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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Say What?

Today, the Los Angeles Times has an article about the Mayor and City Council criticizing the Wall Street bail out plan. (quotes from the article are in bold, below)

This is all well and good, but time and again, the City Council admonishes public speakers that they are to talk about subjects that "are under the jurisdiction of the Council," and frequently cut the microphones of the speaker when they determine that the person is "off-topic."

So why then is the Mayor and City Council taking a position on the Wall Street bail out plan? It is a Federal plan, and has nothing to do with Los Angeles City Hall, other than, perhaps, some bad city investments.

Like the rest of us, you have to suck it up when times are bad. That's why incompetence running the City of Los Angeles during a good economy is intolerable.

"'No way do I want to give the secretary of the Treasury unbridled power,' said Councilman Bill Rosendahl."

Why is anyone from the Council making a public statement on a Federal issue, if it doesn't fall under the L.A. City Council's jurisdiction? And isn't it the L.A. City Council that mismanaged us into a $500,000,000 debt?

That's like, well, I don't know what it's like. But it sure as hell is hypocritical.

The article goes on to say that a lot of the City's nervousness comes from City officials having "voiced anxiety about their ability to borrow money to pay for upcoming initiatives."

A major reason that the City is unable to get better lending terms is because of its teetering credit and debt problems. If the Mayor and City Council did a better job of running the city when the economy was healthy, it wouldn't be in such a jam during tough times like these.

Unfortunately, the Times' Mr. Zahniser overlooked that point in his article.

A while back, I predicted even larger DWP rate hikes. In the article, Councilmember Tony Cardenas confirms that that's where we're heading. "If this continues in the way it has over the last few weeks, then it's inevitable that the department's going to have to look at our water and power rates," he said.

If we re-elect people who continue to sink the City of Los Angeles, and we expect a different outcome in their next term, we are by definition, insane.

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Of course, the City Council and Mayor believe they have a "right" to discuss/criticize/disapprove the financial bailout -- they voted regarding the war in Irag. They "no confidence" vote regarding the POTUS (if it's a Republican). Didn't you know that they are all "emporers in the making"? And when one cannot manage one's own house, why not criticize the next-door neighbors.

September 24, 2008 7:49 AM  

Blogger mary whoopee said:

Exactly, Ms. Haikula. It's like when they issued their official condemnation of the war in Iraq; (as if once the troops got wind of the L.A. City Council's collective thumbs-down, they'd all mutiny and come home.) Did you notice the mini-presentation by Tony Cardenas' brother Ernie, commissioner of the ten charities favored by city workers? They include the Brotherhood Crusade, The United Latino Fund, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Sheesh. And how dare ANY charity try to hit us up for money these days! But maybe I should just start my own: the "Feed-the-Homeowners-Stupid- Enough-to-Pay-Off-Their-Mortgages-and-Now-Have-to-Bail-Out-Everyone-Else" fund.

September 24, 2008 8:24 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

L.A. needs a new mayor!

September 24, 2008 9:38 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

This might be a good time to stop fee waivers, City sponsored events, and no more money to the parents of anchor babies.

September 24, 2008 10:27 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

THEY ARE ALL A BUNCH OF LOSERS!!! EVERY COMMUNITY MEETING HAS PEOPLE SPEAKING OUT AND CRITICIZING THIS BUNCH OF INCOMPETENT MORONS. YET EMBICLES LIKE JANICE HAHN WANTS US TO FORK OVER $30 FOR GANG BANGERS TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE. I DONT' THINK SO.

September 24, 2008 11:01 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Where is Sarah Palin's ideas on the economy and Wall Street bailout?


"NEW YORK – Republican presidential candidate John McCain met Wednesday with a panel of business executives to seek their opinions on the Bush administration's proposed $700 million bailout of U.S. financial markets.

McCain said he wanted to discuss "how we can make sure that the American people regain confidence on Main Street so that they can regain their confidence in Wall Street and in Washington." He renewed his insistence that the bailout deal have greater transparency, oversight and CEO accountability to make it acceptable to voters.

"Most Americans feel very strongly this isn't their fault. It's Wall Street and Washington and the cozy insider relationships that have caused a great part of the problems," he said.

Flanking McCain were former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, his one-time rival for the GOP presidential nomination, and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Others in the meeting were John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, and John Thain, the CEO of Merrill Lynch before it was acquired by Bank of America earlier this month for a much-reduced value.

