John McCain fumbles in Moon Township, PA, declaring he couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that some of the people from that region are openly racist.
“You know, I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately,” McCain told the audience in the town of Moon Township. “And you know, I couldn’t agree with them more.”
Well, golly, John.
Enjoy a trip to Wasilla, Alaska with Jason Jones of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
The Chicago Sun-Times is running three articles today detailing different instances of predatory lending: here, here, and here. Some of these loans financed by supposedly reputable lending institutions.
Take Anna Nelson, age 90:
In 1994, she made her first mistake, she admits.
She and her late husband owed just $5,000 on her house in the Roseland neighborhood. But a mortgage broker called and asked her to refinance — and roll in a few thousand dollars of credit.
She was stuck with something unbelievable — an $83,000 loan.
She didn’t know how it happened or how to repay it.
Another broker told her they’d help her get out of it by refinancing.
The loan grew again.
And that’s how it went for the last 15 years. Nelson had people virtually lined up to sell her new mortgages.
She refinanced at least four times, finally left with $125,000 in debt, of which she said she has only seen $5,000.
Dorothy Davis ended up owing $125,000 on a house worth $40,000:
“He came here and told me: ‘Sign the paper, sign it now.’ He kept insisting me to sign it.” Davis said. “Ever since then, I’ve been with no money.”
She didn’t know then that the loan was saddled with fraudulent fees. She barely made her payments.
Another broker came to the rescue, promising lower loan payments — and new aluminum siding.
Undergoing cancer treatment at the time, she was desperate to get out of a bad situation.
But Davis was scammed again.
The new loan took up to 80 percent of her income. “I couldn’t buy any groceries. I could hardly pay even half of my utility bills,” she said. “I prayed and prayed. Some nights, I couldn’t sleep.”
Before she knew it, she owed $135,000 on a home worth $40,000 that was paid off 20 years earlier.
What possible value would a foreclosure be to a lending institution in a situation like this? According to the Sun-Times, the issue of minority targeting has brought hundreds of lawsuits and the FBI has taken notice.
Perhaps even more tragic is the case of Rosa Dailey, 66, who now owes $154,000 on a loan she took out to repair her garage. “A broker on behalf of Argent Mortgage noticed her garage needed fixing and started calling her incessantly,” the story says. She explained that she couldn’t sign the loan without her sister, who was terminally ill.
Here’s where the broker went for the kill:
“No problem,” she said the broker told her.
He drove Dailey to the hospital with the papers.
“No sooner than did she sign it, she was dead,” Dailey said.
Now Dailey owes nearly $154,000 from a loan she claims was saddled in duplicate fees and a falsified income. The mortgage payments left her with little extra money. So she couldn’t fix her furnace after it went out last winter, and she huddled near a space heater in her bedroom, she said.
Can there be any doubt that deregulation has failed miserably? The unadulterated greed of the lending institutions is ruining people’s lives.
As a native of Pennsylvania, I’m not surprised when I read things like this, but I am a bit disheartened. Pittsburgh is still very, very segregated. Walk into Eat’n Park on Clairton Boulevard just north of Century III Mall and you’ll hardly ever see a person of color.
It’s just that white, still.
So when I read things like this, just a little further south in Washington, PA, it saddens me still. I’d love to see these people grow up.
So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”
Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”
There you have it.
According to our friends at Progress Illinois, a surge in underemployment in Illinois has kept the the Prairie State higher than the national average for seven of the last eight calendar years.
Underemployment figures in Illinois for the year 2007 were at 8.6%, while the national average was 8.1%, according to figures released by the Economic Policy Institute.
At 11%, the underemployment rate in September was at its highest in more than 14 years. The underemployed currently includes about 9.5 million unemployed workers, 6.1 million involuntarily part-time workers, and 1.6 million workers only marginally attached to the workforce.1 The fact that one out of every nine U.S. workers is now either unemployed or underemployed is clear evidence of the need for a second stimulus package targeted at job creation.
Illinois was only better than the national average in 2006, when the nation saw an 8.2% underemployment rate and Illinois sat at 8.1%.
Now, indeed, might be a good time for a second stimulus package.
The New York Times reports former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” No doubt Republican-leaning moderator Tom Brokaw was flummoxed by Powell’s decision, but this will be seen as a strong endorsement of Obama’s capabilities as Commander in Chief.
Our friends at the Huffington Post report:
“He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure,” Powell said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well,” Powell said.
Powell said McCain has been a good friend for 25 years. But Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain’s campaign, as well as in his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee.
“Now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president,” Powell said. “And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.”
He also said he was disappointed with some of McCain’s campaign tactics, such as bringing up Obama’s ties to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
After the interview, Powell told reporters: “I think that Senator Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, fresh set of ideas to the table. I think that Senator McCain, as gifted as he is, is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it, but i think we need more than that. I think we need a generational change. I think Senator Obama has captured the feelings of the young people of America and is reaching out in a more diverse, inclusive way across our society.”
In other campaign news, Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe announced today the Obama campaign has raised a record $150 million in the month of September alone. According to Plouffe, this represents 632,000 new donors, with the average donation coming in at $86.
The campaign has attracted an incredible 3.1 million individual donors, with the strongest showing coming from retirees and students, demonstrating that Obama’s support spans generations.
After almost a week of hype, the real Sarah Palin’s few minutes on the opening of this week’s Saturday Night Live concluded with a whimper.
She really wasn’t that funny.
She took some clever ribbing from Alex Baldwin during the opening scene. Tina Fey began the show with her spot-on impersonation.
The spot on Weekend Update was a bit better, but the cast really carried the show. Amy Poehler rapped and danced with other crew members while Palin sat at the desk, dancing a bit in her seat. The beginning of this sketch showed Palin seated at the desk apparently refusing to do the bit they had rehearsed. Poehler took up the rap while Palin sat uncomfortably and listened.
Her appearance fell a bit flat.
All in all, I think Tina Fey does the better Sarah Palin.
Okay, I’ve watched this debate for over an hour. Who is John McCain looking at? Barack is talking about abortion, and McCain is glaring out into the netherworld.
Obama stresses his objections to late term abortions, and hits the nail on the head stressing the need to consider the health of the woman.
McCain just lost the vote of millions of women when he mocked this concern for the “health” of a woman. McCain actually tossed his hands in the air, mockingly drawing quotes around the work “health,” saying that the idea of “health” has been stretched.
Big, huge mistake, John. But we needed to hear that, because that’s what’s in your heart.
McCain is taking a hard line that lacks compassion and any depth. McCain has sold out to the extreme right, the Neo-cons, and consummated his relationship with Karl Rove.
Now, why would we be in a better position if your running mate became president?
Brilliant question. Obama is going on and on and on about Joe Biden’s numerous qualities and his incredible experience.
John McCain goes on about Palin.
Obama talks about autism.
McCain goes on about spending. Obama flashes an incredible smile. Poise on the left, rage on the right.