Saturday, February 11, 2012

MEXICAN VIOLENCE - LA RAZA IS THE MOST VIOLENT CULTURE IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE!

EVERY DAY THERE ARE 12 AMERICANS MURDERED BY LA RAZA "THE RACE" ILLEGALS FROM MEXICO!

THERE HAVE BEEN MORE THAN 2,000 CALIFORNIANS MURDERED BY ILLEGALS THAT FLED BACK OVER THE  BORDER TO AVOID PROSECUTION.

ACCORDING TO CA ATTORNEY GENERAL KAMAL HARRIS, NEARLY HALF OF ALL MURDERS IN CA ARE BY MEXICAN GANGS!

OF THE TOP 200 MOST WANTED MURDERS IN LOS ANGELES, 176 ARE MEXICANS, AND MOST OF THE REST RUSSIANS!



Friends of ALIPAC,

Many of us have relatives and family members, including many college students, who want to visit Mexico as tourists as if there are no major problems with this course of action. The government of Mexico is one of the biggest sponsors and supporters of illegal immigration into America, and Mexican cartels import over 90% of the illegals and addictive illicit drugs coming in.
For those of you that read our homepage often at www.ALIPAC.us you are aware of the mass graves, beheadings, grenade attacks, and other mayhem in Mexico. If you are an ALIPAC supporter living near our Southern Border, or in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, etc... then you already know about the violence spilling over into America from Mexico.


Please share this information with friends and relatives, especially young college students, to keep them and their dollars OUT OF MEXICO!

VACATION DESTINATION MEXICO BLOODBATH: 120 Americans murdered in Mexico last year!

http://www.alipac.us/content/120-americans-murdered-mexico-last-year-cnn-165/


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9 Days Till Fund Raising Letters Go Out! Please make your first donation of 2012 right away!

We are off to a strong start with our first funds drive of 2012. As all of you should know, this is a make or break fundraiser for us as we had to shut down operations in December and rebuild our organization and website. The good news is that we have improved almost every aspect of our operations and are on track to come back in 2012 stronger and more capable than before.

We just need your support to succeed in our fight against illegal immigration and Amnesty.

Please use our secure online donations page to contribute by credit card, Paypal, mail, or phone right away!

Current amount raised: $10,000
Minimum Fund Raising Goal by March 20: $30,000
Days till mailer processed: 9
Days till funds deadline: 37

Click Here to Donate!
http://www.alipac.us/donations/

Obama to unveil budget with higher taxes, more deficits - Washington Times - SOMEONE MUST PAY FOR THE ECONOMIC TERRORISM OF OBAMA'S CRIMINAL BANKSTERS

Obama to unveil budget with higher taxes, more deficits - Washington Times


OBAMA HAS HANDED THE ECONOMY OVER TO THE VERY WALL ST. CRIMINALS THAT DESTROYED THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS!

NOW OBAMA NEEDS HELP BUILDING HIS LA RAZA "THE RACE" PARTY BASE OF ILLEGALS. DREAM ACTS COST MUCHO PESOS! HANDING OUR JOBS OVER TO "CHEAP" LABOR ILLEGALS COST THE ECONOMY, BUT SAVES OBAMA'S WALL ST PAYMASTERS!

E-VERIFY - OBAMA SABOTAGES TO PUT HIS LA RAZA "THE RACE" PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS IN OUR JOBS TO BUY THEIR ILLEGAL VOTES!

OBAMA’S AGENDA OF BUYING THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” ILLEGALS’ VOTES BY EASING THEM INTO OUR JOBS! THIS KEEPS WAGES DEPRESSED, AND THEREFORE OBAMA’S WALL ST. DONORS HAPPY AND GENEROUS!


If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory - TheHill.com

OBAMA'S LA RAZA DEPT. of JUSTICE, WHEN NOT ARMING THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS, IS HARASSING AMERICAN STATES WITH LAWSUITS, FIGHTING AGAINST IDs TO EASE ILLEGALS INTO OUR VOTING BOOTHS, AND FIGHTING E-VERIFY!

 THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT (8) STATES WITH A POPULATION GREATER THAN LOS ANGELES COUNTY WHERE HALF OR MORE JOBS GO TO ILLEGAL USING STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS! THIS SAME COUNTY PAYS OUT $600 MILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS!

 THE LA RAZA FACTION OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE PASSED A LAW SIGNED BY LA RAZA DEM, GOV JERRY BROWN MAKING IT ILLEGAL FOR EMPLOYERS TO USE E-VERIFY!!!

