I'm willing to compromise on the mandatory IQ test, but I've no problem just doing a quick double-check to make sure that the guy isn't schizophrenic.

braak

Is there a mandatory mental-health screening to be POTUS? I feel THAT needs to be there...

katastic

I don't mind presidents that are old; I mind presidents that are senile.

braak

probationer

probationer

I'm sure there are problems with this, but I don't think something like this is impossible.

braak

That said, I'm not sure that the practical consequences of letting them lose their homes is necessarily something that will be beneficial. I'm not an economist, or anything like that, but I know that massive numbers of foreclosures and large numbers of citizens facing massive debt isn't good for the economy, and therefore it's also not good for me.

So, like I said, I think that there is a plan that could be put into place that would lessen the intolerable consequences of mass-foreclosures, even if it means people aren't as responsible for their mistakes as they should be. Though, likewise, I think we hav to be a lot more vigilant about ensuring that we don't ever have to do a bail-out like this again.

braak

missbananafish

SinisterRouge

Leiakat

I just wanted to add that I personally know a ton of people that re-mortgaged and re- mortgaged to pay for cars and vacations ( come on.... admit you do too!) Now they can't afford their mortgage of $450,000 on their $250,000 dollar house. That is not the government's fault and in no way should their be a bail out.

medialady

J.D.Regent

I am a young independant, and the Republican party has been on my butt for over a year. I haven't heard from the Democrats...

In a time of 'war', people vote the war hero. It is historical fact, and people are still falling into that trap. I want to believe in the people, but wishing won't make it so.

Leiakat

And I mean she's married to a guy who's like approaching 100!

emily.jayne

agreed! it is called responsiblity.

medialady

She was addicted to prescription pills at one point which makes her seem "real" to me flaws and all.

He is not politically my cup of tea but I would love to know more about her and their family.

medialady

is anyone else kind of happy about the Writer's strike in regards to the election? It seems like without the distraction of shiny happy stupid television, and the media mockery/kingmaking, the race seems to be on a lot more people's minds, just anecdotally, and people are thinking about this a lot more than they normally do.

Anything that gets people involved, man.

Smackdown

J.D.Regent

The youth vote, for once, let us hope, will live up to its hype this year and count for something.

hortense

SinisterRouge

so5minutesago

And, I just realized that I woke up this morning (west coast) and came in here and turned on the computer and saw that Edwards was dropping out and gasped so loudly that my boyfriend woke up and asked me what happened. He thought somebody like died or something. I just said nothing. I'm a dork!

emily.jayne

marin79

J.D.Regent

Older citizens are also the biggest voting group.

Leiakat

SinisterRouge

J.D.Regent

kshenkshen

SinisterRouge

Leiakat

Of course, maybe I'm just being wishful, because the two of them running the country would be scaaaary.

emily.jayne

J.D.Regent

katastic

SinisterRouge

emily.jayne

J.D.Regent

I hate her recent delegates grab. It makes me really not like her. I usually like her just fine!

emily.jayne

And she DID NOT campaign in Florida. BOTH candidates had fundraisers there...which was allowed. And the ads were an oversight? See, that's what I mean about O's supporters. HRC does everything in a calculating, determined manner...and I'm inclined to agree. But then when O does something that's questionable..."It was an oversight" LOL

SinisterRouge

hortense

pferde_schwanz

And you think her giving speeches saying how important FL is and saying that she wants their delegates to count, doesn't mean that she was campaigning?

FloraWay

J.D.Regent

emily.jayne

Lymed

katastic

emily.jayne

Edwards has really disappointed me. I don't trust my fellow American to make a good choice...bleak day.

Leiakat

SinisterRouge

J.D.Regent

[www.mydd.com]

Jerome Armstrong was very close to his campaign. This primary season is NUTS!! SO FUCKING NUTS!!!

SinisterRouge

katastic

J.D.Regent

braak

The realllllly interesting thing will be to see whom he endorses....

katastic

braak

emily.jayne

J.D.Regent

SinisterRouge

They are actualy pretty close. The last poll shows McCain with a slight lead if running against Hillary, but not much. A good amount of undecided running against Obama. The question is, how many of those undecided will be swayed by false rumors about Obama's religion? I hate dirty politics.

