FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists | Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/us-usa-fbi-extremists-idUSTRE81600V20120207

FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists

By Patrick Temple-West

WASHINGTON | Mon Feb 6, 2012 7:21pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Routine encounters with police can turn violent "at the drop of a hat," said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

"We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement," he said.

In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a "sovereign citizen" in traffic.

Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit.

Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.

"We are being inundated right now with requests for training from state and local law enforcement on sovereign-related matters," said Casey Carty, an FBI supervisory special agent.

FBI agents said they do not have a tally of people who consider themselves "sovereign citizens."

J.J. MacNab, a former tax and insurance expert who is an analyst covering the sovereign movement, has estimated that it has about 100,000 members.

Sovereign members often express particular outrage at tax collection, putting Internal Revenue Service employees at risk.

(Reporting By Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)

FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists | Reuters

New York sues banks over foreclosures – Feb. 3, 2012

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/03/news/economy/banks_sued/index.htm?source=cnn_bin

New York sues banks over foreclosures

  • By Jennifer Liberto@CNNMoneyFebruary 3, 2012: 3:15 PM ET

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sued the big banks over their use of an electronic mortgage registry.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sued the big banks over their use of a private electronic mortgage registry.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — The New York attorney general sued some of the nation’s biggest banks on Friday, accusing them of unlawful and deceptive practices for relying on a private electronic registry that tracks mortgages.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday sued Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), as well as the Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc. (MERS) in New York state court.

Schneiderman says that the banks created the electronic registry as an "end-run" around the public property recording system to help them more quickly buy and sell parts of mortgages. He said the system helped banks create "deceptive and fraudulent court submissions" and improperly foreclose on homeowners.

"Our action demonstrates that there is one set of rules for all — no matter how big or powerful the institution may be — and that those rules will be enforced vigorously," said Attorney General Schneiderman in a statement.

Foreclosure settlement could be coming

MERS runs a database created in the 1995 to digitize and centralize the paperwork surrounding the bundling and selling of the loans. MERS members include most of the large banks in the mortgage industry. More than 70 million loans are registered in the MERS system, including 30 million that are active, according to the New York attorney general’s office.

The New York suit alleges that the database was used by the big banks to transfer ownership of mortgage debt without paying government registration fees and properly recording the transactions. The system also concealed the identities of the holders of mortgage debt from borrowers, the suit claims.

"MERS’ conduct, as well as the servicers’ use of the MERS System, has resulted in the filing of improper New York foreclosure proceedings, undermined the integrity of the judicial process, created confusion and uncertainty concerning property ownership interests, and potentially clouded titles on properties throughout the State of New York," according to a statement by the New York Attorney General.

MERSCORP, parent company for Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc., said the company refutes the attorney general’s claims, adding that federal and state courts nationwide have already upheld the MERS’ business model, according to a statement.

One Washington research analyst notes that the New York charges are similar to past cases brought against MERS, and that so far, "the industry has won most of those challenges," said Jaret Seiberg, of Guggenheim’s Washington Research Group "The ones they lost tend to be on narrow issues.

In December the Massachusetts attorney general filed a lawsuit against the same banks, as well as Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and GMAC Mortgage, alleging similar complaints. That case is still pending.

Schneiderman is also leading a working group of federal and state officials that the president put together to investigate mortgage securities fraud.

At the same time, Schneiderman is also considering whether New York should sign on to a mortgage servicing settlement agreement that federal officials and state attorneys general have been negotiating for a year with the nation’s largest banks that service mortgages. To top of page

New York sues banks over foreclosures – Feb. 3, 2012

How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO

http://searchengineland.com/blackout-your-site-without-hurting-seo-108302

How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO

Jan 16, 2012 at 2:39pm ET by Matt McGee

Google-Webmaster-SEO-Rep-1304428070A number of websites are (or were) planning to “go black” this week while the U.S. Congress discusses issues related to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The website blackouts are part of a larger social media effort against the bills that our Greg Finn wrote about this morning on Marketing Land.

You may be thinking about joining the website blackout movement, but yikes … what about the SEO implications? How do you take your site offline in protest without messing up your visibility in Google’s search results?

Well, Google’s Pierre Far shared several tips earlier today on Google+ in a post called “Website outages and blackouts the right way.”

In short, the advice is to use a 503 HTTP status code to tell spiders that the website is temporary unavilable. With a 503 status, Google won’t index the content (or lack thereof if you’re blacking out your site) and it won’t consider the site as having duplicate content issues (when all of the pages are blacked out).

But Far adds a couple important caveats to this advice regarding the robots.txt file and what will happen in Webmaster Tools if Google finds your site blacked out. Another Googler, John Mueller, adds additional information in the comments, so you’ll want to read the original Google+ post if you’re thinking about blacking out your website this week for SOPA, or in the future for any other reason.

