A lot of people ought to facing prison for this
Wow.
Once again the “nobody saw this coming” meme gets exposed as, well, a fraud. This is from an investigative series by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. And pay attention to some of the numbers involved, to the scale of this thing, just in this one local area:
The Herald-Tribune investigation found that mortgage fraud ran rampant all over Florida. The newspaper looked for just one kind of fraud — illegal property flipping — and found $10 billion in suspicious deals this decade.
Lawmakers passed a law in 2007 making mortgage fraud a crime in Florida for the first time, and state officials created mortgage task forces and opened a hot line to gather complaints.
But even now, two years into a recession brought on by real estate speculation and fraud, state and local law enforcement is doing almost nothing to prosecute past fraud or prevent future fraud….
In November 2005, when the real estate market in Florida had just begun to slow, the state’s top law enforcement agency issued a warning that mortgage fraud was about to wreak financial havoc.
In sober language, a 36-page Florida Department of Law Enforcement report explained that banks would collapse and losses would be counted in “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
The level of fraud would rival the Enron case and the Savings and Loan collapse of the 1980s, the intelligence report warned.
The report, which was not released to the public but was sent to prosecutors and law enforcement officials across the state, laid out a series of responses to help prevent or lessen the disaster.
But instead of heeding the warning, most law enforcement officials — including Earl Moreland, the elected state attorney for Sarasota and Manatee counties, and Bill Balkwill, Sarasota County’s sheriff at the time — did nothing.
…. the amount of fraud dwarfs the number of cases being pursued, the Herald-Tribune found. The Herald-Tribune analyzed nearly 19 million property transactions looking for one type of housing fraud — illegal property flipping. The newspaper found more than 50,000 transactions in which prices increased so much, so quickly, that fraud experts interviewed by the newspaper deemed them highly suspicious.
These were the mortgages that Wall Street bought up and securitized, selling to banks and investors all over the world. These were the bonds the credit rating services said were AAA investments.
And the walls came a-tumblin’ down.
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131 comments Add your comment
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
12:03 pm
I’m not sure how the Righties will blame this on Obama, but they will…
Turd Ferguson
July 22nd, 2009
12:03 pm
Cha-Ching!!
Finn McCool
July 22nd, 2009
12:04 pm
How does the house flipping work exactly?
Turd Ferguson
July 22nd, 2009
12:05 pm
Yet again the ole dutch tulip bulb scandel.
getalife
July 22nd, 2009
12:05 pm
Nice scam Obama…….
Just blamin.
Turd Ferguson
July 22nd, 2009
12:07 pm
One way it works is buy an old junker, fix it up in say 3 weeks and sell it. However I believe this article must refer to something other.
david wayne osedach
July 22nd, 2009
12:07 pm
This is the perfect scam1 There are no (legal) come backs!
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
12:12 pm
Finn, first you need a really big spatula…
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
12:13 pm
getalife…Good one…
Turd Ferguson
July 22nd, 2009
12:15 pm
Do we have laws against outhouse flipping?
People who live in out-houses, shouldnt.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 22nd, 2009
12:18 pm
Making the free market illegal, welcome to socialism.
Seig Heil, bookman!
Yes we can!
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
12:21 pm
“However I believe this article must refer to something other”
Illegal house flipping: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec05/operationquickflip121405.htm
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
12:23 pm
If the report was sent to law enforcement in 2005 but this wasn’t illegal until 2007 what were they supposed to do?
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:26 pm
Normal,
Big spatula. Good one.
Yeap, Jay knows it’s time to switch topics when Paul and I (and anyone who’ll join us) start in with the TV shows and food. Speaking of food…..I’m hungry.
getalife
July 22nd, 2009
12:26 pm
Thune gun bill failed. I’ll pack anyway.
Flake’s investigation for PMA lobbying group was killed by the dems. Murtha is smiling.
They are going to have a torture relief act vote. Amazing.
Kamchak
July 22nd, 2009
12:27 pm
“The newspaper found more than 50,000 transactions in which prices increased so much, so quickly that fraud experts interviewed by the newspaper deemed them highly suspicious.”
Does the state of Florida and the municipalities involved take in revenues from these fraudulent sales? Did these sales trigger reappraisals on surrounding homes? Does Florida raise revenue from property taxes based on appraised value? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, it is no wonder that officials turned a blind eye.
Paul
July 22nd, 2009
12:27 pm
Anyone care to make the case we don’t need more laws and more oversight and regulation?
This stuff makes me sick.
