The People Have Spoken. And Their Message Is – Squirrel!

So. What the heck happened last night?
The GOP picked up 60 seats in the House, effectively reversing their losses there from 2006 and 2008, and returning control of that body to them.
The GOP picked up some 6 seats in the Senate, but the Democratic Party retains control there.
The GOP picked up several governor seats as well.
And it was a very good night for the GOP in local races around the country.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/senate

I should be suicidally depressed, right?

Meh.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m disappointed as the next progressive. Disappointed in the party, in the party leadership (Doctor-Governor-Chairman Dean, we miss you and your 50 state strategy!), in knowing I’ll have to hear the phrase “Speaker Boehner” for the next 2 years, in every failed vote and compromise and missed opportunity of the last 2 years.

But.

I’m far more confused, or bemused, than angry or sad.
What I don't get is how non-sensical the results are, when taken as a whole.
Despite what the pollsters, the pundits, the media, the GOP leadership, and the defeated TEA-baggers who seemed unclear on what the words “concession speech” mean, all tried to tell us today, there is no single clear “message” to take away from this election.
The People Have Spoken, but they all spoke at once, and not many of them agreed with each other.

It's not that GOP victories don't make sense: I expected them. Incumbents always lose in the midterms; the economy still pretty much sucks; the major reforms and achievements of the past 20 months have been distorted or ignored; and the GOP has both a major “news” network, and a multi-national secret fundraising machine.
It’s the inconsistency behind those victories (and losses!) that don’t make sense.

Sarah Palin's candidates won some races, but lost spectacularly in other races. Including, it is widely assumed, in her home state of Alaska.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/sarah-palin-endorsements_n_778556.html

So, is Palin a king-maker, an idiot, or a stopped clock? (Or all 3?) But more importantly, when will her 15 minutes finally be over?! No one in the GOP wants her to run in 2012. She’s started to lash out at her party and supporters, just like she has for her entire political career. And OMG, when will her daughter stop dancing?

For all the “Throw the bums out!” anti-incumbent mentality of this season, several incumbents did quite well. Harry Reid is probably the most surprising incumbent victory, but he’s not the only successful “old guard” campaign. Barney Frank of MA held on to his seat (like anyone was surprised), after fending off a primary challenge from a dining room table, and a general election from a TEA Bagger. Here in CT, incmubent Chris Murphy beat challenger Sam Caligiuri by a very comfortable margin, even in Caligiuri’s own town.

True to form, the electorate was largely unimpressed by self-funders (buh-bye Linda McMahon and her WWE game-face, Meg Whitman and her maid, Carly Fiorina and her “So yesterday” campaign, Iott and his spectacular Nazi uniform, and almost everyone who ran using their own fortunes), even though the best way to beat a self-funded "outsider" is to be an "establishment Washington insider:” Welcome back, Senator McCain!
Speaking of Palin and McCain, they don’t seem likely to get the band back together for a reunion tour in 2012.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/john-mccain-demurs-over-future-support-of-a-2012-sarah-palin-presidential-bid/

But, if I were the kind of person to spread ugly rumors (and you may want to skip the rest of this sentence), I’d wager that they must have the best hate sex since Mary Matalin and James Carville.

Of course, Marco Rubio was a self-funded candidate, backed by Mama Grizzly, and a likely criminal to boot, and he, sigh, managed to win.

(I can’t even begin to explain Rand Paul. But then, I can’t explain much about Kentucky. Enjoy him. What other choice do you have?)

Several key races were nail-biting heart-breakers (Sestak-Toomey in PA, Giannoulais-Kirk in IL), that “shouldn’t” have been so close. Toomey would have beaten Specter in the primaries, if Specter hadn’t switched parties. And given the Blagojevich/Burris debacle in IL, and Giannoulais’ banking ties, it was time for Illinois residents to be disgusted by Democrats, instead of Republicans (who here remembers George Ryan?).

Other races were mind-numbing landslides: Ayotte over Shea-Porter in NH; Rubio-over Christ (and, I guess, Meek) in FL; Feingold-Johnson in WI.

Ayotte I understand. NH really is “ruggedly independent” state: I think they enjoy bucking trends, when they’re not setting them. They’ve flipped from GOP to Dem in 3 times in the last 20 years (Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Kerry by a nose), and chose Hillary over Obama in the democratic primary. Ayotte, despite Palin’s “Mamma Grizzly” merit badge, really isn’t a hardcore conservative.

http://www.270towin.com/states/New_Hampshire

Rubio was able to take advantage of the 3-way race in Florida. (The final tally was 50-29-20. So, if Meek had bowed to the pressure applied by Bill Clinton and dropped out, FL might have flipped to Christ, who would likely have caucused with the Democrats. Not that I blame Meek for running.)

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44337.html

Feingold I just don’t understand. WTF, Wisconsin? That was the electoral equivilent of pawning your grandmother’s heirloom jewelry for a few bucks at a Cash 4 Gold store, so you can go out on Friday night.

I especially don’t get this one from the TEA-bagger perspective. Feingold was anti-war and pro-campaign finance reform, things TEA-baggers are supposed to appreciate. It only makes sense if the TEA Party is really the GOP in a tea bag. (Oooooohhhhhhhhhh.)

