Bust the Banks

In a set of confidential federal audits the federal government is accusing the nations big five banking cartels of defrauding taxpayers in the way they handled foreclosures on homes purchased with government backed loans.

Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general examined Bank of America. JP Morgan Chase,Wells Fargo, Citigroup,and Ally Financial. The audits accuse the big five of violating the False Claims Act, a Civil War era law created as a way to fight against firms swindling the government.

The swindling banks were found to have been deliberately presenting the Federal Housing Administration with false claims by filing for federal reimbursement on foreclosed homes that sold for less than the outstanding loan balance using crooked and phony... doctored-up documents.

Two of the banks including B of A failed to correct flawed foreclosure practices even after imposing a moratorium that lifted last October.Basically Bank of America "promised" they would stop foreclosures and correct the problems before going ahead. They did neither and lied by claiming the problems had been solved. (big surprise)

What all of this means is the banks haven't cleaned up their shoddy practices despite saying they would. During all of the hoopla and bad press from the foreclosure-gate scandal, which brought national attention to the dirty dealings being done by banks, Mers and mortgage servicers - including a series of Congressional hearings - the banks stood ground and lied through their teeth all the while crying "error and mistake" as a pathetic defense- when in fact they were committing fraud.

Bottom line is when the cost of lying is less than the cost of flying straight..the banksters involved took the sleazy way out. They cared more about profit and ass covering then the preservation of their own reputations and the banking industry as a whole.


Dig a ditch of corruption all the way to China.

Illinois is examining potentially fraudulent court filings by a unit of Lender Processing Services. Nevada and Arizona already launched lawsuits against B of A and California is close behind.

Delaware is going after Mers which is a huge part of the fraud chain - a bank created entity that effectively tried to change the title recording laws that have been in place for hundreds of years with it's own brand of scam.

Along with these tid-bits comes New York's top law enforcer, Eric Schneiderman who wants to conduct a complete investigation into all facets of mortgage banking lending from fraudulent lending to illegal home seizures, and everything crooked in between.

 Hopefully with luck Mr.Schneiderman will remain alive and healthy enough to see this task through to completion without encountering an unfortunate accident or caught with a hooker, like Elliot Spitzer. 

Since fraud is actionable in both civil and criminal court - every single attorney with a shred of justice left in this country better jump on board and help bring these Wall Street Banking Goliaths to their knees.


Cutting Wall Street banks to size should be a national goal not something to avoid. As long as Wall Street is about 40% of economy, we are all in trouble. Once WS is less than 10%, the country can start to recover seriously, build new industries, invest in the future, fix the infrastructure and, most importantly, get unemployment down to below 4%

With about 90% of the American people wanting to see these sociopathic bankers stripped of their wealth, bound up in chains, dressed in bright orange jump suits and marched off to prison, it seems like anybody with the guts and the ability to do that could pretty much write his or her own ticket on the American political stage.

Someone like Elliot Spitzer - or a Spitzer wanna be.

Why is your school district cutting to the bone? Mortgage fraud.

Why is your city cutting cops from the budget? Mortgage fraud.

Why are your property taxes climbing? Mortgage fraud.


Et cetera, et cetera.....

Building resistance one bee at a time.

Get with it America,

Join the bee party- become part of the collective hive.

 Fight for your rights... become a squatter in your own home.


Default on your charge cards if necessary.


And don't look back.


bzzzzzzzzzzz.


ickenittle

3:33

After the death of my soul mate Jim on May 20th- I began to ponder the meaning of my work.

Suddenly writing a blog seemed dim in comparison to the brightness of larger and more important things.

Why take time away from loved ones to fight a battle that can never be won? Why climb a mountain that rises higher with each foot step forward?

Unanswered questions fill my head, churning and rolling - spilling over the bank only to be scooped up to be re-churned again, all coming back to the same place ...Why?

Why did he do it? Why did he suddenly turn off that light guiding us both together..leaving me so alone?

"Why ask why" people tell me - some things are better unknown and unsaid.

Sometimes the pauses between the words tell more truth, than the actual words themselves. Hidden somewhere deep in this silence hides a truth that can tell you more about what someone is trying to say- How is someone really? Is what they tell you really where they are?

When you are silent you listen with your soul and hidden clues appear.

 At times you have to tear the pages from your own life's history to patch together an answer for today.