Once more: if there isn’t a law to prevent it (and sometimes even if there is) people will do it.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:28 pm
TF –
the dutch tulip was a bubble, but not a scandal.
however, the south sea was both a bubble AND a scandal, due to the dubious behavior of the king and his ministers …
TnGelding
July 22nd, 2009
12:28 pm
But will they?
Verifies what I’ve been writing for months.
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:29 pm
Paul,
“Anyone care to make the case we don’t need more laws and more oversight and regulation?”
You socialist hippy.
Paul
July 22nd, 2009
12:30 pm
Bosch 12:26
Cosmic consciousness!! I’d just put some rice in the cooker to go along with the leftover Peccadillo. Then I came back in and thought “Jay’s gonna get a new thread up…”
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:32 pm
hey, ya big whiner …
your question was ansered more than 3 times downstairs … do you need reading comprehension classes???
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
12:33 pm
“Once more: if there isn’t a law to prevent it (and sometimes even if there is) people will do it.”
No law is EVER going to stop everyone from committing a crime. If they did, surely after how many thousands of years, we’d be crime free now.
“Anyone care to make the case we don’t need more laws and more oversight and regulation?”
I will. How about: we enforce the laws we already have.
Curious Observer
July 22nd, 2009
12:40 pm
If Florida wasn’t aware of fraud, it wasn’t looking terribly hard. When 300 condos in a new 15-floor beachfront building in Miami are all bought up by 20 individuals before construction is even completed, you have to be hog-stupid not to suspect there’s some potential for flipping going on. For a while, condo developers couldn’t build them fast enough. Most people never bought directly from the developer; they always bought from the flipper, who would pay $350,000 for a small condo and sell three months later for $450,000. It was simply the way business was done.
I was in Miami Beach a few weeks ago. The huge, multi-story condo buildings that remain uncompleted serve as grim testimony to the fraud that occurred and to a government that saw benefit in looking the other way.
Paul
July 22nd, 2009
12:41 pm
Doggone/GA
My point was, people do things beyond the pale, society, through their representatives, enacts laws to prevent recurrence.
As RW-(the original) pointed out, prior to the law being enacted, the actions were not illegal; therefore, there were no laws to enforce or statutes whereby people could be prosecuted.
AmVet
July 22nd, 2009
12:41 pm
And that King of Frauds aka the Wyoming Wuss looked in the camera and said, “Don’t blame Bush. Nobody saw this coming.”
Truly a professional liar that must make some here green with envy.
For the life of me, I still don’t understand why those two are not in an 8 x 12. Along with a whole boatload of their white collar criminal friends.
What we need is less regulation. The “free market” can police itself just fine. It’s not like the foxes are going to do anything untoward with the hen house are they?
And what the hell?!
I go out for a couple of hours to help out the little ladies at Congregation Beth Shalom and you evil liberals have run off Wyld Bull?
Forsooth!
He did wax eloquent in that Cult of Victimality cut & run capitulation though.
I dare say it was damned sight better than the one given by Sarah BarraClueless.
Now if only you lazy socialists and America haters would do something about Bud…
jconservative
July 22nd, 2009
12:42 pm
One law – any institution that grants a mortgage must hold that mortgage for 7 years before selling. That should solve any problem from the lending end.
Not my idea – Republican proposal from late 1960’s.
Brad Steel
July 22nd, 2009
12:43 pm
Florida would be a great place for an open casting call for “America’s Most Wanted” and now for CNBC’s “Scam.”
No wonder OJ Simpson and the Madoff family have homes there.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:43 pm
“Thune gun bill failed. I’ll pack anyway.”
getalife … I just don’t understand how the same party that supposedly reveres states’ rights want to override them with a law that says “your gun laws don’t matter if your neighbor’s is more lenient” … talk about not walking the walk
Halibut Maoir
July 22nd, 2009
12:44 pm
Doggone-DING-DING!!!! You are CORRECT Sir. Well Done!
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:45 pm
I guess this kind of blows a hole in the theory that the housing market collapse was because of all them poor folks.
Halibut Maoir
July 22nd, 2009
12:46 pm
Enforce the Laws that are already on the books,such a simple but correct solution to many of our woe’s.
AmVet
July 22nd, 2009
12:46 pm
“As RW-(the original) pointed out, prior to the law being enacted, the actions were not illegal; therefore, there were no laws to enforce or statutes whereby people could be prosecuted.”
Great! Let’s see if I have this straight.
You get 10,00 lobbyists to descend on Washington and have them pressure and pay off politicians so they don’t pass the laws making these obvious crimes illegal like they should have fifty years ago.
Yeah that should work…
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:47 pm
Sorry AmVet, we didn’t mean to run off Byll.
