Occupy DC Helps Grandmother Avoid Eviction, Stay
In Her Home

post from ThinkProgress on 28 February 2012 11:00:04 AM. © ThinkProgress

Bernita Jones (Washington Post)

An hour after Occupy DC protesters organized a rally outside Freddie Mac?s offices in downtown Washington, DC yesterday on behalf of a Maryland resident facing eviction, the mortgage giant announced that it had developed plan to keep her in her home.

Bertina Jones, of Prince George?s county, a suburb of DC, was “a perfect example of a woman who was making her payments, and they still foreclosed on her,? said Maryland Legal Aid Bureau’s Vicki King Taitano, who is helping Jones. Jones, a grandmother and accountant, got a mortgage modification in 2009 from Bank of America, “but the bank repeatedly lost the accompanying documents” and Freddie Mac bought the house at 2010 in a foreclosure auction.

Jones has yet to be evicted, however, and Occupy DC rallied to support her after hearing about her case from Taitano. The Washington Post’s Annie Gowen reports:

Jones, who can?t afford a private attorney, said she has been working on her own for months ? heading to the law library, making repeated calls and sending e-mails ? to try and resolve the situation. It has taken a toll, she said. [...]
After working on her own for so long, she said it was ?great? to rally with supporters outside the Freddie Mac government relations offices Monday. The 50 or so Occupier protesters marched in a circle around her, chanting ?housing is a right? as she clutched a sign that said ?Stop Foreclosures and Evictions Now.?

Occupy protesters across the country have been trying to find a purpose after being evicted from encampments in public parks, and a growing number are finding success with targeted actions like this. Occupy Nashville helped saved the home of civil rights activist Helen Bailey, while activists in Detroit have helped saved at least five homes, and protesters in California camped outside a former Marine’s home to help him fight foreclosure.

Jones’ case also shows how difficult it can be for people to fight mortgage providers — Jones is an accountant who seemed to work hard and do everything right, but still faced eviction. ?I?m glad I stood up and fought,? Jones said. ?I hope more homeowners will join us. I?m not an icon, I?m just a homeowner trying to save her home.?

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/28/433649/occupy-dc-helps-woman-avoid-ev
iction/

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NH Republican Lawmaker: Push To Repeal Marriage
Equality Will Create ‘Backlash Against Republicans’

post from ThinkProgress on 28 February 2012 11:00:04 AM. © ThinkProgress

Republicans lawmakers in New Hampshire may soon vote on a measure to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law, but at least one GOP lawmaker is calling on his party to drop the issue. State Rep. Seth Cohn, who the New york Times describes as a “libertarian Republican” says the push “would in fact harm the Republicans? chance of staying in power after 2012, whether or not it succeeds.” “They want this as an election issue,? he said of the Democrats. ?I think it?s going to backlash against the Republicans who, in the face of the polls, are choosing not to believe the average person is O.K. with this situation.? Republicans have majorities in both chambers of the legislature, although if Cohn’s sentiment is any indication, they may not have the two-thirds majority necessary to override Gov. John Lynch’s veto of the measure.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/02/28/433537/nh-republican-lawmaker-push-to-re
peal-marriage-equality-will-create-backlash-against-republicans/

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Ending Mountaintop Removal Mining In Tennessee

post from ThinkProgress on 28 February 2012 11:00:04 AM. © ThinkProgress

The Scenic Vistas Protection Act, legislation that would end high-elevation surface mining techniques such as mountaintop removal in Tennessee on peaks over 2,000 feet, is up for a vote tomorrow morning at 11:30 in front of the state’s Senate Energy and Environment Committee in Nashville. Appalachian Voices is running a television ad on Fox News around the state to support the bill.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/28/433701/ending-mountaintop-removal-minin
g-in-tennessee/

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Climate Scientists Need Your Help: Donate to the
Climate Science Legal Defense Fund and Spread the Word

post from ThinkProgress on 28 February 2012 11:00:04 AM. © ThinkProgress

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund continues to receive donations and offers of help from various stakeholders. [Click here to donate.]

