• Laura Richardson,  Laura Richardson

    MORE Conflicting Stories Over U.S. Representative Laura Richardson’s Home Foreclosure

    United States Representative Laura Richardson (D-California) was officially sworn into office on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 to represent California’s 37th Congressional District.

    Now, there is more to the United States Representative Laura Richardson’s (D, CA-37) home foreclosure problems.

    Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost her Sacramento home in a recent foreclosure auction, has also defaulted on properties in Long Beach and San Pedro, records show.

    Richardson, D-Long Beach, was able to bring her payments up to date on the Long Beach home relatively quickly, but the San Pedro property lingered in the foreclosure process for almost eight months, and still has a pending auction date.

    In her first interview since the news broke Tuesday that her Sacramento home had been foreclosed, Richardson blamed the foreclosure on a miscommunication by her lender. She offered no apologies for failing to make payments on three separate homes and expressed no regret for failing to pay nearly $9,000 in property taxes.

    Laura Richardson Sacramento house

    The Sacramento home owned by Representative Laura Richardson was sold at auction. The buyer agreed to pay her property tax bill, and her lender (Washington Mutual) lost $200,000 on the deal. She is trying to rescind the foreclosure.

    Flap described the bait and switch with campaign cash that Richardson is working.

    Richardson, in the meantime, has worked a pretty good deal. She has been elected to a safe (lifetime tenure) African American seat in a Los Angeles area Congressional district, where she reaps campaign contributions from many special interests, including area defense contractors and unions. She walks away from this home and lets the lender, Washington Mutual, take the loss.

    To pay for her campaign expenses and personal loan debt to HER OWN campaign she collects additional campaign contributions AFTER Washington Mutual forecloses on her equity strapped Sacramento property and takes the loss.

    Her credit score takes a hit but she is an elected Member of Congress with a steady and sizable income. Richardson pays herself back from campaign contributions she accumulates over the course of her election year campaign.

    But, two more houses of Richardson’s have lapsed into foreclosure. What is this Member of Congress doing with her salary?

    Answer: Paying back campaign loans to herself and her campaign consultants to whom she owes over $200K.

    It is obvious that Richardson overextended herself financially to run for Congress and that she has used extremely poor judgment in settling her financial obligations. However, lying about the situation as the Congresswoman apparetnly did to the AP is not helping her.

    Will the Democrat controlled Congress of Speaker Nancy Pelosi launch an investigation into this matter? Probably not.

    Will the newly constituted Federal Elections Commission look at this fiasco, Perhaps.

    Laura Richardson

    A San Pedro home on Parker Street, reportedly owned by Rep. Richardson, went into default in September 2007, at which point she was $12,410.71 behind in payments on the property

    How will this shake out politically?

    Representative Laura Richardson will be mildly humiliated but she is elected to a safe Congressional seat(unless reapportioned out of it in 2012) and will enjoy many years of special interest fundraising to recover from these foreclosures and credit hardships.

    Washington Mutual might be left holding the bag though – at least for the short term. Who knows what this lender can exact in legislation a decade or so from now?

    Stay tuned……

    Update:

    Read Michelle Malkin’s take here.

    In fact, it appears there is a pattern here of cashing out her homes to fill her campaign coffers. But there has been no uproar in Congress over this lawmaker’s appalling behavior. Why? Because it would upset the bipartisan narrative that all homeowners are victims, all lenders are sharks, and that no bad incentives to walk away exist.

    Previous:

    Conflicting Stories Over U.S. Representative Laura Richardson’s Home Foreclosure


  • John McCain,  President 2008,  Sarah Palin

    Sarah Palin Watch: Why Not Sarah for Vice President?

    From the Club for Growth on Governor Sarah Palin’s political popularity

    Jonah Goldberg over at National Review asks why shouldn’t Alaska Governor Sarah Palin be considered as John McCain’s Vice Presidential running mate?