Lymed

But you know what the GREAT thing about all this is? I've been stressing all week about how to vote & then last night I realized that this is the first time in a long time that I genuinely feel like my vote COUNTS! Pretty awesome feeling!

marin79

marin79

katastic

katastic

And Edwards is out... going to be really interesting to see what happens today!

marin79

What happens now????

hortense

pferde_schwanz

J.D.Regent

SarahMC

@J.D.Regent: Personally I think Hillary will be able to hold her own against McCain since the experience issue will be null & the real difference btwn them will be policies (in an ideal world anyway....) I think Obama has a chance against him also, albeit in a different way (i.e. the whole change thing).

marin79

@lalaland13: I just heard that on NPR. :(

Lymed

I don't know what that plan is. I'm just saying, if I saw a good one, I might be persuaded.

ALSO: Dear China: What the fuck is wrong with you?

braak

hortense

katastic

J.D.Regent

thepage.time.com

lalaland13

SarahMC

SarahMC

When the economy is entering a recession, you extend unemployment benefits. As a conservative professor of mine once said, it is not only one of the best ways to stimulate the economy, it is also the right thing to do.

Lymed

pferde_schwanz

xay

kshenkshen

kshenkshen

kshenkshen

marin79

Personally, I think there should be a rotation schedule that determines which state goes first.

marin79

marin79

unpopular

I'm still waiting for Britain to apologise for the on-going British Empire fuck up.

bowleserised

Also, Howard Dean, it was a bad move to strip Fl of delegates. Did we learn nothing from 2000? Jesus, Florida is enormous. It's foolish to dis-enfranchise millions of Democrats. It really is. Regardless of HRC's reasons for it, it's a smart move.

And Old Man McCain is done no matter who runs against him. He can barely get through a sentence without stumbling. It's just a sad commentary on the fractured state of the Republican party that he's the best they can come up with. And the right-wingers despise him since he's against torture and loves Mexicans!

But you gotta give it to Republicans. When it looked last week like McCain was their best choice...they all followed in lock step. Now you'll see every Republican is behind McCain. They got their marching orders...and they will follow them, damn it!

And Democrats will win in November regardless of who the nominee is. All these doomsday predictors with their "If HRC/Obama is the nom, we're done!" Oh please. And suicidal Dems decide they won't vote if his/her first choice will be made fools of.

SinisterRouge

ok no more holocaust jokes.

pferde_schwanz

and FUCK MITT ROMNEY

pferde_schwanz

ecs

Moe

Moe

Moe

Um, what?

I understand the beauty contest reference, but you're losing me on the "friends rig them" part, Moe. I haven't heard a thing about any allegations of Clinton rigging anything, or doing anything illegal in Florida. Lots of discussion about whether Florida matters or should matter, but no mention of any wrongdoing. Did I miss something?

Or is this more of your anti-Hillary axe grinding? Because if that's the case....well, seriously Moe- it's getting tired. What will you do if she wins the nom?

rose0red

NewsBunny

BowlingForDollars

Not to mention that I'm also one of those who believes that we're headed toward the convention and we may not have a winner on the first ballot. Of course, Ted Kennedy tried to get the delegates released in '80 as part of his strategy against Jimmy Carter, so almost anything can happen at this point and for someone to say that more than twice as many people voted, but a lot of Obama's people stayed on the couch seems a bit of a stretch.

Oh, and Obama was trailing in South Carolina up until he won in Iowa, then when he became "viable", the polls almost immediately started to reverse, even when he was camped-out in Nevada.

Magister

The reason it doesn't count, is because the DNC is not giving them delegates. Clinton is just looking for a comeback, so she is trying to get delegates to count that won't count.

FloraWay

Now, it was stupid. Really stupid. Especially since Florida is so important in November.

But they have their reasons. By Clinton going there, she is trying to make it look like Obama doesn't care about Florida. Eh. I hope others are as disgusted by this as me...

FloraWay

braak

missbananafish

lalaland13

Magister

Although if any court would do it, it would be the one led by a Bush appointee. OK. Going to bed now.

lalaland13

bigleggedwoman

bigleggedwoman

marin79

I wish Kenya was making more of an impact in the news. An opposition leader was murdered, so in retaliation a doctor of the sitting president's tribe was beheaded. there is a call for blood until a new election is granted. I think we have another genocide poking around the corner.