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Progressive-Pillar-Russ-Feingold-Crumbles-in-Wisconsin-5632


We lost too many progressives last night, but the Progressive Caucus is still in tact. But, voters kicked out half of our "Blue-Dog Democrats."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/blue-dog-coalition-gop-wave-elections_n_778087.html

I actually think this is a good thing.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Are-Democrats-Better-Off-Without-the-Blue-Dogs-5536

It hurts to lose the seats, and the committee chairs in the House. But. The Blue Dogs are not exactly helpful to getting progressive legislation passed. The GOP has been purging its ranks of moderates (and non-crazies). Blue-dogs sold out the progressive base of their own party to appease the more conservative voters in their own districts. This is poetic justice. And, it leaves room for more progressive candidates to emerge in those districts.

Because I think, the take-away message from this election is this: the American voter is impatient, underinformed, and impulsive. The entire electorate just said, “Squirrel!”

I say this because, although the Democrats took a “Shellacking” last night, it’s not because the electorate loves the GOP. They don’t.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/house-gop-disappoint-2012_n_778281.html

Seriously. The electorate just broke up with Barack Obama to go back out with the guy they know is going to cheat on them, and possibly beat them up.

Why?!


A few thoughts:

1. No one realized that Change doesn’t come by overnight FedEx. And so, like Americans in crisis (like, when the computer freezes) do, they started pounding all the buttons on the keyboard at once, hoping to make something work. The Obama administration, the Congress, the press, and the public, share responsibility for this communication fail.

2. They forgot the things the Obama administration, with the Democrats in congress (and really, not 1 GOPer), actually accomplished.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/

Or, if you can’t sit through the whole thing:

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

There. FTFY, America.

3. Also, the country seems to have forgotten what the GOP did to us.
So, here:

http://reason.com/archives/2009/01/15/where-did-bush-go-wrong

4. The Citizens United Ruling from the Supreme Court really did unleash a vast Right-wing conspiracy. Really.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2462/

This has to be the worst ruling since Plessy v Ferguson. But, even that bone-headed ruling was eventually overturned. This too shall pass.

5. The media really, really, REALLY wanted to tell the “Democrats are in trouble” story, and so they did. (See my earlier post, http://drinkliberal.blogspot.com/2010/10/rope-what.html
about how off-the-mark the coverage of the Blumenthal-McMahon was. BTW, Blumenthal won by 10.5 points. It wasn’t even close.)


Here’s one thing that it wasn’t: a repudiation of “liberalism”

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/03/pundit

But. We’re back together with the cheating, punching, ex-boyfriend. What’s life going to be like now?

Interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/us/politics/04elect.html?_r=1&ref=politics

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/03/john-boehner-election-obama_n_778407.html

See? Obama’s aprty lost because they refused to compromise (which apparently means, “capitulated to all the opposition’s demands”). Now that the the tables have turned (sort of), we can expect …. NO Compromise from the GOP!

And they’re going to roll back Health Care Reform (here’s where I think Christine O’Donnell is speaking through them). Good luck getting past the Democratic-held Senate and the Presidential veto …. And the percentage of your constituents who actually would rather not go back to being without reform!

And they’re going to cut the budget: everything is on the table, except the stuff that’s not.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/eric-cantor-cant-explain-how-republicans-w

Good luck with that too.
Oh, and they're going to impeach Obama. Because he must have done something to deserve it. Even if they can't figure out what it is.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/darrell-issa-obama-must-answer-several-hundr

That'll get people back to work.

So basically, we’re looking at More. Of. The. Same. For another 2 years. From the GOP. And the TEA Party.

But. The Democrats may have learned something from this season.

For one, DADT is going to come before the legislature in the lame-duck session.

http://metroweekly.com/poliglot/2010/11/after-midterms-obama-still-pus.html

And so are the Bush-era tax cuts.

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/11/03/extending-bush-tax-cuts-not-a-slam-dunk/

At this point, Dems have nothing to lose, and much face to gain, by going to the left on both of these issues. Even the outgoing Blue Dogs.

The Senate now has the opportunity to reform the rules for the filibuster. They should.
And congress, either in the lame-duck session, or in the new session, needs to address the debacle of Citizens United. Because whether they wear a powdered wig or an “I’m With Reasonable” t-shirt, the voters are pissed as all hell at the way campaigns are financed.

But whatever happens, I’m pretty sure by 2012, most voting Americans won’t remember who did what when. What they will care about is, whether or not they have a decently-paying job, and whether or not they have a home not in foreclosure. And I remain confident that the Obama administration, with or without a majority in congress, can make that happen.

As maddening as the electroate’s ADD is to endure, I take comfort in knowing that today’s Wunderkinds will be tomorrow’s bums. And today’s wave will collapse tomorrow. But, even though we swing back and forth and back and forth like a carnival ride, we still move foreward in the long term.

So I remain optimistic.

I turn to National Treasure, Jon Stewart, to put it all in perspective.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/01/the-sanity-song-auto-tune_n_777050.html?ref=fb&src=sp

No Big Surprises In the Latest CT Gov Race Q-Poll

The latest KWIN-uh-pe-ack© numbers are out for the CT-Gov race of 2010 and ctblogger looks at the data overall and the questions a bit, while Ct Bob looks at the inside game of the likely voter numbers.

Needless to say, the numbers look good for the Democratic party candidates no matter how it goes down.