Of course, also keep in mind that Bing may not handle things the same way if you do blackout your site.

Related Entries

Related Topics: Google: SEO | SEO: Blocking Spiders | SEO: Duplicate Content


About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land’s Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee

How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO

The Soldier Accused of Leaking Military Cables to WikiLeaks Is in Court Right Now « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and Courts

19 Dec 2011 at 5:09 PM

The Soldier Accused of Leaking Military Cables to WikiLeaks Is in Court Right Now

By Christopher Danzig

The former military intelligence analyst accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks has spent the last four days in a Maryland military court, undergoing a hearing to determine whether or not his case will proceed to court-martial.

For those new to the party, 24-year-old Bradley Manning is accused of committing the biggest security breach in American history. He has been in detainment for the last 19 months, and he faces a multitude of military charges.

The Article 32 hearings, which began on Friday, are something akin to grand jury proceedings in civilian court. At the end, Investigating Officer Colonel Paul Almanza, an Army Reserve officer and Justice Department prosecutor, will decide recommend whether Manning’s case will proceed to court-martial.

So far, the hearings have been interesting to say the least. Let’s see what’s going on….

Kim Zetter at Wired’s Threat Level is blogging extensively about the hearings (and tweeting some color commentary from court):

Manning, who turned 24 Saturday, is charged with 22 violations of military law and faces possible life imprisonment. Manning, who at the time was an Army intelligence analyst, is accused of abusing his access to classified computer systems to leak diplomatic cables, Iraq and Afghanistan action reports and the so-called Collateral Murder video to WikiLeaks. In chat logs published by Wired, Manning allegedly told Lamo that he leaked the documents as an act of political protest against a corrupt system and the he snuck files out of a shared workroom using rewritable CDs labeled with pop stars names, such as Lady Gaga.

One of the bigger revelations from the hearings is that the government produced chat logs from Manning’s own computer, where the soldier allegedly discussed leaking the cables. The messages had previously been made public, but Julian Assange and other Manning supporters claimed the chat messages could have been fabricated. Because the government found the logs on Manning’s own computer, forgery seems less likely.

The hearings have been understandably tense. Manning has a lot of supporters in the technology community. Although he has spent the last year and a half in custody, many say he is a whistleblower, not a traitor.

Back in April, more than 250 legal scholars signed a letter protesting the way the Justice Department was treating Manning. In the letter, signatories including Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe protested Manning’s “degrading and inhumane conditions.” The letter called the military’s conduct illegal and unconstitutional.

On Friday, the hearing started with a bang when defense attorneys accused Investigating Officer Colonel Almanza (the equivalent of a judge in the case) of bias, because of his work as a Justice Department prosecutor. The defense unsuccessfully asked Almanza to recuse himself. (Hmm, I wonder where we’ve seen that before?)

Earlier today, retired lieutenant and prominent Don’t Ask Don’t Tell activist Dan Choi told Politico he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed while trying to attend the hearing.

Zetter reported another dramatic moment on Sunday, which reads like something out of A Few Good Men:

Proceedings in the court this morning continued in a contentious manner between defense attorney Coombs and the proceeding’s equivalent of a judge, Investigating Officer Capt. Paul Almanza. At one point, when the IO tried to stop a line of questioning with a witness, questioning the relevancy. Coombs abruptly walked to the defense table and grabbed a book containing Article 32 procedural rules and brandished it to Almanza.

“I would caution the investigating officer as to case law,” he said, adding that the defense should be given wide latitude in questioning to obtain evidence.

“The IO should not arbitrarily limit cross-examination, ” he said. “I am not going off into the ozone layer about this. . . I should be allowed to ask questions about what this witness saw so I can have this testimony under oath as part of discovery.”

Zetter reports that the defense is trying to show that the Army should have responded better to behavioral problems Manning exhibited early in his enlistment. He should have never been deployed, or he should have lost his security clearance earlier, “both of which would have made it impossible for him to obtain the documents he allegedly leaked to WikiLeaks.”

So which is it? Traitor or courageous hero? Should the government put him in jail and throw away the key, or throw him a parade?

Army Arrested Manning Based on Unconfirmed Chat Logs [Threat Level / Wired]
DADT activist Dan Choi barred from Bradley Manning hearing [Politico]
Request for Recusal Denied in Case Against Manning [Associated Press]


Christopher Danzig is a writer in Oakland, California. He covers legal technology and the West Coast for Above the Law. Follow Chris on Twitter @chrisdanzig or email him at cdanziggmail.com. You can read more of his work at chrisdanzig.com.

The Soldier Accused of Leaking Military Cables to WikiLeaks Is in Court Right Now « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and Courts

The Shocking Truth About The Crackdown On Occupy | Before It’s News

The Shocking Truth About The Crackdown On Occupy | Before It’s News

The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality

by Naomi Wolf

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

Oakland, California riot police advance on peaceful Occupy Oakland, November 3, 2011.But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalized police force, and forbids federal or militarized involvement in municipal peacekeeping.

