lets not forget the electrolytes as the likelihood is we will soon get commentary resulting in emesis and that results in much more rapid dehydration and electrolyte depletion...
What I find really confusing these days is to figure out just who are the "speculators" and the "home-owners". Is anyone who over-extended themselves buying a home with the desire to get rich a speculator? Or are speculators ONLY those people who bought second homes?
In recent years I think these distinctions have become very blury as increasing numbers of people were getting dollar signs in their eyes when it came to buying a house.
Maybe this is what is making the whole debate about the prevalence of ruthless default so fractious. Maybe the simple fact is that there are relatively few traditional "home-owners" anymore. If it's true that a high percentage of home buyers in the last 5 years were indeed just hoping to get rich then it would be no surprise that they would be more amenable to walking away.
There had to be some lying to get that second loan. She didn't have close to the income to support those payments.
I don't know that's necessarily true. One of those articles I linked to says she bought her primary in 1999 for like $135,000. If she never cashed it out, it could have a fairly modest payment. If she has no car loans and no credit card balances, her total DTI could be 50% or less.
Not that I get excited about approving loans at a 50% DTI, but it went on. Thing is, if it did, I doubt she got 7.00% on the second-home loan. It's really not possible to pin that down.
I find it hard to believe that even WaMu would be stupid enough to do a stated income loan for an elected official, but what do I know?
Tanta, except for the current mess in the housing market, etc., do you think this congresswoman's "walkaway" would have even made the news? Probably not.
I wonder whether any other politicians are in foreclosure? More quietly perhaps? Maybe someone should explain the concept of "conflict of interest" and recusing oneself.
Tanta, except for the current mess in the housing market, etc., do you think this congresswoman's "walkaway" would have even made the news? Probably not.
My view is that if it weren't for the current mess in the housing market, she'd have flipped the thing for a tidy profit, and there would have been no "walkaway" to make the news.
Does Haloscan delete our identities from time to time?
Yes, it does. You can't turn your back on Haloscan.
I don't know that this rises to the level of conflict of interest. Most kinds of legislation can personally affect a congress critter in that general sense. Should she have recused herself on any homeonwership-related bill before the FC, on the grounds that she was a homeowner and could benefit?
The problem, it seems to me, is that she is suggesting passing a federal law having to do with FC sale notice timing. That is 1) a matter of state law and 2) totally unnecessary to deal with her kind of situation.
If, in fact, WaMu really did offer her reinstatement and then let the thing fall through the cracks and have the sale go on anyway, there have to be any number of existing laws on CA's books that deal with that. If it is true, I expect that WaMu will just "rescind" the sale, give the buyer his money back (plus interest from the sale date), and therefore "put everyone back" to where they were. No big deal.
Why would we need new federal legislation to deal with such a situtation? She's just grandstanding.
Does anyone know any public companies that sell PITCHFORKS!!!
Oh, that gives me an idea. Remember those companies that would put pink flamingos all over someone's lawn in the middle of the night. I am thinking pitchforks for your favorite politician.
Well who knows Tanta...Maybe someone will pick up your story to demonstrate the end-to-end participation in this great bubble.
I ran into this yesterday - angryrenters.com. It really should be expanded to responsibleamericans.com. The economically conservative and responsible need to stand up and scream.
BTW, as Mish points out, Richardson did recuse from a couple of bill votes pertaining to various bailout and other shennanigans.
The original press reports said she recused herself, but subsequently she denied that. See the AP article:
Not long after getting to Congress, Richardson voted in favor of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which subsequently became law. It allows homeowners to escape paying income taxes on debts forgiven by a lender, as happens in foreclosure.
Richardson was absent earlier this month for votes on the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which she said was because of her father's funeral. But she could have another opportunity to vote on the foreclosure package as the House is expected to bring it back up in June once agreement is reached in the Senate.
In most cases, congressional ethics rules don't prevent lawmakers from voting on legislation that might affect or help them economically. Such votes are essentially impossible to avoid.
The problem, it seems to me, is that she is suggesting passing a federal law having to do with FC sale notice timing. That is 1) a matter of state law
Because the matter clearly has to deal with interstate commerce, the federal government can regulate it and preempt state law.
Good god, under federal civil servant requirements, she would have been technically unable to apply for a federal job because she was in debt to a state entity. But of course, this is Congress, so those rules probably don't apply. Maybe she was hoping to get the special real estate deals that were given to Duke Cunningham.
Hey, she's from Long Beach. Half a million seemed like a deal. Elections are EXPENSIVE and by the time got around to taking after the house, she was way behind. Seems a lot of homedebtors just plug along until they get to this point-sounds like she got treated like every other customer by WaMu as well.
Hopefully this will help her craft appropriate legislation, like making option-ARMS non-recourse?
Three homes? Then its clear the last loan was a product of fraud or shocking lender incompetence, or a combination of both.
I have personally spoken to people who got loans for 6/7/8 houses at the bubble peak and wondered just how they did it and what the bank was thinking on loans 2 thru 8.
I would love to see her loan app and what the underwriter did to verify.
Because the matter clearly has to deal with interstate commerce, the federal government can regulate it and preempt state law.
What's it got to do with interstate commerce?
It doesn't matter whether you are a lender domiciled in CA or anywhere else: CA law says you have to file an NOD, then 90 days later you have to file a Notice of Sale, and then no less than 14 days later the sale can take place. Other states do it differently. You follow the law of the state the property is in.
Richardson alleges that WaMu agreed to postpone the sale and then didn't. If true, that would be grounds to sue under plain old ordinary contract law. It has exactly dog to do with the timing of FC notices. She's bullshitting.
I'm Laura Richardson. I'm an American, I'm a single woman who had four employment changes in less than four months...
Interesting rhetorical device, Ms. Laura--the ol' tautological, self-referential, self-pity move--but I'm not sure it does the trick.
How about this?
"I'm Laura Richardson, I'm a moron, I'm an elected official who jumps at the first opportunity to move ahead, no matter what the cost to my constituents who just elected me, and I like money too much not to speculate in real estate--170k doesn't go very far these days, you know. I'm incapable of taking responsibility for my actions. But hey, nobody's perfect.
"Take that twenty out of your own wallet before you remove the two cents from mine. Incidentally, you'll be getting my two cents on this issue; just because I have shown myself to be inept in dealing with simple personal financial decisions, like paying for a mortgage, doesn't mean I shouldn't have a say in writing laws that affect the entire mortgage industry and, by extension, the entire financial services sector. God bless America."
Very likely someone committed a crime here. On loan three, either she lied or the underwriter gave such a reckless loan it violated some regulation.
Yep, it happened over and over in the bubble, but I would love her situation be used to show everyone that no one in this process is deserving of our tax dollars.
The facts haven't changed my initial reaction to the story. Did anyone else hear that 97 million people voted for the "American Idol" this week?
Do you think some of this women's constituency want their vote back? Should we require people running for office open up their whole financial situation, and not just their taxes? It would be nice to know if one is bad with financial planning, as they are probably bad with running a country planning, especially when our country is cliff-diving.
I bet politicians, just like CFC head, still think the Internet is for morons.
tai writes: Maybe she was hoping to get the special real estate deals that were given to Duke Cunningham.
Duke Cunningham, one of San Diego's fine examples of corruption, came to mind to me also. I was surprised that she hadn't yet gotten the connections needed to have one of her new-found lobbyist "friends" to purchase the home, save her from a loss/embarrassment, and take the loss themselves, as a nearly-impossible-to-prove form of campaign donation.
And the kicker is she's got to finance a re-election campaign in less than six months? Wanna buy a friend on the Hill really, really cheap? Dial 1-800-bordello and ask for Laura . . .
I like Haloscan's idiosyncrasies, they are a sign of artificial intelligence. Any programmer could have written code that does the same boring thing time after time. It takes a genius to write something that confounds the most sophisticated while being functional enough to keep them using it.