Sometimes a piece of your past comes forward as a warning. This happened to me in the form of the numbers;

3:33

This was the time which first appeared  on a clock then later in my mind, when I discovered my husband Paul had died over 11 years ago. He may not have died at that moment, but it was the time on the clock when I noticed something had changed. The numbers glowed in the dark like the embers in a dying fire.

 Those numbers became my internal alarm clock waking me for months on end at precisely the same time.

Then after enough time had passed the numbers faded before finally resting in my history. Only time and healing pushed those numbers permanently away...or so I thought.

Then suddenly the numbers reappeared. Just two weeks ago they were there - and once again the pattern started.There they were, glowing as if floating in the air waking me every morning like clockwork.

For days they came.. then were followed by a dream, where my husband Paul quietly asked, "When are you coming home?"

Feeling a little disturbed by the dream and the return of 3:33, I shared the strangeness I felt with Jim.

" Maybe it's your subconscious pointing out you're longing to be with him instead of me," he said.

"No "  I told him, " my life is with you now." And meant it.This simple observation on his behalf proved to have a profound effect on both of us - though it didn't present itself until two weeks later.

The observation took on a life of its own clawing it's way into both of our minds. Suddenly he delved into my marriage like never before, wanting to know all he could about Paul, digging into deep places, as if unraveling a mystery for himself.

What made our marriage work for so many years? What did I see in him... and did I see the same in Jim?

Without wanting to do it..or really understanding why..Jim had created an invisible adversary, one he could never see or reckon with. The ghost of another man who came before, one who hadn't been abandoned or cast aside by choice..as in divorce -  but one who was ripped away while still being fully loved.

3:33 now haunted him and with each day his own personal fears worsened. The questions unable to answer and failures unable to reconcile. Problems of his past loomed larger and brighter, draining the light from the accomplishments of today. His ability to see his own future became harder.

"I can't see myself in the future." he told me a week before,"I see you but I'm not there."

Don't look too closely.

An unexamined life is a life not worth living, someone once said, but at the same time an overly examined life can become a kind of mental piranha that never stops eating until there is nothing left but bone.
Looking too deeply into the dark places of the mind- where guilt, disappointment and regret still live, can make even the clearest mind become cloudy with fear, doubt and shame.

Once this process starts in some unstable people it takes off like a runaway train. Nothing can be said or done to keep it on track. It speeds faster building momentum until it eventually derails - leaving the person devastated.


"I feel like I'm driving a hundred miles an hour while standing on the brake." He said the night he  finally derailed. " I just can't do this anymore."


He then shot himself in the head dropping at the foot of the bed like a broken doll.

I didn't know he had a gun - he wasn't supposed to keep guns.

Earlier that morning he wrote this to me and posted it on Facebook.


"I have spent much time looking at my life
Facing the fears of my past.
Only to be free of them,
so I can walk beside you and love you with all my heart.
My love for you shall never end."


After eight years together he finally wrote me a love letter.


His love shall never end ..like a circle drawn on a piece of paper, you can trace it round and round forever into infinity.


A circle has no beginning and no end. It just goes on.

The moon is a circle. The number 3 is two incomplete circles, or two crescent moons.

James completed his own circle.

He was 49 years old.

He suffered from PTSD and was the victim of draconian budget cuts that left him unable to get help.

He was brilliant and dark, brave and terrified.

He was creative yet destructive

Poignant and vague.

Finely carved but had jagged edges.


Beautiful.

For some 49 years is a lifetime.

For others it's only a halfway mark.

For him it was a lifetime filled to the brim.


I will always see your face when I look at the moon Jim.


I love you

Carla


After looking in to the meaning of 333 I found this;


Seeing any repeating number is a sign that there is an current issue in your life and the numbers are a sign to get you to pay attention. It is a persons subconscious trying to make them aware of something consciously.

It can also mean - Angels are in your midst.
I believe it.

Rapture For One

Today is May 21, a very significant day for many fans of Harold Camping an eighty-some year old evangelist who spent many years working out the numbers for rapture day.

With his figures calculated with biblical ties he hammered down a date when the truly spiritual will be lifted from the earth en mass through the pearly gates of heaven into the great beyond.

For Harold that day is today...for James that day was yesterday.

On May 20 2011 my dearest friend and partner was self - raptured with a hand gun.

If the definition of rapture is to be lifted of lifes' burdens and become embraced in the light..then surely he was.

Knowing this is enough.

Knowing he is in a better place is enough.

Knowing he is finally free is enough.


Now he watches us .. as we go through our daily struggles - battling our petty demons - running our hamster wheel marathons, while postponing today by chasing tomorrow -

He watches.