I noticed that right-wing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors’, city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Why this massive mobilization against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.

That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women’s wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorize mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarized reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich’s having been paid $1.8m for a few hours’ "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies’ profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.

Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists’ privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can’t suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organized Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.

So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organized suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not. MORE HERE

From Mohawk Nation News

Mohawk Nation News: We’ll Let Your People Go

WE’LL LET YOUR PEOPLE GO
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
MNN Nov. 20, 2011. Foreign occupiers [of Great Turtle Island]! Looking for solutions? Everything based on a lie is a lie. Like how foreign corporate entities called US and Canada and their subjects live on the graves of our murdered ancestors. It was through Armed robbery of our land and resources! We always watched our visitors and looked beyond what everyone is meant to see. The Europeans brought their tamed.
Obedience was bred into them at a young age, generation after generation, reinforced by intimidation and punishment. They say they came here to live in paradise to have a perfect life. They killed most of us and then destroyed it. These 1% hierarchical controllers of Western society don’t know us. It took them 30 years to find Geronimo. [He wasn’t hiding. Just got tired of seeing how incompetent his pursuers were.]
We indigenous are hunters, guerillas and observers of everything. Controllers mercilessly frighten, horrify and instill hopelesslesss in their subjects. The cops are the enforcers for the crime bosses, the bankers and politicians. Repressive militarized force is under one command.
In today’s urban warfare, the cops need a crowd, then gang up on their own people. They beat up children, women, pregnant women, disabled, elderly and middle class softies who won’t hit back. The rest knuckle under.The revolution will be gangster style hits. Most of their subjects turn the other cheek, or brag about being beaten for no reason! Urban tactics include the two sides swarming each other and provocateurs pushing.
At the G20 in Toronto in 2010, in the “kettling” maneuver, the cops blocked off streets and the protesters marched in an orderly fashion. The cops blocked them in, then beat and arrested them. [See “Into the Fire”]. Cops fear people of color, lawsuits and riots. The government owns the people and the banks own their labor. Psychotic greed to own a worker’s life productivity drives them to greater crimes. They threaten and even murder those who refuse to live with less so they can have more. The fascist economic system is collapsing. Fraud and corruption are being exposed. Fear of losing control is causing panic.
Worse is coming. What is the underlying element? The Vietnam protests got out of hand. Not this time! We Indigenous do not let ourselves get herded for the kill. The crowd goes wild when they see blood. They don’t want to be next. They don’t have families or communities to run to who have any inherent obligations to them. The people will soon be panicking for food.
The White House is the main plantation that dispenses food. According to the Romans, whoever has the key to the grainery controls the people and the empire. As Crazy Horse told us, “Know your enemy." Stay out of sight. Our energy comes from within us, not from someone yelling at us to defend ourselves. Only we can save ourselves. We don’t grovel in pain to show how much they’re hurting us. A real revolution has to expose all the truths, how the invaders murdered over a hundred million of us to have the American Dream.
Otherwise they will remain enslaved, screaming to be saved. Colonists may return to their masters who will take them back into feudal slavery. The path is laid out, perfect and beautiful, in soft tones.
Should we ask the foreign masters to take their people home? They are lost souls. Every treaty ever made with us was violated. Under international law, if a treaty between nations is broken, everything reverts back to one day before the treaty was signed. Penn State is creating a super human killing machine. Drugs can deprive soldiers of sleep for 48 hours or more. They will feel no scruples, no pain, no remorse.
Virtual videos show them how to kill women and children without guilt. The brain will be immersed in trans cranial magnet stimulators. High levels of analytical thinking [intuition] will be switched off. Field helmets will run complex battle scenarios. These dream team serial killers may not be able to return to normal. The military should be careful what they wish for. Fear is necessary to protect your life.
Our visitors think chopping off the head of the serpent will free them. Always looking for outside help! For Indigenous our intuition will guide us to find what we need to know.
Victory comes by living the great law of peace. When the Europeans invaded Great Turtle Island they turned their backs on it. Big mistake!
MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, to donate to maintain the website [PayPal] and to sign up for MNN newsletters go to http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ More stories at MNN Categories “COLONIALISM/ART/CULTURE”. Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0 Store: Indigenous authors – Kahnawake books – Mohawk Warriors Three – Warriors Hand Book – Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy. Category: World – Colonialism – Great Turtle Island – History – New World Order – courts/police Economics/trade/commerce – Land/environment – art/culture. Tags: North American Indians – Turtle Island – Indian holocaust/genocide – NAU North American Union – History Canada/US – United Nations – Cointelpro – colonialism.

