HorsesAss.Org

Everyone in the country gets to pay for the $700 billion Hank Paulson slush fund, and if you’re a Countrywide customer in good standing you get to pay some more.

Washington residents who got mortgages through Countrywide and who already lost their homes to foreclosure will be eligible for money, said Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, who will discuss the settlement this morning at a news conference.

“This is a very large and important first step in helping to stop the cycle,” McKenna said. “We are going to put the brakes on that downward spiral.”

McKenna said Countrywide used predatory lending practices similar to those found in investigations of other large lenders across the country. They issued loans to people who couldn’t afford them by falsely inflating borrowers’ incomes, used hidden fees and made deceptive marketing claims, saying, for example, a loan had “no closing costs,” when borrowers were actually paying closing costs.

To be honest, at least this plan actually seems to be addressing the heart of the problem, namely bad mortgages caused by a combination of ARM’s, industry fraud and overreaching by home buyers during a bubble.

You can call this situation a lot of things, but you can’t call it free market capitalism. Someone always has to pay, and the money for this plan appears to be coming from Countrywide customers and Bank of American customers. (As an aside, it’s a curious fact that consumers are allowed no choice about whom to do business with when it comes to home loans, no? They just buy your loan and you get no say.)

The details of the plan seem to make sense, but are still maddening:

Rates could decline to 2.5 percent, depending upon a borrower’s ability to pay, and remain at that level for five years. Then the rate would adjust to prevailing interest rates charged by Fannie Mae on its fixed-rate mortgages.

The program will focus on borrowers placed in the riskiest loans, including adjustable-rate mortgages whose interest rates reset significantly several years after the loans were made.

Pay-option mortgages, under which a borrower must pay only a small fraction of the interest and principal, thereby allowing the loan balance to increase, are also included in the modifications.

Borrowers whose first payment was due between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2007, can participate. The loan balance must be at least 75 percent of the current value of the home, and the borrower must be able to afford the adjusted monthly payments.

So the reward for resisting outrageously risky ARM’s and paying your mortgage on time is that you get to enjoy severe declines in the stock market, including IRA’s and 401(k) plans, decline in the amount of equity in your home, a shaky job market and higher prices for everyday items like food and fuel.

Now, I know not everyone is impacted equally. There are plenty of folks out there who don’t have much in the way of savings and investments, and an Obama administration and a “more and better” Congress will need to look hard at issues like real wages. In bad economic times, the working poor always take it in the shins.

Sadly, there’s really little choice in the matter of Countrywide. The politicians, though, will have to forgive we plebeians if we’re wondering why our families don’t get a special low interest rate and maybe some principal knocked off our mortgage. Hell, we’d settle for a nice four-figure contribution to the old college fund, which is looking rather battered at the moment.

Some people might be concluding that paying on a loan is a sucker’s game. Not my family, of course, because we believe in old-fashioned progressive values like honesty and personal responsibility, but there is a palpable sense of frustration out on the hustings. Our government and large portions of corporate America need to clean up their act, big time.

So, the McCain campaign wants to take off the gloves, and try to turn the conversation away from the economy and on to Barack Obama’s “associations“…?  Well two can play at that game.

Learn more about Keating Economics.

The Buildergate scandal takes a new twist this morning as former Washington State Supreme Court Justices Faith Ireland and Robert Utter filed notice with Attorney General Rob McKenna of their intent to bring suit against Republican gubernatorial challenger Dino Rossi, alleging illegal campaign coordination with the Building Industry Association of Washingtion (BIAW) and its political committees.  They also filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court claiming that the BIAW’s coordination with Rossi disqualify it from making “independent” expenditures in the 2008 gubernatorial.

These dramatic legal developments could have a huge impact on the gubernatorial race.  The BIAW has already spent over $2 million on behalf of Rossi this year, mostly smearing Governor Chris Gregoire, and plans to spend an additional $700,000 during the final weeks of the campaign.  The justices are asking that further “over limit” expenditures be barred by court order.

These suits are just the latest in a widening Buildergate scandal for which the BIAW is already being prosecuted, in a case stemming from Utter and Ireland’s original October, 2008 complaint.  But while McKenna is pursuing the BIAW for numerous “egregious” campaign finance and reporting violations, he took no action on the assertion that the BIAW improperly coordinated its activities with Rossi, thus prompting Utter and Ireland to bring suit on their own.

