Sen. Barack Obama to the current financial crisis. ACORN, Obama’s former employer, forced banks to make mortgage loans to people who could not afford them. And it was ACORN that put the pressure on the Clinton administration to pass the Community Reinvestment Act, which facilitated the subprime mortgage mess by lowering credit standards.

In 2003, the Bush administration tried to forestall the impending disaster by proposing regulatory overhaul in the housing financial industry. Democrats stopped them. 

Seeing the danger ahead, in 2005 and again in 2007, Sen. John McCain co-sponsored the Housing Enterprise Regulatory Act. Democrats blocked both efforts. Democrats Sen. Chris Dodd, Senate Finance chairman, and Rep. Barney Franks, House Banking Committee chairman, cut off all reform efforts. 

Dodd received cheap mortgage loans and was the largest beneficiary of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s campaign contributions at $165,400. Obama’s take of $126,349 was the second highest and 49 times higher than McCain’s $21,500. 

Consultant to the Obama campaign and former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines took away $90 million during his tenure there. Even former President Clinton opined that Democrats are culpable for the financial crisis. As a taxpayer-funded teacher, Mr. Meacham owes it to those who pay his salary to be more forthright in his political analyses in the future. 

Son at war brings desire for peace

Our son is serving in the Army. We oppose the Iraq war and support Barack Obama/Joe Biden in ’08. 

Crippling inflation is in our future

The greedy banks took the money of responsible savers and lent it to leveraged companies or reckless home buyers with no down payment. Now the financially irresponsible people cannot pay the money back. The house of cards is collapsing. Home prices are sinking. 

Hawaii government has been yammering for affordable homes for a long time. Good — finally homes might become affordable. 

But we cannot let the irresponsible banks and irresponsible people suffer the consequences of their behavior because if the bank goes broke, your money is gone, too. 

The credit takers always counted on being able to pay back the good dollars they borrowed with bad, inflated dollars later. The whole system has been built on that — reward the credit takers and screw the good, solid money givers, the savers! Until now. Lending has stopped. 

In response to the financial crisis, the feds are flooding the market by printing money like hell, and it will cause inflation like hell. 

Marketing Hawaii now is wasting money

I just heard that the Hawaii Tourism Authority will spend an additional $2 million on top of the $55 million appropriated for marketing the state. I’m wondering if HTA, Gov. Linda Lingle and the state legislators are aware of the world economic situation. As we all know, there is a major recession. 

What this means is that money is very tight. People do not have money to spend on vacations to Hawaii because they are more concerned about their mortgages, their children’s tuition, their retirement fund, and their living expenses from day to day. 

So I suggest the $2 million go to the tourism board and appropriate the $55 million to the Department of Education and other services. This will alleviate the problem of cutting services to education. No matter how much money we spend to coerce people to come to Hawaii, if they can’t afford it, they won’t come. It’s like fixing a leak on a boat with bubble gum; it's futile. It will keep on leaking. 

At this point, putting money in the tourism coffers is not the direction for Hawaii. Scaling back the tourism sector would be advantageous to both the DOE and Hawaii Tourism Authority.