Posted by brendanorrell@gmail.com at 12:09 PM 1 comments Links to this post

Nye Lavalle, We Applaud You for Your Efforts to Expose Robo-Judges Signing Robo-Orders!!!

 

Message for My Friends & Colleagues –From: Nye Lavalle

Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 3:50 PM
Please Read Entire Email

NOTE: to all blogs!!!

     Please post the email to the AGs, I wrote last week that I did not send you. I wrote them in confidence.       

       However, since they have failed to act and respond I think the way to get to them AND GET RESPONSES AND ACTION is to publicly publish all my warnings and my letters so there is a VERY public record of notices and warnings to them.

    They may wish to ignore me again, but I and hopefully each of YOU, won’t let them! So, please read You may also publish and post, separately, my letter attached to FHFA’s OIG.

Dear friends,

I am taking the gloves off, its that time! Attorney General Beau Biden did us all proud and right yesterday, despite the political reality that he faces in a state that hosts as corporations, the banks, Wall St. firms, and system he is attacking. I would ask that each of you kindly read the entirety of this letter and to assist me help each of you and this nation of ours and force the other AGs and elements of our government and the media to be as bold and brave as Beau Biden!

Beau knows MERS! LOL He certainly not only vindicated me and my decade-old fight against MERS and my predictions, but all of us, especially Max, April, Judges Logan and Gordon (would love to interview each now) and let me not forget our favorite jurist, Judge Schack!

Let us not forget the crooked judges too, like Craig Schwall and Louis Levenson in Fulton Co who will be getting their comeuppance next month in both courts of law and public opinion (the media). We need to have media focus on the Judges who get it and the judges we have evidence of corruption on. (including our tapes) This will be one of our new objectives. We also need to expose Robo-Judges™ who issue Robo-Orders™!

We’re starting a new movement in America. Our new movement will complement the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy the Internet movements by assisting those trying to help or most importantly IGNORING TO HELP our nation and states. That is the media who is trying to help and some in government like Beau Biden. The other AGs and regulators that ignore us will be publicly noticed and later publicly embarrassed if they fail to act, since a "record" of notices, warnings, and actions or inactions will be publicly displayed now and for the years to come that anyone can access. We shall begin with Names!!

The name for these new movements shall be Occupy The Government & Occupy The Media! As for the media, we shall and I request that you respect their time and their space.

The first step is that I want each of you to provide me, Lisa, Michael, Matt and everyone of our colleagues and comrades in arms with an email list of ALL media and government contacts you have in two separate email address books for Outlook or AOL. We will then discuss content to send by each of us to these contacts. For the media, we will target great story ideas for each journalist and editor we have befriended and has supported the cause. We will also provide a host of information, facts, and evidence for their investigative needs. The media is not only our friend, but our greatest ally in this movement, next to the Internet!

For government, we will create letters and petitions and forward to them in masse! Also, we will document and forward complaints, and evidence of fraudulent bank behavior. They are either with us, or against us! They get to choose and so do we, by a vote. It’s time to stop picking leaders by social issues, but real life issues. You’re either a bank bitch and for them or you’re not (like Beau).

I want to do to the AGs, all regulators, and politicians, what I did to CEOs and boards years ago, paper them and "put them on notice" to act. Let’s see if they ignore our warnings this time around since doing so, will surely jeopardize their political and/or professional aspirations. As they move up the political food chain, we will have a record of what they were warned of and what they did or didn’t do so that their prior actions can be judged by voters and regulators alike.

I am reminded of Gandhi’s quote "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." We’re now winning, so it’s time to pile in on as the bankster’s lawyers would say. Over the years, I have created a "hit list" and "target list" of enemies and foes and have guarded carefully very personal information about them. While information is power, knowledge of what to do with that information, and the wisdom to know when its right to use, is key. I suggest you each do the same!

Next, I will begin writing more letters and more warnings based on my experience and I will start doing some polling with the help of supporters and sponsors I will seek from law firms. This will accomplish a few goals. First, it will bring national media attention and coverage to the issues and second, media attention, business and leads to the law firms than sponsor my research. My research has traditionally garnered national media attention and the front pages of virtually every newspaper as well as television and radio. It will once more, do so again.

As for Beau Biden, his complaint is a masterpiece and must read and pins the tail on the ASS (sorry, Donkey was way too kind) so to speak in MERS. In effect, he is not only seeking to shut down every MERS foreclosure in DE, but seeking to foreclose on MERS itself! I wonder what ASSet protection MERSCORP and its enablers have in place.

I have previously called the racketeering acts of the servicers the "default servicing enterprise." However, Beau kept it simple and called it the "foreclosure enterprise." I agree. From this day forward, when we discuss or refer to this racketeering enterprise, let’s all agree to call it and refer to it as the FORECLOSURE ENTERPRISE! Let’s get that mantra up and explain it for what it is, an enterprise which is key for RICO actions, both state and federal, which is where we will be going next with the evidence we have all uncovered. Make Foreclosure enterprise as widely known and accepted as robo-signing and fraudclosure!

