U.S. Homes Lost to Foreclosure Up 25 % - Lenders took back more homes in August since the start of the mortgage crisis -

U.S. Homes Lost to Foreclosure Up 25 % - Lenders took back more homes in August since the start of the mortgage crisis - 

 Lenders took back more homes in August than in any month since the start of the U.S. mortgage crisis.

The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering theforeclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

In all, banks repossessed 95,364 properties last month, up 3 percent from July and an increase of 25 percent from August 2009, RealtyTrac said.

August makes the ninth month in a row that the pace of homes lost to foreclosure has increased on an annual basis. The previous high was in May.

Banks have been stepping up repossessions to clear out their backlog of bad loans with an eye on eventually placing the foreclosed properties on the market, but they can't afford to simply dump the properties on the market.

Concerns are growing that the housing market recovery could stumble amid stubbornly high unemployment, a sluggisheconomy and faltering consumer confidence. U.S. home sales have collapsed since federal homebuyer tax credits expired in April.

That's one reason fewer than one-third of homes repossessed by lenders are on the market, said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

"These (properties) are going to come to market, but very slowly because nobody wants to overwhelm a soft buyer's market with too much distressed inventory for fear of what it would do for house prices," he said.

As a result, lenders are putting off initiating the foreclosure process on homeowners who have missed payments, letting borrowers stay in their homes longer.

Read more - http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/16/homes-lost-foreclosure-percent/

Egyptian newspaper doctors photo of Barack Obama - and Obama’s tie has mysteriously changed colour – from purple to grey -

Egyptian newspaper doctors photo of Barack Obama - and Obama’s tie has mysteriously changed colour – from purple to grey - 

There are those who lead and those who follow, and the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram clearly feels that President Hosni Mubarak fits into the former category.

When he was pictured with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, trailing behind Barack Obama on the red carpet at the White House recently, it was nothing Photoshop could not fix. So, on Tuesday, the state-run daily Al-Ahram published the photo, taken at the launch of the latest Middle East peace talks – but with Mubarak switched to the front of the procession.

The doctored picture was exposed by the Egyptian blogger Wael Khaliland quickly struck a chord with Egypt's vibrant network of online opposition activists. Spoof versions have since appeared depicting the 82-year-old Mubarak landing on the moon, breaking the 100m world record and hoisting aloft the World Cup.

The controversy comes as the government gears up for parliamentary elections and amid rumours the authoritarian leader, who has ruled Egypt for nearly three decades, is seriously ill.

"I think what's significant is that Al-Ahram, the regime's mouthpiece, is clearly very sensitive about the way Mubarak appears to the general public in the current climate," Khalil said. "People have picked up on the photo because it's such a good insight into the way the government operates in Egypt; whenever there are problems or failings they simply try and gloss over them – you can see that in this photo, and you can see it in the way they run the country."

Al-Ahram is the most widely circulated Arabic newspaper in the Middle East and is known for its largely fawning coverage of the Egyptian government.

Its market share has been challenged in recent years by an increasingly bold crop of independent newspapers willing to adopt a more critical tone towards the ruling NDP party, a stance which has landed many independent editors in court.

By contrast Al-Ahram and other state-run publications have a track record of subtly "improving" pictures of Egypt's political elite, although usually in a less obvious manner than this week's example.

The scandal will come as a blow to Al-Ahram's director, Abdel Moneim Said, a former Egyptian senator who was thought to have presided over a slight revival of the 135-year-old newspaper's fortunes since taking the helm last year, following decades of mismanagement. Al-Ahram has so far failed to issue any response or apology for its actions, although the offending photo has been removed from the paper's website.

Read more - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/mubarak-doctored-red-carpet-picture

Chuck E. Cheese Recalls 1.2 Million Rings and Toy Eyeglasses - 2 kids remove battery 1 swallowed it; other up his nose -

Chuck E. Cheese Recalls 1.2 Million Rings and Toy Eyeglasses - 2 kids remove battery 1 swallowed it; other up his nose - 





More than 1.2 million Chuck E. Cheese light-up rings and toy eyeglasses were recalled Wednesday over concerns that children might swallow the small battery inside the toys.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the plastic on the toys can break, possibly exposing the button-type batteries inside. Ingestion could lead to stomach, intestine or esophagus problems or other damage.

