Posts from — October 2010

Paul Krugman has an Epitaph For An Administration

Surely this can serve as a generic statement:

As NAME ISSUE HERE has come to light, the Obama administration has resisted calls for a more forceful response, worried that added pressure might spook the banks and hobble the broader economy.

Stimulus, bank rescue, China, foreclosure; it applies all along. At each point there were arguments for not acting; but the cumulative effect has been drift, and a looming catastrophe in the midterms.

The days of voting for “the lesser of two evils” are over as under Obama the Democrats have achieved an equity of evil with the Republicans. The policies will be same no matter which major party you vote for.

My personal plan is to vote in every election that is held, but not vote for either party unless the individual has shown a willingness to vote for my interests. I want them to be aware that my vote is there, but they are not getting it. There are qualified people running with no party affiliation, or in third parties, and there is always the write-in line.

Shannon Behnken of the Tampa Tribune has the latest from the Florida Attorney General’s investigation – Witness: Foreclosure firm owner gave gifts for altering documents

The office released transcripts of two interviews it conducted for its investigation into the law offices of David J. Stern. The sworn statements were from Kelly Scott, a former employee of Stern’s and Mary R. Cordova, a former employee of G&Z, a process server used by Stern’s office. The women’s testimonies appear to back up that of former Stern’s employee Tammie Lou Kapusta, whose statement was released last week. The three statements paint a picture of a secret system designed to speed up the foreclosure process. Attorneys and staff members forged signatures, changed dates, passed around notary stamps, the women say in interviews with attorney general’s staff.

This is not a “technical problem with the paperwork”, this is criminal fraud. The entire process was operated this way.

The banks have no idea where the paperwork is, because filing paperwork was an overhead cost, so they skipped it. They didn’t file changes with county clerks, because it was an overhead cost, so they skipped it, despite charging a fee at closing to do it.

This is a civil investigation, so criminal charges won’t directly follow, but the fact that it is a civil proceeding gives the public immediate access to the information.

the houndfish [Tylosurus crocodilus] might.

From a local NBC affiliate in South Florida: Woman Impaled By Fish In Keys.

Minding her own business, paddling her kayak through the water, and a houndfish leaps up and rams its beak through her chest.

Come on down and enjoy the water sports.

Update: More information from the Miami Herald.

Position: 17.4N 123.0E [10:30 PM CDT 0330 UTC].
Movement: West-Southwest [250°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 165 mph [265 kph].
Wind Gusts: 180 mph [290 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 35 miles [ 55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 914 mb.

Those are the approximate values when Megi made landfall on the Philippines island of Luzon at 10:30 PM last night. It should be back over water shortly and re-intensify before continuing towards China.

Dr Masters has more on the storm. It was really more of a large tornado because of the intense winds and relatively small size, but the high winds and intense rain will create havoc.

Early Voting for the November election starts tomorrow.

The hours for Okaloosa County are:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 10:00am-6:00pm
• Wednesday & Saturday: 7:00am-3:00pm

They are using the same three locations, the Supervisor of Elections office and Sikes Library in Crestview, and the University of Florida facility off Lewis Turner Boulevard in Shalimar, that they used for the primary early voting. They have maps at the Early Voting link above.

Early voting continues until Saturday, October 30^th.

Teresa Dixon Murray of The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a series of articles on the problem: Mortgage foreclosure uproar sweeps up Northeast Ohioans

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Michael and Pamella Negrea have never been late on a mortgage payment in the 15 years they’ve owned their home in Eastlake. But they’ve been foreclosed on three times.

Martin and Kirsten Davis, meanwhile, lost their home in Cleveland to foreclosure two years ago. The reason: a mess that started when they accidentally paid 14 cents too little on their monthly payment.

And Michael Rendes of Berea had his mortgage sold last year to Bank of America. The bank foreclosed on him in November, after insisting for months that it didn’t hold his loan and wouldn’t accept his payments.

Read the whole thing with one thought in mind, are the banks trying to make income from mortgages, or are they intent on ripping people off?

If you aren’t sure read Ms Murray’s separate piece on Michael and Pamella Negrea

EASTLAKE, Ohio — The first time Michael and Pamella Negrea were foreclosed upon in 2001, the suit was thrown out of court. They had never even made a late payment.

That didn’t stop GMAC Mortgage.

In 2005, two years after the case was dismissed, GMAC filed for foreclosure again. This time, the Negreas sued for breach of contract, fraud and unfair debt collection. They won more than $217,000, and the foreclosure was thrown out again.

And still that didn’t stop GMAC.

Keep in mind that if a foreclosure has been filed, your credit is ruined, so you can’t simply refinance your house with another bank. Even if you could, you can’t stop your mortgage from being sold to the bank you dumped.

The Service Employees International Union has a web site up, Where’s The Note?, with information on finding out who holds your mortgage. After reading these articles, I hope people understand why that’s important. “Lawyers, guns and money” – they are your only real defense.

So I finally got around to reading Krugman’s column on The Mortgage Morass [a polite way of saying foreclosure fraud] and the Obama response [corporations have the “expertise”, so the government will let them handle it].

I noticed on the sidebar another column, The Tools You Really Need to Maintain Your Home, by Bob Tedeschi, which was OK, but Bob forgot the three most important things you need when dealing with the real threat to your home, the banksters.

Warren Zevon spells it out: Lawyers, Guns, and Money. That’s what Wall Street is using, so you need the same tools.