In his complaint and his exhibits, Beau Biden has laid the foundation for attacking MERS and every lender. In every case where MERS is ANYWHERE in the chain (current or prior loans) you must file his complaint and exhibits with the court with a notice for the Court to take "judicial notice" of the complaint. Next, you must also file all of the county recorder lawsuits. Remember, building a record is the most important thing you can do in a case. This is how we will also expose the corrupt judges we have evidence on. An analysis of their record and rulings will assist media and also how we vote them out. We shall approve and disprove of judges and politicians and make our voices known, regardless of party affiliation. We will make them sign pledges and contracts, so we know where stand.

We will get our friends in person, email, and on Facebook, to work with us, petition, send emails, make phone calls and focus attention on issues and those who fight and oppose us. We will gather lists of names too and personal and email addresses for protesters.

Our first petition will be the abolishment of MERS and I am drafting Lisa Epstein to create the first draft using the relief that Beau seeks in his lawsuit to be the first petition of our group. Lisa, please copy me, Jacqs, April, Dan, and Max on it and we’ll get out soon!

Friends, its time! 2012, the Mayans predicted would be the end of the world "as we know it!" I’m reminded of the song "its the end of the world as we know it, its the end of the world as we know it. If we believe and act, we can do it! I know we can and i know we will!

It’s time my friends, time to get immediate attention and use the legal strategy the the banks and foreclosure mills created called "piling on" after football piling on. Let’s get to the media, get to the government, get to judges, and get to the people. Let’s Occupy Government and The Media and take control of the destiny God has given each of us! 2012 is upon us. The Mayans were right, its the end of the world as we know it, and the start of a new world, not new world order, as we desire and want it to be free of banks, political influence, and corruption!

Nye

Foreclosure Hell…

                                                                Important Evidence & Affidavit in Foreclosure Law Firm, Robo-Signing, & MBS Investigation          

From Nye Lavalle

Thu, Oct 20, 2011 1:18pm                                                                             
From Nye Lavalle

Dear Attorneys General:

Recently, the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency released reports about a special counsel investigation by Fannie Mae and that a shareholder had warned and provided Fannie Mae and others as far back as 2003 about robo-signing and foreclosure abuses. This story was picked up by the NY Times’ Gretchen Mogenson and a plethora of other news media. While Gretchen and the FHFA didn’t name me, I was nonetheless ousted since she and many others, including some of you, knew this shareholder was me.

I have been working hard behind the scenes to warn and stop the catastrophic events of the past few years which I first forecast in 1996! I have spent almost $1 million and spent over 40,000 hours since 1994 investigating, researching, and documenting these frauds. I have millions of pages of documents and a history like a bear in the woods who has left a trail all the way up to personally warning and communicating to the CEOs of virtually every bank, servicer, and Wall Street firm of these abuses. I took shares in each of these companies in the late 90s to warn them. Jaime Dimon, William Harrison, Kerry Killinger, Ace Greenberg, and James Cayne are just a few. However, the ratings agencies were warned as well as law firms and accounting firms, especially Deloitte!

As the shareholder that in 2003 warned Fannie Mae and worked with the independent counsel they appointed, Mark Cymrot, of Baker Hostetler in Washington DC, I have a unique perspective as well as set of facts that each of you could never obtain due to the cost and time limitations, that I have accumulated since 1993, almost 20-years!

However, as you will see by the attached letter to FHFA and links to reports and warnings I have authored since the mid-nineties, many were warned, including some of your offices since the mid to late nineties. I am also the individual that first discovered robo-signing and foreclosure fraud in the mid-nineties and authored reports documenting such abuses starting in the mid-nineties, until a "visiting judge" in Dallas, TX gagged me from telling this story.

It wasn’t until 2000, at the National Consumer Law Center conference in Colorado when I released reports on these frauds and abuses. Some of your lawyers were in attendance and were provided two reports. Only Max Gardner, a bankruptcy lawyer from North Carolina, took the reports to heart and began a decade-old fight to expose this corruption.

Robo-signing and foreclosure fraud and the intentional fraudulent filing of lawsuit complaints, advertisements of sale, assignments of mortgage, satisfactions of mortgage, and affidavits, as you will see from my well-documented reports, are not a recent phenomenon or the result of the securitization craze that swept America and the world from the late nineties to mid-2000’s.

They were carefully planned and orchestrated after the RTC debacle in the late 80s wherein a select group of "special servicers," commonly referred to in the industry as the industry’s "toxic waste dumps," were created to push these newly developed and even "patented" foreclosure factory processes that the four major special servicers "tested" and then "perfected" for the rest of the industry. These special servicers are known to many of you, but their names were EMC Mortgage, SPS f/k/a Conti-Fairbanks Capital, Ocwen, and Litton Loan.

