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Posted on March 8, 2011 by Phil Kadath

By now I’m sure you’ve all heard about the scam some banks and mortgage lenders have going where they begin foreclosure on your mortgage without coming up with the actual deed to the property. Sometimes without even being able to show that you’re behind in your payments. There have even been instances where two lenders are trying to foreclose on the same property.

All this could be solved by making the lenders provide the actual deed or even just the paperwork you signed. That would be one of the few decent laws that could support the writing of.

I’m not going to get that in Washington State.

SB 5275 does the exact opposite, in fact.

Section 7 (a) That, for residential real estate property, before the notice of trustee’s sale is recorded, transmitted, or served, the trustee shall have proof that the beneficiary (bank) is the owner of the promissory note or obligation secured by the deed of trust. A declaration by the beneficiary (bank) made under penalty of perjury stating that the beneficiary (bank) is the actual holder of the promissory note or other obligation secured by the deed of trust shall be sufficient proof as required under this subsection.

So with less than “Scouts Honor”, a lender can begin foreclosure on your property and the entire burden to prove them wrong lies with you.

Ain’t that nice?

Btw, if you hit the link to the Legislature’s website, you’ll see that 19 of the 20 sponsors of this bill all have one thing in common: They have a “D” after their name.

Found via The Market Ticker

Posted in Dare To Be Stupid | 1 Comment

Schools sour on HopeNchange?

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Scott

White House memo notes shortage of applicants for contest to have Obama to speak at high school graduation

Either they don’t like the message or they don’t want the headaches of a presidential visit.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | 2 Comments

It was nice while it lasted

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Phil Kadath

Friday night saw the loss of my right to vote as a resident of Washington State.

Now I am simply a serf who gets to send his yearly note to the state’s suggestion box and hope it gets read.

The Washington state Senate voted 26-23 Friday night to make mail-in ballots the standard throughout the state.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Scott White, D-Seattle, would include Pierce County in the requirement that all elections statewide be conducted entirely by mail. Pierce County is currently the only hold-out – allowing both mail and poll voting.

The secretary of state’s office requested the bill to eliminate the confusion caused by maintaining both poll voting and mail-in ballots.

“This bill creates one system – it tightens it up a lot and makes it safer,” said Sen. Dan Swecker, D-Rochester. The law as it currently stands allows for a lot of inconsistency, he said, because of the way it has been changed and adopted over time.

Several senators offered impassioned speeches against the measure, saying their constituents see going to the polls as essential to participating in the political process.

They argued that poll voting is a community event and any decision to change that should rest with individual counties.

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, said this bill would “strong-arm” Pierce County into going along with what the Legislature has decided is right. She said her constituents have frequently asked her to keep poll voting because of the camaraderie that springs up at polling centers, and because it lets voters feel connected to the voting process.

I will not mail my ballot in. I do not trust the USPS to deliver the ballots from the moderately conservative little corner of Pierce County I live in on time. I will be firing up the big diesel and fucking Gaia to drop of my piece of paper directly at the Election Building to make sure it at least gets there.

This cements the Democrat Party’s control of Washington State for eternity.

Posted in Count ANY Vote | 4 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day: 03/07/11

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Phil Kadath

If Microsoft did what most states governments do in relation to yearly budgets, half of that company’s execs would be in prison.

There are long-term problems with state budgets that a return to economic growth won’t solve. Health-care costs and pension obligations are projected to grow at rates that look to be completely unsustainable, unless something is done. But so far, many states aren’t doing much to deal with their fundamental problems. Instead they’re building budgets on tricks – selling off assets, creative accounting – and fictions, like assuming that pension fund investments will produce much higher gains than anyone should reasonably expect.

Eventually they’ll have to make some hard decisions about priorities, and I’m worried that education will suffer, even more than it is suffering already because of budget cuts. The issues are complicated and obscured by the complexities of accounting, so most people don’t fully understand what’s going on. More people need to investigate their state’s budget and get involved in helping to make the right choices. My TED talk is sort of a call to action for citizens, taxpayers, parents, everyone.

Bill Gates, Jr

You’d figure that with as much ass kissing as state governments normally do for him, they’d take a moment to listen as well.

Posted in Quote of the Day, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Spread the Wealth

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Phil Kadath

Of knowledge, that is.

Not that most RNS regulars need this lesson, but here The Heritage Foundation makes an easy to comprehend guide as to why letting public employees collectively bargain is a bad idea.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger., The Left is Never Right | Leave a comment

RNS Quote of the Day: 03/04/11

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Phil Kadath

It’s set up like this for a reason.

CMS estimates that $48 billion of estimated Medicare outlays of $509 billion in fiscal 2010 went to improper payments, including fraudulent ones. “However, this improper payment estimate did not include all of the program’s risk since it did not include improper payments in its Part D prescription drug benefit, for which the agency has not yet estimated a total amount,” said Kathleen King, director of GAO’s health care team.

It’s just more of the left’s favorite past time: Redistribution of Wealth

Posted in Quote of the Day | 2 Comments

Why we win

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Oscar Gordon

Gun Bans are not a safe investment

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bike Race from Hell

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Alaska

The tension release after you stop watching this will likely put you in a coma.

VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.

—David Thompson, And This Is What I Did Before Breakfast

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day: 03/03/11

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Phil Kadath

Got a spare $300K laying about?

Federal data indicate how urgently we need reform: The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion. That’s well over $300,000 for every man, woman and child in America (and exceeds the combined value of every U.S. bank account, stock certificate, building and piece of personal or public property).

Charles G. Koch

There IS a reason the left don’t like this guy or his brother. They’re very often right about things.

Posted in Quote of the Day | 1 Comment

What is it they say about broken clocks?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Phil Kadath

Right twice a day, or something like that?

Well, I won’t concede that Mark Penn gives out that many correct answers in a 24 hour period, but this week he’s got a decent idea.

It’s time we added the first 21st Century amendment to the Constitution — an amendment that parallels the First Amendment but explicitly prohibits the government from ever shutting down the Internet. Freedom of the Internet in today’s world is just as important as freedom of the press, religion or speech.

As revolutions spread around the world questioning dictator after dictator, it is clear that the Internet has been the same kind of catalyst that a free press has been in past democratic revolutions — it has given people an easy way to share their experiences, a tool for organizing, and served to publish atrocities in cases where the press was blocked.

Go read. See what you think.

Posted in The Government is Not Your Friend | 2 Comments