foreclosure victims

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CONEJO CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC REGARDING THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 5893 MUSTANG DRIVE, SIMI VALLEY CA:

October 15, 2010

Given the extraordinary and illegal events orchestrated by the former homeowners and their attorney, we now feel compelled to share the facts regarding 5893 Mustang Drive.

On January 28, 2010 the property was sold thru a public auction at the trustee sale held at the Ventura County Court House.  Each month this same process occurs thousands of times across the nation as a method for banks to take back or dispose of the property that is not being paid for.  Conejo Capital was the “successful” bidder.   Shortly thereafter the former bank issued the title and it was legally recorded with Conejo Capital Partners LLC as the new owner of the property.   At the time all we knew about the property was that the former homeowners purchased it in 2001 for $539,000, and that they later refinanced it, pulling equity out, resulting in debt of roughly $1,000,000.  No “lis pendens” had been recorded indicating any disagreement or legal action pending regarding the property.  Had they done so before the auction, we would not have purchased this property.

After purchasing the property we found it to be occupied by the former home owners, Jim & Danielle Earl.  We were able to make contact with them and tried to understand their situation.  They expressed their opinion that they had been unlawfully foreclosed on by the bank.  Yet to our knowledge, the Earls had not initiated a lawsuit against any bank at that time, and as far as we know even today there is no pending lawsuit against any bank.  Any grievance they had would have been with their bank, not Conejo Capital Partners.  We tried to amicably discuss terms of a possible agreement which would have helped them make a comfortable transition but they were unwilling.  They gave us no choice other than having to start an action against them to gain physical possession of the property.

The unlawful detainer action (eviction trial) is something that normally takes roughly a month to complete, but they stretched it out to almost 6 months by filing two bankruptcies.  The first one was dismissed due to their failure to file the proper paper work and the second was probably dismissed as well.  At the unlawful detainer trial, the judge thoroughly reviewed all of the facts of the case and ruled in favor of Conejo Capital Partners LLC and ordered the Earl’s to vacate the property.  We were also awarded a monetary judgment in the amount of just over $27,000 (fair market rental value for the time they illegally occupied the property).  The Earls appealed the decision but their appeal was dismissed by the court because they failed to pay the court its required appellate costs.    The Earls’ attorney sent us threatening correspondence and amazingly described his plan to a federal court judge in San Francisco that he planned to undertake “self help” to retake possession of the Mustang property illegally.  The federal judge denied their motion for an injunction and ruled that the "Plaintiffs have offered no authority in support of this extraordinary concept (of “self help" seizure of the Mustang property).

On July 2, 2010 the Ventura County Sheriff and an agent of ours went to the property to complete the court-ordered eviction.  There, they found that the Earls had departed but  (based upon their attorney’s advice), the Earls left all of the personal belongings, in the Mustang house including all of their furniture, cars and the family dog.  This extraordinary tactic caused us another 2 week delay because we were forced to follow the legal guidelines in dealing with the situation.  The Earls contacted us at the very last minute before we would have had legal right to dispose of the property and we allowed them to retrieve it at no additional cost to them.

Once we had gained possession of the Mustang Property, we spent a considerable amount of money remodeling it.  When the remodeling was complete, we put it on the market for sale.  We secured a buyer and were scheduled to close escrow on Monday October 11th.  On Saturday October 9th the Earls and their attorney followed thru with their previous threats and took the law into their own hands.  They hired a locksmith to break into the Mustang home.  They had arranged to have t.v. news cameras filming their actions, and then proceeded to hold a press conference stating that they were within their rights and that we (Conejo Capital Partners) had somehow violated the law.  All along the Simi Valley Police Department sat idle and refused to get involved no matter how much proof was offered supporting our legal rights and position.  We were told that we needed to resolve it in front of a judge even though it had already been decided.   In the days immediately following, the same attorney has done this again in Escondido and Newport Beach (the latter time both the attorney and his clients were arrested).  It is amazing that this can happen in a nation founded on and based upon law.  It is truly sad that all across America so many people claim to be the “victim” rather than taking personal responsibility for their actions.

It needs to be noted that Conejo Capital Partners LLC did not take the home from the Earls, their bank did.  We simply purchased the home from the bank in a legal manner and then had to deal with the situation that had been created.  Conejo Capital Parnters LLC is not a large Wall Street bank, we represent a group of regular people who are hard working citizens that pay their bills and abide by the law.   We have approached the Earls on many occasions in an attempt to see if we could find an amicable resolution but in each case have been denied.   We offered to waive our monetary judgment in simple exchange for confidence that we wouldn’t find ourselves wrapped up in litigation that ultimately results in everyone losing.   Although the former homeowner had roughly $1,000,000 in debt against the home, both they and their attorney have said in recent interviews that they feel like they don’t owe anything and in fact are owed damages as well.

The Earls’ attorney announced proudly that he “chose” the Earls because he needed to protect the new buyers from being defrauded by us.  It is extremely unfortunate that he is putting others in jeopardy as a way to create notoriety for himself.   The facts about Mr. Pines life are well documented and we urge you to do your homework on him and decide about his motives for yourself.

The most innocent of all victims in this situation are the new buyers who had signed a contract to purchase the Mustang property.  They are a family of 4 who are adopting their first child this month.  They had already funded their loan, spent money on appraisals, given notice at their current residence and were scheduled to take possession of 5893 Mustang Drive on Tuesday the 12th.  They have now cancelled the transaction and are scrambling to find a place to live as they will be homeless at the end of the month.  They are scared.

This is a terribly unfortunate situation to be involved in, one that we wouldn’t wish for anyone to experience.  We especially feel for the children who are being subjected to this, and the new buyers who will be temporarily homeless as a result of these events.   In all likelihood, there is no way for us to recover the damages we have suffered, this is no longer about winning; it is about what is right.  We didn’t ask for a fight; it was brought to us.  Now with no other options, we feel compelled to do everything in our power without regard to cost or time to protect ourselves  and insure this does not happen to others.

Conejo Capital Partners LLC

h/t Robert

Do you like a good crime novel – a corporate crime novel? If so The Monster: How a gang of predatory lenders and Wall Street bankers fleeced America – and spawned a global crisis by Michael W. Hudson is for you. Unfortunately it’s not a fictional novel but the history of the mortgage crisis that may yet bring down the US and world economy.

This book is not directly about the foreclosure crisis but about the seeds of that crisis – deceptive and fraudulent mortgages that left desperate people worse off than before and without a chance of meeting the obligations of the contracts they had signed.

The seeds were initially planted over 30 years ago in the form of deregulation of the financial industry. The seeds sprouted in the late 80s and blossomed into the S&L crisis. Little if anything was learned and the deregulation continued – still more seeds were planted. By the early and mid 90’s the players that had escaped the S&L crisis and even some who didn’t were back at it writing predatory sub prime loans. The deception and outright fraud was becoming even more prevalent easily circumventing the few new consumer protections. At about the same time mortgage backed securities were a hot commodity. The Wall Street investment banks had stayed clear but a familiar name in the most recent crisis, Lehman Brothers, saw an opportunity it couldn’t pass up. As the money to be made in subprime mortgages increased so did the deception and fraud as well as involvement by more and more Wall Street banks.

Like any good crime novel this story has a cast of villains and victims. Of course this is not a novel so the people are real. One of the main characters is Roland Arnall who grew a small Orange County S&L into the mortgage giant Ameriquest. The way it grew was to place sales and profit above all else. There was nothing an Ameriquest salesman would not do to close a loan.

At the downtown L.A. branch, some of Glover’s coworkers had a flair for creative documentation. They used scissors, tape, Wite-Out and a photocopier to fabricate W-2s, the tax forms that indicate how much a wage earner makes each year. It was easy: Paste the name of a low-earning borrower onto a W-2 belonging to a higher-earning borrower and, like magic, a bad loan prospect suddenly looked much better. Workers in the branch equipped the office’s break room with all the tools they needed to manufacture and manipulate official documents. They dubbed it the “Art Department.”

…………

What if a customer insisted he wanted a fixed-rate loan, but you could make more money by selling him an adjustable-rate one? No problem. Many Ameriquest salespeople learned to position a few fixed-rate loan documents at the top of the stack of paperwork to be signed by the borrower. They buried the real documents—the ones indicating the loan had an adjustable rate that would rocket upward in two or three years—near the bottom of the pile. Then, after the borrower had flipped from signature line to signature line, scribbling his consent across the entire stack, and gone home, it was easy enough to peel the fixed-rate documents off the top and throw them in the trash.

There was lots of money to be made so neither the investment banks that were packaging the loans or the investors buying them questioned the loans themselves. But the continued growth depended on a continued influx of new loans and rising home values – it was in effect a Ponzi scheme. When the housing bubble deflated in 2007 the Ponzi scheme collapsed.

I recommend The Monster: You can pretend it is fiction and have an enjoyable read or you can learn about how greed driven fraud and deception resulted in the worst economic crisis since the great depression. While Wall Street and the bankers are still quick to blame those who don’t make their mortgage payments you will who the real victims are.

Note:

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

Cross posted at Newshoggers

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

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Photo: mandaloo, Flickr No one is going to claim they eat Halloween candy because it's good for them. But the Daily Beast ran the numbers on.

apartment property management companies

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

Fantasy Football <b>News</b> Roundup, Week 8: Does Jon Kitna Have Value <b>...</b>

Checking in on the fantasy news of the day for Week 8.

Halloween Candy: The Not-So-Sweet <b>News</b> - Slashfood

Photo: mandaloo, Flickr No one is going to claim they eat Halloween candy because it's good for them. But the Daily Beast ran the numbers on.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CONEJO CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC REGARDING THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 5893 MUSTANG DRIVE, SIMI VALLEY CA:

October 15, 2010

Given the extraordinary and illegal events orchestrated by the former homeowners and their attorney, we now feel compelled to share the facts regarding 5893 Mustang Drive.

On January 28, 2010 the property was sold thru a public auction at the trustee sale held at the Ventura County Court House.  Each month this same process occurs thousands of times across the nation as a method for banks to take back or dispose of the property that is not being paid for.  Conejo Capital was the “successful” bidder.   Shortly thereafter the former bank issued the title and it was legally recorded with Conejo Capital Partners LLC as the new owner of the property.   At the time all we knew about the property was that the former homeowners purchased it in 2001 for $539,000, and that they later refinanced it, pulling equity out, resulting in debt of roughly $1,000,000.  No “lis pendens” had been recorded indicating any disagreement or legal action pending regarding the property.  Had they done so before the auction, we would not have purchased this property.

After purchasing the property we found it to be occupied by the former home owners, Jim & Danielle Earl.  We were able to make contact with them and tried to understand their situation.  They expressed their opinion that they had been unlawfully foreclosed on by the bank.  Yet to our knowledge, the Earls had not initiated a lawsuit against any bank at that time, and as far as we know even today there is no pending lawsuit against any bank.  Any grievance they had would have been with their bank, not Conejo Capital Partners.  We tried to amicably discuss terms of a possible agreement which would have helped them make a comfortable transition but they were unwilling.  They gave us no choice other than having to start an action against them to gain physical possession of the property.

The unlawful detainer action (eviction trial) is something that normally takes roughly a month to complete, but they stretched it out to almost 6 months by filing two bankruptcies.  The first one was dismissed due to their failure to file the proper paper work and the second was probably dismissed as well.  At the unlawful detainer trial, the judge thoroughly reviewed all of the facts of the case and ruled in favor of Conejo Capital Partners LLC and ordered the Earl’s to vacate the property.  We were also awarded a monetary judgment in the amount of just over $27,000 (fair market rental value for the time they illegally occupied the property).  The Earls appealed the decision but their appeal was dismissed by the court because they failed to pay the court its required appellate costs.    The Earls’ attorney sent us threatening correspondence and amazingly described his plan to a federal court judge in San Francisco that he planned to undertake “self help” to retake possession of the Mustang property illegally.  The federal judge denied their motion for an injunction and ruled that the "Plaintiffs have offered no authority in support of this extraordinary concept (of “self help" seizure of the Mustang property).

On July 2, 2010 the Ventura County Sheriff and an agent of ours went to the property to complete the court-ordered eviction.  There, they found that the Earls had departed but  (based upon their attorney’s advice), the Earls left all of the personal belongings, in the Mustang house including all of their furniture, cars and the family dog.  This extraordinary tactic caused us another 2 week delay because we were forced to follow the legal guidelines in dealing with the situation.  The Earls contacted us at the very last minute before we would have had legal right to dispose of the property and we allowed them to retrieve it at no additional cost to them.

Once we had gained possession of the Mustang Property, we spent a considerable amount of money remodeling it.  When the remodeling was complete, we put it on the market for sale.  We secured a buyer and were scheduled to close escrow on Monday October 11th.  On Saturday October 9th the Earls and their attorney followed thru with their previous threats and took the law into their own hands.  They hired a locksmith to break into the Mustang home.  They had arranged to have t.v. news cameras filming their actions, and then proceeded to hold a press conference stating that they were within their rights and that we (Conejo Capital Partners) had somehow violated the law.  All along the Simi Valley Police Department sat idle and refused to get involved no matter how much proof was offered supporting our legal rights and position.  We were told that we needed to resolve it in front of a judge even though it had already been decided.   In the days immediately following, the same attorney has done this again in Escondido and Newport Beach (the latter time both the attorney and his clients were arrested).  It is amazing that this can happen in a nation founded on and based upon law.  It is truly sad that all across America so many people claim to be the “victim” rather than taking personal responsibility for their actions.

