Home Loan Scamming Is Still Going Strong -- and Now You're Paying for It

Home Loan Scamming Is Still Going Strong -- and Now You're Paying for It
Everything the real estate industry tells you is a hustle. No industry is more geared toward pumping up the positive and burying anything remotely negative, leaving you -- and truth -- out in the cold.

The crash has not made real estate agents any more honest, but at least the gap between the industry's crazed optimism and stark reality has grown so obvious that even the real estate industry can't hide it anymore.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in Victorville, Calif., an exurb of Los Angeles situated in the high desert where housing bubbled up higher than just about anywhere at the peak of the subprime-lending craze and is still in free fall today.

These days, there are a lot of lies and broken dreams buried in the gravelly sand on which Victorville was built. During the last real estate boom, this barren wasteland was the mecca of low-income homeownership, proof that the American Dream was within reach of all.

Tract-home developers stripped away the rocks and tumbleweeds and Joshua trees, replacing them with mazes of curvy streets and cul de sacs with soothing names like Cottontail Drive, Steeplechase Road and Ladybird Lane, lining them with the cheapest McMansions in California. Things exploded out of control this past decade, with the population doubling to 100,000 in just eight years.

But that whole way of life is over now. Unemployment in Victorville is way above the national average, and violent crime has shot up. Homes prices have plunged to 1989 levels and many stand empty. Banks don't even bother to putting them on the market.

Yet, last week, the press started hyping up the supposed real estate sales-driven economic turnaround that was about to sweep the country. "Honk if You Think It's Over," read a June 7 New York Times headline. "The panic in the Manhattan real estate market of the winter of 2009 lifted in the last few weeks, brokers say, as more and more buyers and sellers have found the courage and the comfort level to sign on the dotted line."

The Washington Post went even further: "Economists, senior government officials and ordinary consumers are all showing greater confidence in the outlook for the economy. ... There are unquestionable signs of economic progress." ABC News went with a rhetorical structure: "Has the Recession Finally Ended? Strong Home Sales Are Just One Indicator That the Economy May Be on the Mend."

From where I sit, this reads like pure fiction. It runs contrary to virtually every economic piece of data available: rising unemployment, growing credit card debt, a massive shadow inventory of foreclosed homes and a wave of defaulting ARM and commercial loans that's just around the corner.

But there is something else, too. And it is as deadly to our vampiric debtor economy as a stake through the heart: the FHA loan. By guaranteeing certain mortgages, the Federal Housing Administration has been helping middle- and low-income Americans purchase their first homes ever since the 1930s.

But this modest leg-up program has been been hijacked and transformed into the new subprime-loan market operated by lenders who are as corrupt, predatory and shortsighted as the original, and maybe even more so. Because this time taxpayers have been put on the hook for the risk well in advance. Real-estate insiders have been sounding the alarm about this new shadow subprime mortgage market -- which is now almost $600 billion strong -- for months now. But instead of listening, Congress has been trying to expand the FHA loan program.

Not surprisingly, it seems that risk-free loans are the only way they banks can be persuaded to start lending again. But I wanted to find out firsthand how much of an impact these loans were having on the housing market. So last weekend, I shaved, put on a clean shirt and headed out for a day of shopping in Victorville.

Around here, it is much easier to shop for a brand new home than to find someone who will show you one of the many foreclosed ones. You don't need to make an appointment with a real estate agent, hunt down open houses on a Sunday afternoon or attend auctions. All you have to do is take a drive any day of the week during normal business hours and look out for the huge signs plastered around town. They are not easy to miss.

It took me five minutes to spot a new development on the very edge of Victorville's sprawl. The sign was dark green and advertised a development called "Braeburn at West Creek," with luxurious and spacious homes offered for around $200,000. The development had a quiet, upper-class suburb feel to it: new cars, landscaped lawns, no traffic and wide streets. Passing a group of kids playing basketball in the middle of one of the streets, I pulled up in front of the Braeburn sales office, built into the garage of a model two-story McMansion painted a trendy brown.

It was 3 p.m. on Saturday, prime house-hunting time. With all this buying activity the industry was reporting, I half-expected to run into other bargain shoppers like myself. But I was the only customer in the real estate office.

"Hello! Have you come to see the houses?" a chipper female voice yelped from a distant corner of the office. "Give me a second, I'll be right out." I couldn't get a visual on her. It was huge, this garage -- er, office -- big enough to hold three cars, easily the size of a decent apartment. Schematic drawings hung on the walls showing all the wonderful house configurations you could order.

