ET Williams

The Doctor of Common Sense

Whatever Happen? To Common

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Occupy Wall Street Idiots get help from Jimmy Hoffa Style Union

 

Idiots can be Useful

By: Meredith Somers

The Washington Times

With winter looming, labor unions fortify Occupy camp

Some of the country’s most powerful unions are providing the infrastructure and amenities to keep the Occupy D.C. encampment fortified going into the winter.

The camp’s portable toilets are being provided by the Service Employees International Union, the 2.1-million-member organization that helped Barack Obama win the presidency and recently backed his re-election bid.

The estimated 100 demonstrators staying each night in McPherson Square, just blocks from the White House, can take a hot shower at the AFL-CIO headquarters on16th Street Northwest.

“We happen to have a few showers associated with our small gym. From [10 a.m. to noon], we make those showers available,” said Jeff Hauser, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, the labor federation with more than 12 million members. “It happened kind of naturally. We’ve talked with them about the needs they’ve expressed. This really helps them, and it’s not a heavy lift on our part.”

A demonstrator said the encampment has designated a “shower coordinator” who takes Occupy protesters to the union building.

Demonstrators with the Occupy D.C. take to the streets of downtownWashington,D.C., Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, to show support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. (Rod Lamkey Jr./TheWashingtonTimes)

The tent-filled encampment, established in early October, also has a first-aid station with supplies and voluntary medical assistance from the National Nurses United, the country’s largest union of professional nurses.

Spokeswoman Donna Smith said Wednesday that nurses are volunteering at Occupy encampments across the country.

“It’s the basic things, little things for people who are outdoors for a period of time,” she said. “And it’s good to have that kind of interaction.”

Although officials have dismantled similar camps inNew York CityandOakland,Calif., the Occupy D.C. camp appears to be getting more organized and fortified, with a library, a media center and its own newspapers.

“The rise of inequality, the job crisis — we’re thankful their creative energy and persistence has helped elevate these critical issues,” Mr. Hauser said. “We want to be supportive.”

Occupy D.C. plans to march Thursday afternoon to the Key Bridge, which connects the city with Northern Virginia, to rally with labor organizations. However, there are no plans to block traffic, said Occupy demonstrator Dan Newell.

A clash between Occupy demonstrators and D.C. police last week near theWashingtonConvention Centerresulted in several injuries and arrests. But many protesters said Wednesday that they did not expect a clash at the bridge demonstration.

“We plan to keep traffic moving and keep people safe,” said Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump. “While large crowds can swell very quickly and cause lengthy delays, we encourage motorists to consider alternate means of transportation during afternoon rush hour.”

D.C. Department of Transportation spokeswoman Monica Hernandez said the agency, if needed, would dispatch traffic-control officers, deploy electronic detour signs and work with the Virginia Department of Transportation to identify alternate routes for commuters.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/16/unions-back-occupy-dc/

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Freddie Mac-Daddy wants $6 Billion More

 

 

Published November 03, 2011

| Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON–  Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac has requested $6 billion in additional aid after posting a wider loss in the third quarter.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that it lost $4.4 billion, or $1.86 per share, in the July-September quarter. That compares with a loss of $4.1 billion, or $1.25 a share, in the same quarter of 2010.

This quarter’s $6 billion request from taxpayers is the largest since April 2010.

Freddie’s losses are increasing mainly for two reasons: Many homeowners are paying less interest because they are able to refinance at lower mortgage rates. And failing and bankrupt mortgage insurers are not paying out as much money when homeowners default.

The government rescued McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae in September 2008 after massive losses on risky mortgages threatened to topple them. Since then, a federal regulator has controlled their financial decisions.

Taxpayers have spent about $169 billion to rescue Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates it could cost up to $51 billion more to support the companies through 2014.

Freddie and Washington-based Fannie own or guarantee about half of all U.S.mortgages, or nearly 31 million home loans worth more than $5 trillion. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past year.