It needs to be noted that Conejo Capital Partners LLC did not take the home from the Earls, their bank did.  We simply purchased the home from the bank in a legal manner and then had to deal with the situation that had been created.  Conejo Capital Parnters LLC is not a large Wall Street bank, we represent a group of regular people who are hard working citizens that pay their bills and abide by the law.   We have approached the Earls on many occasions in an attempt to see if we could find an amicable resolution but in each case have been denied.   We offered to waive our monetary judgment in simple exchange for confidence that we wouldn’t find ourselves wrapped up in litigation that ultimately results in everyone losing.   Although the former homeowner had roughly $1,000,000 in debt against the home, both they and their attorney have said in recent interviews that they feel like they don’t owe anything and in fact are owed damages as well.

The Earls’ attorney announced proudly that he “chose” the Earls because he needed to protect the new buyers from being defrauded by us.  It is extremely unfortunate that he is putting others in jeopardy as a way to create notoriety for himself.   The facts about Mr. Pines life are well documented and we urge you to do your homework on him and decide about his motives for yourself.

The most innocent of all victims in this situation are the new buyers who had signed a contract to purchase the Mustang property.  They are a family of 4 who are adopting their first child this month.  They had already funded their loan, spent money on appraisals, given notice at their current residence and were scheduled to take possession of 5893 Mustang Drive on Tuesday the 12th.  They have now cancelled the transaction and are scrambling to find a place to live as they will be homeless at the end of the month.  They are scared.

This is a terribly unfortunate situation to be involved in, one that we wouldn’t wish for anyone to experience.  We especially feel for the children who are being subjected to this, and the new buyers who will be temporarily homeless as a result of these events.   In all likelihood, there is no way for us to recover the damages we have suffered, this is no longer about winning; it is about what is right.  We didn’t ask for a fight; it was brought to us.  Now with no other options, we feel compelled to do everything in our power without regard to cost or time to protect ourselves  and insure this does not happen to others.

Conejo Capital Partners LLC

h/t Robert

Do you like a good crime novel – a corporate crime novel? If so The Monster: How a gang of predatory lenders and Wall Street bankers fleeced America – and spawned a global crisis by Michael W. Hudson is for you. Unfortunately it’s not a fictional novel but the history of the mortgage crisis that may yet bring down the US and world economy.

This book is not directly about the foreclosure crisis but about the seeds of that crisis – deceptive and fraudulent mortgages that left desperate people worse off than before and without a chance of meeting the obligations of the contracts they had signed.

The seeds were initially planted over 30 years ago in the form of deregulation of the financial industry. The seeds sprouted in the late 80s and blossomed into the S&L crisis. Little if anything was learned and the deregulation continued – still more seeds were planted. By the early and mid 90’s the players that had escaped the S&L crisis and even some who didn’t were back at it writing predatory sub prime loans. The deception and outright fraud was becoming even more prevalent easily circumventing the few new consumer protections. At about the same time mortgage backed securities were a hot commodity. The Wall Street investment banks had stayed clear but a familiar name in the most recent crisis, Lehman Brothers, saw an opportunity it couldn’t pass up. As the money to be made in subprime mortgages increased so did the deception and fraud as well as involvement by more and more Wall Street banks.

Like any good crime novel this story has a cast of villains and victims. Of course this is not a novel so the people are real. One of the main characters is Roland Arnall who grew a small Orange County S&L into the mortgage giant Ameriquest. The way it grew was to place sales and profit above all else. There was nothing an Ameriquest salesman would not do to close a loan.

At the downtown L.A. branch, some of Glover’s coworkers had a flair for creative documentation. They used scissors, tape, Wite-Out and a photocopier to fabricate W-2s, the tax forms that indicate how much a wage earner makes each year. It was easy: Paste the name of a low-earning borrower onto a W-2 belonging to a higher-earning borrower and, like magic, a bad loan prospect suddenly looked much better. Workers in the branch equipped the office’s break room with all the tools they needed to manufacture and manipulate official documents. They dubbed it the “Art Department.”

…………

What if a customer insisted he wanted a fixed-rate loan, but you could make more money by selling him an adjustable-rate one? No problem. Many Ameriquest salespeople learned to position a few fixed-rate loan documents at the top of the stack of paperwork to be signed by the borrower. They buried the real documents—the ones indicating the loan had an adjustable rate that would rocket upward in two or three years—near the bottom of the pile. Then, after the borrower had flipped from signature line to signature line, scribbling his consent across the entire stack, and gone home, it was easy enough to peel the fixed-rate documents off the top and throw them in the trash.

There was lots of money to be made so neither the investment banks that were packaging the loans or the investors buying them questioned the loans themselves. But the continued growth depended on a continued influx of new loans and rising home values – it was in effect a Ponzi scheme. When the housing bubble deflated in 2007 the Ponzi scheme collapsed.

I recommend The Monster: You can pretend it is fiction and have an enjoyable read or you can learn about how greed driven fraud and deception resulted in the worst economic crisis since the great depression. While Wall Street and the bankers are still quick to blame those who don’t make their mortgage payments you will who the real victims are.

Note:

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

Cross posted at Newshoggers

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

Fantasy Football <b>News</b> Roundup, Week 8: Does Jon Kitna Have Value <b>...</b>

Checking in on the fantasy news of the day for Week 8.

Halloween Candy: The Not-So-Sweet <b>News</b> - Slashfood

Photo: mandaloo, Flickr No one is going to claim they eat Halloween candy because it's good for them. But the Daily Beast ran the numbers on.

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

Fantasy Football <b>News</b> Roundup, Week 8: Does Jon Kitna Have Value <b>...</b>

Checking in on the fantasy news of the day for Week 8.

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Photo: mandaloo, Flickr No one is going to claim they eat Halloween candy because it's good for them. But the Daily Beast ran the numbers on.

Moms Making Money

Maci, Farrah, Amber, and Catelynn have morphed from cautionary examples to celebrity magazine staples, but MTV isn’t extending them the red carpet. Joyce C. Tang on the balancing act between morality tale and entertainment juggernaut.

Will Maci and Kyle reunite? Will Amber overcome her anger issues? These were the questions viewers were left with after last week’s season finale of MTV’s Teen Mom. Although Tuesday night’s reunion show may provide some answers, the celebrity magazines have already been beating the network to it.

As the curtains close on the show’s second season, its “stars” find themselves at an awkward moment, straddling the line between the harsh reality of teen parenting and the potential to cash in on the celebrity of reality television. Teen Mom’s season finale hauled in 5.6 million viewers, making it this summer’s second most popular show on the network. And the teen mothers’ ups and downs have lately become fodder for celebrity weeklies, from People to Us Weekly to OK! Magazine.

After seeing the strong ratings for the show, Us Weekly was the first to put the girls on a cover. “It was the right combination of a large enough audience that was passionate that could drive a sale for us,” said Lara Cohen, news director at the magazine. And the decision paid off, she said: Us Weekly had one of its biggest sales of the summer with that issue.

For MTV and entertainment magazines, cashing in on the show’s success is business as usual. But for the teen moms, their success and popularity, not to mention their show’s integrity, rely on a narrative that highlights their struggles and hardships, and the notion of suffering the consequences of one’s poor decisions.

“Teen pregnancy is not easy,” said show producer Morgan J. Freeman, and it’s clear the onus is on Teen Mom to underscore that fact. The girls “have an enormous amount of responsibility. The focus is on that.”

Since the series’ origins in 16 and Pregnant, it has hewed to a story line familiar to high school classrooms across the country. And as the girls have graduated to become teen moms, one fights to get a GED, another juggles school and a full-time job, and a few battle for custody rights and child support. Viewers, and the media, would be reluctant to embrace a show that compromised that narrative.

“It certainly would change the dynamic of the show if they had money to spend on nicer houses and nannies,” said Cohen of Us Weekly. “It would ruin what’s really interesting about the show. The whole reason that we wanted to cover them to begin with was that their struggle was compelling and very real.”

If anything, the show’s message combined with MTV’s packaging mean that Teen Mom works as a very clever and glorified public service announcement, for which the network has received considerable praise. Petite Maci laments losing her virginity to ex-fiancé Ryan, whom she broke up with after it was clear he was too immature and selfish to be a responsible and caring father. Dark-haired Farrah flip-flops between relying on an abusive mother for economic and emotional support and flailing for independence. In the season’s first episode, Farrah and her mother are trying to find a way forward after Farrah’s mother struck her. Then there’s Amber, who was captured on camera punching her daughter’s father and trying to push him down the stairs. MTV quickly turned the incident into a domestic-violence teaching moment. When Us Weekly featured all four girls in an issue, the piece was packaged under the headline “What We’ve Learned.”

So, why did this particular ad hit a nerve with the online audience, and what was Target really going for?



I think that the internet DIY set reacted to making fun of a costume that fits their ethos perfectly. Last halloween, for example, one DIY dad became a YouTube hit when he posted an awesome homemade Iron Man costume he made for his kid. Is Target's message really that the kid would have been better off wearing a storebought version? If so, citizens of the internet (and makers in particular) are right to be a little ticked off.



As for the non-DIYers, I think that what made them upset was the way Target tried to manipulate kids by playing the dual role of the bully who makes fun of your costume and the cool parent who just wants to help you fit in, unlike your weird, lame, Iron-Man-suit-building mom.



That doesn't work, though, because the parents who will be paying for the costumes are the ones who teach their kids that bullying and peer pressure are wrong, and that creativity is good. The bigger, more popular kid who mocks your costume is the bad guy in every cartoon and after-school special. Why would any kid root for him? And why would parents root against their own nostalgia for (sometimes embarrassing) homemade Halloween outfits? (And if this ad was made to be seen by kids, it sure was shot poorly.)



That leads me to a distasteful theory about who Target was, well, targeting with this commercial. It's not aimed at internet geeks with the time, money and technical skills to make amazing Iron Man costumes for their kids. They aren't going to go to Target for a costume anyway. It's aimed at parents who don't have that time, money or expertise, and who don't want their kids to be singled out as weird or poor. Did Target pick a black family for the ad because they think African-American parents fit that profile? That would be the grossest type of marketing, but I think it's possible.



It doesn't matter if you can't make (or afford to make) your kid a costume, though: the ad still fails because the homemade costume it shows is cool. That mom did a great job with it, and clearly put in some time and effort, so there's nothing for her kid to be embarrassed about. If Target wanted to invoke shame and peer-pressure to make parents feel self-conscious about their income or costume-making skills, they should have at least shown a costume that was actually bad.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/27 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! There's some interesting Kansas City Chiefs news today. A great piece from Cory Greenwood's hometown newspaper, and more on Chambers' playing time start us off. Enjoy.

Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets &#39;Black Guy With A Hispanic Name&#39; Host <b>...</b>

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bench craft company complaints
bench craft company complaints

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/27 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! There's some interesting Kansas City Chiefs news today. A great piece from Cory Greenwood's hometown newspaper, and more on Chambers' playing time start us off. Enjoy.

Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets &#39;Black Guy With A Hispanic Name&#39; Host <b>...</b>

Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Maci, Farrah, Amber, and Catelynn have morphed from cautionary examples to celebrity magazine staples, but MTV isn’t extending them the red carpet. Joyce C. Tang on the balancing act between morality tale and entertainment juggernaut.

Will Maci and Kyle reunite? Will Amber overcome her anger issues? These were the questions viewers were left with after last week’s season finale of MTV’s Teen Mom. Although Tuesday night’s reunion show may provide some answers, the celebrity magazines have already been beating the network to it.

As the curtains close on the show’s second season, its “stars” find themselves at an awkward moment, straddling the line between the harsh reality of teen parenting and the potential to cash in on the celebrity of reality television. Teen Mom’s season finale hauled in 5.6 million viewers, making it this summer’s second most popular show on the network. And the teen mothers’ ups and downs have lately become fodder for celebrity weeklies, from People to Us Weekly to OK! Magazine.

After seeing the strong ratings for the show, Us Weekly was the first to put the girls on a cover. “It was the right combination of a large enough audience that was passionate that could drive a sale for us,” said Lara Cohen, news director at the magazine. And the decision paid off, she said: Us Weekly had one of its biggest sales of the summer with that issue.

For MTV and entertainment magazines, cashing in on the show’s success is business as usual. But for the teen moms, their success and popularity, not to mention their show’s integrity, rely on a narrative that highlights their struggles and hardships, and the notion of suffering the consequences of one’s poor decisions.

“Teen pregnancy is not easy,” said show producer Morgan J. Freeman, and it’s clear the onus is on Teen Mom to underscore that fact. The girls “have an enormous amount of responsibility. The focus is on that.”