Democrats lead in any possible general election matchups among registered voters:

• Lamont over Foley 45 - 33 percent;
• Lamont over Fedele 49 - 27 percent;
• Lamont over Griebel 49 - 25 percent;
• Malloy over Foley 44 - 33 percent;
• Malloy over Fedele 49 - 26 percent;
• Malloy over Griebel 51 - 25 percent.

"The Democrats haven't won a race for Governor in Connecticut in 24 years. Could this be their year?

"Could this be their year?" Considering the numbers show that the only hope the GOP has is if the Dem candidates start tossing live grenades at each other while simultaneously carrying out Sepukku? Both the Lamont campaign, IMHO the leader in the primary, and the Malloy campaign can point to some good news in it with both improving their favorabilities among their base a lot and in both being able to trounce the GOP opposition.

As far as the GOP side of this? The second paragraph in this snippet from connpolitics.tv pretty much sums it up:

Foley leads Republicans with 48 percent of the vote. Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele garners 13 percent and business advocate Oz Griebel 7 percent.

“The governor’s race is overshadowed by the Senate battle between Linda McMahon and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the controversy over Foley’s arrests is not having much impact,” Schwartz said. “So Foley has been unharmed and voters still don’t know much about Fedele or Griebel.”

Fedele who? Grieber what? As far as Foley? If it were not for the recent news about vehicular assaults and a circus like divorce I think I might be asking who he is, as well.

Checking the ct.gop site, given the latest poll you'd think they would have something up...

But, apparently even Chris Healy hasn't found anything good to write about this poll, either. (Not yet nor as of the time I am writing this, anyways.) Just some mumbling to himself and trying to get mileage out of a relative non-story about an Attorney General going to a meeting of evil American trial lawyers.

In Connecticut, the GOP dusted off their strike at Dick Blumenthal’s character and integrity, asking whether the attorney general would come clean about his weekend jaunt.

“No more lies. Dick Blumenthal owes the voters of Connecticut a straight answer: Did he travel to Canada yesterday to raise money from his fellow liberal trial lawyers, or did he send his bag man Harry Reid to collect his share instead?” asked NRSC spokeswoman Amber Marchand.

Blumenthal spokeswoman Maura Downes would only confirm he attended the event, as did New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes.

Aside from Healy's obvious reasoning (and even more obvious conflict of interests in the GOP candidate race) ranting and raving about Blumenfeld 24/7 over at the GOP site...

Let us look at who Healy is happy to take donations from, OK?

Thank you for supporting the Connecticut Republicans-Federal account. These funds are used exclusively for the purpose of supporting Federal candidates and federal election activities. Contributions from state lobbyists and Connecticut state contractors are accepted and allowed in this account.

So Chris Healy, a former lobbyist himself, accepts lobby money for his party activities, complaining that a candidate on the other side MAY actually be doing the same and taking money from a PAC that wants to lobby him? Hypocrisy much?

Christopher C. Healy is a lobbyist in Hartford at the law firm Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, has worked on political campaigns at the local, state and national level and has served on the Republican State Central Committee.

Should I even bother to check his CT GOP and their candidates for any lobbying interests and their PAC donations? Too obvious to even waste the effort.

As far as the national level equivalent of Christopher Healy? Michael Steele had this to say about the Senate race when he was in town:

Asked about Peter Schiff, the Weston money manager who will primary McMahon on Aug. 10, Healy and Steele said they would support the party’s nominee.

“If he wins we’re behind him just as much as we’re behind Linda McMahon, but your questions were more focused on her,” said Healy, whose wife works for the McMahon campaign.

Steele said he expects Republicans to be competitive in 44 states this election season.

“The people of Connecticut are no different than people anywhere else around the country. They’re sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Steele said. “We’re winning again in the northeast. How crazy is that.”

It is real clear that the GOP isn't winning anything big in CT this year, so it is safe to say that both Healy and Steele are off the charts crazy.

Two Polls and Two Really Bad Jokes

Poll 1.


Research 2000 just pretty much confirmed the state of the Connecticut Senate race between Blumenthal and McMahon:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/24-26. Likely voters. MoE 4% (1/11-13 results)

Dick Blumenthal (D) 52 (56)
Linda McMahon (R) 33 (34)

It'd been a while since we polled Connecticut, and quite frankly, I didn't expect to ever come back to this Senate race (the governor's race is another story, and a race for another day to poll).

Poll 2.

These numbers are pretty darn close to where Quinnipiac had them yesterday:

May 27, 2010 - Blumenthal Pins McMahon By 25 Points In Connecticut, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Most Voters Say Vietnam Issue Doesn't Impact Vote


Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads former wrestling executive Linda McMahon 56 - 31 percent in the U.S. Senate race and tops the Republican candidate by large margins on every character measure, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Joke 1.

I blogged about that Vietnam issue being a pile of hooey, having been planted in the media by McMahon and hopelessly being flung around like poop in the right wing blogosphere and media in a desperate attempt to make a non-story into anything they can over at Connecticut Political Reporter. Probably because the joke of a corporatist media would really love to turn this smackdown of a Senate race into a horse race that they want and need to sell papers:

Despite "supposedly" putting his own foot in his mouth last week, Dick Blumenthal still manages to put a good old fashioned WWE Smackdown on Linda McMahon, where Blumenthal keeps a formidable lead, 56-31, over McMahon in the most recent Quinnipiac polling.

Proving that this was the non-story that it really should have been from the start, regardless of the GOP's McMahon planting it, the NY Times doing a bang up job of corporatist stenography for the GOP and right wing Bloggers desperately trying to make more of it than was ever going to be worth.

