More mixed messages on housing

Some reports claim success due to stabilized prices and increases in some markets and others are claiming more trouble due to prices falling more than forecast. So which is it? Probably some of both, which is the new normal.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities dropped more than forecast in August, highlighting one of the obstacles facing the economic recovery in its third year.

The S&P;/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 3.8 percent from August 2010, the group said today in New York. The median forecast of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 3.5 percent decline.

Recovering the 31 percent plunge in home prices from their 2006 peak will probably be years in the making as foreclosures throw more properties on the market and sales flag. Federal Reserve policy makers like William Dudley are among those that believe bolstering housing is among the “most pressing issues” facing the central bank.

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Laughable: Mean DNC will lead Republicans to oppose foreclosure fraud deal

Ben White of Politico's Morning Money reports that the chances of a deal with the five largest banks and all fifty state attorneys general on foreclosure fraud has been reduced, thanks to an ad by the Democratic National Committee which hits Mitt Romney on his comment suggesting the need to speed up foreclosures.

MORTGAGE SETTLEMENT HOPES DIMMING? - From a person close to the foreclosure abuse settlement talks: "The chances for a bipartisan settlement of the mortgage crisis at the state Attorney General level probably diminished on Monday following a series of partisan comments by Administration officials and this DNC advertisement [slamming Mitt Romney's comments suggesting the housing market should be allowed to hit bottom.] ...

The source told Morning Money: "Republican AGs would like to craft a bipartisan deal and have held their noses and stayed involved in the discussions so far even though the recommendations may include some ideas like principal reduction that they dislike. But they aren't going to sign on to a deal that sets them up to be used as advertising fodder against the eventual Republican presidential nominee."

For those keeping track, six attorneys general leaving the talks don't really impact the chances of a settlement in the eyes of the press, but the DNC hitting Romney about speeding up foreclosures does. OK, then.

I'm sure Republican AGs, who have fought to reduce the size of the penalty banks pay while pushing for a total release of liability for the banks, would jump at an excuse to half-heartedly walk away, if only to make the deal weaker. But I don't buy that these AGs will walk away from giving the banks a deal. The deal is a joke; it's a huge bailout for institutions which would be insolvent if forced to confront their full liability under the law towards government, towards homeowners, and towards investors in mortgage backed securities. It's simply not plausible that the Republicans will walk away from the table because the DNC put together a video attacking Mitt Romney. Read the rest of this post...

Nearly 60% of Ohio voters want repeal of anti-union law

Isn't it interesting to see what happens when Teabagging politicians try to game the system by forcing through legislation that was never discussed? The next step is to vote out the Teabagging politicians who pull these scams.

Almost 6 out of 10 Ohio voters say they want to repeal a law that restricts collective bargaining by public sector unions, according to a poll released Tuesday which shows opposition has grown in the past month.

Ohio voters by 57 percent to 32 percent support the repeal of the law, which forbids government workers from going on strike, according to the poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University. In a late September Quinnipiac poll, the margin was 51 percent to 38 percent.

The bill was passed by the legislature this past spring, and was put on the November 8 ballot for a referendum vote and has not yet taken effect.

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Pat Robertson: GOP presidential candidate field too extreme

When a Republican has gone too far for Pat Robertson, there's a serious problem. Click through to ThinkProgress to see the visibly upset Robertson.

On his show The 700 Club, Robertson warned that the GOP base is pushing their party’s presidential nominees to take such extreme positions that they will be unelectable. “I believe it was Lyndon Johnson that said, ‘Don’t these people realize if they push me over to an extreme position I’ll lose the election?’” he said. “Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off of this stuff. They’re forcing their leaders, the frontrunners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election…They’ve got to stop this! It’s just so counterproductive!”

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Anwar al-Awlaki's American son, 16, reported killed in U.S. strike; State Dept "not sure where we are on that one"

UPDATE: I'm reminded by Marcy Wheeler that Abdulrahman al-Awlaki is actually the third American citizen killed by Obama's drone strikes. Samir Khan was number two, killed along with the elder al-Awlaki. Here's a news item from The Guardian. And here's Wheeler on whether or not Mr. Khan was a designated part of the al-Awlaki hit.
________

There's not much about this yet, but not much is enough (h/t tweeter Jason Leopold of Truthout for all links). First, on the death, via The Independent last Wednesday:

The family of a American teenager killed in Yemen during a US attack – a week after his terrorist father also died in a US strike – has lashed out at reports that the young man was a militant.

Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, 16, who was born in Denver, was the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, one of America's most-wanted men, whom an unmanned drone obliterated with a rocket in Yemen last month.

Now from the daily press briefing of Oct 24, held by State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland (my emphasis):

QUESTION: What can you tell us about the death of Anwar al-Awlaki’s son in Yemen and whether or not it was a result of a U.S. strike?

MS. NULAND: I’m going to take that one. I’m not sure where we are on that one.

Great phrasing, Ms. Nuland. Assumes knowledge, is unsure of which official story to deploy.

One day later (this morning as I write), the State Dept released this apparent follow-up comment:

QUESTION: What is our reaction to reports that the son of Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike?

ANSWER: We are aware of media reports that Abdulrahman al-Awlaki has been killed; however, we have not received confirmation of his death from the government of Yemen. We have no additional information at this time.

