CEOs questions of hitting JP during Foreclosures

"There seem to be two different economic realities operating in our country today. And the rules of compensation in one world are completely different from those in the other," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation's top executives seem to live by a different set of rules."

Scott Mayerowitz ABC news reported on the web about the Democratic Congress getting right to the point in a hearing where the CEOs of three mortgage companies that collapsed with the subprime mortgage market. The CEOs made millions while thousands of Americans lost their homes and investors lost billions of dollars.

Mayerowitz continues in his report: "I think there's merit to pay for performance," Waxman said. "But it seems like CEOs hit the lottery even when their companies collapse."

Of course the economy news reported by Scott wouldn't have the flavor of politics without someone present to take advantage of the situation and declare in his own partisan way that he was not in favor of the investigation. In the news article Mayerowitz writes: But the Republican ranking member on the committee warned that he would not let the hearing turn into a witch-hunt. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said it is not the job of Congress to second-guess investor decisions or to help plaintiffs gather evidence for their lawsuits. He said it is fair to question compensation packages but warned that the debate should not turn into a "sanctimonious search for scapegoats."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the whole foreclosure and dropping home values was instigated by the wealthy and powerful Republicans and their filthy rich friends. I just hope that people in America wake up before it is too late.

Labor Department's February 2008 Report

Browsing ABCNews I came across a news article about the crises. No, it was not the war. No, it was not oil. No, it was not foreclosures. No, it was not dropping home values. No, it was not any of those things that are mostly written about.

This time Jeannine Aversa wrote about the rate of job loss climb. Yep, someone is finally talking. It appears that the February Labor Department's report on job loss came out, and it is the highest job loss rate in five years. In fact Aversa even wrote about the job loss rate that was reported in January.

The January jobless rate report was wrong. The report has the rate at 17,000 for the month. But in fact the rate was really 22,000 of jobs loss for the month of January. But February's report is much higher at three times the amount.

The February's job loss report for the month is at 63,000.

The economy will only get worse now. The Republicans never learned that one true law of economics. That law has been around for a very long time. It was true in every great civilization during it's peak when the economy was best. That law is as true today, as it was decades or even centuries ago.

"A Working Economy Only Works, When The People In That Economy Are Working!"

Hillary's Experience by Mike

On abcnews.go.com message board, Political Punch: Clinton Camp Compares Obama to Ken Starr, which began March 06, 2008 11:00 AM there were many posters quarreling back and forth. Republicans and Democrats alike attacking Obama and Hillary. But one stood out. Not because it attack, but because it listed Hillary's contradictions. I thought it would be fun if I copied Mike's post to my blog.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON'S EXPERIENCE:
1) I Served on the Board of UNION HATING Wal-Mart, But I am Pro Union.
2) I voted for the war in Iraq, But I am against Iraq War
3) I Voted for Kyle-Lieberman to extend the war to Iran, But I will bring soldiers back home in 60 days
4) I will provide universal health insurance, But I will force you to buy it to boost insurance company???s profits.
5) I Supported NAFTA, But now I oppose NAFTA
6) I am a strong woman and a fighter, But I cry and complain when I can not win
7) I can stand the republican heat, But I cannot stand the Democratic heat
8) I am the most experienced candidate, But I have no clue how to run a presidential campaign.
9) I hate Bush, But I try to copy his politics of fear and division
10)I am the most vetted candidate in the race, But, no I won't show you my tax returns
12)I support drivers licenses for the undocumented people in New York, But I changed my mind after the MSNBC debate when you guys made fun of me
13)I voted for the bankruptcy bill, But I hoped it wouldn't pass
14)I voted for the Credit card interest bill, But I think 30% interest is fair!
15)I am honored to be with you Barack Obama, But Shame on you Barack Obama

Posted by: Mike Mar 6, 2008 5:32:25 PM

Other Currencies May Follow The U.S. Dollar

I came across a news article on abcnews.com about the shrinking currencies around the world. Matt Moore wrote the article which was published on line. It sounds as if the different world currencies may share the same fate as our U.S. dollar. Of course the American dollar is not doing well. In fact our American dollar should have it's name change to the 'Shrinking Green'.