    If we’re consigned to choosing among Republicans for the Republican Veep (heh), I’m more and more keen on Sarah Palin. Yes, Yuval’s right that the GOP won’t beat the Democrats for excitement, but the GOP might excite particular constituencies. Palin is tackling the establishment in Alaska, including the oil and gas industry (much to the chagrin of some of my relatives!). She’s attractive (former Ms. Alaska). She could get some real profile out of this polar bear lawsuit. She reinforces McCain’s outsider-reformer-Western credentials. And, for the moderate soccer mom types who were all jazzed about Hillary being the first woman president, she might win a few suburbanite female swing-voters for the same reason. Obama is going to have to pick a boring white guy precisely because he’s not one. McCain doesn’t need to pick a boring white guy because he’s got that locked up already.

    Flap thinks this is an outstanding idea and analysis. Sarah Palin would make an excellent choice for Vice President.

    Palin has the RIGHT stuff.

    Previous:

    John McCain Watch: VP Sweepstakes – Crist, Jindal and Romney? Part Three – With VP Poll


  • Barack Obama,  President 2008

    RNC Hits Obama Over Auschwitz Claim

    *****Update*****

    The Obama Campaign responds: Obama’s maternal grandmother’s brother, Charlie Payne, served with the 89th Infantry Division that liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. “Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically,” an Obama spokesman said in a statement.

    Wow, Obama gets the wrong relative, the wrong Army and the wrong Concentration Camp. Sloppy preparation, poor memory or an attempt at embellishment? You be the judge. But, sloppy nonetheless.

    Flap’s friend Kavon over at Race42008 bemoans the lack of MSM outrage over the GAFFE. And, he is right.

    Barack Obama meets with veterans on Memorial Day (2008) at the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. Skip ahead to 5:13

    Now the Republican National Committee is questioning Barack Obama’s statement yesterday that his Uncle was involved with liberating the Auschwitz Concentration Camp from the Nazis during World War II.

    The Republican National Committee sharply criticized Barack Obama Tuesday over the Illinois senator’s recent claim that his uncle helped liberate the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz while serving in the American military during World War II.

    In fact, American troops did not liberate that particular concentration camp, Soviet soldiers did in 1945.

    Obama’s comments came Monday during a Las Cruces, New Mexico speech marking Memorial Day. The Illinois senator was specifically advocating better care for veterans who experience post-traumatic stress syndrome when he made the reference.

    “I had a uncle who was one of the, who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps and the story in our family was is that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn’t leave the house for six months,” Obama said. “Now obviously something had really affected him deeply but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain.”

    On Tuesday, RNC spokesman Alex Conant called the claim “inconsistent with world history.”

    “Barack Obama’s dubious claim is inconsistent with world history and demands an explanation,” he said. “It was Soviet troops that liberated Auschwitz, so unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there’s no way Obama’s statement yesterday can be true.”

    “Obama’s frequent exaggerations and outright distortions raise questions about his judgment and his readiness to lead as commander in chief,” Conant also said.

    Over to Obama who has thus far not responded to ANY inquiry.

    Previous:

    Barack Obama Watch: Rewriting Family Military Service History?


  • Barack Obama,  John McCain,  President 2008

    Barack Obama and the Western States

    Barack Obama vs John McCain in the Electoral College

    Graphic from Electoral-Vote.com

    Marc Ambinder and the AP today are saying today that Barack Obama WILL fight for Electoral Collge votes in the Western United States.

    Obama is signaling, even before the Democratic primary formally wraps up, that he intends to fight this fall for Western states that narrowly went Republican four years ago.

    New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado aren’t definitely Democratic blue or Republican red. Instead, they’re known as “purple states” by political junkies.

    Together, they account for only 19 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. But those votes could be vital in a close race, particularly if Obama’s weakness among white, blue-collar voters carries over from the primary race and cuts his chance of winning some other states where Democrats usually do well.

