Silly Rabbit.

Macs are for Monkeys…

mikey

I sense the formation of a new wankosphere meme. Shockingly dishonest and plays to prejudice. What else is new?

Yup. It sounds logical to the right wing – it’s easily debunked with a bit of teh Googles – it’s generally a little lower pitched that the usual dog whistle, so it’ll get broader play. This sounds like it’s got the right wing written all over it.

These fuckers just declare a faith and start a religion.

I guess it’s a good sign they are twisting their heads up their asses with such gusto.

Always a sure indicator they know exactly who is to blame.

hey! you’re picking on them for simply repeating what the heard on the teevee! that’s not fair!

i watched the sunday chat shows today and the wise guys explained very carefully how this was all bill clinton’s fault and that the financial guys are just as surprised as the rest of us. really. the financial guys are just victims of circumstances put in place by bill clinton and robert rubin.

geez.

and just in case you missed the show, not only are the taxpayers not going to lose money on this bailout, we are going to make a profit when all the value is restored.

Everyday on AM radio I’m always hearing – even now – these ads for seminars, books and DVDs from “experts” who will teach you how to make a fortune flipping houses.

I would imagine the idiots who fall for this shit make up a large percentage of bad mortgage debts.

I plucked this little gem out of your link:

Radical Liberals are to Blame for the banking crisis we are in
15 hours ago by Gene Redlin
In case you really want to know, the cause of the banking, liquidity, Wall Street and AIG roots all in the administration of the worst President this nation has ever had. Jimmy Carter. Clinton continued the policies. …
Northern Gleaner – http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/

Being careful not to click any further, of course.

Everybody! It’s history’s greatest monster’s fault! Save us! Vote for the lying old dodderer and his dim, fundamentalist sidekick!

Along, of course, with the idiots who made the loans on the premise that home values would continue to go up forever…

mikey

So, I guess they’re basically demanding $700 billion in reparations from black people?

Now godammittohell, boy! Don’t you go tossing around them there facts thingees and all them there logicalisms and all. You’ll just confuse everybody something fierce and we’ll never get our Wall Street executive and rich folks support and rescue bill through congress.

From the link…

Radical Liberals are to Blame for the banking crisis we are in
15 hours ago by Gene Redlin
In case you really want to know, the cause of the banking, liquidity, Wall Street and AIG roots all in the administration of the worst President this nation has ever had. Jimmy Carter. Clinton continued the policies. …
Northern Gleaner – http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/

Since many, many people saw this coming six or seven Bush/republican years ago, blaming any democrat, let alone history’s greatest monster, seems a little juvenile.

FYSF?

Apologizing now for two similar comments that may or may not show up later, depending on the whims of WordPress.

I’m totally in favor of the bailout, but only if the 700 billion is delivered on pallets of cash to AIG’s front office.

I’ve already E-mailed my senators and my congress-thing (Issa) and plan to call all three tomorrow in an effort to stop Congress from giving the proverbial ‘blank check’ to the criminals than ran our economy off the road. We are watching the fall of our nation and too many don’t see it or don’t care. Stop the theft! DO SOMETHING, please. I’m so beyond pissed-off.

HAND OVER THE $700 BILLION IN UNMARKED BILLS, AMERICA, AND BETTER NONE OF YOU GET ANY IDEAS ABOUT TRYING TO FOLLOW US, OR THE ECONOMY GETS IT

congress-thing (Issa)

Heh. Good luck getting anywhere with him. No offense, but the guy’s a giant douche.

It’s been interesting to watch this new talking point brew. I didn’t believe the wingnuts could pin this on Snowball … er … the liberals, but they did. I had too little faith in their nuttiness.

I also appreciate in an artistic sense how the talking point makes government the problem again, deflecting away the need for regulation.

Of course, I don’t think this will go over very well with the folks who’ve lost their houses. They know very well who sold them the teaser-rate mortgage.

And speaking of: (swearing omitted) Teaser rates on mortgages? The only way a bank could offer such a thing with a straight face is if they were planning on selling that debt to someone else. I mean, no one wins in foreclosure, so it’s not really in the bank’s interest to make a loan that can’t be paid. So why disguise the real monthly payments? Oh, cause some other sucker is going to end up with the debt packaged in some fancy unregulated instrument.

Black people took our money so give us $700 billion please KTHXBAI

Remember folks. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2006 that 61% of all borrowers receiving subprime loans had credit scores high enough to qualify for prime conventional loans.
Mortgage Lenders gave Mortgage Brokers kickbacks for luring people into subprime loans when they qualified for prime conventional loans. The Mortgage Industry screwed the American Public.

That was the problem.

Please stop talking and stuff and give us the money we really really need it okay we want the money please give it to us give it to us gives us the money it’s like real important to us we promise we’ll do good stuff with it we promise we promise c’mon give us the money we really need it bad it’s only $700 billion and we promise we’re just borrowing it you’ll get it all back please c’mon c’mon c’mon give us the money please please please maybe it got took from us by black people I don’t know something just please give us the money…

European mortgage backed securities are just as distressed as American vintage MBSs. I assume conservatives have dealt with how the CRA explains this fact as well.

Yeah, but you’re relying on studies and data and shit. A good wingnut uses his gut and his heart to know deep in his soul that it’s all Pelosi’s fault.