Moore spoke of the euro European trade closed with a drop at 1.5262. It was even stated in Matt's report by the European Trade Union Confederation that the "excessively expensive euro will cost European jobs..." This morning before the drop it did show a short lived promise at 1.5370. But like the American dollar, it too is showing signs of weakening. The pound dropped to 2.0027 after trading just slightly higher at 2.0057 and the Japanese yen dropped from 103.87 to 103.11.

Matt Moore wrote, "European Union businesses said they were starting to feel the pinch, too, notably from U.S.-based buyers who pay for goods from Europe."

"We said when the euro was above $1.40 that we feel the pain. When the euro is above $1.50, it is alarming," Mr Moore quoted Ernest-Antoine Sillier, president of the EU employers' group BusinessEurope in this report.

"On Wednesday, reports showed that U.S. factories saw demand for their products drop sharply in January, while the country's service sector contracted last month. That provided new evidence of weakness in an economy hit by housing and credit crises — weakness that has raised expectations that the Fed is not done with its interest rate campaign." Matt in his news report continues his observation. "Speculation has mounted that the Fed might cut rates by as much as three-fourths of a percentage point this month. Lower interest rates can jump-start a nation's economy. But they can also weaken its currency as traders transfer funds to countries where they can earn higher returns."

Foreclosures Are Worse Than First Reported

The Associated Press writer, Jeannine Aversa's article today covers the last quarter in the rise in foreclosures of American homes. It seems as if companies are in a hurry to kick families out of their homes, because they have started procedures as early when the home owners are just 30 days behind in their mortgage before considering them delinquent. They companies are not even working with the home owners as earlier thought. One thing no one has even mentioned is how companies are selling the mortgages to other companies before the homeowner even shows signs of a problem.

I am not sure exactly how or why, but our mortgage company did that to us. We had one of those adjustable rate loans which is not due to be adjusted until 2009 in February. Yet the mortgage company, Nova Star, for no reason at all sold our mortgage to Saxon during the month of Nov 2007. Our first payment was in Dec 2007. My guess is that Nova Star some how got a hold of my husband's work information that he had been unemployed for a few months, even though we were able to keep up our mortgage payments. They probably saw us as a risk since my husband has short term contract jobs.

Since Jan 2002, when my husband's job was being Out Sourced to India, and the Boeing Company was sending some of the IT Department of Rocketdyne to India since late 2001, Allen, my husband, has only been able to get temporary jobs of contracts with various companies here in California and four other states. Each time the jobs were only for 6 months to a year. But because he would finish the assignment sooner than expected, and better than expected, the contract would be over. There were even jobs where, they would have him train someone with a green card from India, then the company would have that person replace my husband. That is what the American high tech workers call -- Insourcing --.

Thanks to the Republican Out Sourcing Government Incentive Financial Program as well as the new Insourcing of jobs, the jobs my husband gets are too few and far between. If Americans do not have the high tech knowlegde needed for the work, and if only the Green Card Indian from India have the high tech knowlegde then why does my husband have to train them. Something is wrong with the scenario the Bush Administration have been dishing out with those speeches of Bush claiming that the Americans not having the skills or knowledge for the high tech world. I wonder if anyone is really paying attention to what the Republicans have been doing for the last 7+ years to the American Work force or if they just do not care.

ABC News Dot Com Is Bias

Today the unthinkable happened. I scanned my computer with my PC Tools Spyware Doctor and found that there were high risk level infections planted on my computer from a website that I would least suspect, abcnews.com. The infections that were found are: 1 infection of Addware.Trymedialsd5, 2 infections of Backdoor.IRCBotBMD, 1 infection of Trojan.Small!sd5, 2 infections of Worm.Sdbot.

