Friday, October 29, 2010

Terrorism Alert!!!

(via Fox News, Hot Air & Ace of Spades)

Suspicious packages from Yemen (as many as 10-20 sought) on UPS International cargo planes from Yemen through Europe to Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, NYC.

Wires attached to toner cartridge and white powder from a Yemen flight stopped in the UK with a Chicago destination.


Marine Corp Museum shot at... again... in D.C.

Is this all being coordinated?

Thursday, October 28, 2010

"Punish your enemies" and make 'em "sit in the back"???

(both stories via Gateway Pundit here & here)

So, this is what "The One" is saying in the final week of the mid-term campaign:

“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s gonna be harder and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2."

He also said this:

"We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."

Oh, reeeeeeeeally!!!


TUESDAY... VOTE!!!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Fannie & Freddie returning to the trough...

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac now want an ADDITIONAL $215 BILLION in bailout cash from the Feds. Un-effing-believable.

NPR Waving (goodbye to) a Magic Juan...

As Bill Kristol calls 'em, "National Politically-correct Radio... unfair, unbalanced and afraid," NPR fired liberal Fox News commentator Juan Williams for making statements backing up Bill O'Reilly regarding Muslims and 9/11.

As Bernie Goldberg states:

"So Juan Williams is fired for saying something the liberals at NPR find controversial?... One more piece of evidence that liberals have forgotten how to be liberal."...

"These are the kind of people who brag about how open-minded they are -- as long as you agree with them. And here's the dirty little secret: lots and lots of liberals feel the same way Juan does when they get on an airplane. And a lot of those liberals work at NPR. Juan's 'crime' was saying it out loud."

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

BofA refiles, and plans to restart the FORE process...

Bank of America re-files 102,000 foreclosure applications in 23 states that require a judge/court review, and plans to restart the foreclosure process again. the other 27 states will also slowly begin again as each of those states has it's own unique process to follow. This will also open up the foreclosures of new homes that are "under water," and add to the foreclosure glut.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

FORE-GONE CONCLUSION...

September foreclosures hit an all-time one-month high, going over 100k for the month:

Banks foreclosed on 102,134 properties in September, the first single month above the century mark, RealtyTrac said. There were 347,420 total foreclosure filings in September, 3 percent higher than August and 1 percent higher than a year earlier...

For the quarter, there were 930,437 foreclosure filings, an increase of 4 percent over the prior three months... The firm said foreclosures could spike after a brief lull if lenders are able to quickly resolve the paperwork questions.

"However, if the documentation issue cannot be quickly resolved and expands to more lenders we could see a chilling effect on the overall housing market as sales of pre-foreclosure and foreclosed properties, which account for nearly one-third of all sales, dry up and the shadow inventory of distressed properties grows - causing more uncertainty about home prices," [James] Saccacio said.

So, we had as many foreclosures in just one month last month as we had in ALL of 2005.


Meanwhile, remember those TARP contracts to FannieMae and FreddieMac???

The Treasury Department has relied heavily on private companies and troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to manage the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, a report released on Thursday said.

The report by the congressional panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said that the $437 million in Treasury contracts to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and private companies to manage critical aspects of the bailout program raised a number of concerns about public oversight and conflicts of interest.

4.4 + 4.8 + ? = ...

From the AP:

More people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first rise in three weeks and evidence that companies are reluctant to hire in a slow economy.

Initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was only the second rise in two months.

Jobless claims have been stuck near 450,000 all year. Few employers see much reason to create many jobs, and some are still laying off workers.

Seems the AP can't add:

The number of people continuing to receive benefits fell by 112,000 to just under 4.4 million, the department said. But that doesn't include several million people who are receiving benefits under extended programs approved by Congress.

The number of people on extended benefits dropped by about 340,000 to about 4.8 million in the week ending Sept. 25, the latest data available. All told, about 8.6 million people received unemployment aid that week.

Ummm... 4.4 + 4.8 = 9.2 million, not 8.6.

So, add the 9.2 million to the many more people who are no longer receiving benefits, yet are still unemployed. Add to that those who are under-employed (part-timers who would much prefer to be working full-time but can't, and those who have received cuts in pay that diminish their income and savings/buying power). And what do you get?

Via Hot Air, this article/analysis will give you a clue:

...the U6 unemployment rate, which includes the unemployed, those marginally attached to the labor force (discouraged), and those working part time for economic reasons, at 17.1%. That is the highest point over the past year, and probably since the Great Depression...

...the average recession since World War II has been 10 months, with the longest previously being 16 months. The recession began in December, 2007, 34 months ago by now...

Based on the long standing history and rhythms of the American economy, we should have had a booming recovery by now. Even more so, since the deeper the recession the stronger the recovery. Real economic growth in the first 4 quarters of Reagan's recovery from the deep 1981-82 recession was a whopping 7.7%. Even the recovery under President Ford from the deep 1973-74 recession sported real economic growth of 6.2%.

But under President Obama we are already in another downward spiral, with real growth falling from 5% in the fourth quarter of 2009, to 3.7% in the first quarter of this year, to 1.7% in the second quarter.

Thomas Sowell, in the article, is quoted as stating:

No president of the United States can create either a budget deficit or a budget surplus. All spending bills originate in the House of Representatives, and all taxes are voted into law by Congress. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before Barack Obama became President. The deficit he inherited was created by the Congressional Democrats, including Sen. Barack Obama, who did absolutely nothing to oppose the runaway spending. He was one of the biggest spenders.

*sigh*

Remember, mid-term elections are less than 3 weeks away.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

FORE!!!

Even though BofA and other banks are temporarily halting foreclosures while they double-check their paperwork for "mistakes", foreclosures are up. And they're gonna get worse.

If you think the U.S. housing market is in bad shape now, prepare yourself for the "tsunami" that's coming. That's what at least one financial expert is saying.

Charles Brown of CB3 Financial says that instead of selling foreclosed homes, banks have been hanging onto them, waiting for the economy to improve. "These banks that have all this pent-up inventory will unleash it on the market, as soon as they see a minor uptick in real estate prices," Brown said, which will, in turn, reduce housing prices even further.

Experts agree that we have not hit rock bottom yet. People are still losing their jobs. Homes are going into foreclosure at a rate of 120,000 a month. Many who feared foreclosure in their future say they tried to work with the banks for "loan modification" -- but they "were denied or given the runaround," Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois said. The banks weren't working with people so they made the problem worse. "Servicers are famous for delay tactics...like claiming the fax machine was out of paper," he said.

I kept telling you people about this.


And so is unemployment (via Gallup).

Meanwhile, "The One" is mulling over another stealth bailout bill.