Like so many others, Baltimore City Paper writer Edward Ericson Jr. takes issue with yesterdays Baltimore Sun font page housing foreclosure victim.  Mr. Ericson took the time to run a few numbers on Veronica Peterson’s mortgage and came up with a perhaps not so surprising revelation:

Victim Mentality

But it appears that Peterson made few–if any–payments. The foreclosure was filed July 31, 2007. The balance on the main note then was $435,735.86, plus unpaid interest accrued from Jan. 1, 2007, plus $1,005.72 in late charges. This suggests that Peterson made, at most, one payment on her house: the December, 2006 payment. Given the grace periods typical in home-mortgage business, it is at least as likely that her first payment was not due until January 2007, which would mean she has made zero payments.

So basically it looks like Peterson managed to game the system and live in a half a million dollar home for a year practically for free.  But remember, she’s the victim and the banks, who allowed her to go for a year without payment before forclosing, it the villan.  In Peterson’s own words:

“This bill doesn’t do anything for the people who have lost their homes or are in the process of losing their homes,” Peterson said, according to The Sun. “All the laws passed have been basically to help the lending institutions.”

Well of course…. because obviously taxpayers should be required to keep you in your McMansion…  while you pay nothing.

President Bush signed the housing bailout bill today (otherwise known as the ‘Punish those who act responsibly and reward the idiots and thieves’ bill). To highlight this, the Sun decided to pick a local ‘victim’ of the so-called foreclosure crisis to highlight on their front page.

They didn’t really think it through too well.

Rescue is quirk of timing

Hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners may get the help they need to stave off foreclosure from the federal housing bill that Congress passed last week. But for hundreds of thousands more, people like Veronica Peterson, it comes too late.

So everyone is supposed to feel sorry for single Mom Veronica Petereson and her kids. Right?

Well fine…. then you read this:

Peterson is waiting for the eviction notice that will force her out of the $545,000 house she bought in Columbia two years ago.

Wha-Whaaaaat? She bought a half a million dollar home? Well she must have one hell of a job then. What? She runs a home based daycare? Oh. Then WHY IN THE HELL did she buy a .5 million dollar home?

She said her mortgage broker inflated her income and asset value to put her into a mortgage she could not afford.

Oh well OBVIOUSLY. No way is this her fault. I mean there’s just no way to expect a person to really be able to add up the dollars they pull in a month and compare that to a mortgage payment (and yes, even with an ARM its pretty easy to see if you’ll be able to afford the monthly payments or not).

I’m not alone in my reaction to this story. As of this writing, there are 249 comments to the Baltimore Sun article. The popular opinion is most definitely NOT in Veronica Peterson’s camp.

Both Veronica Petereson and her Mortgage Agent are at fault here and both need to face the music (though who knows… maybe the mortgage agent has already been arrested).

Ok… so I didn’t ‘just’ say it, I said it more like a month ago. Still…

As a refresher, a link to the post I’m talking about:

Gas taxes will be going up.

Peters expressed concern that the cutbacks have resulted in the collection of fewer taxes on gasoline.

And what article did I come across today?

Congress considers raising pump tax to help repair crumbling highways

The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.

…

lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.

10 cents per gallon more to 28.4 cents. Thats over a 50% increase.

Is it any wonder the approval rating of this congress is in the single digits?

On the way into work the other morning, I caught a General Motors ad on the radio.  It started out talking about how bad gas prices were and how properly inflated tires could increase gas milage up to 1-3%.  Ok, fine.

The ad then goes on to say (and I’m paraphrasing a bit) ‘thats why all GM vehicles come with a tire pressure monitoring system as standard equipment’.

Bullshit.

All new vehicles, not just GM vehicles, but all new vehicles come with a tire pressure monitoring system.  Its been a Federal (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) regulation since late 2003.  It comes from the TREAD act which was a result of the Firestone/Ford Explorer rollover problems.

