Foreclosure Mills? A New Way for Unscrupulous Lawyers to Make Money?

Well the bankers and crooked mortgage brokers made money on the real estate market on the way up now the lawyers are making money on the way back down.

But while the banks are ultimately responsible, the root of the problem appears to lie with "foreclosure mill" law firms like Stern's. These operations process foreclosure cases on behalf of lenders, and their business model is based on moving the paperwork through as quickly as possible. That's why such firms have pioneered practices like "robo-signing" — whereby their employees process thousands of court documents in pending foreclosures without ever actually reviewing them, as the law requires. Of course, it's in the banks' interest for their contractors to move quickly, because the faster a foreclosure moves, the less time a struggling borrower has to fight it.

Also the faster the bank can get in into their inventory to resell when the market gets better. Also the faster the banks can get these mortgages off of their books the better it is for their own bottom lines. I mean the allowances for doubtful loans can get taken back down when these doubtful loans disappear.

However, if some ways speeding up the foreclosures might be beneficial to the market. If you can get all of the houses that are at risk out of the market you can hit the bottom that much quicker. Then all new houses will be purchased under more stringent regulations that were in place before the mortgage mess occurred. The growth in home-ownership would slow but at least the era of the "nodoc" mortgage or the interest only mortgage would just be a footnote in history.

Ahmadinejoke Threatens Isreal Yet Again: This Time Cowering in Lebanon

Hmm, I wonder if it would be a good idea to allow nutjobs like this to develop the Bomb.

"The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear," he said to thunderous applause before a frenzied crowd in Hezbollah's bastion of Bint Jbeil, some four kilometres (two miles) from the Israeli border.

"The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin," he added.

I wonder where the people that were born in Israel (the vast majority) will have to go if Members-Only Jacket has his way? In any case I will make this bold prediction: The Israeli State will outlive the Mullacracy of Iran. You heard it here first. The Mullahs will not make it 20 more years.

The young people of Iran will not stand for them and will either vote them out either by force or by obsolescence. Mark my words you will see the Secular Republic of Iran in my lifetime. Or maybe it will be called the Persian Republic since Iran is an invention of post-WWI Britain. They really are Persians and not Arabs or some other thing.

Hunting and Fishing Goes on the Ballot of 4 States

It seems that hunters and fishermen are starting to hit back against PETA and their ilk.

Worried that their pastime may get waylaid by a growing animal welfare movement, U.S. hunters and anglers in some states are seeking constitutional safeguards.

When voters in Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee go to the polls to cast their ballots in the congressional elections on Nov 2, they will also be asked if they support making hunting and fishing constitutional rights.

I am willing to bet that they will be passed with large margins since hunting and fishing culture is a big deal in those states. 

Fascinating Foreign Policy Advice for the GOP

This is one of the best think-pieces I have seen on what the GOP needs to do once they win in November when it comes to foreign policy. It critiques how GOP stalwarts like Teddy Roosevelt and Reagen got things right when it comes to foreign policy and how George W. Bush went wrong. This part of the 10 Commandments of the so-called Conservative Realism jumped off the page:

Sixth, recognize that deterrence and containment are not entirely outmoded as strategic options in the 21st century. Certainly, suicide bombers cannot be deterred. But the governing elites of Tehran and Pyongyang, however despicable, hope for survival and not for death. The distinction is crucial. It is the reason why deterrence can still work in relation to existing rogue states such as North Korea and Iran. The U.S. can exhaust, contain, and wear down these regimes. They will break down before the United States does.

The Chinese seem to understand this. They fight the long fight while we hope for the quick regime change. Deterring and containing Iran and North Korea would go much farther then some bombing mission would. You negotiate from strength with clearly defined consequences if there is non-compliance. At the same time you are backing the student protesters against the regime because that is what is morally right from the US point of view. If the regime strikes back and slaughters them they become a pariah to the world if they succeed you have won the long war.

In the meantime you are ratcheting up the pressure and hit them in their weak points. North Korea is weak when it comes to foreign aid while Iran has a barely functioning economy. If you hit them there their regime will eventually fall. 200% inflation and gas lines will beat fleets of bombers in this case.