The commission did not link the toys to any reported injuries. But it said two children were able to remove the battery from the light-up rings. One child swallowed it; the other child put the battery up his nose.

There were no reported incidents with the toy eyeglasses.

The 1.1 million light-up rings were part of a promotional offering between April 2009 and June of this year or were offered during parent-teacher association conventions. They came in blue, green, purple, yellow and pink.

The 120,000 toy glasses, shaped like stars, were part of birthday packages.

All were made in China and imported by Texas-based CEC Entertainment Inc., operator of Chuck E. Cheese theme restaurants. Chuck E. Cheese has been involved in three previous recalls of children's toys since 2001.

The commission says consumers should take the toys from children and return them for a refund of cash or prizes.

The recall was part of a joint announcement with the CPSC and Health Canada, the country's federal department for health.


Read more - http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/09/15/chuck-e-cheese-recalls-million-rings-toy-eyeglasses/?test=latestnews

Alan Greenspan: Fiscal Stimulus Worked Far Less Than Expected - “we’d probably be better off doing less than more” -

Alan Greenspan: Fiscal Stimulus Worked Far Less Than Expected - “we’d probably be better off doing less than more” - 

The former head of the Federal Reserve said fiscal stimulus efforts have fallen far short of expectations, and the government now needs to get out of the way and allow businesses and markets to power the recovery.

“We have to find a way to simmer down the extent of activism that is going on” with government stimulus spending “and allow the economy to heal” itself, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told a gathering held at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday.

At this point, “we’d probably be better off doing less than more” because “you’d be far better off to allow the normal market forces to operate here,” Greenspan said. That’s largely because stimulus spending is not proving as effective as many had hoped. “To the extent the evidence suggests very large deficits concurrently crowd out capital investment, there is a debit to the stimulus program that is somewhere between a third and a half of what the gross stimulus is,” he said.


Read more - http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/15/greenspan-fiscal-stimulus-worked-far-less-than-expected/

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb Fucks' - for trusting him with their personal information -

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb Fucks' - for trusting him with their personal information - 

Mark Zuckerbergadmits in a New Yorkerprofile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder says he's much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.

"They trust me — dumb fucks," says Zuckerberg in one of the instant messages, first published by former Valleywag Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider, and now confirmed by Zuckerberg himself in Jose Antonio Vargas's New Yorker piece. Zuckerberg now tells Vargas, "I think I've grown and learned a lot" since those instant messages.

And yet the old quote resounds precisely because Facebook continues to stir up privacy controversies at regular intervals. Zuckerberg justifies his privacy rollbacks by saying the social norms have changed in favor of transparency, but, as tech executive Anil Dash tells the New Yorker, that sort of change is much more appealing for a privileged, Ivy Leaguer golden boy of Silicon Valley like Zuckerberg than for his half a billion users, many of whom work for less tolerant bosses and socialize in more judgmental circles.

The dichotomy between Zuckerberg's philosophy and the lives of his users makes revelations about the Facebook CEO's own private life all the more interesting. It seems natural to figure that this forceful advocate for transparency is ready totest his own informational boundaries a bit.

And Zuckerberg does open up a little to the New Yorker, admitting that he's red-green colorblind, and explaining the Mandarin lessons he's been taking: They're for a scheduled vacation with girlfriend to Priscilla Chan to China. And Chan, it turns out, is finally moving in with Zuck.

Then there's Zuckerberg's defacto unfriending of Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter behind Zuckerberg's least favorite Facebook movie The Social Network. The CEO had listed Sorkin's TV show The West Wing as a "favorite" on his Facebook profile, only to remove it under questioning from Vargas. Now Zuckerberg's re-favorited the West Wing. Curious. Apparently living under the new social norms can lead to old school regret. Even if you're Mark Zuckerberg.