Don’t lie about helping church ladies, we all know you were out celebrating the death of soldiers with your wicked evil ways.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:48 pm
jconservative –
7 years??? society is too mobile … I’d be happy with 2 years … or, at least, a stiff tax penalty if we opt out of a minimum
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
12:48 pm
“always bought from the flipper, who would pay $350,000 for a small condo and sell three months later for $450,000.”
But that isn’t necessarily fraud. There has to have been something more than just a rise in price. If the developer wants a quick profit and sells at a lower margin to get it, and the market increases and the “flipper” can get a better price than was paid…well, as you said, that’s how it’s done.
Fraudulant flipping is done based on things like inflated appraisals, or inflated upgrade costs…stuff like that.
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
12:50 pm
“As RW-(the original) pointed out, prior to the law being enacted, the actions were not illegal; therefore, there were no laws to enforce or statutes whereby people could be prosecuted”
Not necessarily. It depends on the circumstances. There are already laws against fraud, if those laws were broken then what they did was illegal. We don’t need laws that list each and every tiny detail of a fraud for that fraud to BE illegal.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:50 pm
Bosch –
“I guess this kind of blows a hole in the theory that the housing market collapse was because of all them poor folks.”
and just who do you think was BUYING all those Miami condos??? hmmm??? it was the undeserving, sub-prime-borrowing POOR, that’s who … why they each had a string of 8 or 9 houses to their names …
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:51 pm
Soooo……those hideous water towers booming that “Gwinnett is Great” and “Success Lives Here” are coming down. I’ve always thought that false advertising, so glad to see those eyesores and pillars of lies come down!
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:51 pm
Bosch –
“we all know you were out celebrating the death of soldiers with your wicked evil ways”
right after our abortion parties and big gay marriages … we’re libruls, that’s how we roll …
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 22nd, 2009
12:52 pm
“Where does the federal government get this “aid” money in the first place?”
Certainly not from Alaskans.
what part of “net RECIPIENT of federal money” do you not understand … ???
Andy, AK residents stopped being net revenue contributors 20 years ago, looks like.
Still waiting on an answer.
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:53 pm
USinUK@12:50 –
Of course!
It’s all the poor folks fault! No, wait…….
Curious Observer
July 22nd, 2009
12:53 pm
Doggone@12:48: Of course there were inflated appraisals, skimpy due process by the lending institutions, etc. Often, the developer would arrange for such things before even beginning to build. How else would a few individuals be able to buy up so many condos?
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
12:55 pm
USinUK,
Roll? Shhhhh….don’t mention the rollin’ — K?
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
12:55 pm
If I were Benevolent Dictator of the Universe, Calculated Risk would be everyone’s default homepage.
And now to have a look at what Jay’s actually posted…
AmVet
July 22nd, 2009
12:56 pm
“…right after our abortion parties and big gay marriages … we’re libruls, that’s how we roll …”
Bosch and USinUK, I was gonna add a real doozy along these lines but thought better of it.
(And John Ashcroft, wherever you are, f___ you!)
Turd Ferguson
July 22nd, 2009
12:56 pm
One never hears of flipping mobile homes unless there was a tornado afoot. I guess for once the mobile home owning public are safe.
“Aw hell, I gotta double wide. Sherun pop the top on another cold PBR!”
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
12:57 pm
“How else would a few individuals be able to buy up so many condos?”
It’s called “investing”…there’s no laws against legitimate investments. There really ARE people out there who have a lot of money to invest, didn’t you know that? Try looking at what actors do with their money.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:58 pm
Whiner –
“Still waiting on an answer.”
then you have some serious reading problems for which you should seek help.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
12:59 pm
Doggone –
““How else would a few individuals be able to buy up so many condos?””
don’t forget, there are also investment groups where individuals pool their money -
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
1:00 pm
USinUK, Yes, if only these poor folks weren’t so needy…
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
1:01 pm
TF –
your 12:56 made me snort …
pat
July 22nd, 2009
1:01 pm
Please tell me you are not just finding this out… This is old news.
Class of '98
July 22nd, 2009
1:01 pm
I worked as a loan officer for several years during the boom. I can honestly say that I never had to fake any income documents or tax returns to get an applicant approved whom I KNEW FOR A FACT could not afford the mortgage they were applying for. Granted, some appraisal services were more “generous” than others, but no laws were broken, especially on my part.
I didn’t have to break any laws because the FHA guidelines were so ludicrous no illegality was necessary.
Wall Street fatcats may have bundled them as Credit Default Swaps or whatever, but the Fannie and Freddie guideline, pushed through by Democrats, made it all possible in the first place.
