Rematch or revenge?

We’ve spent the last few months following the NFL season, but now it’s finally come down to the final game. Unfortunately, it’s also the final easy NFL open thread post I get to write for several months, but if it’s a good game, it’ll be worth it. And tonight’s game certainly looks like a classic, [...]

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Have you got "the word" yet?

The word is given — it’s time to get your figures straight and choose the Obamateurism of the Week! If you’ve got Russia Georgia on your mind, it’s easy to mix up a couple of these, so take care.  And for goodness’ sake, if you’re going to crib off of someone else’s work, don’t make [...]

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Cameo!

The early hours today look dull — “Meet the Press,” which leads with Gingrich, is probably your best bet — but things will pick up this afternoon when The One sits down with Matt Lauer during NBC’s endless Super Bowl pre-game show for a little class warfare before kickoff. No word yet on the exact [...]

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Paralysis.

“A United Nations Security Council effort to end the violence in Syria collapsed in acrimony with a double veto by Russia and China on Saturday, hours after the Syrian military attacked the city of Homs in what opposition leaders described as the deadliest government assault in the nearly 11-month uprising. “The veto and the mounting [...]

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Don't lay down with dogs

File this one under, “DOH! What were they thinking?” News broke this week, highlighted at the Daily Caller, that Chesapeake Energy, largely through CEO Aubrey McClendon, donated $26M to environmental group Sierra Club to run down the coal industry. A Time magazine blogger reported Thursday that the Sierra Club, America’s oldest and most august environmental [...]

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Destiny

Yeah, I said it. But I wasn’t the only one. TIM TEBOW, ON POSSIBLE FUTURE IN POLITICS (to golf commentator Dave Feherty on a “Feherty Live” special from the Super Bowl, airing on the Golf Channel at 10 p.m. tonight): “I don’t know — it could be something in my future. If it’s something I [...]

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1. EMERGENCY Eviction Defense in Solidarity w/ Angela Samuels Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 1740 N.W. 46th St, Miami
2. Video | Lee County Rocket Docket Symposium – March 25, 2011
3. Press Release | 3rd Annual Rally in Tally National Foreclosure Awareness Day February 16, 2012

1. NY Times | Agency Failed to Refer Complaints About Freddie and Fannie (Report)
2. Fraudclosure | Inside Fannie Mae: Confidential Records Show how Fannie Mae Breaks the Rules
3. Whistleblower Lawsuit: Fannie Mae Bungled HAMP Anti-Foreclosure Program – Caroline Herron v Fannie Mae et al Case 110-Cv-00943-Rmc

Money to burn

There’s one name which keeps bubbling to the surface in American politics, and speaking as one of the residents of New York, I’ve never been able to fully comprehend why. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been frequently cited as one of those “outside voices” who could bridge the nation’s partisan divide and possibly even run for [...]

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1. Action Alert – Taking the Foreclosure Fraud Fight to Des Moines to Meet with Attorney General Tom Miller
2. Action Alert – Foreclosure Fraud – Tell your Attorney General “Don’t Sit Down with the Banks! Stand up Against Fraud!”
3. Press Release | Nadler and NY Delegation Assail Iowa Attorney General for Excluding NY Attorney General from Mortgage Settlement Talks

1. NY Times | Red Flags on NovaStar’s Mortgages Were Unheeded
2. Who’s Your Daddy 101? by: Nye Lavalle
3. Matt Weidner | WARNING, THE BANKS HAVE KEYS TO YOUR HOME!

When it comes to defending homeowners against wrongful foreclosure, or suing banks on behalf of homeowners, Attorney Nathan Fransen, of the firm Fransen & Molinaro in Corona, California is a very smart, experienced and dedicated attorney.  This I know for a fact.

How do I know this?  It’s simple.  Over the last few years, I’ve watched him literally bang his head against the wall as California’s courts have unabashedly approved of MERS, disregarded flaws in the securitization process, not cared one bit who signed what, and in general ignored everything having to do with foreclosure cases except the fact that the borrowers hadn’t made mortgage payments in so many months.  He argued complex legal theory and simple fraud… he was honing his approach, and although he had his share of frustrating days, he was careful which cases he took on, never following an unproductive path twice.  I’d refer potential clients to him fairly often, and in most cases, he’d talk them out of filing suit against whoever they had thought they had wanted to file suit against.

Don’t tell him I said it, but he’s also just generally a very smart person, you know, paid attention in school kind of person… fairly well-read… knew about things outside his area of expertise… the whole bit.  He also had both the patience and ability to explain things about the law to me when I was frustrated over how things weren’t working.  When someone can keep complicated things simple, you know they understand them inside and out… and when they can hold their own in a debate with me… well, I’m sorry but that’s saying something.

So, he called me a few weeks back and told me quite nonchalantly that he’d had a very good week.  I was happy to hear that someone had.  What was so good about it?  Well, he had won two of his cases and at least one would result in his client getting a “free house.”  The other might be a free house too, or maybe just a pretty good size pile of money.  It’s true… Nathan had gone in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals… his first time, by the way… and beaten US Bank, hands down… in Causey v. US Bank.