When McMahon tries to float one we will flush it...

 In the media you will find that they repeat the same thing about this story yet is a taken from a video that is purposely taken out of context by McMahon and the media can't even bother to fact check it a bit before they go with it....

Joke 2. (And this is a long running joke)

Rasmussen does its nuttiest best to give the right wing something to latch onto:

18 MAY 2010
CT-SEN
Blumenthal D 48.0%, McMahon R 45.0%
Sample:
MoE: 500
4.5
Population: Likely Voters

What planet are they polling likely voters on? Is there some hidden Republican Connecticut on a propaganda producing Perelandra that we don't know about?

This is expected of Rasmussen as they are purely a propaganda arm of the GOP and they always produce polls that are so far out of whack with reality for months leading up to primaries and elections, which the corporate media slurps up like a Jeff Gannon kneeling in front of George W Bush passing this disease (and others) off to readers as "news",  and then suddenly, magically, weeks before an election their numbers start to reflect the real numbers of a race.

Rasmussen followed their typical propaganda pattern when they were constatntly predicting that there would be a "President McCain" coupled with a "GOP gaining in the House"... Right up until a few weeks before the election when it became clear they would be so far out of touch with reality at the end of it. And it is like they don't think people will notice this?

For example, from February to April of 2008, Rasmussen showed John McCain leading by an average of 2.6%. Meanwhile, every other poll of likely voters during that time period showed Barack Obama with a 2.6% lead. So from February to April, there was a 5.2% gap between Rasmussen and everybody else.


From September through election day, however, the gap was significantly smaller. The average Rasmussen poll taken during that time showed Obama leading by 3.8% while the average of all other polls of likely voters showed Obama leading by 5.8%, resulting in a gap of 2%.

So in the early months of 2008, the gap between Rasmussen and everybody else was 5.6% compared with 2% late in the cycle. Another important point here is that early in the cycle, Rasmussen's polling accounted for a far larger share of overall polling, meaning that their results played a more important role in shaping horse race narratives in the early stages of the campaign than they did in the latter stages of the campaign.

They are clearly trying to drive a republican narrative and it shows. Some earlier Rasmussen jokes being compiled by Nate Silver:

Here are the results of statewide polling in the 2000 Presidential Election. Although the pollster ratings will eventually involve some fancier math, the numbers you see below are as simple as it gets: I've simply looked at the average error of the last poll issued by each pollster in each state in terms of projecting the margin between Bush and Gore. (A cut-off is established 21 days prior to the election.)





While 2000 was generally a fairly rough year for pollsters, who had to deal with an unenthusiastic electorate, some third-party challengers, and some late-breaking developments like Bush's DUI charge, Rasmussen was the worst of the lot, missing by an average of 5.7 points. They also called 7 states wrong.** Some of this was the result of bias, as they were 3.5 points too high on Bush's margin in the states they surveyed, on average.

If I were a betting man, and I am not, I could see setting up a pool picking the date when Rasmussen starts to reflect reality in the CT-SEN race OR any other race for that matter. They really are that predictable.

An old empty bottle brewed in New Milford showing how out of touch Rasmussen was (looks like pure propaganda to me) during the healthcare reform debate. Just look at the pic to see clearly how out of whack their numbers are:

All you need to know about healthcare polls:

For now...

The right wing keeps trying to push a Rasmussen poll with bad numbers in it for Obama, the public option and for single payer. I dealt with the single payer numbers and public option numbers a little bit (and other interesting things, to me, at least?) at ePluribus Media a couple of days ago and most of the Blogosphere has seen the numbers for Obama start to rise again. Much of these numbers have all been noted to follow the start of of pressure from teabagging. Briefly numbers across the board dropped... But as people began to realize all of the things the birthers/.deathers/teabaggers were saying were as crazy as the things many of them were doing the numbers for those issues and Obama re-solidified. While pollster.com dealt with many of the numbers in a different way, I just want to show you the picture they put together of what I am talking about:


Yes, this one picture deals with the public option but is easily applicable across the board on almost any issue. And I am not even going to get in to the well known right wing bias of Rasmussen, nor their incredibly ridiculous outlier numbers in previous polls. Just remember that they are the one polling outfit that was predicting major leads for the GOP House early into the last election cycle and have, over time, taken a serious beating from many poll savvy people over many of their crazy outliers and polls bordering on the edge of push polls.

Anyways... Some in the media and the right wing are ignoring recent polls and quoting old stuff and even taking stuff out way out of context in order to fit their talking points and narratives. How the heck can any person call Obama and his policies in trouble when he has approval ratings over 50% in 48 of the 50 states? And an Obama 63% approval rate across the entire country?

6 months in we are talking uber popular, both in Obama's leadership and in many of his policies. If anything, the numbers inside the polls, overall and IMHO, show that the solutions they are seeing are not liberal enough for them.
And we can thank the raging, lying loonies on the right wing for helping to solidify those numbers.

While I am certain that many of the people with more experience in reading into polls will have more important things to say about it all, people like the number crunchers at dKos or Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, but really, and let us be honest here: If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one up there speaks volumes.

SEC Investigates Countrywide CEO Trades

Countrywide Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo might just be in some very big trouble:

SEC Begins Formal Probe Of Countrywide
The Securities and Exchange Commission escalated its scrutiny of Countrywide Financial Corp. into a formal investigation, according to a regulatory filing by Bank of America Corp.