Here’s how it goes:

1) People who can’t pay back their loans = poor people
2) Poor people = colored people
3) Nice republicans lose money lending to poor people = teh liberalz made them do it!

Eckanomix for lizard brains.

I thought I lost my car keys but I’m now pretty sure the liberals made me give them to a black man.

But the fact is, President Bush in 2003 tried desperately to stop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from metastasizing into the problem they have since become.

By TERRY JONES
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Real Gary is revealed at last!

Bush tried to act. Who stopped him? Congress, especially Democrats with their deep financial and patronage ties to the two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie and Freddie.

Damn. Such a shame that the lieberals controlled both the House and Senate back in 2003.

To hear today’s Democrats, you’d think all this started in the last couple years. But the crisis began much earlier. The Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas.

Got that, folks? Remember President Ronald Reagan, the preznit whose face the wingnuts planned to carve into Mount Rushmore? How about twelve years of the Bushies?

But nothing could stop the power of Liberalism.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not the cause of these problems. That was the December 2000 deregulation by Phil Gramm called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act.

The Republicans have their marching orders — and that is to blame Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and mortgage lending to colored folk.

Wow. Is there anything in their worldview they can’t blame on minorities?

This may be a bit off the deep end, but anyone else notice that CRA is not only the acronym for the Community Reinvestment Act, but also the Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal for whites to refuse to sell or rent to blacks.

No doubt they blame that too.

Is there any chance they are not blaming just the CRA, but the CRA (wink wink, you know which CRA we really mean).

Don’t overdo the outrage, folks — we’re going to need deep reserves of outrage for whatever the hell happens over the next six weeks. Even for the well-conditioned poster, I recommend only modest doses of Faux News on a daily basis, but warm up carefully with some New York Times, then a carefully modulated dip into the Washington Post, and a few sprints through the networks. When you get to the main session, always stop before you reach the point of collapse. Add to the regimen small amounts each day until your outrage systems are fully tuned.

Because it’s going to be a marathon …

and just in case you missed the show, not only are the taxpayers not going to lose money on this bailout, we are going to make a profit when all the value is restored.

The Iraqi oil will pay for it all. And we’ll be out of there in “six days, six weeks, I doubt six months.”

HAND OVER THE $700 BILLION IN UNMARKED BILLS, AMERICA, AND BETTER NONE OF YOU GET ANY IDEAS ABOUT TRYING TO FOLLOW US, OR THE ECONOMY GETS IT

Sadly, yeah. That’s about it. The whole “no courts can even look at what we are going to do with the money that we can appoint our horse-lawyer buddies to spread around to our other buddies” thing kinda pisses me off.

Oh, you owe me a $700 billion new keyboard for that.

Michael G,

That’s exactly the problem. What happens when you remove any accountability for collecting from people making loans? Hmm, oh yeah. The Free Market will make sure that they act in the best long term interests of the economy, right?

Fucking dine-n-dash Republicans.

The Mortgage Industry screwed the American Public.
The Mortgage Industry screwed the American Public.
The Mortgage Industry screwed the American Public.
The Mortgage Industry screwed the American Public.

Repeat as necessary.

The bailout is just wiping it on the curtains.

And what is this bullshit about the CRA? Are they running Zombie George fucking Wallace this year and I just haven’t noticed? Who, exactly, are they worried about being “out-niggered” by?

This is where The Great Dumbing™ that they have worked so long and so assiduously to install in our political discourse will work against them. In crisis times, people aren’t interested in a lot of details and alphabet soup hooey. They’re generally pissed off and aggrieved, and they want it all boiled down nice and simple. Obama’s on the right track with this so far–his latest theme is “No blank checks for Wall St. CEOs”.

Sorry, rightwing blogosphere. You’ve long since discredited wonky, detail-filled explanations and thoughtful, nuanced policy proposals. Mission accomplished. Now Obama gets to be a simple populist. Sucks to be you right now, don’t it?

Talking points for tomorrow:

Paulsen and congressional Republicans, or the few that will actually vote for this (most will be unwilling to take responsibility for the consequences of their policies), have said that there can’t be any “add ons,” or addition provisions. Fuck that. I don’t really want to trigger a world wide depression (that’s not hyperbole, that’s a distinct possibility), but I’m not voting for a blank check for $700 billion for those mother fuckers.
Nancy said she wanted to include the second “stimulus” package that the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans have blocked. I don’t want to trade a $700 billion dollar giveaway to the most unsympathetic human beings on the planet for a few fucking bridges. I want reforms of the industry, and I want it to be as punitive as possible.

Henry Waxman has suggested corporate government reforms, including CEO compensation, as the price for this. Some members have publicly suggested allowing modification of mortgages in bankruptcy, and the House Judiciary Committee staff is also very interested in that. That’s a real possibility.

We may strip out all the gives to industry in the predatory mortgage lending bill that the House passed last November, which hasn’t budged in the Senate, and include that in the bill. There are other ideas on the table but they are going to be tough to work out before next week.

