Posts from — October 2010

Steven Thomma at McClatchy noticed the trend of “conservatives” rewriting history:

WASHINGTON — The right is rewriting history.

The most ballyhooed effort is under way in Texas, where conservatives have pushed the state school board to rewrite guidelines, downplaying Thomas Jefferson in one high school course, playing up such conservatives as Phyllis Schlafly and the Heritage Foundation and challenging the idea that the Founding Fathers wanted to separate church and state.

The effort reaches far beyond one state, however.

In articles and speeches, on radio and TV, conservatives are working to redefine major turning points and influential figures in American history, often to slam liberals, promote Republicans and reinforce their positions in today’s politics.

The Jamestown settlers? Socialists. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton? Ill-informed professors made up all that bunk about him advocating a strong central government.

Theodore Roosevelt? Another socialist. Franklin D. Roosevelt? Not only did he not end the Great Depression, he also created it.

Joe McCarthy? Liberals lied about him. He was a hero.

If you have an interest in real American history, Kenneth C. Davis at Smithsonian has a four-page article, America’s True History of Religious Tolerance, explaining how nasty we have always been. The real history gives you the information needed to understand why religious tests were specifically excluded by the Constitution, and why religion was covered in the First Amendment to stress the point.

McClatchy has a feature on two of the people involved in the foreclosure fraud conspiracy in Florida – How 2 civilian sleuths brought foreclosure problems to light

PALM BEACH, Fla. — More than a year before lenders, law firms and document companies began owning up to widespread paperwork problems with their foreclosure filings, Lisa Epstein and Michael Redman already knew that something was wrong — very wrong.
…

Equal parts agitators, activists and advocates, Redman and Epstein have made their presence felt in Florida and nationally through their respective websites, 4closureFraud.org and foreclosurehamlet.org.

It is a conspiracy, and it involves politicians. As the article points out, two of the actions these people protested were laws being enacted in Tallahassee and then Washington that would have helped to hide the fraud.

It is important to understand that these two people are not lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, or in law enforcement. They are intelligent people who read the documents and immediately noticed they were fraudulent, even though they had no special training in mortgages or real estate law. That should give you an idea of how blatant this has been, and how corrupt the system is that processed these foreclosures.

It is irrelevant that people owe money, if it can’t be determined who the money is owed to, i.e. who has the note. If the person who holds the note isn’t getting the money, the debt isn’t being discharged. There have been cases in Florida where it isn’t clear that the mortgage used in the foreclosure actually existed.

This problem isn’t limited to people with mortgages. The problem is undermining the validity of all land deeds.

Position: 23.1N 81.4W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East [085°] near 14 mph [22 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 60 miles [ 95 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1002 mb.

Currently about 15 miles [25 km] West of Veradero, Cuba.

The storm is moving inland and continuing to weaken. It has primarily been a rain event on the North side of the storm.

All Warnings and Watches have been canceled.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

In an article at MSNBC titled Foreclosure probe launched in 49 states there is this interesting paragraph:

The Obama administration has rebuffed calls for a national halt to foreclosures despite pressure from consumer advocates and some Democratic lawmakers. Officials argue that halting sales of foreclosed homes could prevent the housing market from recovering. The administration says a freeze also would distract many lenders from their efforts to help borrowers in danger of foreclosure.

The Obama administration needs to talk to a real estate agent … immediately. If you can’t prove you own the property, you can’t sell it, and there is no real estate market. Ownership is sort of central to the entire system. Real estate agents aren’t going to try to sell stolen homes; you could go to prison for doing that.

Unless the banks are going to unload these houses through pawn shops, the housing market is “pining for the fjords”.

Since that report, Troy King, who plays the role of attorney general of Alabama, figured out that maybe he should look at the problem, Alabama attorney general joins other states in investigation of foreclosure practices, despite saying that no Alabama laws were broken. Since he hasn’t bothered to look at the problem, I have no idea how he knows that no laws have been broken. I pretty sure that changes in deeds have to be recorded in Alabama, just like the rest of the country, and Wall Street hasn’t been doing that.

The whole RPOF credit card mess should have been a clue, but if you still think Republicans care about tax dollars, maybe this Lucy Morgan article in the St. Petersburg Times will wake you up: E-mail names ‘heroes’ who got legislative funding for ‘Taj Mahal’ courthouse

Sometimes being a “hero” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Take Marco Rubio. Since the story first broke about the palatial new courthouse being built in Tallahassee, the former House speaker has said it was a Senate priority, and he couldn’t even remember the money being appropriated to build it.

But now the St. Petersburg Times has obtained an e-mail circulated among the judges on the courthouse building committee that identifies the “heroes” in delivering the money to build it.

Among them, the e-mail identifies a select few who were “especially helpful,” including Rubio.

Rubio was the Speaker of Florida House at the time, and he was the only person who could have slipped the funding into the transportation bill at the last minute. If he didn’t support it, it died. It was tens of millions of dollars that “he couldn’t even remember”.

How do you forget paying for mahogany paneling and granite bathrooms? This is another example of “Republican fiscal conservatism” – pack kids into classrooms so appeals court judges can have mahogany paneling in their offices.

Position: 21.9N 85.4W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [035°] near 3 mph [ 6 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph [130 kph].
Wind Gusts: 95 mph [155 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 50 miles [ 80 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 10 miles [ 16 km].
Minimum central pressure: 993 mb ↑.

Currently about 30 miles [50 km] West of the western tip of Cuba.