Read more - http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling-users-dumb-fucks?skyline=true&s=i

$823,200 of economic stimulus funds spent to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex -

$823,200 of economic stimulus funds spent to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex - 



The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

The genitalia-washing program is part of a larger $12-million UCLA study examining how to better encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling – however, only the penis-washing study received money from the 2009 economic stimulus law. The washing portion of the study is set to end in 2011.

“NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications,” the grant abstract states. “We propose to evaluate the feasibility of a post-coital genital hygiene study among men unwilling to be circumcised in Orange Farm, South Africa.”

Because AIDS researchers have been unsuccessful in convincing most adult African men to undergo circumcision, the UCLA study proposes to determine whether researchers can develop an after-sex genitalia-washing regimen that they can then convince uncircumcised African men to follow.

“The aim of the proposed feasibility study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a post-coital male genital hygiene procedure, which participants will be asked to practice immediately post-coitus or at least 12 hours after,” reads the abstract.

Entitled “Community-Based HIV VCT: South Africa,” the name of the broader umbrella project, the program plans to test how well received the penis-washing regimen is among South African men.

If most of the men in the study wash their genitals after sex, are willing to do so after the study ends, and report that their partners accept the regimen, the researchers will develop another study to see if the “penile cleansing procedure” actually works to prevent HIV infections.

“If we find that men are able to practice consistent washing practices after sex, we will plan to test whether this might protect men from becoming HIV infected in a later study,” the grant says.

The study’s lead investigator Dr. Thomas J. Coates was the fourth highest-funded researcher in the country in 2002 and is currently conducting HIV research on three continents.

CNSNews.com asked both Coates and NIMH the following question: “The Census Bureau says the median household income in the United States is $52,000. How would you explain to the average American mom and dad -- who make $52,000 per year -- that taxing them to pay for this grant was justified?”

Clean, Green Senate Leader Harry Reid rolled up to the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas in a fleet of giant SUVs -

Clean, Green Senate Leader Harry Reid rolled up to the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas in a fleet of giant SUVs - 



Clean, Green Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rolled up to the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. . . in a fleet of giant SUVs.

The Heartland Institute reports that while the Senate Majority Hypocrite "and other high-profile environmental activists blasted carbon-based fuels at the Reid-sponsored summit, Reid and other bigwigs were caught on film driving to and from the summit in several SUVs."

"I was absolutely astonished, not to mention appalled, that Harry Reid would retain a fleet of gas-guzzling SUVs so that he and a few aides would not have to walk the mere 100 yards to address environmental activists," said Heartland Institute Senior Fellow James M. Taylor, who took the attached photo. "If greenhouse gas emissions are such a problem, you would think Reid might have actually made the short stroll through the parking lot, or at least retain Priuses rather than large SUVs for the summit," said Taylor.

Reid's arrogance is routine in Washington where pols ride in Secret Service-provided GMC Yukons and Chevy Suburbans while denouncing SUVs as wasteful transportation to the peasants.

Congressman Ron Paul Hints At 2012 Presidential Campaign -

Congressman Ron Paul Hints At 2012 Presidential Campaign -







Texas Congressman Ron Paul has hinted that he is strongly considering another Presidential run in 2012.
Paul, who previously ran for the Republican nomination in 2008 and under the Libertarian Party in 1988, told an interviewer that “It’s something I think about every single day,”.
The Congressman’s comments came during an interview with his former House colleague, Bob Bauman, legal counsel for The Sovereign Society – an independent investment advisory group.
Paul said it would “be a tough decision”, but that he believes the American people are ready to embrace a new political direction.
The comments have not been picked by by mainstream media sources as of yet.
The Congressman has previously downplayed rumours of another Presidential campaign, saying it is unlikely. However, following a string of successes in recent surveys and straw polls, including victory in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) presidential straw poll, it seems Paul is now reconsidering his earlier statements.


Read more - http://www.prisonplanet.com/congressman-ron-paul-hints-at-2012-presidential-campaign.html

Molly on the Couch - Live!

Molly on the Couch - Live!