And smiles, his blue eyes burn with an inner fire... mixed with sadness and sorrow...

Steeped in love.


"You guys just don't get it." Is what he says.

You're right Jim...most of us never get it.

See you next time around.


Wait for me.


ickenittle

Choking On A Peach Stone

 According to the mainstream media propaganda machine, life in America is just peachy.

The stock market is doing great and profits from the corporate plunderers are soaring. Some pitiful jobs are being created thanks mostly to Empires like McDonald's and Dollar General who due to the poor getting poorer are seeing record sales of dollar menu items, and $1 cans of chili to go with those $1 packs of hot dogs-that have become the average Americans' new dietary staple.

If your wallet is feeling flatter than usual and you seem to be treating the gas pump like a slot machine, putting in $5 here..$10 there and getting less of a jack pot and more of a kick in the teeth each time, then you are experiencing the real America-not the one on TV.

Here are some reasons why;


33% of men don't have jobs


Last year, just 66.8% of the U.S. male population was employed. This was the lowest figure on record, the combination of a bad economy and an aging population.


74% of households will buy less stuff


Seventy four percent of Americans will slow down their spending in coming months due to rising prices on everything from corn to gas. Food and energy inflation could be one of the major economic issues of 2011.

 

Gas is up a dollar this year

The price of U.S. crude oil has risen $20 a barrel over the last two months, and the price of gas has nearly jumped from $3 a gallon to $4 a gallon this year.

 

Property tax is climbing

In 2005 the median property tax on a home in the United States was $1,614. It’s now $1,917, Bloomberg Business Week reported. In 2010, while corporate income taxes fell across the country, total state and local tax revenue actually increased nearly 16 percent.

 

8 million home buyers are behind

A March 2011 poll found that a third of homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth. Another 53 percent said their homes are now worth more than the money they borrowed to buy it, the Hill reported.

 

Homeowner are becoming squatters

Today, the average U.S. homeowner being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months. Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months.

 

13% of houses are empty

The national vacancy rate is over 13%, and Maine is leading the way with 23% of its housing stock empty. In Florida and Arizona, two states rocked hard by the recession, vacancy rates are 17% and 16%, respectively.

 

Children in poverty up 2 million in two years

The number of children living in poverty has gone up by about two million in the past two years. This is one of the reasons why automatic anti-poverty spending has increased dramatically in the recession.

 

Half of working Americans earn less than $500 a week

Tax.com has reported that the median wage has declined to $26,261, meaning half of all workers made $505 a week or less — $37 less than in 2000.

 

Credit card debt up - way up

Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago, as stagnating wages and broader credit have pushed and pulled the middle class toward putting their basic payments on plastic.

 

900 billion in student loan debt

Americans now owe more than $904 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time high. The site FinAid.org estimates that total student loan debt is increasing at a rate of about $2,853.88 per second.

 

1.5 million more bankruptcies

One and a half million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the fourth consecutive increase in yearly bankruptcy filings

 

52 million uninsured

Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million

 

60% of bankruptcies from medical bills

Even the insured suffer. Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States, and most of those bankruptcies are among middle-class homeowners.

 

Household wealth falls 23%

Between 2007 and 2009 median household net worth in the United States fell by 23 percent. CNN reported that the median net worth of households fell from $125,000 in 2007 to $96,000 in 2009.


Nearly everyone is broke.


Just talk to a neighbor or friend of a friend and you will get the real truth. We are going backwards in a hurry and if left to the corporate shills on Wall Street, the financial institutions and uber rich disguised as public servants in government to decide our fate...WE ARE DOOMED.

Speaking of broke, faced with what is tantamount to the official insolvency of the United States of America, policymakers have opted to seize funds from the retirement accounts of public sector workers in order to keep the government running.

America’s leaders are willing to engage in cannibalistic thievery in order to continue funding government operations. I wonder what sorts of operations are so important that they are willing to steal from their own people in order to finance?



Perhaps the American plan for global domination? Here


American Godzilla



Global domination can get pretty expensive.



Or maybe it's just that another bank needs a bailout.



ickenittle

 





Deutsche Bank and Urban Blight.

Los Angeles is filing suit against Deutsche Bank accusing them of being a slumlord.

Not only is Los Angeles saying Deutsche Bank is a slumlord they are accusing them of being one of the cities biggest slumlords-The largest of the TBTF banking vampires.