That was when the voice appeared in human form: a blond middle-aged woman emerged from a corner office with a bundle of keys. Braeburn had three floor plans to choose from, she quickly started explaining. But I could only look at two of them. The third was still under construction. But if I wanted to, I could drive around and look at it: "It is quite far along in the building process."

The homes were all quite similar: all three had two floors, four to five bedrooms and range of 2,454 to 2,765 square feet. All of them had what's called a "great room," something you see in new home developments that combines the kitchen, living and dining rooms into one great open space.

"We have sold 105 homes so far, and I have about 30 homes left," the agent said, whipping out a photocopy list of Braeburn's homes, complete with lot numbers. "Right now we are headed into this cul de sac. This is our last cul de sac." The rest of the homes would be built on mere streets. She circled homes numbered 85 through 98 surrounding a dead end street called Window Rock Court.

"This is a nice neighborhood. I have a few foreclosures in here, but if you drive the neighborhood and ask the people, they'll tell you how they like it here. And how they are real comfortable. I got some correctional officers here, LAPD, teachers from the school."

Jesus, I thought. What a neighborhood. Prison guards, cops and their school-teacher wives. All die-hard small-government Republicans, no doubt. And all in government employ. The last gainfully employed people in this country, and they're always talking shit about their employer, Big Government.

"But go look at the houses for yourself first. We can talk about it when you go back."

The model homes were fully furnished, and looked like they came out of a Martha Stewart magazine with a theme of "the antique and modern in harmony." I had to hand it to them, it worked. It felt like home, as long as you didn't look out of the master bedroom window. The mini-highway and a barren desert wasteland dotted with high-voltage power lines squashed that comfort feeling.

These houses were clearly a step up from the entry-level McMansion I lived in just a few blocks away. But were they worth the extra $100,000 that you could be saving if you tried to get one of few foreclosed properties that are on the market? The sales lady assured me they were, and besides I'd never get a house for that price in Victorville.

"I have a lot of people coming in here that have been bidding on foreclosures until they are sick of it. They bid and they bid and they bid, and 20 other people are bidding, too. You throw a number out, and you never get anywhere. So they say 'I want my tax credit. I want my new home. I'm gonna pick my own carpet. I know it's under 10-year structural warranty and two-year cosmetic warranty.' "

Are the news reports about the increase in home sales true, I asked. She nodded. "I've been here for three years. Last year was really slow going, but this year has been really good. I've had four sales last month, three sales the month before that. First-time home buyers, that's what I'm getting. People are like ‘prices are down, the rates are low ... time for me to get a house.' So why not? People are not afraid of getting into homeownership. So that's a good sign, right?"

Of course, I nodded. Great for the economy. Great for Victorville. But the longer we talked, the more obvious it was FHA loans were at the core of a real estate scam of frightening proportions that was reinflating the real estate bubble with taxpayers' money, all in the name of economic recovery.

NBC's Guthrie falsely suggests AMA represents "the nation's doctors"

NBC's Guthrie falsely suggests AMA represents "the nation's doctors"
Savannah Guthrie falsely suggested that the American Medical Association represents all of "the nation's doctors." In fact, the AMA represents about 29 percent of licensed U.S. doctors, according to the AMA's own figures.



During the June 15 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, NBC News White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie falsely suggested that the American Medical Association (AMA) represents all of "the nation's doctors." In fact, the AMA -- which reportedly stated to Congress that it opposed "a public health insurance option" before backtracking from that position -- represents about 29 percent of licensed U.S. doctors, according to the AMA's own figures. Moreover, other doctors' groups, including the National Physicians Alliance and Physicians for a National Health Program, support some form of additional public insurance, as The Washington Post's Ezra Klein has noted.

....As Klein noted in a June 11 washingtonpost.com blog entry, the National Physicians Alliance supports "a public plan," and Physicians for a National Health Program is in favor of a "single-payer" system of health care

CNN's Townsend -- a former Bush adviser -- attacks DHS report for claims made by Bush admin

CNN's Townsend -- a former Bush adviser -- attacks DHS report for claims made by Bush
admin

SUMMARY: CNN's Fran Townsend attacked an Obama administration report alerting law enforcement that "rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans"; Wolf Blitzer did not point out that the Bush administration, which Townsend worked for, had issued a report in 2008 drawing a similar conclusion.