In a joint statement, the two retired justices—both appointed to the bench by Republican governors—outline both the evidence behind their allegations, and their motivation for seeking enforcement.

The evidence upon which we base our legal action can be construed to show that Dino Rossi was not just a beneficiary of these illegal activities, but was a knowing and active participant.  The evidence shows, moreover, that the attack ads of the BIAW are not really “independent” of their beneficiary Dino Rossi.  This is because Dino Rossi helped the BIAW to amass the war chest for these attack ads.

This is an important issue for all races.  Special interests are increasingly supporting candidates through “independent expenditures” that are not subject to contribution limits.  These “independent” campaigns also tend to contain the most vicious and dubious negative attacks, since the benefitting candidate can say that they have no control over these messages.  It is critical to enforce the law that prohibits candidates from providing fundraising assistance to or otherwise coordinating with “independent” committees.

The fact that Dino Rossi had not publicly declared his candidacy when this alleged coordination took place is not a defense.  A person becomes a candidate when he helps a political committee to amass a war chest to support his candidacy.  And the evidence suggests this is what happened here.

If this coordination took place, then the BIAW’s expenditures would not qualify as an independent expenditure, and would be legally limited to $2,800.  The millions of dollars of attack ads that have blanketed our airwaves would be illegal, and further expenditures should be enjoined.

Washington campaign laws are in place to ensure our elections are fair, that all candidates know what they are facing from their opponents in terms of campaign financing. These rules are there to ensure that special interests cannot buy their way into a legislative process designed to serve and protect the interests of all citizens. Without enforcement our laws are meaningless.

When the Buildergate scandal broke last week, the Rossi campaign tried to dismiss it as frivolous, partisan electioneering, a sentiment that seemed to ooze into some of the press coverage (the Seattle Times, for their part, ignored the story entirely), but remember, these are two retired Supreme Court justices making the charges, and like their original complaint, for which the BIAW is now being prosecuted, their legal arguments seem to be fairly airtight.

In fact, Rossi has publicly admitted the action at the heart of this scandal, that he called board members of the Master Builders Association in May of 2007, when they were considering a request to contribute to the BIAW’s “fund for Rossi.”  Rossi excuses his actions:

“I didn’t ask them to put money anywhere but it would have been perfectly OK for me to do that because I wasn’t even a candidate.”

But as Utter and Ireland point out in a FAQ posted to the website of attorney Knoll Lowney, Rossi’s claimed defense is little more than a distinction without a difference.  State law and prior Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) advisories make it clear that a candidate does not have to ask for a specific dollar amount to be involved in fundraising, and the very act of participating in such activity, even on behalf of a so-called “independent” campaign, automatically makes one a candidate by definition.

Indeed, back in June of 2004, the BIAW asked the PDC for an opinion on this very issue, to which the commissioners replied without equivocation:

One of the most fundamental ways a candidate could encourage a person to purchase political advertising supporting that candidate is to help make sure that person has sufficient funds to undertake an effective advertising effort. Assisting a PAC in fundraising fosters that committee’s ability to make the political advertising expenditure benefiting the candidate. As such, the PAC expenditure is not sufficiently removed from the candidate to qualify as an independent expenditure.
…
That collaboration disqualifies any resulting expenditure from the definition of independent expenditure.

You really can’t get any clearer than that.

Buildergate is shaping up to be a classic political scandal, and like most such scandals, it’s the coverup that will eventually bring down the perpetrators, for had the BIAW properly reported its activities like it knew it should have, we may never have known about Rossi’s illegal coordination.

With most of the BIAW’s warchest already spent, there may not be time for the courts to impose any meaningful sanctions, so the only question remaining is whether Rossi will suffer the consequences of his unethical and illegal behavior before the election, or after?  I await to see if our local media will fulfill their obligations as public watchdogs, or merely resort to the kind of half-hearted stenography on this scandal we’ve seen thus far.

Woke up to find the Dow down over 500 points, under 10,000 for the first time in four years.  Maybe we should just buy Dow Jones, and jigger the index?

