A day after the news broke that Countrywide Mortgage was having a bit of “financial problems”..customers lined up by the hundreds to yank their money out of the banking end of the corporation.

Countrywide Financial tried to assuage the worry and fear that they were going under. They are the biggest mortgage company in the nation, but they also were loaning money to folks that could not afford the homes they were buying. From an LAT writeup:

The parent firm borrowed $11.5 billion Thursday by using up an existing line of credit from 40 banks, saying the money would help the lender meet its funding needs and continue to grow. But stock investors, apparently alarmed that the company felt compelled to use the credit line, sent Countrywide’s already battered stock down an additional 11%.

That doesn’t send a warm and fuzzy message to Wall St. does it? Nor does it send a good message to their customers..the LAST folks they need storming the doors to withdraw their hard-earned cash. Some branches actually ran out of cash and customers were forced to leave their names and get on a list to withdraw their funds.

But, if you listen to Wall St and those wonderful folks in high finance..the housing market problem is just a little blip on the screen..right pal..shades of the Great Depression to me. Countrywide was playing fast and loose with the loans it was making..like many of the Mortgage brokers..as witnessed by this tidbit from the LAT writeup:

Countrywide recently was funding about $40 billion a month in mortgages. Of those, about half qualified to be sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, and half were “nonconforming” loans the agencies don’t buy, including sub-prime mortgages to higher-risk borrowers as well as jumbo loans, which account for 43% of all mortgages issued in Southern California.–Sub-prime is code for a shaky loan evidently.

tags: Countrywide Financial, mortgage industry, housing market

EDIT: If you want to know how bad off Countrywide is..here is a comment from a fellow blogger that I want everyone to see from my comments section: “Countrywide has my mortgage and it has nearly doubled in amount since last year which is why I’m trying to sell my house. No, it’s not an ARM nor have I refinanced the loan or been late on any payments–in fact before it went up so drastically I was paying extra against the principle. They didn’t pay my escrowed insurance, either, which I had to pay out-of-pocket to be reimbursed in June. Have I seen the reimbursement yet? Ha ha, good one! There’s a website with hundreds of complaints about CW called “Countrywide Sucks” or something like that. A class action suit was mentioned on the site but I don’t think there is one, yet.”–Thats fucked up and I hope to God they all sue.

Per MSNBC: Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration’s zeal to stop homegrown terror.

Padilla and co-defendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face life in prison because they were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas. All three were also convicted of two terrorism material support counts that carry potential 15-year sentences each.

The Jurist: A federal jury found Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants guilty Thursday on all charges against them. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi were convicted of conspiracy to commit illegal violent acts outside the US, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists. They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an “enemy combatant” at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina.

Initially accused of planning to set off a “dirty bomb” in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged with other offenses in November 2005. Padilla was transferred to civilian custody in January 2006 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Tags: Jose Padilla, Gitmo

It’s all over the internets, FNC (Fox News Corp) has been busted vandalizing Wikipedia. From TV Newser:

Ungerleider writes, “Bloggers Geeks Are Sexy compiled a list of Fox News’ extensive Wikipedia edits - which, among other things, posted false information about the ratings of Fox News shows, accused Keith Olbermann of making light of Peter Jennings’ death and deleted ratings info for MSNBC programs.”

Typical for Fox Noise..nothing but bs and bravado coming out of that place.. unfair and unbalanced? You betcha!

Tags: Wikipedia, Fox Noise busted, FNC

You got that right Dennis! Seems anything that supports the general population is considered liberal by the Republicans and the Republican-lite party..aka the DLC Democrats. Read the entire writeup of Kucinich’s weekend visit with ABC’s This Week here.

Tags: Kucinich, DLC

Bush did the same thing when he ran the state of Texas. He is set to ‘fast-track’ death row inmates, removing what has been due process for an inmate sentenced to death for a crime. As the IHT article points out:

The US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales - Mr Bush’s top legal adviser during the spree of executions in Texas in the 1990s - is putting finishing touches to regulations, inspired by recent anti-terrorism legislation, that would allow states to turn to the Justice Department, instead of the federal courts, as a key arbiter in deciding whether prisoners live or die. The US is already among the top six countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of its own citizens that it puts to death. Fifty-two Americans were executed last year and thousands await their fate on death row.

Ah yes..our Decider-in-Chief will now decide who lives and who dies..how freaking ironic that Bush and his lap dog Abu Gonzales will have this power..power btw that the Democrats gave them.

