Real estate law firm dressed as foreclosure victims for Halloween

Say you worked for a Law Firm that specialises in real estate financing and foreclosure work and you wanted to hold a Halloween party - what theme would you choose? Wouldn't it be hilarious if your staff dressed up as homeless people and the victims of foreclosure? No, it wouldn't. What were the employees of Stephen J Baum PC thinking? (HT to BoingBoing)  NYT:

On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. Steven J. Baum is, in fact, the largest such firm in New York; it represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

The party is the firm’s big annual bash. Employees wear Halloween costumes to the office, where they party until around noon, and then return to work, still in costume. I can’t tell you how people dressed for this year’s party, but I can tell you about last year’s.

That’s because a former employee of Steven J. Baum recently sent me snapshots of last year’s party. In an e-mail, she said that she wanted me to see them because they showed an appalling lack of compassion toward the homeowners — invariably poor and down on their luck — that the Baum firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against.

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Video: Insanely lit up Halloween house

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Video: Halloween at the White House (very cute)

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Oakland police chief visited Scott Olsen and parents in hospital

The Occupy protesters are taking back the plaza, which requires a lot of courage in light of the recent excessive actions by the Oakland police. Whether or not the Oakland police have had a change in policy is still not clear. The interim police chief made an encouraging first move by meeting the injured vet Olsen in the hospital, but this issue is hardly behind us. San Francisco Chronicle:

"I expressed my sorrow for what happened to their son," Jordan said at a City Hall news conference. "They were very receptive. ... I also expressed to them the process that's involved in terms of this incident, in terms of a full review and internal investigation."

Olsen's skull was fractured when he was hit by a projectile that apparently came from police lines. Olsen, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was standing at the front of the crowd at 14th Street and Broadway when he fell to the ground.

As other protesters came to Olsen's aid, an officer tossed another canister at the group, video of the incident shows.

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Wells Fargo backtracks on monthly debit card

First it was Bank of America and now Wells Fargo. Their timing to slap new fees on customers could not have happened at a worse time.

Keep up the good work Occupy and thanks for your help! Read the rest of this post...

Tenn. arrests Occupy protesters despite no legal authority for arrests

Democracy is all fine and good until people actually want to use it. Can't they just make a t-shirt that calls the president a Marxist-Fascist or carry a gun to a speech by the president and be done with it? Clearly that's much more American than demanding a system that is open to everyone and not just the 1%. And as for that pesky detail of having nothing in the books that allows state police to enforce a curfew that doesn't exist, details, details. What red-blooded American doesn't like a governor who acts like he's royalty as he ignores the law and sends in the police to arrest the dirty masses?

Tennessee state troopers for the second straight night arrested Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol.

And for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed the protesters' arrest warrants.

Early Saturday morning, Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could "find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza."

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Document shows DNC faith director was for gay marriage before he was against it

Yes, the Democratic party is botching relations with the gay community, again.  From AMERICAblog Gay:

The new Democratic party faith outreach director, Dr. Derrick Harkins of Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC, recently told an interviewer "no no no" when asked about his views on gay marriage. Some folks were pretty upset that the Democrats would hire someone who doesn't support our full and equal status as human beings.

But then a funny thing happened. A pro- marriage equality pledge surfaced from two years ago in which the same Dr. Derrick Harkins averred his full throated support for gay marriage.

It's worse than that. The DNC defended the man yesterday, again stating categorically that he was opposed to marriage equality. We now know that that's not true.

In a nutshell: Beeg trouble for moose and squirrel.

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Seven Dem congressional candidates march on Boehner’s office in support of OccupyWallStreet

Good for them.  I'm sure the OccupyWallStreet folks are leery of politicians trying to usurp their movement, but I do think it's helpful overall, and to OccupyWallStreet, to have politicians embrace their cause.  And, honestly, anything that gives John Boehner heartburn is never a bad idea.

Here's a CNN segment about the candidates marching to Boehner's office, and here's more from Adam Green and company at the PCCC:

Wednesday, seven congressional candidates brought the energy of the Occupy movement straight to Capitol Hill.

They marched on Speaker John Boehner's office with 35,000 petitions saying "We stand with the 99%" -- and demanded that Congress pass jobs legislation now.

With news cameras from CNN, NBC, and CBS in tow, a fascinating clash with Boehner's staff occurred.

Click here to see the amazing video -- and help their "We stand with the 99%" petition continue to grow.

As you can see from the video, they were stopped at the door of Speaker Boehner's office. Marko Liias, a candidate in Washington's First District, joked that Boehner's "Welcome, please come in" sign should actually read, "Welcome 1%, please come in."

The other bold progressive candidates delivering the petition were Eric Griego (NM-1), Lori Saldana (CA-52), Ilya Sheyman (IL-10), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Franke Wilmer (MT-AL), and Wenona Benally Baldenegro (AZ-1).

These candidates were definitely heard -- and they will bring the fight to the halls of Congress if they are elected. We need more Democrats willing to take the fight straight to the Republicans.

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