Chicago Daily Observer

You’ve got to hand it to Sen. Dick Durbin. When everyone is blasting the “earmarking” of federal funds for favored local projects, the Illinois Democrat defends the practice.

At least he’s honest about it, unlike so many others who say they oppose earmarks, while soaking them up like bread dabbed in gravy. Take our favorite son and presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, who says he’ll get rid of them—partially at least—yet he basks in the warm gratitude of Illinois interests that are the lucky recipients of the federal loot. Obama, on his campaign Web site, touts his promise to “slash earmarks to no greater than year 2001 levels.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. has announced plans to establish stringent national licensing standards for mortgage brokers. This is not a good idea.

The relationship between licensure in various professions and the quality of service is ambiguous at best. In the specific case of mortgage brokers, a comparison of states that license mortgage brokers and those that don’t suggests that national licensure could lead to more foreclosures, not less.

Morris Kleiner of the University of Minnesota and Richard Todd, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, examined mortgage-broker licensing requirements in the 50 states and District of Columbia between 1996 and 2006. They found no significant relationship between licensing requirements and subsequent outcomes in the housing market, with one exception.

Want to know how hateful and destructive the Trinity United Church of Christ has been under Reverend Jeremiah “God damn America” Wright? So much so that over the last two decades it’s received millions of dollars in grants from both Democratic and Republican administrations at the federal, state, and city levels. Most of the money has gone to provide community child care, HIV and AIDS programs, food services, and Head Start. Here’s a sampling from the city of Chicago (which includes federal and state grants the city administers):