Nemo- your premise is flawed, but your conclusion is correct.
Normally I would try to be contrarian and argue with Tanta's perspective, but in this case I have to admit congress seems a bad fit for Ms. Richardson. Hopefully she'll get a Democrat to challenge her so her district can have someone more responsible representing them.
Rather than shy away from voting on mortgage-related bills, Richardson said her experiences could help her craft legislation to make sure others don't experience what she did.
Haha...
Kinda like how destroying the entire economy gives the Fed the experience they need to fix it?
Although it's no excuse for not following up on her financial obligations, I'm fairly sure that the process of learning the ropes at the Assembly and then the Congress were more than enough to occupy and befuddle anyone. It appears that she had no competent staff to handle this.
the great thing about this deal is, you can walk from your overpriced plaza apartment to your overpriced ugly Gm office building, trade your derivatives for a few hours, then hit bergdorf's for a nice 50g day, every day.
I'm a single woman who had four employment changes in less than four months,
I'm only coming up with three, City Council, Assembly, Congress. May be the fourth is the reason she couldn't keep current. I won't speculate on what job that was.
I agree she should have kept the utilities current, all those pot plants are gonna die.
BTW- if she financed with Countrywide they might have sent the notice and still not foreclosed, what with their "not evicting borrowers who are not current on their payments" policy.
This from "John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics" blog: “now total in excess of 20% of the collateral backing the Federal Reserve Notes.”
“Since the onset of the banking solvency crisis and the establishment of various new lending facilities by the U.S. central bank, however, an increasing portion of the U.S. Treasury securities held as collateral has been lent to troubled financial institutions in exchange for largely illiquid collateralized debt obligations.”
Could you give us your comments on this topic? Are these statements accurate?
Missed first part of the extremely brief news blurb on CW31 in Sacramento. Caught the part where the news guy said she said (that sounds naughty) the house (in foreclosure) should have never been sold. Maybe WAMU (?) made a decision to be mean to her because of how she votes?
Could it be a WAMU exec somewhere is pointing and laughing hysterically at her being exposed as an idjit? Likely forgot they would be exposed too.
IMNSHO, modern medicine will destroy the human race by preventing natural selection. I do believe it is well on its way and may be, like global warming, already inevitable.
2 points.
1.)Does she have any other employment? Many state representatives have other employment (and income) from jobs that they perform when the legislation is not in session. This could lower her DTI a noticeable amount.
2.)It's not the fact that she is being foreclosed on that makes her involvement in housing legislation ethicly questionable. Tanta's right it's impossible for legislators to recuse themselves from all legislation that could affect them economicly. There would be nobody left to vote on tax legislation, which affects them all.
The problem is that modification or forgiveness or maybe even forebearance of any loan terms by her lender. Just like the IRS, the ethics rules view debt forgiveness as income. She GOT the money, if she doesn't pay it back to the lender than it's a gift. If she has received the benefit of forgiveness or a workout, it is up to HER to show that she received no special treatment.
At a time when are lots of anecdotal stories (even if they're not representative) of borrowers unable to contact anyone in authority at mortgage servicers, showing that she didn't receive special treatment would be difficult. After all, when a congresswoman calls, people answer the phone. It's conceivable that her story of a workout that got foreclosed anyway was the result of lawers for the servicer belatedly realizing that if she got treatment any different from all the other FBs they might be embroiled in a bribery case. They do NOT want to be caught cutting deals for congressmen when they're busy trying to cloak theselves in the mantle of innocent victems of frauds and walkaways.
From this post we can get some idea of what kind of congressional influence less than $40,000 buys.
Imagine what over $500,000,000 dollars buys. That's how much the three major presidential candidates have raised already. Contributions are listed here:
Tanta: Does politics bore you to tears, or just stupid remarks about it? Politics are closely bound up with the economy of course, so I hope it is the latter and not the former.
I love California stories. They are always so over the top. I do not believe this could happen in any other western state. Back east maybe, but not in the american west. We have some ethics left!
I think there's a simple explanation about how she got all those loans. The bankers were not very careful. They somehow thought they were making loans to LINDA Richardson, who must have good credit and fundamentals, not LAURA Richardson, who doesn't.
It stands to reason. After all, Tanta seems to have done the same thing.
Tanta: Do you always have to be so ruthlessly, analytically right about things? Have you ever been in business with anyone? Have you ever given anyone a break? When did the milk of human kindness stop flowing from your breast? Just askin'.
Does she have any other employment? Many state representatives have other employment (and income) from jobs that they perform when the legislation is not in session.
Doesn't that have to be disclosed?
Plus, she got elected in November and the mortgage date is January 4. You couldn't have qualified her on her last two years' worth of income with a recent job change like that. You'd have to use her salary (& per diem allowed) for the new job. If she had liquid assets that she used for additional qualifying income, it looks like she pissed them away pretty quickly. Note that the Daily Breeze says she cashed out her Long Beach home for $100,000 to finance the Assembly run. It doesn't look like she had much cash sitting around.
At a time when are lots of anecdotal stories (even if they're not representative) of borrowers unable to contact anyone in authority at mortgage servicers, showing that she didn't receive special treatment would be difficult.
It's even worse because it is very rare for lenders to do modifications on non-owner-occupied properties, and by the time she claims the workout was negotiated, she didn't occupy the property and didn't need to any more. She says per the Breeze that she intended to rent out the Sacramento property, but had not done so and had never listed it.
Who ever heard of anyone offering a mod in that case? She couldn't possibly rent it for enough to cover reasonably modified mortgage terms. There just isn't any reason to modify a loan like that; you do a DIL or short sale.
It stands to reason. After all, Tanta seems to have done the same thing.
Thanks.
Tanta: Do you always have to be so ruthlessly, analytically right about things? Have you ever been in business with anyone? Have you ever given anyone a break?
You have no idea what kind of break I'm giving you right now.
Any late word on which political party Representative Laura Richardson belongs to? After Tanta's post, an updated post, and more than 80 comments, I see no conclusive data on that point. Does anybody know?
You mean after reading your posts, I have to read a bunch of newspaper articles, too? We count on you for news analysis and news aggregation, not just links.
I'll see your mp qotd, and raise you luvin_grits' ...
IMNSHO, modern medicine will destroy the human race by preventing natural selection. I do believe it is well on its way and may be, like global warming, already inevitable.
I get the feeling Richardson was expecting a tangible windfall. Otherwise, there was no good reason to buy in Sacramento as her term was only good for 2 years -- no guarantee of re-election -- with a maximum of 6 years due to term limits. Why buy?
But then, who knows. It was a mighty good fantasy. A lot of folks drank the kool-aid.
Tanta seems very forgiving and sympathetic. I can't figure out why anyone would think otherwise. She is from the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me; school of economics.
Laura Richardson is a whiney, useless, self-centered, pigÂ…she is perfect for politicsÂ…She is no different than the rest of the bunchÂ…God (if that is politically correct) help us all.
I know this is hard to acknowledge, but the real problem here is this:
...the 1,600-square-foot home she bought for $535,500 in January 2007 was sold at auction earlier this month to a Sacramento mortgage lender, who paid $388,000. The sale was officially recorded on Monday, according to documents on file with the Sacramento County Recorder's Office.
The problem is that even at $388K, a 1600 sq ft home is WAY overvalued. California is nice, but not that nice. Folks who live there are dealing with impossible costs that even now are still beyond the capability of most to afford. With 20% down and 6.25% the payment is $1911. Assuming the recommended 28% of income for a mortgage payment, one must make between $90K and $100K per year.
The same calculations on a house costing $535,500 has a monthly payment of $2637 and requires an income of probably $110,000.
Tell me how our favorite hard working blue collar family can possibly afford a 1600 sq ft home in CA?
Low blow on the Conrad shot. It is still not California quality graft!
True, but it does not equal 'ethical' which was your word/metric.