We could get virtually anybody approved, and it was all legal.
Redneck Convert
July 22nd, 2009
1:02 pm
Well, it’s just like a librul like Bookman to try and take our eye off of the real cause of the crash. A bunch of poor people that bought more house than they could pay for. We had people making $30,000 a year taking out $400,000 mortgages. It ain’t the fault of the banks or the developers they done it. I mean, you ask a guy how much he makes and he tells you $200,000 a year, what are you suppose to do? Call him a liar and tell him to bring in his pay stubs?
If you want to see the cause of the housing crash just drive down to the worst parts of any of the big cities. You’ll see them. They won’t be the ones wearing nice suits and showing scrubbed and shaved faces.
Have a good p.m. everybody.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
1:02 pm
Normal – what about MY needs … !!!
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
1:03 pm
Actually Turd, my double wide is my best venture. Rent it to illegals
up in Ellijay for twice the rent. Works for me…
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
1:04 pm
Class of ‘98 –
Curious about something. If you knew the people couldn’t afford the loan, then why’d ya’ approve it?
AmVet
July 22nd, 2009
1:04 pm
OK, history buffs, thirty years ago today the Sony Walkman was introduced and listening to music was never to be the same.
In honor of that world changing event, from one of the great albums of 1979 and all time, Survival:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=513gJwJ2cPE
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
1:05 pm
Thanks AmVet!
The Bob!!!
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
1:06 pm
“don’t forget, there are also investment groups where individuals pool their money -”
Yes, those too
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
1:06 pm
“I didn’t have to break any laws because the FHA guidelines were so ludicrous no illegality was necessary.”
yep. that’s why those businesses that “verified your self-employment income” sprouted up like mushrooms after a summer storm … because no one needed them.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
1:07 pm
“thirty years ago today the Sony Walkman was introduced and listening to music was never to be the same”
omfg. I’m feeling so OLD …
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
1:09 pm
A bill to amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to allow citizens who have concealed carry permits from the State in which they reside to carry concealed firearms in another State that grants concealed carry permits, if the individual complies with the laws of the State.
Doesn’t sound quite so harsh when you read it.
USinUK
July 22nd, 2009
1:09 pm
heading home … have a good night!!!
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
1:10 pm
“Doesn’t sound quite so harsh when you read it”
Wanna bet?
“if the individual complies with the laws of the State”
complies with the laws of WHICH state?
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
1:10 pm
AmVet, As long as we are rememberin’ things, let us raise our glasses
to the glorius, but doomed defense of Atlanta, Georgia, on this day,
145 years ago. damyankees burned down the Rich’s store and stole the pink pig. war is h#ll.
N-GA
July 22nd, 2009
1:12 pm
There may not be any specific state/local laws against what they did, but I would suggest that if the intent of their actions constituted fraud (working with appraisers to falsify market values of properties), then some existing laws were broken. At the very least, I suspect the Feds could apply RICO in these cases.
AmVet
July 22nd, 2009
1:17 pm
Normal, damn! makes me want to go see the Cyclorama again.
I’m a big Lincoln fan, though: Union first, Union last, Union always
More sweetness from ‘79:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-6XHe4fXUs
@@
July 22nd, 2009
1:21 pm
Damn straight, jay!!! Let’s start at the top:
Mortgage fraud began escalating during Clinton’s administration. Search Clinton in the PDF and see how often his administration is mentioned.
Property Flipping: HUD’s Failure to Curb Mortgage Fraud
Although the purchase and quick resale of a house at an increased price is not itself unlawful, the above scenario (see page 10) illustrates how this practice can cross the line into illegality when documents are falsified and misrepresentations made in order to lure buyers and lenders into investing more money in a house than it is actually worth. Flippers who get FHA backing for their buyers’ mortgages, are able to encourage lenders to put up the full amount of the loan, confident that if the buyer defaults, the government will bail them out. Lenders, appraisers, and other parties who are guilty of such practices may be barred by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from participating in federally financed or insured business. In order to be barred, however, they first have to be caught.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_senate_committee_prints&docid=f:75382.pdf
I personally went after several fraudsters in my county. Ran up against the same obstacles mentioned in The Sarasota-Herald Tribune piece. F.B.I.? Not interested. G.B.I.? Not interested. County Attorney? “We’ll check into it.” Never got back to me. Went to see him personally — he referred me to the F.B.I.
The bureaucrat’s never-ending spin cycle.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
1:21 pm
RW asks: If the report was sent to law enforcement in 2005 but this wasn’t illegal until 2007 what were they supposed to do?