I also find myself drawn to provisions that would serve no useful purpose except to insult the industry, like requiring the CEOs, CFOs and the chair of the board of any entity that sells mortgage related securities to the Treasury Department to certify that they have completed an approved course in credit counseling. That is now required of consumers filing bankruptcy to make sure they feel properly humiliated for being head over heels in debt, although most lost control of their finances because of a serious illness in the family. That would just be petty and childish, and completely in character for me.

I’m open to other ideas, and I am looking for volunteers who want to hold the sons of bitches so I can beat the crap out of them.

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8374

Dear fReichtards,
Congratulations, you have discovered that it is the Democrats and the brown people’s fault (again). Now the question is what the fuck are you going to do about it, O rotund and pasty ones? I guess you’ll start crossing the street really quickly when you see me coming. Oo. Ow. That’ll show me.

On a more serious note, as history has shown, there is a portion of society that thinks that beating the shit out of people who are “different” will compensate for the fact that they can’t get a job and have been living on Ramen for months. Please plan accordingly. If you go in for non-lethal protection, make sure it is legal in your county. You do not the cops to have an excuse to haul your ass into jail.

My question is, what’s to stop Cheney from having a massive bonfire?
Cheney must preserve records of time in office, U.S. judge rules

A U.S. federal judge on Saturday ordered Vice-President Dick Cheney to preserve a wide range of records from his time in office.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is a setback for the Bush administration, which has been pushing for a narrow definition of materials that must be safeguarded under the Presidential Records Act.

A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is suing Cheney and the Executive Office of the President in an effort to ensure that no presidential records are destroyed or handled in a way that makes them unavailable to the public.

The judge said the administration’s legal position “heightens the court’s concern” that some records may not be preserved.

OK, so let me see if I have this straight:

It’s all Freddie and Fannie’s fault.

It’s not the fault of the people who bought into “upside-down” mortgages.
Nor is it the fault of the banks who sold those mortgages down the line.
Nor is it the fault of the entities who BOUGHT those mortgages.
Nor is it the fault of the entities who repackaged those mortgages and sold them on.
Nor is it the fault of the rating agencies who gave high ratings to some of these repackaged mortgages.

No, none of those people had anything to do with anything. It’s all the fault of Freddie and Fannie, who somehow blew our economy up all by themselves.

Normally I enjoy it when Republicans show that they don’t really believe in the free market, but this time it’s rather pissing me off.

That said, things are so bad that Newt Gingrich is going through intermittent periods of sanity. This happens from time to time, and it never bodes well for the state of the country as a whole. Here are a few key quotations:

If this were a Democratic administration the Republicans in the House and Senate would be demanding answers and would be organizing for a “no” vote….But because this gigantic power shift to Washington and this avalanche of taxpayer money is being proposed by a Republican administration, the normal conservative voices have been silent or confused.

It’s time to end the silence and clear up the confusion.

Congress has an obligation to protect the taxpayer.

Congress has an obligation to limit the executive branch to the rule of law.

Congress has an obligation to perform oversight….

…If Washington wants our money, then it owes us some answers.

The GOP=Gross Offal Psychopaths. Right?

They’ve already had the bonfire.

Actually the shredding party in Addington’s suite.

The problem with enabling thugs for years is they learn they do not have to take seriously anything you tell them.

There’s a reason your mom told you to fight back against bullies. And it’s not ’cause she wanted you to fight, or hurt somebody, or get hurt yourself.

It’s because she understood that until you draw a real line, until you actually stand on your ground and say “enough”, until the bully actually BELIEVES that you’ll move on him and make him live within your boundaries, until he pays real consequences he’ll never stop.

Cheney has paid no consequences. Time and again they wrote him letters, they issued subpoenas, they held hearings. At first, cheney’s office needed to back up and see what would happen. And nothing ever did.

Now? Today? They KNOW there’s no consequences. After the telecoms were immunized from prosecution, after scooter libby, after chalabi and rumsfeld and fleisher, they just smile and go right on about their business.

The place has gotten so full of chickens come home to roost that there’s really no way to get the goddam figurative poultry back out of here…

mikey

OT: I received a group email from a long-time friend in which she asks not to receive any more political emails from anyone, for or against any candidate. The email was nicely worded, and I don’t blame her for this; it’s maddening to have one’s inbox cluttered up with a ton of forwarded crap.

But what bothered me to the point of thinking about simply shining her on and writing her off from this day forward is this: She signed it “Her Name Here – Still Undecided.”

It’s like my mind just snapped. I’m not sure that I can be friends with or that I even want to fucking know someone who could still be un-fucking-decided at this point in the festivities.

I can’t wait for this election to be over. It’s really starting to stress me out. It doesn’t help that this political season is not the only hugely stressful thing going on in my life right now, but the frigging election in and of itself is about to give me a breakdown . . .

Shorter new GOP talking points: The negroes and negro-loving Democrats have caused this massive financial crisis!

What BULLshit.

It’s not even that the Dems “forced” banks to loan mortage money to underqualified buyers. It’s that the Dems forced the banks to quit red-lining entire city districts and neighborhoods for wholesale exclusion from mortgage loans. That the lenders subsequently turned around and made unsound decisions, and then bundled those up and sold them off as securitized invesments to big financial groups is a root problem — NOT that the lenders were forced to stop discriminating based on zip code.