Nothing and no one tops Duke "the Duke-stir" Cunningham, I'll grant you that, if only for sheer amateurism. This Richardson case too has the same pathetic incompetence surrounding the whole thing. Can't they at least have the decency to be competent at corruption, if nothing else? It's like they can't even respect the voter enough to pull that off. But that could just be my NY bias; here the amateurs are promptly eaten and their bones used as toothpicks.
Laura Richardson is a Democrat.
That fact is generally not mentioned. If she were a Republican, it would be stated in every paragraph of every news article.
Tell me how our favorite hard working blue collar family can possibly afford a 1600 sq ft home in CA?
Easy. Both husband and wife work. Additionally, grandma and grandpa help with daycare. Additionally, you take a loan out of your 401k to make the downpayment. Additionally, you add in your total life savings to buy the house.
Tell me how our favorite hard working blue collar family can possibly afford a 1600 sq ft home in CA?
We are currently renting temporarily in a suburb of San Francisco, in what was clearly intended to be a blue collar neighborhood of ~1000 sq ft houses, some expanded to 1300. Purchase price on the house we are renting: 700k. Heavily Hispanic/Mexican immigrant neighborhood, and lots of 3-4 car/truck driveways. I think they double and treble up to afford it. Their families must get along far better than any I know to survive it, I commend them on managing it.
Viewing with alarm writes: I love California stories. They are always so over the top. I do not believe this could happen in any other western state. Back east maybe, but not in the american west. We have some ethics left!
Or perhaps you still have a few competitive congressional seats. Ours were drawn to be "safe", so whatever critter the party machine backs in the primary wins in the general. It's a "democracy" in name only, in that it has all the democratic trappings of voters voting, but no-one is ever voted out, short of being found in bed with a live boy or a dead prostitute.
EngineerJim, I don't give a hootin' hell what she calls herself. I'm way past that.
'Democrat' and 'Republican' are brand names, like Kellogg's corn flakes and generic corn flakes. Both brands are ideologically bankrupt. Same crap, different box.
Darkness: As a MI resident I can only say OH MY GOD!!
I'm not sure you CA residents appreciate just how insane that sounds to those of us in flyover country.
The resistance to bailing out CA and Las Vegas, NV folks in foreclosure comes from our incredulous reaction to what you folks have to pay for housing. We just don't get it. How did this happen?
Nah! You guys have it all wrong. I have it on good authority that "Tanta" is the code name for a super high speed computer installed inside a West Virginia mountain top.
My point in all this is that the eagerness of our so-called professional reporter class to specify the political party of an elected official who may have done something wrong is inversely proportional to whether the reporters voted for that official.
El Cliffo, did it ever occur to you that most of the electorate is braindead, and that's why gals like Linda can get away with this kind of shit? Reporters have nothing to do with it.
Thanks to Tanta, we now have the Internet. If we want, we can find out Linda's shoe size.
Hell, we can even learn enough to prosecute her, but who is going to care enough to take the time to do it? It won't be a Republican or Democrat.
Very good question. I have no good answer, despite pondering it for the time we were here. People just really, really want to live here, I guess. We normally live in the wilds of deepest Upstate NY, and our 15-year mortgage is 1/3 this rent, and this rent is only covering half the mortgage on this house. We make pretty good money but this tiny 1250 sq ft 2/1 is way out of our league. Oh, but it has granite countertops rolls eyes. And a very nice stove, which HAS spoiled us. I think we may have to buy a better stove when we get home, but heck, what we "save" on mortgage payments in one month would buy the highest end one of these beauties.
Sure doesn't add up. Ordinary people, in droves, must be bringing wealth into the area and dumping it into real estate. Where they got the wealth, given that wages elsewhere are lower, remains a mystery. But that said, prices here on the top end in CA haven't got anything on NYC coops.
I omitted a material fact re Tanta's West Virginia mountain top location.
Davy Crockett discovered "her" (affectionate reference) almost two centuries ago but, in exchange for Davy's pledge of silence, Tanta made him a legend in his own time.
Well, so far we've got two estimates for Tanta's age in the thread--one, just under two centuries, and the other, 3,000 years old. Come on, mp, could you narrow it down?
El Cliffo, as I said, Tanta became operational about 3,000 years ago, but was discovered by Davy Crockett during his wanderings about two centuries ago. In return for Davy's pledge of silence, Tanta made him a legend and a Bowie knife.
Of course she's a dem,just look at the picture.Female republicans in CA are required to look good,or at least not like a handbag that spent 2 weeks in a cesspit before being sundried.I do wonder if all of these homes were "owner occupied"...
It is so nice to see highly intelligent, prudent and fiscally responsible leaders like Rep. Richardson in charge. I sleep better at night knowing she is making decisions on behalf of our country.
We have to ensure that lenders and lendees have the tools with proper timing to resolve this.
Ms. Richardson has an interesting way with the language. I can't settle on any one way to parse that sentence, and none of the alternatives makes sense.
"Of course she's a dem,just look at the picture.Female republicans in CA are required to look good,or at least not like a handbag that spent 2 weeks in a cesspit before being sundried."
I am going to take a wild guess that this is the type of political remark that bores Tanta to tears. If an alien reptile computer can really cry.
Emma Anne: " 'Of course she's a dem,just look at the picture.Female republicans in CA are required to look good,or at least not like a handbag that spent 2 weeks in a cesspit before being sundried.'
I am going to take a wild guess that this is the type of political remark that bores Tanta to tears. If an alien reptile computer can really cry."
Yeah, life's unfair. In this morning's paper I read an article entitled "McCain reportedly free of cancer" by Liz Sidolte and Lauran Neergaard. In it they referred to McCain with the line "The fair skinned Republican nominee-in-waiting ...". Wonder why they just didn't say "The lily white Republican... "
Emma Anne, you beat me to it. For every quality snark on a political thread, we seem to get a dozen garden-variety anti-politician scatologies, with a nice frothy topping of anti-woman humor if they've made the horrible mistake of being female to boot.
Notice that Willoughby in this story "has cancer" and was described 2/3 of the way though the story as "smoking a cigarette". Darwin Award!!! She has 9 kids. Oh and mortgage problems of courses.
Having uncovered evidence that Davis lied on a mortgage application, Freamon and Sydnor suggest taking the case to federal law enforcement. Yet Bond elected to ignore the evidence as he hoped to gain recognition by prosecuting Davis himself. Called to testify, Davis invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid incriminating himself. Davis confronted a press opportunity staged by Bond on the courthouse steps, turning on the charm and denying any wrongdoing.[10] Called to the stand, Davis gave a rousing speech defending his public role, is acquitted, and beamed before the assembled cameras and reporters afterward.
With Bond's case concluded but the mortgage fraud uncharged, Freamon approached Davis with the incriminating mortgage in a personal setting. Not knowing that Freamon had been unable to bring these charges, Davis is successfully blackmailed into sharing information about back-room deals involving the city's political elite. In a second conversation, Davis boastingly mentions a drug dealer named "Bell" whom he had conned.
You "Progressives" need to visit Laura's congressional website, and take your medicine. Here's a sample: "Speaker Pelosi has referred to Representative Richardson as bright,energetic, intelligent, and an asset to the committee chairs, caucuses and consituents." Basically, Laura is an "empowerment specialist" for the "traditionally underserved," a true Tribune of the Populares.
Let's be careful about linking progressives to Ms. Richardson lest we remind the conservatives among us about Foley, Delay, Bush, Cheney, Craig, Livingston, Gingerich, Cunningham, Vitter, Limbaugh (drug addict) et al.
There is plenty of corruption to go around for both parties.
We need a new leadership in congress and the white house.
We're being persecuted! My god, the liberal media is everywhere! Hand me a tissue, because I can cry like this for hours! Woe is me!
Touch a nerve, did I?
For the record, I do not care much for Republicans. (Unless maybe you count Ron Paul.) I just find it amusing to observe Tanta's own biases and internal contradictions.