 LOS ANGELES IS THE MEX GANG CAPITAL OF AMERICAN, AND GATEWAY FOR THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS!

 VIVA LA RAZA SUPREMACY? IT'S WHAT OBAMA DOES EVERY DAY!

DEMS ARE THE PARTY FOR ILLEGALS = DEPRESSED WAGES AND HAPPY DONORS!

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OBAMA PUT A LA RAZA SUPREMACIST IN AS SEC. OF LABOR TO ASSURE ILLEGALS GET OUR JOBS FIRST!


“Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman with close ties to the influential La Raza movement, announced the “We Can Help” project with great fanfare a few days ago.”

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If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory

By Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) - 06/14/11 04:30 PM ET

In a speech delivered during a campaign fundraising trip to Texas last month, President Obama called for Congress to approve comprehensive immigration reform, also known as "amnesty." Meanwhile, the president and his administration claim that putting unemployed Americans back to work is their No. 1 priority.

But these two goals cannot be met simultaneously. The president cannot say on one hand that he wants to create jobs and on the other that he wants to legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Amnesty prevents Americans from getting jobs, since millions of illegal immigrants will become eligible to work legally in the United States. The president's proposal to legalize millions of illegal immigrants means more competition for American workers who are in need of jobs.

Look at history to see how amnesty has played out in the past. In 1986, Congress legalized about 3 million illegal immigrants. It didn't fix the problem; it only made it worse. Today, there are more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and 7 million people work here illegally. At the same time, 26 million Americans are unemployed or have given up looking for work.

It is inexcusable that Americans and legal workers have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs. Rather than reward lawbreakers, we should put American workers first.

Fortunately, there is a free, quick and easy tool available to preserve jobs for legal workers: E-Verify. But the program is currently voluntary. Congress has the opportunity to expand E-Verify so more job opportunities are made available to unemployed Americans. There is no other legislation that can be enacted that will create more jobs -- maybe millions more -- for American workers.

Created in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, E-Verify is a Web-based system that allows employers to electronically verify the work eligibility of newly hired employees.

Under E-Verify, the Social Security numbers of new hires are checked against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to weed out fraudulent numbers and help ensure that new hires are legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Even though E-Verify is not mandatory, more than 250,000 businesses willingly use E-Verify and 1,300 new businesses sign up each week. Individuals eligible to work receive immediate confirmation 99.5 percent of the time.

Unlike amnesty, E-Verify has received overwhelming bipartisan support since its creation as a pilot program in 1996. It was extended in 2002, 2008 and 2010. In 2008, the House passed a standalone five-year extension of E-Verify by a vote of 407-2. And in 2009, the Senate passed a permanent E-Verify extension by voice vote.

Part of the success of E-Verify is that participating employers are happy with the results. Outside evaluations have found that the vast majority of employers using E-Verify believe it to be an effective and reliable tool for checking the legal status of their employees.

And E-Verify recently received an exceptionally high overall customer satisfaction score -- 82 out of 100 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index scale. That is well above the overall federal government satisfaction index of 69.

The American people also support E-Verify. A May 2011 Rasmussen poll found that 82 percent of likely voters think businesses should be required to use the federal government's E-Verify system to determine if a potential employee is in the country legally.

And a 2010 Zogby poll of minorities commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 88 percent of likely minority voters polled support reducing the illegal immigrant population over time by enforcing existing immigration laws, such as requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers.

With millions of citizens and legal workers looking for work, it is important that we promote policies that increase job opportunities for Americans and legal immigrants. Amnesty undermines this goal, but making E-Verify mandatory helps achieve it.

As long as opportunities for illegal employment exist, the incentive to enter the United States illegally or to overstay visas will continue.

If job creation is the president's priority, then he should push Congress to pass mandatory E-Verify legislation. We cannot sit and hope that businesses hire only legal workers; hope is not a strategy. E-Verify is our best tool for reducing the jobs magnet and creating more jobs for American workers.

Smith is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Source:
http://thehill.com/special-reports/immigration-june-2011/166421-if-job-creation-is-the-goal-make-e-verify-mandatory
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http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2012/01/e-verify-obama-sabotages-our-laws.html


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AN AMERICAN SEES & SPEAKS!
THE REASON OBAMA NOMINATED SOTOMAYER WAS BECAUSE SHE’S A “WISE LATINA” BITCH, AND HAD LONG HISTORY OF PANDERING FOR BIG BUSINESS INTERESTS, LIKE OBAMA! IT DIDN’T HURT THAT SOTOMAYER IS A MEMBER OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA “THE RACE”, AS YOU DON’T WORK IN OBAMA’S ADMIN UNLESS YOU’RE LA RAZA OR BANKSTER CONNECTED!!!