Since the series’ origins in 16 and Pregnant, it has hewed to a story line familiar to high school classrooms across the country. And as the girls have graduated to become teen moms, one fights to get a GED, another juggles school and a full-time job, and a few battle for custody rights and child support. Viewers, and the media, would be reluctant to embrace a show that compromised that narrative.

“It certainly would change the dynamic of the show if they had money to spend on nicer houses and nannies,” said Cohen of Us Weekly. “It would ruin what’s really interesting about the show. The whole reason that we wanted to cover them to begin with was that their struggle was compelling and very real.”

If anything, the show’s message combined with MTV’s packaging mean that Teen Mom works as a very clever and glorified public service announcement, for which the network has received considerable praise. Petite Maci laments losing her virginity to ex-fiancé Ryan, whom she broke up with after it was clear he was too immature and selfish to be a responsible and caring father. Dark-haired Farrah flip-flops between relying on an abusive mother for economic and emotional support and flailing for independence. In the season’s first episode, Farrah and her mother are trying to find a way forward after Farrah’s mother struck her. Then there’s Amber, who was captured on camera punching her daughter’s father and trying to push him down the stairs. MTV quickly turned the incident into a domestic-violence teaching moment. When Us Weekly featured all four girls in an issue, the piece was packaged under the headline “What We’ve Learned.”

So, why did this particular ad hit a nerve with the online audience, and what was Target really going for?



I think that the internet DIY set reacted to making fun of a costume that fits their ethos perfectly. Last halloween, for example, one DIY dad became a YouTube hit when he posted an awesome homemade Iron Man costume he made for his kid. Is Target's message really that the kid would have been better off wearing a storebought version? If so, citizens of the internet (and makers in particular) are right to be a little ticked off.



As for the non-DIYers, I think that what made them upset was the way Target tried to manipulate kids by playing the dual role of the bully who makes fun of your costume and the cool parent who just wants to help you fit in, unlike your weird, lame, Iron-Man-suit-building mom.



That doesn't work, though, because the parents who will be paying for the costumes are the ones who teach their kids that bullying and peer pressure are wrong, and that creativity is good. The bigger, more popular kid who mocks your costume is the bad guy in every cartoon and after-school special. Why would any kid root for him? And why would parents root against their own nostalgia for (sometimes embarrassing) homemade Halloween outfits? (And if this ad was made to be seen by kids, it sure was shot poorly.)



That leads me to a distasteful theory about who Target was, well, targeting with this commercial. It's not aimed at internet geeks with the time, money and technical skills to make amazing Iron Man costumes for their kids. They aren't going to go to Target for a costume anyway. It's aimed at parents who don't have that time, money or expertise, and who don't want their kids to be singled out as weird or poor. Did Target pick a black family for the ad because they think African-American parents fit that profile? That would be the grossest type of marketing, but I think it's possible.



It doesn't matter if you can't make (or afford to make) your kid a costume, though: the ad still fails because the homemade costume it shows is cool. That mom did a great job with it, and clearly put in some time and effort, so there's nothing for her kid to be embarrassed about. If Target wanted to invoke shame and peer-pressure to make parents feel self-conscious about their income or costume-making skills, they should have at least shown a costume that was actually bad.


bench craft company complaints

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/27 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! There's some interesting Kansas City Chiefs news today. A great piece from Cory Greenwood's hometown newspaper, and more on Chambers' playing time start us off. Enjoy.

Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets &#39;Black Guy With A Hispanic Name&#39; Host <b>...</b>

Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/27 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! There's some interesting Kansas City Chiefs news today. A great piece from Cory Greenwood's hometown newspaper, and more on Chambers' playing time start us off. Enjoy.

Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets &#39;Black Guy With A Hispanic Name&#39; Host <b>...</b>

Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/27 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! There's some interesting Kansas City Chiefs news today. A great piece from Cory Greenwood's hometown newspaper, and more on Chambers' playing time start us off. Enjoy.

Juan Williams: Fox <b>News</b> Lets &#39;Black Guy With A Hispanic Name&#39; Host <b>...</b>

Juan Williams said Tuesday that he's still upset about his firing from NPR, and added that NPR does not understand the Fox News culture or audience. In an interview with Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik, Williams said he remains ...

Fox <b>News</b> Crew Gets Scolded At Democratic Meeting (VIDEO)

A Fox News camera crew showed up unannounced at a Democratic meeting in Wisconsin Monday, prompting a confrontation that eventually forced the show's producer into a rather startling admission: he understands why Democrats are wary of ...

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

People Making Money Online

“The long-simmering feud between Democrats and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has erupted into a full-scale war…

“‘Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations,’ Obama said at a Thursday rally for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. ‘So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections, and they won’t tell you where the money for their ads comes from.’

“R. Bruce Josten, the chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, said in an interview Friday that the group ‘has never and will never’ use dues collected from overseas business councils, known as ‘AmChams,’ for U.S. political activities. He said the chamber is the victim of ‘a smear campaign’ orchestrated with the involvement of the White House.

“‘This is an outlandish act of desperation from people who are not able to run on their record,’ Josten said. ‘They have stooped to smear campaigns.’”

***

“But a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents…

“Organizations from both ends of the political spectrum, from liberal ones like the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Sierra Club to conservative groups like the National Rifle Association, have international affiliations and get money from foreign entities while at the same time pushing political causes in the United States.

“In addition, more than 160 political action committees active in campaigning have been set up by corporations that are based overseas, including military contractors like B.A.E. Systems and pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research service…

“Richard L. Hasen, an election-law specialist at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said there were legitimate questions about whether foreign money could be making its way into campaigns, particularly because many groups are not required to disclose their donors. But he added, ‘I’ve seen no proof of the chamber funneling a penny of foreign money into U.S. elections.’”

***

“Obama’s ‘foreign money’ claims are bogus. They’re also pretty rich, considering how his 2008 campaign handled foreign credit cards. From that National Journal story: ‘The lack of a computerized address-verification system would allow the Obama campaign’s computers to accept online donations from U.S. citizens above legal limits, and to accept donations from foreigners who are barred by law from contributing at all.’ Perhaps its time to remind people of that issue again. Oh, wait, I just did!”

***

We see you out there — the future musicians of the world, pouring coffee, mixing drinks, designing websites for shifty moving companies, all the while dreaming of making it big: signing to a label, cutting a record, reaping the benefits that only a throng of gaping groupies can herald.

While not all of you will make the proverbial “Big Time” — we can’t all be Lady Gaga, nor should we strive to be — that doesn’t mean that you can’t reap some monetary benefits for your musical labor.

Jeff Price, founder of TuneCore, recently wrote on the company blog: “More musicians are making money off their music now at any point in history… Technology has made it possible for any artist to get distribution, to get discovered, to pursue his/her dreams with no company or person out there making the editorial decision that they are not allowed ‘in.’”

We would tend to agree (with the caveat that such openness has also led to a more crowded music scene, with more bands fighting for the public’s attention — but that’s a post for another day).

If you want to start seeing some payback for all your hard work, you don’t have to wait around for a label exec to catch your jazz flute set at the local coffee shop and catapult you to stardom. There are a ton of services out there that can help you make some cash, while also gaining exposure and experience.

class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable spoke with folks from a quartet of such services in order to help you, the artist, devote more time to your lute than those lattes.

Note that none of the below are get-rich-quick schemes, so it might be wise to hang onto your day job — even if it is designing graphic tees for tiny dogs.

Go Into Show Business

Service: Jingle Punks

We know, we know, the moment a song makes it into the commercial, it’s an immediate sign that a band has “sold out.” But, c’mon, guys — do you really want your favorite drummer/banjo player/keytarist working in a taco trunk in order to survive? Yeah, thin may be in when it comes to the indie scene, but musicians need to eat, after all.

That’s why services like Jingle Punks can really be a boon to bands. Jingle Punks — which is basically the Pandoraclass="blippr-nobr">Pandora of music licensing services — focuses on providing filmmakers, TV networks, media companies and ad companies with music from up-and-coming bands. Band and Punks split the earnings 50/50.

“We work in a very smart but unsexy part of the music business,” says co-founder Jared Gutstadt. “Most artists tend to spend their time focusing on the old standards of how to ‘make it.’ They’re still thinking about record deals, pub deals, merch, touring. To really stand out and compete with this type of competition you need to be thinking about launching a music career in a much more unique way.”

Why Use This Service?

According to Gutstadt, “Music in film and television is a great way for artists to get the word out there. More importantly, you can generate money to help fund the growth of a band’s musical endeavors.”

In addition, the service makes use of the democratic nature of the web to get your music into the right hands. “In the past, the way people used to pitch music for media placements is that they would mail CDs off to as many music supes or producers they could,” Gutstadt says. “We have removed the giant pile of CDs on peoples’ desks and aggregated them into a user-friendly database organized in a dynamic way.”

What’s the ROI?

According to Gutstadt, money made runs the gamut. “It can be anywhere from $250 for a web placement all the way up to $30,000 for getting music in a commercial or motion picture,” he says. “, you make money over time through royalties paid out by BMI and ASCAP, who are able to track usage. I always tell artists its not a get-rich-quick scheme as much as it is a way to make some money over time off your hard work.”  

So Who has Succeeded?

“We work with an artist named Mike Del Rio (see above) and his music was used in a rebranding effort by the History Channel.  The channel has really embraced Mike and Jingle Punks and has a couple things in the pipeline that could do great things to really help launch Mike Del Rio’s career on a more mainstream level.  

“We also work with a really great band called I Love Monsters, and their music was placed in the season premiere of Entourage. This type of exposure can be great for an up-and-coming band.”

Collaborate

Service: Indaba Music

We’ve seen instances of bands forming partnerships through Twitter and the like, but wouldn’t it be easier for y’all to have everything in one place?

I mean, it’s enough of a hassle to get all your gear into a single taxi (can’t afford two) before a gig, why add 50 social media tools into the mix? That’s where services like Indaba Music — which is like the class='blippr-nobr'>LinkedInclass="blippr-nobr">LinkedIn of music — come in.

Indaba is a platform — boasting more than 500,000 musicians — that provides musically inclined folks with a place to build a profile, promote their tunes and collaborate with other musicians from around the world.

Why Use This Service?

According to co-founder Dan Zaccagnino, “There are many ways for musicians to make money using Indaba Music. The core of the platform is about collaboration, which can be just for fun, but can also generate income for musicians through work-for-hire sessions (where a musician is paid for his/her tracks) or collaborations where songwriters share in the ownership of the song.”

In addition, Indaba features a ton of contests that “give both amateur and professional musicians a chance to collaborate with world-famous artists and in the process win cash or possibly participate in future royalties if the winners’ material is released,” Zaccagnino says.

What’s the ROI?

“There are incredible opportunities to gain experience on Indaba because the community is full of everyone from amateurs eager to learn, to music educators, to Grammy Award winners,” Zaccagnino says.

“Members learn from one another through contacting and communicating with people online, having music peer reviewed in sessions and contests, learning from master-artists through our Artist-in-Residence programs, taking online video lessons, and much more.

“Education is a big priority for us and it’s been amazing to see that organically happen because musicians are interested in helping one another.”

So Who has Succeeded?

Zaccagnino cites the following examples:

Linkin Park + NoBrain (see above)

Indaba member NoBrain’s mix was included on Linkin Park’s album A Thousand Suns and got the opportunity to collaborate directly with Linkin Park front man, Mike Shinoda, through Indaba Music.

Rivers Cuomo Producer Sessions

Rivers Cuomo of Weezer started a few sessions on IndabaMusic.com and began working with members to produce rough demos that he had written with his wife.  Rivers used Indaba’s session platform to work collaboratively, utilizing the commenting system to engage musicians and achieve exactly what he envisioned.  The producers were also paid for their work.

David Minnick/PBS The Music Instinct

PBS ran a contest to source music for an upcoming show about music and the brain. It found the winner, David Minnick, to be so talented that it hired him to arrange music for another show.

Toshi Osawa and Pikes Peak Ringers – Yo-Yo Ma Collaboration Winners

Yo-Yo Ma was so impressed by the quality of musical collaborations that he picked two winners, an 18-piece hand bell choir from Denver and a speed-Metal guitarist from Canada. Yo-Yo invited them into the studio to record with him in a truly unique collaboration — both tracks were later released as bonus tracks to Yo-Yo Ma’s holiday album, Songs of Joy & Peace.

Partner Up

Service: YouTube’s Musicians Wanted Program

At last year’s SXSW, YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube launched a partner program for up-and-coming musicians, and, just recently, the program went from U.S.-only to international.

If you have a YouTube channel, and you’re pumping out the music vids like an A-V nerd on a sugar high, you should apply for this program post haste. Basically, it allows you to make some extra cash by adding ads to your videos and garners you more exposure from YouTube with prime placement.

Why Use This Service?

It’s all about getting your name out there, and getting your music heard, right? So go where the people are. Every day, YouTube racks up more than 2 billion video views. That’s a lot of eyes. Still, every minute, the site sees 24 hours of video uploaded, which means your genius work could get lost in the shuffle. That’s why the partner program is a must — you get the YouTube stamp of approval, which brings more attention to your work.

What’s the ROI?