The GOP needs to keep in mind that the US has far more resources then anyone and all they lack is the patience to slowly but surely ratchet up the pressure. Iran will become Democratic as soon as the Mullahs die and North Korea probably won't survive many years past that doof, Kim Jong Un if the US applies any kind of economic pressure.

The Folly of Public Sector Stimulus

Well it seems that the media are finally understanding that the jobs "saved" will only be temporary.

That should have left them with no choice but to start firing public workers two years ago, when the bottom fell out of their tax revenues. (After all, the construction industry depends on the same source of revenue -- property values -- as do local governments, and residential-construction jobs are down 31 percent since 2000.) 

Instead, the 2009 stimulus law sent more than $220 billion to state and local governments -- without asking them to pare their workforces or workers' benefits. 

But now the stimulus cash is running out. So the state and local government jobs that it "saved" are starting to disappear, as governments around the nation do what their voters have been doing for three years now -- cutting back.

The states are finally finding out that they cannot sustain their workforce any longer without going further into debt. Now it looks like the Congress should have had some strings attached to that $220 billion to the states. If they cut their workforce by a certain amount then they would receive the money. 

 

Many states would have banked the cash in a rainy day fund but at least the cuts would have already happened in 2008 and the recovery would be underway. They could have also used this money for generous buyouts that would get these people off the payroll in 2009 and 2010. Instead we might get another wave of firing carried out by the states who cannot afford to keep paying for these "saved" jobs going forward. I guess the 10% unemployment is here to stay.

Largest Obamacare Exemption Went to the Teachers Union

Now this has to be a new record in the fastest bit of patronage doled out in a long time.

But the biggest beneficiary of the Obama administration's exemption is the United Federation of Teachers, New York's teachers union, reports the New York Post. The union, which campaigned for Obama in 2008, said it would have trouble insuring its 351,000 members next year if it had to set its benefit cap at $750,000 or more.

"The fact that the largest waiver now belongs to New York teachers union bosses might be funny if the rest of America wasn't stuck complying with the bill's onerous mandates," Patrick Semmens, spokesman for the anti-union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, told the paper.

This is the same New York Teachers Union that created the "rubber rooms" and cannot fire anyone no matter what they did. Even though they closed the "rubber rooms" this year they would probably still be going without scrutiny/recession cut-backs. In any case Obama takes care of his friends even when he is supposed to be helping everyone with Obamacare. In other words Obamacare for Thee but Not for Me.

Parents Sue Mentor High School Over Suicide due to Bullying

I hope they win a multi-million dollar judgment against the school board.

If there has been soul-searching among the bullies in Mentor — a pleasant beachfront community that was voted one of the "100 Best Places to Live" by CNN and Money magazine this year — Sladjana's family saw too little of it at her wake in October 2008.

Suzana Vidovic found her sister's body hanging over the front lawn. The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket -- and laughed.

"They were laughing at the way she looked," Suzana says, crying. "Even though she died."

Yup they actually laughed at her corpse. Now there is a special place in hell for these kinds of people and I think the universe will get even with them in the end. In the meantime I hope the school gets hit for millions so that there will be a bullying precedent set. I think teachers would crack down harder if they know that they can be sued if they let it happen and don't do anything about it.

Jones Out and Former Fannie Mae VP In at National Security Advisor

It seems more Obama cabinet members are leaving while it is still politically expedient.

In another White House shake up, President Barack Obama on Friday announced that his national security adviser, Gen. James Jones, was stepping down after helping to shape the foreign policy for nearly two years. Tom Donilon, Jones' deputy, will take over as the top security adviser.

Obama hailed Jones, a lifelong military man before his White House post, as a "dedicated public servant and a friend to me." The president turned over the job to Donilon, a workhorse figure in the White House who brings to the job a long background of Democratic politics and diplomacy.

Donilon is also Bidens guy and seems like more of a diplomat then a national security wonk like Jones was. The bad part is he has ties to Fannie Mae.

