If you’ve been toying with the idea of setting up your own Right-Wing “think tank” to rake in a few Koch dollars in these tough economic times, pay attention, because this is how it’s done:

…by increasing the costs to banks of doing business in distressed communities, the CRA makes banks likely to deny credit to marginal borrowers that would qualify for credit if costs were not so high.

Cato Instutite, 2003 Handbook for Congress

Some supporters claim that stricter Clinton administration CRA enforcement has reduced or ended discrimination. They note that between 1993 and 1997, mortgages made to all borrowers increased by 30 percent, while mortgages made to minority borrowers increased by 63 percent. But Chicago Fed economists Douglas D. Evanoff and Lewis M. Segal found that the increased rates of loans to poorer neighborhoods were about equal before and after 1992. Further, Federal Reserve Board economist Robert Avery found that in 1993 and 1997, institutions both not subject to and subject to CRA made about the same percentage of mortgages to lower-income borrowers and neighborhoods as they did to all borrowers.

Is it Time to Repeal the Community Reinvestment Act?” 1999 Cato Institute publication.

Now, flash forward exactly one housing market bubble collapse and a catastrophic economic implosion… Read more »

“I can tell you unequivocally he wasn’t drinking at the event and he hadn’t been drinking prior to the event. I was sitting with him, and I found him to be very engaging with all of the people he was talking with, he was very articulate.” —Organizer Kevin Smith (no, not that Kevin Smith), standing up for Rick Perry. [The Hill, via Political Wire]

“So yes, they’re a military threat. They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability.” —Herman Cain!, laying out his foreign-policy credentials. China first tested nukes in 1964, and has 250 stockpiled. [ThinkProgress]

There hasn’t been much news since Sunday night, when Politico committed journalism — Related: Hell freezes over! — and broke the story of Herman Cain!’s exuberant hospitality at the Other NRA. Sure, his memory seemed to slowly clear up throughout the day Monday — memory that hadn’t been jogged when reporters contacted him days earlier — but we’ve been awaiting the drip-drip-drip of Further Revelations.

Like, oh, this:

The National Restaurant Association gave $35,000 — a year’s salary — in severance pay to a female staff member in the late 1990s after an encounter with Herman Cain, its chief executive at the time, made her uncomfortable working there, three people with direct knowledge of the payment said on Tuesday.

Read more »

This is my juice and I’m hungry! Breathe coon! Biscuits ain’t for jam! Uh huh.

Bad Lip Read saves the day.

“Religious broadcaster Harold Camping says he and his Family Radio network are embarrassed that the world didn’t end on Oct. 21 as he predicted.” [AP]

Virginia County GOP Emails Picture Of Obama With Bullet Hole In His Head [ThinkProgress]