Sep 01 2011
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This is an Open Thread
Sep 01 2011
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Well, well, this is getting juicy. The FDIC has filed a lawsuit objecting to the $8.5 billion bail out of the Bank of America:
The FDIC, the receiver for failed banks, owns securities covered by the settlement and said it doesn’t have enough information to evaluate the accord, according to a filing yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.
Under the agreement, Bank of America would pay $8.5 billion to resolve claims from investors in Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage bonds. The settlement was negotiated with a group of institutional investors, including BlackRock Inc. (BLK) and Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC, and would apply to investors outside that group.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), the trustee for the mortgage-securitization trusts covered by the agreement, has asked a New York state judge to approve the settlement in November. An investor group is trying to move the case to federal court, which Bank of New York opposes.
Investors that would be bound by the settlement, including American International Group Inc., have criticized the deal and Bank of New York’s role representing investors in the mortgage bonds. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden have sought to intervene in the case and asked the court to reject it.
The Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has further upped the ante:
The attorney general of Nevada is accusing Bank of America of repeatedly violating a broad loan modification agreement it struck with state officials in October 2008 and is seeking to rip up the deal so that the state can proceed with a suit against the bank over allegations of deceptive lending, marketing and loan servicing practices.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in United States District Court in Reno, Catherine Cortez Masto, the Nevada attorney general, asked a judge for permission to end Nevada’s participation in the settlement agreement. This would allow her to sue the bank over what the complaint says were dubious practices uncovered by her office in an investigation that began in 2009.
In her filing, Ms. Masto contends that Bank of America raised interest rates on troubled borrowers when modifying their loans even though the bank had promised in the settlement to lower them. The bank also failed to provide loan modifications to qualified homeowners as required under the deal, improperly proceeded with foreclosures even as borrowers’ modification requests were pending and failed to meet the settlement’s 60-day requirement on granting new loan terms, instead allowing months and in some cases more than a year to go by with no resolution, the filing says.
The complaint says such practices violated an agreement Bank of America reached in the fall of 2008 with several states and later, in 2009, with Nevada, to settle lawsuits that accused its Countrywide unit of predatory lending. As the credit crisis grew, the settlement was heralded as a victory by state offices eager to help keep troubled borrowers in their homes and reduce their costs. Bank of America set aside $8.4 billion in the deal and agreed to help 400,000 troubled borrowers with loan modifications and other financial relief, such as lowering interest rates on mortgages.
I’ll bet you this has Obama and the remaining AG’s panties in a twist, since, according to rumors they were looking to settle this by Labor Day.
Here’s the link to the FDIC’s brief:
Sep 01 2011
Tip o’ the Hat to Art Pronin @ Taylor Marsh who introduces it thusly-
PPP polls have been dead on accurate for several years now. And boy does their latest show trouble for Obama 2012. Their latest has 54 percent disapproving of the president. I sure wish the folks in the WH would read real polls sometime.
Obama keeps hitting record lows
Tom Jensen, Public Policy Polling
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
In our national polling for Daily Kos Barack Obama has hit a record low approval rating 3 weeks in a row now. He’s gone from 43/53 to 42/53 to now 42/54 in our poll this week.
What might be most noteworthy is this week’s poll is how bad Obama’s numbers are with a few key and usually dependable Democratic constituencies. He’s under water in union households at 44/47. He’s also under water with voters under 30 at 45/48. The Northeast tends to a pretty dependable region for Democrats but Obama’s under water there at 47/49. Obama’s usually been able to hold his ground with female voters but he’s under water with them too at 45/49. And even with African Americans his approval rating’s down to 76%, about as low as we’ve ever found it.
…
(L)ast week … Democratic enthusiasm was at a year long low. Now it’s at a lower year long low with only 47% of the party’s voters ‘very excited’ about voting this year compared to 58% of Republicans.
…
Obama trails a generic opponent 48-44 on our national poll this week, including 51-37 with independents.
Public Policy Polling August 25 – 28
For readers who are allergic to orange I’ve done the best I could. There are no comments at either link.
I’m sure those Independents and base voters are just champing at the bit to flock back to him after the spectacular cave on the timing of his clueless “Jobs” agenda speech, putting licking John Boehner’s boots before every Red Blooded ‘murkan’s love of the NFL.
You guys are so much smarter than all us serfs and peons.
“When people feel uncertain, they’d rather have somebody that’s strong and wrong than somebody who’s weak and right.” – Bill Clinton
Weak AND Wrong ain’t even in the game. I’m afraid Archangel M is correct- Obama Concedes Election More Than a Year Before It Happens.
Electoral victory my ass.
Sep 01 2011
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
On this day in 1897, the Boston subways opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America. It was the inspiration for this song by the Kingston Trio.
Sep 01 2011
Barry Obama has conceded the 2012 election for U.S. dictator more than a year before it even takes place. According to a story posted on Yahoo News, Obama has rescheduled a planned jobs speech in order to avoid upstaging a Republican dictatorial debate, forcing him to compete with the NFL for viewers.
Obama agreed to schedule his address on Sept. 8 after [John] Boehner balked at the president’s request for a Sept. 7 speech.
Obama’s address still gives him a grand stage to unveil his economic agenda, though it falls on the same evening as the opening game of the National Football League season. White House officials were working on the precise timing of the speech in hopes of avoiding a conflict.
The change will allow a planned Sept. 7 Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif., to proceed without Obama upstaging it.
If Obama won’t even fight for his right as the occupant of the Oval Office to decide when he will deliver a speech, instead allowing the opposition to determine the time, why should anyone waste time volunteering on his re-election campaign or voting for him? He obviously has no interest in winning, or he would be telling the GOP to stuff it. Oh, hey, Barry? I heard that Boehner will next object to your even being on the ballot at all next year. I guess this means you’ll drop out now so you don’t hurt the Republicans’ feelings. You’re gonna have to order Democrats not to bother running in any elections next year, too. After all, the GOP will probably object to them being on the ballot, too.
Never before have I seen a sitting occupant of the White House bend over to please the so-called opposition like this guy has. Even Bill Clinton, unless I have totally missed something or forgotten it completely, didn’t reschedule a speech just because the Republicans demanded it. And Bill Clinton loves to suck Republican cock – he always has and he always will.
Don’t bother bitching about third parties gaining votes Democrats think they’re entitled to next year. Obama is clearly going to throw in the towel no matter who else tries to run for the office of president.
Sep 01 2011
 Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| Originality is… a by-product of sincerity.
–Marianne Moore |
 Art Glass 41 |
Sep 01 2011
Those of you that read this regular series know that I am from Hackett, Arkansas, just a mile of so from the Oklahoma border, and just about 10 miles south of the Arkansas River. It was a redneck sort of place, and just zoom onto my previous posts to understand a bit about it.
Aunt Agnes was really my Great Aunt Agnes (my grandmum’s sister), born Agnes Roberts in the 1910s. She was the baby, although Ma outlived all of her siblings. Uncle Guy was a McBride, and a really nice fellow. I never heard anyone say anything bad about Uncle Guy.
They lived a few miles south of Hackett near James Fork creek, the only all weather running water nearby. They had a farm, and raised cattle and some truck.