Another rube who confused the real value of shelter vs. stupid-credit-created pricingl; and lifetime-long-term vs. quarterly or annual periods.
Pity the citizens who get the outcomes of her legislative efforts. This may not have been in the forefront of the framers' minds when requiring 2 year terms for the peoples' legislature, but still I'm glad they foresaw a general need to clean house regularly. They screwed up neglecting gerimandering, though. She may win in the general election?
I find it hard to believe the Rep Richardson didn't use falsified stated income to get these loans approved. She's Casey Serin in Congress and should be investigated accordingly.
I confess that wading through this particular comment thread was just too daunting but I did scan through. I didn't notice anybody pointing out that California has term limits for state elective offices. The reason this woman tripped over herself and everything else and broke the bank to get her U.S. Representative gig was to escape the term limits problem and the typical game of musical chairs it leads to among California politicians. So she WAS thinking ahead. Stated more succinctly, Ms. Richardson spotted an opportunity to latch onto the government tit forever and she lunged for it.
And I apologize if someone already brought up this little bit of further character-revealing detail.
I've been throwing big stones, very accurately, at this person, but I can't help thinking: we created her. We as a society allowed her to do the things she did/is doing. She is tiny compared to the evils of Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld, etc, but we created them too.
As long as we all sit around feeling so morally superior and blaming "that other person" and "those people" we're going to keep growing these weeds.
Absolutely no reason to let her keep her office, and probably good reason to prosecute her if fraud and malfeasance shows itself more clearly. Ask yourselves... what the hell did you do to prevent it? Some of you might have a good answer to this. Some of you might even be telling the truth. I doubt it applies to the majority, however.
Uncle Billy, our last Congress had Boy Ney, Duke Cunningham, and others convicted of accepting bribes and handing out billions of dollars to their buddies. It featured Larry Craig toe tapping in the Twin Cities airport. Not to mention William Jefferson and his cold cash.
If the worst that comes out of this session is someone buying a home they can't afford, it's a step in the right direction.
That said, Congresswoman Richardson definitely needs to find a new career. Hopefully, not as a math teacher.
I'm quite sure Richardson wants to be treated like just a plain old American and not get special treatment
Tanta, I don't know why you would make a statement like that.
She is not a normal American. She is a MC. They make rules not follow them. Remember the House Bank?
And you don't think WAMU would not want to help a distressed borrower, who is an MC, you haven't been around as much as I thought you had, or maybe you are just trying to be nice.
Richardson story was buried pretty deep at the L.A. Times, and now with plenty of posting/commenting on it, the link to the blog itself seems to have been removed from its usual place on the front page.
It doesn't link to anything.
Sorry, I refreshed and now it does.
Maybe she was expecting some lobbying payola to come her way in the near future to make her second house payment.
"I'm a retarded pig, so let me craft legislation to inform other retarded pigs"
What Laura Richardson wants is for other people to pay her way. No doubt she will strongly support new and higher taxes.
The government should pay for everything. Just tax the rich...
What Laura Richardson wants is other people to pay her way. No doubt she will support new and higher taxes.
The government should pay for everything. Just tax the rich...
For the record utility costs are very low in Sacramento compared to nearly every other part of the state.
About 30% lower power prices.
The fact that she didn't pay on that sweet deal (hat tip Casey) stinks.
Just think: This moron was sent to Washington to take our money from us and decide how it should be spent.
The story is sickening in so many ways. The greed that got her into that situation. The lack of self-responsibility that she's shown since.
For another thing, posting about anything even tangentially related to politics invites the kind of comments that personally bore me to tears.
Tears? Make sure to drink plenty of water - we are early in the campaign season and I'd hate to have you all dehydrated.
Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.
P. J. O'Rourke
Pardon the language.
dry,
lets not forget the electrolytes as the likelihood is we will soon get commentary resulting in emesis and that results in much more rapid dehydration and electrolyte depletion...
Tears? Make sure to drink plenty of water - we are early in the campaign season and I'd hate to have you all dehydrated.
I'll stock up on Gatorade.
What I find really confusing these days is to figure out just who are the "speculators" and the "home-owners". Is anyone who over-extended themselves buying a home with the desire to get rich a speculator? Or are speculators ONLY those people who bought second homes?
In recent years I think these distinctions have become very blury as increasing numbers of people were getting dollar signs in their eyes when it came to buying a house.
Maybe this is what is making the whole debate about the prevalence of ruthless default so fractious. Maybe the simple fact is that there are relatively few traditional "home-owners" anymore. If it's true that a high percentage of home buyers in the last 5 years were indeed just hoping to get rich then it would be no surprise that they would be more amenable to walking away.
There had to be some lying to get that second loan. She didn't have close to the income to support those payments.
Congressmen/women are subprime.
What morons voted for this moron?
There had to be some lying to get that second loan. She didn't have close to the income to support those payments.
I don't know that's necessarily true. One of those articles I linked to says she bought her primary in 1999 for like $135,000. If she never cashed it out, it could have a fairly modest payment. If she has no car loans and no credit card balances, her total DTI could be 50% or less.
Not that I get excited about approving loans at a 50% DTI, but it went on. Thing is, if it did, I doubt she got 7.00% on the second-home loan. It's really not possible to pin that down.
I find it hard to believe that even WaMu would be stupid enough to do a stated income loan for an elected official, but what do I know?
Tanta, except for the current mess in the housing market, etc., do you think this congresswoman's "walkaway" would have even made the news? Probably not.
I wonder whether any other politicians are in foreclosure? More quietly perhaps? Maybe someone should explain the concept of "conflict of interest" and recusing oneself.
Nah, she would refuse to understand.
That was me with the conflict of
interest comment.
Does Haloscan delete our identities from time to time?
Tanta, except for the current mess in the housing market, etc., do you think this congresswoman's "walkaway" would have even made the news? Probably not.
My view is that if it weren't for the current mess in the housing market, she'd have flipped the thing for a tidy profit, and there would have been no "walkaway" to make the news.
Like my mama would say, 'If she had a brain, she would take it out and play with it.
Whatever you're testing, Elaine, I hope it starts working for you.
Mz. Richardson's problem sounds like DSS -- Drunken Sailor Syndrome.
Why would the comments be different on the expanded version of this post?
They are.
Does Haloscan delete our identities from time to time?
Yes, it does. You can't turn your back on Haloscan.
I don't know that this rises to the level of conflict of interest. Most kinds of legislation can personally affect a congress critter in that general sense. Should she have recused herself on any homeonwership-related bill before the FC, on the grounds that she was a homeowner and could benefit?
The problem, it seems to me, is that she is suggesting passing a federal law having to do with FC sale notice timing. That is 1) a matter of state law and 2) totally unnecessary to deal with her kind of situation.
If, in fact, WaMu really did offer her reinstatement and then let the thing fall through the cracks and have the sale go on anyway, there have to be any number of existing laws on CA's books that deal with that. If it is true, I expect that WaMu will just "rescind" the sale, give the buyer his money back (plus interest from the sale date), and therefore "put everyone back" to where they were. No big deal.
Why would we need new federal legislation to deal with such a situtation? She's just grandstanding.
Why would the comments be different on the expanded version of this post?
They look the same to me.
I did delete Elaine's "testing" comments because . . . it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Refresh and everything should match up again.
Peter Schiff does it again.
At 4:08 minutes, one the guests goes nuclear on Schiff.
YouTube - Trapper John M.D. M*A*S*H - Peter Schiff, Shut The Fuck Up
This experience should make her a shoo-in for the ethics committee.
awgee writes:
What morons voted for this moron?
--Real estate industry professionals have given her $39,500 in campaign contributions in the current election cycle, according to Open Secrets.
Think that says it all.
Does anyone know any public companies that sell PITCHFORKS!!!