It seemed to me to be an impressive win, because he was appealing after losing in the lower court.  He’s smart, patient and methodical… three things that tend to pay off eventually, but he wasn’t just going up against US Bank… no, he was going up against the dreaded “free house,” meaning that if the court ruled in his favor, his client would no longer have a mortgage secured by real property.  At best, the amount owed would be unsecured debt, like credit card debt, and that would mean it could potentially be discharged in bankruptcy.

But, don’t jump to conclusions because it’s not what you’re thinking.

He showed me how I could actually listen to him argue the case in court, the 9th Circuit has audio files of the courtroom proceedings online, and listening to it was fascinating.  So I figured out how to download it and then convert it to a file format that I could put inside a podcast.  Then I asked him to comment before and after the case so listeners would really get valuable information and be able to learn from his experience.

I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t say anything more… well, okay I’ll say one more thing.  As I listened to him argue his case in court, one thing came through loud and clear: Judges hate the dreaded “free house.”

This is one Mandelman Matters Podcast that you definitely don’t want to miss.  Nathan sets it up in the beginning, then you hear the audio of the actual courtroom arguments, both his and the lawyer for US Bank… and then he and I argue various topics such as whether robo-signing should be prosecuted and by whom, along with several other things that I know are frustrating homeowners today.

This is the real deal… you could call it “reality podcasting.”  Turn up your speakers, sit back, relax, and listen as three justices from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struggle to balance the rule of law against the dreaded “free house.”  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did… 

CLICK BELOW:

Mandelman Out.

Didn't really learn anything from ethanol, did ya?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Apparently we didn’t learn much, if anything, from the ethanol boondoggle, Solyndra or Washington’s other adventures in meddling in the markets. If we had, perhaps Congress would not currently be considering passage of H.R. 1380, the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions [...]

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Bad policy.

For the last three years, domestic politics in the US has centered around the concept and application of mandates in health care.  Barack Obama made that the key to his health-care reform; the Tea Party got fueled in large part over its inclusion.  Obama argued at the time and to this day that his mandate [...]

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Plus J. C. Watts, 1-3 CT, live video & chat!

The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with your hosts Mitch Berg and Ed Morrissey, on from 1-3 CT with live streaming video and chat. If you’re in the Twin Cities, you can hear us on AM 1280 The Patriot, or on the station’s Internet stream if you’re outside of the [...]

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Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect ... not that it will do you much good.

Michael Ramirez’ work at Investors Business Daily is always brilliant, but yesterday’s editorial cartoon may be one of his best ever.  The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner takes on the Church of Government, as my friend John Hinderaker calls it at Power Line, and skewers Barack Obama’s pretensions of being a faith leader while shredding the [...]

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1. Rep. Grayson Asks the Financial Stability Oversight Council to Require a Special Capital Buffer to Large Banks Due to Foreclosuregate
2. Fraudclosure | Large US Banks Submit Plans To “Fix” Foreclosure Operations
3. NY Times – How the Banks Put the Economy Underwater

1. Freddie Mac’s Regulator Says Trades Were Shut Down Because They Were “Risky”
2. Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report to the Congress – Housing Regulator Failed to Stop Fannie, Freddie Mortgage Issues
3. FAIL | Reports Fault Regulator of Fannie, Freddie

1. Motion to Dismiss Denied | Bank of America May Owe “Foreclosure King” David J. Stern $11 Million
2. Trashed Out | Chase, LPS Field Services ‘Winterize’ Iraq War Veteran’s House WITHOUT Mortgage, Removes $14,000 of Belongings
3. Case Unsealed | IRVING H. PICARD, Trustee for the Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, Plaintiff, v. JPMORGAN CHASE & CO., JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., J.P. MORGAN SECURITIES LLC, and J.P. MORGAN SECURITIES LTD

"Cruise control"?

Nevada will open its caucus doors shortly and open the fifth statewide contest in the Republican presidential nomination sweepstakes. This one looks like more of a no-contest, though, as CBS reports this morning.  The short period of time between Florida’s primary and Nevada’s binding caucus didn’t leave much room for significant polling, but what polling [...]

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Whoa.

Some have suggested that Republicans could nominate a syphilitic camel in 2012 and still beat Barack Obama. (Hey, I’m willing to hear the camel out; what’s his position on taxes?) That sounded like hyperbole until Scott Rasmussen released this video today, discussing the internals of his head-to-head matchups in weekly tracking polls. Mitt Romney now [...]

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1. Bloomberg | Proposed 50-State Fraudclosure Accord Deadline Set for Feb. 3
2. Fraudclosure | As Government Nears Accord With Banks, Questions Swirl Over Scope Of Investigation
3. New York Investigating BofA’s $8.5 Billion Mortgage-Securitization Accord

1. Sun Sentinel | Foreclosure fraud complaints flood Florida Bar but no lawyer reprimands so far
2. Foreclosure Fraud Exposed!!! Foreclosures Bring Wealth, Rebukes for Florida Lawyer David J. Stern
3. Officials Warn That Foreclosure Probes May Prove Inadequate