Leiakat

Oh & in case I wasn't clear about the whole Fight Face thing... obvs be as nice as possible when starting the loan remediation discussion, but if they push back you'll need to do the same. They're not going to want to change the terms (even if it looks like you might start paying late, etc.), so it might be a "can i talk to the head of the loan department" situation!

marin79

And then the people will say "Do not insult a child!" and go vote for Hill. Or something. Anything. Please God. Rig the election. Or I'm going to have to put my uterus in a safety deposit box for the next four to eight years.

I have no doubt that some would say "Well, Chelsea deserved it." Pfft. I feel sorry for Chelsea. I think she had a pretty good mom with maybe an OK dad who was a bad husband to her mom. If that makes sense.

lalaland13

marin79

BowlingForDollars

whyknot

notbetty

PaisleyPajamas

lalaland13

Definitely call your lender. You might find yourself in a better situation than you ever imagined with your loan (especially if you were not a sub-prime borrower!) and able to keep the house you have so much invested in.

PaisleyPajamas

notbetty

Oh God. We're screwed. I need a drink. But I don't drink.

How dare the Republicans go and nominate their one guy who might win? The nerve!

But it's our fault if we nominate the most beatable Hillary. Right now I'm inclined to say Hillary hate knows no bounds and will unite people to vote against her. But maybe I've lived in the South too long.I doubt any Dem would win more than one or two Southern states, at best. I hope I'm wrong. If any election has crapped on so-called conventional wisdom, this is it.

lalaland13

notbetty

Like everyone has said, call your lender. The Bank wouldn't be able to sell the house either in this market - they'd rather have you making SOME payment on it than none.

I hope it works out for you. Please keep us posted.

BowlingForDollars

braak

marin79

This is actually one of the reasons that I'm okay (to some extent) with the Clintons. It PISSED me off to see Kerry not get dirty & fight back. Sure it would be great if our candidate could stay above the fray, but the realist - or maybe cynic - in me just doesn't think that's possible. Although, I still wish Bill would shut the F up & stop cannibalizing the Democratic party. But post primary season, I'm all good with the Dems doing whatever it takes.

marin79

Also, the markets are expecting the fed to cut another 25-50bps tomorrow, so this is going to aid in mortgage rates declining even more. One option to consider is refinancing when rates drop to a level you can afford. Clearly there may be some obstacles there (size of the loan, amount of equity you still have in the house at the current appraisal level), but it's an option to research.

First though, I'd go and try to get your current loan remediated.

marin79

whyknot

braak

whyknot

I've spent a lot of time discussing this with work people (I work on Wall Street, so almost everyone is a Republican) & they think they'll beat Obama on the experience issue alone. With how f-ed up our country is right now, I think they might scare a fair amout of people into going with the candidate with the most experience.

marin79

AnnoyingFemaleLeadVoiceover

notbetty

whyknot

mollymcbutter

J.D.Regent

If you are going to buy a house and make that significant financial commitment, you owe it to yourself to do some work and make sure your mortgage is one that you can actually afford. I have never made a major purchase without thinking of all the worst-case scenarios, like Can I somehow swing these payments if I lose my job/don't get that raise I am hoping for? Unfortuanately, a LOT of people got duped though and were talked into taking on something they just could not manage.

I hate to see anyone lose their home. But hell, I've made major mistakes in the past when I was less informed on matters involving money. Sometimes you learn the hard way. And believe me, it sucks.

Looker

SaSa84

braak

PaisleyPajamas

marin79

Hon, I could not agree with you more. You did everything THE RIGHT WAY. What many of these homebuyers did was the equivalent of buying a brand new car on a credit card at 28%. If they had had money to put down, bought within their means, and shopped around for the best possible rate, instead of going for the one that was gonna send them on that Disney vacation they always meant to do for their kids, well I say, they need to figure it out the hard way. Bailing them out is not going to teach them a lesson about how to manage their finances. All of this crying over "We're gonna lose our home." FUCK! It's a home they were never gonna own anyway.

I still cannot effing believe someone would sign on the dotted line for an adjustable rate mortgage at 9%. I just can't believe it!