Oh, that gives me an idea. Remember those companies that would put pink flamingos all over someone's lawn in the middle of the night. I am thinking pitchforks for your favorite politician.
I like the pitchfork idea. Maybe mini pitchforks we could mail in. I guess they would have to be plastic.
Ouch...I can feel the sting from here...
Well who knows Tanta...Maybe someone will pick up your story to demonstrate the end-to-end participation in this great bubble.
I ran into this yesterday - angryrenters.com. It really should be expanded to responsibleamericans.com. The economically conservative and responsible need to stand up and scream.
Refresh again, everyone!
I just updated the post as a kindly reporter just emailed me today's installment of the saga: she has THREE homes in foreclosure, not two.
But it's all the lender's fault, as you will see.
BTW, as Mish points out, Richardson did recuse from a couple of bill votes pertaining to various bailout and other shennanigans.
She may wish she was back in the CA Assembly.
Whoa, haloscan issues
BTW, as Mish points out, Richardson did recuse from a couple of bill votes pertaining to various bailout and other shennanigans.
The original press reports said she recused herself, but subsequently she denied that. See the AP article:
Not long after getting to Congress, Richardson voted in favor of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which subsequently became law. It allows homeowners to escape paying income taxes on debts forgiven by a lender, as happens in foreclosure.
Richardson was absent earlier this month for votes on the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which she said was because of her father's funeral. But she could have another opportunity to vote on the foreclosure package as the House is expected to bring it back up in June once agreement is reached in the Senate.
In most cases, congressional ethics rules don't prevent lawmakers from voting on legislation that might affect or help them economically. Such votes are essentially impossible to avoid.
"THREE homes"
I'd say she's in for some bad press...
The problem, it seems to me, is that she is suggesting passing a federal law having to do with FC sale notice timing. That is 1) a matter of state law
Because the matter clearly has to deal with interstate commerce, the federal government can regulate it and preempt state law.
Good god, under federal civil servant requirements, she would have been technically unable to apply for a federal job because she was in debt to a state entity. But of course, this is Congress, so those rules probably don't apply. Maybe she was hoping to get the special real estate deals that were given to Duke Cunningham.
Out of curiosity, which party is she from?
Oh, never mind. If she were a Republican, the word "Republican" would have appeared somewhere in the post. Too easy...
So the representative from Long Beach is representative of Long Beach, and thus do we get the government we deserve.
Hey, she's from Long Beach. Half a million seemed like a deal. Elections are EXPENSIVE and by the time got around to taking after the house, she was way behind. Seems a lot of homedebtors just plug along until they get to this point-sounds like she got treated like every other customer by WaMu as well.
Hopefully this will help her craft appropriate legislation, like making option-ARMS non-recourse?
Three homes? Then its clear the last loan was a product of fraud or shocking lender incompetence, or a combination of both.
I have personally spoken to people who got loans for 6/7/8 houses at the bubble peak and wondered just how they did it and what the bank was thinking on loans 2 thru 8.
I would love to see her loan app and what the underwriter did to verify.
"The economically conservative and responsible need to stand up and scream."
I think we be significantly out numbered, 90% of the crowd is on the other side of the stadium.
Because the matter clearly has to deal with interstate commerce, the federal government can regulate it and preempt state law.
What's it got to do with interstate commerce?
It doesn't matter whether you are a lender domiciled in CA or anywhere else: CA law says you have to file an NOD, then 90 days later you have to file a Notice of Sale, and then no less than 14 days later the sale can take place. Other states do it differently. You follow the law of the state the property is in.
Richardson alleges that WaMu agreed to postpone the sale and then didn't. If true, that would be grounds to sue under plain old ordinary contract law. It has exactly dog to do with the timing of FC notices. She's bullshitting.
I'm Laura Richardson. I'm an American, I'm a single woman who had four employment changes in less than four months...
Interesting rhetorical device, Ms. Laura--the ol' tautological, self-referential, self-pity move--but I'm not sure it does the trick.
How about this?
"I'm Laura Richardson, I'm a moron, I'm an elected official who jumps at the first opportunity to move ahead, no matter what the cost to my constituents who just elected me, and I like money too much not to speculate in real estate--170k doesn't go very far these days, you know. I'm incapable of taking responsibility for my actions. But hey, nobody's perfect.
"Take that twenty out of your own wallet before you remove the two cents from mine. Incidentally, you'll be getting my two cents on this issue; just because I have shown myself to be inept in dealing with simple personal financial decisions, like paying for a mortgage, doesn't mean I shouldn't have a say in writing laws that affect the entire mortgage industry and, by extension, the entire financial services sector. God bless America."
I'll stock up on Gatorade.
Tanta
I've been waiting for the product placement pitches.
Just like american Idol. Hope the checkls are phat.
(oh haloscan, where did last comment go)
Very likely someone committed a crime here. On loan three, either she lied or the underwriter gave such a reckless loan it violated some regulation.
Yep, it happened over and over in the bubble, but I would love her situation be used to show everyone that no one in this process is deserving of our tax dollars.
The facts haven't changed my initial reaction to the story. Did anyone else hear that 97 million people voted for the "American Idol" this week?
Do you think some of this women's constituency want their vote back? Should we require people running for office open up their whole financial situation, and not just their taxes? It would be nice to know if one is bad with financial planning, as they are probably bad with running a country planning, especially when our country is cliff-diving.
I bet politicians, just like CFC head, still think the Internet is for morons.
tai writes: Maybe she was hoping to get the special real estate deals that were given to Duke Cunningham.
Duke Cunningham, one of San Diego's fine examples of corruption, came to mind to me also. I was surprised that she hadn't yet gotten the connections needed to have one of her new-found lobbyist "friends" to purchase the home, save her from a loss/embarrassment, and take the loss themselves, as a nearly-impossible-to-prove form of campaign donation.
And the kicker is she's got to finance a re-election campaign in less than six months? Wanna buy a friend on the Hill really, really cheap? Dial 1-800-bordello and ask for Laura . . .
Very refreshing.
I like Haloscan's idiosyncrasies, they are a sign of artificial intelligence. Any programmer could have written code that does the same boring thing time after time. It takes a genius to write something that confounds the most sophisticated while being functional enough to keep them using it.
Nemo- your premise is flawed, but your conclusion is correct.
Normally I would try to be contrarian and argue with Tanta's perspective, but in this case I have to admit congress seems a bad fit for Ms. Richardson. Hopefully she'll get a Democrat to challenge her so her district can have someone more responsible representing them.
I'm not sure if Linda will be able hold her congressional seat which means her 100K+ salary is going to dwindle away....
Rather than shy away from voting on mortgage-related bills, Richardson said her experiences could help her craft legislation to make sure others don't experience what she did.
Haha...
Kinda like how destroying the entire economy gives the Fed the experience they need to fix it?
I'm seeing a pattern here too.
Maybe call it "anti-meritocracy".
Those who fail the most know the best.
Although it's no excuse for not following up on her financial obligations, I'm fairly sure that the process of learning the ropes at the Assembly and then the Congress were more than enough to occupy and befuddle anyone. It appears that she had no competent staff to handle this.
With qualifications like these, she could be President.
Any CRE quants feel like analyzing the NYC GM building deal.
Harry Macklowe to Sell GM Tower to Boston Properties (Update3) - Bloomberg.com
Bprop deposited 'a letter of credit'
the deal values the building at 3.8billion.
any guesses on lease px/sq ft?
the great thing about this deal is, you can walk from your overpriced plaza apartment to your overpriced ugly Gm office building, trade your derivatives for a few hours, then hit bergdorf's for a nice 50g day, every day.
life is good with devalued dollars
mp writes:
With qualifications like these, she could be President.
mp | 05.24.08 - 12:05 pm |
Not this cycle - too late for that. But HUD Sec'ty? A shoe in!!
"It appears that she had no competent staff to handle this."
Sounds like a personal problem to me.