YouTube couldn’t tell us how much money you can earn from the program, but they did tell us that artists get the majority share of the revenue — not to mention access to those millions of viewers. You need to be consistent with your channel, though, and really focus on putting out lots of original content. So if you’re only down to make one vid, this might not be the option for you. In order to see ROI, you have to put in the time and effort.

So Who has Succeeded?

YouTube has helped launch the careers of score of performers — from Justin Bieber to Pomplamoose./> Kina Grannis is one such artist. “I joined YouTube three years ago when I was in a contest called Doritos Crash The Super Bowl,” Grannis told us. “I needed to get people to vote for me every day in order to get my music video played during the Super Bowl (which it did, woo!), so the hope was that by agreeing to post a new video every day, people, in exchange, would come back and vote daily. This run of putting up a video every day lasted about two months in total, and while it made me crazy and sleep deprived, it was also fun and exciting and very helpful in growing my viewers.

“Post with consistency if possible,” Grannis advises artists. “Be genuine, talk to your supporters, be grateful.”

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

Service: BitTorrent Featured Artist Program

OK, we know what you’re thinking — you hear the word “BitTorrent” and you’re about ready to rage, am I right? File sharing is the monster under the bed for many an artist. It connotes theft, basically. Still, the model — when used correctly — can really be a boon to lesser-known artists.

We spoke to Trent Reznor — who is well-known for having released his music via torrent sites in the past — who told us: “I felt furious when the record I’d worked on for a year, that my heart and soul’s gone into, . I’m pissed off at people that are listening to it. I’m mad that they’re snubbing me — by what? By being excited about hearing my music? And that’s wrong. I shouldn’t be mad at these people. I should be glad that people are interested.”

“Easy for you to say, Trent Reznor,” you might scoff, “You’re already famous.” Well — there’s the rub, right? You’re not famous. And you want to be. Or, at the very least, you want someone other than your roommate to come to your gig — and perhaps buy a T-shirt or two. And how do you do that? By getting the attention of the masses, of course.

Last month, BitTorrent launched a Featured Artist pilot program in an effort to give musicians more exposure. Some likened such an endeavor to getting in bed with the devil, but when you really think about it, what’s the difference between applying for the program and putting your music on class='blippr-nobr'>MySpaceclass="blippr-nobr">MySpace or SoundCloud or any other music-sharing site? Well, that would be BitTorrent’s 80 million users.

We’re not saying that file sharing is totally copacetic or anything (there are a lot of pirates in them waters), but it’s not like BitTorrent is out to ruin your career, either. “In many ways, Trent Reznor’s work inspired a lot of our work,” says CEO Eric Klinker. “We really do want to riff on a lot of what he’s done. He’s in an experimentation phase, as are we.”

Why Use This Service?

“The Featured Artists pilot program encourages musicians and filmmakers to submit creative works for the chance to be spotlighted to millions of BitTorrent users around the world,” Klinker says. “For a lot of artists it is about creating a sustainable business model that will allow them to continue their creative works. So, we are interested in working with artists to experiment with various business models that play to the strengths of the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet while allowing them to tune into the distribution potential of BitTorrent to reach millions of consumers.”

What’s the ROI?

“In today’s digital age, the traditional model does not serve artists in the same way it used to, and instead forces them all down the same funnel where only a select few ultimately receive distribution,” Klinker says. “With BitTorrent’s Featured Artist Pilot Program, artists can tap into online communities and reach millions of people who might otherwise be inaccessible. These communities are powerful and provide intrinsic value for emerging artists trying to build a fan base. In doing so, these are fans that will invariably attend shows, purchase merchandise and become invested in future works.”/>  /> So Who has Succeeded?

Since the service just launched last month, there aren’t any featured artists yet, but the site has seen some success with the musician PAZ (see above), who has been working with BitTorrent.

“Most recently, in August 2010, BitTorrent released PAZ’s debut mix tape, Young Broke and Fameless,” Klinker says. “On the first day alone the release saw over 100,000 downloads, and as a result has increased his fan base and following.”

More Social Music Resources from Mashable:

- Top 10 Twitter Tips for Bands, By Bands/> - 5 Great Ways to Find Music That Suits Your Mood/> - 5 Free Ways to Identify that Song Stuck in Your Head/> - HOW TO: Turn Your Android Phone Into a Killer MP3 Player/> - 10 Amazing Musical Instrument iPhone Apps

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, shulz

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class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Entertainmentclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Entertainment channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Oct. 26 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the yen yesterday, fueling speculation that major countries will continue ...

&quot;Xbox 2&quot; game WarDevil canned Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of. ... "Xbox 2" game WarDevil canned Related content. Latest WarDevil: Unleash the Beast Within screenshots; News WarDevil trailer set for Tokyo ; News Digi-Guys shows off gorgeous Xbox 2 war game ...

bench craft company complaints
bench craft company complaints

Poll Has More of the Same Bad <b>News</b> for Democrats, Worse <b>News</b> for Obama

Congressional Democrats hold their own reasonably well against their GOP counterparts when voters are asked who would better handle key issues. By contrast, they trust Republicans more than Obama on most of those issues.

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Oct. 26 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the yen yesterday, fueling speculation that major countries will continue ...

&quot;Xbox 2&quot; game WarDevil canned Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of. ... "Xbox 2" game WarDevil canned Related content. Latest WarDevil: Unleash the Beast Within screenshots; News WarDevil trailer set for Tokyo ; News Digi-Guys shows off gorgeous Xbox 2 war game ...

bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

“The long-simmering feud between Democrats and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has erupted into a full-scale war…

“‘Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations,’ Obama said at a Thursday rally for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. ‘So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections, and they won’t tell you where the money for their ads comes from.’

“R. Bruce Josten, the chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, said in an interview Friday that the group ‘has never and will never’ use dues collected from overseas business councils, known as ‘AmChams,’ for U.S. political activities. He said the chamber is the victim of ‘a smear campaign’ orchestrated with the involvement of the White House.

“‘This is an outlandish act of desperation from people who are not able to run on their record,’ Josten said. ‘They have stooped to smear campaigns.’”

***

“But a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents…

“Organizations from both ends of the political spectrum, from liberal ones like the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Sierra Club to conservative groups like the National Rifle Association, have international affiliations and get money from foreign entities while at the same time pushing political causes in the United States.

“In addition, more than 160 political action committees active in campaigning have been set up by corporations that are based overseas, including military contractors like B.A.E. Systems and pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research service…

“Richard L. Hasen, an election-law specialist at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said there were legitimate questions about whether foreign money could be making its way into campaigns, particularly because many groups are not required to disclose their donors. But he added, ‘I’ve seen no proof of the chamber funneling a penny of foreign money into U.S. elections.’”

***

“Obama’s ‘foreign money’ claims are bogus. They’re also pretty rich, considering how his 2008 campaign handled foreign credit cards. From that National Journal story: ‘The lack of a computerized address-verification system would allow the Obama campaign’s computers to accept online donations from U.S. citizens above legal limits, and to accept donations from foreigners who are barred by law from contributing at all.’ Perhaps its time to remind people of that issue again. Oh, wait, I just did!”

***

We see you out there — the future musicians of the world, pouring coffee, mixing drinks, designing websites for shifty moving companies, all the while dreaming of making it big: signing to a label, cutting a record, reaping the benefits that only a throng of gaping groupies can herald.

While not all of you will make the proverbial “Big Time” — we can’t all be Lady Gaga, nor should we strive to be — that doesn’t mean that you can’t reap some monetary benefits for your musical labor.

Jeff Price, founder of TuneCore, recently wrote on the company blog: “More musicians are making money off their music now at any point in history… Technology has made it possible for any artist to get distribution, to get discovered, to pursue his/her dreams with no company or person out there making the editorial decision that they are not allowed ‘in.’”

We would tend to agree (with the caveat that such openness has also led to a more crowded music scene, with more bands fighting for the public’s attention — but that’s a post for another day).

If you want to start seeing some payback for all your hard work, you don’t have to wait around for a label exec to catch your jazz flute set at the local coffee shop and catapult you to stardom. There are a ton of services out there that can help you make some cash, while also gaining exposure and experience.

class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable spoke with folks from a quartet of such services in order to help you, the artist, devote more time to your lute than those lattes.

Note that none of the below are get-rich-quick schemes, so it might be wise to hang onto your day job — even if it is designing graphic tees for tiny dogs.

Go Into Show Business

Service: Jingle Punks

We know, we know, the moment a song makes it into the commercial, it’s an immediate sign that a band has “sold out.” But, c’mon, guys — do you really want your favorite drummer/banjo player/keytarist working in a taco trunk in order to survive? Yeah, thin may be in when it comes to the indie scene, but musicians need to eat, after all.

That’s why services like Jingle Punks can really be a boon to bands. Jingle Punks — which is basically the Pandoraclass="blippr-nobr">Pandora of music licensing services — focuses on providing filmmakers, TV networks, media companies and ad companies with music from up-and-coming bands. Band and Punks split the earnings 50/50.

“We work in a very smart but unsexy part of the music business,” says co-founder Jared Gutstadt. “Most artists tend to spend their time focusing on the old standards of how to ‘make it.’ They’re still thinking about record deals, pub deals, merch, touring. To really stand out and compete with this type of competition you need to be thinking about launching a music career in a much more unique way.”

Why Use This Service?

According to Gutstadt, “Music in film and television is a great way for artists to get the word out there. More importantly, you can generate money to help fund the growth of a band’s musical endeavors.”

In addition, the service makes use of the democratic nature of the web to get your music into the right hands. “In the past, the way people used to pitch music for media placements is that they would mail CDs off to as many music supes or producers they could,” Gutstadt says. “We have removed the giant pile of CDs on peoples’ desks and aggregated them into a user-friendly database organized in a dynamic way.”

What’s the ROI?

According to Gutstadt, money made runs the gamut. “It can be anywhere from $250 for a web placement all the way up to $30,000 for getting music in a commercial or motion picture,” he says. “, you make money over time through royalties paid out by BMI and ASCAP, who are able to track usage. I always tell artists its not a get-rich-quick scheme as much as it is a way to make some money over time off your hard work.”  

So Who has Succeeded?

“We work with an artist named Mike Del Rio (see above) and his music was used in a rebranding effort by the History Channel.  The channel has really embraced Mike and Jingle Punks and has a couple things in the pipeline that could do great things to really help launch Mike Del Rio’s career on a more mainstream level.  

“We also work with a really great band called I Love Monsters, and their music was placed in the season premiere of Entourage. This type of exposure can be great for an up-and-coming band.”

Collaborate

Service: Indaba Music

We’ve seen instances of bands forming partnerships through Twitter and the like, but wouldn’t it be easier for y’all to have everything in one place?

I mean, it’s enough of a hassle to get all your gear into a single taxi (can’t afford two) before a gig, why add 50 social media tools into the mix? That’s where services like Indaba Music — which is like the class='blippr-nobr'>LinkedInclass="blippr-nobr">LinkedIn of music — come in.

Indaba is a platform — boasting more than 500,000 musicians — that provides musically inclined folks with a place to build a profile, promote their tunes and collaborate with other musicians from around the world.

Why Use This Service?

According to co-founder Dan Zaccagnino, “There are many ways for musicians to make money using Indaba Music. The core of the platform is about collaboration, which can be just for fun, but can also generate income for musicians through work-for-hire sessions (where a musician is paid for his/her tracks) or collaborations where songwriters share in the ownership of the song.”

In addition, Indaba features a ton of contests that “give both amateur and professional musicians a chance to collaborate with world-famous artists and in the process win cash or possibly participate in future royalties if the winners’ material is released,” Zaccagnino says.

What’s the ROI?

“There are incredible opportunities to gain experience on Indaba because the community is full of everyone from amateurs eager to learn, to music educators, to Grammy Award winners,” Zaccagnino says.

“Members learn from one another through contacting and communicating with people online, having music peer reviewed in sessions and contests, learning from master-artists through our Artist-in-Residence programs, taking online video lessons, and much more.

“Education is a big priority for us and it’s been amazing to see that organically happen because musicians are interested in helping one another.”

So Who has Succeeded?

Zaccagnino cites the following examples:

Linkin Park + NoBrain (see above)

Indaba member NoBrain’s mix was included on Linkin Park’s album A Thousand Suns and got the opportunity to collaborate directly with Linkin Park front man, Mike Shinoda, through Indaba Music.

Rivers Cuomo Producer Sessions

Rivers Cuomo of Weezer started a few sessions on IndabaMusic.com and began working with members to produce rough demos that he had written with his wife.  Rivers used Indaba’s session platform to work collaboratively, utilizing the commenting system to engage musicians and achieve exactly what he envisioned.  The producers were also paid for their work.

David Minnick/PBS The Music Instinct

PBS ran a contest to source music for an upcoming show about music and the brain. It found the winner, David Minnick, to be so talented that it hired him to arrange music for another show.

Toshi Osawa and Pikes Peak Ringers – Yo-Yo Ma Collaboration Winners

Yo-Yo Ma was so impressed by the quality of musical collaborations that he picked two winners, an 18-piece hand bell choir from Denver and a speed-Metal guitarist from Canada. Yo-Yo invited them into the studio to record with him in a truly unique collaboration — both tracks were later released as bonus tracks to Yo-Yo Ma’s holiday album, Songs of Joy & Peace.