During the June 10 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend, former President Bush's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, attacked an Obama administration report alerting law enforcement that "rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans," claiming that there was "no real intelligence to support" the claim. However, host Wolf Blitzer did not point out that the Bush administration, which Townsend worked for, had issued a report in 2008 drawing a similar conclusion.

As Media Matters for America has noted, in the July 2008 report, titled "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11," the FBI's Counterterrorism Division found with "[h]igh confidence" that "[m]ilitary experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as the result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes." The report further stated: "A review of FBI white supremacist extremist cases from October 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with confirmed or claimed military service active in the extremist movement at some time during the reporting period." It also stated: "According to FBI information, an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9 percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

From the June 10 edition of CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:

BLITZER: We spend so much time worrying and focusing in on Al Qaeda, Middle East terrorists -- and for good reason, after what happened on 9-11 -- but a lot of folks forget what happened at the Oklahoma City federal office building only a few years earlier.

These were homegrown terrorists. This is a real serious problem. Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary, addressed it directly only a few weeks ago, when she -- she suggested, let's not forget homegrown terrorists.

TOWNSEND: That's right. I mean, she was criticized, Wolf, because she actually brought particular focus to veterans returning from the war overseas. And there was rightful debate about how bona fide her concern about that group of returning veterans was. There was no real intelligence to support there being a threat from that community.

But domestic terrorism, as you call it, homegrown terrorism, is a huge priority for the Federal Bureau of Investigations. They make arrests every year, as I mentioned, particularly environmental radical groups that turn violent or destroy property.

This is, of course, much worse. And I -- I think it's important that this begin, as Janet Langhart Cohen suggested, a public debate. We need to label as evil the speech that inspires this sort of hate.

Conservatives link Obama's purported "class warfare," "positioning America against the Jewish state" to Holocaust Museum shooting

Conservatives link Obama's purported "class warfare," "positioning America against the Jewish state" to Holocaust Museum shooting

SUMMARY: Several media conservatives have criticized President Obama for creating an "environment" and "climate" that helped foster the recent shooting at the Holocaust Museum.


In their reactions to the June 10 shooting at the Holocaust Museum, several conservatives in the media have criticized President Obama for creating an "environment" and "climate" that helped foster the shooting. For instance, financial analyst and radio host Jim Lacamp said on Fox News that "we have an administration that's really done a lot of class warfare, a lot of class-baiting. And so, it sets the stage for social unrest"; syndicated radio host Tammy Bruce repeatedly claimed that the Obama administration's "increasing anti-Israel rhetoric and the pandering to the Jew-hating world Arab world ... encourages all the beasts among us"; and Newsmax.com posted a column claiming that "[i]t is no coincidence that we are witnessing this level of hatred toward Jews as President Barack Obama positions America against the Jewish state."

During the June 10 edition of Fox News' Your World, Lacamp said that the Obama administration has engaged in "class warfare" and in "a lot of class-baiting," which he said he's "very concerned about moving forward":

West Va. Supreme Court Affirms Toxic Coal Silo as Wonderful Playground

West Va. Supreme Court Affirms Toxic Coal Silo as Wonderful Playground
While coal may now be the official rock of West Virginia, it might soon become the official school vegetable, too. Call it organic clean coal.

On the heels of being reprimanded by the US Supreme Court this week for allowing one of its Massey coal company-bankrolled justices to refuse to recuse himself on Massey coal-related court matters, the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision to allow the construction of another controversial coal silo within yards of the Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West Virginia. The WV Supreme Court (this time without the recused justice) made their ruling on a very narrow technicality.

As always, Ken Ward has the full story at the Coal Tattoo blog.

According to Vernon Haltom of the Coal River Mountain Watch: "The West Virginia Supreme Court has once again proven that coal company profits outweigh law, science, justice, and basic human decency. The court has given Massey Energy the go-ahead to put more tons of fine coal dust in the air that children breathe every school day during their crucial development years. Placing a second coal silo within 300 feet of the school is a clear violation of the intent of the law, which is to protect the public. Now, more than ever, Governor Joe Manchin and the Raleigh County School Board must do everything in their extensive power and influence to get these kids a safe new school in their own community."

The Marsh Fork Elementary School might be the poster child for everything that is wrong about our failed mining policies: Only a few football fields downslope of a 2.8 billion gallon coal sludge impoundment, the school and its children are also subjected to the toxic coal dust within a football field of their playground.

The Supreme Court Why Women Matter

The Supreme Court Why Women Matter
While the media wallowed in the mush-brained nattering over a few out-of-context statements said to reveal Judge Sonia Sotomayor as "racist," something interesting was happening over at the place where she aspires to work.