Los Angeles is tired of  picking up the tab for maintenance on all of the decaying properties lost to foreclosure. Once Deutsche Bank kicks home owners out - they then abandon all responsibility leaving it up the city to deal with the mess.They neither maintain homes or provide any means as security to keep urban blight at bay.

Los Angeles has had enough of lender negligence and seeks millions of dollars in restitution.

"It's time to recognize that the fraud committed on Wall Street turns into blight on Main Street," City Attorney Carmen Trutanich said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.

"We must fight blight by holding banks accountable when they create vacant nuisance properties that pose threats to our residents and destroy the quality of life in our neighborhoods," Trutanich said in a news release.

The lawsuit accuses the bank of failing to maintain 166 properties and illegally evicting tenants from some of them. The suit lists the addresses of the properties and includes photos of the substandard conditions.

Deutsche Bank responded that the lawsuit was "against the wrong party" and that loan servicers', not the bank were responsible for maintaining foreclosed properties.

Other cities also have complained about Deutsche Bank's failure to maintain foreclosed properties. A suit filed in Cleveland was dismissed, but the city later filed another suit.

The Los Angeles city attorney wrote in the news release: "Reports from law enforcement agencies and housing advocates across the country indicate that although Deutsche Bank is not the only bank engaging in this unlawful conduct, it is consistently the worst, and the least responsive, offender."

California Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield wants banks to pick up the tab. Based on a 2005 study that says each foreclosure costs municipalities $19,229, Blumenfield has proposed a bill in the California Legislature that would fine banks $20,000 for every foreclosure.

"Taxpayers are subsidizing foreclosure fallout," Blumenfield said-announcing the proposed foreclosure mitigation fee. “Bankers need additional incentives to keep families in their homes. They helped create the foreclosure crisis by making bad loans and must bear some burden in solving this problem. Fair is fair."

The argument against making these lenders responsible for the mess they created- is the standard nonsense we hear about every case for holding a corporation responsible,the repeated lie that corporations will just pass the cost onto the consumer.

What they forget to say, is in a free market society- the consumer can just go else where for a better deal.

The too big to fail banks have so corrupted the lending industry with irresponsible lending, fraudulent foreclosure practices, and predatory fees that they deserve the moral hazard they have created. It's no wonder over $50 billion dollars are being pumped back into the economy with home owners becoming squatters.

Why should a struggling local government have to pick up the costs for maintenance for abandoned properties, along with inspections, evictions, unpaid water and sewer charges and emergency shelters for people left homeless?

It's time for the banks to pay for the devastation they have caused then leaving the tax-payer holding the bag.
We aren't here to help subsidize the reckless behaviors of some over paid bank officers who took the money then threw themselves a big party and expect the rest of us to clean up the mess.

This is how it works at the top of the heap …The banks, investors and servicers make the profit but it is someone else's responsibility to maintain the property (only the profit stream is maintained), corporations have person- hood but none of the responsibilities.

The conservative ruling power elite borrows 14 trillion dollars, spends it on themselves and leaves the responsibility for paying the debt for the rest of us, corporations receive billions as welfare, pay no taxes and take their profit somewhere else to invest, investors want profit without risk- and the public is expected to pick up the slack.

As the US becomes an economically divided nation, we are wising up to just who got us here in the first place. We don't believe the BIG LIE being peddled by Republicans who try to divert the blame from Wall Street to main street by blaming careless borrowers or public workers unions in states like Wisconsin or Ohio.

We know who inflated the housing bubble and played both sides with credit default swaps, and it wasn't teachers, firefighters or snowplow drivers.


From San Francisco to Wall Street people are taking to the streets reminding governors and their friends on Wall Street and that they remember very well who tanked the global economy putting more than 8 million Americans out of work and creating a revenue crisis for many states.

And the banks won’t offer write downs for homeowners who are underwater, and won’t allow mods for those with equity.

This situation is a National disgrace and the banks are to blame.

 After taking $25 billion in TARP bailout money and after acquiring Bear Sterns and Washington Mutual, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan-Chase thinks that the big banks aren't big enough and neither is his bonus. In 2010, he was rewarded for failure with a total compensation package topping $28 million.


Haven't you had enough America?




You made this cake-now eat it.

 When some whiny CEO like Jamie Dimon complains that banks are being victimised by the media, or a Republican places the blame on homeowners who bought more than they could afford -remember one thing.

He that holds the power makes the rules..and the ones that hold the power are always to blame.


ickenittle

Let Them Eat Jamie

JPMChase CEO Jamie Dimon stated that: “Giving debt relief to people that really need it, that’s what foreclosure is.”

