Off With Their Heads: Fixing Failing Companies

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 13 April 2009 09:01:39 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Time after time we see layoffs as the solution to a company's woes. For example, of the 598,000 newly unemployed individuals in the US in January of 2009, 163,000 of these were laid off from the 500 largest US companies. Some lowlights:Jan.[...]

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Buyers Are Learning There's No Easy Way to Buy A
Foreclosed House

post from Crooks and Liars on 13 April 2009 09:00:48 PM. © Crooks and Liars

It seems there's no easy way out of this housing mess:

Anxious to meet the bank's demands for quick action, Andrew Garcia and his fiancee, BethAnne Hoffmann, rushed to find financing to buy a foreclosed-on house in a lovely tree-lined Baltimore neighborhood.
That was in January.
A month later, the bank that's selling the house broke its own closing deadline. The couple has been in limbo since. In frustration, they turned to their congressman's office for help. Only then did they receive an apologetic call and a new proposed closing date of April 24 -- but still no signed paperwork.
"It's unbelievable. With all we hear about all the homes out there that need to be sold, I have to call my congressman in order to purchase a house," Garcia said. "If that's the process, there's no way we're going to clear all these foreclosures."
As bargain hunters turn their attention to foreclosures, many are discovering the toughest challenge is dealing with the banks that repossessed the homes. These banks are usually quick to accept a bid and write a contract. But the closer buyers get to the settlement table, the greater the potential for bureaucratic bungling and the chance the buyers will give up.
The housing market stands little chance of recovering until the foreclosures are sold. Distressed properties make up roughly a quarter of U.S. homes for sale. Moving them would go a long way toward stabilizing home prices. But working with the banks, which are typically based far from the homes they're selling, is not as simple as buying from a regular homeowner.
"Things go wrong, and it takes the bank a lot longer to deal with them," said Vivianne Couts, a Virginia real estate agent. "There are a lot more people involved, many more layers. The Realtor can't always call the bank and say, 'What's going on here?' "
[...] When their closing date passed and no one could explain the delay, they started digging into court records. They learned that days after the bank had repossessed the home, the previous owner had filed for bankruptcy protection. Garcia said all the bank needed to do was submit paperwork to the court confirming that it had foreclosed on the house prior to the bankruptcy filing. But that letter didn't materialize until their congressman, Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), intervened.

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Minn. Court: Al Franken is the Senate Winner

post from MyDD on 13 April 2009 08:59:54 PM. © MyDD

Big news, reported by the Associated Press: A Minnesota court confirmed Monday that Democrat Al Franken won the most votes in his 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman. The ruling isn't expected to be the final word because Coleman previously[...]

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James D. Watson on science and genetics

post from Talking in Circles on 13 April 2009 08:58:42 PM. © Talking in Circles

James D. Watson is a molecular biologist and one of the co-discoverers of DNA’s structure.One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural, and it was a lesson that my father passed on to me, that knowledge liberates mankind from superstition. We can live our lives without [...]

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MN-Sen: Franken Still Winning, On To The MN
Supremes

post from TalkLeft on 13 April 2009 08:52:00 PM. © TalkLeft

The opinion from the ECC (PDF). Have not read it yet. Just know that it declares Franken the winner. Coleman will appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. More later.

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Minnesota Senate: Franken Wins Again

post from Firedoglake on 13 April 2009 08:41:40 PM. © Firedoglake

The Election Contest has ruled, unanimously, for Al Franken. In a 68-page decision, the ECC kicks Norm Coleman's equal-protection argument to the curb, pointing out that county officials must have some leeway when making decisions on how to hold[...]

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New York Times Blasts Obama Appeal on Habeas at
Bagram

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 13 April 2009 08:41:37 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

The Sunday editorial in the New York Times was highly critical of the recent decision of the Obama administration to appeal the D.C. Federal Appeals Court ruling allowing habeas rights to some prisoners at Bagram.The government furthermore asked for a[...]

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MN-Sen: Franken officially wins (but still not
final)

post from Daily Kos on 13 April 2009 08:36:03 PM. © Daily Kos

Franken won! Again!

Over five months after the election, a three-judge panel has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race.

The judges issued their final ruling late Monday, stating "Franken received the highest number of lawfully cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008 general election."

They also have determined that Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election.

The election certificate is a big wildcard. We know that the this decision will be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Will the Supremes issue an injunction to block the issuance of the certificate of election? Will Pawlenty refuse to sign it? And what role will the federal courts play after Coleman inevitably runs out of appeal courts in Minnesota?

Update: MinnPost's Eric Black games out how this will play out:

The likeliest outcome -- no matter whether Team Coleman takes their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and/or tries to get a fresh start in federal district court -- is that Franken will be seated in the Senate in roughly May or June.

(MinnPost, btw, is what we'll see more of as newspapers shut down -- quality online news operations.)

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Pemanent Democratic Majority: New Study Says Yes

A growing number of political scientists, analysts and strategists are making the case for a realignment of political power in the U.S. to a new Democratic majority based on two trends: 1) the increasing numbers of black and Hispanic voters, and 2) a decisive shift away from the Republican Party by the suburban and well-educated constituencies...

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The Daily Rant -- Slanted News Anchors Edition

John King -- who I am beginning to think, since that obscenely leading question to Cheney, "Have President Obama's policies made America less safe," is simply a Republican fucking HACK -- yesterday teased a segment of "State of the Union" with THIS absurd goddamned question:

Is Barack Obama the most polarising President in U.S. history?

I almost choked on my goddamned corn flakes.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???

Never mind for a minute the fact that by DEFINITION, George W. Bush wins the prize. BY DEFINITION. I mean, look it up in the DICTIONARY, motherfucker.

All you have to do is look at the -- ahem -- STATE OF THIS UNION at the end of George W. Bush's REIGN... and you have your goddamned answer, motherfucker.

Of course, Bush wasn't the most polarising either; as anyone who reads the comments in the discussion area will see, I was quickly corrected on that point and am amending my ludicrous claim. As should be patently obvious to anyone who isn't blinded by partisan ideology and RAGE, of course it was LINCOLN who was the most polarising President -- again, by DEFINITION. The country was literally SPLIT APART in Lincoln's day.
There you have it. Bush was, of course... #2.
: )
Moving on...

NO, Barack Obama isn't the most polarising President in U.S. history, motherfucker. You goddamned drooling buffoon.

You and your network (Conservative News Network) just spent the last eight years FELLATING the most polarising President in U.S. history -- how quickly they forget.

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