Charles E. Haldeman Jr., Freddie’s chief executive, said many homeowners are refinancing at lower mortgage rates or are shortening the terms of their mortgage. While that saves homeowners money, it is pushing Freddie deeper into the red.

“In fact, borrowers we helped to refinance will save an average of $2,500 in interest payments during the next year,” he said.

For Freddie, those losses are temporary because interest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future, said Jim Vogel, an interest-rate specialist at FTN Financial.

Still, many homeowners are still defaulting on their mortgages. Unemployment remains stubbornly high at 9.1 percent. The percentage of those who are late by 90 days or more on their monthly mortgage payments was virtually unchanged at 3.51 percent in the July-September quarter.

Another reason Freddie needs more aid is because it has received less money from mortgage insurers.

Many riskier mortgage loans require insurance, which is meant to protect lenders and investors from losses if a homeowner defaults and the lender doesn’t recoup costs through foreclosure. The borrower pays a monthly premium for the insurance, typically a set percentage of the total mortgage loan. But when those mortgage insurers fail, they pay out less in claims.

For example, the main subsidiary of private mortgage insurer PMI Group was seized byArizonainsurance regulators last month. That followed heavy losses the group incurred after the housing market collapsed. PMI is now paying claims at just 50 percent.

As a result, the amount that Freddie has set aside for losses increased from $2 billion in the January-March quarter to $3.6 billion in the July-September quarter.

Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them into bonds with a guarantee against default, and then sell them to investors around the world. When property values drop, homeowners default — either because they are unable to afford the payments or because they owe more than the property is worth. Because of the guarantees, Fannie and Freddie must pay for the losses.

Fewer foreclosures and delays in foreclosure processing because of a yearlong government investigation into mortgage lending practices have reduced the companies’ projected losses.

Fannie and Freddie are required to pay 10 percent dividends on the government money they receive. Freddie paid $1.6 billion in dividends to the Treasury Department in the July-September quarter.

Pressure continues on the government to eliminate Fannie and Freddie and reduce taxpayers’ exposure to risk. The Treasury Department put forward a plan in February to slowly dissolve Fannie and Freddie, although that process could take years. Abolishing Fannie and Freddie would transform how homes are bought and redefine who can afford them.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/03/freddie-mac-loses-44b-in-third-quarter-requests-6b-more-from-treasury/#ixzz1cxWgviSx

 

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White House has something to hide on Solyndra: Rejects Subpoena

Smoking Hides The Corruption

 

The Associated Press
WASHINGTON– The White House on Friday strongly rebuffed a subpoena from House Republicans seeking all communications about a failed solar panel manufacturer that received a half-billion dollar federal loan guarantee.

In a letter to two top Republicans on the House energy panel, White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler said the request “was driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation.”

The White House and the Energy Department have already turned over 85,000 pages of documents on Solyndra Inc. The California-based company filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers after receiving $528 million in federal backing.

Ruemmler said those documents show no wrongdoing or political favoritism by the administration. She added that curiosity alone is not a justification to encroach on the Executive Branch’s longstanding confidentiality interests.

House Republicans have used Solyndra to highlight what they see as President Barack Obama’s failure to create clean energy jobs. The company was the first to receive a federal loan guarantee under the 2009 stimulus law, which greatly expanded the program. Obama visited the company last year to praise it publicly.

Documents already obtained by the committee show that the administration knew the firm had problems, yet continued to support it.

On Thursday, a subcommittee of the energy panel voted on party lines to issue the subpoena, calling the White House “obstructionist.”

House Energy and Commerce chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement issued Friday that he was disappointed that the White House and House Democrats were continuing to put up “partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers,” when, he said, the investigation so far has shown that the GOP is on the right track.

“Solyndra was a jobs program gone bad, and we must learn the lesson of Solyndra as we work to turn our economy around and put folks back to work,” he said.

 

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=8419931

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