As he explained:

“( Homeowners ) are probably better off going somewhere else, because they get relieved almost 100% of the debt through foreclosure.”

Foreclosure as debt relief? Now that's a new spin on "Let them eat cake."

Better off going somewhere else? Where Jamie?  the street? their car?

Living under a bridge?

Let them eat Jamie

Pity the poor lenders they are just trying to do us all a favor.


What if home owners just said screw it, "Let them eat my mortgage."

By keeping up the property taxes and staying involved in the community a homeowner can drag out the foreclosure process for eternity, and if a critical mass of people did the same thing, the banks would come crashing down.    

"Let the banks eat dirt."

If you really think about the big picture, it is impossible for an American citizen to owe the banks anything.

We the people own them; they are public property since we involuntarily purchased them via the Bailout. Since the banks serve no purpose and are purely destructive, the best thing we can do with this dangerous and putrid parasite is destroy it.

If in the process we can get back some of what we paid ( what was stolen ), we should do so. So consider any renunciation of bank debt as a citizen taking back his particular portion of what was stolen from all citizens.

Never underestimate the power of narcissism, as in Jamie Dimon's case.. the need to feel good and morally correct in what one is doing, no matter how self-serving or reprehensible the action is.

How about debt relief for banks? Audit them using mark to market valuations, reassess both their derivative exposures and liabilities due to housing fraud, and then put them through bankruptcy.

Oh, and apply The RICO (racketeering) Act. to corporate officers like Dimon, and criminal prosecutions of both corporate officers and the corporations themselves.


Honest, Jamie,

you will feel much better after they let you out in 20 or 30 years and maybe, just maybe, you might come

out a better man.

Scratch that last part.





ickenittle

Happy Days are Here Again

Now that the War on Terror is over

Everything will be wonderful again

Now that Bin Laden is dead, Obama is certain to immediately stop the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen, he will surely dismantle the DHS, scale back the TSA, and half the DoD and CIA budgets, saving us trillions in the process.

All that money saved will undoubtedly be reinvested in rebuilding this country’s crumbling infrastructure, fully fund our public schools, hire more policemen, and expand Medicaid and Medicare to cover the 50+ million Americans without insurance.

This will unquestionably lead to a miraculous economic recovery and a new century of unparalleled American prosperity.


If wishes were horses beggars would ride...

As it is we may all be beggars soon.

We have a new crop of bogeymen eager to frighten us.

Congressional Republicans are threatening to vote against raising the debt ceiling by holding even more

Americans hostage - with more draconian budget cuts designed to torture us.



The Piggy Bank Bombers.

It looks like we did find weapons of mass destruction after all.

Republicans are threatening to blow up the financial world.

And the bombs are hidden in plain sight - tucked away in the homes of everyday working  Americans.

Terrorists are like rats..kill one get a dozen more.


Bankster's 2010 Bonuses - $143 Billion
State's Coming Shortfall - $110 Billion

ickenittle

Be Careful What You Wish For

Osama bin Laden is gone, and will soon be forgotten by those afflicted with the short-term memory disorder that plagues most of America.

As jubilant crowds cheer and high-fives block the sun light, we forget to see the long- term damage we did to ourselves by chasing this ghost.

For years we invested countless trillions- all to be thrown down an endless money hole, expanding our monstrous Military Industrial Complex and while doing this -  we became locked in a predatory stare fixed on a target that blinded us from seeing the decay happening right here at home.

While America chased a demon around the world our own problems here have remained largely ignored, and money that could have been better spent addressing our current budget crisis have all been wasted on the symbolism of one man - who became our collective nightmare.

 Bin Laden became more of a myth than a flesh-and-blood mass murderer - and the more we attempted to stamp out his fire the more we got burned. We made him the nefarious icon that propelled him to stardom. Without our help Bin Ladin would have been no more than a murderous fanatic - not much different than - our own home grown version the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

We got caught up in the trappings of an exotic fear, the spooky jihadists, bizarre Taliban, and the ideology of a strange culture who prayed to a god we have called the Antichrist -not to mention our terror of Sharia law.

Osama blessed us with the "birthers" and gave us an even more extreme far right, one so fearful -  that having a middle name like Hussein was enough of a reason to question our presidents loyalty.

What we think we have won could very well turn around and bite us -  as Osama's death may have only strengthened al Qaeda's resolve. And we have kicked the can down the road when it comes to problems here, wasting precious time and resources looking for a boogieman while our country erodes.

