If you have been trying to make sense of Pres. Obama's mortgage proposal thing, you are not alone. I've been shifting through stuff trying to figure it out and here is what I've come up with.
Obama is promising $75 billion in incentives to coax lenders and mortgage holders to work with homeowners facing foreclosures. He also want to infuse another $200 billion for....(get this!) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. That's right, the agencies that got us into this mess! They are now completely government owned, and hold many of the nation's mortgages that are suffering from this subprime mess.
Almost one in 10 home mortgages are either delinquent or in foreclosure. The first to be helped will be those people whose homes are now worth less than the amount of their mortgage. Obama's plan is to help the approximately 4 million people at risk of losing their homes by offering incentives to lenders to modify their loan terms to make the payment more affordable. And lastly, the $200 billion infused into FannieMae and Freddie Mac will help jumpstart the housing market by buying more new mortgages.
$75 billion will be used to entice lenders to work with the homeowners. $1000 for every mortgage modified. There are a more incentives to get the payments down to 31% of the homeowner's gross monthly income.
The most troubling question to me, which was brought by Rep. Boehner and Rep. Cantor is this; Will mortgage providers be required to verify income and other eligibility standards before modifying the mortgages? This isn't even addressed in the proposal! Can you say "fraud waiting to happen?" Also, how can we be sure that those who get this help won't be in the same position a year from now?
How frustrating it must be for those of us who have always paid our mortgages and have never bought more house than we could afford or more houses than we could afford, to be essentially paying for those who did.
The responsible get punished and the irresponsible get awarded.
It's pure outright crazy.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Mortgage Mess
Be On Guard
Did you happen to catch Glenn Beck on Fox and Friends this morning? He had Gretchen literally under the table by the time he finished his doom and gloom speech. Beck sees worldwide turmoil and chaos in the next five years. Worse than the depression, he says.
Geeze.
Honestly I don't see it that bad, but we are in for some very hard times, no doubt. If I had advice for anyone, it would be pay off all your debts as fast as you can. Tighten your belt and let go of any extravagant spending. Cut up your credit cards except one for emergencies and save, save, save (maybe in your mattress...;-)
The thing that is scary to me is the world wide thing. There are bad things brewing outside our borders. Some bad things brewing are REALLY close to our borders.
No one seems to be reporting this much, but the other day protesters blocked bridges between Mexico and Texas. I can't remember that ever happening before. Mexico is practically at war with the drug cartels. Kidnappings and murders are common. Some people believe that the violence will soon spill over into our country. Yesterday we closed a bridge connecting Brownsville Texas with Matamoros, Mexico because of a gun battle and officials were afraid that the battle would spill into Texas.
I heard Sen. Dan Patrick from Texas on Fox News yesterday describing the extra manpower we have activated at the border as of yesterday, but I can't find one bit of news on it. Back in January The El Paso Times reported that Texas officials were working on a plan to respond to the "potential collapse of the Mexican government" and that thousands could flee in fear of their lives. I am assuming that was what Sen. Dan Patrick was speaking of was that plan being put into place. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, it's now too dangerous for Americans to travel across the Texas-Mexico border. But as you can see at the link, they are being hush hush about it.
I'm not as worried as I might be, being this close to the border, because we do have state officials who are not afraid to protect our border. Sen. Dan Patrick said on Fox News that even if the federal government fails to protect us, Texas is ready to do so.
Add to that Charles Krauthammer's piece on what is happening with Russian and Iran and I start feeling a bit like...Glenn Beck.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Blago/Burris soap opera continues...
This part of it is just coming out though.
Back in November when Burris was running for Governor he came out strongly against Mayor Daley's plan to expand O'Hare Airport. Burris said he could not support a plan that displaces O'Hare neighbors.
But Burris changed his mind while his appointment was in limbo with the Senate saying that people sometimes change their minds.
Now, what would make him change his mind?