Sonia Sotomayor opposes E-Verify requirement

True to form, she said it was illegal to make employers e-verify citizen status of new hires.

Interesting, she says a state cannot force employers to check if employees they are hiring are illegal. Thankfully the court ruled 5-3 supporting law. But now we know for sure just how extreme far left Obama's choice was. We cannot afford Obama to get another term, or you can bet this country will be overrun by illegals. I don't want this country to be poor and corrupt like Mexico, which it will if illegals overrun the country.


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“PUNISH OUR ENEMIES”… does that mean assault the legals of Arizona that must fend off the Mexican invasion, occupation, growing criminal and welfare state, as well as Mex Drug cartels???

OBAMA TELLS ILLEGALS “PUNISH OUR ENEMIES”


Friends of ALIPAC,
Each day new reports come in from across the nation that our movement is surging and more incumbents, mostly Democrats, are about to fall on Election Day. Obama's approval ratings are falling to new lows as he makes highly inappropriate statements to Spanish language audiences asking illegal alien supporters to help him "punish our enemies."


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July 13, 2011

‘Backdoor Amnesty’: A Republican Chides Obama

To the Editor:

Your July 13 editorial “The Forgetful Mr. Smith” took a sentence in a letter several colleagues and I sent to the Clinton administration out of context, so you didn’t give your readers the whole story.

This letter requested that the Immigration and Naturalization Service issue guidelines for removal proceedings in the most sympathetic cases: those that involve legal — not illegal — immigrants who committed a single minor crime but have been law-abiding residents ever since.

While this authority is justifiable when used responsibly on a case-by-case basis, it’s clear that the Obama administration plans to abuse it. In recent years, Congress has defeated amnesty for illegal immigrants several times, but this has not stopped President Obama from trying to implement a backdoor amnesty. Over the last year, the Obama administration has ignored the will of Congress and the American people by using executive branch authority to allow illegal immigrants to remain living and working in the United States.

That is why I have introduced a bill to prevent the Obama administration from abusing this power. The Obama administration should not pick and choose which laws it will enforce. Congress must put a halt to this administrative amnesty.

LAMAR SMITH
Washington, July 13, 2011

The writer, a Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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Obama Administration Challenges Arizona E-Verify Law

The Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a 2007 Arizona law that punishes employers who hire illegal aliens, a law enacted by then-Governor Janet Napolitano.  (Solicitor General's Amicus Curiae Brief).  Called the “Legal Arizona Workers Act,” the law requires all employers in Arizona to use E-Verify and provides that the business licenses of those who hire illegal workers shall be repealed.  From the date of enactment, the Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups have been trying to undo it, attacking it through a failed ballot initiative and also through a lawsuit. Now the Chamber is asking the United States Supreme Court to hear the case (Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria), and the Obama Administration is weighing in against the law.

To date, Arizona’s E-Verify law has been upheld by all lower courts, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit, in particular, viewed it as an exercise of a state’s traditional power to regulate businesses.  (San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 2010).  Obama’s Justice Department, however, disagrees. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said in his filing with the Supreme Court that the lower courts were wrong to uphold the statute because federal immigration law expressly preempts any state law imposing sanctions on employers hiring illegal immigrants.  Mr. Katyal argues that this is not a licensing law, but “a statute that prohibits the hiring of unauthorized aliens and uses suspension and revocation of all state-issued licenses as its ultimate sanction.”  (Solicitor General's Amicus Curiae Brief, p. 10).  This is the administration’s first court challenge to a state’s authority to act against illegal immigration, and could be a preview of the battle brewing over Arizona’s recent illegal immigration crackdown through SB 1070. 

Napolitano has made no comment on the Department of Justice’s decision to challenge the 2007 law, but federal officials said that she has taken an active part in the debate over whether to do so. (Politico, May 28, 2010).   As Governor of Arizona, Napolitano said she believed the state law was valid and became a defendant in the many lawsuits against it. (Id.).

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JOE LEGAL vs LA RAZA PARTY MEMBER JOSE ILLEGAL - JOSE GETS THE AMERICAN JOBS WITH A STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. JOE GRINGO GETS THE TAX BILLS TO PAY FOR ALL JOSE'S ILLEGAL CHILDREN BORN IN OUR BORDERS! THESE "ANCHORS" WILL GET 18 YEARS OF WELFARE AND THEN JOIN A MEX GANG!