Not only did we take the bait - we ran with it and in a cynical way helped achieve Bin Laden's ultimate goal of splintering America into a thousand different pieces - costing us far more than the destruction of the Twin Towers and lost lives combined. Osama ushered in a decade of fear giving us a bloated defense budget, an Orwellian Dept. of Homeland Security, Rendition, Abu Ghraib, TSA, and Americans spying on one another.

We gave Bin Ladin our power and sold ourselves out by becoming a fearful nation that no amount of high-fives can restore. It seems Osama placed a bet on our national character, believing we would respond to such an attack with the knee-jerk irrationality of a cornered bear -  goading us into a long term engagement that would drain our logic as well as our resources dry.

We jumped through the hoop of revenge believing ourselves so militarily superior that getting bin Laden would be a walk in the park. But if you survey the last ten years it's hard to ignore the reality of the damage done. Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib alone left us looking like a pariah in the world's eyes and will remain an unresolved problem that will haunt us for years.

In the days before our States started struggling to make ends meet, and school districts began their down hill slide, and our roads became eroded... we could have done something.

We could have paid attention to the signs of economic decay that now hits us like a train.

He may not have caused our debt crisis but the trillions we've spent on Iraq and Afghanistan only made the problem worse.

By concentrating on a ghost hunt-

we ignored the fact that many of our cities have turned into ghost towns.

ickenittle

When the Shoes Don't Fit



Sorry kids but these are all we have.

 Under a new budget proposal in Michigan from State Sen. Bruce Casswell, children in the state’s foster care system would be allowed to purchase clothing only in used clothing stores.

Casswell a Republican made this proposal as a way to save money.

In his own words he explains; "I never had anything new.I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was - and quite frankly it's true - once you're out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes."

Under his plan, foster kids would receive gift cards that could only be used at thrift stores like Goodwill,Salvation Army and other second hand clothing stores.

It doesn't seem to occur to Casswell that foster kids usually suffer from low self esteem -  with many viewing them selves as "second hand kids" and already have the deck stacked against them on a lot of other levels.

But to many Republicans poor kids don't deserve any dignity.They just need to suck it up - pull themselves up by their boot straps (even though the boots don't fit their feet.) and soldier on.

Tell that to a ten year old who just wants to fit in by wearing what the other kids wear. To Cassell poor kids don't even deserve Walmart.

Casswell says the plan will save the state money, though it isn’t clear how much the state spends on clothing for foster children or how much could be saved this way.

If he hasn't even bothered to get around finding out if his plan would actually save money..then you know he hasn't done any research into what damage this plan could do to foster children's self esteem.

He clearly doesn't care about the children his plan would affect, and like so many other Republicans it's just  another way to demean and isolate another group of people whose only crime is being poor.




Children at Work

And if they don't like it tell them to get a job.

Maine Gov. Paul Le Page (R) wants to change the state's child labor laws - claiming working young was good for him and it will be good for your kid as well.

"I went to work at 11 years old and I became governor. It's not a big deal. Work doesn't hurt anybody."

Le Page also wants kids to earn less than the minimum wage too - since that won't hurt them either. And in his legislation if you are under 20 it would be legal under state law to pay you as little as $5.25 an hour for the first 180 days on the job.

But that won't hurt anyone either - especially all those employers who are running out of illegal immigrants to exploit.

The bill, LD 1346, also eliminates the maximum number of hours a minor 16 years of age or older can work on a school day and allows a minor under the age of 16 to work up to four hours on a school day during hours when school is not in session.

Which is great in Republican eyes - because it gives students more time to focus on what is really important in their vision for America's children...that of the wage slave, where education is a discouraged to dumb down the next work force of serfs for the coming Banana Republic.

Why worry about immigrants when Republicans have Americas' youth to exploit.

And now that Chinese workers are wising up to corporate exploitation they have begun union seeking
actions. Like every impoverished nation preyed on by corporate profiteers-China too is waking up demanding better wages.

This comes as perfect timing for Republicans who can now finally offer up some of those "job creation" solutions they have been kicking down the road.

With Children in the work force the corporate cronies can look forward to a fresh supply of slave labor to keep the world well stocked in cheap plastic junk assembled in factories in America by people too young to complain and too dumb to know any better.

When you ask a Republican for directions and they tell you to take the Path to Prosperity remember they aren't very good at directions and you'd better go the other way.

Otherwise you might just end up in the ditch.


ickenittle.