Eyes on the prize, guys. Play nice.
Archives for March 2008
House? What House?
Happy days are here again:
As home prices plummet, growing numbers of borrowers are winding up owing more on their homes than the homes are worth, raising concerns that a new group of homeowners — those who can afford to pay their mortgages but have decided not to — are starting to walk away from their homes.+
Typically borrowers who turn in their keys are those who have run into financial trouble or need to relocate but can’t sell their homes. But mortgage-industry executives and consumer counselors say they are starting to see people who aren’t in dire financial straits defaulting on their mortgages because they don’t want to pay for properties that have negative equity.
Many are speculators who had planned to quickly flip the home, but others appear to be homeowners who had second thoughts about their purchase.
I blame Pelosi.
I’m Shocked. Shocked, I Tells Ya!
I know, I know. You are, too. Are you sitting down? Because I know it will come as a complete surprise to each and every one of you that Michael Mukasey will not ask a Federal Grand Jury to investigate Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers on contempt of Congress charges.
Pelosi said the two were unresponsive to Congress’ inquiry, while the White House argues that contempt laws don’t apply to the president or any of his staffers who invoke executive privilege.
Mukasey, a Bush appointee, agreed.
“The department has determined that the noncompliance by Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers with the Judiciary Committee subpoenas did not constitute a crime,” Mukasey wrote in a letter to Pelosi.
…which, of course, is bullshit.
Every person who having been summoned as a witness by the authority of either House of Congress to give testimony or to produce papers upon any matter under inquiry before either House, or any joint committee established by a joint or concurrent resolution of the two Houses of Congress, or any committee of either House of Congress, willfully makes default, or who, having appeared, refuses to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 nor less than $100 and imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month nor more than twelve months
I see no exemption for “friends of or advisors to the President.” But then, laws are for little people and January 2009 cannot come fast enough.