Through "partnerships" with firms like the Barrett Burke operation in Texas, the LOGs group (Shapiro) out of Illinois, the McCalla Raymer group in Georgia and many others, they created an automated foreclosure machine that threw all caution to the wind when it not only came to ethics, but the law. In a newly expanding "virtual" world, they, along with vendors and third parties such as title insurers Fidelity National and First American created patented and marketable "cradle-to-grave" systems and processes to expand the housing and mortgage markets and cover-up and conceal the known fraud to all of them perpetrated mostly by aggressive loan brokers and occasionally borrowers and factored such losses and circumstances into their system. I can provide each of you with mens rea and scienter to prosecute for frauds.

As they tested these systems and perfected their fraud via such practices as intentionally concealing the real ownership of a promissory note and first foreclosing in the names of servicers who claimed to "own" the notes and then MERS, they really were double and multi-pledging the promissory notes to themselves and others to obtain servicing advances as well as take gain on sale accounting treatments on the notes they originated with no risk to them, since they had already forward sold the notes to our respective mutual, trust, and pension funds.

As you each take your own collective and individual approaches towards your investigations, I would whole-heartedly agree with Attorneys General Scheiderman, Biden, Harris, and others who want to continue this investigation. If you don’t continue and right the wrongs, I will boldly predict that each of you will have blood on your hands. I say this as no threat of any means whatsoever, but as a warning based on my understanding as a social scientist and advocate of the human psyche that for some is weak, but for others is broken. If you look at my forecasts and predictions over the years, I have one heck of a batting average in getting it right. As my former partner, Dr. Roy Stout who was featured in the book Blink, would say, I see things and data that others want to ignore. For the first time in my life, I am scared – – scared, not for me, but for our nation and our nation’s youth and those who might have to endure the consequence of the excesses of my generation.

Today, its mortgages, but when these young students, like an ex-girlfriend who at 22 left school with $150,000 in student debt realize what has occurred, all bets will be off. Today, they are peaceful – – tomorrow, they may be vengeful! The Occupy Wall Street movement is only the start. The American public and world, want to see accountability. They want to see perps walk. They want the intentional bankers, hedge funds, and Wall Street executives who intentionally created and manipulated this world-wide financial debacle prosecuted. If you don’t do it, I fear as the nation and the world’s economy suffers even more, there will be total anarchy in the streets as well as assaults and even "non-political" assassinations against banking CEOs, Wall St executives, and foreclosure lawyers, by para-military right and left wing extremists that were former Army Rangers and Navy Seals who are not only disenchanted with the current situation, but disenfranchised. Living in Savannah, GA last year, I met many Rangers each evening who were angry, very angry for fighting a war that they realized was not for Americans, but for other interests. The discussions I would have in the evenings were illuminating and gave me a great respect for our nation’s military men and women.

However, as they lose more friends, limbs, spouses, their sanity and now their homes, a combustible mixture that is not only flammable, but toxic is spreading. You can see it in the OWS movement and some of the videos. I say these things not to scare you, but to warn you once again and most importantly, to EMPOWER EACH OF YOU, collectively or individually.

You have each been give a god-given opportunity at a vital point in our nation and the world’s history. Each of you, if you do your jobs and ignore the politics, political influence, and lobbying from both banks and the federal government, have a special moment in time to leave a mark. A mark that historians will one day write was the day America and the world decided to be free of political and banking influence and truly helped create a world democracy.

The money now, whether it is $20 billion or $50 billion in the scheme of trillion dollar losses is really not what the people are angry at. They was to see accountability and those who not only created the situation, but manipulated it or ignored it to their personal gain be prosecuted. I hear their voices each day and that’s why I am coming out of the closet, so to speak, despite the threats against my family and I to offer my help and assistance in doing what is right for this nation, our people, and those youths protesting for what they know, that many in our generation simply ignored as they drove their BMWs, put dope up their noses, and lived it up at the expense of their children and grand children.

Now is the time. I can give you the goods on many of these if you want to really follow the patented fraud. Have you all read the patents as yet of all these so-called "processes?" The most human element in the entire automated factory were the actual ignorant robo-signers! In fact, when I discovered and reported on robo-signing, I did so just to give one "minor example of the overall fraudulent scheme that was designed not to defraud borrowers who were only pawns in the "game" as it was called, but our respective pension funds and extraction of our so-called excess wealth.

Think about it, for a moment if you will. Robo-signing is such an elementary fraud, so simple, so stupid, so petty! The real fraud and why the banks want to settle with you so quickly is the securitization and the fact that none of these deals were "true sales," but the financing of receivables whereby investors were defrauded and multi-pledging of paid off notes occurred to inflate their earnings, stock prices, and bonuses.

