Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners | Rolling Stone Politics

Most of you probably don’t have the attention span to read an 8 page investigative piece about foreclosure fraud, but this is important. 

The majority of Americans tend to think the fast-track forclosure mills that have popped up recently are morally icky, but legally sound.  After all, people took out mortgages and aren’t paying them back, so the banks are right to take their houses… aren’t they?  Turns out that the overwhelming majority of these loans were fraudulent in some form from the very beginning. The fraud continued as they were misrepresented to investors, sold and traded inappropriately and without paperwork, and now are being crammed through intentionally ineffective courts before anybody notices - mostly with doctored or non-existent documentation.  And I’m not talking about a few rare cases here.  This fraud isn’t the exception, it’s the rule. 

Please take ten minutes from your day and read the whole article.  It is unlikely that anybody will ever be held accountable for this bullshit, but everybody should at least know it’s happening.

Yesterday, NYT reporter David Barstow won a Pulitzer prize for his investigation into the “independant military analysts” working for every major TV network, and how they have all been receiving orders from the pentagon to push misleading and illegal propaganda supporting the Iraq war.  This should be the biggest story in the country today, but not one network has even mentioned the award or the article that won it.

I don’t watch television news because it is biased.  Left or right, all networks are biased towards increasing ratings and not making themselves look bad, even when they’ve clearly fucked up.  Read this article and keep it in mind the next time you watch the news, because chances are you’re not getting the whole story.  (via Digg)

We’re flying the flag at half mast today for our fallen comrades.

Things like speed limits, sex offender registries and zero tollerance policies may seem like good ideas on the surface, but when you examine their actual effects (intended and unintended), they’re actually pants-on-head retarded.  Here are 5 safty policies that are almost completely ineffective at keeping people safe, but are extremely effective at making life difficult for regular people.  Why they didn’t include “The Drug War” and “Airport Security Theater” is beyond me.  (via Digg)

2008 Jefferson Muzzle Awards

Every year The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression hands out “Muzzles” to the biggest abusers of the 1st amendment. This year brings another bumper crop of flaming assholes. You would think this sort of blatant censorship would be history by now.

Shockingly, the FCC (the granddaddy of flaming assholes) gets it’s second lifetime achievement award.

This is an old story, which I’d read before. It showed up on Digg again today and re-reading it makes me as furious as ever. I doubt any of you are actually for the war on liberty drugs, but even those who don’t support legalization must see that the system is completely broken.

Fun fact: While there is no state imposed limit on the number of semi-automatic assault rifles you may own, it is a felony to posess more than five dildos in Texas.

PS - Happy Birthday to Me.

(via Digg)

This clever sign pretty much sums up my feelings on the whole Ahmadinejad / Columbia speach thing. Agree or disagree with the Iranian president, there are two facts that are indelible: 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 2. Ahmadinejad is a douchebag. Via (Digg)

This is why we need net neutrality. (Via Digg)