From the Local Puppy Trainer: USF researchers: Ultraviolet tests show ‘contaminated’ beach

WALTON COUNTY — A researcher for the University of South Florida Coastal Research Lab recently examined Walton County beaches under UV light and says they are “still contaminated” after the BP oil spill.

Rip Kirby, a graduate student, held a high-powered ultraviolet light over one stretch of beach, and it illuminated patches of what he says are “accumulation of petroleum product and dispersant.” He apologized for not taking samples sooner.

“This beach is just as contaminated as the rest, I’m sorry,” Kirby said, adding, “I took the local government officials’ word that these beaches were not impacted and stopped my testing in Destin.”

There are a lot of things that are not obvious or visible that can still kill you. The article goes on to note that there is also dispersant contamination in some areas.

Walton County is immediately to the East of me and received minimal visible oil on its beaches, but the sand is still contaminated, and there is oil on the bottom of Gulf.

The Nevada Senate debate had an item of interest: Sharron Angle to Harry Reid: It’s Not Your Job to Create Jobs

In tonight’s Nevada Senate debate, Republican candidate Sharron Angle hammered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over a legislator’s role in generating economic growth. “Once again, Harry Reid: It’s not your job to create jobs,” she said, after moderator Mitch Fox asked both candidates if job creation was part of a Senator’s job description.

“I believe my job is to create the policies that will encourage private sector to do what they do best,” she said.

“That’d be a no,” Fox prompted, pushing for a firm yes or no answer to his question.

Every political ad at every level you have candidates shouting to the world that they should be elected because they have a cunning plan to create jobs, and now you have Sharron Angle saying that politicians shouldn’t be trying to create jobs.

It gives one pause. Does Ms Angle think that businesses will spend some of their $2 trillion in cash on jobs if she offers them chickens, her solution for health care?

Update: My Bad 😳 It was Ms Angle’s opponent in the Republican primary, Ms Lowden, who was the chicken lady. Correction thanks to Badtux, who tracks the West Coast whackoes.

The Pensacola News Journal reports on the latest attempt by a Republican to avoid responsibility: ‘Taj Mahal’ courthouse flap finds new target

TALLAHASSEE — State Sen. Mike Haridopolos on Thursday demanded the resignation of the head of the state’s property management agency because of “runaway spending” on the politically charged 1st District Court of Appeal courthouse.

Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican who will become president of the Senate in November, said Linda South, secretary of the state’s Department of Management Services, should resign for failing to properly oversee the $49 million project.

“It’s just an abomination. This was just the final straw,” Haridopolos said. “Secretary South has failed to do her job, and it’s time for her to go. I’m really surprised the governor, given her behavior, hasn’t already asked her for her resignation.”
…

n 2007, the Legislature passed a last-minute amendment to an appropriations bill that included authority for the sale of $33.5 million in bonds to pay for the bulk of construction on the courthouse. Haridopolos voted for the bill.

“We in the Legislature appropriate an amount of money. The oversight is in the executive branch,” Haridopolos said. “When people came in and they said this is what the cost will be, we weighed the pros and cons, and we voted for it.”

The problem is not that the project is over budget, it’s that the budget was too large. The legislature approved the spending, so they approved the project, including the exotic wood paneling and granite counter tops. The executive is administering the project according the wishes of the legislature. Everyone who voted for it is responsible for it. There is no one else to blame, they own the problem.

In Digby’s post. Don’t Worry Your Pretty Little Heads About This Foreclosure Mess, you have a CNBC “pundit” declaring that Congress will just pass a bill to fix this.

This individual hasn’t been listening to all of the “states rights” drum beating going on, because property law is state law. The Federal government isn’t involved. No one is going to allow a bill to sneak through, like that law that Obama used the pocket veto on, at this point. No one is going to agree to a voice vote. After the big drop in campaign contributions to the Democrats, why would they help out the banksters again? With the Tea Partiers clamoring for heads, why would the Republicans risk it?

Michael Collins at the Agonist has excerpts from a Felix Salmon piece in The enormous mortgage-bond scandal. but the interesting bit was actually in comments.

[Read more →]

Paula has become a remnant low pressure area off the northern coast of Cuba. Increasing wind shear and interaction with land disrupted the storm’s organization.

An Uninvited Guest

Huh … hello?

[Editor: I was wondering if Property was just playing mind games staring at the back door, but I looked out and found this un-cat chowing down on the cat food. It is either a juvenile or small female.

Friday Ark

Michael Janda writing at The Drum on the ABC site looks at the US economy: Stimulated but unemployed in the USA

According to figures compiled by Morgan Stanley’s global strategist Gerard Minack in one of his notes to clients, US domestic profits increased by $US420 billion in 2009, while income to everyone else in the United States fell by $US377 billion.

He says this was part of the ‘Great Swap’, where the US government stepped in not only to take bad debts off the balance sheets of many US financial institutions, but also provided stimulus payments that propped up household income and consumer demand despite continued falls in employment and working hours.

Business received all of this money, but didn’t invest it in the economy, they hoarded it. The government stimulus kept them alive, and they used the time to reduce their workforce even further, boosting short-term profits while courting a double-dip recession.

Business doesn’t care. They are all about the current quarter and their individual compensation, not the long-term survival of the US economy. Deflation helps their personal bottom line, so why would they care about anything else?