I have been posting on the message boards my views of the politics of the day along with commenting on news stories and the candidates. I never suspected that abcnews would kick me off their boards since I did not violate their policies. I never used obscene language. I never used bad words. I never personally attacked another poster. I never grouped with other posters to sabotage a poster. I never falsely marked anyone with a violation.

One thing I did was type that I voted for Obama, and believed in him. The other thing I did was comment on facts collected from news stories about the other candidates that proved they were not as good of a choice.

I talked about the economy, the lack of medical insurance, the 1st Amendment to the American Bill of Rights, NAFTA, Out Sourcing of jobs, with homeowners paying more for their mortgages as the value of their homes keep dropping. I talked of how we needed change and do away with the Old Dirty Political Games that the Republicans and Hillary Clinton play.

Well, all that got me was kicked out of the message boards and a totals of 6 infections. I guess they want to make sure I never post on their message boards again.

I returned recently to the abcnews.go.com and began reading the posts. It is very sad that the Conservative Republicans and their Broadcasters and Telecommunication corporations get to control everything that is communicated on line as well as on television. I just hope that some where there is still freedom of speech, since it no longer exists in the United States of America.

Good Bye Land Of Opportunity

The day has been a bit crazy with Bill Clinton calling the voters liars. Then there were Conservative Republicans who were doing just what Rush Lumbaugh told them to. He told them to Vote for Hillary since he believed it was easier for McCain to Beat Hillary in the November Presidential Election. Then there were people who said there were fliers that stated that Obama was a Bible Hating Muslim which played on their fears so they voted for Hillary instead.

Yes the Republicans and Hillary have a lot to fear of a candidate who does not play by the old rules of DIRTY POLITICS. Unfortunately the real losers are the American People who will continue to live in a down sliding economy with NO real job security, no Medical Insurance Coverage to speak of, with more American Workers loosing their jobs to foreigners both on American soil and in Foreign lands. The foreclosures continue, more middle class families slipping into poverty, more mortgage companies selling the ARM loans to other mortgage companies to avoid giving any help to the families who owe on those mortgages and are now struggling to hold on to their homes. More homes have lost their values and the mortgages owed on those homes are based on the original value, meaning that the mortgage owed on the homes is a LOT HIGHER than what the homes can sell at. That means even if we sell our homes we still owe anywhere between 200,000 and up on the mortgage with the high payments. There is no way to get out of debt.

The Rich Republicans, Bush, Cheney have done this to the middle class, but no one sees, no one is listening, everyone is asleep. Hillary has been in the Senate all this time and has not spoken out for the American Worker, the American Middle Class. Hillary ignored the American people and so has the Republicans. McCain has been in the Senate for three decades, he NEVER once spoke out for the American Worker.

Good bye America the country of possibilities. Hello misery and woe.

Bernanke Pleads: Lower The Principle

It is March 4 2008 and Bernanke, my favorite Federal Reserve Chairman, is back in the news at a meeting in Orlando Florida. With the interest rate expected to be reduced on March 18 2008, today Bernanke urged the Bankers to do more for the homeowner to prevent an increase in foreclosures. Bernanke suggested the financial institutions to reduce the principle on what is owed, allowing the struggling home owner to hold on to their home a little longer and wade out the storm of the troubling economy. "Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure," Bernanke explained as he spoke of the home owners inability to remain in their homes with little or no equity. "They say that if they were to write down the principal and house prices were to fall further, they could feel pressured to write down principal again," Bernanke said about the lenders. Still he was talking of a more permanent solution instead of the limited temporary one that would just have more foreclosures down the line.

"When the mortgage is `under water' a reduction in principal may increase the expected payoff by reducing the risk of default and foreclosure." Bernanke goes on to say "Measures that lead to a sustainable outcome are to be preferred to temporary palliatives, which may only put off foreclosure and perhaps increase its ultimate costs."

Bernanke also warns that the Bush Administration Bush administration's promoted rate freezes only "reduce the impact somewhat, but interest rate resets will nevertheless impose stress on many households," Bernanke said.