UPDATE:
Somebody should do a remake of that memorable “crying Indian” ad from the 70’s, on it should be Dino Rossi shedding a tear at the sight of industrial polluters being forced by DOE to clean up their mess.

Maybe Miss Congeniality would like to discuss American history with me? ‘Cause, you know, (wink) mean people suck and all.

Ohio.

Now:

Then Palin met with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger at his consulting firm’s offices for what was perhaps her most substantive meeting of the day. Palin talked for more than an hour with Kissinger, who tutored President Bush during his first White House campaign and has kept in close contact with him through his presidency.

And then:

Document 3: Kissinger and General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., 9 December 1970, 8:50 p.m.
Source: Nixon Presidential Materials Project, Henry A. Kissinger Telephone Conversations Transcripts, Home File, Box 29, File 2, 106-10

A few minutes later after receiving Nixon’s call on Cambodia, Kissinger telephoned his military assistant Alexander Haig about the orders from “our friend.” After he described Nixon’s instructions for a “massive bombing campaign” involving “anything that flys [or] anything that moves”, the notetaker apparently heard Haig “laughing.” Both Haig and Kissinger knew that what Nixon had ordered was logistically and politically impossible so they translated it into a plan for massive bombing in a particular district (not identifiable because the text is incomplete). These two phone calls illustrate an important feature of the Nixon-Kissinger relationship: while Nixon would, from time to time, make preposterous suggestions (no doubt depending on his mood), Kissinger would later decide whether there was a rational kernel in what Nixon had said and whether or how to follow up on it.

After all, we’re only ordinary men:

Thirty-three years ago the US Air Force began a secret B-52 bombardment of Cambodia. In 1973, Congress imposed a halt on the campaign. But nearly half of its 540,000 tons of bombs fell in the last six months. The Secretary of the Air Force later said that President Richard Nixon “wanted to send a hundred more B-52’s. This was appalling. You couldn’t even figure out where you were going to put them all…”

The civilian toll was massive. In l970 a US aerial and tank attack in Kompong Cham province took 200 lives. In 1971, the town of Angkor Borei was heavily bombed, burnt and levelled by B-52’s and T-28’s. Whole families were trapped in trenches they had dug underneath their homes.100 people were killed, and 200 houses destroyed.

US intelligence soon discovered that many “training camps” on which its Cambodian allies, the Lon Nol regime, had requested air strikes “were in fact merely political indoctrination sessions held in village halls and pagodas.” Cambodian intelligence noted that “aerial bombardments against the villagers have caused civilian loss on a large scale,” and that the peasant survivors of the US bombing were turning to Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge communists for support.

—snip—

In March l973, the US carpet bombardment spread across the whole country. Around Phnom Penh alone, 3,000 civilians were killed in three weeks. UPI reported: “Refugees swarming into the capital from target areas report dozens of villages… have been destroyed and as much as half their population killed or maimed in the current bombing raids.”

Damn, John McCain looks angry.  (And, is it just me, or is he putting on a little weight?)

This will further enrage the already hysterical wingnuts, but The Columbian has managed to recognize skill, competence and results in the race for governor and endorse Chris Gregoire:

Gov. Gregoire has served well, particularly in matters affecting Clark County, and The Columbian today endorses her for reelection. Such was not our recommendation four years ago when we endorsed Rossi in a battle of two candidates who were seasoned politicians, but first-time applicants for the governor’s chair. Now, though, Gregoire is armed with a dossier that shows significant progress.

Rossi and other critics assail Gregoire most often in an area — the economy — where she actually shows strength and versatility. She helped turn an inherited $2.2 billion deficit into a balanced budget. And as the national economy erodes, Gregoire has hunkered down in the face of the state’s projected $3.2 billion deficit. In June, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, she halted a three-building project at the capital after costs increased from $260 million to $370 million. A new data center, space for the Department of Information Services and State Patrol offices will have to wait.

Newspaper endorsements in tight races are always controversial, and you can bet this will lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the local Orthogonians. It’s a Clark County election tradition to increase the volume of Nixonian anti-intellectualism to eleven.

