Getting desperate out there:

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.

More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.

For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery — the last thing it wants in an election year.

Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.

Short sale, though, doesn’t work all that easily. I know people who have been in short sale for months and still nothing. The real problem kicks in when you have a second on your house. Given home values, if there is a foreclosure, the second note holder will get nothing – but there’s also no requirement in a short sale to give the second anything…but, of course, the second can spike the deal unless something is forthcoming. From what I understand, its usually about $3,000.00 to $5,000.00 sent to the second note holder.

What this latest Obama plan amounts to is a means of keeping people in their homes without having to pay their mortgage (if the house is in short sale, there is absolutely zero reason to keep making payments) and for those who do actually manage to get a sale, there’s $1,500.00 to help move (though if you had a mortgage payment of $1,500.00 per month and you’ve been in short sale for 9 months you should have $13,500.00 saved up – if you’re responsible). This is a “tide the housing market over until November 3rd plan”.

As long time readers know, I was yammering on and on about how the best means of curing the situation was to “cram down” the mortgages to the collapsed current value. Now, I’m not so sure – it would have taken some government money and all that has been blown in TARP and Spendulus. And if we do “cram down”, a lot of banks will fail because they are only “solvent” as long as the loans on the books are considered valid. Of course, if nothing is done these loans will still go bad – either in foreclosure because someone lost a job, or in the act known as “strategic default” – the banks will still fail, just not right now.

Its a mess, my fellow Americans. Welcome to national bankruptcy. The sooner we admit it, balance our budget and let the chips fall where they may, the quicker we’ll stark working our way out of it (and don’t let anyone crow over our financial corpse – the rest of the world is just as economically dead as we are…yes, even China).

HAT TIP: Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

The Culture of Death wants more blood:

A campaign to give elderly people in the Netherlands the right to assisted suicide said Monday it has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, hoping to push the boundaries another notch in the country that first legalized euthanasia.

Remember, this isn’t assisted suicide because you’re terminally ill and in pain, its because you’re old. They are already engaging in widespread euthanasia and infanticide in Holland on the flimsiest of excuses – doing this would make it a free for all (define “old” for me, please). It’ll only take the mildest of court or bureaucratic rulings from that point to assisted suicide for all.

Holland is already below replacement rate in population – except among their Moslems, of course – and this is what the culture of death gets you: an unwillingness to have children coupled with an unwillingness to live, or be bothered with elderly or ill relatives. Childless people without hope committing slow suicide.

This is modern, post-Christian civilization – a pact with death; an unwillingness to live; an example of just why Christianity rose so swiftly in the dying, pagan, Greco-Roman world…they, too, at last became enthralled with death and sterility. With the return of paganism we have the return of despair: there is, then, only one cure for what ails us.

The disintegrating Democrat coalition:

“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn, Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) said. “He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”

Rep. Massa describes a confrontation with Emanuel in a shower: “I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me.”

Massa, of course, is claiming that the Democrats forced him out – with the implication in that being the sexual charges against him are bogus. We’ll have to see how that comes out – some times in politics what you’ve got is a confrontation between liar and liar. Though, of course, Massa could be the victim here.

The main thing about this is the clear evidence that in spite of a friendly MSM unwilling to air dirty laundry, the Democrats are falling apart. What this tells me is that the Democrats’ internal polling must show a disaster looming in November (a bit of confirmation of my theory here is a Democrat poll showing the GOP favored by three in the “generic” Congressional ballot). Things tend to get this bad a week or two before an election when one side sees the writing on the wall.

If we’re seeing the writing on the wall in March…

With all the grim news we see, perhaps its time to lighten things up a bit?

Irish Declare War On France

The French President, is sitting in his office when his telephone rings.

“Hallo, Mr. Sarkozy!” a heavily accented voice said. “This is Paddy down at the Harp Pub in County Clare, Ireland. I am ringing to inform you that we are officially declaring war on you!”

“Well, Paddy,” Sarkozy replied, “This is indeed important news! How big is your army?”