I think there are a few other tricks, such as rollover loans and mortgages and business lines of credit that kept getting extended for the Big Guys, that are more to blame than the fact that mortgage money got shaken loose for those who had prior to this time been historically turned down because they were minorities and/or the poor working class.

So, in conclusion, to translate into wingnuttese: Non-discrimination = collapse of the nation’s economy. Got it.

If a judge has to issue an order to the VP to preserve records it goes without saying that he’s certain records are at risk of not being preserved. The judge is doing nothing to protect the hens from the fox. All he’s done is wag his finger. If he meant business he’d be ordering a security force in to guard the file cabinets.

And another thing: When Rethug jerkbags blame Clinton and even poor Jimmah Carter for this disaster, we should simply ask: So, what did Chimpy McShithead & Co. do over the last eight years to try to change it? And somehow — I don’t know about this stuff, but still — wouldn’t the TRILLION-DOLLAR WARS we’ve been waging practically since Day One of the 2000 coup d’état have something to do with the fucked-up financial mess we’re in now? How could it not? They can’t blame the Clenis for that one, although of course they strain mightily to try.

Literally the ONLY thing I’ve read today that made me feel better:

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8374

mikey

All of that, MzNicky, plus
-George Bush recommended privatizing social security when he damn well knew what economists were saying about subprime. No excuses, he knew.
-And “10 seconds ago” McCain documented his support for privatizing social security, knowing the shit was about to hit the fan. (And if he claims he didn’t know he’s either lying or he has Alzheimers.)

Jimmy Carter. Clinton continued the policies. …

Damn! and no matter how hard they tried, for 12 years Reagan and Bush could not defeat the evil economic policies of Jimmy Carter!

re: Cheney,

The shit’s already out of that horse.

All of that MzNicky, and further plus:

This debacle has nothing to do with poor people defaulting on their loans.

Never make the mistake of accepting even one little bit of a reichtard argument.

Each and every word out of their faces is a lie.

for 12 years Reagan and Bush could not defeat the evil economic policies of Jimmy Carter!

for 12 28 years Reagan and Bush and Clinton and Bush could not defeat the evil economic policies of Jimmy Carter!

updated

So,let’s say Congress caves to this madness. Then what?

We live in a consumer economy,right? So how in the hell does destroying the consumer make anyone better off? I mean if the rich robber baron class has ALL the money,and it’s worthless paper,how in the hell do they win anything?

I really wish this crap wasn’t so complicated and insanely structured because I can’t wrap my head around much of it. It makes me feel stupid even asking questions about it. (which is probably why it’s such a clusterfuck in the first place,on purpose)

I was reading a 1932 New Yorker issue where there was an item about a speech given by an “economist” to a group of Republicans which blamed the entire Depression on….the Wilson administration. It garnered nods and applause.

They really never change, do they?

CRA loans constituted only 23% of all loans and 9.2% of high-cost loans.
CRA loans were twice as likely to be retained in the originating bank’s portfolio than loans made by other institutions.
CRA loans were less likely to be foreclosed upon than other loans.

Not only that, but the tidal wave of foreclosures didn’t start coming in until about a year ago, and if you google “average age of foreclosed mortgages”, you’ll get links to stories from every part of the country with amazingly similar results: most foreclosed loans were only 2 – 3 years old. Which means, the loans were made during the time period when Republicans controlled both Congress and the White House, and did nothing to address the problem. The reason being, of course, that playing fast and loose with mortgage lending was the only thing keeping the housing sector moving…and the housing sector was the only thing keeping the entire economy out of recession.

Add to that the fact that “liar loans” are pure and simple a product of the current decade and never previously have lenders pushed borrowers into ARMs when fixed rates on mortgages were at or near 50 year lows.

This didn’t happen by accident; it happened by design.

Think of it this way, anangryoldbroad.

The rethuglicans have read the tea leaves, and know they’re on their way out this November.

So they stealing the plumbing fixtures and any thing else of value in the house, before they torch it.

It’s just like a mob bust-out.

for 12 years Reagan and Bush could not defeat the evil economic policies of Jimmy Carter!

for 12 28 years Reagan and Bush and Clinton and Bush could not defeat the evil economic policies of Jimmy Carter!

updated

Oh, after those first 12 years G.H.W. Bush had nearly done it, but then Clinton worked his Liberal Fascism magic on the economy and immediately undid everything with a waggle of the Clenis, because the Clenis is magic like that.

But… but…. black people and anchor babies!!

“It’s like my mind just snapped. I’m not sure that I can be friends with or that I even want to fucking know someone who could still be un-fucking-decided at this point in the festivities.”

It’s a mind trick to make yourself feel important. We’ve been hearing for a decade or more that “undecided” decide the elections. “Oh, I’m impartial and moderate. I’m not like those crazy people who actually believe in anything. I’m just SO INDEPENDENT! Yay for me!”

To me, ‘undecided’ is the exact same as ‘libertarian’; shorthand for “I have no fucking clue what’s going on, or how anything works, but I feel that I’m a highly important person and everyone should listen to what I have to say about stuff.”

The only upside of the mortgage crisis for me is that ShittiBank no longer annoys me with offers to convert my 6% fixed-rate mortgage into an ARM, home-equity loan pitches, offers of “mortgage insurance,” etc. They’re probably too busy lobbying the government.