The unpaid adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, held several senior positions at Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2005, including vice president of law and policy, at a time when the company's officers and lobbyists were insisting that now-troubled Fannie's finances were sound. 

I hope he wasn't part of the group that tried to cook the books at Fannie so that they could overstate their earnings. That was 2004 after all and he was sitting at a desk at the Fannie Mae main office hopefully watching law and policy matters or whatever that VP title does. It does sound like a Fannie Mae lobbyist job but you never know.

White House Offers ObamaCare Waivers: Aren't they Supposed to be Anti-Corporation?

I guess those politically connected companies get first shot at avoiding some of this monstrosity.

At issue is a new requirement banning annual caps on benefits, which began phasing in last month. Many employers and insurers that offer low-cost, low-benefit insurance plans known as "mini-med" plans would not have been able to comply with the new requirement without raising monthly premiums to virtually unaffordable levels.

So the administration has granted 30 waivers to date exempting companies from the requirement for a year.

Waivers went to companies including Jack in the Box, Cigna and the company that insures some McDonald's workers, and another 114 applications for waivers are under review by the Health and Human Services Department. One waiver request has been denied, but HHS declined to identify which company was involved.

I would be willing to bet you that the company that was denied was Wal-Mart. Or maybe it was a company that gave too much to the GOP and thus were not eligible. Whatever the case this is exactly what people talk about when they say the politically connected get waivers while everyone else suffers. I'm pretty sure there won't be HHS waivers issued for any regular middle class Americans going forward.

The New Gap Logo: I don't hate it

Well, I might be one of the few people according to this but I don't hate their new logo at all.




It kind of looks futuristic and reminds me of the NASDAQ logo for some reason. You can have that shaded blue box be like a window or door to savings or fashion or something. Like have the commercial show the Gap logo and then you beam into the shaded blue square and you appear in a a refurbished Gap store and look at the $25 Khaki Shorts or something. If you use that box as part of the decor then it would be iconic after a while. In fact the logo looks clean like the stores should be.

Oh well, I guess I'm different then those brand gurus that have been slagging this thing.

Is The Failed Stimulus Benefiting the Undead or Merely the Dead?

Well at least 72,000 dead people were helped by the stimulus.

The payments, which were part of last year's massive economic recovery package, were meant to increase consumer spending to help stimulate the economy.

But about $18 million went to nearly 72,000 people who were dead, according to the report by the Social Security Administration's inspector general. The report estimates that a little more than half of those payments were returned.

I wonder if these went to specters, ghosts, zombies, or wraiths? My money is on ghosts because spending on shrouds is way down and there is nothing like a $250 to buy a new set.

Rush Limbaugh Calls Obama an Economic Jackass

I'm sure the thin-skinned Obama White House are going to hit back at Rush for saying this stuff.

"Extend the tax cut to everybody, and you'll inspire confidence," Limbaugh argued, saying that added degree of certainty would free business to spend some of the capital they’re holding onto and hire people, “which, once upon a time, we were told, was Obama’s top priority.”

For not getting this, "He's a jackass.  He's an economic illiterate.  He's an economic ignoramus.” 
“And that's being charitable,” Limbaugh said.

I have to agree with Rush here. Raising taxes during a recession is about the worst thing you can possibly to do. All it will do is extend the duration of the recession as the incentive to reinvest cash goes into avoiding higher taxes. Why would you hire more staff to get your business up to $300,000 a year in earnings when the government is going to take a bigger chunk out of your hard work? Instead you would figure a way to get out of paying that 5 - 10% extra in taxes.

Obama is an economic babe in the woods because he hasn't run any sort of business other then his campaign. The fact that he is even thinking about raising taxes during a recession should have tipped people off. I'm sure that is why his economic team left. They may have gotten tired of hearing "the rich should pay their fair share" and "sometimes you have to say you have made enough money" and other bits of economic wisdom from Obama.

Newt Brands Democrats as the Party of Foodstamps

Well I guess you could say that is a fair moniker for the Dems.