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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman with close ties to the influential La Raza movement, announced the “We Can Help” project with great fanfare a few days ago.”

FROM JUDICIAL WATCH. org – get on their emails!

Labor Dept. Helps Illegal Alien Workers

Last Updated: Tue, 04/06/2010 - 11:04am

The Department of Labor has launched a special program to assist and protect illegal immigrant workers in the U.S., referred to as “vulnerable” and “underpaid” by the presidential cabinet member who heads the agency.

Hundreds of new field investigators have been deployed to reach out to Latino laborers in areas with large numbers of illegal alien employees. Their message, in Spanish, is “we can help” bring workplace protections to the nation’s most vulnerable and underpaid workers, including those who have no legal right to live in the Untied States.

(THE OBAMA PLAN TO PUT ILLEGALS INTO OUR JOBS AND VOTING  BOOTHS!)

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman with close ties to the influential La Raza movement, announced the “We Can Help” project with great fanfare a few days ago. A total of 1,000 investigators from her agency will focus on enforcing labor and wage laws in industries that typically hire lots of illegal aliens without reporting anyone to federal immigration authorities.

(WHO WORKS FOR THE RIGHTFUL JOBS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS? WHO ENFORCES THE LAWS THAT PROHIBIT THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS, EVEN IF THEY HAVE A STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER? NOT THE LA RAZA DEMS, OR HISPANDERING BARACK OBAMA!)

Solis told Latino workers that “your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay, especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours.” She assured illegal immigrants that “if you work in this country, you are protected by our laws.”

The same day Solis publicly announced the Obama Administration’s new project, a Labor Department investigator visited a day laborer center in northern California to promote it. The federal employee actually chatted warmly with the illegal immigrants about how to find jobs without being exploited, according to a local newspaper report. “We’re the feds but the good ones,” he told the day laborers in Spanish. “We’re here to help workers.”

The agency has also launched a Spanish television advertising campaign to spread the word and created a web site. Workers in industries from construction to food service are urged to contact the Labor Department of wage and hour violations. An investigator may be deployed to the work site or the employer may be taken to court.

EMAIL THIS POSTING FROM THE BLOT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
POST THE LINK ON CL!

E-VERIFY - If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory - TheHill.com

If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory - TheHill.com

OBAMA'S LA RAZA DEPT. of JUSTICE, WHEN NOT ARMING THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS, IS HARASSING AMERICAN STATES WITH LAWSUITS, FIGHTING AGAINST IDs TO EASE ILLEGALS INTO OUR VOTING BOOTHS, AND FIGHTING E-VERIFY!

THERE ARE ONLY EIGHT (8) STATES WITH A POPULATION GREATER THAN LOS ANGELES COUNTY WHERE HALF OR MORE JOBS GO TO ILLEGAL USING STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS! THIS SAME COUNTY PAYS OUT $600 MILLION PER YEAR IN WEFLARE TO ILLEGALS!

THE LA RAZA FACTION OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE PASSED A LAW SIGNED BY LA RAZA DEM, GOV JERRY BROWN MAKING IT ILLEGAL FOR EMPLOYERS TO USE E-VERIFY!!!

LOS ANGELES IS THE MEX GANG CAPITAL OF AMERICAN, AND GATEWAY FOR THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS!

VIVA LA RAZA SUPREMACY? IT'S WHAT OBAMA DOES EVERY DAY!

DEMS ARE THE PARTY FOR ILLEGALS = DEPRESSED WAGES AND HAPPY DONORS!

If job creation is the goal, make E-Verify mandatory

By Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) - 06/14/11 04:30 PM ET



In a speech delivered during a campaign fundraising trip to Texas last month, President Obama called for Congress to approve comprehensive immigration reform, also known as "amnesty." Meanwhile, the president and his administration claim that putting unemployed Americans back to work is their No. 1 priority.

But these two goals cannot be met simultaneously. The president cannot say on one hand that he wants to create jobs and on the other that he wants to legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Amnesty prevents Americans from getting jobs, since millions of illegal immigrants will become eligible to work legally in the United States. The president's proposal to legalize millions of illegal immigrants means more competition for American workers who are in need of jobs.
Look at history to see how amnesty has played out in the past. In 1986, Congress legalized about 3 million illegal immigrants. It didn't fix the problem; it only made it worse. Today, there are more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and 7 million people work here illegally. At the same time, 26 million Americans are unemployed or have given up looking for work.