It is in the Yucatan Channel and has begun to weaken and turn to the East.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the provinces of la Habana and cuidad de la Habana.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the Florida Keys from Craig Key westward, including the Dry Tortugas.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

From the CBC because they still know how to report up North: Chilean miners reach surface

The painstaking but time-consuming process of bringing of 33 Chilean miners to the surface after 69 days underground began late Tuesday with the first being rescued at 11:11 p.m. ET.

Florencio Avalos, 31, stepped out of the metal rescue capsule moments later as the crowd cheered and horns blew. He was greeted by his wife, two sons and father. His son, Bairon, 7, sobbed.

Avalos hugged his rescuers and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera before being escorted into a medical triage centre set up on site.

Avalos was raised more than 600 metres through a rescue shaft while strapped into a 190-by-54-centimetre capsule. His journey began at 10:55 p.m. ET and took just 16 minutes.

Before his rescue, crews ran tests by lowering an empty capsule down the shaft and raising it before sending it back down with a rescue worker inside to help prepare the miners for their trip to the surface.

An impressive, well planned, well executed operation by Chile. They have back-ups for all of the necessary equipment, consulted with people around the world, and covered all of the possibilities they could imagine. It will take time to get everyone up, but they are ready to do it.

Update: 14 of 33 up so far at 10AM CDT 10/13. The CBC is updating their story at the link.

Update 2: Chile mine rescue: all 33 raised to safety at 7:55PM CDT.

McClatchy reports that the Feds lift moratorium on deepwater offshore oil drilling

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Tuesday lifted a moratorium it imposed on deepwater offshore oil drilling in July during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that new rules should make it safer.

While all work isn’t expected to resume immediately, the timing of the announcement — six weeks ahead of schedule and three weeks before congressional and state elections — could give Democrats a boost at the polls.

The moratorium has been blamed for thousands of lost jobs in an already damaged economy and posed a potential drag on some Democrats’ election prospects.

First off, when they checked at the Louisiana unemployment office they discovered that the number of workers affected by the moratorium was in the dozens, not the thousands, and was background noise compared to what happened to people in the tourism and seafood industries because of the Well from Hell.

Second, the oil industry still isn’t prepared to deal with a major spill, and won’t be for months or years, because they haven’t bothered to look at the problem, much less solutions.

The only “Democrats” affected by the moratorium are Blue Dogs, and they don’t vote with their leaders often enough to be worth the effort of keeping them.

The White House keeps generating reasons for the Democratic base to stay home in November.

So bad that even CNBC has noticed: Diana Olick – Foreclosure Fraud: It’s Worse Than You Think.

Via CBS: Alain Sherter Why Rampant Foreclosure Fraud Was Inevitable.

Barry Ritholtz on Why Foreclosure Fraud Is So Dangerous To Property Rights.

And, of course, politics raises its ugly head as Moe Tkacik tells of 5 Things David Axelrod Must Have Missed About The Foreclosure Thing.

Digby looks at the White House blowing another campaign issue in Foreclosure Strategy.

Barry Ritholtz with an oldie explaining that while people have a “moral obligation” to pay their underwater mortgages, the Mortgage Bankers Association dumped their DC headquarters when its value tanked.

Position: 19.9N 86.0W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North [355°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 100 mph [160 kph].
Wind Gusts: 120 mph [195 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 60 miles [ 95 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 15 miles [ 25 km].
Minimum central pressure: 981 mb.

Currently about 70 miles [115 km] Southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

It now looks like the storm will just graze the Mexican coast and then head into the Yucatan Channel. Currently it is forecast to turn to the East and hit Cuba.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Punta Allen northward to Cabo Catoche including Cozumel and the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Cabo Catoche to San Felipe.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 16.8N 84.6W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [315°] near 10 mph [16 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph [135 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb ↓.

Currently about 295 miles [475 km] South-Southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Punta Gruesa northward to Cabo Catoche including Cozumel.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Honduras from Limon eastward to the Honduras-Nicaragua border including the Bay Islands; the coast of Mexico from Chetumal northward to south of Punta Gruesa; and the coast of Mexico from Cabo Catoche to San Felipe.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Belize.

This has been building for days in Caribbean, but wind shear finally dropped allowing it to spin up.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The Republicans have been fighting the appointment of Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve Board claiming he wasn’t qualified.

As Paul Krugman notes Peter Diamond, Dale Mortenson, and Chris Pissarides were just awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Why are the Republicans afraid of having someone who obviously understands economics on the board of the Fed?

It’s the second Monday in October, so it is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Have a happy one.

The US Federal government has decided to call it Columbus Day, even though it should be the 12^th of October which was the second Wednesday in 1492. But it’s okay that the holiday is on the wrong day, because Christopher Columbus [AKA: Cristoforo Colombo, Cristóbal Colón] didn’t find what he was looking for and identified what he did find incorrectly. The important thing is that a large area of the map got changed from “here be dragons and sea serpents,” to “here be gold and cannibals” and no mention was made of the oppressive heat, mosquitoes, or hurricanes.

[Read more →]

Hurricanes and oil gushers aren’t enough, so now we have “Florida Foreclosure Fraud” to make the state somewhere that people want to avoid.

Mike Konczal is running a series with graphics to explain what is happening. He calls it: Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies. [You can read it even if you aren’t a Republican.]

The Miami Herald has a cheerful little backgrounder about the realization that this isn’t an isolated problem: Foreclosure freeze widens as fears grow.

Finally, courtesy of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s investigation, here’s the full deposition of an employee of a law firm filing “creative” documents in foreclosure cases in Florida. [Depositions are taken under oath and false statements are punishable as perjury. This is not a conversation with a reporter.]

The bottom line for Florida is that you can’t get a clear title to property in the state until this is cleared up, because it isn’t obvious who owns what if the property was mortgaged. This brings real estate sales to a screeching halt in the state.