Greg Palast is one of the best independent investigative journalists, here is his website: click hereWhile New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an ‘escort’ $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush’s new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.
Here’s what happened. Since the Bush regime came to power, a new species of loan became the norm, the ‘sub-prime’ mortgage and its variants including loans with teeny “introductory” interest rates. From out of nowhere, a company called ‘Countrywide’ became America’s top mortgage lender, accounting for one in five home loans, a large chunk of these ‘sub-prime.’
Here’s how it worked: The Grinning Family, with US average household income, gets a $200,000 mortgage at 4% for two years. Their $955 monthly payment is 25% of their income. No problem. Their banker promises them a new mortgage, again at the cheap rate, in two years. But in two years, the promise ain’t worth a can of spam and the Grinnings are told to scram - because their house is now worth less than the mortgage. Now, the mortgage hits 9% or $1,609 plus fees to recover the “discount” they had for two years. Suddenly, payments equal 42% to 50% of pre-tax income. The Grinnings move into their Toyota.
Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there’s a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush’s man Bernanke was using ours.
● The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked.
● Here's how CORPORATE MEDIA like the NYTimes and Paul Harvey sell this corporate welfare shit to us! They tell us we're supposed to hate ficticious "welfare queens" that don't exist that are getting $100, but we're supposed to go along with giving $200 billion to rich people and rich corporations! They say, "It's helping YOU!" by giving THEM $200 billion dolars! That's how they sell it to YOU! And also make the whole $200 billion GIVEAWAY "vague" AND do it VERY QUIETLY during a scandal like the Eliot Spitzer scandal!
● Another "vague" article by the NYTimes: "SOMEONE" is "RESCUING" Bear Stearns! That's YOU and ME "rescuing" them, by Bush & Bernanke STEALING OUR TAX MONEY to "rescue" them!!!
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News:
● Writers Strike at Daily Kos? Try a Readers Strike...
● Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Speak Out [Photo Essay]Hundreds of veterans are testifying against war crimes this weekend in Washington, DC. Nina Berman shares their stories.
● Obama quietly picks up even MORE delegates in IOWA!
● Ridiculous! President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the image of our maker.”
● LOL! I thought Bushco & Rush Limbaugh have been telling us the economy is good! In case you're getting your news from them or ANBCBSNNX, check this out --->>> President George W. Bush plans to meet on Monday with top U.S. financial policymakers, the White House said, at a time of increased strains in credit markets and fears of a recession. The White House said on Saturday Bush will meet members of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, and a spokeswoman said Bush will get a status report on the markets. <<<--- Remember to vote for McCain for a 3rd straight term of Bush & $4 gas!!! (h/t z).
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1. Michelle Malkin fired from “The O’Reilly Factor”.
2. Ann Coulter’s book sales tanking and her credit cards getting declined by Publix.
3. Melamine Misstatement fired from her job.
4. Tucker Carlson tossed out on his amply padded backside.
5. And now Jumpin’ John Gibson being taken away to be rendered into fat for cheap tallow candles for The Poor or whatever.
● GOP Demise Taking A Toll On Right Wing Pundits
● Hannity & Colmes: Bringing On The Right Wingers To Lose It Over Obama & Rev. Wright
● The GOP will use Iraq as propaganda regardless of the situation on the ground. If things are going well, they will tout a victory. If the tenuous lull in overall violence suddenly surges, McCain will tell us that we can’t pull out now because it’s just too dangerous, or as in this instance, accuse AQ of plotting to sway the election — that’s if the media bothers to cover Iraq at all.
● A party whore will hug anyone. A dance or a pose, it doesn't go well with the lipstick or the disguise. McCain --the self-styled, 'straight-talking moderate'--dances with radical, Zionist war-mongers and neocons, 'promising' them and the Military/Industrial complex that the US may stay in Iraq for 100, 10,000, possibly '...a million years". Should McCain get elected, I would not be surprised if Wolfowitz himself came in out of the cold to claim vindication.
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NEPA:
● Hillary in Scranton…again…I looked out my window last night, and she was in my yard...I shut the shades...
● Unbelievable!!! Luzerne County needs to return at least $2 million to its designated 911 fund, according to an audit released last month.
● LOOK AT THIS! MORE LUZERNE COUNTY CORRUPTION! "No-bid purchases from Commonwealth Foods (for the prison). The Hanover Township company is owned by Steven Harnischfeger, a very close friend of county Commissioner Greg Skrepenak and former chief clerk/manager Sam Guesto.