Partner Up

Service: YouTube’s Musicians Wanted Program

At last year’s SXSW, YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube launched a partner program for up-and-coming musicians, and, just recently, the program went from U.S.-only to international.

If you have a YouTube channel, and you’re pumping out the music vids like an A-V nerd on a sugar high, you should apply for this program post haste. Basically, it allows you to make some extra cash by adding ads to your videos and garners you more exposure from YouTube with prime placement.

Why Use This Service?

It’s all about getting your name out there, and getting your music heard, right? So go where the people are. Every day, YouTube racks up more than 2 billion video views. That’s a lot of eyes. Still, every minute, the site sees 24 hours of video uploaded, which means your genius work could get lost in the shuffle. That’s why the partner program is a must — you get the YouTube stamp of approval, which brings more attention to your work.

What’s the ROI?

YouTube couldn’t tell us how much money you can earn from the program, but they did tell us that artists get the majority share of the revenue — not to mention access to those millions of viewers. You need to be consistent with your channel, though, and really focus on putting out lots of original content. So if you’re only down to make one vid, this might not be the option for you. In order to see ROI, you have to put in the time and effort.

So Who has Succeeded?

YouTube has helped launch the careers of score of performers — from Justin Bieber to Pomplamoose./> Kina Grannis is one such artist. “I joined YouTube three years ago when I was in a contest called Doritos Crash The Super Bowl,” Grannis told us. “I needed to get people to vote for me every day in order to get my music video played during the Super Bowl (which it did, woo!), so the hope was that by agreeing to post a new video every day, people, in exchange, would come back and vote daily. This run of putting up a video every day lasted about two months in total, and while it made me crazy and sleep deprived, it was also fun and exciting and very helpful in growing my viewers.

“Post with consistency if possible,” Grannis advises artists. “Be genuine, talk to your supporters, be grateful.”

If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

Service: BitTorrent Featured Artist Program

OK, we know what you’re thinking — you hear the word “BitTorrent” and you’re about ready to rage, am I right? File sharing is the monster under the bed for many an artist. It connotes theft, basically. Still, the model — when used correctly — can really be a boon to lesser-known artists.

We spoke to Trent Reznor — who is well-known for having released his music via torrent sites in the past — who told us: “I felt furious when the record I’d worked on for a year, that my heart and soul’s gone into, . I’m pissed off at people that are listening to it. I’m mad that they’re snubbing me — by what? By being excited about hearing my music? And that’s wrong. I shouldn’t be mad at these people. I should be glad that people are interested.”

“Easy for you to say, Trent Reznor,” you might scoff, “You’re already famous.” Well — there’s the rub, right? You’re not famous. And you want to be. Or, at the very least, you want someone other than your roommate to come to your gig — and perhaps buy a T-shirt or two. And how do you do that? By getting the attention of the masses, of course.

Last month, BitTorrent launched a Featured Artist pilot program in an effort to give musicians more exposure. Some likened such an endeavor to getting in bed with the devil, but when you really think about it, what’s the difference between applying for the program and putting your music on class='blippr-nobr'>MySpaceclass="blippr-nobr">MySpace or SoundCloud or any other music-sharing site? Well, that would be BitTorrent’s 80 million users.

We’re not saying that file sharing is totally copacetic or anything (there are a lot of pirates in them waters), but it’s not like BitTorrent is out to ruin your career, either. “In many ways, Trent Reznor’s work inspired a lot of our work,” says CEO Eric Klinker. “We really do want to riff on a lot of what he’s done. He’s in an experimentation phase, as are we.”

Why Use This Service?

“The Featured Artists pilot program encourages musicians and filmmakers to submit creative works for the chance to be spotlighted to millions of BitTorrent users around the world,” Klinker says. “For a lot of artists it is about creating a sustainable business model that will allow them to continue their creative works. So, we are interested in working with artists to experiment with various business models that play to the strengths of the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet while allowing them to tune into the distribution potential of BitTorrent to reach millions of consumers.”

What’s the ROI?

“In today’s digital age, the traditional model does not serve artists in the same way it used to, and instead forces them all down the same funnel where only a select few ultimately receive distribution,” Klinker says. “With BitTorrent’s Featured Artist Pilot Program, artists can tap into online communities and reach millions of people who might otherwise be inaccessible. These communities are powerful and provide intrinsic value for emerging artists trying to build a fan base. In doing so, these are fans that will invariably attend shows, purchase merchandise and become invested in future works.”/>  /> So Who has Succeeded?

Since the service just launched last month, there aren’t any featured artists yet, but the site has seen some success with the musician PAZ (see above), who has been working with BitTorrent.

“Most recently, in August 2010, BitTorrent released PAZ’s debut mix tape, Young Broke and Fameless,” Klinker says. “On the first day alone the release saw over 100,000 downloads, and as a result has increased his fan base and following.”

More Social Music Resources from Mashable:

- Top 10 Twitter Tips for Bands, By Bands/> - 5 Great Ways to Find Music That Suits Your Mood/> - 5 Free Ways to Identify that Song Stuck in Your Head/> - HOW TO: Turn Your Android Phone Into a Killer MP3 Player/> - 10 Amazing Musical Instrument iPhone Apps

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, shulz

For more Entertainment coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Entertainmentclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Entertainment channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

bench craft company complaints

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foreclosure law

1. 
   wunsacon Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:34 am
   
   

   I suspect Shakespeare’s Henry VI said it best.

   
   

   http://www.spectacle.org/797/finkel.html

   
   
   





2. 
   NoKidding Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:36 am
   
   

   “The goal here was not to pursue prosecute foreclosures on behalf of a banking client; rather it was to crank out the assembly line factory to grab 100s of millions of dollars, legally or illegally, consequences be damned.”

   
   

   Intuition tells me your assessment is correct, but nothing in the quoted bit of that story did.

   
   

   We’re in a foreclosure boom and there’s work involved. Somebody has to do it.

   
   
   





3. 
   wunsacon Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:36 am
   
   

   Er, “Dick The Butcher”…

   
   
   





4. 
   Mannwich Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:38 am
   
   

   Oh, it’s 100%. In the grand scheme of things, he’s such a minor player and the perfect fall guy for Eric Holder.

   
   
   





5. 
   rktbrkr Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:42 am
   
   

   There’s never just 1 rat, there were a handful of FL lawfirms like this, Stern was just the biggest rat. So does the florida court system throw out all the work done by Stern and similar firms? A couple hundred thousand do-overs?

   
   

   http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_countries_have_no_extradition_treaties_with_the_United_States

   
   
   





6. 
   rktbrkr Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:47 am
   
   

   In New York, attorneys already have an obligation to ensure that the documents they present to the court are valid, but New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said having them sign something affirming that all papers got a proper review will hold them accountable like never before.

   
   

   “We want to make sure that everyone is focusing like a laser on these particular types of proceedings,” he said. “It puts them on notice. That’s what this is all about. We all have to make doubly sure that we are doing what we should be doing in the first place.”

   
   

   The rule requiring a signed affirmation applies to both new cases and the 78,000 foreclosure actions already under way in New York courts.

   
   

   Lawyers handling pending foreclosure actions will probably need to go back to their clients and verify that all proper steps were followed, Lippman said. The form created by the court requires the lawyers to give the name of the bank employee who affirmed that the records were accurate and the date the conversation took place.

   
   

   The president of the New York State Bar Association, Stephen Younger, issued a statement praising the new rule. “The chief judge has taken swift steps to address a nationwide problem in foreclosure actions,” he said.

   
   
   





7. 
   BennyProfane Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:49 am
   
   

   I might even bet you that he doesn’t see any type of prosecution at all – maybe a nice, 5-10% deal, a la Mozilo, that the company can write off somehow offshore.

   
   
   





8. 
   rktbrkr Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:50 am
   
   

   Start the music, it’s time for Musical Chairs!

   
   

   BofA Sues FDIC Over Taylor Bean Mortgage Losses

   
   

   Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank, has sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp over $1.75 billion of investor losses mainly from the 2009 collapses of a large regional bank and large mortgage lender.

   
   

   The lawsuit concerns the FDIC’s role as receiver for the main banking unit of Alabama’s Colonial BancGroup, and the implosion of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage, where federal prosecutors say a multi-billion dollar mortgage fraud took place. Bank of America is trustee for notes issued by Taylor Bean’s Ocala Funding unit.

   
   

   SnIp

   
   
   





9. 
   RiskAverseAlert Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:59 am
   
   

   I’ll take the under. This thing is so bad the President hasn’t even the clout to convince the Sheriff of his own Cook County that the recent voluntary foreclosure moratorium was the result of mere “technicalities.”

   
   
   





10. 
    Sechel Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:20 am
    
    

    David Stern knew what he was doing(to a point). He appointed four of the seven directors. It’s made clear that shareholders should find it difficult if not impossible to take disciplinary action against him, not withstanding any fiduciary obligations they may have in this respect.

    
    
    





11. 
    AHodge Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:40 am
    
    

    no shortables no options
    
    i see it down abt 6% today

    
    
    





12. 
    JerseyCynic Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:48 am
    
    

    it’s perfect Mannwich

    
    

    I’m always most cynical when individual assholes are singled out to cover for industry wide corruption.

    
    

    OH good!! now we don’t have to dig deeper and run the whole lot of f%$kers out of town!

    
    

    what happens when the next shit storm hits ? — student loan debt has now surpassed credit card debt

    
    

    I wonder how many of our big bailed out banks set up their own back door foreclosure mills YEARS ago when they were setting the stage for this round in the boom/bust cycle of real estate

    
    
    





13. 
    Sechel Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:49 am
    
    

    http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202473607711&Fla_Foreclosure_Firm_Undergoes_ShakeUp_as_Chairman_Vacates_Post

    
    

    abandon ship!
    
    Several top executives of Florida’s largest foreclosure processing company resigned and its chairman was replaced Tuesday, amid a national controversy over questionable foreclosure filings and investigations into possible wrongdoing by lenders, loan servicers and law firms.

    
    

    Plantation, Fla.-based DJSP Enterprises has been impacted by the temporary suspension of foreclosure filings by some of the nation’s largest lenders and some industry insiders are questioning the future of the business.

    
    

    The company announced Tuesday that Chairman David Stern would step down, take the new title of president and remain the CEO. Stephen Bernstein will take over as chairman.

    
    
    





14. 
    DL Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:10 pm
    
    

    I just want to know why the company is incorporated in the Virgin Islands.

    
    
    





15. 
    JerseyCynic Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    
    

    oh what a fabulous story!!!

    
    

    ….In a nod to his foreclosure work, according to the acquaintance, Mr. Stern mused about possibly naming the larger yacht Su Casa Es Mi Casa — “Your House Is My House.” But his wife and others cautioned against it, according to this acquaintance, and Mr. Stern named the boat “Misunderstood.” Mr. Stern denies that he considered the “Su Casa Es Mi Casa” name.
    
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05house.html?_r=1&pagewanted=5

    
    

    **wunsacon

    
    

    great link ! great piece

    
    

    I see Mr. Wallace at the ethical spectacle has the same fears as I do about the impending student loan bailout
    
    http://www.spectacle.org/1010/rags.html

    
    

    “Banks which lend these amounts of money for education are engaging in many cases in exactly the behavior of banks which loaned absurd amounts of money for real estate purchases by people who would never be able to repay it unless a miracle occurred. Such lending is doubly irresponsible, putting the bank at risk and ultimately forcing bail-outs with public money, but also encouraging individuals to engage in risky behavior. The spectacle of young people starting their adult lives as much as a quarter million dollars underwater is very disturbing. The role of government in sponsoring, encouraging and guaranteeing student loans also needs to be re-examined. A government role which made sense when people were graduating with $20,000 in debt looks entirely different when the number is ten times as much.”

    
    
    





16. 
    wally Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:54 pm
    
    

    Since these guys – and there are a lot of them recently – end up keeping most of their gains they are business heroes in this country.

    
    
    





17. 
    Unsympathetic Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 1:10 pm
    
    

    Barry, he will not be spending any time in jail.

    
    

    He will, however, buy late-night TV infomercial time describing how you can get rich quick using his tried and true techniques.

    
    
    





18. 
    b_thunder Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
    
    

    My odds on David Stern’s future:

    
    

    5% – he’ll pay at most 10% of his gains as a fine, and will lose law license for at most 3 years w/out admitting anything
    
    25% – he’ll become a billionaire suing evil banks on behalf of foreclosed homeowners
    
    20% – he’ll become a billionaire AND in 4 years will be elected the Governor of Florida
    
    60% – he will be the next CFTC judge

    
    
    





19. 
    willid3 Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 3:17 pm
    
    

    Yves smith has this take
    
    t take a fair degree of skill to pen a journalistic story that hews to the appearance of objectivity yet is out to sell a point of view.

    
    

    The lead article in the Journal tonight, “Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas” telegraphs its bias in its headline: the foreclosure crisis is merely the creation of two bit lawyers who by implication don’t know what they are doing, and are pumping trivial issues up for their own enrichment, with the housing market as collateral damage.