Maybe the $20 billion for the O’Hare expansion which federal authorities are now investigating for alleged links between Blago and the contracts given to several construction companies working on the project that had raised funds for Blago – deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The investigation appears to be an outgrowth of the probe of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose fund-raiser Christopher G. Kelly was a top roofing contractor at O’Hare. Kelly worked at O’Hare when John Harris was a top city aviation official. Harris, who later became Blagojevich’s chief of staff, was arrested with Blagojevich on Dec. 9 on federal corruption charges.
Last week, Kelly and his BCI Commercial Roofing were charged with paying kickbacks to win work from United Airlines and American Airlines. On Wednesday, Kelly, 50, of Burr Ridge, and his company pleaded not guilty.
More about that here.
Blago was going to get his money one way or another.
The Freezing of Kindness
You may remember the story of the 93 yr old man who froze to death in his home in Michigan after the utility company shut off his heat for unpaid bills.
There were implications story of how heartless the electric company was.
A follow up story shows that the electric company sent 6 separate letters over a two year period to the gentleman. It has also been discovered that the elderly man tried twice to pay his bills at his bank, which couldn't accept them.
This isn't the electric company's fault. This isn't the elderly gentleman's fault. It is the fault of every single person that knew him, especially any family members. Even the ones who served him at the bank deserve some guilt thrown their way.
What the hell is wrong with us? Friends and family didn't notice it was freezing in his home and offer to help him??? Shame.
Let's just say for argument's sake that they either didn't know, or that he made some excuse for them. It wouldn't surprise me. For years I delivered meals on wheels for the elderly. It's heartbreaking how neglected an elderly person can be.
I would deliver meals to people who had family nearby who could have easily made lunches for their parents or grandparents, but just didn't want to take the time.
But you don't have to be a friend or relative to have helped this man. Did the bank tellers not see that this man was old and confused? Could they not have offered to help? Perhaps taken the bill, had him write the check there and found a stamp for him and mailed it themselves. Would that have been so hard?
The last time I was in Washington D.C. I was riding the metro and an elderly lady got on. She was looking a the map on the wall of the train and she was obviously distressed. I waited a moment for someone to ask her if she needed help since this was my first trip and I didn't know the metro at all. But it became clear no one was going to help her.
So I asked what was wrong. She was completely confused about what train she was on and where to get off. I found out what location she needed to get to and asked out loud to anyone if they knew how to get to that location. Someone told me. I explained to her that she needed to get off at a certain stop soon and that I would alert her to the stop at that time, but then she had to catch another a certain color train to her location. She seemed relieved, but was still uncertain, I could tell. So when the time came I got off with her and waited the few moments it takes for the right train she needed to come. Luckily she needed to get off on the first stop, so when she got on I told her to get off the very first time the doors opened. I told I would go with her if she wanted me to. She said no, and was so grateful for my help. She left and I got back on the next train. It took me all of 10-12 minutes to help her.
I'm not trying to toot my horn here, I'm just trying to figure out when we stopped caring for those venerable members of our society? Maybe people just figure the govt should take care of things, it's not their problem. Maybe it's a part of the culture of death. I don't know.
We are losing our way here my friends. Depending on the government more and more. We are only making it worse.
The government cannot and will not ever replace simple human kindness, but it can make us forget that that is how we are connected to one another.
When the shoe is on the other foot
Domain specific advanced search for Nazi Mr. Google if you please? What's that? 5090 hits you say? They've called everyone from the Pope, to Rick Warren, to Hannity and Bush a Nazi in headlines at "over-rated and increasingly rudderless" (according to Time) blog DailyKos.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Ominous
You guys know how much I respect and listen to Michael Yon. He had the courage to tell us when things were going bad in Iraq when no one on the right wanted to hear it, and he was the first to let us know the surge was working.