He blamed policies by a Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama's administration for pushing the number of people receiving food stamps to historic highs. U.S. Department of Agriculture Data show 41.8 million people were on government nutrition assistance programs in July, up from about 32 million when Obama took office.

Wow that is an 10 million increase in people on food stamps in a little less than 2 years? Now you have to say that the stimulus failed if you have to increase assistance by that much. The idea of the party of the paychecks vs. the party of the food stamps sounds like a pretty good idea. You can also add to the fact that there has been a record increase in poverty on Obama's watch as well.

Underscoring the depth of the recession, a projected 45 million people - or about 15% of the population - were poor last year. In 2008, 13.2% of the country lived in poverty.

The estimated 1.8 percentage-point increase in 2009 is the largest year-to-year uptick since the U.S. started calculating poverty figures in 1959. The previous high came during the 1980 national energy crisis, when the rate soared 1.3 percentage points to 13%.

Perhaps the Dems should be called the "Poverty Party" going forward.

When Plastic Pollution Meets Noise Pollution: Sun Chips Edition

When I read about this a while back I went to check the Sun Chips packaging and sure enough the thing was super loud even if all you did was lightly touch it. Now Frito-Lay is dumping the bags:

Frito-Lay hopes to quiet complaints about its noisy SunChips bags by switching out the biodegradable bags for the old packaging on most flavors.

The company is switching back to original packaging, which is made of a type of plastic, for five of the six varieties of the chips. It will keep the biodegradable bags for its sixth variety, its original plain flavor. That's its second best-selling, after Harvest Cheddar.

This is kind of case-in-point of where usability and "green" don't always match up technologically. The idea seems sound that the chip packages will eventually break down but the sacrifice of noisy bags was too much to bear. You can say this about quite a bit of the "green" economy that Obama keeps pushing.

For instance, it would be nice to have solar panels run all of our energy needs but it just can't compete with coal and oil right now. People will not be able to deal with brown outs or black outs while solar gets up to technological snuff so they stick with what they have now. The whole ideas of people making these sacrifices for the sake of a "green economy" is ludicrous when they can't even hack a noisy chip bag.

CNN Anchor Blasts Jon Stewart and is Fired

Wow the left are starting to go after one another already. It isn't going to be pretty in November.

Sanchez called out Comedy Central host Jon Stewart as a "bigot" for mocking him, and complained that Jews — like Stewart — don't face discrimination. He also suggested that CNN, and perhaps the media industry more broadly, is run by Jews and elitists who look down on Hispanics like himself.

Um most leftists look down on everybody not just Hispanics. They have always have this air of superiority about them that they lord over everyone that doesn't agree with them. The bitter clingers remark by Obama, the Red flyover states, Kerry talking about people believing in quick slogans because they are so dumb.

The Left has a long streak of talking down to people and telling them what is good for them that what they believe in and enjoy is wrong, stupid, or immoral. Jon Stewart is just one of the many who engage in that kind of condensation and anger on his show. I watch it just like how I imagine some liberals watch Bill O'Reilly. They watch until they cannot stomach any more and then change the channel. He is a funny guy so I cut him some slack for his insane far left beliefs.

Rahmbo Out Pete Rouse In

At least this Rouse guy doesn't seem to be the kind of guy that would accost a Congressmen in the shower-room.

Into the breech steps Rouse, an Obama senior adviser known around the White House as a problem-fixing, media-shy strategist and organizer. Rouse is expected to serve as interim chief for several months and may eventually get the permanent job, as the White House is in the midst of reviewing a broader shake-up.

I hope this Rouse guy gets his hands on the remote control so they can turn off Fox News in the Oval Office and concentrate on finding ways to create some jobs.

It Looks Like ObamaCare Won't let you keep your Insurance Plan or Doctor After All

Well, it looks like all the rhetoric about keeping your doctor and the insurance plan you like was strait up lies.

"There's nothing in the bill that says you have to change the health insurance you've got right now. If you were already getting health insurance on your job, then that doesn't change."

Yet hours before he uttered that line, the Boston Globe reported that Harvard Pilgrim Health Care was canceling its Medicare Advantage coverage specifically because of new regulations imposed by Obama's health care law.