The document didn't specify what aspect of the lender the SEC's probe is focused on, although regulators launched an informal inquiry into Countrywide Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo's stock trades last fall.

Representatives for Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America and Countrywide declined to comment beyond the filing Friday.

Please note the privacy issue story at the end of this because Countrywide's legal troubles just keep getting piled higher and deeper:

Lawsuits Piling Up For Countrywide

Bob at Politics in the Zeros, who has been on top of a lot of banking and mortgage crises issues ever since I have been reading his Blog, provides more info on another lawsuit coming at Countrywide since they were purchased by Bank of America. It appears some of Countrywide's bondholders want to force them into bankruptcy to grab their assets:

Why? Because Countrywide didn’t tell holders of certain of their convertible notes that, due to them being bought, the notes could be cashed in. BNY Mellon as a custodian holder of these notes has sued.

And what is unique in this case is the pack of dogs (Countrywide bondholders), now have a vested interest in pushing Countrywide into bankruptcy so they can get some of the meat (Countrywide’s servicing unit), instead of worthless bones (Countrywide’s Debt).

This must be that “invisible hand of the marketplace” capitalists are so proud of.

Being ever so astute in the world of finances (NOT!) I had to wonder about how this might end up playing out against the recent lawsuits by several states, including Connecticut, against Countrywide:

I think about all of the people that screwed in the Enron scandal because of big corporate creditors getting paid before stockholders did. (or something like that?) I can just imagine that the consumer would be last in line in the pecking order.

Bob, being the typical answer man, asked Sue:

Sue, who is a CPA just looked it up

If bankruptcy, here’s the order of who gets paid first

1) secured creditors
2) non-dischargeable (taxes, student loans, etc.)
3) unsecured creditors

Bonds and preferred stock can be 1) or 3) depending if they were secured or not.

Lawsuits are probably either 2.5) or 3). She says the order of who gets paid is complicated, and can depend on the jurisdiction.

She says call the CT Attorney General (maybe they have a hotline about the lawsuit) and ask.

Yep... Complete and criminally insane deregulation by the "free market run amok" bush administration sure has helped make things safe for everyone from the investors on down to the consumers. The only people that are truly happy about all of this (some vintage brew) are the failed CEOs that regularly bail with golden parachutes:

Countrywide CEO Rapes the Company On Leaving

If the sale of Countrywide to Bank of America goes through:

If he engineers a sale of battered Countrywide Financial to Bank of America, Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo stands to walk away with a severance package worth more than $110 million, the Los Angeles Times' Kathy Kristof reports tonight.

Such a payout would come on top of huge gains Mozilo has made selling Countrywide stock during the mortgage crisis. As the mortgage industry went into a nose dive in late 2006 and 2007, Mozilo cashed out about $140 million in stock options, becoming one of the highest-paid executives in the country,

snip

plus a cash payment equal to three times the greater of his average bonus or the incentive bonus paid the previous year. Net value: $87.8 million.

In addition, Mozilo has two pensions that his severance agreement gives him the right to receive as a lump sum upon his departure. Those pensions were worth $24 million as of December 2006, the last time the company was required to report their value.

$337,800,000.00
for driving a mortgage company into bankruptcy. Meanwhile millions of Americans are losing their homes. Imagine how many homes could be saved if all of that money that turd is getting, and has gotten, for running the company into the ground were put to good use?

No... There is no class war going on in the good ol' USofA.

More recently Brewed in New Milford:

Countrywide sued by Connecticut

Via buzzflash and by Jonathan Stempel, at Reuters, a bit about predatory lending practices getting Countrywide in legal doodoo in Connecticut and across the nation:

Countrywide sued by Connecticut over loans, fees

Calling the lender's practices "oppressive, unethical, immoral and unscrupulous," Connecticut joined California, Florida and Illinois among U.S. states suing Countrywide, which last year made one in six U.S. mortgage loans.

...snip...

"Countrywide conned customers into loans that were clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, turning the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare," said Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, in a statement on Wednesday. He also called Countrywide "an insolvency enabler."

Connecticut is demanding that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains, and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws.

Popcorn time! I have my own personal reasons for enjoying this show...

Previously Brewed in New Milford:

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis, floods and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade

The house we are renting? It is a little bit smaller than the home we loved but it does have some serious plusses that make this a better place for us. First, it has a nice little wood stove in the living room to curl up in front of on those chilly New England nights. It will also save us money on oil. Second, it has a nice, big and sunny room that I plan on turning into my media room that will look right out over the back yard. Third, it is not on a main street so the kids and the dog will be a little safer playing outside. Fourth, we will be saving hundreds compared to what our original mortgage payment started at, never mind how much our ARM was by the time it doubled.

As for the luck part? Well, we are renting the house from someone that was on the verge of losing it all, as well. She pretty much knows our situtation and, because of her own situtation, was a little more forgiving on our credit check. The lady who owns the house is where we were in the foreclosure process about 9 months ago. She did not have "ARM" or sub-prime issues, but employment/relocation issues. As the real estate agent that helped us find a place said, this is a win/win situation for everyone here. She won't be crushed financially like we were and we will have a roof over our heads.

I'll have more to write on this later but, for now, don't be surpised if my Blogging particiaption is a little bit irregular.