“Right now,” says Paddy, after a moment’s calculation, “there is meself, me cousin Sean, me next door neighbour Seamus, and the entire darts team from the pub. That makes eight!”

Sarkozy paused. “I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 100,000 men in my army waiting to move on my command.”

“Begoora!” says Paddy. “I’ll have to ring you back.”

Sure enough, the next day, Paddy calls again. “Mr. Sarkozy, the war is still on. We have managed to get us some infantry equipment!”

“And what equipment would that be Paddy?” Sarkozy asks.

“Well, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Murphy’s farm tractor.”

Sarkozy sighs amused. “I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 6,000 tanks and 5,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I have increased my army to 150,000 since we last spoke.”

“Saints preserve us!” says Paddy. “I’ll have to get back to you.”

Sure enough, Paddy rings again the next day. “Mr. Sarkozy, the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We have modified Jackie McLaughlin’s ultra-light with a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four boys from the Shamrock Bar have joined us as well!”

Sarkozy was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. “I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 100 bombers and 200 fighter planes. My military bases are surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I have increased my army to 200,000!”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” says Paddy, “I will have to ring you back.”

Sure enough, Paddy calls again the next day. “Top o’ the mornin’, Mr. Sarkozy! I am sorry to inform you that we have had to call off the war.”

“Really? I am sorry to hear that,” says Sarkozy. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“Well,” says Paddy, “we had a long chat over a few pints of Guinness, and we decided there is no fookin’ way we can feed 200,000 prisoners.

Bring any and all – keep it PG-13!

You think I’m making this up?

Wildlife officials have tried everything to keep sea lions from eating endangered salmon, dropping bombs that explode under water and firing rubber bullets and bean bags from shotguns and boats. Now they are resorting to issuing death sentences to the most chronic offenders.

A California sea lion last week became the first salmon predator to be euthanized this year under a program that has been denounced by those who say there are far greater dangers to salmon – including the series of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia.

This is the second year of the program, which is administered by wildlife officials in Oregon and Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Who in their right mind would even try to get a sea lion not to eat fish? And what sort of lunatic do you have to be to think that the proper response to sea lion eating fish is to kill the sea lion?

We’ve become in a lot of ways very crazy over the past few decades – this is the liberal, we’ll-save-the-world mindset, triumphant. First to think that salmon are actually endangered, second to think that they are so endangered they’d better stop sea lions from eating them. This is what comes of thinking that the world is about to end because of Man.

Look, I can see the need to ensure water flows – as long as it doesn’t prevent farming – but has anyone thought about this for a moment? Are we certain there’s no other way to get increased salmon populations? No way to breed them a bit in captivity and release them in to the streams at the proper time?

Geesh!

About time:

Before the 2008 election, Wisconsin’s Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm formed a special task force to combat attempts to pervert elections, especially in Milwaukee, where most of the problems occurred in 2004.

Today, Van Hollen announced indictments in five cases — including two felony indictments against ACORN for scheming to have registrants vote multiple times in November 2008. The AG released this statement today:

MILWAUKEE – Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that the Milwaukee Election Fraud Task Force has brought additional electoral fraud cases against five Wisconsin residents. The Department of Justice, acting as Special Prosecutor for Milwaukee County, has filed felony charges against Maria Miles, Kevin Clancy, Michael Henderson, Herbert Gunka, and Suzanne Gunka, all alleging election fraud arising out of the November 4, 2008, Presidential Election.

“The integrity of elections is dependent upon citizens and officials insisting they be conducted lawfully. Wisconsin’s citizens should not have to wonder whether their vote has been negated or diminished by illegally cast ballots,” Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said.