Of course the ad fails to mention that a large majority of these monitoring systems only report a problem when the tire pressure is reduced enough to cause a safety issue.  Proper manual monitoring is still required in order to keep a constant tire pressure that will have any positive effect on gas milage.

Nice try GM.

My local Rutters gas station had the following stickers on their pumps for quite a while now (yes, I took pictures of the stickers because they annoyed me):

It was a fairly small and unobtrusive sticker. All it really did was cause me to try and a find a station that was selling actual gasoline and not watered down gasoline. However, as more and more stations switch over to E10 fuel, that is becoming harder to find.

So a couple of days ago I found myself having to stop at this same Rutters and get a shot of so-called ‘gas’. You could help but notice the new Ethanol sticks which are almost 3 times as large as the original ones:

What? Enriched? Are they serious? Lets take a look at the definition of the word ‘enrich‘:

: to make rich or richer esp. by the addition or increase of some desirable quality, attribute, or ingredient <the experience will enrich your life>: as a: to add beauty to : adorn b: to enhance the taste of <butter will enrich the sauce> c: to make (a soil) more fertile d: to improve the nutritive value of (a food) by adding nutrients (as vitamins or amino acids) and especially by restoring part of the nutrients lost in processing <enriched flour> e: to process so as to add or increase the proportion of a desirable ingredient <enriched uranium> <enriched natural gas>

I read through the following article this morning with mild amusement.

The Greenest Show on Earth: Democrats Gear Up for Denver

As the Mile High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for 50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a political spectacle that’s also politically correct.

Consider the fanny packs.

The host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted 15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had to be made of organic cotton. By unionized labor. In the USA.

Official merchandiser Bob DeMasse scoured the country. His weary conclusion: “That just doesn’t exist.”

Ditto for the baseball caps. “We have a union cap or an organic cap,” Mr. DeMasse says. “But we don’t have a union-organic offering.”

Of course then you hit a section which makes you scratch your head and wonder ‘are they serious?’

But Matt Burns, a spokesman for the Republican convention, looks on with undisguised glee at some of the Democrats’ efforts — such as the “lean ‘n’ green” catering guidelines.

Among them: No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is more vibrant, each meal should include “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.” (Garnishes don’t count.) At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation. “One would think,” says Mr. Burns, “that the Democrats in Denver have bigger fish to bake — they have ruled out frying already — than mandating color-coordinated pretzel platters.”

But, as usual, there’s just no way to make everyone happy.

Joanne Katz, who runs the Denver caterer Three Tomatoes, will take one for the green team by removing her fried goat-cheese won tons with chipotle pepper caramel sauce from the menu. But she questions whether some of the guidelines will have the desired earth-saving effects.

Compostable utensils, she says, are often shipped from Asia on fuel-guzzling cargo ships. As for the plates: “Is it better to drive across town to have china delivered to an event and then use hot water to wash it, or is it better to use petroleum-based disposables?” she asks.

Even beer is causing a problem.

But it’s almost inevitable that principles, politics and profit will conflict. To wit: Coors Brewing Co., in Golden, Colo., will donate biofuel made from beer waste to power the convention’s fleet of flex-fuel vehicles. A green star for the convention — but it has rankled die-hard liberals, who boycotted Coors in the 1960s and ’70s to protest hiring practices that they said discriminated against blacks, Latinos, women and gays. Heirs to the Coors fortune have long been active in conservative causes and Republican politics.

…

No matter, grumbles Anna Flynn, a longtime union member from Denver who objected to the donation. “Any way you put it, it’s still Coors,” she says.

So will the fanny packs — made in the USA of undyed, organic fabric. Mr. DeMasse vows to get a union shop to print the logo, but he says the ink will be petroleum based. Unless, that is, he decides to get the logo embroidered — with biodegradable thread.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the ‘Office Christmas Party’ joke that worked its way around the internet a couple of years ago. If you haven’t seen it, or would like to see it again, I’ve included it below the fold.