So Close, So Far

Today the battle is on in Ohio and Texas. In the ABC news report on line it was stated that Hillary concentrated on the 'WHITE, WORKING CLASS VOTERS.'

Now I am not one to put race into it, especially since it does not reflect off of me. But why is Hillary only 'Fighting Hard for the White, Working Class Voters' as the news reported. It seems to me that Ohio is already divided racially. Hillary did not have to add to that. She could have tried with all the Non Whites also. But there was no mention that she did. It seems that someone has been giving her the wrong advice from the start. Too bad she never picked up on what Obama's campaign was about. If she had, Hillary could have been the candidate of many people. Instead of the Candidate who only concentrates on one class of people every where she goes.

In Ohio, it was the white working class voters. In both Texas and California it was the Latino voters. I do not remember her talking to Native Americans. Maybe it's because she forgot they existed. But the choice of going only after one group makes it look like she is and has been ignoring everyone else.

Kinda like the time in 2005 when Hillary went to India and was addressing the Indian workers in India. She praised the Republican Outsourcing as being good for the Indian workers. But Hillary forgot one little detail. The Indian workers in India do not vote for the Presidency in the USA. No they don't. It is people like my husband whose job was outsourced who votes for the president of the USA. Needless to say, Hillary is not whom we will vote for come November.