It is inexcusable that Americans and legal workers have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs. Rather than reward lawbreakers, we should put American workers first.

Fortunately, there is a free, quick and easy tool available to preserve jobs for legal workers: E-Verify. But the program is currently voluntary. Congress has the opportunity to expand E-Verify so more job opportunities are made available to unemployed Americans. There is no other legislation that can be enacted that will create more jobs -- maybe millions more -- for American workers.

Created in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, E-Verify is a Web-based system that allows employers to electronically verify the work eligibility of newly hired employees.

Under E-Verify, the Social Security numbers of new hires are checked against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to weed out fraudulent numbers and help ensure that new hires are legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Even though E-Verify is not mandatory, more than 250,000 businesses willingly use E-Verify and 1,300 new businesses sign up each week. Individuals eligible to work receive immediate confirmation 99.5 percent of the time.

Unlike amnesty, E-Verify has received overwhelming bipartisan support since its creation as a pilot program in 1996. It was extended in 2002, 2008 and 2010. In 2008, the House passed a standalone five-year extension of E-Verify by a vote of 407-2. And in 2009, the Senate passed a permanent E-Verify extension by voice vote.

Part of the success of E-Verify is that participating employers are happy with the results. Outside evaluations have found that the vast majority of employers using E-Verify believe it to be an effective and reliable tool for checking the legal status of their employees.

And E-Verify recently received an exceptionally high overall customer satisfaction score -- 82 out of 100 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index scale. That is well above the overall federal government satisfaction index of 69.

The American people also support E-Verify. A May 2011 Rasmussen poll found that 82 percent of likely voters think businesses should be required to use the federal government's E-Verify system to determine if a potential employee is in the country legally.

And a 2010 Zogby poll of minorities commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 88 percent of likely minority voters polled support reducing the illegal immigrant population over time by enforcing existing immigration laws, such as requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers.

With millions of citizens and legal workers looking for work, it is important that we promote policies that increase job opportunities for Americans and legal immigrants. Amnesty undermines this goal, but making E-Verify mandatory helps achieve it.

As long as opportunities for illegal employment exist, the incentive to enter the United States illegally or to overstay visas will continue.

If job creation is the president's priority, then he should push Congress to pass mandatory E-Verify legislation. We cannot sit and hope that businesses hire only legal workers; hope is not a strategy. E-Verify is our best tool for reducing the jobs magnet and creating more jobs for American workers.

Smith is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.


Source:
http://thehill.com/special-reports/immigration-june-2011/166421-if-job-creation-is-the-goal-make-e-verify-mandatory

Obama budget cuts health spending by $360 billion - TO PAY FOR THE ECONOMIC TERRORISM of HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTERS' LOOTING!

Obama budget cuts health spending by $360 billion - The Hill's Healthwatch




 Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).

 HERE’S HOW IT WENT DOWN:
BEFORE HE STARTED HIS FIRST DAY IN OFFICE, OBAMA HAD ALREADY TAKEN MORE BRIBES FROM CRIMINAL BANKSTERS THAN ANY POLITICIAN IN HISTORY! WHAT DID THE BANKSTERS KNOW THAT WE DIDN’T?

OBAMA IMMEDIATELY WENT TO WORK PULLING THE MOST CORRUPT OF BUSH’S WALL ST BANKSTERS TOGETHER, LIKE BUSH’S ARCHITECT FOR BANKSTER BAILOUTS, TIM GEITHNER, TO WRITE THE BANKSTERS’ NO-STRING BAILOUTS AS DICTATED BY HIS DONORS!

THEN OBAMA BROUGHT IN TWO OF THE MOST CORRUPT AND BANKSTER-OWNED POLITICIANS, CHRIS DODD AND BARNEY FRANK TO HAMMER OUT A BANKSTER APPROVED “REGULATION”, WHICH WAS UTTERLY AS WORTHLESS TO CONSUMERS AS THESE BANKSTERS COULD BUY. THE BANKSTERS ARE ALREADY BUYING POLITICIANS TO UNWIND THE LIMP REFORMS!

EVEN AS A NATION GRAPPLES WITH ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, AND MILLIONS OF AMERICANS HAVE LOST THEIR LIFE SAVINGS DUE TO THE CRIMES OF THESE BANKSTERS, THEIR PROFITS HAVE SOARED!!!!!!!!