Meanwhile... In other Countrywide news, the FBI recently charged a Countrywide analyst with stealing personal information on customers and selling it off for personal profit:

Rene L Rebollo Jr, 36, of Pasadena, a former employee of Countrywide Home Loan, has admitted downloading the information and selling it to third parties over a number of years. The agents also arrested Wahid Siddiqi, 25, of Thousand Oaks, who was attempting to buy the data.

Rebollo said he got the information from Countrywide computers while working for the company as a senior analyst and removed it on flash drives he bought for the purpose, according to the FBI.

He then opened a personal bank account specifically for depositing the proceeds of the sales. He estimates the actions made him approximately US$50,000 to US$70,000.

He said he was sometimes asked to get specific information about individuals and did so for cash.

If you have been dealing with Countrywide, not only is it likely that you have lost your home or paid exorbitant fees based on their predatory lending practices but your sensitive financial information may already be in the hands of other criminals.

I believe that Blumenthal may need to consider adding Mozilo to his lawsuits and investigations:

Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's chief executive, was not named in Connecticut's suit but is a defendant in some others.

Countrywide is also facing multiple class-action suits from borrowers and investors, as well as investigations of both its underwriting and servicing practices by the justice department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Trustee, which monitors bankruptcy courts. The legal probes range from investigations into overly aggressive fee policies for borrowers who fall behind on payments to whether the company intentionally overlooked evidence of fraud by borrowers.

Lawsuits Piling Up For Countrywide

Bob at Politics in the Zeros, who has been on top of a lot of banking and mortgage crises issues ever since I have been reading his Blog, provides more info on another lawsuit coming at Countrywide since they were purchased by Bank of America. It appears some of Countrywide's bondholders want to force them into bankruptcy to grab their assets:

Why? Because Countrywide didn’t tell holders of certain of their convertible notes that, due to them being bought, the notes could be cashed in. BNY Mellon as a custodian holder of these notes has sued.

And what is unique in this case is the pack of dogs (Countrywide bondholders), now have a vested interest in pushing Countrywide into bankruptcy so they can get some of the meat (Countrywide’s servicing unit), instead of worthless bones (Countrywide’s Debt).

This must be that “invisible hand of the marketplace” capitalists are so proud of.

Being ever so astute in the world of finances (NOT!) I had to wonder about how this might end up playing out against the recent lawsuits by several states, including Connecticut, against Countrywide:

I think about all of the people that screwed in the Enron scandal because of big corporate creditors getting paid before stockholders did. (or something like that?) I can just imagine that the consumer would be last in line in the pecking order.

Bob, being the typical answer man, asked Sue:

Sue, who is a CPA just looked it up

If bankruptcy, here’s the order of who gets paid first

1) secured creditors
2) non-dischargeable (taxes, student loans, etc.)
3) unsecured creditors

Bonds and preferred stock can be 1) or 3) depending if they were secured or not.

Lawsuits are probably either 2.5) or 3). She says the order of who gets paid is complicated, and can depend on the jurisdiction.

She says call the CT Attorney General (maybe they have a hotline about the lawsuit) and ask.

Yep... Complete and criminally insane deregulation by the "free market run amok" bush administration sure has helped make things safe for everyone from the investors on down to the consumers. The only people that are truly happy about all of this (some vintage brew) are the failed CEOs that regularly bail with golden parachutes:

Countrywide CEO Rapes the Company On Leaving

If the sale of Countrywide to Bank of America goes through:

If he engineers a sale of battered Countrywide Financial to Bank of America, Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo stands to walk away with a severance package worth more than $110 million, the Los Angeles Times' Kathy Kristof reports tonight.

Such a payout would come on top of huge gains Mozilo has made selling Countrywide stock during the mortgage crisis. As the mortgage industry went into a nose dive in late 2006 and 2007, Mozilo cashed out about $140 million in stock options, becoming one of the highest-paid executives in the country,

snip

plus a cash payment equal to three times the greater of his average bonus or the incentive bonus paid the previous year. Net value: $87.8 million.

In addition, Mozilo has two pensions that his severance agreement gives him the right to receive as a lump sum upon his departure. Those pensions were worth $24 million as of December 2006, the last time the company was required to report their value.

$337,800,000.00
for driving a mortgage company into bankruptcy. Meanwhile millions of Americans are losing their homes. Imagine how many homes could be saved if all of that money that turd is getting, and has gotten, for running the company into the ground were put to good use?

No... There is no class war going on in the good ol' USofA.

More recently Brewed in New Milford:

Countrywide sued by Connecticut

Via buzzflash and by Jonathan Stempel, at Reuters, a bit about predatory lending practices getting Countrywide in legal doodoo in Connecticut and across the nation:

Countrywide sued by Connecticut over loans, fees

Calling the lender's practices "oppressive, unethical, immoral and unscrupulous," Connecticut joined California, Florida and Illinois among U.S. states suing Countrywide, which last year made one in six U.S. mortgage loans.

...snip...

"Countrywide conned customers into loans that were clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, turning the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare," said Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, in a statement on Wednesday. He also called Countrywide "an insolvency enabler."

Connecticut is demanding that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains, and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws.

Popcorn time! I have my own personal reasons for enjoying this show...