Disgusting bit of record-setting by Georgie per the IHT article: President Bush has always been a death penalty enthusiast. The 152 prisoners he dispatched to their deaths in his eight years as governor of Texas set a high-water mark unmatched before or since.

I feel for the record, I should state that I have been a death penalty proponent until now. I felt comfortable that many of the checks and balances were in place to guarantee that an innocent individual was not put to death. With this new twist..I no longer feel the same.

Tags: death penalty, due process, Alberto Gonzales

From Jason Leopold and TruthOut come this story:

The Republican National Committee said it will not abide by a subpoena and turn over documents to a Congressional committee investigating the firings of at least eight US attorneys last year because the RNC is waiting to see if the White House will assert executive privilege over RNC documents at the center of the controversy, according to an outside law firm retained by the RNC.

The White House has asserted executive privilege to block senior administration officials from testifying before Congress about their involvement in the decision to fire the federal prosecutors. Moreover, the White House has cited executive privilege in declining to turn over specific documents to Congress that may shed further light on the circumstances behind the attorney firings. The US attorneys believe they were fired for partisan political reasons. In some instances, the US attorneys said they were pressured by Republican lawmakers and RNC operatives to file criminal charges against Democrats at the center of public corruption probes prior to last year’s midterm election as well as individual cases of voter fraud, which the attorneys said was based on weak evidence, in order to cast a dark cloud over Democratic incumbents and swing election results toward Republican challengers

Hell, isn’t everything Executive Privilege by now under King George? We need Congress to move their ass..but wait..they are on vacation..never mind.

The rancid bag of batshit…that is…Karl Rove. He led the charge that saw America becoming a warmongering, selfish, over-indulgent shell of it’s former self. We borrowed millions to wage holy wars for oil..and..lol..democracy. The laugh is pure irony at the thought of what Democracy has become with Karl Rove writing the scripts and talking points.

Rove didn’t make policy..he just spun it for BushCo. He was the fixer, he got the word out and tried to always put a decent spin on it..even if it meant saying the same damn things over and over and…over. He politicized Departments that had never experienced that level of party politics just to do their friggin jobs.

Now, he will write a book, become rich and speak to us only if we pay him to. Hopefully the final chapter will show that Rove failed and the Great Republican monarchy he tried so hard to help build…will crumble into a steaming pile of mierda in the next election cycle. Here is hoping America will make a left turn into the middle and walk away from the abyss that Rove helped create.

One can only hope this spin-meister won’t be able to spin the historical perspective of George Bush’s presidency.

Tags: Karl Rove, Turdblossum

The story broke not by a reporter, but the OpEd guy at the WSJ. Strange wouldn’t you say? This story also breaks on the heels of a nasty writeup by the Atlantic Monthly.

Personally, I don’t know if this is good news or bad news..but Rover is resigning effective end of August. WaPo as well as a zillion other sites have a piece up about it.

I think he plans to go to work on Fred Thompson’s campaign..just a hunch. Congress still needs to charge him with Contempt of Congress. This smarmy sumbitch needs to be held accountable. A quote from Rover on the subject:

“There’s always something that can keep you here,” Rove said, “and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”

His family?? I thought the man was raised by wolves? Of course he says he doesn’t PLAN to work on any Presidential Campaign..but we know how folks change their minds. He has a son in college, so if the draft is created..he won’t be serving either…just like his Daddy.

He also stated in the WaPo article he wants to teach someday..what..Dirty Tricks 101??? Or how about Destroying the Constitution, advanced studies??

Will BushCo be able to function without its brain?

We shall wait and see my dear reader..

EDIT: Campaign For America’s Future has a good piece up by Rick Perlstein about what Rover might actually be pulling.

Tags: Bushs Brain, Rove

The police at the Italian airport were looking for drugs. What they found was incredibly more important to the state of the world, the Middle East specifically. From AP:

Their discovery led anti-Mafia investigators down a monthslong trail of telephone and e-mail intercepts, into the midst of a huge black-market transaction, as Iraqi and Italian partners haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into the bloodbath of Iraq.

Damn..everyone’s getting in the armament ‘bidness’ don’t ya know? Where are the Chinese guns shipping in from? Afterall..War is Good Bidness! Why shouldn’t everyone make a buck?

With friends like the Russians..you don’t need enemies..snark button on there folks It’s getting uglier and uglier ain’t it? Place your bets..

Tags: Russian arms in Iraq, Whos arming the terrorists