A survey by The Associated Press found that Thain was the best-paid corporate executive in the U.S. in 2007, receiving approximately $83.1 million in salary and bonuses that year."

September 24, 2008 11:16 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Here is a smart LipStick speaking about Wall Street bailout !!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S27yitK32ds

September 24, 2008 11:24 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

It might be a better time for the Council to vote themselves out of existence, unless we voters do it for them... we can include villar in the same proposition.

September 24, 2008 12:01 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

These effing Mexicans can barely speak English!

I would LOVE to see Villar, Cardenas, Huizar, Reyes, Alarcon, etc. pitted against Paulson, Bernanke, and all the titans of Wall Street....with the tv cameras rolling!!!!

Collectively, they have the vocabulary of a third grader...even in their own language, Mexican!

What we have here in LA is a Mexican drug cartel sitting in the hallowed halls of the grand city council chambers...a thieving bunch of third world anchor babies who gerrymandered their way into our AMERICAN politics!

We have a Mexican kleptocracy that has commandeered the take-over of LA...THEY BROUGHT ON THE SUB-PRIME DEBACLE WITH ALL OF THE MEXICANS AND ILLEGALS GETTING FAKE LOANS TO BUY HOUSES THEY NEVER COULD AFFORD AND NOW THEY HAVE THE CHUTZPAH AND AUDACITY TO PARADE THEIR IGNORANCE AND STUPIDITY IN PUBLIC! UNBELIEVEABLE!

We need to put Villar and his gang of 15 on trial! They destroyed our city and the economy.

WHO IN THE HELL DOES VILLAR THINK HE IS???? THE WORLD KNOWS HOW HE HAS TRASHED LA! HE SHOULD BE PACKING HIS BAGS AND RUNNING BACK TO MEXICO WITH HIS TAIL BETWEEN HIS LEGS! AND TAKE ALL THE ILLEGALS WITH HIM! HE REALLY CAN BE INDICTED ON RICO CHARGES...HE IS A CRIMINAL!

September 24, 2008 1:26 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

THESE LA POLITICOS SOUND LIKE THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK!! THEY SHOULD WORRY ABOUT THEIR OWN HOUSE NOT WALL STREET HOUSE THEY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS MESS!!!

September 24, 2008 1:36 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

It's ironic that Alarcon criticizes this plan, but put forth a motion to get Council and City to bail out the illegals in his district who took out loans they weren't qualified to pay back, because they were "non English speakers" who didn't bother to get translations before signing legal documents. Hey, it's just gringo words in gringo-land, nada, and if it doesn't work out, they'll go home to Mexico, like after a hit and run or if by some amazing circumstance, the heat is actually about to come down on them for committing crimes and banging.

California leads the foreclosures, and a huge percent of them are Latinos who mostly came illegally.

Law-abiding "gringos" who rent because they know they couldn't afford the prices naturally don't want to bail them out now. Or the white trash who also signed papers they couldn't read. How stupid to claim you "didn't know" you have a balloon payment coming due with your interest? If you get a teaser rate for only 2 years, what does that mean, dummies?

September 24, 2008 2:20 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The more I think about it...the more I WELCOME THE MELTDOWN!

Just think, folks, if the entire US economy tanks, all of the criminals and crooks, i.e. Villar & Co., will be out of a job and disgraced for life!

For those of us who are paying our mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, etc....life will go on as usual! We control our own destinies! We choose whether or not to invest in the equities market, and we decide when to pull out! If the stock market takes a HUGE hit...what a buying opportunity!

The greatest 'unintended consequence' of the meltdown is that millions of illegals will go back to Mexico! Just think about it...they will be GONE!

We will be able to finally elect honest AMERICANS to lead our city! They will in turn stop ALL entitlements to illegals! LA will no longer be a sanctuary city! All sorts of good things will come of this economic meltdown!


The only ones who have to worry are the crooks! Their 'careers' will be finished!

I PRAY THAT THIS BAILOUT DOES NOT HAPPEN! PLEASE GOD!!! DON'T LET IT HAPPEN!

September 24, 2008 2:52 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Kill the bailout:

Illegal immigration and the mortgage mess

By Michelle Malkin • September 24, 2008 07:49 AM

My syndicated column today tackles the bailout angle no one wants to talk about: Open borders and the home loan debacle. You’ve heard a lot about Fannie/Freddie and the minority lending shakedowns, but you haven’t heard most commentators/analysts on either the left or the right talk about the massive illegal alien mortgage racket — a topic I’ve reported on for the past five years. That’s because fault lies at the feet of the crime-enabling banking industry and the ethnic lobbyists and the illegal alien-enabling Bush administration.