    
    

    Funny that anyone can think this spin is remotely true. The fact that solo practitioner lawyers could have such an impact on the system is not proof that they are miscreants, as the Journal implies. It is that the foundation of mortgage securitzations is rotten as a result of widespread abuses, first on the origination end, later in the foreclosure process. These small firm players are using the legal equivalent of toothpicks; the fact that their efforts have destablized the foundation of the residential mortgage backed securities market is tangible proof that they were imperiled to begin with.

    
    

    Let’s parse some sections of the article, starting from the top:

    
    

    The paperwork mess muddying home foreclosures erupted last month. But the legal strategy behind it traces to a lawyer’s gambit in 2006 that has helped keep one couple in their home six years beyond their last mortgage payment.

    
    

    Not bad in the drive-by shooting category. The foreclosure crisis, which is the result of what increasingly appears to be a widespread failure to convey borrower promissory notes and related liens properly to the the securitization entity is reduced to a mere “paperwork mess”. So the idea that the shortcomings are serious is dismissed. Similarly, the efforts of various attorneys who have been chipping away as aspects of this problem are incorrectly lumped together, as if there was really only a single, simpleminded strategy, a mere “lawyer’s gambit” which by implication, was copied by other low life attorneys. And this effort was to keep a deadbeat borrower illegitimately housed.

    
    

    Funny, this James Kowalski, the attorney behind this dastardly act, did what members of the bar normally do (at least if they are competent): they look for weaknesses in fact and law in the case presented by the other side. And part of the process involves, stunningly enough, depositions! Kowalski’s evil deed was that he was early, perhaps first, to find a robo signer, back in 2006.

    
    

    But robo signers are an abuse of court process. You can’t have it one way, and say you believe in law and order and the sanctity of contract, and then say it’s just fine to abuse legal procedures if you are pretty sure you are right. Well you can’t unless you are the Journal, skilled in the art of defending plutocrats, no matter how much in the way of mental gymnastics that might require.

    
    

    But this implicit focus on robo signers (which admittedly did bring the bigger issue of foreclosure abuses into the limelight) again is a convenient diversion, since the robo signer is far from the most serious problem now affecting the foreclosure process.

    
    

    Back to the Journal’s account:

    
    

    It was a first step in the growth of a legal sub-specialty called foreclosure defense that has sown confusion and turmoil in the housing market. Lawyers in the field now commonly use a technique more identified with corporate litigation: probing depositions, designed to uncover any lapses in judgment, flaws in a process or wrongdoing. In the 23 states where foreclosures entail a court hearing, the bank may be ordered to pay the homeowner’s legal bill if a lawyer can convince a judge that the bank has submitted false documents, such as affidavits saying employees personally reviewed the details of loans when they didn’t.

    
    

    Huh? With all due respect, this is the first time I’ve heard of this “foreclosure defense” sub specialty. Please. These are consumer lawyers, and some of them have gotten good enough at fighting foreclosures that they do it full time. But “sub-speciality” implies a degree of fomalization and coordination of effort that isn’t there. Oh, and the Journal deems it to be bad form for mere consumer lawyers to use the techniques of decent trial lawyers (only corporations are supposed to have access to competent litigators, it seems).

    
    

    But it gets even better. The Journal couldn’t be bothered letting facts get in the way of a tidy narrative. Kowalski weighed in in the comment section of the article:

    
    

    Despite my best efforts to answer all of Mr. Whelan’s questions, the article contains a number of misstatements. First, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson did not face a foreclosure hearing after simply stopping payment – they paid the entire amount due per a statement sent to them by GMAC, and paid by certified check. GMAC mistakenly refused the check, alleging it was an NSF payment (not possible with certified funds), then placed the couple in foreclosure. I was simply trying to track the facts of the payment by deposing a witness who had sworn in court documents that she had reviewed the entire file and was familiar with the payment history, when, as it turned out, she was not only not familiar with the payment history, but the substance of her entire affidavit was false, including the allegation that the affidavit was sworn to in front of a notary. These were substantive questions I needed answers to – not an excuse for a delay. Further, the judge did not “throw out the case” – it is still pending, with GMAC still suing the Jacksons, years later.

    
    

    I, and most of my fellow consumer attorneys who are members of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, do not raise these issues for delay – we raise them because we all have cases (this is the bulk of my foreclosure defense practice) where all or part of the foreclosure is purely the fault of the servicer or mill law firm – from homeowners whose payments were misrouted by the servicer, to servicers who simply changed the address of the property and then force-placed flood insurance, to servicers who ignore insurance plans the borrowers paid for (all examples from my cases) to servicers who refuse to even accept HAMP-type loan modification documents – all are substantive, real problems that were not the fault of the borrowers. The deposition was, in the Jackson case, merely an effort to get at the truth of the reversed payment – instead, GMAC admitted to wholesale manufacture of court documents, then promised to fix the practice, then continued that practice unabated for 4 more years.

    
    

    Most of what we have uncovered are criminal violations – false testimony under oath, notary fraud, etc. These problems will continue until the attorneys general who have formed a task force recognize and confront the significant criminal violations, and will continue unless we have real reform of the servicing practices that emphasize speed over the truth.

    
    

    Not a single one of my clients wants (or deserves) a free house. What they want (and deserve) is for their voices to be heard, and, for better or worse, consumer lawyers are the only ones capable of achieving this at the moment.

    
    

    Oh, and it would have been nice if Mr. Whelan had taken the time to spell my name correctly throughout the article.

    
    

    Yves here. Servicer abuses that result in foreclosures are simply not getting the media attention they deserve. The prevailing perception, and the party line from the banks, is that the borrowers are all deadbeats and therefore any efforts to aid them are simply an abuse of court processes.

    
    

    But servicers are modern judges, juries, and to the extent they can railroad foreclosures through, executioners. When a payment arrives after the due date (and servicers have been found to hold checks to render payments late), under RESPA and the bank’s agreement with the borrower, the bank is supposed to apply payments to principal and interest first, then any late fees. But if you incur a late fee, they instead apply the payment to that first, which makes your regular monthly payment come up short. So then you get an insufficiency fee.

    
    

    Servicers don’t send detailed monthly statements like credit card companies, telling you how your payments were applied. This process of misapplication of payment and failure to notify borrowers when fees have been incurred guarantees that the charges will balloon. It isn’t until months have passed and the extra balance become large, say $2000 or more, that the homeowner realizes they are under water according to their servicer, even though they have made all their regular payments. Many lack the extra money to clear out all these largely bogus fees; other have tried fighting, only to find the servicer won’t budge, and they rack up more charges, which forces them either to capitulate or lose their home.

    
    

    Nevertheless, the Journal runs the party line that nothing is wrong with the foreclosure machinery, when the intense pushback suggests otherwise, and brandishes the usual financial services industry threat: hurt us, and it will hurt you even more:

    
    

    “There is a movement afoot by [state attorneys general] and private lawyers to use technical problems to avoid foreclosures where the borrower is in default and the foreclosure is in all respects substantively appropriate. These are lawyers where the best job they can do for their clients is to keep them in their houses without paying the mortgage,” said Andrew L. Sandler, a Washington securities lawyer who represents banks and firms that service mortgages.

    
    

    Mr. Sandler added: “The class-action lawyers are swarming around this issue right now, because they perceive that it can result in significant fees for them. But they’re not well-founded cases, and the banks will vigorously contest any class action around these issues.”

    
    

    The big risk to banks and the housing market, indeed, is that more homeowners and lawyers come to see such cases as attractive to fight.

    
    

    It’s certainly fair to say some legal actions are based on weak theories; we dissed the widely touted investor suit against Countrywide on mortgage putbacks yesterday, and have selectively argued against other legal theories. But some of these cases are based on careful study of real abuses and are attacking improper, potentially fraudulent actions. This is one of the few checks we have left on misuse of power, but the powers that be want the public to see these legal challenges as a threat to their financial security and accept compromises, just as we have been forced to accept diminished civil liberties and ever more intrusive surveillance in the name of personal security.

    
    

    One encouraging sign: I didn’t take a careful tally, but despite the Journal’s heavy spin on this story, its comment section seemed to be running at only a 50% acceptance of its position. The more the banks try to press the merits of their case on dubious evidence, the more the public is coming to realize they are not to be believed.

    
    

    Topics: Banana republic, Banking industry, Credit markets, Legal, Media watch, Politics, Real estate, Social values
    
    they aren’t all dead beats. some got their the new fangled way. the servicer did it

    
    
    





20. 
    not-affiliated-with-Wall Street Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
    
    

    I wish you wouldn’t throw in that stuff about the graybar hotel. It’s a depressing reminder that these kinds of people never go to jail. They just get richer.

    
    
    





21. 
    beaufou Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 5:12 pm
    
    

    JCynic.
    
    I would suggest a name for Diamond Dave’s new boat: my ass is grass.

    
    

    People are talking, he is going down.

    
    
    





22. 
    Mannwich Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 6:27 pm
    
    

    @willid3: Do we really need any MORE proof that the WSJ is in the back pocket of the elites? I guess we do, since they keep reaffirming that every day with their absurdly slanted screeds.

    
    
    





23. 
    Mark E Hoffer Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 8:52 pm
    
    

    I don’t knoe about all y’all, though, there’s something about ‘limited hangout’ that I’d be looking into..

    
    

    http://search.yippy.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&v%3Aproject=clusty&query=limited+hang-out

    
    
    





24. 
    Mark E Hoffer Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
    
    

    and, this, ‘knoe’, was a key-stroke off, as in ‘know’..

    
    

    Gracias~! QWERTY!

    
    
    





25. 
    willid3 Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
    
    

    Mannwich Says:
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    
    

    @willid3: Do we really need any MORE proof that the WSJ is in the back pocket of the elites? I guess we do, since they keep reaffirming that every day with their absurdly slanted screeds.

    
    

    nope.

    
    

    they just want to make sure we know.

    
    
    





26. 
    dsawy Says:
    
    
    
    October 22nd, 2010 at 3:28 am
    
    

    What is the statute of limitations on what he has done? That’s the biggest question I have before taking an over/under on this.

    
    
    





27. 
    Hot Links: Social Media Guru The Reformed Broker Says:
    
    
    
    October 22nd, 2010 at 7:19 am
    
    

    How to pimp hard amidst the ruins of Foreclosure Florida.  (TBP)

    
    
    

Leave a Reply

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As much as state attorneys general could be an effective force in acting for consumers and investors against banks, the fact that an attorney general has saddled up does not necessarily mean the effort is serious. At a minimum, it might just be a gambit to garner some good PR without seriously inconveniencing the perps; at worse, the action might be a pure Trojan horse.

Consider the curious conduct of one Bill McCollum, the lame duck attorney general of Florida. It appears that McCollum has been going after the foot soldiers in the foreclosure chicanery business (although some of them, like David Stern, head of the biggest foreclosure mill in the state, have earned a tidy fortune). His recent actions have targeted firms offering dubious foreclosure advice, and more recently, the foreclosure mills as well as a firm that may be best known for its real estate related document fabrication activities, Lender Processing Services, through its DocX subsidiary.

Now starting with these actors isn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, prosecutors often target low level criminals with the hope of getting them to turn evidence on the kingpins. And there is good reason to think McCollum has no interest in asking tough questions that will inconvenience bigger fry.

McCollum Is falling in with the banking industry party line. He appears to regard not disrupting the foreclosure process, a top priority of the financiers, as a worthy goal. Gee, isn’t preserving the rule of law and making sure no one is abused or defrauded the sort of thing his office is tasked to defend, not the functioning of markets or the bottom lines of banks? From the Wall Street Journal (hat tip reader f247):

“They’re training a lot of new people, and apparently now they are comfortable with the legality of their foreclosure process,” Mr. McCollum said in an interview. “The primary purpose of these meetings is talking about not having this stuff held back. It’s very important for us to not have a backlog of foreclosures. We already have a backlog. We don’t want it to get worse.”…

Mr. McCollum, Florida’s attorney general, said most errors in the foreclosure process have been “procedural,” adding that his top priority is to resolve the mess in a way that allows foreclosures to resume quickly….

The talks also centered on how to quickly get the foreclosure process moving again, according to the Florida attorney general’s office. Mr. McCollum described the meeting as more cooperative than combative.

Let’s look at the timeline:

August 10: McCollum announces investigation of foreclosure mills. McCollum also happens to be running for governor as a Republican and facing a tough opponent in the primaries. One must wonder whether this investigation was a Hail Mary pass to bolster his candidacy

August 24: Florida primary, McCollum loses to Rick Scott

September 3: McCollum asks if he can resume being a lobbyist once he leaves office. Per the St. Petersburg Times:

Barely a week after he lost the Republican primary for governor, Attorney General Bill McCollum sought legal advice on whether he can lobby the governor’s office and Cabinet — the very people he works with now — after he leaves office in January.

The answer: No.

He’ll have to wait two years before he can collect fees to represent private clients before the state government that has employed him the past four years… He asked the Commission on Ethics not to reveal his name as the person making the inquiry, but the agency did anyway….