OT,sort of ,but is anyone else having trouble finding gas? I live in Metro Atlanta,and there is literally NONE to be found at any station in at least a 10 mile radius of my house. The husband almost ran out of gas looking for a station that had any and came home with nearly an empty tank.

What Some Guy said.

Although, now that Barry X has attained the magical 50 percent in the most recent polls, if he can sustain or improve that, the undecideds can all go fuck themselves.

Seriously. “Undecided” at this point? What the fuck else do you need to know?

Where this may lead:

Republican: Let’s stir up economic resentment toward poor people!
Democrat: Okay! Should we start with the welfare leeches in Appalachia or Alaska first? Let’s start with Alaska.
Republican: Racist!

angryoldbroad, apparently the pipelines were shut down and the gas distribution with the tanker trucks isn’t up to speed yet. I am lucky in that there seems to be plenty in the Tucker/Norcross/Lilburn area.

——

Seriously. “Undecided” at this point? What the fuck else do you need to know?

I know, right? Christ.

Should have said that it seems to be an Atlanta-specific problem.

[Cue opening music from American Beauty]

My name – is Gary Ruppert. I’m 42 years old, and this is my basement. This is my computer chair. In just a year, I’ll be kicked out of my mom’s house. Of course, I don’t know that yet. And, in a way, I’ve been kicked out already.

Look at me. Jerking off in front of the computer. THIS, will be the high point of my day. It’s all down hill from here.

bwahaha, John McCain owns 13 cars and Obama owns 1.

Having calmed down and read a bit here and there I now understand that this isn’t the fault of the American people. There may be some blame, a tiny bit, but we’re not directly responsible.

I blame abject horror and the very real prospect that I could end up back on the street. Terror has a negative effect on one’s ability to think.

I’m open to other ideas, and I am looking for volunteers who want to hold the sons of bitches so I can beat the crap out of them.

ME! ME! ME!
As long as I get a few licks in. Should I bring my own bat?

If the American people had committed the crimes, the FBI would be investigating them. It’s investigating the finance industry. This is all anybody needs to know.

P.S. Nobody forced the finance industry to accept a mortgage application!!!!

Wingnut solution to financial crisis: Sharecropping.

Lesley said,

September 22, 2008 at 0:04

P.S. Nobody forced the finance industry to accept a mortgage application!!!!

=============================================

I’ve tried making that analogy, myself. Imagine a grocery store that sold groceries for half price.

Everybody goes shopping there, and eventually the store goes bankrupt.

God-damned shoppers! They shoulda paid the grocery more money!

Terror has a negative effect on one’s ability to think.

The very basis for the past seven years of Republican cockslapping.

I can just see the meetings…

“But, Sir, if the people figure this out, we’re screwed!”

“Don’t worry about it. Just whip up some more fear of the darkies and ay-rabs and we’ll be set. Tell ’em the buggers’ll take their jobs, screw their daughters and bomb their churches, and they’ll be way too busy to worry about what we’re doing. After all, we’re white.”

——————-

I’ll help hold if can get a few shots in with the breaker bar I’ve got sitting around.

This is just another in a long line of Repug protection rackets.

Either pass the war-funding bill exactly as George Bush wants it, or our troops in Iraq won’t be getting any food or ammo! Heh heh heh…

I suggest you vote Republican this election, if you don’t want to see another horrible terrorist attack! Heh heh heh…

You’d better hand over a trillion dollars to the financial indeustry, unless you like the idea of selling pencils from a tin cup! Heh heh heh…

I think at this point we can just call it “Crapsharing”.

I e-mailed my Congressthings. But unfortunately, I live in Texas, so all three of them have been fucking wallowing in the Kool-Ade. They’ll all vote for whatever the Always Wise and Wonderful George W. Bush wants.

I had to edit mine so many times. It tore my heart out to remove the warning about “You better hope Paulsen has enough security to protect your ass when 80% of the Pissed-Off Country shows up at your door with torches and pitchforks” but I figured it’d just be misinterpreted…

Let me get this straight: CRA laws forced banks to stop discriminating against whole neighborhoods based on race and REFUSE to offer home loans. In other words, the CRA laws forced lenders to look at borrowers on an individual basis (so unAmerican!). Eventually, the financial industry figured out that they could discriminate against whole neighborhoods by OFFERING insane loan structures when 2/3 of the borrowers qualified for traditional, safe loans when looked at as individuals. So what the reichtards want us to believe is that this all could have been avoided if the financial industry still had the right to discriminate against individuals on the basis of what neighborhood they live in or their melanin count?

Loneoak, this is an entirely made up line of reasoning designed, once again, to attempt to deflect any rational thought.

this is an entirely made up line of reasoning designed, once again, to attempt to deflect any rational thought.

Yeah, I’m not naive about that. Sometimes it’s good to attempt to make a straight line out of their reasoning just to see how fucking crooked it is.

Isn’t that guy a little too good-looking to be a 101st Keyboarder?

You gotta give it to ’em, they really do coalesce around their messages quick.

It’s long, but it explains a lot:

Stirling Newberry sums it up.

re: Cheney,

The shit’s already out of that horse.

I think they’re going to need a bigger truck.