I don’t think it was so much that mortgage fraud wasn’t illegal, but that there wasn’t sufficient law enforcement resources to be able to properly investigate violations of existing laws.
I’ve just read the linked article and barely skimmed the report itself , though, and can’t claim to really understand what legal culpability existed pre-’07. I’m assuming though that both existing fed (HUD) and FL state laws would’ve come into play.
Kayaker 71
July 22nd, 2009
1:25 pm
Franklin Raines didn’t find it so hard to cook the books at Fannie Mae and walk with 190M. No one mentions him much….. that would be so politically incorrect.
Kayaker 71
July 22nd, 2009
1:27 pm
Bookman,
Request that you run a thread on the Gates fiasco. Think there would be numerous of your bloggers who would like to comment. Too hot?
TW
July 22nd, 2009
1:28 pm
Don’t see how any of this impacts Saxby’s golf game.
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
1:28 pm
At the beginning of that article, they mention a woman who wound up with three mortgages? Um, how did that happen?
@@
July 22nd, 2009
1:28 pm
Dang! I would’a sworn I put the necessary break in there.
Life was never intended to be this complicated.
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
1:30 pm
complies with the laws of WHICH state?
The state you’re traveling in to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What’s this BS about the Walkman being introduced 30 years ago today? You’re a month late with that info.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
1:32 pm
Andy, seriously, are you saying that the “Federal Taxes Paid vs. Federal Spending Received by State” information provided to you earlier is somehow failing to note some source of federal revenue special to AK?
Because otherwise I really don’t understand what is so difficult to comprehend about what USinUK and I have both addressed–that, while there has been a time when AK paid out more than it received from the Feds, for 20 straight years that’s not been the case.
And again, if you know this is not the case post-2005, fine, just tell us how you know it. OK?
jconservative
July 22nd, 2009
1:32 pm
getalife ….”Thune gun bill failed. I’ll pack anyway”
I agree – this is a better topic to discuss. Failed 58 – 39 – (needed 60)
Everyone needs to get in on the discussion.
Fundamental questions – Will the SCOTUS apply the 2nd Am to the States when the cases in the pipeline get there? See D of C v Heller
What will this do for the need (if you think there is a need) for a Thune-type law?
Is there a constitutional right to self defense? Court has held 4th Am
makes a mans house his castle. Doesn’t he have a right to defend? Court has held that there is a right to privacy. Can you defend that right? Does the right end when you leave your castle?
Just thinking.
md
July 22nd, 2009
1:33 pm
““I guess this kind of blows a hole in the theory that the housing market collapse was because of all them poor folks.””
Funny how that gets so blown out of proportion. I’ve never read where anyone blames only the poor, have you?
Now, if you take the fact that the poor were one of the many variables that brought down the market, then yes, the poor played their part in the fiasco.
The “poor” have a keen sense that their food stamps can’t be used on their alcohol and cigarettes, yet don’t know they don’t have the money for a house? (Yes, end of the specrum, but makes my point) We all know what we make and also know how much or how little we have, everything else is an excuse.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
1:34 pm
complies with the laws of WHICH state?
The state you’re traveling in to.
This may be a dumb question, but what is preventing individual states from recognizing other states’ CCW permits at present?
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
1:34 pm
DB,
I’m only going by the excerpt Jay B cut and pasted which makes the claim that law enforcement didn’t do anything about what was in the report in 2005 after saying it wasn’t illegal until 2007. It seems like they should have focused their ire elsewhere and maybe they did somewhere else in the story. If that’s the case then I apologize to the Sarasota paper and blame Jay B for poor excerpting choices.
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
1:35 pm
“The state you’re traveling in to”
but as you quoted it, it doesn’t actually SAY that…does it? “A bill to amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to allow citizens who have concealed carry permits from the State in which they reside to carry concealed firearms in another State that grants concealed carry permits, if the individual complies with the laws of the State”
If “the State” is State A, where they got their carry permit..then “another State” would be State B, where they are going. *I* would read that last part “if the individual complies with the laws of the State” to be “the State” is State A, where they got their permit.
If it’s SUPPOSED to mean the state they are going to, it SHOULD say “if the individual complies with the laws of THAT OTHER State”
Joey
July 22nd, 2009
1:35 pm
Don’t want to blame President Obama, except that he was a Senator for two years.
The blame mostly belongs to the Senate and House Banking Committees, the power structure there as well as Senate and House Majority and Minority party leaders.
The Democrat and Republican power structure and leaders for the last 15 to 20 years.
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
1:36 pm
md,
“Funny how that gets so blown out of proportion. I’ve never read where anyone blames only the poor, have you?”