McCollum’s Sept. 3 letter to the Commission on Ethics noted that state law and the Constitution already bar him from lobbying his current agency, the attorney general’s office, for two years after leaving office in January….

But because the attorney general also is a member of the Cabinet, McCollum asked “what entities” are also covered by the lobbying restriction.

The attorney general, as a Cabinet member, serves on a variety of boards overseeing the state pension fund, environmental, land use and other issues.

In its opinion, the ethics commission said: “One’s public service career and contacts developed in that capacity should not be used to enrich oneself at the expense of the public (and) the provision was intended to prevent influence peddling and the use of public office to create opportunities for personal profit through lobbying once an official leaves office.”….

McCollum, a lawyer who served for 20 years in Congress, listed a net worth of $1.3 million in 2009. He collects $82,000 annually as a congressional pension.

For several years after he left Congress, McCollum was a $400,000-a-year lobbyist for the Baker & Hostetler law firm.

It’s also worth noting that the biggest foreclosure mill targeted, the Daniel Stern law firm, has hired heavyweight Republicans to defend it. Per FireDogLake:

David Stern has already become fairly well-known to the media as a high-volume foreclosure servicer — a foreclosure mill. What’s not as well-known is that David Stern’s legal representation, Tew Cardenas, is rather important to Florida’s Republican Party. While Jeffrey Tew has donated only on a rather limited basis to candidates, Alberto Cardenas has donated more than $70,000 to candidates, incumbents and committees during the last two election cycles. . . .

Among Cardenas’ beneficiaries are Rep. Roy Blunt (MO-07) and Rep. John Mica (FL-07), who respectively sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (Blunt), House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Blunt), and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Mica), and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Mica is the ranking member). His family members are likewise generous to Republicans and have donated more than $9000 over the last several years.

Unfortunately, this case study illustrates yet again the dangers of taking headlines at face value.

Surprise: Fox <b>News</b> signs Juan Williams to new $2 million deal <b>...</b>

Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes handed Williams a new three-year contract Thursday morning, in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, a considerable bump up from his previous salary, the Tribune Washington Bureau has learned. ...

Lindsay Lohan Photos &amp; Pics | BREAKING <b>NEWS</b> - Lindsay Lohan Avoids <b>...</b>

Lindsay Lohan appeared before Judge Elden Fox at the Beverly Hills Courthouse this morning for her latest probation violation hearing, and it appears as though spending the last month at the Betty Ford Center helped convince the judge ...

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: No Jail For Lindsay Lohan - Judge Orders Her To <b>...</b>

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid16157557001/bctid645210306001 Lindsay Lohan caught a major break on Friday when Judge Elden Fox chose not to send her to jail and ordered her to stay in rehab at the Betty Ford Center.

eric seiger eric seiger

1. 
   wunsacon Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:34 am
   
   

   I suspect Shakespeare’s Henry VI said it best.

   
   

   http://www.spectacle.org/797/finkel.html

   
   
   





2. 
   NoKidding Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:36 am
   
   

   “The goal here was not to pursue prosecute foreclosures on behalf of a banking client; rather it was to crank out the assembly line factory to grab 100s of millions of dollars, legally or illegally, consequences be damned.”

   
   

   Intuition tells me your assessment is correct, but nothing in the quoted bit of that story did.

   
   

   We’re in a foreclosure boom and there’s work involved. Somebody has to do it.

   
   
   





3. 
   wunsacon Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:36 am
   
   

   Er, “Dick The Butcher”…

   
   
   





4. 
   Mannwich Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:38 am
   
   

   Oh, it’s 100%. In the grand scheme of things, he’s such a minor player and the perfect fall guy for Eric Holder.

   
   
   





5. 
   rktbrkr Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:42 am
   
   

   There’s never just 1 rat, there were a handful of FL lawfirms like this, Stern was just the biggest rat. So does the florida court system throw out all the work done by Stern and similar firms? A couple hundred thousand do-overs?

   
   

   http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_countries_have_no_extradition_treaties_with_the_United_States

   
   
   





6. 
   rktbrkr Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:47 am
   
   

   In New York, attorneys already have an obligation to ensure that the documents they present to the court are valid, but New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said having them sign something affirming that all papers got a proper review will hold them accountable like never before.

   
   

   “We want to make sure that everyone is focusing like a laser on these particular types of proceedings,” he said. “It puts them on notice. That’s what this is all about. We all have to make doubly sure that we are doing what we should be doing in the first place.”

   
   

   The rule requiring a signed affirmation applies to both new cases and the 78,000 foreclosure actions already under way in New York courts.

   
   

   Lawyers handling pending foreclosure actions will probably need to go back to their clients and verify that all proper steps were followed, Lippman said. The form created by the court requires the lawyers to give the name of the bank employee who affirmed that the records were accurate and the date the conversation took place.

   
   

   The president of the New York State Bar Association, Stephen Younger, issued a statement praising the new rule. “The chief judge has taken swift steps to address a nationwide problem in foreclosure actions,” he said.

   
   
   





7. 
   BennyProfane Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:49 am
   
   

   I might even bet you that he doesn’t see any type of prosecution at all – maybe a nice, 5-10% deal, a la Mozilo, that the company can write off somehow offshore.

   
   
   





8. 
   rktbrkr Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:50 am
   
   

   Start the music, it’s time for Musical Chairs!

   
   

   BofA Sues FDIC Over Taylor Bean Mortgage Losses

   
   

   Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank, has sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp over $1.75 billion of investor losses mainly from the 2009 collapses of a large regional bank and large mortgage lender.

   
   

   The lawsuit concerns the FDIC’s role as receiver for the main banking unit of Alabama’s Colonial BancGroup, and the implosion of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage, where federal prosecutors say a multi-billion dollar mortgage fraud took place. Bank of America is trustee for notes issued by Taylor Bean’s Ocala Funding unit.

   
   

   SnIp

   
   
   





9. 
   RiskAverseAlert Says:
   
   
   
   October 21st, 2010 at 10:59 am
   
   

   I’ll take the under. This thing is so bad the President hasn’t even the clout to convince the Sheriff of his own Cook County that the recent voluntary foreclosure moratorium was the result of mere “technicalities.”

   
   
   





10. 
    Sechel Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:20 am
    
    

    David Stern knew what he was doing(to a point). He appointed four of the seven directors. It’s made clear that shareholders should find it difficult if not impossible to take disciplinary action against him, not withstanding any fiduciary obligations they may have in this respect.

    
    
    





11. 
    AHodge Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:40 am
    
    

    no shortables no options
    
    i see it down abt 6% today

    
    
    





12. 
    JerseyCynic Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:48 am
    
    

    it’s perfect Mannwich

    
    

    I’m always most cynical when individual assholes are singled out to cover for industry wide corruption.

    
    

    OH good!! now we don’t have to dig deeper and run the whole lot of f%$kers out of town!

    
    

    what happens when the next shit storm hits ? — student loan debt has now surpassed credit card debt

    
    

    I wonder how many of our big bailed out banks set up their own back door foreclosure mills YEARS ago when they were setting the stage for this round in the boom/bust cycle of real estate

    
    
    





13. 
    Sechel Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 11:49 am
    
    

    http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202473607711&Fla_Foreclosure_Firm_Undergoes_ShakeUp_as_Chairman_Vacates_Post

    
    

    abandon ship!
    
    Several top executives of Florida’s largest foreclosure processing company resigned and its chairman was replaced Tuesday, amid a national controversy over questionable foreclosure filings and investigations into possible wrongdoing by lenders, loan servicers and law firms.

    
    

    Plantation, Fla.-based DJSP Enterprises has been impacted by the temporary suspension of foreclosure filings by some of the nation’s largest lenders and some industry insiders are questioning the future of the business.

    
    

    The company announced Tuesday that Chairman David Stern would step down, take the new title of president and remain the CEO. Stephen Bernstein will take over as chairman.

    
    
    





14. 
    DL Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:10 pm
    
    

    I just want to know why the company is incorporated in the Virgin Islands.

    
    
    





15. 
    JerseyCynic Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    
    

    oh what a fabulous story!!!

    
    

    ….In a nod to his foreclosure work, according to the acquaintance, Mr. Stern mused about possibly naming the larger yacht Su Casa Es Mi Casa — “Your House Is My House.” But his wife and others cautioned against it, according to this acquaintance, and Mr. Stern named the boat “Misunderstood.” Mr. Stern denies that he considered the “Su Casa Es Mi Casa” name.
    
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05house.html?_r=1&pagewanted=5

    
    

    **wunsacon

    
    

    great link ! great piece

    
    

    I see Mr. Wallace at the ethical spectacle has the same fears as I do about the impending student loan bailout
    
    http://www.spectacle.org/1010/rags.html

    
    

    “Banks which lend these amounts of money for education are engaging in many cases in exactly the behavior of banks which loaned absurd amounts of money for real estate purchases by people who would never be able to repay it unless a miracle occurred. Such lending is doubly irresponsible, putting the bank at risk and ultimately forcing bail-outs with public money, but also encouraging individuals to engage in risky behavior. The spectacle of young people starting their adult lives as much as a quarter million dollars underwater is very disturbing. The role of government in sponsoring, encouraging and guaranteeing student loans also needs to be re-examined. A government role which made sense when people were graduating with $20,000 in debt looks entirely different when the number is ten times as much.”

    
    
    





16. 
    wally Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 12:54 pm
    
    

    Since these guys – and there are a lot of them recently – end up keeping most of their gains they are business heroes in this country.

    
    
    





17. 
    Unsympathetic Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 1:10 pm
    
    

    Barry, he will not be spending any time in jail.

    
    

    He will, however, buy late-night TV infomercial time describing how you can get rich quick using his tried and true techniques.

    
    
    





18. 
    b_thunder Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
    
    

    My odds on David Stern’s future:

    
    

    5% – he’ll pay at most 10% of his gains as a fine, and will lose law license for at most 3 years w/out admitting anything
    
    25% – he’ll become a billionaire suing evil banks on behalf of foreclosed homeowners
    
    20% – he’ll become a billionaire AND in 4 years will be elected the Governor of Florida
    
    60% – he will be the next CFTC judge

    
    
    





19. 
    willid3 Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 3:17 pm
    
    

    Yves smith has this take
    
    t take a fair degree of skill to pen a journalistic story that hews to the appearance of objectivity yet is out to sell a point of view.

    
    

    The lead article in the Journal tonight, “Niche Lawyers Spawned Housing Fracas” telegraphs its bias in its headline: the foreclosure crisis is merely the creation of two bit lawyers who by implication don’t know what they are doing, and are pumping trivial issues up for their own enrichment, with the housing market as collateral damage.

    
    

    Funny that anyone can think this spin is remotely true. The fact that solo practitioner lawyers could have such an impact on the system is not proof that they are miscreants, as the Journal implies. It is that the foundation of mortgage securitzations is rotten as a result of widespread abuses, first on the origination end, later in the foreclosure process. These small firm players are using the legal equivalent of toothpicks; the fact that their efforts have destablized the foundation of the residential mortgage backed securities market is tangible proof that they were imperiled to begin with.

    
    

    Let’s parse some sections of the article, starting from the top:

    
    

    The paperwork mess muddying home foreclosures erupted last month. But the legal strategy behind it traces to a lawyer’s gambit in 2006 that has helped keep one couple in their home six years beyond their last mortgage payment.

    
    

    Not bad in the drive-by shooting category. The foreclosure crisis, which is the result of what increasingly appears to be a widespread failure to convey borrower promissory notes and related liens properly to the the securitization entity is reduced to a mere “paperwork mess”. So the idea that the shortcomings are serious is dismissed. Similarly, the efforts of various attorneys who have been chipping away as aspects of this problem are incorrectly lumped together, as if there was really only a single, simpleminded strategy, a mere “lawyer’s gambit” which by implication, was copied by other low life attorneys. And this effort was to keep a deadbeat borrower illegitimately housed.

    
    

    Funny, this James Kowalski, the attorney behind this dastardly act, did what members of the bar normally do (at least if they are competent): they look for weaknesses in fact and law in the case presented by the other side. And part of the process involves, stunningly enough, depositions! Kowalski’s evil deed was that he was early, perhaps first, to find a robo signer, back in 2006.

    
    

    But robo signers are an abuse of court process. You can’t have it one way, and say you believe in law and order and the sanctity of contract, and then say it’s just fine to abuse legal procedures if you are pretty sure you are right. Well you can’t unless you are the Journal, skilled in the art of defending plutocrats, no matter how much in the way of mental gymnastics that might require.

    
    

    But this implicit focus on robo signers (which admittedly did bring the bigger issue of foreclosure abuses into the limelight) again is a convenient diversion, since the robo signer is far from the most serious problem now affecting the foreclosure process.

    
    

    Back to the Journal’s account:

    
    

    It was a first step in the growth of a legal sub-specialty called foreclosure defense that has sown confusion and turmoil in the housing market. Lawyers in the field now commonly use a technique more identified with corporate litigation: probing depositions, designed to uncover any lapses in judgment, flaws in a process or wrongdoing. In the 23 states where foreclosures entail a court hearing, the bank may be ordered to pay the homeowner’s legal bill if a lawyer can convince a judge that the bank has submitted false documents, such as affidavits saying employees personally reviewed the details of loans when they didn’t.