Know what I miss? The West Wing. Know who I hate to read? Maureen Dowd. So today turned out to be pretty cool for me, given that Aaron Sorkin wrote MoDo’s column today. It is to smile. OT? Why, yes. Yes, it is.

Obama’s response looks good. Scroll down to the bottom of WereBear’s Newberry link for the point-by-point.

——————-

“Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain, said the Democratic candidate had failed to outline specific proposals to address the calamity on Wall Street that has caused ripples throughout the financial markets around the world.

Barack Obama called for decisive action, while offering absolutely no new ideas, policies or concrete solutions,” Mr. Bounds said in a statement. He added, “John McCain rejected complacency and political calculation in favor of a direct call for updated, effective regulations that will protect Americans’ homes, savings and jobs.”

Shorter Tucker Bounds: Despite early reports, Barack Obama is not a magic Negro and cannot personally fix the global financial system.

This just in: The rich are unhappy!

“It’s going to be very hard psychologically for these people,” Frank said. “I talked to one guy who had to give up his private jet recently. And he said of all the trials in his life, giving that up was the hardest thing he’s ever done.” The Fall of the Gilded Age, 9/19/08

So we should just quit whining about our retirement going down the tubes and selling our children for scientific experiments. Some people have to give up their private jet!

Did he sell it on Ebay?

Candy, your friend may not actually *be* undecided, but may feel that’s the best way to keep one side or the other from trying to persuade her against the decision she’s made.

There’s someone I haven’t spoken to since election night 04, because of a combination of aggravating traits including a Bush-like debating style (a refusal to admit he’s said what he just said, a tendency to swear you’ve said something you haven’t, and a bloody-minded blind repetition of each), a complete inability to distinguish fact from opinion, and a “they’re all equally bad” attitude, among other really fucking annoying habits. So I understand the temptation to write someone off. But “undecided” might just be a polite way to say “None of your business, leave me alone”.

he said of all the trials in his life, giving [his private jet] up was the hardest thing he’s ever done.

Okay, NOW it’s pitchforks and torches time. Anyone who’s had a life that easy and privileged needs to find out what a real trial is.

D. Sidhe and Candy: Hells bells, there are people I haven’t spoken to since they voted for Nixon against McGovern! Yes, I do enjoy nursing a grudge.

Hey, I know this is silly and all, but can someone remind the Congressional Democrats of the House and Senate that they are, in fact, in charge of Congress and are not some adjunct committee of the Secretary of the Treasury?

I swear I almost remember that there was this Constitution or something that allowed them to actually generate their own legislation, instead of just having to play around with the rotting cast-offs of various administration departments.

Why, that nice Mr Out-of-Bounds:

Barack Obama called for decisive action, while offering absolutely no new ideas, policies or concrete solutions,” Mr. Bounds said in a statement.

Half-true, if you insist, since Obama’s proposals are not exactly new since he’s been pushing them since at least March (in his speech to Wall Street) and arguably for two years; on balance, however, LIE

He added, “John McCain rejected complacency and political calculation in favor of a direct call for updated, effective regulations that will protect Americans’ homes, savings and jobs.”

I count eight lies in that sentence. But I can fix it with less:

John McCain rejected embraced complacency and political calculation in favor of with a direct call for updated, effective ineffective regulations that will protect put at risk Americans’ homes, savings and jobs.

The rethuglicans have read the tea leaves, and know they’re on their way out this November.

The presidential race is effectively over as of this past week. Now I don’t think the question is will Obama when, but by how much and what will his man date be. Republicans in Congress should think hard about whether they want Obama’s Treasury secretary to wield the powers proposed by Paulson’s office.

John Emerson says be wary of the Bush Administration’s counter to Congress’ first counter.

will Obama win

Werebear,

That reminds me… Did you catch this one? http://agonist.org/stirling_newberry/20080919/4th_republic_moment

So here it is Obama people, your guy wanted a defining moment. Today and tomorrow are it. The rest of us won’t know how it went until much later, except we will see pretty quickly whether the bailout saddles us with the toxic waste, and gives us nothing in return. If this is the case, Obama will be a failed President before he even takes office, and we have to do this all over again, starting from 1992 and running through at least 2004, when the American public had a chance to get off this train wreck before it happened. Thus while there are lots of plans like National Health Care that will save a great deal of money, the reality is the progressive movement needs to answer two questions, really.

1. What promises are the people outside the US going to take in return for not foreclosing on is, because they can by just dumping dollars and raising the price of oil.

2. What mandate are we going to have that will allow us to tax those same people in order to make it so that the control of the world economy doesn’t move to Dubai.

That said, the reason that Atlanta is out of gas is because I scooped it all up with my mothership. No, no, we don’t run on fossil fuels — I just like to watch it burn. It’s just a really small part of my continuing program to Hasten The Destruction of All Reality (for the greater good of the Dalek race).

I keep laughing today, and I’m afraid it might be hysterical.

The very idea of these fools watching the final scene of neo-liberalism (which they are supposed to like, but I bet they don’t cuz it has the word liberal in it) and coming up with a thesis that somehow it’s the niggers fault and they crashed Wall St keeps making me break out laughing. I think it’s laugh or start thinking about a revolution and walls and certain idiots lined up against them.