We are actively working with several organizations in order to make CSLDF a one-stop resource for scientists looking for legal resources and we are currently pursuing several educational and legal initiatives which will be made public in the future.

In the short-term, CSLDF would greatly appreciate your financial support to help Dr. Michael Mann. Funds are needed to:

Fend-off ATI?s demand to take Dr. Mann?s deposition, which is a blatant attempt to harass and intimidate him for exercising his constitutional rights by petitioning to intervene in the case.
Defeat ATI?s attempt to obtain Dr. Mann?s email correspondence through the civil discovery process, which essentially is an ?end-run? around the scholarly research exemption under the Virginia FOIA law.
Prepare for summary judgment on the issue of the exempt status of his email correspondence under the Virginia FOIA law.

Donations can be sent to CSLDF online or by sending a check made out to PEER, with Climate Science LDF on the memo line to:

Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
c/o PEER
2000 P Street, NW #240
Washington, D.C. 20036

Through PEER, a private non-profit organization organized under Section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue code, your contribution will be tax deductible.

– The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund

JR: Let me add that Climate Progress readers have been among the biggest supports of the CSLDF. Climate scientists are greatly for this support, as am I. People are always asking me for specific things that they can do to help. Well, this is one of them. Spread the word on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/02/28/433591/climate-scientists-need-your-help
-donate-to-the-climate-science-legal-defense-fund/

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Video: Mitt Romney denounces Operation Hilarity
one month after endorsing it

post from Daily Kos on 28 February 2012 11:00:03 AM. © Daily Kos

When it comes to whining about crossover voting, Mitt Romney does not have a leg to stand on:

Mitt Romney, January 28, 2012:

In my state of Massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in which?either primary happens to be very interesting. And any chance I got to vote against Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy, I took.

Mitt Romney, today:

It's outrageous to see Rick Santorum team up with the Obama people and go out after union labor in Detroit and try to get them to vote against me. [...] Look, we don't want Democrats deciding who our nominee is going to be. [...] I just think it's outrageous and disgusting. [...] This is reminiscent of the dirty tricks of the past, and it's got to end, and I think Rick Santorum has a lot of explaining to do.

Mitt Romney, February 18, 2007:

When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I'd vote in the Democrat [sic] primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for a Republican. [...] I'd go in their primary, just like a lot of other folks, and voted against the person who I thought was the strongest Democrat. [...] So, yeah, as an independent, I'll go in and play in their primary, but I'm a Republican, and have been through my life. [...] But a registered independent, so I could vote in either primary.

As Mitt would say, what's sauce for the goose is now sauce for the gander. And as you can see, it's all on video.

Plus, if Republicans liked him, this wouldn't be an issue at all. Michigan is his home state. He should be destroying Rick Santorum there.

8:15 AM PT: One point worth emphasizing: Romney was bragging about lying about his true party preference in order to influence the Democratic primaries. Democrats in Massachusetts did not invite Republicans to participate. In Michigan, however, the primary is open, and Republicans have invited Democratic and independent participation. So what Romney did in Massachusetts was actually more extreme than anything anyone has talked about in Michigan.

8:45 AM PT (kos): Michael Moore hops on the Operation Hilarity bandwagon:

"A lot of my Democratic friends are going to vote for (Rick) Santorum tomorrow in something they are calling, Operation Hilarity," Moore said Monday on the Rachel Maddow Show on CNBC. "We do have a good sense of humor in the state of Michigan."

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/LIUq73EshgM/-Video-Mitt-Romney-den
ounces-Operation-Hilarity-one-month-after-endorsing-it

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Romney’s False Explanation Of Cross-Party
Primary Vote In 1992

post from ThinkProgress on 28 February 2012 11:00:03 AM. © ThinkProgress

In 1992, Republican Mitt Romney voted in a Democratic primary, backing former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas for the Democratic presidential nomination. He said he did so because he wanted to “vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican.”