They screwed us. Now, they want us to fork over a trillion dollars.

Screw them.

Kill this bailout.

And I second Mark Krikorian: Credit is not a civil right. It’s not a civil right for illegal aliens. For foreign banks. For American banks. For anyone. The bailout proposal, as I noted earlier, now includes student loans and auto loan debt. Will our tax dollars next cover foreign student loan debts? Illegal alien in-state discounted college tuition debt? Where and when will it end?

Oh, but pardon me. I’m just being, you know, an ideological purist.

***

Illegal immigration and the mortgage mess
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008

The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers. As panicked politicians prepare to fork over a trillion dollars in taxpayer funding to rescue the financial industry, they’ve fingered regulation, deregulation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Community Reinvestment Act, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, both Bushes, greedy banks, greedy borrowers, greedy short-sellers, and minority home ownership mau-mauers (can’t call ‘em greedy, that would be racist) for blame.

But there’s one giant paternal elephant in the room that has slipped notice: How illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks, and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis.

It’s no coincidence that most of the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave – Loudon County, Virginia, California’s Inland Empire, Stockton, San Joaquin Valley, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, for starters — also happen to be some of the nation’s largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime (the accursed species of loan to borrowers with the shadiest credit histories). A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure.

Regional reports across the country have decried the subprime meltdown’s impact on illegal immigrant “victims.” A July report showed that in seven of the 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates, Hispanics represented at least one-third of the population; in two of those areas – Merced and Salinas-Monterey, Calif. – Hispanics comprised half the population. The amnesty-promoting National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund have received millions in federal funds to “counsel” their constituents on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a $10 million earmark for itself in one of the housing bills past this spring.

For the last five years, I’ve reported on the rapidly expanding illegal alien home loan racket. The top banks clamoring for their handouts as their profits plummet, led by Wachovia and Bank of America, launched aggressive campaigns to woo illegal alien homebuyers. The quasi-governmental Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority jumped in to guarantee home loans to illegal immigrants. The Washington Post noted, almost as an afterthought in a 2005 report: “Hispanics, the nation’s fastest-growing major ethnic or racial group, have been courted aggressively by real estate agents, mortgage brokers and programs for first-time buyers that offer help with closing costs. Ads proclaim: “Sin verificacion de ingresos ! Sin verificacion de documento !” — which loosely translates as, ‘Income tax forms are not required, nor are immigration papers.’”

In addition, fraudsters have engaged in massive house-flipping rings using illegal aliens as straw buyers. Among many examples cited by the FBI: a conspiracy in Las Vegas involving a former Nevada First Residential Mortgage Company branch manager who directed loan officers and processors in the origination of 233 fraudulent Federal Housing Authority loans valued at over $25 million. The defrauders manufactured and submitted false employment and income documentation for borrowers; most were illegal immigrants from Mexico. To date, the FBI reported, “58 loans with a total value of $6.2 million have gone into default, with a loss to the Housing and Urban Development Department of over $1.9 million.”

It’s the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to lax Bush administration-approved policies allowing illegal aliens to use “matricula consular cards” and taxpayer identification numbers to open bank accounts, more forms of mortgage fraud have burgeoned. Moneylenders still have no access to a verification system to check Social Security numbers before approving loans. In an interview about rampant illegal alien home loan fraud, a spokeswoman for the U.S. General Accounting Office told me five years ago:

“[C]onsidering the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and other large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated with illegal aliens, I don’t think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions.”

Chickens coming home to roost. And law-abiding, responsible taxpayers are going to pay for

September 24, 2008 2:55 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen (removes hat and bows low with flourish):

I should think that right about (Looks at compass that does not point north)........now.....would be a good time for the Valley to seriously discuss departure from the Mother City, much like you Yanks discussed departure from Mother England. For I have it on good authority from Miss Mimm at the Horseless Carriage that plans for such a thing have begun to take on a new life. Perhaps with a little help from Capt. Bonnet and his crew, this just might be accomplished. (Whispers) It's amazing what can be seriously contemplated over a cup of coffee and a sandwich while waiting for one's Jaguar to be serviced, savvy?

(Grins) Yes, you Yanks certainly did detach yourselves from Mother England, and it spite of it you did, if you will, turn out without any lingering side effects, savvy?

September 24, 2008 5:43 PM  

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