This bit in The WaPo has me a bit concerned about the additional troops going into Afghanistan:
U.S. military reporter and blogger Michael Yon says he believes the U.S. army is more capable of fighting in Afghanistan than any other in history. But one paragraph in his article stands out with its deep sense of misgiving:
“The sum of many factors leaves me with a bad feeling about all this. The Iraq war, even during the worst times, never seemed like such a bog. Yet there is something about our commitment in Afghanistan that feels wrong, as if a bear trap is hidden under the sand,” he says.
Michael has always had great instincts.
Color me worried.
"A Nation Of Cowards"
Our new Attorney General thinks we are "a nation of cowards."
Isn't that special?
Connecting With Our Senators!
You want to tell the Senate your ideas? You want to let them know how you feel about the stimulus bill or other issues that the Senate deals with?
You now have your chance. Here is The U.S. Senate of Youtube. A hub to watch, engage, and connect with your leaders.
It has an interactive map that helps you find your Senator's Youtube channel.
Sen. John Cornyn is up today asking you what you think about the stimulus package (yeah, try not to curse, ok?) So hit the link and get in touch with your thoughts and ideas!
The Pope Meets Pelosi
Pelosi put out this nauseating press release:
It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, today. In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church’s leadership in fighting poverty, hunger, and global warming, as well as the Holy Father’s dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel. I was proud to show His Holiness a photograph of my family’s papal visit in the 1950s, as well as a recent picture of our children and grandchildren.
She just forgot to mention the most important thing.....what the Pope said to her. It doesn't surprise me since he reminded her of her of the dignity of human life and our dedication to it as Catholics (which she has no clue about I might add):
Following the General Audience, the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage. His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists, and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of development.
I wonder how she took that since her entire career has been about creating a system of laws the DON'T protect human life.
Good for the Pope. I didn't expect any less from him.
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
-- Ayn Rand
(1905-1982) Author
Source: Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's "Money Speech"
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
"All New York Times Activities Now Obama-Related"
That is the title of this Gawker post. The following is the post. Keep in mind. I'm not writing this:
Attention, New York Times employees: Form an orderly line and prepare to walk up to 66th street to hear your colleagues discuss their quickie Obama book.
Oh! And we know what you should wear:
You are invited to a Book Signing and Discussion for
Obama: The Historic JourneyThursday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m.at Barnes & Noble at 66th Street(1972 Broadway - 212.595.6859)
The discussion will feature:
JILL ABRAMSON, Managing Editor
MICHAEL POWELL, Metro Reporter
DAMON WINTER, Photographer
JODI KANTOR, Washington Correspondent
Want to buy the book? Times employees are eligible for a 25% discount through The Times's Store.
Can you imagine if this was all for Pres. George W. Bush? That's all we're saying.
All I can say is that the Gawker is used to celebrity cult creepiness and this is getting to them too.
Finally have the podcast up
Here I am on Thursday on "The Christian Politician" radio show KCHNam in Houston. I'm about 53 minutes in.
The Good and the Bad
First I want to say "Hallelujah!" Former border agents, Ramos and Compean, were released from prison today. This is a great day of justice for them. They were wrongly convicted by our government and it's a great thing that Bush at least commuted their sentences.
They cannot speak to the press for 30 days for some reason, but I look forward to hearing from them. God bless them and their families.
The second thing is that I noticed this item out of California. It illustrates how when the people have spoken, there are still those who want the govt to overthrow the will of the people through the courts:
Urging legislators to stop wasting time and resources on non-binding resolutions concerning voter approved Proposition 8, Protect Marriage.com today urged legislative committees to shelve HR 5 and SR 7, resolutions stating that the Supreme Court should overturn Proposition 8 when it hears the matter next month.
“Proposition 8 was adopted with over a 600,000 vote margin, gaining approximately the same vote percentage as Barack Obama did nationally,” said Ron Prentice, Chairman of ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8, the campaign committee responsible for passage of the measure. “It passed in 42 out of California’s 58 counties, including the five largest counties in California. It is wrong for legislators to disrespect the vote of the people and attempt to substitute their values for the decision of over 7 million voters.”