Romney is now railing against the Santorum campaign for trying to get traditional Democratic voters to cross-over and vote in the Republican primary. Romney has called this a “terrible dirty trick” and an “attempt to kidnap the primary process.”

In a press conference in Livonia, MI, Romney was asked how we squared this criticism with his earlier admission that his 1992 primary vote had been a “vote for the person who [he] thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican.”

Romney responded with a new explanation:

In my case, I was certainly voting against the Democrat who I thought was the person I thought would be the worst leader of our nation. In this case, as I recall, it was Bill Clinton. I wanted someone other than Bill Clinton. I voted against Ted Kennedy, Tip O’Neill, and Bill Clinton. Seemed like a good group to be against.

Watch the video:

While to conservatives, that trio would indeed seem a “good group to be against,” there is no way Romney could have voted against all three that year.

While then-Governor Clinton was indeed on the primary ballot in 1992, Sen. Ted Kennedy was not up for re-election until 1994. Romney should know that, given he ran against Kennedy that year and often brags about the fact that he forced the late Democrat to “take a mortgage out on his house.”

And House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr.? His final campaign for the U.S. House had been eight years earlier, in 1984.

It’s odd that Romney claims to remember events that happened nine months before his birth, but cannot seem remember the 1990s.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/28/433689/romney-false-explanation-of-1
992-primary-vote/

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Cartnoon

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 28 February 2012 10:53:36 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Goofy Groceries [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29203/cartnoon-by-ek-hornbeck

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School Shooting in Ohio Leads to Call for More
Guns in Schools

"This morning a gunman opened fire inside Chardon High School's cafeteria, killing one student and wounding four others."As is the standard practice these days it's a chance for the "guns everywhere" crowd to go to race to media sites and instantly shoot[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/Sh96SV2MPeA/

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What Goes Around...

During his first run for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney claimed that his vote for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic primary was an attempt to benefit the GOP:

?In Massachusetts, if you register as an independent, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary,? said Romney, who until he made an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1994 had spent his adult life as a registered independent. ?When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I?d vote in the Democrat primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican.?

In his fight for the Michigan primary, Rick Santorum has adopted a similar strategy?asking Michigan Democrats to vote for him, and tip the scale against Romney.

Naturally, Romney isn?t too happy about this:

?Sen. Santorum did something today which I think is deceptive and a dirty trick,? Romney said on Fox News. [?]
As for the Santorum campaign?s robo calls, however, Romney said his rival?s strategy is ?confusing? and a ?new low in this campaign.?

Obviously, Romney was acting as a private citizen versus Santorum?s status as a presidential candidate, still, it?s hard not to be amused by the situation.

Read The Full Article:
http://prospect.org/article/what-goes-around-0

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Mitt Romney calls crossover voting a 'dirty
trick' one month after bragging about doing it himself

The polls in Michigan aren't even closed and Mitt Romney already sounds like he's trying to spin defeat:
Romney: "Republicans have to recognize theres a real effort to kidnap our primary process."
? @reidepstein via TweetDeckAnd earlier this morning, Romney went on Fox to call Democratic crossover voting an "outrage" and a "dirty trick." Of course, Republicans have invited Democrats to participate in the Michigan primary, unlike in Massachusetts where only registered independents can vote in either party's primary.

Of course, as Markos noted earlier, just one month ago the very same Mitt Romney who is today complaining about Democrats accepting the GOP's invitation to vote in Michigan was bragging about having registered as an independent so that he could meddle in Democratic primaries in Massachusetts.

Here's what Mitt Romney said on January 26, 2012:

In my state of Massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in which -- either primary happens to be very interesting. And any chance I got to vote against Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy, I took.

And here's what Romney said on February 18, 2007:

When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I?d vote in the Democrat primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican.

As Romney would say, what was sauce for the goose is now sauce for the gander.