New Clinton Scandal

Strange that this was in the news for a split second, yet there was little said of it. So here is the story in it's entirty by the original writers, titled 'Sen. Clinton accepts donations from troubled firm' Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 3:50 PM PT By Lisa Myers and Jim Popkin, NBC News: Sen. Hillary Clinton has declined to return $170,000 in campaign contributions from individuals at a company accused of widespread sexual harassment, and whose CEO is a disbarred lawyer with a criminal record, federal campaign records show.
The federal government has accused the Illinois management consulting firm, International Profit Associates, or IPA, of a brazen pattern of sexual harassment including "sexual assaults,” “degrading anti-female language" and "obscene suggestions."
In a 2001 lawsuit full of lurid details, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that 103 women employees at IPA were victimized for years. The civil case is ongoing, and IPA vigorously denies the allegations.
"This is by far, hands down, the worst case I've ever experienced," said Diane Smason, one of the EEOC lawyers handling the lawsuit. "Every woman there experienced sex harassment, they were part of a hostile work environment of sex harassment. And this occurred from the top down."
Sen. Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson, told NBC News in a statement that the senator decided to keep the funds because the lawsuit is "ongoing" and because none of the sexual harassment allegations has been proven in court. "With regard to the pending harassment suit, as a general matter, the campaign assesses findings of fact in deciding whether to return contributions," Wolfson said.
Allegations:Adrienne Slick, who worked at IPA for seven months in 2000 and 2001 as a business coordinator and is now part of the EEOC suit, told NBC News in an interview that the sexual harassment was oppressive. “I had multiple managers come at me, press themselves up against me ... ask me to go home with them, and to a hotel room so they could fulfill their fantasies," she said.
The EEOC lawyers say the man at the top of the firm - IPA founder and Managing Director John R. Burgess - was among the worst offenders. The EEOC lawsuit claims, “The harassment emanated from the top: the owner and Managing Director, John Burgess, is accused of sexual harassment by at least 10 different women.”
Burgess has a criminal record, too. The former lawyer pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny in 1987 and was disbarred in New York, court documents show. Burgess also pleaded guilty to “patronizing a prostitute” in 1984, according to Erie County, N.Y., court records.
Still, none of that has stopped powerful politicians in both parties from being courted by Burgess and IPA. Since 2000, IPA officials and their family members have given Sen. Clinton at least $170,000 for her Senate and presidential campaigns, federal campaign records show. Senator Clinton also spoke at a company event and rode on an IPA jet in 2004.
In May 2006, the New York Times brought Burgess's criminal history, and the allegations against IPA, to Sen. Clinton's attention. The May 7, 2006, article was titled “Rubbing Shoulders with Trouble, and Presidents.” In the article, a spokeswoman for Sen. Clinton was quoted as saying the Senator was not aware of Burgess’s criminal past and "will be reviewing" the contributions.
Almost two years later, federal records indicate that Sen. Clinton still has not returned the IPA money. Howard Wolfson, her communications director, did not dispute the $170,000 figure in an email to NBC News. He said Senator Clinton was not aware of Burgess’s past legal problems when she first accepted the donations. "In 2000 and 2003 when Sen. Clinton's campaign accepted money from Burgess, it was not aware of his legal problems from the 1980s," he said.
However, there were public reports of allegations against Burgess as early as 2000. That’s the year that Inc. Magazine first reported that Burgess had patronized a prostitute and had pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny. And Senator Clinton’s campaign has accepted other contributions from other senior IPA officials as recently as last year, the campaign records show.
Many other politicians have been quick to distance themselves from IPA, and have returned donations. In 2002 in New York, Andrew Cuomo, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the time, returned $20,000 from Burgess. Cuomo’s office said the donations were returned after a New York newspaper reported on Burgess’s past legal problems and on the EEOC sexual-harassment allegations.
Other prominent Democrats also have returned IPA's donations including Sen. Ted Kennedy and then-Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. On the same day in 2006, Sen. Barack Obama received $4,000 in campaign donations from a senior IPA official and his wife. Obama quickly returned $2,000 from the senior IPA official, campaign records show. But the campaign has held onto the matching $2,000 donation from the IPA official’s wife, the Obama campaign confirms.
Some political analysts say it is surprising that the first viable female candidate for president would not be more sensitive to allegations of sexual harassment.
"The fact that Hillary Clinton at this point is holding onto money from a contributor who has been charged with sexual harassment can only be perceived as insensitive to women's issues and women," says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, Senior Scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. "I don't think that fits the definition of feminism, at least the last time I looked."
Adrienne Slick, the former IPA employee, says she's disappointed in any politician who would take or keep money from IPA. "This is not something that should be taken lightly, and to accept those funds makes a statement," she told NBC.
The EEOC lawyers would not comment on any aspect of the political donations, and confined their remarks solely to the lawsuit.Clinton Campaign Response:Wolfson dismissed the notion that keeping IPA money reflected a lack of concern about sexual harassment. "Sen. Clinton is proud of her long record of championing women's causes," he said. "When the EEOC rules on the allegations involving Burgess, we will consider that outcome in assessing if there is any reason to return his contribution." Of the $170,000 total in donations from all IPA officials and employees, Burgess and his family members personally contributed $16,000 to Sen. Clinton, campaign records show.
IPA Reaction:For its part, IPA vigorously denies any wrongdoing and said it has been fighting the EEOC lawsuit for more than six years. "Since a lawsuit was filed in June 2001, IPA has continually and consistently denied the allegations," IPA spokeswoman Jennifer Cumbee wrote in an email to NBC News. "At IPA, we have zero tolerance approach when it comes to sexual harassment."
Cumbee added: "This involves primarily claims by persons who worked a short time in the mid- to late 90s (although there are some persons who worked after that). Immediately after the lawsuit was filed and by early 2001, IPA in an abundance of caution had its sexual harassment policy completely revised by competent outside professionals."
She says, "IPA has had no unresolved claim of harassment for several years now and any one of its 2,000 employees who violate the policy, after investigation, is dealt with swiftly." She would not comment directly on Slick’s claims, citing employee confidentiality. She said that the EEOC already has dropped some claimants from the suit. “All employee claims have been contested as many have no witnesses or records or current complaints,” Cumbee said.
The IPA spokeswoman did not dispute that Burgess had a criminal record from his days in New York. "All that you have asked, in regards to John Burgess, is a matter of public record," she wrote. “Mr. Burgess is not a felon and was never convicted or pled to a felony.” She said that it would be unfair to judge Burgess on two-decade-old crimes, and pointed out that Burgess and IPA are solid employers who donate generously to charities.