PaisleyPajamas

notbetty

marin79

2. I agree that there's a certain amount of personal responsibility first-time homebuyers should acknowledge about taking out these ridiculous sub-prime loans (and that it's equally dumb to expect that the feds should foot the bill for every bad decision someone made), but for real: the ethics of even involving people of that low-income strata in such a cold, calculating scheme are fucked up and exactly what we created the SEC for. I don't know about the government paying for these homes but if there was insider/underhanded shit going on behind the scenes to exploit these fools? I want to see the proper heads rolled.

TeenageGangDeb

TruculentandUnreliable

TruculentandUnreliable

But BUYING A HOUSE is a big deal, and I did all kinds of research - no one helped me there. I took the incentive since I am so math and finance challenged to do so.

I saved 30% to put down (and yes, I had to sacrifice some things in order to come up with that) so I could dodge the PMI and save in some other areas. I also did it so my house payment would be much lower. I got a 5.25% loan (after keenly eyeing the rates and deciding to lock in on that one.) The mortgage folks tried to loan me at least 2.5 times the amount I actually borrowed. ME. I'm a single woman - what do I need with a 5,000 - 6,000 sq ft house????

I say people can learn a valuable lesson if they get burned. I'm not advocating people losing their homes, but there should BE A PENALTY FOR BEING DUMB.

BowlingForDollars

mollymcbutter

But he has definitely turned his image around since those days, so who knows.

BowlingForDollars

marin79

PaisleyPajamas

Well, ABC got involved, and no worries, folks. They've been adjusted down to 7.6%, which is lower than the original rate! Oh, BTW, their how is now worth LESS THAN THEY PAID FOR IT and they bought it with no money down. I wasn't crying any tears until I realized that our government could potentially foot the bill for bad decisions made by first-time home buyers like these folks.

I am acquainted with more cases than I can count of people who during the mortgage lending boom bought houses they would never in a million years without a sub-prime mortgage be able to own (or occupy, I should say), and proceeded to take out home equity loans on equity that now does not even exist.

I really feel that if we are going to "bail" people out, it should be on a case-by-case basis.

PaisleyPajamas

So ignoring the entire country and focusing on Florida for three weeks didn't work out for Giuliani? REALLY?

AthertonMerriweather

Political Party Girl

marin79

Political Party Girl

I really hope Gore doesn't endorse Obama. I have shifted to the point where I really want Obama to win, but I do not think it will happen (I still plan on casting my vote for him on Feb 5). I know Gore hates Clinton, but seeing as he backed the losing horse in '04, maybe its best for him to sit this one out so he doesn't look likes he's always backing the hopeful loser.

And already, I feel bad just for typing this.

ae38

not.a.clever.name

With Florida, these delegates will only count if they're necessary to break a tie. I don't think it's smart and it angered a lot of local Dems here who are saying, basically, what you are.

not.a.clever.name

marin79

Yeah, yeah, I get that they moved up their primary without party authorization, but seriously?! This is a huge battleground state come November. Wouldn't it make more sense for us to spend the time there then say Iowa? (sorry to any residents of Iowa, btw). I know a lot of time will be spent in FL post-today's "primary," but I don't think there's anything to gain by the Dems by not spending time there as early as possible. If you consider how much time the Republicans have spent there thus far… well, lets just hope that a lot of Independents weren't already swayed. To me, this move was just strategically INSANE!

marin79

Also, I love Jimmy Carter.

not.a.clever.name

re: Mortgages. This topic COMPLETELY chaps my ass. I made a conscious effort NOT to take a 15 year loan, just so I wouldn't ever be strapped. I can easily double up on my 30 year if I want to double up on a payment and pay off my house early.

People need to take some effin' responsibility. GAWD.

BowlingForDollars

My economy will be stimulated when I get my tax return in two or three weeks. Woop! Althogh I will say one thing for Texas-no state income tax, and I have to pay one this year. Oh well. Texas still has plenty of other probs.

lalaland13

Looker

Archetype

Charlotte Corday

Political Party Girl

missbananafish

Charlotte Corday

Charlotte Corday

ThaKadinskyPapers

KidPresentable

Charlotte Corday

Either way, I watched that dust bag last night - twice - and not only do I find him terribly over-bearing but his teeth must be coated in peanut butter or Vaseline or something because his lips......his lips keep pulling backwards into this grotesque shape that sortof resembles a smile, but it's unnatural to smile like that when talking about war and death. Whatever, gives me the willies.

ThaKadinskyPapers