According to the criminal complaints, Miles and Clancy served as Special Registration Deputies (“SRD”) for the City of Milwaukee in advance of the 2008 Presidential Election. Each worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”). Miles and Clancy are each charged with the felony offense of Falsely Procuring Voter Registration as Party to a Crime. The complaint alleges that Miles and Clancy submitted multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals, and also were part of a scheme in which they and other SRDs registered each other to vote multiple times in order to meet voter registration quotas imposed by ACORN…

In 2004, Wisconsin went for Kerry by a bit more than 11,000 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast. In 2004, it went for Gore by less than 6,000 votes. Both are within the “margin of ACORN”. And I’ve long been convinced that both in 2000 and 2004, Bush was denied a Wisconsin victory by voter fraud – and denied other States, as well, in both cycles. In 2008 it didn’t affect the outcome as Obama’s margin over McCain was quite large, but its clear that the voter fraud which became endemic in 2000 has continued – and will continue until people go to jail over it.

Unless there is absolute confidence in the vote, democracy is unworkable. Democrats, foolishly determined on winning no matter what, are placing the entire American experiment at risk by colluding in actions such as ACORN’s in the matter of voter fraud. That the nation could go in to acute crisis due to such things just doesn’t register in the minds of the Democrats.

Mostly this is because of the overall culture of corruption in the Democrat Party. They’ve been getting away with law breaking for so long, they just don’t see any reason to not break the law. Always keep in mind such things as the indisputable fact that Speaker Pelosi rose to her position by a series of illegal actions. For any Democrat, this is a lesson which cannot be ignored – routinely break the law; become Speaker.

Fundamentally, it is for liberal voters to finally wake up to this and do the right thing – but, in the meantime, the job of all patriots who care about our democratic way of life is to ensure that as many Democrats as possible see the inside of a jail over this sort of thing.

Showing a much better grasp of what being Commander in Chief requires than our current President:

First the Obama Administration opened up the possibility of prosecuting CIA interrogators doing their jobs seeking information from terrorists. Then they tried to go after the Bush Administration lawyers who acted in good faith to protect us in the months after 9/11. Now some of the military brass are court-martialing three brave Navy SEALs for allegedly throwing a single punch at Iraqi terrorist leader Ahmed Hashim Abed. This is wrong. The Washington Times got it right: Save the SEALs.

These brave warriors belong in combat, not in the courthouse. They captured the most wanted terrorist in Iraq. We may never know how many other heroic missions they undertook on behalf of our country. The charges should be dropped, and they should be returned to their unit – with our gratitude for their service.

Stand up for the SEALs who are standing up for us!

– Sarah Palin

Indeed, Save the SEALs – and you can go here to help out.

It just disgusts me that we’d even think of prosecuting. A punch in a war zone? Give me a break! This is war, not a playground game. If the SEALs did it – which I doubt, as I doubt any accusation made against our troops by our enemies – the terrorist should count himself lucky not to have been beaten to a bloody pulp. You go pick a fight with the United States military, you’re in for a world of hurt.

A bit of nasty, political infighting going on:

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has become a reluctant central figure in the battle between liberals and centrists in the Democratic Party.

A spate of recent reports have portrayed Emanuel, known for his aggressive brand of Washington politics, as either the voice of reason in a weak, liberal White House or the wet blanket preventing President Barack Obama from pursuing the kind of change he promised as a candidate…

…The culprits behind those stories are not Emanuel or those who support him, Democratic strategists say, but instead the liberal Netroots crowd disgusted by what they view as appeasement to the center.

Some of those efforts to weaken Emanuel are coming from inside the building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, one Democratic strategist said.

“There are people in the White House who are trying to get rid of Rahm, and they are leaking everything they can,” said the strategist, who is close to Emanuel. “Some of it’s personal, some of it’s professional[ly] judgmental, but there is no doubt there’s an effort.”…

A lot of things are coming together here:

1. Emanuel is not a proper Chief of Staff. The man who once sent a letter to a colleague stating, “I hate you very much”, and including a dead fish, is not the man to bring everyone together in a loving embrace. A CoS does need to have a hard edge about him (its the CoS who must say “no”, while the President is allowed to say “yes” when ever the CoS thinks it a good idea) but there also needs to be an ability to smooth over differences and get massive egos to work together. Emanuel isn’t that kind of guy.

2. Centrist Democrats – especially those in GOP districts – are getting increasingly frightened about November. Its all well and good for party liberals to say, “lets do this, win or lose”, but when you’re the guy who will almost certainly lose if it happens, its not quite as cut and dried as all that.

