Verbosities

Power Line: Hip-Hop Congressman

Keith Ellison of Minneapolis has made a splash as the first Muslim Congressman. We have noted his ties with radical groups like the Nation of Islam, CAIR and the Muslim American Society. Yesterday, though, he gave an interview to a less controversial--I guess--news outlet: BallerStatus, an on-line hip-hop magazine.

[snip]

The interviewer asks Ellison about Louis Farrakhan's influence on him; Ellison's answer is, I think, a bit disingenuous:

BallerStatus.com: How great an influence was Minister Farrakhan on you?

Rep. Ellison: Not much.

Naturally, I believe that all Christian politicians should have to answer to how big an influence Christian Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdoony was on their faith, but I'll just assume they're lying when they say, "Who?"

There is a lot of talk about hip-hop, which leads to an exchange about the Don Imus affair, which leads to a general denunciation of talk radio:

BallerStatus.com: But how ironic was it for people like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck to even bring up so called "dangerous rappers" or "snitching" when they preach racism and hate speech on the radio every day?

Rep. Ellison: Oh man, they get up there and speak that nonsense constantly. The fact of the matter is, now matter how you feel about Don Imus, there's a whole lot worse than him on the radio. He was a sacrificial lamb.

It would be interesting to know what "preaching [of] racism and hate speech" Hannity and Beck have indulged in. Needless to say, no examples were forthcoming.

Well, I'll pass Hannity on Hinderaker's narrow reading of "racism and hate speech," but I'd tend to think that Keith Ellison knows a little something about baselessly claiming someone is an assumed enemy simply due to the way they choose to believe in God.

Here's Glenn Beck with Keith Ellison, via Media Matters: "OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. ... With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' "

Ellison is trying to make "credit justice" his signature issue as a young Congressman. As best I can understand it, "credit justice" means beating up on credit card companies and shifting costs from some cardholders to other cardholders:

BallerStatus.com:***Anyway besides the war, what are you focused on in the coming months?

Rep. Ellison: One thing I want to work on is the credit justice issue. I mean the fact is a lot of people who aren't making much money will turn to credit cards to make it. If you're late on the credit card, every credit card you own will increase your rates up to as high as 32%. That means it's expensive to be poor, because the poor pay more. It shouldn't be like that. It should be the opposite if nothing else. So I'm trying to do something about these credit cards.

A week or two ago, there was a committee hearing in Washington at which several representatives of credit card issuers appeared before a subcommittee of which Ellison is a member. Ellison took the opportunity to push for legislation he has introduced that would ban certain alleged practices of credit card issuers. One of the country's top experts in credit card marketing happens to be a friend of mine; I asked his opinion on Ellison's proposed legislation. He replied:

The thing is, nobody actually engages in the practices he want to ban...and he knows it.

He's just looking for headlines.

Really?



frontline: secret history of the credit card: eight things a credit card user should know | PBS

Even if you make your credit card payments on time, the credit card bank can raise your interest rate automatically if you're late on payments elsewhere -- such as on another credit card or on a phone, car, or house payment -- or simply because the bank feels you have taken on too much debt.

This practice is called the "universal default" clause and increasingly is becoming a standard clause in credit card agreements. According to credit card executives, the logic behind universal default is that the bank is not being unreasonable in raising rates when it has reason to believe that the risk of being repaid by the customer has increased.

I'm sure someone in Hinderaker's socio-economic class doesn't have to worry about this, as credit card offers to the upper-middle class and above are less likely to carry the "universal default" clause, due to less risk of default to the credit card companies. Ellison is specifically targeting "people who aren't making much money (who) will turn to credit cards" to get by. These are, by nature, riskier borrowers for any lender, and are subject to clauses like this because lenders know the borrower has no power to shop around for a better deal. Many people see this as predatory and a way to keep poor people from getting ahead, and wish to end this lending practice.

At bare minimum, it's not as if Ellison is inventing a problem here. This exists, despite Hinderaker's nameless friend's assertion.

So Ellison will be continuing the Democrats' tradition of economic demagoguery. The interview closed with demagoguery of a scarier kind:

BallerStatus.com: Let's allow you to get back to work. There's a certain balding man from Wyoming who needs to be indicted and put in prison.

Rep. Ellison: Let me just say that you can do anything you want if you just put you're mind to it. ***

I assume the "balding man from Wyoming" is Dick Cheney. In the world of BallerStatus, Keith Ellison passes for a moderate.

Who would have thought BallerStatus.com would be against the biggest baller of them all? Hell, who else in America could send black helicopters after Suge Knight on any given Tuesday? Don't indict the man, give him a three-record deal and see if he can rhyme for chrissakes.

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