HR 5 (Ammiano) and SR 7 (Leno) are authored by legislators who have long opposed Prop 8. Their views were well known and rejected by voters when 52.3% of the electorate approved Prop 8. These same legislators have also signed onto amicus briefs before the Court asking that Prop 8 be overturned. Now they are authoring meaningless nonbinding resolutions that take up the time of legislators and legislative staff who should be focused on appropriate legislative priorities such as solving the state deficit.
“Disrespecting the will of voters and wasting taxpayer resources on meaningless legislative resolutions are among the reasons that public approval of the Legislature has fallen to 15%, the lowest in history.” Prentice said. “We urge the Judiciary committees of the Assembly and Senate to shelve these inappropriate resolutions and return the Legislature’s attention to more appropriate work.”
Politico
Every political blogger I know hit the Politico website daily during the election. It just had good inside reporting.
The New Republic has a fascinating article of Politico's growth (it's actually making money) and future.
Reading through the article one thing struck me, and I wonder if the guys at Politico caught it.
Politico's first major scoop was detailing how Rudy Giuliani had billed the city to pay for personal travel to the Hamptons as he was having an affair with Judith Nathan. The story was picked up by the Times, the Post, and the three network evening newscasts.
Now, The New Republic says that Politico broke the story of Obama visiting Bill Ayer's home. Ben Stein's article didn't break the actual connection between Ayers and Obama though. And the article does more to justify the relationship than condemn it. Which is why Politico took no heat for it.
The next few big stories were about McCain not knowing how many homes he owned and that the RNC had spent more than $150, 000 on Sarah Palin's wardrobe.
Wonkette has this to say in the TNR story about Politico:
Wonkette called Politico a "vulgar asshole of a publication" and announced the blog would cease linking to the site. "We will stop linking to these particularly retarded, trollish articles Politico front-pages just to get a crappy two-minute panel slot on [Anderson Cooper] 360 later in the night."
But when Politico reported on Palin's wardrobe, Wonkette was all over it. The number of homes John McCain owned story? Wonkette loved it. The Rudy and Judith affair and expenses? Wonkette linked it.
The New York Time's editor Bill Keller also bashed Politico in the TNR piece, but the truth is that the NYT has cited Politico 200 times since Feb. 2007.
So what did Politico do to earn such wrath? Wonkette and The New York Times obviously loved them before. Why the change of heart?
Because Politico dared to question "The One."
On the evening of January 22, a few hours after his administration's debut news conference, Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the cramped quarters of the White House press corps. It was meant to be a friendly event, and Obama glad-handed his way through reporters and cameramen, exchanging light banter as he went.But Politico reporter Jonathan Martin wasn't there to chat. Martin pressed Obama about the president's decision to nominate William J. Lynn III, a former defense lobbyist, to deputy defense secretary and about Obama's pledge to curtail the influence of lobbyists. The exchange turned tense. "See, this is what happens. I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here," a visibly exasperated Obama said. Martin wouldn't relent. "I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself to you guys--that's all I was trying to do," the president added. Within an hour, Martin and Politico writer Carrie Budoff Brown reported the exchange on Politico's website: "OBAMA FLASHES IRRITATION IN PRESS ROOM," the headline read.
It will be interesting to see how Politico proceeds. They must realize how the mainstream media is so biased towards Pres. Obama that it cannot effectively report on this administration.
Will Politico take up the reigns and report the negative as well as the positive? Or will it give in, so that it can continue to be linked and and picked up by those such as the NYT, CNN, and the rest?
We shall see.
Just saying....
As a online newspaper, you might not want to make gun owners angry.
The Commercial Appeal in Memphis Tennessee, for some reason I still can't figure out, decided to post the names of those in Tennessee who have a permit to carry a gun.
It seems in the link above the paper is trying to backtrack and say they really are for the 2nd Amendment, but seeing that they were dishonest in that post, I have to wonder.