BANKSTERS’ PROFITS UNDER THEIR BOY OBAMA ARE GREATER IN THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF HIS CORRUPT ADMIN ARE GREATER THAN ALL EIGHT YEARS OF BANKSTERS’ PILLAGE UNDER BUSH!

The terms of the agreement are entirely favorable to the banks, while doing little or nothing to aid the millions of people who have been devastated by the collapse of the US housing market.

Obama administration brokers pro-bank mortgage fraud settlement

By Joseph Kishore
10 February 2012

The Obama administration announced on Thursday a settlement between five major banks and federal and state governments over massive fraud relating to home foreclosures. The terms of the agreement are entirely favorable to the banks, while doing little or nothing to aid the millions of people who have been devastated by the collapse of the US housing market.

Government officials reported that the final deal is valued at about $25 billion spread out over a multi-year period. This is a paltry sum in relationship to the extent of the housing crisis, the profits of the banks and the scale of corporate criminality. However, only a small portion of this would come from direct financial sanctions on the banks.

Forty-nine of the 50 US states signed on to the settlement with the five banks—JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America (which bought mortgage firm Countrywide), and Ally Financial Inc. (formerly GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors). These five banks involved had net profits of $46 billion last year alone.

In exchange for the settlement, the banks will be released from liability for fraudulent and likely criminal activities. This includes “robo-signing,” in which the banks had employees sign hundreds of thousands of legal foreclosure documents without any knowledge of the underlying mortgages. Banks were also involved in forging documents. The true extent of the illegal operations is not known, and keeping this information secret is one of the aims of the settlement.

Evidence of these actions first emerged in 2010. States launched investigations in response, and the Obama administration stepped in to package these investigations and lead them to a settlement favorable to the banks. Over the past several weeks, the administration has placed heavy pressure on several state holdouts to sign on to the deal.

Of particular importance for Bank of America is the fact that the settlement will end a lawsuit filed by Nevada and Arizona over allegations that the bank has been deceiving homeowners seeking to participate in a refinancing program.

Only about $5 billion of the settlement will take the form of direct payments, including, according to government officials, a payment of about $2,000 to some individuals who had their homes foreclosed between September 2008 and December 2011.

Despite the evidence of fraud, no one will get their home back. Since 2007, there have been some 4 million home foreclosures.

About $17 billion will come from the modification of existing loans, spaced over a three-year time period. Details are still emerging, but it is evident that decisions on what loans to modify will be left to the banks themselves. Many of the loans have already been packaged off and sold to investors (“securitized”), thus minimizing the impact on bank assets.

The $17 billion in loan modifications is a tiny fraction of the total negative equity (the value of loans in relation to the value of the underling houses) of $700 billion to $750 billion. The deal will affect less than 10 percent of US homeowners who are “under water.”

An additional $3 billion is to come in the form of mortgage refinancing, again left to the discretion of the banks.

The banks will be tasked with self-reporting their actions. The industry and the state attorneys general selected North Carolina banking commissioner Joseph Smith to “oversee” the agreement and determine whether the banks are in compliance based on the bank reports. Smith is a former bank lawyer with close ties to the industry.

Markets reacted enthusiastically to the terms, and bank stocks rose Thursday. The banks involved already have set aside funds that cover the amount of the agreement. Indeed, since many banks have written down the value of their existing loans, the agreement could have a positive net impact on their balance sheets.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a panacea for the housing industry,” commented Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg, “but it is good for the banks to get this behind them.”

Perversely, the deal will likely lead to a surge in home foreclosures, with banks now confident that they can proceed with business as usual. Bloomberg News commented, “Lenders slowed the pace of foreclosures as they negotiated with attorneys general in all 50 states for more than a year… With today’s agreement, banks are likely to resume property seizures.” Increased foreclosures will also lead to a further fall in home prices.

In hailing the deal, Obama said that it would “speed relief to the hardest-hit homeowners, end some of the most abusive practices of the mortgage industry, and begin to turn the page on an era of recklessness that has left so much damage in its wake.”

In fact, as with every component of the administration’s policy, the agreement will leave things entirely as they are, while giving a free pass to corporate criminals responsible for the economic crisis.


ISN’T OBAMA SIMPLY BUSH’S THIRD TERM, BUT EVEN MORE CORRUPT???

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“There is, however, nothing paradoxical about this. The crash of 2008 was set off by the collapse of an enormous speculative bubble. Since that time, world governments, led by Washington, have scrambled to ensure the wealth of the very financial aristocracy that created the crisis, at the direct expense of the vast majority of the population.”