    
    

    Huh? With all due respect, this is the first time I’ve heard of this “foreclosure defense” sub specialty. Please. These are consumer lawyers, and some of them have gotten good enough at fighting foreclosures that they do it full time. But “sub-speciality” implies a degree of fomalization and coordination of effort that isn’t there. Oh, and the Journal deems it to be bad form for mere consumer lawyers to use the techniques of decent trial lawyers (only corporations are supposed to have access to competent litigators, it seems).

    
    

    But it gets even better. The Journal couldn’t be bothered letting facts get in the way of a tidy narrative. Kowalski weighed in in the comment section of the article:

    
    

    Despite my best efforts to answer all of Mr. Whelan’s questions, the article contains a number of misstatements. First, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson did not face a foreclosure hearing after simply stopping payment – they paid the entire amount due per a statement sent to them by GMAC, and paid by certified check. GMAC mistakenly refused the check, alleging it was an NSF payment (not possible with certified funds), then placed the couple in foreclosure. I was simply trying to track the facts of the payment by deposing a witness who had sworn in court documents that she had reviewed the entire file and was familiar with the payment history, when, as it turned out, she was not only not familiar with the payment history, but the substance of her entire affidavit was false, including the allegation that the affidavit was sworn to in front of a notary. These were substantive questions I needed answers to – not an excuse for a delay. Further, the judge did not “throw out the case” – it is still pending, with GMAC still suing the Jacksons, years later.

    
    

    I, and most of my fellow consumer attorneys who are members of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, do not raise these issues for delay – we raise them because we all have cases (this is the bulk of my foreclosure defense practice) where all or part of the foreclosure is purely the fault of the servicer or mill law firm – from homeowners whose payments were misrouted by the servicer, to servicers who simply changed the address of the property and then force-placed flood insurance, to servicers who ignore insurance plans the borrowers paid for (all examples from my cases) to servicers who refuse to even accept HAMP-type loan modification documents – all are substantive, real problems that were not the fault of the borrowers. The deposition was, in the Jackson case, merely an effort to get at the truth of the reversed payment – instead, GMAC admitted to wholesale manufacture of court documents, then promised to fix the practice, then continued that practice unabated for 4 more years.

    
    

    Most of what we have uncovered are criminal violations – false testimony under oath, notary fraud, etc. These problems will continue until the attorneys general who have formed a task force recognize and confront the significant criminal violations, and will continue unless we have real reform of the servicing practices that emphasize speed over the truth.

    
    

    Not a single one of my clients wants (or deserves) a free house. What they want (and deserve) is for their voices to be heard, and, for better or worse, consumer lawyers are the only ones capable of achieving this at the moment.

    
    

    Oh, and it would have been nice if Mr. Whelan had taken the time to spell my name correctly throughout the article.

    
    

    Yves here. Servicer abuses that result in foreclosures are simply not getting the media attention they deserve. The prevailing perception, and the party line from the banks, is that the borrowers are all deadbeats and therefore any efforts to aid them are simply an abuse of court processes.

    
    

    But servicers are modern judges, juries, and to the extent they can railroad foreclosures through, executioners. When a payment arrives after the due date (and servicers have been found to hold checks to render payments late), under RESPA and the bank’s agreement with the borrower, the bank is supposed to apply payments to principal and interest first, then any late fees. But if you incur a late fee, they instead apply the payment to that first, which makes your regular monthly payment come up short. So then you get an insufficiency fee.

    
    

    Servicers don’t send detailed monthly statements like credit card companies, telling you how your payments were applied. This process of misapplication of payment and failure to notify borrowers when fees have been incurred guarantees that the charges will balloon. It isn’t until months have passed and the extra balance become large, say $2000 or more, that the homeowner realizes they are under water according to their servicer, even though they have made all their regular payments. Many lack the extra money to clear out all these largely bogus fees; other have tried fighting, only to find the servicer won’t budge, and they rack up more charges, which forces them either to capitulate or lose their home.

    
    

    Nevertheless, the Journal runs the party line that nothing is wrong with the foreclosure machinery, when the intense pushback suggests otherwise, and brandishes the usual financial services industry threat: hurt us, and it will hurt you even more:

    
    

    “There is a movement afoot by [state attorneys general] and private lawyers to use technical problems to avoid foreclosures where the borrower is in default and the foreclosure is in all respects substantively appropriate. These are lawyers where the best job they can do for their clients is to keep them in their houses without paying the mortgage,” said Andrew L. Sandler, a Washington securities lawyer who represents banks and firms that service mortgages.

    
    

    Mr. Sandler added: “The class-action lawyers are swarming around this issue right now, because they perceive that it can result in significant fees for them. But they’re not well-founded cases, and the banks will vigorously contest any class action around these issues.”

    
    

    The big risk to banks and the housing market, indeed, is that more homeowners and lawyers come to see such cases as attractive to fight.

    
    

    It’s certainly fair to say some legal actions are based on weak theories; we dissed the widely touted investor suit against Countrywide on mortgage putbacks yesterday, and have selectively argued against other legal theories. But some of these cases are based on careful study of real abuses and are attacking improper, potentially fraudulent actions. This is one of the few checks we have left on misuse of power, but the powers that be want the public to see these legal challenges as a threat to their financial security and accept compromises, just as we have been forced to accept diminished civil liberties and ever more intrusive surveillance in the name of personal security.

    
    

    One encouraging sign: I didn’t take a careful tally, but despite the Journal’s heavy spin on this story, its comment section seemed to be running at only a 50% acceptance of its position. The more the banks try to press the merits of their case on dubious evidence, the more the public is coming to realize they are not to be believed.

    
    

    Topics: Banana republic, Banking industry, Credit markets, Legal, Media watch, Politics, Real estate, Social values
    
    they aren’t all dead beats. some got their the new fangled way. the servicer did it

    
    
    





20. 
    not-affiliated-with-Wall Street Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
    
    

    I wish you wouldn’t throw in that stuff about the graybar hotel. It’s a depressing reminder that these kinds of people never go to jail. They just get richer.

    
    
    





21. 
    beaufou Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 5:12 pm
    
    

    JCynic.
    
    I would suggest a name for Diamond Dave’s new boat: my ass is grass.

    
    

    People are talking, he is going down.

    
    
    





22. 
    Mannwich Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 6:27 pm
    
    

    @willid3: Do we really need any MORE proof that the WSJ is in the back pocket of the elites? I guess we do, since they keep reaffirming that every day with their absurdly slanted screeds.

    
    
    





23. 
    Mark E Hoffer Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 8:52 pm
    
    

    I don’t knoe about all y’all, though, there’s something about ‘limited hangout’ that I’d be looking into..

    
    

    http://search.yippy.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&v%3Aproject=clusty&query=limited+hang-out

    
    
    





24. 
    Mark E Hoffer Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
    
    

    and, this, ‘knoe’, was a key-stroke off, as in ‘know’..

    
    

    Gracias~! QWERTY!

    
    
    





25. 
    willid3 Says:
    
    
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
    
    

    Mannwich Says:
    
    October 21st, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    
    

    @willid3: Do we really need any MORE proof that the WSJ is in the back pocket of the elites? I guess we do, since they keep reaffirming that every day with their absurdly slanted screeds.

    
    

    nope.

    
    

    they just want to make sure we know.

    
    
    





26. 
    dsawy Says:
    
    
    
    October 22nd, 2010 at 3:28 am
    
    

    What is the statute of limitations on what he has done? That’s the biggest question I have before taking an over/under on this.

    
    
    





27. 
    Hot Links: Social Media Guru The Reformed Broker Says:
    
    
    
    October 22nd, 2010 at 7:19 am
    
    

    How to pimp hard amidst the ruins of Foreclosure Florida.  (TBP)

    
    
    

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As much as state attorneys general could be an effective force in acting for consumers and investors against banks, the fact that an attorney general has saddled up does not necessarily mean the effort is serious. At a minimum, it might just be a gambit to garner some good PR without seriously inconveniencing the perps; at worse, the action might be a pure Trojan horse.

Consider the curious conduct of one Bill McCollum, the lame duck attorney general of Florida. It appears that McCollum has been going after the foot soldiers in the foreclosure chicanery business (although some of them, like David Stern, head of the biggest foreclosure mill in the state, have earned a tidy fortune). His recent actions have targeted firms offering dubious foreclosure advice, and more recently, the foreclosure mills as well as a firm that may be best known for its real estate related document fabrication activities, Lender Processing Services, through its DocX subsidiary.

Now starting with these actors isn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, prosecutors often target low level criminals with the hope of getting them to turn evidence on the kingpins. And there is good reason to think McCollum has no interest in asking tough questions that will inconvenience bigger fry.

McCollum Is falling in with the banking industry party line. He appears to regard not disrupting the foreclosure process, a top priority of the financiers, as a worthy goal. Gee, isn’t preserving the rule of law and making sure no one is abused or defrauded the sort of thing his office is tasked to defend, not the functioning of markets or the bottom lines of banks? From the Wall Street Journal (hat tip reader f247):

“They’re training a lot of new people, and apparently now they are comfortable with the legality of their foreclosure process,” Mr. McCollum said in an interview. “The primary purpose of these meetings is talking about not having this stuff held back. It’s very important for us to not have a backlog of foreclosures. We already have a backlog. We don’t want it to get worse.”…

Mr. McCollum, Florida’s attorney general, said most errors in the foreclosure process have been “procedural,” adding that his top priority is to resolve the mess in a way that allows foreclosures to resume quickly….

The talks also centered on how to quickly get the foreclosure process moving again, according to the Florida attorney general’s office. Mr. McCollum described the meeting as more cooperative than combative.

Let’s look at the timeline:

August 10: McCollum announces investigation of foreclosure mills. McCollum also happens to be running for governor as a Republican and facing a tough opponent in the primaries. One must wonder whether this investigation was a Hail Mary pass to bolster his candidacy

August 24: Florida primary, McCollum loses to Rick Scott

September 3: McCollum asks if he can resume being a lobbyist once he leaves office. Per the St. Petersburg Times:

Barely a week after he lost the Republican primary for governor, Attorney General Bill McCollum sought legal advice on whether he can lobby the governor’s office and Cabinet — the very people he works with now — after he leaves office in January.

The answer: No.

He’ll have to wait two years before he can collect fees to represent private clients before the state government that has employed him the past four years… He asked the Commission on Ethics not to reveal his name as the person making the inquiry, but the agency did anyway….

McCollum’s Sept. 3 letter to the Commission on Ethics noted that state law and the Constitution already bar him from lobbying his current agency, the attorney general’s office, for two years after leaving office in January….

But because the attorney general also is a member of the Cabinet, McCollum asked “what entities” are also covered by the lobbying restriction.

The attorney general, as a Cabinet member, serves on a variety of boards overseeing the state pension fund, environmental, land use and other issues.

In its opinion, the ethics commission said: “One’s public service career and contacts developed in that capacity should not be used to enrich oneself at the expense of the public (and) the provision was intended to prevent influence peddling and the use of public office to create opportunities for personal profit through lobbying once an official leaves office.”….

McCollum, a lawyer who served for 20 years in Congress, listed a net worth of $1.3 million in 2009. He collects $82,000 annually as a congressional pension.

For several years after he left Congress, McCollum was a $400,000-a-year lobbyist for the Baker & Hostetler law firm.

It’s also worth noting that the biggest foreclosure mill targeted, the Daniel Stern law firm, has hired heavyweight Republicans to defend it. Per FireDogLake:

David Stern has already become fairly well-known to the media as a high-volume foreclosure servicer — a foreclosure mill. What’s not as well-known is that David Stern’s legal representation, Tew Cardenas, is rather important to Florida’s Republican Party. While Jeffrey Tew has donated only on a rather limited basis to candidates, Alberto Cardenas has donated more than $70,000 to candidates, incumbents and committees during the last two election cycles. . . .

Among Cardenas’ beneficiaries are Rep. Roy Blunt (MO-07) and Rep. John Mica (FL-07), who respectively sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (Blunt), House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Blunt), and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Mica), and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Mica is the ranking member). His family members are likewise generous to Republicans and have donated more than $9000 over the last several years.

Unfortunately, this case study illustrates yet again the dangers of taking headlines at face value.

Surprise: Fox <b>News</b> signs Juan Williams to new $2 million deal <b>...</b>

Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes handed Williams a new three-year contract Thursday morning, in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, a considerable bump up from his previous salary, the Tribune Washington Bureau has learned. ...

Lindsay Lohan Photos &amp; Pics | BREAKING <b>NEWS</b> - Lindsay Lohan Avoids <b>...</b>

Lindsay Lohan appeared before Judge Elden Fox at the Beverly Hills Courthouse this morning for her latest probation violation hearing, and it appears as though spending the last month at the Betty Ford Center helped convince the judge ...

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: No Jail For Lindsay Lohan - Judge Orders Her To <b>...</b>

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid16157557001/bctid645210306001 Lindsay Lohan caught a major break on Friday when Judge Elden Fox chose not to send her to jail and ordered her to stay in rehab at the Betty Ford Center.

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