Why do you care? Maybe because Barack Obama is ordering the killing of American citizens without trial.

This is now two; his father was the first, just one week (Corr: two weeks) earlier. (Hard to kill just one isn't it?)

Wonder who will be next. I kinda think he likes this stuff:

"The Jonas Brothers are here. (Applause.) They're out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But, boys, don't get any ideas. (Laughter.) I have two words for you -- predator drones. (Laughter.) You will never see it coming. (Laughter.) You think I'm joking. (Laughter.)"

—Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, May 1, 2010

Wonder who Rick Perry would kill. Or Mitt "Tell me what to think next" Romney.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Study: Gas pump handles, disgustingly filthy

It's not a complete surprise that they're dirty, but this study claims they are the dirtiest surface people will touch on their way to work. Americans may be a little too worried about germs but in this particular instance, maybe they're right.

Just when you thought filling up your car could not hurt any more, researchers may have found another reason to avoid touching the gas pump: germs.

Gas pump handles turned out to be the filthiest surface that Americans encounter on the way to work, according to a study released on Tuesday by Kimberly-Clark Professional, a unit of personal hygiene giant Kimberly-Clark Corp.

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Joe Lieberman is advising Republicans

The man should have gotten a swift kick in the backside years ago.   He loves the Republicans so much.  They'd have known how to deal with someone like him. Read the rest of this post...

I’ll ignore the Mormons when they start ignoring me

Another opinion piece about how it doesn't matter that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a Mormon.  I wonder if we'd be hearing the same thing is Romney were a Scientologist. How about if he were a Muslim?

I do think it's interesting that Mormons are supposed to be given a "get out of politics free card" when they inject themselves into politics to a massive degree in an effort to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us.  It's the political equivalent of what Mormons do to our dead - they secretly baptize dead Christians, Jews, Muslims, you name it, to the Mormon faith without the permission of the dead's living relatives.  The Mormons secretly baptized President Obama's deceased mother.  They even promised Jewish leaders years ago that they'd stop baptizing dead Holocaust victims, but they didn't stop - they kept doing it.

(My favorite is the Mormon excuse for trying to steal the souls of our dead.  You see, they explain, they give the dead a chance to say "no" before baptizing them.  And guess what?  No dead person has ever stood up and told the Mormons to stop, so the dead consent.  I'm not kidding.  That's their excuse.)

It's a rather in your face religion on the spiritual and political front (the Mormons are credited with singlehandedly stealing marriage away from millions of gay Californians with their massive financial support of the bigoted Prop 8). So, pardon me if I bristle a bit when told that I'm supposed to ignore Mitt Romney's religion when all the while Mitt Romney's religion is refusing to ignore me. Read the rest of this post...

Priceless: NYPD blaming OWS for increase in murders

Get this.  The NYPD is now trying to blame the Occupy Wall Street protesters for an increase in murders in NYC because, the cops claim, they just don't have time to go after murderers since they're spending their days at OWS.

It's the NYPD's choice to spend their days pepper spraying young girls who are just standing there doing nothing, and clocking young guys simply walking down the street.  The cops made their own priorities, and they decided that manhandling a bunch of peaceful liberals was more important than stopping murderers.

And here's a thought.  Violent crime just spiked in DC too.  Maybe, just maybe, violent crime just spiked nationwide, and the NYPD is simply having a post hoc ergo propter hoc moment. Read the rest of this post...

NPR finds GOP Sen. Marco Rubio misinforming about his family history again

All Things Considered covered the story yesterday. Here's more elsewhere on NPR:

In a 2009 interview with NPR reporter Robert Siegel, Rubio said that his mother went to visit her father in Cuba in 1960, because he had gotten in an accident and was stuck in the hospital.

He went on: “When the time came to come home, the Cuban government wouldn’t let her. So my dad was here in Miami, working, and desperate. ... And they would go to the airport every day for nine months waiting to be let go, and finally they were able to come and it was very frightening. And I think that’s when they knew for sure that thats not the place they wanted to be.”

Records show that Rubio’s mother entered Cuba on Feb. 27, 1961, and she left on March 29, 1961.

Rubio's office claimed that the Washington Post got the story wrong when they reported a few days ago that Rubio had lied about his parents supposedly fleeing Cuba after Castro took over - in fact, they left Cuba three years before Castro.

It's difficult to believe Rubio's claim that he didn't make his family's supposed "flight from Castro" a bit part of his personal story.  I come from an immigrant family.  And your parent's voyage from the old country to this one is a huge part of who you are, especially in tight families like Greeks, and I suspect Cubans.  Getting the story this wrong, repeatedly, is suspicious.  Especially considering that no one in his family supposedly every corrected him - not mom, not dad, not his brother?  Seriously? Read the rest of this post...

TSA leaves creepy note in luggage after finding sex toy

Protecting America, one vibrator at a time.

"Just unpacked my suitcase and found this note from TSA," tweets writer and attorney Jill Filipovic of Feministe. "Guess they discovered a 'personal item' in my bag. Wow."

It was a standard-issue we got all up in your baggagebusiness Transportation Security Administration Notice of Inspection (NOI), but with these handwritten words in pen, overlaid: "GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL."

Of course, finding a gun is much too difficult to locate, once again. Read the rest of this post...