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: ALL EMPLOYEES
DATE: December 2
RE: Christmas Party

I’m happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks! We’ll have a small band playing traditional carols… Feel free to sing along.
And don’t be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1:00 pm. Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time, However, no gift should be over $10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone’s pockets. This gathering is only for employees!

A special announcement will be made by our CEO at that time!

Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Patty

______________________________________________________________
FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: December 3

RE: Holiday Party

In no way was yesterday’s memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year.

However, from now on we’re calling it our “Holiday Party”. The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians or those still celebrating Reconciliation Day. There will be no Christmas tree present.
No Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music for your enjoyment. Happy now?

Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Patty

______________________________________________________________
FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: December 4

RE: Holiday Party
Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table … you didn’t sign your name. I’m happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, “AA Only”, you wouldn’t be anonymous anymore. How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody?

Forget about the gifts exchange, no gifts exchange are allowed since the union members feel that $10.00 is too much money and executives believe 10.00 is a little chintzy. NO GIFT EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.

______________________________________________________________
FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
To: All Employees
DATE: December 7
RE: Holiday Party

What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20 begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees’ beliefs. Perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party- or else package everything for you to take it home in a little foil doggy baggy. Will that work?

Meanwhile, I’ve arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the restrooms.

Gays are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do not have to sit with Gay men, each will have their own table. Yes, there will be flower arrangements for the Gay men’s table. To the person asking permission to cross dress, no cross dressing allowed though.

We will have booster seats for short people. Low-fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food we urge those of you with high blood pressure to taste first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for Diabetics, the restaurant cannot supply “No Sugar” desserts. Sorry!

Did I miss anything?!?!?
Patty

______________________________________________________________
FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All #%&$ing Employees
DATE: December 10
RE: The #$%*!@% Holiday Party

Vegetarians?!?!?!? I’ve had it with you people!!! We’re going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the “grill of death,” as you so quaintly put it, and you’ll get your #$%^&*! salad bar, including organic tomatoes. But you know, tomatoes have feelings, too. They scream when you slice them. I’ve heard them scream. I’m hearing them scream right NOW! Have a rotten holiday! Drive drunk and die, you hear me!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!

The Bitch from HELL!!!!!!!!

______________________________________________________________
FROM: Joan Bishop, Acting Human Resources Director
DATE: December 14
RE: Patty Lewis and Holiday Party

I’m sure I speak for all of us in wishing Patty Lewis a speedy recovery and I’ll continue to forward your cards to her. In the meantime, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd off with full pay.

Happy Holidays!

Ethanol Blended Fuel Hurts Gas Mileage

Supporters of ethanol use say it’s a cheaper, cleaner burning fuel. They claim the 10% blend has virtually no impact on fuel efficiency, but some mechanics disagree.

…

Block says it’s simple science. He says a car must burn more ethanol to create the same energy as gasoline. So if you remove 10% pure gasoline and replace it with ethanol, the fuel won’t burn the same.

According to Block’s numbers, the driver of a vehicle that gets 20 miles per gallon would see his fuel efficiency drop to 19 miles per gallon on average.

Hmmm. This sounds familiar. Seems I read someone saying something like this not too long ago. Oh yeah, it was me.

Not to mention that Ethanol blend gasoline makes many cars (like mine) run like crap and causes them to burn MORE gas which makes people spend MORE money at the pump.

One MPG difference can have a significant impact over course of a tank of gas. For the record, by my calculations a 10% Ethanol blend causes me to lose a little over 2 MPG. In my case thats a days commute to work and back. Thats one more day I can go an without having to buy gas. Over a few months that adds up to a couple weeks. Over a year that adds up to… well, you get the point.

How do I know?

Americans drive 1.4 billion fewer highway miles

Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April than they did in April 2007, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

That marks the sixth consecutive monthly drop and coincides with record gas prices and an increase in transit ridership, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.