The paper's spokesman says that the database's search did not allow the display of the date of birth and street addresses of the gun owners. But a commenter points out that the search did indeed allow the display of both date of Birth and Street addresses for roughly 24 hrs before gun permit holders began to contact the paper. Then, and only then was the search and display options modified.
So, being that the paper is being disingenuous there, I don't really buy their excuses.
Read the comments. They are very enlightening.
Scientology is nuts
Scientologists Try to Explain how Psychiatrists caused 9/11 and the Holocaust from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.
via vimeo:
Obliterating Psychiatry is one of the major goals of the Church of Scientology – and replacing it with Scientology.
In this video, from the Scientology front group, "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" (CCHR), a high-level Scientologist claims that Osama bin Laden's "Number Two," Ayman al-Zawahiri, is a Psychiatrist and it is him who persuaded Osama Bin Laden to launch the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in 2002.
The Scientologist claims that before he met al-Zawahiri, Osama was a nice, regular guy, whose only ambition was to get the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. The Scientologist claims that al-Zawahiri manipulated Osama to start up al-Qaida and that he, and other psychiatrists, are to blame for 9/11 attacks and other suicide bombings.
One flaw in this argument – other than it is totally insane - is that al-Zawahiri is a surgeon. He is NOT a psychiatrist. The Church of Scientology simply fabricated that.
Read more at the vimeo site. It gets even more bizarre.
Monday, February 16, 2009
A Non Political look at Global Warming Finally
SANTA FE, N.M. - Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.
"I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York.
Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels.
"They’ve seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven’t gone along with the so-called political consensus that we’re in a human-caused global warming," Schmitt said.
This has always been the problem with the global warming debate. It became totally political (and monetary) instead of scientific and we couldn't believe a thing we read.
Al Gore and his "Inconvenient" nonsense only made it worse.
It's pathetic.
More:
Schmitt resigned after the group blamed global warming on human activity. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making."
Williams said Heartland is skeptical about the crisis that people are proclaiming in global warming.
"Not that the planet hasn’t warmed. We know it has or we’d all still be in the Ice Age," he said. "But it has not reached a crisis proportion and, even among us skeptics, there’s disagreement about how much man has been responsible for that warming."
So finally:
Schmitt said he’s heartened that the upcoming conference is made up of scientists who haven’t been manipulated by politics.
Of the global warming debate, he said: "It’s one of the few times you’ve seen a sizable portion of scientists who ought to be objective take a political position and it’s coloring their objectivity."
___
You guys remember Iraq, right?
Remember the daily updates from every news outlet here when violence in Iraq was at it's worse?
But no news lately, right? Charles Krauthammer has an update in Friday's WaPo:
Washington hardly noticed a near-miracle abroad. Iraq held provincial elections. There was no Election Day violence. Security was handled by Iraqi forces with little U.S. involvement. A fabulous bazaar of 14,400 candidates representing 400 parties participated, yielding results highly favorable to both Iraq and the United States.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had a slam dunk victory. Why is that important? Because his chief rival was a pro-Iranian nut job of the "religious police" variety. Other religious factions also lost. It's an amazing thing that our msm don't seem very interested in. They were MUCH more interested when death and destruction ruled the day. Their narrative of Iraq being a "quagmire" just didn't work out they way they planned.
Iraqis even celebrated St. Valentine's Day.
Indian Muslims recently burned Bin Laden in effigy. I'd call that a step in the right direction.
The winds of change are slowly blowing across the Middle East. Freedom. You can smell it in the air.
Nazis in full color!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Beheading of Journalism
But, when Muzzammil Hassan kills his wife and "the face of Muslim news" is unveiled rather more literally, detached from her corpse at his TV studios, it's all he can do to make the local press - page 26 of Newsday, plus The Buffalo News, and a very oddly angled piece in the usually gung-ho New York Post, "Buffalo Beheading: Money Woe Spurred Slay".
