Why did they foreclose?

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Occupy Atlanta Encamps In Neighborhood To Save Police Officer’s Home From Foreclosure

Occupy Atlanta has repeatedly run into hurdles, as it has been evicted from Woodruff Park in Atlanta multiple times by the city’s unsympathetic mayor, Kasim Reed. Yet the group was invigorated yesterday as it moved to a new location to take action for economic justice.

Last week, Tawanna Rorey’s husband, a police officer based in Gwinnett County, e-mailed Occupy Atlanta to explain that his home was going to be foreclosed on and his family was in danger of being evicted on Monday. So within a few hours Occupy Atlanta developed an action plan to move to Snellville, Georgia on Monday to stop the foreclosure. At least two dozen protesters encamped on the family’s lawn, to the applause of neighbors and bystanders:

Nearly two dozen protesters assembled Monday afternoon at Tawanna Rorey’s four-bedroom home in a neighborhood just south of Snellville, clogging the narrow, winding street that runs in front of the house with cars, vans and TV trucks. Many neighbors stopped to gawk at the spectacle and even honked their car horns in support of the crowd. [...] [The protesters] set up two tents in the front yard, draped a “This Home is Occupied” sign over the porch railing and handed out bottled water and granola bars to other members.

The Sheriff’s Department did not come to evict the Roreys that day. A spokesman for the department told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the foreclosure process is still ongoing and that it has not scheduled an eviction. “It’s a good cause,” said Diona Murray, one of the Roreys’ neighbors, about the occupation. “If we don’t take a stand, who will?”

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I don’t know about you but the first thing I thought when I read this story was “Why did they foreclose?”

I watched the video, clicked through to the original story, and even checked out the posts of the usual suspects who were linking to this story at Memeorandum. Bupkis.

Not one mention of WHY the bank foreclosed.

If you borrow money to buy a house and then fail to repay the loan, what is “economic justice?”

I feel sorry for the family but what is the bank supposed to do? “Never mind, keep the house, don’t worry about the loan!“

So Occupy Atlanta camps out there in the people’s yard. Then what?

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They came, they saw, they put it out

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Occupy Vancouver built a sacred/forbidden fire in a 55 gallon barrel. Vancouver FD and PD entered the park, moved protesters out of the way, put out the fire and took the barrel. The protesters were left weeping, wailing and gnashing their teeth.

No tear gas, no batons, no arrests. Lots of drama, very little trauma. They should make a reality television show with this stuff. They could get that annoying guy from American Idol to host.

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The Best Game of Chicken Ever

He's all in now

Herman Cain offered no alternative histories. He offered no apologies. He had no stories to recall. His denial was that nothing happened.

The media loves the idea of proving a negative. If nothing happened, why can’t Cain produce evidence of that? One idiot reporter asked if he would undergo a lie detector test. Not a bad idea, but exactly what questions would prove he was telling the truth? What if one of the accusers passed one? You’re back to square one.

George W. Bush had the same problem with the National Guard Memo. Some disgruntled Democrat created a memo out of thin air using the default settings in Microsoft Word and CBS held onto it like a junkyard dog (fake but accurate) until the story actually improved Bush’s standing. Luckily, the veracity of the document became so questionable that a few conservative websites were able to prove a nearly impossible scenario, if not a negative. Then again, some politicians just play chicken. Gary Hart dared the press to follow him around, and they found some Money Business.

Now Cain has laid down his marker. He’s either innocent and these allegations will fall apart or he’s guilty and some real evidence will show itself. I don’t for one minute think that he’s both a major sleazeball and managed to hide all evidence of the fact. Those two things just don’t go together.

Trespass Oakland

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Occupy Oakland’s new target – foreclosed buildings

Now that their general strike is over, Occupy Oakland activists are looking for a new initiative to keep the momentum rolling – and their gaze is turning toward taking over foreclosed or abandoned buildings.

The subject came up in earnest in group meetings over the past couple of days, and conversations have narrowed down not to whether Occupy activists should take over empty buildings, but when and how.

“It’s a very important front for the Occupy movement all over this country, and if any one city can set a precedent for taking over foreclosed buildings, the idea will then quickly spread,” said Adrian Dyer, an Occupy organizer. “The key is to improve what we occupy, to do it right, to set a good example.”

City officials are predictably unenthusiastic. The one takeover so far of an empty building left a bad taste.

That takeover came late Wednesday after tens of thousands of people had staged a largely peaceful general strike, shutting down the Port of Oakland. As many as 100 black-clad protesters took over a vacant building at 16th Street and Broadway, and when police moved in, the activists heaved rocks and other missiles. Police responded with tear gas, and more than 100 people were arrested.

Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana had a blunt statement about the proposed occupation of buildings: “It will not be tolerated.”

Business groups were confounded that campers would sanction such an activity.

“It’s lawlessness,” said Joe Haraburda, president of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. “How about if you were a building owner and somebody took over your property? What gives them the right to do that?”

Some people think that “seizing an abandoned building seems brilliant.” Some people are idiots need to study law.

Let’s just say the banks really are scared of OWS and are looking for an excuse to crush the movement. There’s not a whole lot they can do as long at the protesters stay on public property.

But once OWS moves onto private property they are trespassing. The property owners can use force, sue, obtain injunctions and demand assistance from the police. If the police refuse to help they can sue the city. Not only that but the protesters lose any 1st amendment protection they previously had.