Yeah, I can hear you out there. “So? What does this have to do with gas taxes?”

Well here’s the money quote:

Peters expressed concern that the cutbacks have resulted in the collection of fewer taxes on gasoline. Such taxes are funneled to the federal Highway Trust Fund, which gets 18.4 cents per gallon from gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon from diesel fuel.

“History shows that we’re going to continue to see congested roads while gas tax revenues decline even further,” she said.

In addition to driving less, Americans are buying smaller vehicles. Peters said sales of midsize SUV dropped 38 percent last month compared with May of last year as Americans increasingly choose to drive cars, the department said.

Fewer taxes? Oh no. We can’t have that. The Government is never expected to make do with less. Only the citizen. Need proof? Just look around for a few water bill tax stories. There’s plenty of them out there. In fact, he’s an entry I wrote about one back in 2006:

Local Government raises water bills BECAUSE…

Water bills in Harrisburg are going up. The Harrisburg Authority has approved a 13.5 percent rate increase that takes effect immediately. A household of four would see an average increase of $4.04 a month.The authority said the increase is due to a significant drop in water usage because people are conserving more.

No good deed goes unpunished. Conserve more and you will be taxed more.

Pelosi Statement on House Vote to Override the Presidents Veto of the Bipartisan Farm Bill

Last month, the Congress passed the Food and Energy Security Act, a new Farm Bill for America, because it will help lower food prices, makes an historic new commitment to nutrition assistance and food stamps, invests in energy independence, supports conservation, and recognizes the importance of fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops.

The Food and Energy Security Act will also help reduce gas prices and ensure that Americas family farmers fuel Americas energy independence. The bill makes a $1 billion investment in energy independence, takes a critical step in transitioning from bio-fuels made from corn, and creates a new tax credit that will provide a $400 million investment in cellulosic biofuels, such as switchgrass. These efforts will help ensure that we send our energy dollars to the Midwest and across America, instead of to the Middle East.

Well yippee. Another billion to the Corn/Ethanol lobby. Nevermind that Ethanol production is causing serious increases in food prices as well as being obscenely wasteful in the amount of water needed for production. And why are they still pushing this ‘Ethanol will reduce gas prices’ crap? In my area you can’t find a gas station that isn’t selling at least a 10% Ethanol blend gasoline. Gas prices are still over $4 at those stations. Not to mention that Ethanol blend gasoline makes many cars (like mine) run like crap and causes them to burn MORE gas which makes people spend MORE money at the pump. If the Government insists on spending taxpayer’s money on biofules, those numbers should be reversed. Put a billion into celluosic biofuels (and algae based biofuels as well). Those biofuels are far more promising that Ethanol (not that the Corn lobby will admit that).

I’m really not understanding how Pelosi can say this bill will lower food prices. Not only, as mentioned before, does Ethanol production increase food prices, this farm bill still pays farmers to idle their land and not farm. All in the name of conservation. So which is it? Is there a ‘global food crisis’ that we hear so much about in the media or do we need farmers to idle their land for conservation? Which is more important?

The price of gasoline has doubled since the Democrats took over Congress two years ago. This pork laden farm bill is not going to help. These politicians are living in a dream world.

side note: I also notice they’ll still repeating the ‘Middle East’ mantra. It seems they want many people to keep believing that we import a majority of our oil from the Middle East when in fact our top suppliers include Canada (number one), Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria.

I received this in an email with no link to the original source.  If someone knows the source, please let me know so I can give proper credit.

without having this damned election thrown in my face? Because to be honest, I’m really starting to get sick of it and would like to have SOME way to get away from it that doesn’t involved turned off every electronic device in the house and canceling all magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

All I wanted to do was watch the season finale of House on hulu. Barely a third of the way through the episode (Wilson’s Heart) there was a scene between House and one of his doctors in a bathroom. Bad enough that they had House open it up with a ‘wide stance’ joke, but they switch to a shot of the other stall and you’re greeted with this:

Convenient how the shot of the actress was just a bit off center to get the ‘Change 08′ as much notice as possible. I mean come on, just a little bit of a rest…. please?