Previously Brewed in New Milford:

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis, floods and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade

The house we are renting? It is a little bit smaller than the home we loved but it does have some serious plusses that make this a better place for us. First, it has a nice little wood stove in the living room to curl up in front of on those chilly New England nights. It will also save us money on oil. Second, it has a nice, big and sunny room that I plan on turning into my media room that will look right out over the back yard. Third, it is not on a main street so the kids and the dog will be a little safer playing outside. Fourth, we will be saving hundreds compared to what our original mortgage payment started at, never mind how much our ARM was by the time it doubled.

As for the luck part? Well, we are renting the house from someone that was on the verge of losing it all, as well. She pretty much knows our situtation and, because of her own situtation, was a little more forgiving on our credit check. The lady who owns the house is where we were in the foreclosure process about 9 months ago. She did not have "ARM" or sub-prime issues, but employment/relocation issues. As the real estate agent that helped us find a place said, this is a win/win situation for everyone here. She won't be crushed financially like we were and we will have a roof over our heads.

I'll have more to write on this later but, for now, don't be surpised if my Blogging particiaption is a little bit irregular.

Countrywide sued by Connecticut

Via buzzflash and by Jonathan Stempel, at Reuters, a bit about predatory lending practices getting Countrywide in legal doodoo in Connecticut and across the nation:

Countrywide sued by Connecticut over loans, fees

Calling the lender's practices "oppressive, unethical, immoral and unscrupulous," Connecticut joined California, Florida and Illinois among U.S. states suing Countrywide, which last year made one in six U.S. mortgage loans.

...snip...

"Countrywide conned customers into loans that were clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, turning the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare," said Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, in a statement on Wednesday. He also called Countrywide "an insolvency enabler."

Connecticut is demanding that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains, and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws.

Popcorn time! I have my own personal reasons for enjoying this show...

Previously Brewed in New Milford:

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis, floods and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade

The house we are renting? It is a little bit smaller than the home we loved but it does have some serious plusses that make this a better place for us. First, it has a nice little wood stove in the living room to curl up in front of on those chilly New England nights. It will also save us money on oil. Second, it has a nice, big and sunny room that I plan on turning into my media room that will look right out over the back yard. Third, it is not on a main street so the kids and the dog will be a little safer playing outside. Fourth, we will be saving hundreds compared to what our original mortgage payment started at, never mind how much our ARM was by the time it doubled.

As for the luck part? Well, we are renting the house from someone that was on the verge of losing it all, as well. She pretty much knows our situtation and, because of her own situtation, was a little more forgiving on our credit check. The lady who owns the house is where we were in the foreclosure process about 9 months ago. She did not have "ARM" or sub-prime issues, but employment/relocation issues. As the real estate agent that helped us find a place said, this is a win/win situation for everyone here. She won't be crushed financially like we were and we will have a roof over our heads.

I'll have more to write on this later but, for now, don't be surpised if my Blogging particiaption is a little bit irregular.

Blumenthal investigating sub-prime mortgage crisis

Blumenthal is looking into the sub-prime mortgage crisis as millions of Americans are looking at losing their homes, a little less than a half a million of them in Connecticut:

It is estimated that more than $100bn (£50bn) was been wiped off the balance sheets across the financial sector, in losses and asset writedowns. Share prices have also fallen heavily.

The SEC is already conducting a clutch of civil investigations into the scandal.

Some US states have launched their own legal action. Yesterday, Connecticut state attorney general Richard Blumenthal said his office has issued subpoenas to all major rating agencies and bond insurers in a widening probe of industry practices related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

He said this includes MBIA and Ambac, the two monoline insurers who guarantee municipal loans whose shares plunged last week over concern they do not hold enough capital to guarantee their ratings, after getting caught in the sub-prime chaos.

Blumenthal also told Reuters that Connecticut was cooperating with the state of New York over its investigation.

Senator Chris Dodd had some words on this:

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a $146 billion economic stimulus package on Tuesday. Parts of the package would allow the Federal Housing Administration and housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help prop up the mortgage market.

These measures "will enable homeowners with larger mortgages to refinance, lower their monthly payments, and avoid foreclosure," said Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, after passage of the package.

Sen Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, urged the Senate to take similar action swiftly and spend billions of dollars more to help distressed homeowners.

"Unlike past recessions and slowdowns, the epicenter of this economic crisis is the housing crisis," the Connecticut Democrat said on the Senate floor.

"Reckless, careless, and sometimes unscrupulous actors in the mortgage lending industry essentially allowed loans to be made that they knew hard-working, law-abiding borrowers would not be able to repay," said the former presidential candidate.

He accused the Federal Reserve and the Bush administration of doing "absolutely nothing" to stop these practices.

Imagine that? Preznit bush doing nothing to help the little people. How republican of him!

Bush Screws Connecticut Children

The NewsTimes gives you most of the specifics on this one:

It's a move no one seems to like.

"It seems to go counter to what we're doing in Connecticut," state Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen, the ranking Republican senator on the General Assembly's Public Health Committee, said Monday.

"We're trying to broaden the net. It's not just us -- it's what many states are trying to do. This sounds like moving in the opposite direction," Roraback said.

State Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, who is vice chairman of the Public Health Committee, said based on eligibility standards, the new Bush Administration rules could disqualify 4,000 to 8,000 children from HUSKY.

"This is a trap," she said. "Its effect will be for children to lose health insurance."

But it ain't just in Connecticut. Governor Spitzer is talking lawsuits in NY:

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Monday threatened to sue the federal government on charges that new regulations on children's health insurance violate an existing program that covers children from lower-income families.