How many of you have had your original wet-ink promissory note returned to you canceled and paid in full upon its payoff or refinancing? Ask around the office? Then, check your lien release or satisfaction and see if it was robo-signed? Who is your real lender?

Open the black Pandora’s box of financial alchemy in securitization and you will find the multi-pledging and sale of paid off notes, the same notes, and even "ghost notes" that were created with Photoshop and never even executed by a real live borrower. I will save the death threats, break-ins, arsons, computer hacks, and millions of dollars of vexatious litigation by the banks and its foreclosure lawyers against my family, myself, our trusts, and the select group of advocates who were the first to take the baton from my hand for another day. I will even save the bribery of judicial officers, court reporters, and local judges for another day. All I ask is for each of you to think long and very hard, before letting the banks, their servicers, vendors, and lawyers off the hook.

I’ll come to see any of you and give any of you my deposition as well as access to whatever I possess in terms of evidence. I would also suggest that you ask each bank you are investigating and law firm to preserve all evidence and provide to you everything they have in their possession that contains my name "Nye Lavalle" or "Aneurin Lavalle" or this email address that I have had since the mid-nineties. <mortgagefrauds@aol.com>                                                                                                              I am also more than willing to take polygraph exams, should you find that necessary.  In essence, all I personally want is the real and true story told by a real and true investigation and the subsequent civil and criminal prosecution of those responsible for this nation’s morass.

I pray some, or all of you, will take me up on my offer. Please feel free to call or email me at any time if I can be of assistance to you or any of your collective or respective investigations!

Nye Lavalle

FANNIE AND FREDDIE OF FORECLOSURE ABUSES

Original Message—–
From: Nye Lavalle

To: OIGhotline <OIGhotline@fhfa.gov>; DeputyDirector-Enterprises <DeputyDirector-Enterprises@FHFA.gov>;                      Director <Director@FHFA.gov>; DeputyDirector-FHLBanks <DeputyDirector-FHLBanks@FHFA.gov>;                    GeneralCounsel<GeneralCounsel@FHFA.gov>; Ombudsman <Ombudsman@FHFA.gov>
                                                                        Sent: Sat, Oct 8, 2011 10:28 pm
Subject: I AM THE FANNIE SHAREHOLDER NAMED IN YOUR OIG REPORTS THAT WARNED FANNIE AND FREDDIE OF FORECLOSURE ABUSES IN 2003 AND AFTER

Gentlemen,

By way of introduction, my name is Nye Lavalle and I am the shareholder/investor, referenced in your recent OIG reports that warned Fannie Mae’s board and CEO of foreclosure and legal abuses almost a decade ago. For over a year, I worked closely with Fannie Mae and Mark Cymrot of Baker Hostetler, who was the independent counsel appointed by Fannie Mae, to investigate allegations contained in my 2004 report. I also warned Freddie Mac and its board as well.

The attached letter will provide you more information and hopefully open a dialogue between us that will help us find solutions for our nation and its citizens as well as hold those responsible, accountable for their actions.

To that end, I stand ready and able to assist you each in your respective duties at FHFA and the OIG for FHFA.

Sincerely,

Nye Lavalle

SEC Investigates S&P in Mortgage Crisis

Law.com

SEC Investigating Standard & Poor’s Role in Mortgage-Crisis CDO

Brian Glaser Contact

Corporate Counsel

September 27, 2011

On Monday, Standard & Poor’s parent company McGraw-Hill reported its receipt of a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, warning of potential civil charges against the ratings agency for its role in the recent mortgage crisis.
According to CNN/Money, "the commission could fine the company for alleged securities violations related to a 2007 collateralized debt obligation deal that S&P rated. . . The CDO deal in question, known as Delphinus CDO 2007-1, was arranged by Mizuho International and Delaware Investments acted as the collateral manager. In 2007, S&P had a AAA rating on the security, which was backed largely by subprime mortgages."
McGraw-Hill was notified by the SEC on September 22 and, according to Financial Times, the move by the regulatory agency "marks the first time the SEC has sought to pursue charges against a ratings company in connection with its rating of a CDO, linked to pools of residential mortgages." S&P’s is also facing an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into its rating procedures.
The SEC’s action comes nearly two months after S&P’s downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating.
As the SEC looks into possible charges against the company, The New York Times reports that the outcome is not clear-cut:

Standard & Poor’s and other rating agencies were not generally the architects of deals like Delphinus, but the AAA ratings they placed on parts of those deals were critical to the banks’ abilities to sell them to investors. S.& P. and other agencies made record profits placing ratings on mortgage securities like Delphinus, but they did not provide any sort of promises to investors that their ratings were accurate. If investigators at the S.E.C. or the Justice Department find that analysts at S.&P. intentionally gave out inaccurate ratings, that could be a violation of the law.

The news had an immediate effect on S&P’s and its parent company in one regard. Forbes reports of McGraw-Hill stock on Monday: "Shares slid 42 cents to $42.51 in afternoon trading. Earlier, the stock traded as low as $41.50."