We saw a quick glimpse of why her gender is every bit as important to the Supreme Court as her heritage. Given the stubborn issues still facing women today, perhaps even more so.

In a case brought by four women against AT&T, the Court ruled that decades-old pregnancy leaves taken under old pension rules do not have to be counted in calculating pension payouts.

It was a small case, with limited immediate impact. Business won and women lost - by a vote of seven to two.

One of those dissenting was the lone woman on the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Justice Ginsburg, who says her tireless support of workplace equality was shaped by her own professional struggles, wrote: "Certain attitudes about pregnancy and childbirth throughout human history have sustained pervasive, often law-sanctioned, restrictions on a woman's place among paid workers and active citizens."

The question is: does that kind of gender identification have a place in the land's highest court? Simple answer: yes.

Even though the Court refutes it, and Judge Sotomayor was attacked for saying it, the Court does make policy. Just ask all the retirement-age women who will see each pension check for the rest of their lives reduced by the length of their long-ago pregnancy leave.

Whether they are made, affirmed or changed, national policy must reflect the fact that the community the Court directs and protects is 50.7 percent women. Those women still feel the pull of centuries of lesser-citizenship, where the first meaningful equal-pay legislation is just months old, and where one seated Justice is there largely because of a viscous smear campaign against a woman who questioned his moral fitness to serve.

We are not talking about symbolic diversity. We are not talking about role models and success stories. We are talking about bringing a kind of life perspective to the court that will not find its way there on its own.

Women like Justice Ginsberg and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who have fought their own battles against workplace inequality come out of those battles with a unique appreciation for the pain.

The same is true for gender's judicial flashpoint. If men got pregnant, reproductive choice would be in the Bill of Rights - if not a sacrament. Yet, we were are a vote or two shy of limiting or denying that choice. Women will see that threat as no man possibly can.

Perspectives impact rulings.

A recent study of federal appeals court judges by academics at Northwestern University and Washington University found that female judges are 10 percent more likely to rule in favor of women bringing sex discrimination suits. And when female and male judges hear a case together, the male judges are 15 percent more likely to rule for the plaintiff then when the judges are all men.

The Court recently heard arguments in a suit brought by a 19-year old woman who, as a 13-year old honor student, was strip-searched by school nurses who were looking for prescription-strength Ibuprofen (none was found). The male justices treated it as trivial - even amusing. Justice Stephen Breyer said: "In my experience, when I was eight or 10 or 12 years old, you know, we did take our clothes off once a day, we changed for gym, OK?"

Reports of Justice Ginsberg's obvious exasperation during the arguments were followed by a USA Today interview, where she said of her fellow Justices: "They have never been a 13 year-old girl. It's a very sensitive age for a girl. I didn't think my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."

Understanding other lives is not the forte of homogeneous groups.

In the same 2001 speech where she praised the decision making ability of a "wise Latina," a remark that so inflamed the right, Judge Sotomayor also said something that has gone largely unreported. "I accept the thesis," she said, "of... Professor Steven Carter of Yale Law School...that in any group of human beings there is a diversity of opinion because there is both a diversity of experiences and of thought."

As the court grapples with issues that can change the lives of tens of millions of women, those female experiences and thoughts must have a place in the debate. And the only path to securing that place is through more women on the Court.

Republican killer claims that more anti-abortion violence is ‘planned around the country.’

Tiller’s accused killer claims that more anti-abortion violence is ‘planned around the country.’

This past weekend, abortion providers from across the country gathered in Wichita, Kan. to attend the funeral the of Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered last month. On the same weekend, the man accused of murdering Tiller told the AP that “similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal”:

Scott Roeder mugshotScott Roeder called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail, where he’s being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. George Tiller one week ago.

“I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal,” Roeder said. When asked by the AP what he meant and if he was referring to another shooting, he refused to elaborate further.

It wasn’t clear whether Roeder knew of any impending violence or whether he was simply seeking publicity for his cause. Law enforcement authorities including the Justice Department said they didn’t know whether the threat was credible.

The Justice Department told the AP that Roeder’s “threat was being taken seriously and additional protection had been ordered for abortion clinics.” Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder dispatched U.S. Marshalls to protect “appropriate people and facilities around the nation” in the wake of Tiller’s murder.
UpdateRoeder also complained about the “deplorable conditions” in his jail cell, complaining that it was freezing. “I started having a bad cough. I thought I was going to have pneumonia,” he said.