I'm a single woman who had four employment changes in less than four months,
I'm only coming up with three, City Council, Assembly, Congress. May be the fourth is the reason she couldn't keep current. I won't speculate on what job that was.
I agree she should have kept the utilities current, all those pot plants are gonna die.
BTW- if she financed with Countrywide they might have sent the notice and still not foreclosed, what with their "not evicting borrowers who are not current on their payments" policy.
This from "John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics" blog: “now total in excess of 20% of the collateral backing the Federal Reserve Notes.”
“Since the onset of the banking solvency crisis and the establishment of various new lending facilities by the U.S. central bank, however, an increasing portion of the U.S. Treasury securities held as collateral has been lent to troubled financial institutions in exchange for largely illiquid collateralized debt obligations.”
Could you give us your comments on this topic? Are these statements accurate?
mp,
Thanks for the quote of the day!
mp writes:
With qualifications like these, she could be President.
mp | 05.24.08 - 12:05 pm |
The more I think of it, she'd get killed in the primaries. By Casey Serin.
sdtfs | 05.24.08 - 12:14 pm
I agree she should have kept the utilities current, all those pot plants are gonna die.
i love this blog.
How did an ugly cow like that get elected in the first place?
yours in Christ,
isamu
And to think, this woman speaks as an authoritarian on this issue. Puuuulllease!
Oh ... I've a great idea, however it's not for the faint of heart.
Let's impeach this fat ass from congress, and put her on the front lines in Iraq.
Missed first part of the extremely brief news blurb on CW31 in Sacramento. Caught the part where the news guy said she said (that sounds naughty) the house (in foreclosure) should have never been sold. Maybe WAMU (?) made a decision to be mean to her because of how she votes?
Could it be a WAMU exec somewhere is pointing and laughing hysterically at her being exposed as an idjit? Likely forgot they would be exposed too.
IMNSHO, modern medicine will destroy the human race by preventing natural selection. I do believe it is well on its way and may be, like global warming, already inevitable.
2 points.
1.)Does she have any other employment? Many state representatives have other employment (and income) from jobs that they perform when the legislation is not in session. This could lower her DTI a noticeable amount.
2.)It's not the fact that she is being foreclosed on that makes her involvement in housing legislation ethicly questionable. Tanta's right it's impossible for legislators to recuse themselves from all legislation that could affect them economicly. There would be nobody left to vote on tax legislation, which affects them all.
The problem is that modification or forgiveness or maybe even forebearance of any loan terms by her lender. Just like the IRS, the ethics rules view debt forgiveness as income. She GOT the money, if she doesn't pay it back to the lender than it's a gift. If she has received the benefit of forgiveness or a workout, it is up to HER to show that she received no special treatment.
At a time when are lots of anecdotal stories (even if they're not representative) of borrowers unable to contact anyone in authority at mortgage servicers, showing that she didn't receive special treatment would be difficult. After all, when a congresswoman calls, people answer the phone. It's conceivable that her story of a workout that got foreclosed anyway was the result of lawers for the servicer belatedly realizing that if she got treatment any different from all the other FBs they might be embroiled in a bribery case. They do NOT want to be caught cutting deals for congressmen when they're busy trying to cloak theselves in the mantle of innocent victems of frauds and walkaways.
From this post we can get some idea of what kind of congressional influence less than $40,000 buys.
Imagine what over $500,000,000 dollars buys. That's how much the three major presidential candidates have raised already. Contributions are listed here:
OpenSecrets.org: Money in Politics -- See Who's Giving & Who's Getting
Tanta: Does politics bore you to tears, or just stupid remarks about it? Politics are closely bound up with the economy of course, so I hope it is the latter and not the former.
I love California stories. They are always so over the top. I do not believe this could happen in any other western state. Back east maybe, but not in the american west. We have some ethics left!
Re: "her experiences could help her"
That sounds like a crack addict!
Not this cycle - too late for that. But HUD Sec'ty? A shoe in!!
HUD and FEMA are traditionally where administrations bury their incompent friends who are too big to be nominated as Ambassador to Burkina Faso.
Oh, please. Conrad Burns ring a bell?
I think there's a simple explanation about how she got all those loans. The bankers were not very careful. They somehow thought they were making loans to LINDA Richardson, who must have good credit and fundamentals, not LAURA Richardson, who doesn't.
It stands to reason. After all, Tanta seems to have done the same thing.
Tanta: Do you always have to be so ruthlessly, analytically right about things? Have you ever been in business with anyone? Have you ever given anyone a break? When did the milk of human kindness stop flowing from your breast? Just askin'.
Does she have any other employment? Many state representatives have other employment (and income) from jobs that they perform when the legislation is not in session.
Doesn't that have to be disclosed?
Plus, she got elected in November and the mortgage date is January 4. You couldn't have qualified her on her last two years' worth of income with a recent job change like that. You'd have to use her salary (& per diem allowed) for the new job. If she had liquid assets that she used for additional qualifying income, it looks like she pissed them away pretty quickly. Note that the Daily Breeze says she cashed out her Long Beach home for $100,000 to finance the Assembly run. It doesn't look like she had much cash sitting around.
At a time when are lots of anecdotal stories (even if they're not representative) of borrowers unable to contact anyone in authority at mortgage servicers, showing that she didn't receive special treatment would be difficult.
It's even worse because it is very rare for lenders to do modifications on non-owner-occupied properties, and by the time she claims the workout was negotiated, she didn't occupy the property and didn't need to any more. She says per the Breeze that she intended to rent out the Sacramento property, but had not done so and had never listed it.
Who ever heard of anyone offering a mod in that case? She couldn't possibly rent it for enough to cover reasonably modified mortgage terms. There just isn't any reason to modify a loan like that; you do a DIL or short sale.
Low blow on the Conrad shot. It is still not California quality graft!
It stands to reason. After all, Tanta seems to have done the same thing.
Thanks.
Tanta: Do you always have to be so ruthlessly, analytically right about things? Have you ever been in business with anyone? Have you ever given anyone a break?
You have no idea what kind of break I'm giving you right now.
Tanta: Does politics bore you to tears, or just stupid remarks about it?
The latter.
Any late word on which political party Representative Laura Richardson belongs to? After Tanta's post, an updated post, and more than 80 comments, I see no conclusive data on that point. Does anybody know?
Anyone? Bueller?
Google it, El Cliffo. It's really easy.
Yes, I know. I just made a comment in the form of a question.
Google it? After I linked to all those newspaper articles that mention this fact? Seems like overkill.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to break out the Gatorade.
Heh, heh - I knew what you were up to!
You mean after reading your posts, I have to read a bunch of newspaper articles, too? We count on you for news analysis and news aggregation, not just links.
Anonymous (05.24.08 - 12:18 pm )
I'll see your mp qotd, and raise you luvin_grits' ...
IMNSHO, modern medicine will destroy the human race by preventing natural selection. I do believe it is well on its way and may be, like global warming, already inevitable.
WYS, l_g!
I have been made, thus viewing with alarm is going to pull a conjure and go underground, Best wished to all!
I get the feeling Richardson was expecting a tangible windfall. Otherwise, there was no good reason to buy in Sacramento as her term was only good for 2 years -- no guarantee of re-election -- with a maximum of 6 years due to term limits. Why buy?
But then, who knows. It was a mighty good fantasy. A lot of folks drank the kool-aid.
Actually, I was glad to see her head off to Congress. Our State Legislature has quite enough servants of the Realtors, thank you.
Tanta seems very forgiving and sympathetic. I can't figure out why anyone would think otherwise. She is from the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me; school of economics.
My nom de plumesake's contribution to the discussion... The Ship of Fools
Seems like our representatives are every bit as debauched as the clergy in days of yore.
Laura Richardson is a whiney, useless, self-centered, pigÂ…she is perfect for politicsÂ…She is no different than the rest of the bunchÂ…God (if that is politically correct) help us all.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am on the East Coast and am stuck with John Corzine...HELP!