All the time.
[See md’s post at 1:33 for example}
@@
July 22nd, 2009
1:36 pm
…and just so you know, jay. The two fraudsters I eventually nailed was due to a lowly code enforcer. It was his efforts that exposed them for tax fraud. They weren’t indicted or convicted. They were deported back to Haiti. The local lawyer who was closing on the properties? He’s still practicing.
deegee
July 22nd, 2009
1:37 pm
Cut and Paste below from the FBI website. One would think that these words would enlighten the free market geniuses on this blog that believe that any act committed in the pursuit of a profit is okay.
Property Flips: Property is purchased, falsely appraised at a higher value, and then quickly sold. What makes property flipping illegal is that the appraisal information is fraudulent. The schemes typically involve fraudulent appraisals, doctored loan documents, and inflation of the buyer’s income.
Trust me
July 22nd, 2009
1:38 pm
Well, none of this would have ever happened if it were not for that CRA. Just ask any faithful Republican. They’ll tell you ’cause they know. They have proof that ACORN forced Congress to come up with that CRA thing and then they made everyone give loans to everyone and it was all down hill from there. I hear tell that they even have documentation to prove it but they say that they won’t release any of their documentation until after Obama releases his long form. Fair is fair, after all.
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
1:38 pm
This may be a dumb question, but what is preventing individual states from recognizing other states’ CCW permits at present?
I think it’s a pretty good question. Knowing the federal government we probably have a federal law that doesn’t allow crossing the state line with the weapon even if they did recognize the permit.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 22nd, 2009
1:38 pm
DB- You really don’t know where the federal government gets it’s “aid” money from, do you?
Normal
July 22nd, 2009
1:40 pm
Josef, are you working again?
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
1:40 pm
“This may be a dumb question, but what is preventing individual states from recognizing other states’ CCW permits at present?”
Different qualification criteria for getting the permit
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
1:41 pm
If it’s SUPPOSED to mean the state they are going to, it SHOULD say “if the individual complies with the laws of THAT OTHER State”
DoggoneGA,
What about all the poor lawyers and judges that would be clogging up the soup kitchens if the laws were that specific?
RW-(the original)
July 22nd, 2009
1:44 pm
Joey,
While you’re correct about Obama never being on the banking committee, it didn’t stop him from claiming it.
Hillbilly Deluxe
July 22nd, 2009
1:45 pm
state and local law enforcement is doing almost nothing to prosecute past fraud or prevent future fraud
Since real estate and development interest control every local government anywhere near me (and probably in the whole country), I’m not really surprised. As soon as this has blown over and some years have passed, I fully expect to see the cycle repeated if I’m still kickin’.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
1:45 pm
You really don’t know where the federal government gets it’s [sic] “aid” money from, do you?
Andy, what’s with the scare quotes?
My presumption is that the revenues cite in the table
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html
are the sum of all revenues paid to the state. If you are aware of some super secret revenue source that ONLY AK pays, that none of the other states pay, to the feds, either say what it is or stop wasting my damn time.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
1:46 pm
Sorry, should’ve read “are the sum of all revenues paid to AND FROM the state.”
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 22nd, 2009
1:47 pm
DB- If you don’t know where federal “aid” money comes from, then just say so.
Phoday Topkah
July 22nd, 2009
1:49 pm
I am moven to here from Liberia. I come because the street is made of gold and Obama is the president. I want to learn how to make the muny from the mortgage games so that I can make the money. Pretty soon I will have the free medicing so that no more wait in emergenzy room. If Obama give me healthcare and I make muny with mortgage frog then everything be good and I play soocer in park all day long.
md
July 22nd, 2009
1:51 pm
Hey Bosch, what part of “one of many variables” or “their part” don’t you understand?
Or do you just ignore that stuff because it doesn’t suit your argument?
GayGrayGeek
July 22nd, 2009
1:53 pm
USinUK @ 12:43 – I just don’t understand how the same party that supposedly reveres states’ rights want to override them with a law that says “your gun laws don’t matter if your neighbor’s is more lenient” … talk about not walking the walk
That’s because “States’ Rights” only applies – ONLY applies – when a Republican’t is speaking of any of Those People. Those People may be of a different race, or come from another country, or be not-heterosexual, but when it comes to Those People, States’ Rights Uber Alles.
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
1:53 pm
md,
Oh sorry. I tune out when I see a poster using the words “poor, food stamps, alcohol, and cigarettes” in one sentence.
Mrs. Godzilla
July 22nd, 2009
1:58 pm
It bothers me that Mr and Mrs Fraud when facing prison will most likely
get sent to a “Club Fed” type of facility….