At issue is New York's plan to expand coverage under the State Children's Health Insurance Program to children whose parents earn up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, from 250 percent currently.

But under new federal regulations that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published on August 17, states would have to cover 95 percent of poverty-level families before expanding access to middle-income children.

The rules also require children to have no health coverage for a year before they can join the state plans.

I hope Blumenthal will jump into a lawsuit if Spitzer decides to move forward on this. Though, I would have preferred it if we had a President that actually cared about the health and welfare of American children so that lawsuits like this - that waste taxpayer's time, resources and money - would never have to be considered.

Of course, none of this would ever be an issue if we had single payer universal healthcare.

[update] Joesaho at MLN points to this diary by Elliot Spitzer at HuffPo:

In the last year, we've seen public opinion building around the principle that no American should be denied health care. The president has answered that call by attempting to limit eligibility for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. SCHIP is a program that provides health care to children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private health insurance.

The president is trying to tell governors like me across the country that until we enroll 95 percent of those eligible for S-CHIP in households making under 200 percent of the poverty line ($41,300 for a family of four), we cannot provide health care to children in families making above 250 percent of the poverty line ($51,625 for a family of four).

Make no mistake. This is a poison pill meant to deny thousands of children health insurance.

While state governments make every effort to enroll as many eligible kids as possible, there will always be some individuals who fail to take advantage of this important program. In New York, we currently enroll 88 percent of children in families making below 200 percent of the poverty level. No state has yet cleared the 95 percent hurdle.

Since many states already enroll children at income thresholds above 250 percent of the poverty level, this means that these new regulations will have the effect of forcing children who already have coverage out of the program. Moreover, New York's historic effort to provide universal coverage for children through SCHIP will not be able to get off the ground because of this bureaucratic sleight of hand.

The president surely knows this. But then that begs the question: Why would he choose to pursue this path?

This isn't about fiscal restraint. The initiative is paid for through a tax on unhealthy cigarettes and other revenue sources. This isn't about good public policy. SCHIP has been wildly successful in providing health care for nearly seven million of our nation's vulnerable children.

The actions of the White House speak to what we've all known for far too long. When faced with the choice of covering thousands of children, they'll bring up the "big government" bogeyman and then stick their heads in the sand, ignoring the realities facing working families across the country.

Before you even brush your teeth this morning!

Don't touch that Colgate!

Via the Hartford Courant:

Connecticut inspectors have pulled more than 700 tubes of toothpaste off store shelves this week as part of a nationwide crackdown on counterfeit and Chinese-made toothpaste containing a toxic substance commonly used as an ingredient in antifreeze, officials said Friday.

The Connecticut move follows a similar investigation in Massachusetts that led to the seizure of about 160 toothpaste tubes because of concerns over the use of diethylene glycol, a syrupy, sweetener-like chemical that can cause liver and kidney problems. The chemical is used in China in small amounts as a substitute for glycerin, a more expensive sweetener, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month advised consumers to toss out all Chinese-produced toothpastes.

snip

"We don't want to unduly panic the people of the state of Connecticut," said Francis Greene, the director of the consumer protection department's division of food and standards.

Officials declined Friday to reveal the towns where the toothpaste was confiscated, but that will be revealed next week.

So let's see... We have contaminated toothpaste seized in the state of Connecticut, BUT they won't tell us where? That sure is a great way to calm the public.

Oh yeah... And some of it is counterfeit and some of it is from China:

The contaminated toothpaste comes from China, while the counterfeit brands are made in South Africa. Colgate-Palmolive Co., which has been the subject of the counterfeiting, says the counterfeit brands could also contain diethylene glycol.

What does Colgate say about it?

Colgate Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Reuben Mark, a longtime Greenwich resident, said in a statement that "we will spare no effort to help consumers avoid counterfeits and support regulators in their efforts to remove these products from the marketplace."

That's nice... But what about the fact that some of the toothpaste from China is tainted and isn't counterfeit? Nice spin campaign. Colgate had nothing to say about the Chinese made toothpaste that appears to be the real thing AND tainted?

And the reporter didn't ask for a clarification???

Oh yeah... Before I forget, and before you drive to work this morning:

Nearly 80 Connecticut retailers have sold the defective tires that are now under recall, and they were purchased under the brand names of Compass, Telluride, YKS and Westlake.

Apparently they don't want you to panic about that story at all so it is buried at the bottom of the above pile of crap article.

The Connecticut Republicans Spiral of Death

Ct Local Politics is running some straw polls. The first one is here.

If the 2010 election for governor were being held today, and the candidates were Rob Simmons and Richard Blumenthal, who would you vote for?

Selection Votes Richard Blumenthal (D) 49% 107 Rob Simmons (R) 48% 104 I don't know 3% 7 218 votes total Poll powered by Pollhost. Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

And the other ones, matching Malloy VS Simmons and Courtney VS Sullivan are here.

Right now Blumenthal has a slight lead over Simmmons, and the other matchups make it look even more dismal for anyone running under the Republican banner in Blue Connecticut as Malloy has a 25% lead, and Courtney has a 37% lead.

Go on over and vote.

I am hoping that the Republicans are starting to get the point concerning just how far right wingnutty their politics are viewed as in Connecticut and the rest of the nation.

Nobody is willing to stand behind the GOP elephant anymore... It has crapped on us all too many times.