    “We’re going to fight as hard as we can in these states. We want to send the message now that we’re going to go after them and I expect to win them,” the Illinois senator said Monday.

    But, let’s look at the Electoral College map.

    Obama is running well in California, Oregon and Washington. These are all blue states and no surprise here. Obama will win these states and their Electoral College votes without a problem. California will only be visited by McCain and Obama for fundraising.

    Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado may be up for grabs. But, ONLY Nevada and perhaps New Mexico MAY be competitive for McCain. President Bush won both states in 2004 and McCain will run well with the Hispanics in both states. His neighbor status as an Arizona Senator will help some.

    Colorado has been trending blue for the last few election cycles and will be easy picking for Obama.

    But, how many Electoral College votes are we discussing here? Nevada and New Mexico each have 5. 10 Electoral College votes total.

    And, how many votes does Michigan have? Answer: 17 Electoral College votes.

    How about Pennsylvania? Answer: 21 Electoral College votes.

    How about Ohio? Answer: 20 Electoral College votes

    How about Missouri? Answer: 11 Electoral College votes

    Obama nor McCain will be competing over ANY Western States. The Midwest again will be the battleground for the Presidency.

    Why do you think McCain today is running television ads in Michigan and Pennsylvania?


  • Barack Obama,  President 2008

    Barack Obama Watch: Rewriting Family Military Service History?

    Barack Obama meets with veterans on Memorial Day (2008) at the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. Skip ahead to 5:13

    Did Barack Obama embellish upon his Uncle’s or some family member’s World War II war record yesterday?

    Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic. “Now obviously, something had really affected him deeply, but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,” Obama said. “That’s why this idea of making sure that every single veteran, when they are discharged, are screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need – that’s why it’s so important.”

    But, the Red Army liberated Auschitz, no?

    Mistake or Gaffe?

    It is difficult to make out what Obama said in the above video above but the facts do NOT make sense. Wrong POW camp for sure and the wrong relative?

    Obama is very loose with his characterization of this story and someone should call him on it for a correction.


  • Bobby Jindal,  John McCain,  Mitt Romney,  President 2008,  Sarah Palin

    John McCain Watch: VP Sweepstakes – Crist, Jindal and Romney? Part Three – With VP Poll

    Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist and Bobby Jindal

    Vice President contenders? Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

    After wrapping up the weekend on Sunday with Senator John McCain at his Sedona, Arizona ranch, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal discusses the meeting.

    Following a weekend with presidential hopeful Senator John McCain, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said he discussed a number of topics with the senator, except the possibility of being McCain’s vice presidential running mate.

    “There was never any explicit talk whatsoever about a short list, about vice president, any of that,” said Jindal.

    However, the governor did say he had several one on one moments with Senator McCain during his weekend trip to Arizona.

    “It was a wonderful weekend,” Jindal said. “John and Cindy were very gracious. Not only did we have a chance to talk to him one on one, as well as in a group, we had a chance to visit with the other senators there, the other business leaders.”

    Jindal said he talked with people still needing information on Louisiana’s recovery since the storm, telling them it is a place to invest and that the business climate is changing.

    Jindal said he did not know if there would be any further social type weekends like this one, but did say he is planning on seeing McCain again real soon – when Senator McCain stops in Louisiana in two weeks working the campaign trail.

    The video of Governor Jindal is here.

    But, let’s look at the poll that Flap put up last Thursday. The poll has not closed and Flap will leave it up until Thursday of this week. So, go ahead and vote.

    Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska is in first place, followed closely by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Bobby Jindal finishes third.

    An interesting result especially since Palin has not been seen with Senator McCain in some time.

    Will she now get an invite to the ranch?

    Stay tuned and vote for your favorite GOP Vice President nominee.

    Previous:

    John McCain Watch: VP Sweepstakes – Crist, Jindal and Romney? Part Two – With VP Poll

    John McCain Watch: VP Sweepstakes – Crist, Jindal and Romney?


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