3 Responses

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   Dredd said on 5/18/2007 @ 6:50am PT: [Permalink]

   We are, to some degree, speaking of Bob “The Slammer Worm” Ney when we speak of voting problems (HAVA).

   But I found out today that Ney has helped do damage to millions of Americans in other ways too:

   While investing nearly $210 million on Washington lobbying and campaign contributions, the mortgage lending industry for seven years successfully blocked Congress from taking action to restrict lending abuses that saddled economically vulnerable families with home mortgages they could not afford.

   In 2006 alone, foreclosure filings across the country were up 42 percent compared to 2005″”a total of 1.2 million homes in jeopardy, or one in every 92 homes.

   And foreclosures continue to mount in 2007, with March foreclosure filings up 47 percent compared to the year before.

   The foreclosure crisis is having a ripple effect, as foreclosed homes increase the supply of available housing, further depressing home prices, with fears that a declining housing market may harm the larger economy.
   …
   The mortgage lending industry found its champion in Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). Ney now is serving a 30-month prison sentence because he took lavish gifts and trips from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for influencing legislation.27 In 2003, Ney, a member of the House Financial Services Committee and chair of its Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, was the prime sponsor of the Responsible Lending Act.
   …
   Advocates of low-and moderate-income families strongly supported another legislative proposal, sponsored by Reps. Brad Miller (D-NC), Mel Watt (D-NC) and Barney Frank (D-MA). Modeled after strong legislation in North Carolina, the bill contained consumer protections and would not have pre-empted state or local laws. While the bill drew 68 sponsors, those sponsors included not one Republican, dooming it in a Republican-dominated House.

   (Foreclosure Report). Leave it to Ney to name the Foreclosure Lending Act the “Responsible Lending Act”.

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   MarkH said on 5/18/2007 @ 10:08am PT: [Permalink]

   If home foreclosures are rising at an alarming rate and health care costs continue to rise at unconscionable rates and the bankrtupcy law won’t let people free from crippling debts, then the effects are going to ripple through the economy for several years. That will likely slow consumer spending and slow the recent increase in stock prices. People are seriously being hurt here in America because of Republican corruption policies.

   Is it any wonder Alan Greenspan (the former Federal Reserve Board chair) has said there will be a recession by the end of this year (2007).

   This is bad for America, but should help Democrats effect change at the polls in 2008.

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   Dredd said on 5/19/2007 @ 8:28am PT: [Permalink]

   The early electronic voting machine activists and scientists of up to 40 years ago had a grasp of their subject matter.

   Yet here we are with SICKO electronic voting machines, and anyone who critices the election systems is a conspiracy theorist to the MSM.

   Likewise, the public health care scientists have been aware for years that our “health care” systems kill more people than all the terrorists combined:

   For example, US estimates of the combined effect of errors and adverse effects that occur because of iatrogenic damage not associated with recognizable error include:

   12000 deaths/year from unneccessary surgery
   7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
   20000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
   80000 deaths/year from nosocomial infections in hospitals
   106000 deaths/year from nonerror, adverse effects of medications …

   These total to 225000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes … adverse effects in outpatient care [add another] 199000 additional deaths

   (Journal of the American Medical Association article, emphasis added). So adding it up, there are 424,000 deaths due to “iatrogenic causes” (a.k.a. “oops deaths”) in the US health system each year. Terrorists eat your heart out.

   And true to form, when activists criticize the US health care system, they too are investigated and considered to be conspiracy nuts.

   So, who is still wondering why the electronic election machine and health care scene is the same all these years?