3. The liberal netroots was out there fighting hard for a very leftist candidate in 2008. Given the way that netroots is a gigantic, mindless echo-chamber, it probably didn’t (and doesn’t) occur to them that while they knew Obama was far left, Obama was running as a centrist. The American people did not vote for what the liberal base was fighting for. Now the liberal base – still entirely clueless about the realities of American politics – is getting furious that what they fought for is not being enacted. Even simple – in liberal-think, at least – things such as closing Gitmo and repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” aren’t being moved on.

4. Obama is proving to be that worst sort of leader imaginable – a weak yet stubborn man. He’s not got the raw courage to either tell his base to shut up or tell the GOP to jump in a lake, but he’s also blind to realities and simply will not retreat from a position, once taken. He doesn’t know how to lose gracefully, or even beat a tactical retreat in preparation for a renewed offensive at a more propitious time.

5. The various corrupt elements of the Democrat party complicate things a thousand different ways – no matter what happens, they want their usual piece of the pie and as they do their normal looting of the Treasury for personal gain, its causing all sorts of headaches for Democrats who want to get things done. Used to be, this sort of thing never came up as the MSM could be relied upon to cover up things – but with the New Media, its become impossible to keep a lid on it.

This has all resulted in a complete breakdown on message and, resulting from that, a sort of “you first” attitude where everyone is waiting for everyone else to walk the plank, first. Untangling the knot is still possible, but only if the corrupt give up their payoffs, liberals give up their more leftwing dreams and Obama learns how to ruthlessly take charge and give clear, crisp orders to be obeyed or get out.

I don’t think they can do it. Disaster impends for the Democrats. I’m quite happy about that.

Axelrod: You idiots are ruining the Obama Administration.

Barack Obama: imperialist running dog of capitalism. Who knew?

A bit of Hopey-Change fatigue?

J D Hayworth hits McCain on “amnesty” issue.

Student riots and the student loan scam.

Death of Civilization Watch: Gay Catholic Ex-Stripper Awaits Birth of Twins Carried by Husband’s Sister (The linked article describes the guy as “devout” in his Catholicism…I can only assume he’s early on in his return to the Church and thus needs a great deal more instruction).

One governed by people who believe they are really good at governing, the other governed by people who would rather be out hunting of fishing – Michael Barone has an excellent article contrasting the miserably failed State of California and the stunningly successful State of Texas, here’s one of many points:

…From 2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates, there has been a domestic outflow of 1,509,000 people from California — almost as many as the number of immigrants coming in. Population growth has not been above the national average and, for the first time in history, it appears that California will gain no House seats or electoral votes from the reapportionment following the 2010 census…

…Americans have been voting for Texas with their feet. From 2000 to 2009, some 848,000 people moved from other parts of the United States to Texas, about the same number as moved in from abroad. That inflow has continued in 2008-09, in which 143,000 Americans moved into Texas, more than double the number in any other state, at the same time as 98,000 were moving out of California. Texas is on the way to gain four additional House seats and electoral votes in the 2010 reapportionment…

Another point in the article is that California’s legislature meet year-round, while Texas is only burdened with such 90 days every other year. Texas is a State which has a government – California is a government which has a State.

I don’t know how California gets out of the mess – my bet is that the 1.5 million who left are of the conservative, will-work-for-money mindset. This means that those remaining are ever more likely to see government as the answer – whether its as a welfare distributor or as a path to personal riches via government employment. Meanwhile, the very rich who infect Los Angeles and San Francisco will continue to vote liberal because behind their gated communities and in their enclaves of wealth and privilege, California is still going great. There is a chance of revolution in California this year – and if Californians don’t take it, I think the Golden State is doomed.

Meanwhile, out here in Nevada one of our goals is not to become “Californicated”…naturally, our liberals are starting to say that the cure for our own budget woes is a round of tax increases…including, of course, the imposition of a State income tax. This sort of thing proves liberals are impervious to reason.