….because I this looks like good, clean fun.

Of course, someone has to make the money for The One to take and spread around so others behind me can have a chance at success too.

(hat tip: RedState)

Kathleen Sebelius as the leading contender for HHS? Really?

The Governor of the state that can’t pay its tax refunds, local schools obligations or state workers….is the leading contender to fix the health care system in this country.

This has got to be a joke.

The One was in my backyard this morning, releasing the details of his plan to part the seas and save the country from the housing crisis. I’ll leave the analysis to the experts. I’m not an economist, nor do I play one on TV. I do, however, have common sense (that’s not up for debate people) and some things don’t make sense to me.

For example, The Mortgage Miracle will create a $75 Billion fund to help struggling home owners keep their mortgages current. But…..back in December, you know, when EVIL Bush was still in office,  the world was informed that of the loans modified in early 2008, more than half went back into default within six months.

Well, according to Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan–a top bank regulator–more than half of the mortgages that were modified in the first three months of this year went delinquent again within six months. “After three months, nearly 36 percent of the borrowers had re-defaulted by being more than 30 days past due. After six months, the rate was nearly 53 percent, and after eight months, 58 percent,” Dugan said Monday in a speech.

So I’m confused. How is The Mortgage Miracle different than what’s already been tried and has failed? Not only failed, but failed when people still had jobs.

And secondly, there’s been a lot of talk today about bringing mortgage payments down to 31% of pre-tax income. But no one has really provided a real life example of what that means. So I’m going to try and put some flesh on the bones.

Let’s pretend I’m a teacher and I’m married to a teacher, and we own a home here in Arizona. Our combined income before taxes is $80,000 a year. At 31%, under The Mortgage Miracle, our mortgage payment would be cut down to $2,067 a month through the magic of Fannie and Freddie and interest subsidies. That’s great, yeah? I know, right! But here’s where it gets interesting.

I’m making $40,000 before taxes as a teacher. After federal and state withholding, payroll tax withheld of 7.65%, contributing 5% to my 403(b) plan, deductions for medical and dental insurance, I’m lucky if I’m taking home $2,400 net every month in cash. Multiply by two, and as a family, we’re only bringing home $4,800.

If I need The Mortgage Miracle to drop my payments down to $2,067 so that I can afford my house…it means at some point I decided paying more than $2,067 a month for my home was a good idea. At some point, I decided that committing my family to pay more than 43% of our net monthly take home pay was a good idea. Assuming I have no other debt or fixed obligations - no student loans, no car payments, no free financing for furniture, no day care… 43% is a poor financial decision.

But hey, The Mortgage Miracle is here, and I’m saved. I will be absolved from all of my financial decisions through some Hail Mary’s and government bureaucracy.

As an aside - I did find it rather, um, amusing, The One chose Arizona as the location of for the announcement of his miracle to end the pain and suffering of the mortgaged masses. Why amusing you ask? Well it’s a purely selfish reason of course. I will not be saved by The Mortgage Miracle. My mortgage is so underwater it’s drowning -my loan to value ratio is 2.06. That’s right folks, 2.06. My loan is 2x more than my property is currently worth. When I bought the place in 2007, the ratio was .788. And in case you’re wondering, my payment is 28.2% of my take home pay.

I made a good financial decision and I’m so screwed I should start charging for it.

So you see folks, even with The Mortgage Miracle, unless I pony up some serious cash or the market takes off like a rocket,  I am not going to be saved.

Can you tell I’m a little jaded?

So don’t let someone else set the course for you.

Vote.

What does it take to get me blogging again? Michelle Obama saying this.

“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”

Well, well, well.

Isn’t it refreshing to have the socialism just laid right out there for us, in all its income redistribution glory? In order for ’someone else’ to have what you have, they’re just going to take it from you and give it to ’someone else’. Socialism in its most basic form, no? I gotta give the woman credit for having the brass ones to put it out there so brazenly.

Well, when that ’someone else’ wants to work as hard as I do and make good life choices and sacrifices I’ve made, they won’t have to take mine. They’d have their own. Until then, Michelle and her love sponge can keep their damn hands off my pie.

So it’s election season again. Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina blah blah blah. The responsible citizen in me says I should educate myself on the positions of all of the candidates so I can make an informed choice when the Arizona primary rolls around. I just can’t bring myself to do it. I can’t get excited about any of the candidates my party is presenting for my approval.

I mean seriously, is this the best we have? These mouth breathers?

Ugh. It’s going to be a loooooooooooong election cycle.

Need to meet your arrest quota for the month? Then head to the National Championship game in Glendale, Arizona next week. There you’ll find students in this country ILLEGALLY protesting Arizona’s new law requiring ILLEGAL aliens to pay out-of-state tuition.

Here’s a student that’s all but admitted she’s in the country ILLEGALLY.

“We’re hoping to get Congress’ attention and hoping they’ll pass the DREAM Act,” said Karina Guillen, 22, a business administration major at Phoenix College. “Otherwise, I’m not going to be able to continue my education.”

It’s just too easy.

For the first official, real blog post of Raising Farrahzona (content wise anyway), I feel like I need to apologize. I’ve done a terrible disservice to the country and I need to right the wrong.

I, Farrah Whitworth-Rahn hereby apologize to my fellow citizens for voting for John McCain in 2004. Can you ever forgive me?

His latest attention whoring is proof this man should never be Commander in Chief, and I put him back in the position to run for it. Oh I know he’s a former POW and military war hero, and I’m sure someone’s going to issue a fatwa against me for saying this - but he just doesn’t understand the nature of the enemy we face in this day in age.

Senator McCain, a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam, knows torture firsthand and brings moral authority to the issue. Torture is wrong, he says. Anything that weakens international protections for detainees, “threatens US troops in this and future wars,” he said on Friday

How many of our troops captured in Iraq were treated according to the terms of the Geneva Convention? Were these soldiers? Or these? The monsters were fighting killed 3,000 civilians five years ago while the female prisoners in Abu Ghraib were Saddam’s responsibilty. “Torture” of Gitmo prisoners wasn’t an issue then. The current detainee polices of the US are not to the reason our soldiers are tortured and mutilated when they’re captured. Changing said policies now won’t stop it from happening either. Whackjob militant islamists could care less what are laws say - they want us dead. Telling them we’ll be nice to their brethren when captured isn’t going to stop that.

Failing to acknowledge makes me think McCain really doesn’t understand our enemy. I don’t want him in charge of protecting the homeland if he can’t understand those who wish to do it harm. War is not the same as it was forty years ago. The nature of the enemy and threat has changed since the Senator was a POW. If he was a POW today, he would be tortured, killed and his mutilated body put on display for the world to see. The Geneva Convention wouldn’t save him. Why doesn’t he get this?

I realize Senator McCain is running for President, and trying to appeal to the “moderates” of both parties. But he’d be wise to remember it’s not the moderates who vote in primaries. It’s the base. If he continues to demonstrate he’d prefer to attention whore and get his 15 minutes of fame on the nightly news, rather than actually protect the country, this member of the base will be voting for someone else.