@@
July 22nd, 2009
1:58 pm
Failure of the government to oversee its “good intentions”????
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
2:03 pm
DB- If you don’t know where federal “aid” money comes from, then just say so.
Federal revenues come from income, payroll, corporate and excise taxes, and probably some stuff I’m forgetting but that’s the lion’s share.
WTF is your point, and when are you going to acknowledge that AK has received more than it’s provided in revenue for 20 years?
Doggone/GA
July 22nd, 2009
2:07 pm
“What about all the poor lawyers and judges that would be clogging up the soup kitchens if the laws were that specific?”
and what if you are traveling from Georgia to California. Under your interpretation you would have to meet the criteria for EVERY state you pass through.
Bud Wiser
July 22nd, 2009
2:10 pm
“This may be a dumb question, but what is preventing individual states from recognizing other states’ CCW permits at present?”
My theory is that if state A had to spend the time and money to handle proper background checks and investigations on individual persons, since the cost of the permit probably does not actually cover that, then when someone from state B rolls in with his pistol, somebody has to pay, or it is not recognized.
One can usually follow a money trail to find, or extrapolate, an answer.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 22nd, 2009
2:11 pm
DB- Federal “aid” money comes from those productive enough to be penalized for it by the government.
One good reason why Alaska is not productive enough to fund it’s own way is because liberals like you meddle in it’s energy production industries, sticking your noses where they do not belong.
‘member ANWR?
And now you have the nerve to whine about the results of your……..whining?
Bud Wiser
July 22nd, 2009
2:12 pm
Mrs. Godzilla
July 22nd, 2009
1:58 pm
It bothers me that Mr and Mrs Fraud when facing prison will most likely
get sent to a “Club Fed” type of facility….
Oh, maybe Obowo will set them up with a seaside cottage in Bermuda.
Or appoint them to his cabinet.
Or make them a czar.
jm
July 22nd, 2009
2:13 pm
50,000 transactions – 68,000 police officers in florida total, weeks or months to investigate each case – I think they’re outnumbered….
@@
July 22nd, 2009
2:15 pm
Podcast Interview with Inspector General for TARP: Treasury Department Is Not Being Transparent
Barofsky said “this recent attack on my report is really, in many ways, an attack on basic transparency — of not wanting the American people in a certain way to see exactly what’s going on in their government as included in our report.” He said the Treasury Department “with respect to this program, they’ve not met their claims that this is going to be ‘unprecedented transparency,’” as President Obama suggested there would be.
Nooooo…
Obama’s been whispering sweet nothings?
md
July 22nd, 2009
2:19 pm
“Oh sorry. I tune out when I see a poster using the words “poor, food stamps, alcohol, and cigarettes” in one sentence.”
One shouldn’t close their eyes to reality.
Redneck Convert
July 22nd, 2009
2:20 pm
Well, I just hate it when the libruls knock down a law that would let us carry our guns across the U.S. of A. I keep a gun rack on the back window of my Ford F-450. I had to get it built special for me. I keep the antitank weapon on the bottom and the two machine guns I use for hunting and self-defense on the other two pegs. I was kind of looking forward to driving out to California and letting the weenies get a look at what I got. Maybe they would pay attention to the bumper stickers that say Protected by Smith & Wesson and Don’t Follow Too Closely.
I reckon my plans are ruint now, thanks to the two chickens that wouldn’t cross over and vote for the Thune bill. Leastwise the people in GA will know I ain’t a man to be trifled with and I earned what I got and I aim to keep it. But we ain’t giving up. If we can fight the War of Northren Aggression for almost 150 years, we danged sure can bring the Thune bill back up. Which we will.
Bosch
July 22nd, 2009
2:24 pm
md,
And one shouldn’t be so quick to assume.
Mrs. Godzilla
July 22nd, 2009
2:30 pm
Bud Wiser
I do so enjoy your witty repartee’.
Do you care to state your opinion on something of import?
DebbieDoRight
July 22nd, 2009
2:30 pm
Bosch: Debbie, Soooo……what’s your take on Vampire Eric (as all the women swoon)?
Hi Bosch!!! Sorry I didn’t answer right away, I’m downstairs in the “birthers” blog driving them crazy with “facts” and things like “truth”. It’s wrong I know, but, heck it’s FUN!!
To answer your question, Don’t like the guy — he’s too smug looking for me like he wears that T-shirt from Right Red Fred that says “I’m too sexy…..”
Mrs. Godzilla
July 22nd, 2009
2:31 pm
Hey Bosch!