I know this is hard to acknowledge, but the real problem here is this:
...the 1,600-square-foot home she bought for $535,500 in January 2007 was sold at auction earlier this month to a Sacramento mortgage lender, who paid $388,000. The sale was officially recorded on Monday, according to documents on file with the Sacramento County Recorder's Office.
The problem is that even at $388K, a 1600 sq ft home is WAY overvalued. California is nice, but not that nice. Folks who live there are dealing with impossible costs that even now are still beyond the capability of most to afford. With 20% down and 6.25% the payment is $1911. Assuming the recommended 28% of income for a mortgage payment, one must make between $90K and $100K per year.
The same calculations on a house costing $535,500 has a monthly payment of $2637 and requires an income of probably $110,000.
Tell me how our favorite hard working blue collar family can possibly afford a 1600 sq ft home in CA?
True, but it does not equal 'ethical' which was your word/metric.
Nothing and no one tops Duke "the Duke-stir" Cunningham, I'll grant you that, if only for sheer amateurism. This Richardson case too has the same pathetic incompetence surrounding the whole thing. Can't they at least have the decency to be competent at corruption, if nothing else? It's like they can't even respect the voter enough to pull that off. But that could just be my NY bias; here the amateurs are promptly eaten and their bones used as toothpicks.
When did the milk of human kindness stop flowing from your breast?
O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide!
Laura Richardson is a Democrat.
That fact is generally not mentioned. If she were a Republican, it would be stated in every paragraph of every news article.
California is nice, but not that nice.
Actually some parts are worth it,...but not all of it, and definitely not Sacramento.
Tell me how our favorite hard working blue collar family can possibly afford a 1600 sq ft home in CA?
Easy. Both husband and wife work. Additionally, grandma and grandpa help with daycare. Additionally, you take a loan out of your 401k to make the downpayment. Additionally, you add in your total life savings to buy the house.
We are currently renting temporarily in a suburb of San Francisco, in what was clearly intended to be a blue collar neighborhood of ~1000 sq ft houses, some expanded to 1300. Purchase price on the house we are renting: 700k. Heavily Hispanic/Mexican immigrant neighborhood, and lots of 3-4 car/truck driveways. I think they double and treble up to afford it. Their families must get along far better than any I know to survive it, I commend them on managing it.
Viewing with alarm writes: I love California stories. They are always so over the top. I do not believe this could happen in any other western state. Back east maybe, but not in the american west. We have some ethics left!
Or perhaps you still have a few competitive congressional seats. Ours were drawn to be "safe", so whatever critter the party machine backs in the primary wins in the general. It's a "democracy" in name only, in that it has all the democratic trappings of voters voting, but no-one is ever voted out, short of being found in bed with a live boy or a dead prostitute.
EngineerJim, I don't give a hootin' hell what she calls herself. I'm way past that.
'Democrat' and 'Republican' are brand names, like Kellogg's corn flakes and generic corn flakes. Both brands are ideologically bankrupt. Same crap, different box.
mp: "EngineerJim, I don't give a hootin' hell what she calls herself. I'm way past that."
Actually, I don't care either, but the question came up earlier in the thread.
Darkness: As a MI resident I can only say OH MY GOD!!
I'm not sure you CA residents appreciate just how insane that sounds to those of us in flyover country.
The resistance to bailing out CA and Las Vegas, NV folks in foreclosure comes from our incredulous reaction to what you folks have to pay for housing. We just don't get it. How did this happen?
What is this "milk" business? Tanta is a wrinkly reptile!
"Tanta is a wrinkly reptile!"
Who drinks Gatorade.
So I Googled her... She has an \tMBA from the University of Southern California.
I'm moving her from the stupid to the evil column.
OK....
problem = opportunity
details just get in the way of message
just another reason why all the smart people are blogging and she's in congress.
isn't this like lying about sex? there really isn't any alternative with this set of facts to work with.
on the other hand, there are two political parties and we all know how they got gray davis on the wire, right?
What political party did Gray Davis belong to, again? It's not in my Los Angeles Times.
"Tanta is a wrinkly reptile!"
Nah! You guys have it all wrong. I have it on good authority that "Tanta" is the code name for a super high speed computer installed inside a West Virginia mountain top.
It was put there by aliens about 3,000 years ago.
Shoot the bitch.
mp---hehehehe.
Did you look at that chick's eyes.
There is something seriously wrong with the brain behind the eyes, or the eyes wouldn't look so. . .
I can't even think of a word.
Soulless perhaps.
"Soulless perhaps."
Amoral perhaps?
My point in all this is that the eagerness of our so-called professional reporter class to specify the political party of an elected official who may have done something wrong is inversely proportional to whether the reporters voted for that official.
El Cliffo, did it ever occur to you that most of the electorate is braindead, and that's why gals like Linda can get away with this kind of shit? Reporters have nothing to do with it.
Thanks to Tanta, we now have the Internet. If we want, we can find out Linda's shoe size.
Hell, we can even learn enough to prosecute her, but who is going to care enough to take the time to do it? It won't be a Republican or Democrat.
Very good question. I have no good answer, despite pondering it for the time we were here. People just really, really want to live here, I guess. We normally live in the wilds of deepest Upstate NY, and our 15-year mortgage is 1/3 this rent, and this rent is only covering half the mortgage on this house. We make pretty good money but this tiny 1250 sq ft 2/1 is way out of our league. Oh, but it has granite countertops rolls eyes. And a very nice stove, which HAS spoiled us. I think we may have to buy a better stove when we get home, but heck, what we "save" on mortgage payments in one month would buy the highest end one of these beauties.
Sure doesn't add up. Ordinary people, in droves, must be bringing wealth into the area and dumping it into real estate. Where they got the wealth, given that wages elsewhere are lower, remains a mystery. But that said, prices here on the top end in CA haven't got anything on NYC coops.
I omitted a material fact re Tanta's West Virginia mountain top location.
Davy Crockett discovered "her" (affectionate reference) almost two centuries ago but, in exchange for Davy's pledge of silence, Tanta made him a legend in his own time.
I like corn flakes just fine...I just ignore their ideology.
Ahh! The great USC MBA! ...the original California-buy-a-degree.
Well, so far we've got two estimates for Tanta's age in the thread--one, just under two centuries, and the other, 3,000 years old. Come on, mp, could you narrow it down?
Doesn't that have to be disclosed?
Sure, but I don't trust the reporter to pull her financial disclosure forms.
El Cliffo, as I said, Tanta became operational about 3,000 years ago, but was discovered by Davy Crockett during his wanderings about two centuries ago. In return for Davy's pledge of silence, Tanta made him a legend and a Bowie knife.
The rest is history.
Remember the Lone Ranger's "faithful Indian companion, Tonto". Maybe CR's faithful Indian companion is Tanta -- i.e. the female version.
Of course she's a dem,just look at the picture.Female republicans in CA are required to look good,or at least not like a handbag that spent 2 weeks in a cesspit before being sundried.I do wonder if all of these homes were "owner occupied"...
"Maybe CR's faithful Indian companion is Tanta -- i.e. the female version."
It's certainly possible. After all, the Lone Ranger and Davy Crockett both worked for the same network.
The question is: did Lone Ranger move in the same circle as Tanta?
It is so nice to see highly intelligent, prudent and fiscally responsible leaders like Rep. Richardson in charge. I sleep better at night knowing she is making decisions on behalf of our country.
We have to ensure that lenders and lendees have the tools with proper timing to resolve this.
Ms. Richardson has an interesting way with the language. I can't settle on any one way to parse that sentence, and none of the alternatives makes sense.
She may be very good in Washington.
"Of course she's a dem,just look at the picture.Female republicans in CA are required to look good,or at least not like a handbag that spent 2 weeks in a cesspit before being sundried."
I am going to take a wild guess that this is the type of political remark that bores Tanta to tears. If an alien reptile computer can really cry.