The decision "was prompted by a freeze in federal reimbursements and a new requirement that insurers offering the kind of product sold by Harvard Pilgrim -- a Medicare Advantage private fee for service plan -- form a contracted network of doctors who agree to participate for a negotiated amount of money. Under current rules, patients can seek care from any doctor," the Globe reported.

I would be willing to bet that Harvard Pilgrim will not be the only insurance company that will drop or revise their plans as they get closer to the ObamaCare deadline. I can see vast swaths of people having to change their health insurance company or have to scramble for a new doctor going forward. I guess the change we were hoping for came in the form of what doctor and insurance you have.

The Youth Vote Lurches Back to the Right

The Dems must really be losing it when the Youth Vote is starting to turn sour.

A September Rock the Vote poll showed the Democratic advantage in party affiliation has been cut in half since 2008—down to 9 percent from 18. Democrats get 35 percent, Republicans 26 percent, and Independents 29 percent. (2008 Rock the Vote Numbers were 41 D, 23 R, 25 I).

What is interesting is that they are polling very similar on the 9/11 Mosque and the Arizona Immigration Law:

For instance, a majority of voters ages 18-29 side with the majority of the American people against the president on the Arizona immigration law and the Ground Zero Mosque. According to the Rock the Vote poll, they support the Arizona immigration law, 53-44.

On the issue of the Ground Zero Mosque, young people give another surprising answer, opposing it 52-41:

I never thought the Dems would be doing so badly to a group that was so energized for them just 2 years ago.

In a broader shift from 2008, and a foreboding one for Democrats, the federal deficit has crept into the issues most important to young people. It places third in the Rock the Vote poll--close behind concern about jobs and the economy and the cost of college--with 66 percent "very concerned" about it. In 2008, the deficit was 12th of 15 issues for young voters.

This is a left leaning polling group too. What is interesting is that the young are getting it about the deficits. If the Dems keep ramping up the spending that eventually there is no one left to service the debt other then the 18 - 29 year olds.

They will get the burden of repaying the Red Chinese so that Auto-Workers get their sweet pensions. They don't get to have a job because impending tax increases by the Dems are forcing businesses to hoard cash instead of hire young workers. They are now competing for the same job as someone with 20 years of experience who is part of Obama's 10% unemployed.

They get to foot the bill for the health care of seniors and their social security checks as well. Add this to the fact that they might see the mother of all economic implosions if some bright Dem thinks it would be a good idea to default on our debt. You think the Great Recession is bad you ain't see nothing yet. In fact these Rock the Voters might be the only generation in decades that will have it worse off than their parents.Thank Obama and the Dems for your plight kids.

World War One is Finally Over!

Well it was only 92 years, but all of the reparations money has finally been paid back by the "Lousy Hun."

On September 26, 2010 — 92 years after the WWI officially ended — Germany made her last payment of $94 million in reparations “to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles.”

Too bad we cannot get the rightful sum from the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungry. Those blighters had the unmitigated gall to have dissolved in the meantime. One thing you can say about the Germans is they repay their debts. 92 years of reparations paid in full. That's German banking for you.

Vegas Hotel Firing Death Ray at Guests?

Now this is an only-in-Vegas sort of thing.

Yes, guests at Vdara hotel in Las Vegas now have something else to worry about: being burned alive by the glare of the building's "death ray."

What the heck's a "death ray," you ask? Well, first off, it's not as deadly as it sounds, since no one has actually died from it -- at least not yet. But according to the U.K. Daily Mail, the powerful beams of Nevada sunlight reflecting off the glass hotel onto sections of the hotel's swimming pool area have burned some guests and have melted plastic bags.

It is due to the super-mirrored glass and the concave design of the building. The sunlight is concentrated on the swimming pool. The idea of the sun reflecting off of a building melting plastic bags is unreal. What I think the Vdara needs to do is put up some kind of solar array in the swimming pool area and reuse some of this energy. They could also set up solar cooking stoves so pool goers could enjoy "death-ray cooked meals" as well.