Nothing is quite as poignant as the class resentments of the burghers, you know. All over the county this morning you can hear the echoes of “EM ESS EM” bouncing off the walls of gated communities. Furious threats to cancel already canceled advertising accounts will be issued first thing Monday morning. You can almost hear it– “Really, I was going to advertise just as soon as liquidity returns to the markets, but now I’m not.”

There’s no question that Gregoire has done a fine job as governor, and as the national economy tanks, we need a steady hand at the helm. I can’t honestly say that The Columbian endorsement helps Gregoire; it might or it might not. Most likely a wash overall. If you’ve heard the term “low information voter” well, Clark County is a “low information county.” Ironically, this is largely because of our unique media situation, as Oregon media dominates the area.

But we do know that lots of people registered to vote here in the last week.

Maybe many of them were intensely motivated by the thought of electing Dino Rossi governor? It’s his wink, isn’t it?

The Seahawks play the Giants today in the first of their four games against NFC East teams this season. While the NFC West has looked truly awful (especially the Rams), the NFC East is looking exactly the opposite. The Eagles’ loss to the Bears last Sunday night was the first and only loss by an NFC East team to someone outside their division this year (and Westbrook definitely would’ve gotten that yard if he was playing). After 4 weeks, the NFC West only has two wins outside of the division. With an 0-3 record and 13 more games to go, will anyone in the NFC West beat a team from the NFC East this year?

Last week, Daily Kos’ “Hell to Pay” fundraiser brought in over $25,000 for Darcy Burner, and this week it is Charlie Brown’s turn, as he takes on mudslinging GOP apparatchik Tom McClintock in a race or an open seat in California’s 4th Congressional District.  So if you have a few dollars to spare, please toss a few Brown’s way.

Two days ago:

Palin countered with a smile, “Say it ain’t so, Joe. There you go again, pointing backwards again. You prefaced your whole comment with the Bush administration,” She argued that Americans now need to “look forward.”

Today:

Stepping up the Republican ticket’s attacks on Senator Barack Obama, Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday seized on a report about Mr. Obama’s relationship with a former 1960s radical to accuse him of “palling around with terrorists.”

With the curtain closed on Reload, I’ve decided to bring the Birds Eye View Contests over here to HA. If you don’t know how this works, you just have to guess where on Earth the following scene is from. The scenes are from the Windows Live Mapping site, which will be linked from the image itself every week. Good luck!

As I’ve already written, Sen. Joe Biden clearly won Thursday’s Veep debate, at least on points.  But what really matters is the impact (if any) this debate might have on voters, and whether it changes the dynamics of a presidential race that has been shifting steadily in Barack Obama’s favor.  And the best measure of that, I suppose, are the various national tracking polls that are now being reported daily.

The following polls represent three-day running averages.  The first number is from today, which includes  results from Wednesday through Friday, and thus factors in one day of post-debate reaction.  The number in parentheses are those reported yesterday, and represents survey results from Tuesday through Thursday, all collected before the debate.

                Obama      McCain
Research 2000:  52 (51)    40 (40)
Rasmussen:      51 (51)    45 (44)
Diageo/Hotline: 48 (48)    41 (42)
Gallup:         50 (49)    42 (42)

This only includes one day of post-debate tracking, but as you can see, if there is any movement, it’s not in McCain’s favor.  Indeed, the Research 2000 poll, which is being conducted on behalf of Daily Kos, showed the best single day spread for Obama yet:

On successive days in the R2K poll, Obama was up +11 Wed, +12 Thurs and +13 Fri, which is post-debate and Obama strongest day yet (MoE +/- 5.1 for individual days.) Interestingly, the Obama numbers (48-52) are more consistent than the McCain numbers (40-46), but the polls are all consistent in picking up an Obama lead.

And Rasmussen, which is reporting the narrowest gap between the two candidates, observes a similar stability:

For each of the past nine days, Obama has been at 50% or 51% and McCain has been at 44% or 45%. The stability of these results suggests that the McCain campaign faces a very steep challenge in the remaining few weeks of Election 2008.

To say the least.

Early voting has already started in Ohio, and begins in earnest here in WA state and throughout much of the rest of the nation in another week and a half.  If John McCain is going to turn this thing around, he better get moving quick, because I don’t think Sarah Palin’s collection of half-answers, winks and folksy colloquialisms quite did the trick.