I’m always so glad to sit by you in our O of O meetings…..
Mrs. Godzilla
July 22nd, 2009
2:32 pm
Hey DDR…..you too!
DB, Gwinnettian
July 22nd, 2009
2:37 pm
One good reason why Alaska is not productive enough to fund it’s own way is because liberals like you meddle in it’s [sic--jeez, is it an undiagnosed nerve failure with this it's/its tic of yours?] energy production industries, sticking your noses where they do not belong.
This is what your stalling and hemming and hawing is all about?
That AK would be pumping BIG BUX if only they were allowed to renege on their promises never to drill in the Wildlife Refuge that they’d made back in the day when we allowed them to drill in that other part of the North Slope?
Furthermore, you’re telling me that no other state is ever held back from such BIG BUX due to other factors beyond their control?
And what’s this crap about “where your noses don’t belong?” That’s federal land! I get a say, you get a say, it was paid for with federal funds. Remember? That Seward guy? his “folly?”
That’s what I get for trying to have a civil discussion with you. I’ll know better next time.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 22nd, 2009
2:42 pm
You don’t have to blubber about it, DB-
The employment effect of ANWR is
created not only by direct new investment
in oil and gas drilling but also the widespread
economic stimulus created by a
larger domestic US oil supply and fewer
barrels of imported oil. The national debt
is decreased and the nation has fewer
unemployed workers and greater revenues
to spend. The mean average estimate of
ANWR oil is about 9.25 billion barrels of
oil, resulting in new production peaking at
about 1.9 million barrels daily. The national
macroeconomic effect of this amount of
production is an increase in the nation’s
annual Gross National Product by $90 billion
(based on the current world average
price of oil @$130 a barrel).
Unions and Business support opening
ANWR. Over 10,000 vendors have
done business with Alaska’s North Slope oil
industry since operations began. This has
affected over 1.5 million jobs nationwide!
For this reason the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters and other organized
labor groups, the National Association of
Counties, the National Grange, and the US
Chamber of Commerce actively support
responsible oil exploration of ANWR’s
coastal plain. The Energy Stewardship
Alliance with over 90 participating organizations
support opening the Coastal Plain
of ANWR.
Why do you liberals deprive the people of Alaska of their rightful treasure?
DebbieDoRight
July 22nd, 2009
2:45 pm
Mrs. G. Hi ya girlfriend!!! Ummmmmm does the “O” stand for orgasmic? Or origami? I get confused!!!
Bud Wiser
July 22nd, 2009
2:59 pm
Everything I say is important.
And right.
Care to debate the seaside cottages in Bermuda Mrs G, or the cabinet appointees that cheated on their taxes? Got any insight other than the usual drivel cracker chasing verbiage?
DebbieDoRight
July 22nd, 2009
3:04 pm
Cracker chase verbiage? I didn’t know that……..
md
July 22nd, 2009
3:10 pm
Bosch,
“And one shouldn’t be so quick to assume.”
Explain how an actual occurence witnessed by many can be an assumption. Stand in the grocery store long enough and you too will know the truth.
JeninAtlanta
July 22nd, 2009
3:19 pm
Come on Jay, America was built by liars and cheats so their children are continuing their ways in 21st century style. I don’t know why people are so shocked and suprised, it happens every day all the time in one way or another. And we sit by, watch it, and say nothing!
Mrs. Godzilla
July 22nd, 2009
3:24 pm
Bud
I prefer St. Maarten
Bud Wiser
July 22nd, 2009
4:10 pm
OMG, that is the alsolute all time FAV of wife and I. We were looking at a 4 day weekend trip down tere this past week, but it didn’t work out.
Unless you have another place you stay regularly (like the condos at Orient Beach( …shhhh, its a secret), the Holland House right in town there in Philipsburg is a nice quiet place, and the location can’t be beat. They’re running 3 nite specials right now as well.
You taste in destinations is exquisite.
Halibut Maoir
July 22nd, 2009
4:33 pm
America was built by liars and cheats? Sterotype much?
getalife
July 22nd, 2009
8:50 pm
He is doing well in the press conference.
“Saad Bin Laden, Osama’s Son, Killed By American Missile in Pakistan: US Officials”.
Too bad daddy was not there.
Ameriquest Sucks!
July 23rd, 2009
9:04 am
Cha-Ching is Right! Predatory Lending SUCKS! I’ve been suffering from Predatory lending since 2004, I asked the Government for help and they sat on their hands and let it happen.
Ameriquest Mortgage SUCKS!
Ameriquest Sucks!
July 23rd, 2009
9:05 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBPE_7po6aM