HAND OVER THE $700 BILLION IN UNMARKED BILLS, AMERICA, AND BETTER NONE OF YOU GET ANY IDEAS ABOUT TRYING TO FOLLOW US, OR THE ECONOMY GETS IT!

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said too.

What they have done, effectively, is eliminate any possibility of any populist initiatives from the Obama administration’s first term. It’s the ultimate poison pill. By raising the debt ceiling over 11 Trillion in order to make sure that no other rich white guys have to give up THEIR private jets, any hope of meaningful populist spending, whether it’s health care or job creation or green energy or infrastructure or education is over. Done. Gone.

Starve the Beast indeed.

They had to kill the host to starve the beast, but they managed to get it done.

Any of you hopeful types who’d like to describe the way forward for an America saddled with this level of debt, imbalance and unsustainable policies, I’d really like to hear how this is gonna work….

mikey

Well, if you really want to stop this from being a total sellout of the American people, contact your Democratic Senators and Representatives, and the Obama campaign, and tell them that if they allow the blank check Bush plan to go through, you’re staying home on election day.

Hey!

Here’s an idea!

Let’s make sure that we continue to build billion dollar submarines, missile defense, nuclear weapons and oh, don’t forget we need both the F-22 and the F-35. And don’t forget the LCS and the B-2 and the RRW.

These decisions are going to be important in the next few months, because people are going to go without food and medicine and housing and the real question is who are the people we should be caring about.

Do we need to protect people with private jets, or people with cardboard houses….

mikey

I think people need to prepare for the worst. I don’t know, maybe I’m letting my imagination run off with me but from what I’ve read we are headed for and very bad global depression. From what I’ve been reading it is due to the ban on shorts which is now global. Shorting as I understand it acts as a kind of shock absorber for prices. Basically it is a bet that a certain stock will fall but you end up buying the stock at the lower price. This cushions falling prices because there are people willing to buy, at a reduced price.

But what has been happening is that around the globe countries are banning shorts. This reduces confidence and when the bans expire the stocks could easily find they no buyers, none, not at any price. The US ban on shorts expires on Oct 2nd. If nothing is done and things remain as they are, on Oct. 3rd the global economy crashes and crashes hard. From what I understand.

On the up side I suppose I could give lessons in dumpster dining and there will always be plenty of good meat walking on the sidewalks. So there is that to look forward to.

Davros, excellent article. Here’s the big quote for me:

The problem is political. Having a sensible fiscal regime half the time, and the other half a criminal plundering of the treasury under corrupt cronyism, is not sustainable.

Ramen.

I see signs that Obama is already not capitulating to the first demand of the Republicans. Did they really stay up all night writing this, or was it hanging around on somebody’s word processor, waiting for them to pull the trigger?

That’s the stinkiest part of this. The speed with which they came up with a “solution.”

Any of you hopeful types who’d like to describe the way forward for an America saddled with this level of debt, imbalance and unsustainable policies, I’d really like to hear how this is gonna work….

I don’t know if it would work or not, but it would be simple justice to grab every last thing these motherfuckers owned. I don’t know if they have a trillion dollars worth of assets but that’s a good place to start.

…in the global context, you still have a lot of people on your side (“your side” = the people, not the beneficiaries of this grab) – we (at least many of us) don’t want to see you suffer – but don’t let the bastards keep their private jets.

Breaking news! Obama quitting the race!

http://www.1001words.com/2008/09/obama-to-nation-im-outta-here.html

“El Cid September 21, 2008 at 20:48”

That’s right since there wouldn’t be these credit swap derivatives and other byzantine and arcane things out there. These laws need to be repealed yesterday. It is nothing but legalized casino gambling with other people’s money. But all the financial deregulation laws which were passed back in the Reagan era like the Germain-Garn Depository Deregulation Act need to be revisited and repealed as well and replaced by usury laws that prohibit the type of consumer and taxpayer exploitation that has been and is going on.

They had to kill the host to starve the beast, but they managed to get it done.
By an odd coincidence, that sentence featured in the original lyrics for ‘Hotel Calfornia’, before the band had second thoughts.

Thank you very much for this posting I hope you will write more about this subject, because the right wing is trying to blame bank fraud on the poor rather than on the rich where it belongs.

Traiger law advises on CRA compliance, so they may be biased. (eg, they are pro-CRA)

The report supports your first two bullets, but does not have any data to connect to foreclosures and support your third bullet point.

Fannie and Freddie is the second culprit: passing off risky loans as “safe” gov’t backed loans to the financial markets which contained many investors (a lot of foreign countries) who had a huge appetite for “safe” investments.

Loosening by the SEC of the leverage ratios was the 3rd culprit: making investment banks abe to carry on more of the “safe” loans that they should.

The CRA is the equivalent of the left eating up the blame on the Graham-Leach Act. The diversified banks surviving are the ones that wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for this Act.

Any of you hopeful types who’d like to describe the way forward for an America saddled with this level of debt, imbalance and unsustainable policies, I’d really like to hear how this is gonna work….

Mikey:

Here in So-Cal, there are communities near the border where as many as 40% of the homes are in foreclosure or are lender REOs, listed below the loan amount for other properties in the area. In a situation like this, the homeowners can’t refinance–even if they can afford their current mortgage–because their houses don’t appraise.