Typical scumbag politician.
If she were a Republican, the word "Republican" would have appeared somewhere in the post.
We're being persecuted! My god, the liberal media is everywhere! Hand me a tissue, because I can cry like this for hours! Woe is me!
Emma Anne: " 'Of course she's a dem,just look at the picture.Female republicans in CA are required to look good,or at least not like a handbag that spent 2 weeks in a cesspit before being sundried.'
I am going to take a wild guess that this is the type of political remark that bores Tanta to tears. If an alien reptile computer can really cry."
Yeah, life's unfair. In this morning's paper I read an article entitled "McCain reportedly free of cancer" by Liz Sidolte and Lauran Neergaard. In it they referred to McCain with the line "The fair skinned Republican nominee-in-waiting ...". Wonder why they just didn't say "The lily white Republican... "
Emma Anne, you beat me to it. For every quality snark on a political thread, we seem to get a dozen garden-variety anti-politician scatologies, with a nice frothy topping of anti-woman humor if they've made the horrible mistake of being female to boot.
You're fishing to hard. In medical circles and even tanning parlor parlance, "fair-skinned" is a technical term, not a loaded one.
I'm pretty damn white, and in the winter lily-white, but I ain't "fair skinned" where UV is concerned.
Oh, and Emma Anne, yours was a quality snark.
Darkness: "In medical circles and even tanning parlor parlance, "fair-skinned" is a technical term, not a loaded one."
Yes, I know that. But I think anyone who has ever seen a picture of McCain, or has seen him on TV, knows he is "fair-skinned"
Whiiiiiiiiiiny...
Susceptability to melanoma is a function of...melanin in the skin which affects...wait a second dammit its coming to me!
Well OT:
Notice that Willoughby in this story "has cancer" and was described 2/3 of the way though the story as "smoking a cigarette". Darwin Award!!! She has 9 kids. Oh and mortgage problems of courses.
This is priceless.
New Haven Independent: Struggling Couple Sues Over "Scam"
So I Googled her... She has an MBA from the University of Southern California.
I'm moving her from the stupid to the evil column.
I wouldn't be so hasty with that move.
I get my Gatorade at Sam's Club in the two quart powder can. Much cheaper when you need to drink large quantities of the stuff to stay hydrated.
kidbuck writes:
So I Googled her... She has an MBA from the University of Southern California.
I'm moving her from the stupid to the evil column.
Also please note that "stupid" and "evil" are not mutually exclusive characteristics. Just ask our friends residing in San Quentin.
Tanta,
Absolutely brilliant writing.
Thanks for telling it like it is.
JT in SD
Woops....major error.
CLAY Davis
Clay Davis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Having uncovered evidence that Davis lied on a mortgage application, Freamon and Sydnor suggest taking the case to federal law enforcement. Yet Bond elected to ignore the evidence as he hoped to gain recognition by prosecuting Davis himself. Called to testify, Davis invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid incriminating himself. Davis confronted a press opportunity staged by Bond on the courthouse steps, turning on the charm and denying any wrongdoing.[10] Called to the stand, Davis gave a rousing speech defending his public role, is acquitted, and beamed before the assembled cameras and reporters afterward.
With Bond's case concluded but the mortgage fraud uncharged, Freamon approached Davis with the incriminating mortgage in a personal setting. Not knowing that Freamon had been unable to bring these charges, Davis is successfully blackmailed into sharing information about back-room deals involving the city's political elite. In a second conversation, Davis boastingly mentions a drug dealer named "Bell" whom he had conned.
Pelosi needs to force her to resign yesterday.
You "Progressives" need to visit Laura's congressional website, and take your medicine. Here's a sample: "Speaker Pelosi has referred to Representative Richardson as bright,energetic, intelligent, and an asset to the committee chairs, caucuses and consituents." Basically, Laura is an "empowerment specialist" for the "traditionally underserved," a true Tribune of the Populares.
Let's be careful about linking progressives to Ms. Richardson lest we remind the conservatives among us about Foley, Delay, Bush, Cheney, Craig, Livingston, Gingerich, Cunningham, Vitter, Limbaugh (drug addict) et al.
There is plenty of corruption to go around for both parties.
We need a new leadership in congress and the white house.
Not all that different from Obama's real estate misadventures with Resko, really.
The only use I have for Gatorade is to drink it with that pre-colonscopy powder that clears out your system in 2 hours flat. Gatorade is vile.
Just drink water.
We're being persecuted! My god, the liberal media is everywhere! Hand me a tissue, because I can cry like this for hours! Woe is me!
Touch a nerve, did I?
For the record, I do not care much for Republicans. (Unless maybe you count Ron Paul.) I just find it amusing to observe Tanta's own biases and internal contradictions.
Another rube who confused the real value of shelter vs. stupid-credit-created pricingl; and lifetime-long-term vs. quarterly or annual periods.
Pity the citizens who get the outcomes of her legislative efforts. This may not have been in the forefront of the framers' minds when requiring 2 year terms for the peoples' legislature, but still I'm glad they foresaw a general need to clean house regularly. They screwed up neglecting gerimandering, though. She may win in the general election?
I find it hard to believe the Rep Richardson didn't use falsified stated income to get these loans approved. She's Casey Serin in Congress and should be investigated accordingly.
I confess that wading through this particular comment thread was just too daunting but I did scan through. I didn't notice anybody pointing out that California has term limits for state elective offices. The reason this woman tripped over herself and everything else and broke the bank to get her U.S. Representative gig was to escape the term limits problem and the typical game of musical chairs it leads to among California politicians. So she WAS thinking ahead. Stated more succinctly, Ms. Richardson spotted an opportunity to latch onto the government tit forever and she lunged for it.
And I apologize if someone already brought up this little bit of further character-revealing detail.
I've been throwing big stones, very accurately, at this person, but I can't help thinking: we created her. We as a society allowed her to do the things she did/is doing. She is tiny compared to the evils of Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld, etc, but we created them too.
As long as we all sit around feeling so morally superior and blaming "that other person" and "those people" we're going to keep growing these weeds.
Absolutely no reason to let her keep her office, and probably good reason to prosecute her if fraud and malfeasance shows itself more clearly. Ask yourselves... what the hell did you do to prevent it? Some of you might have a good answer to this. Some of you might even be telling the truth. I doubt it applies to the majority, however.
We REALLY have to rethink this government thing.
Uncle Billy, our last Congress had Boy Ney, Duke Cunningham, and others convicted of accepting bribes and handing out billions of dollars to their buddies. It featured Larry Craig toe tapping in the Twin Cities airport. Not to mention William Jefferson and his cold cash.
If the worst that comes out of this session is someone buying a home they can't afford, it's a step in the right direction.
That said, Congresswoman Richardson definitely needs to find a new career. Hopefully, not as a math teacher.
All I want to say is I'm a big fan of the various "read more" text you use.
Even with the fat retard's feed bill it still doesn't add up.
Hopefully the refi and non primary residences are recourse.
She's a shill, let her rot in Hell!!!!!
"Realtor Dick Gaylord"
COME ON!
COME OOOOOON!
Nobody else thought that was funny, nobody on the whole damned interweb... What is happening to the world?
Couldn't finish this comment thread.
I guess Tanta was right to think twice before posting.
I usually find a lot to learn and admire in what people say on this blog. Less so, this time.
I'm quite sure Richardson wants to be treated like just a plain old American and not get special treatment
Tanta, I don't know why you would make a statement like that.
She is not a normal American. She is a MC. They make rules not follow them. Remember the House Bank?
And you don't think WAMU would not want to help a distressed borrower, who is an MC, you haven't been around as much as I thought you had, or maybe you are just trying to be nice.
Hmm...
Richardson story was buried pretty deep at the L.A. Times, and now with plenty of posting/commenting on it, the link to the blog itself seems to have been removed from its usual place on the front page.
Curiouser and Curiouser