Reminds me of the big uproar over the Dixie Chicks back in 2003 when they bashed Bush overseas and Hollywood seemed hellbent to mention them whenever and wherever they could.

Television shows like House are supposed to be an escape. If I want politics, I’ll turn on the news.

Jupiter’s Three Red Spots

For about 300 years Jupiter’s banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm.

Interesting.

Jupiter’s recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.

What?!  Oh no!  Climate change is destroying the Universe!

I came across this headline while browsing through digg.com this afternoon:

The Gap Between Rich and Poor is Still Growing in the U.S.

So, deciding to dig a little further into yet another ‘Doom and Gloom’ article, I clicked through and checked out the referenced article:

Poverty Has Returned to the Public Agenda

which included this little number blurb:

A cherished piece of the American Dream – the notion that individuals have the opportunity to rise beyond their parent’s economic status – is not standing up to scrutiny. A study by the Economic Mobility Project finds that 42 percent of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of income distribution remain in the bottom, and 39 percent born to parents in the top fifth remain at the top. Steps must be taken to strengthen our economy and expand opportunities for jobs, ownership and affordable housing.

So 42 percent of kids born poor stay poor and 39 percent of kids born rich stay rich. And this means that the Gap between rich and poor is growing? That’s an interesting way to interpret the numbers.

Lets put those numbers another way. 58 percent of kids born poor are not staying poor and 61 percent of kids born rich are not staying rich. To me, that seems to describe an income gap that is shrinking, not growing so the Digg headline is misleading (shocking).

Of course the point of this blurb in the story itselfs that a majority the rich kids are not becoming richer than their parents (A cherished piece of the American Dream – the notion that individuals have the opportunity to rise beyond their parent’s economic status – is not standing up to scrutiny). So am I reading this right? The rich aren’t getting richer… and thats now a bad thing? Haven’t they been beating the mantra ‘the rich get richer while the poor get poorer’ into our heads?

Well? Which way do you want it?

He just walked away from it.

The story about Jose Canseco’s foreclosure is making the rounds today.

Baseball star Canseco loses home to foreclosure

Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco said on Thursday he had lost his California mansion to foreclosure — one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis.

I’m calling this article headline what it is: misleading, sensationalist bullshit.

Stating that someone ‘lost’ their home implies that they actually wanted to keep and and did what they could to make the payments. That’s not the case here. Canseco just walked away from his mortgage contract.

Canseco, …, told the celebrity TV show “Inside Edition” that it did not make financial sense to keep his 7,300 square-foot (678.2 sq-metro) home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino.

Get that? it just ‘didn’t make financial sense’. Translation: I just don’t want to pay for it anymore.

Then get ready.

If you do not support Obama, you will be labeled a racist.

If you do not support Clinton, you will be labeled a sexist.

If you support McCain, you will be labeled both.

Basically you can’t win.

Whats that you say? You need proof?

White Men

This is an election about whether the people of Pennsylvania hate blacks more than they hate women. And when I say people, I don’t mean people, I mean white men.

There’s also a few other choice quotes in the article about white men. This author obviously has a few ‘issues’ when it comes to white men (of course I guess just saying that makes me a sexist white male).

After all this time, after all these stupid articles about how powerless white men are and how they can’t even get into college because of overachieving women and affirmative action and mean lady teachers who expected them to sit still in the third grade even though they were all suffering from terminal attention deficit disorder — after all this, they turn out (surprise!) to have all the power. (As they always did, by the way; I hope you didn’t believe any of those articles.)

white men cannot be relied on, as all of us know who have spent a lifetime dating them.

A lot of white men have terrible tempers, and what’s more, they think it’s normal.