No one important will ever, ever go to jail

Audit Uncovers Extensive Flaws in Foreclosures

An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday.

Ed.note: Let me just say that again. Almost all of the audited foreclosures had legal flaws.

Anecdotal evidence indicating foreclosure abuse has been plentiful since the mortgage boom turned to bust in 2008. But the detailed and comprehensive nature of the San Francisco findings suggest how pervasive foreclosure irregularities may be across the nation.

The improprieties range from the basic — a failure to warn borrowers that they were in default on their loans as required by law — to the arcane. For example, transfers of many loans in the foreclosure files were made by entities that had no right to assign them and institutions took back properties in auctions even though they had not proved ownership.

Mr. Ting said his report was the first rigorous analysis of foreclosure improprieties in California and that it cast doubt on the validity of almost every foreclosure it examined.

The report contradicted the contentions of many banks that foreclosure improprieties did little harm because the borrowers were behind on their mortgages and should have been evicted anyway. “We can deduce from the public evidence,” the report noted, “that there are indeed legitimate victims in the mortgage crisis. Whether these homeowners are systematically being deprived of legal safeguards and due process rights is an important question.”

Yes. That is indeed the question. One of life's great mysteries, for us all to ponder. They should pose it in philosophy classes.

And in unrelated news:

Bloomberg News reports that the Obama campaign is going around to $36,000-a-head Wall Street fundraisers “pledging not to demonize” Wall Street. He’ll never say “fat cats” again like he did that one time, back in 2009.

Nonetheless, as the article points out, Wall Street dollars are flowing to the GOP over Democrats by a 5:1 margin, mostly to Mitt Romney. It's comforting to know both sides of the aisle can come together on this critical issue of protection and solicitousness of Wall Street.

Whenever I do force myself to pay attention to the GOP primary, the results are always entertaining

How J.V. Is the Santorum Campaign?

Here are some things to keep in mind when assessing Rick Santorum’s chances of beating Mitt Romney. He has no pollster, no campaign headquarters, and no paid advance staff. He’s currently getting outspent on television in Michigan by a ratio of 29-1.

He also failed to get his name on the ballot in such states as Virginia and Indiana. Perhaps you have heard of them.

As Josh Marshall put it, “running around the country in a long twilight struggle with Rick Santorum is just … how to put it? inherently demeaning and diminishing. It’s like struggling to land a one pound fish or searching for the way out of a paper bag.”

Romney may be weak but he can’t really be this weak, can he?

The importance of Planned Parenthood

As I've posted before, fandom_helps is currently running a fan charity auction to benefit Planned Parenthood.

Before the auction began, the mod received some requests from non-U.S. residents that they be permitted to donate to women's health/family planning organizations in their own countries instead of Planned Parenthood. The mod ultimately decided that this auction would be run for Planned Parenthood exclusively (although future auctions may be held that have a more international scope).

I don't pretend to know what sort of access women have to reproductive health care in countries other than the U.S., but particularly for those of you reading this who are not aware of the U.S. situation, I wanted to post about the importance of Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood provides reproductive healthcare for women at low cost, including, but not limited to, birth control and abortion services.

Although women nominally have the right to an abortion in the U.S., in reality, there is strong opposition to women exercising that right and the states are constantly passing new restrictions to make it harder for women to obtain abortions. In many areas of the country, women may have to travel hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion -- and yet on top of that, states attempt to make abortions impossible as a practical matter by mandating that "waiting periods" from the time that a woman firsts visits a clinic until the time when she can receive the procedure (ostensibly so she can truly think it over, like she needs that kind of requirement from the state, but in reality, so that women who find it difficult to travel and stay overnight will not have abortion access). In many parts of the country, Planned Parenthood may provide the only facility that performs abortions.

States also enact numerous requirements of "informed consent" that are in fact additional ways to pressure women to forego abortions. For example, Virginia is apparently about to pass a new law that requires the doctor to determine the "gestational age" of the fetus and for the patient to listen to the fetal heartbeat before the abortion may be performed -- but to do that, in many cases, the doctor will have to perform an entirely unnecessary (from a medical standpoint) procedure that involves inserting a probe in the woman's vagina. In some states, burdensome regulations have been used to try to shut down Planned Parenthood clinics. Planned Parenthood is at the forefront of efforts to combat these regulations.

Recently, the right wing has also decided to go all in on the fight to deny women access to birth control. This battle began with religious employers - like Catholic organizations that run hospitals or universities - denouncing a requirement in Obama's healthcare law requiring them to provide birth control coverage as part of their employees' health plans. Obama then changed the requirement so that insurers must provide birth control coverage directly to the insureds free of charge, but religiously-affiliated employers do not have to pay for such coverage. This has not satisfied Republicans, who are trying to introduce a new law that would allow any employer to refuse to provide any healthcare service they find morally objectionable. Rick Santorum - now, shockingly, a major contender for the GOP nomination - has publicly declared his opposition to birth control and his support for state laws that restrict access (which now are unconstitutional, but in the future, who knows).

Once again, Planned Parenthood is at the forefront of efforts to combat this new attack on contraception. In fact, there is a whole tumblr devoted to the stories of women who turned to Planned Parenthood for often-life-saving reproductive healthcare that they could not get elsewhere.

Point being, Planned Parenthood is of critical importance to women's healthcare in the U.S., which is why I hope you'll consider bidding at fandom_helps.