The protesters also open the door to conspiracy and even burglary charges. If they do occupy empty buildings then sooner or later (probably sooner) there will be vandalism and arson fires. Lots of bad P.R.

Protesters won’t get arrested for misdemeanors and cited out. They’ll be booked on felony charges and have to post bail. Try getting a job to pay off your student loans with a felony conviction on your record.

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Tinfoil Tuesday: Reader’s Choice

Poll inspired by HelenK

Finney, Neblett and the scary black love machine

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MSNBC’s Karen Finney: Will GOP Rally Around Cain Despite Accuser Being White?

MSNBC commentator Karen Finney waded into the muddied waters of sexual politics and miscegenation on Monday’s Martin Bashir. “It’s going to be fascinating to see how this story unfolds over the next several days and particularly interesting to see how our friends on the right handle the accusations from these women in conjunction with how they handled Anita Hill.” “What do you mean, Karen?” Bashir pressed. “Look, I think it will be interesting to see if these guys rally around Herman Cain with as much voracity as they have these last couple of weeks now that it’s clear that a whole other layer of black sexuality has been infused into this,” Finney explained. “Also remember these women were ten years younger than we’re seeing them now. So that whole power dynamic. This is an older man, this younger women. White women, Black man.”

“It’s very jarring for the GOP, for anybody, I think, to see a black man be sexually aggressive in an unwanted way toward a blonde, white — especially a blonde, white woman,” added Touré. “One thing you have to keep in mind here is that this is not a real campaign. He is not really competing for the presidency! He’s competing for branding, television jobs, speaking jobs, book jobs. Just stay on the stage as long as possible, doesn’t matter how many arrows are in you, just stay on the stage, that’s all that matters for him.”

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Just when you think they can’t sink any lower . . .

Here’s my opinion on Herman Cain and the sexual harassment allegations against him:

I don’t know and I don’t really care. The “facts” are virtually non-existent and pretty much irrelevant at this point. People who want to believe he is innocent will believe he is innocent. People who want to believe he’s guilty will believe he’s guilty. The rest of us will never be sure one way or the other.

I’m not planning on wasting any more time discussing it. Either his candidacy will survive or it won’t.

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Where did the money go?

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Let’s say it’s 1986, you’re in your mid-twenties and you and your spouse decide to buy a home for you and your two young children. You live in a medium-large city and you both have good jobs. With a little help from your parents and in-laws you manage to get a modest 3 bedroom tract home for $100,000, most of which you finance with a 30 year mortgage.

About fifteen years later you borrow against your home’s equity to put your kids through college. You support them and pay their tuitions at a nice (but not great) university. This costs you approximately $100,000 but you don’t mind.

In 2006 both your kids have finished school and are starting new careers. You and your spouse have a house bigger than your needs and you’ve grown tired of the rat race. You want to move to a smaller community with a slower pace of life.

A realtor tells you your home is now worth $300,000. If you sell it you can pay off your first and second mortgages along with your credit card debts and have enough left over to buy a small home in the rural community where you grew up nearly free and clear.

You sell the house and move. You’re not retired, but your financial situation allows you and your spouse to take lower-paying jobs without reducing your standard of living. You’re both in your early fifties and looking forward to early retirement.

One problem. You sold your old house at the peak of the housing bubble. Now that the bubble has popped the house is worth $100,000 again, and the new buyer walked away from it leaving the bank holding the note.

Are you going to give back your $200,000 ill-gotten gain?

There is a lot of anger at the housing crash and bankers are an easy target. While they certainly deserve their fair share of blame, they weren’t the only ones who cashed in during the boom.

Realtors, appraisers, inspectors, construction contractors, building supply stores, painters, roofers, and landscapers are just some of the people who profited from the housing boom. It was all good for years, then the music stopped.

People bought books and paid to go to seminars on how to “flip this house” and get rich quick. It was like a nation-wide Ponzi scheme. The people who got out before the bubble popped made out like bandits. Everyone else got left holding the bag.

Lots of people walked away from underwater mortgages. Lots of others tried or are trying to hold on to properties they can’t afford. What are we supposed to do about it?

Some people think the government should step in and fix things so they can keep their homes and have some or all of their debt forgiven. “I can’t pay my $2,000 month mortgage but I want to keep my house anyway!”

The “show the note” defense to foreclosure is based on the fact that sloppy recording practices make it hard for some banks to prove they hold the note to a property. But the hard fact is that in most of those cases the buyers really are in default and will never be able to catch up.

The banks didn’t hold a gun on anybody and tell them to borrow money. They didn’t force anyone to run up thousands of dollars in credit card debt. They didn’t make anyone take out student loans for a degree in interpretive dance.

I have no problem with investigating the housing crash and jailing those who deserve it. But a lot of what took place was legal, and the constitution prohibits ex post facto laws. We can and should make those practices illegal in the future, and we should also break up any bank that is “too big to fail.”

Banks will not change the way they do business no matter how many protesters march up and down Wall Street. They will change their ways when the law is changed. Law making takes place in Washington D.C., not New York City.

BTW – No investigation will take place while the candidate from Wall Street sits in the Oval Office.

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364 to go

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Our federal election day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November on even-numbered years. Today is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in an odd-numbered year.

That means 52 weeks from today is election day. Presidential elections are held during leap years. 2012 is a leap year.

November 6, 2012 – the one we have been waiting for.

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