How long do the lenders seriously think it will be before people who have maxed out their credit cards in a vain attempt to cover their ballooning mortgages until they can sell their homes realize–HEY! I could probably hire some poor Mexican to torch the 14 other comparables in my neighborhood that are artificially depressing the value of MY home for about $1,000! (You burn a house down, it’s no longer a comparable because it’s raw land. ) Perhaps the lawyers and M.B.A.s who are the nexus of our country’s financial brain trust didn’t think the peons would figure this one out.

The bankers, insurers, money marketeers, and other jet-plane-owning miscreants will have to come to grips with the fact that, while they may determine the rules when it comes to credit and mortgage lending, it is the “little people” who ultimately determine how much they can collect. We go down, they go down. They piss us off at their peril. Don’t know how this will solve the debt imbalance, but here goes:

1. Lenders must negotiate better terms with borrowers who took out sub-prime mortgages as part of any bail-out. Desperate people do desperate things–which often have a greater-than-intended negative effect. This year’s fire season in CA could very well be sparked or exacerbated by people who couldn’t get a refinance from their bank.

2. Credit lines extended by lenders against homes cannot be reduced simply because the value of the asset has diminished if the borrower has no record of late payments, and has not defaulted. This should be a no-brainer. Anyone who can afford to pay through the nose for the luxury of a credit line is the sort of person banks can’t afford to piss off right now. God forbid they should invest in something more tangible–like massively devalued assets sold at a loss by the banks!.

3. The “universal default” on credit cards, auto purchasing/leasing agreements, and some mortgages must be abolished. These clauses can transform a difficult financial situation that would otherwise be a temporary setback into a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

4. Finance charges on credit cards should be more stringently regulated. That $30-$50 people pay just because the bank tells them their payment is late is a cash cow that the credit card companies work to their advantage. If I opt to pay my bill on the first of the month, don’t send it out dated the 8th of the previous month, so that it arrives on the 12th, and tell me that it arrived late when I mailed the check out on the 25th “Because we didn’t receive it until the 3rd.” It shouldn’t take any longer for my check to get from my house to your wage slaves than it took for your bill to arrive. And if “payment occurs as of the date a check is posted” is good enough for Congress, it should be good enough for Wells Fargo.

Just my opinion

Candy said,

September 21, 2008 at 22:03

OT: I received a group email from a long-time friend in which she asks not to receive any more political emails from anyone, for or against any candidate. The email was nicely worded, and I don’t blame her for this; it’s maddening to have one’s inbox cluttered up with a ton of forwarded crap.

But what bothered me to the point of thinking about simply shining her on and writing her off from this day forward is this: She signed it “Her Name Here – Still Undecided.”

It’s like my mind just snapped. I’m not sure that I can be friends with or that I even want to fucking know someone who could still be un-fucking-decided at this point in the festivities.

People who choose to be willfully blind at times like this are the Pontius Pilates of politics. I may not be thrilled about either choice, but I realize that the ideal candidate is probably too smart to seek public office. At least I know what I DON’T want–and that’s 4 more years of the same old crap, dressed up in pageant sashes and even more religious wingnutism. And do we really want foreign policy dictated by a former snowmobile salesman?

.

D. Sidhe and Candy: Hells bells, there are people I haven’t spoken to since they voted for Nixon against McGovern! Yes, I do enjoy nursing a grudge.

I’ve blocked a couple of people from my email over the last couple of years. I’m a mite grudgy myself, I guess.

So I understand the temptation to write someone off. But “undecided” might just be a polite way to say “None of your business, leave me alone”.

Hmmm. That’s possible.

[…] than concern themselves with understanding the issues, they’ve gone into hyper-blame mode. Clif give us his version of the shorter Right Blogosphere: “[T]he reason for the current financial crisis is that the Community Reinvestment Act passed […]

It’s fact free horse shit. Let’s be real here, does anyone think a government law which basically said “hey big companies, we are gonna burden you by making you give mortgages to people who will not repay them, and we will make you take on enough to force you out of business and eventually destroy the financial sector of our economy” would last a week in Congress, let alone 29 years, of which 21 of those were led by a Republican President, 14 by a Republican Congress, and 6 by a Republican President and a Republican Congress?

But that doesn’t matter. This will take hold among Republicans, and it will be fact to them.

Y’know, it ALMOST sounds rational: go back thirty years and punt the ball to the other party.

Y’know, like, if only Glass-Steagal was still in force…

[…] No! The Community Reinvestment Act Had Nothing To Do with this Crisis As these mirthful bloggers observe, we’ll be hearing very soon from every conservative opinion outlet on the planet that […]

[…] a weekend of number crunching, the Federal Government and leading U.S. economists have found the main culprit for the current financial crisis affecting the United States – Tim Johnson of Tupelo, […]

Where is the bag a Cheetos?

It’s a talking point that is not designed to reflect reality, but rather to appeal to the White Power wing of the Republican Party. Why don’t they just blame it all on the 13th Amendment and stop pretending?

[…] the cheet-o-sphere, most recently appearing at a blog written by a pretend nun. As I’ve already shown, the idea that the CRA and deadbeat Negroes caused the problem is, succinctly put, cheeto-flecked […]

[…] when not blaming the crisis on minorities, are blaming it on Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, cuz they wuz part of teh […]