October 10, 2010 archive

Don’t worry, they have full control of the situation.  It’s okay if the paperwork is in order. Really.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

“It is a serious problem,” said David Axelrod, who contended that the flawed paperwork is hurting the nation’s housing market as well as lending institutions. But he added, “I’m not sure about a national moratorium because there are in fact valid foreclosures that probably should go forward”   because their documents are accurate.

Axelrod said the administration is pressing lenders to accelerate their reviews of foreclosures to determine which ones have flawed documentation.

“Our hope is this moves rapidly and that this gets unwound very, very quickly,” he said.

Gratiela Ristea is one of the founders of Prietenii Nostri, an animal rescue in Romania. Gratiela is a hero. Plain and simple. She does hard work with very little money and scarce resources.

Gratiela wrote about her experience with a dog she named Hope and she’s given me permission to publish this beautiful story. For me, it’s feels like a personal story, because before Hope, Gratiela saved Bobby, whom I first saw at the shelter in Romania via the video below. From the moment I saw her in that video, I knew Bobby was my dog… and indeed, she now lives with me and my husband in Leiden, The Netherlands. She is a great dog and incredibly cute, smart, and she finally believes that we are her pack, her family. It feels really really good to have her here.

Please, read the story of Hope. There are so many creatures who need help. Gratiela provides all of us with an opportunity to be able to do just that: HELP to make the world a little better. And please, if you are able, donate a few dollars. Just a few dollars can really make a difference for these animals, our fellow earthlings.

Breakthrough! Now for 33 very careful rescues

As they say all over Chile: ‘Fuerza mineros!’ – strength to the miners. Guy Adams reports from Camp Hope at San José mine

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Punching the air, as bells and car horns rang out over the San José mine, and grinning from ear to ear, Roxanna Gomez rose from the chair where she’d spent yet another nervous night waiting by the campfire and hugged her family in celebration of a moment they scarcely dared to believe had actually arrived.

Shortly after dawn, 66 days after a rockfall trapped her father, Mario, and 32 of his colleagues half a mile beneath the surface of a remote Chilean mine, a team of rescue workers rushed into the tent city they’ve been calling Camp Hope to announce that a drill had finally broken through to the cavern where the men are trapped.ped.

Serb anti-gay protesters attack political party offices

Serbian police have clashed with protesters trying to disrupt a Gay Pride parade in the capital, Belgrade.

The BBC  10 October 2010

Police used tear gas against the rioters, who threw petrol bombs and stones at armed officers and tried to break through a security cordon.

A garage attached to the headquarters of the ruling Democratic Party was briefly set on fire, and at least one shot was fired at the building.

Around 40 people were injured, including at least two police officers.

A number of people were arrested.

On October 7, OpenLeft ran a most charming piece by Mike Lux, Obama comes through on foreclosure issue: what’s next?

But then, that most delightful and rare of Washington moments happened: the system worked. Consumer advocates started raising hell on the blogs and in traditional media, the White House started looking more closely at the issue, and literally within a matter of hours, Obama announced that he was not going to sign the bill … As soon as the issue was raised, the White House team focused on it, and made the right decision quickly …

But I think it is fair to ask ourselves what happens next and how the progressive community should respond to it … The question now is how progressives respond if Obama does start to move in a more progressive direction … progressives should be ready to move to meet the President halfway and work with him in the areas where he does move our direction, and we shouldn’t always assume the worst. We should keep our healthy skepticism, push hard when we need to push, but be ready to engage when a door is opened to us to engage on.

In other words, the entire episode is a validation of the incrementalist, cooperative liberalism that has brought the progressive forces to the sorry state we are now in.  More tactically, it is a plea for us now to go full steam with the Democratic GOTV operation.