Cash McCall
“Blues Just Won’t Let Me Be”

This is one of my favorite cities. (born there) It is heartbreaking to see what was once a great city in the state it is today. It was on it’s way down prior to the subprime meltdown and I can’t imagine the negative effect that’s had on it.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson took aim at Wall Street on Thursday with a lawsuit against 21 major investment banks that he said have enabled the subprime lending and foreclosure crisis here.

The one-of-a-kind suit, filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, accuses venerable institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo of creating a public nuisance.

Jackson contends the companies irresponsibly bought and sold high-interest home loans. The result: widespread defaults that depleted the city’s tax base and left entire neighborhoods in ruins.

City officials hope to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, including lost taxes from devalued property and money spent demolishing and boarding up thousands of abandoned houses.

“To me, this is no different than organized crime or drugs,” Jackson said in an interview with Plain Dealer reporters and editors. “It has the same effect as drug activity in neighborhoods. It’s a form of organized crime that happens to be legal in many respects.”

More at Cleveland.com

Juan Cole gives us the 411 on the Iranian speedboat fantasy……….

The Bush administration’s assertion that 5 small Iranian boats confronted big, well-armed US ships in the Straits of Hormuz and threatened to blow up the American vessels is looking more and more like a serious error if not a Republican Party fabrication.

The episode featured prominently in the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, according to McClatchy:

“One of the most animated exchanges came when the candidates were asked whether they backed the Navy’s cautious response recently when Iranian boats reportedly harassed U.S. vessels in the Persian Gulf.

Huckabee said anyone who challenges the Navy again should be prepared to go to the “gates of hell.” Thompson said anyone testing the Navy might soon meet the “virgins” that Islamic terrorists expect to meet in heaven.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul called the bellicose language frightening and reminiscent of the reaction to an alleged naval exchange that led to the Vietnam War. “I would certainly urge a lot more caution than I’m hearing here tonight,” Paul said.

Romney cracked that Paul should stop reading Iranian propaganda, drawing what sounded like boos from the audience and a glare from Paul.”

So the Republicans are embarrassing themselves again, because there was not any reason to send anyone through the gates of hell. Moreover, Huckabee and Romney are not the ones who would suffer if Bush and Cheney managed to get up a skirmish with Iran. Our troops, kidnapped and held in the midst of a hostile Shiite population in Iraq, would be on the line. Getting them blown up for nothing is the opposite of patriotism.

Continue reading at Informed Comment

17 U.S. deaths in Iraq this month

Bush states again we could be in Iraq a really long time.

What Iraq Will Cost: Lawrence Lindsey, the Bush economist who told Bush what the cost of this war would be and was soon outcast, has a new book out, ” What a President Should Know … but Most Learn Too Late.”

The Turkish army on Friday pounded areas across the border in northern Iraq with artillery fire.

Security Developments in Iraq 1/11/08

Family united by Iraq tragedy, divided by politics.

U.S. may have given injured British soldiers infected blood transfusions

What’s the latest? “Iraqi Solutions”

KUWAIT CITY (AP) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says it is unrealistic to expect a “blinding flash” of Arab support for Israel in Mideast peace process.

She’s a frickin genius, isn’t she?

From the New York Times:

As the nation’s largest mortgage lender, Countrywide helped fuel the housing boom by offering loans to high-risk borrowers.

Yah, and they helped fuel the mess we’re in right now because of their bogus lending practices. Geezzz….the NYT make it sound like they did a GOOD thing.

Where else but George Bush’s America could you be a rogue lender, fuck up the country by bogus lending practices and walk away from the deal with $482 million?

Mr. Mozilo is expected to remain as chief executive of Countrywide until the deal closes, probably in the third quarter, people briefed on the transaction said. After that, he would serve on a transition team and would remain with the combined company on an interim basis.

He could be entitled to an exit package of roughly $72 million. That would be on top of the $410 million in pay, including $285 million in option gains, that Mr. Mozilo has taken home since he became Countrywide’s chief executive in 1999.

Huckabee, too liberal???

It’s true what they say. If (liberal) Jesus stopped in for a visit this afternoon, the Christian-right would have him back up on a cross by morning.

Huckabee Aims for Evangelicals in SC

Propelled in Iowa by evangelicals’ support, Mike Huckabee is trying for a repeat victory in South Carolina, where religion is woven even more tightly into the fabric of life.
[...]

Some evangelicals are wary of Huckabee, believing he is too liberal on issues such as poverty, health care and the environment. Page, while not endorsing anyone, dismissed those criticisms, calling Huckabee a “caring, genuine, humble person.”
[...]

Jessie Davis, a 27-year-old mother of three from Inman, S.C., held her youngest, 8-month old Abbie, in her arms. Davis said the No. 1 thing that attracted her to Huckabee was “Christian values.”

“He’s going to ask God what do before he asks somebody else,” Davis said after the rally. “God designed everything. He knows how it’s supposed to work.”