See also,
"Standard & Poor’s Sees Risk of U.S. Debt Default as Risk to U.S. Business," CorpCounsel, July 2011; and "The U.S. Credit-Rating Downgrade Will Keep In-House Lawyers Busy," CorpCounsel, August 2011.

Failure to show ownership

http://sn133w.snt133.mail.live.com/default.aspx#fid=265f0c107cc149b19b373483f323013d&n=1553048258&mid=2a5a8184-e5e5-11e0-91bc-002264c17c74&fv=1

HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v. Gabay

Court: Maine Supreme Court

Opinion Date: September 15, 2011

Judge: Alexander

Areas of Law: Commercial Law, Consumer Law, Real Estate & Property Law

Janelle Gabay defaulted on a promissory note secured by a mortgage of her real property. HSBC Bank USA, the holder of the mortgage, filed a complaint for foreclosure and sale against Gabay. The district court granted HSBC’s motion for summary judgment. The Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the district court, holding that entry of judgment as a matter of law was precluded where (1) HSBC’s statement of material facts failed to properly present proof of ownership of the mortgage note; (2) HSBC’s statement of material facts did not contain an adequate description of the mortgaged premises including a street address; (3) a genuine issue of material fact existed as to the order of priority and amounts due to other parties-in-interest; and (4) the amount of costs due as part of the amount due on the mortgage was not included in the summary judgment record as required. Remanded.

Money

BuzzNet Tags:

Utah Supreme Court

Pyper v. Bond

http://law.justia.com/cases/utah/supreme-court/2011/20091025-11.html

Docket: 20091025
Opinion Date: July 29, 2011

Judge: Durrant

Areas of Law: Commercial Law, Consumer Law, Trusts & Estates

David Pyper hired attorney Justin Bond to represent him in a probate matter. Bond’s law firm subsequently sued Pyper to obtain payment of the attorney fees. The district court entered a judgment in favor of the law firm for $10,577. To satisfy the judgment, Bond filed a lien against a house owned by Pyper that was worth approximately $125,000. Bond was the only bidder at the sheriff’s sale auctioning Pyper’s home and purchased Pyper’s home for $329. Pyper later communicated his desire to redeem his property to Dale Dorius, another attorney at the firm, but was unable to speak to Bond after several attempts. After the redemption period expired, the deed to Pyper’s home was transferred to Bond. Pyper subsequently filed a petition seeking to set aside the sheriff’s sale of his property. The district court set aside the sheriff’s sale. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding the court of appeals did not err in (1) concluding that gross inadequacy of price together with slight circumstances of unfairness may justify setting aside a sheriff’s sale and (2) affirming the district court’s conclusion that Bond and Dorius’s conduct created, at least, slight circumstances of unfairness.

http://j.st/cZN

DEKALB COUNTY GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE.  NOW, THE ELECTED ENTITIES, ARE STABBING EACH OTHER IN THE BACK, THEN WHEN THAT PERSON IS GONE, THE PREDATOR TAKES THE JOB, AND SHE BRAGS ABOUT WHAT SHE HAS DONE; What the hell is this county, and the state of GEORGIA coming to?

http://www.atlawblog.com/2011/04/former-dekalb-court-clerk-sues-successor/

Former DeKalb Court Clerk Sues Successor
9:16 am, April 20th, 2011

Former DeKalb County Superior Court Clerk Linda Carter has sued the woman who now holds that title, Debra DeBerry, alleging that DeBerry tricked her into resigning from the job.

Carter sued DeBerry in her official capacity and individually, and seeks unspecified damages. Carter also sued Gov. Nathan Deal, seeking a writ of mandamus to remove DeBerry from office and to compel official recognition of Carter’s “status as the rightful elected Clerk.” The complaint alleges that Deal accepted the letter of resignation without knowing it was “null and void.”

Carter is represented by A. Lee Parks and James E. Radford Jr. of Parks, Chesin & Walbert. The suit, filed in DeKalb Superior Court, does not list counsel for DeBerry.

DeBerry’s chief deputy clerk, Rick Setser, who also serves as her public information officer, said the county attorney had advised both him and DeBerry not to comment.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Ms. DeBerry, and she is eager to clear her name.”

Parks, in an earlier conversation with the Daily Report, said Carter suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and would not have left willingly, as she was two years shy of vesting in her pension and medical benefits. The complaint alleges that on the afternoon of March 24, Deputy Clerk Lisa Oakley—who is not a defendant in the suit—“acting on instructions from DeBerry” and with knowledge that “Carter was suffering from a temporary episode of dementia,” asked her to sign a letter of resignation.

“The letter was presented to Carter as a routine business document … its contents were obscured from Carter’s view. Oakley, acting on DeBerry’s instructions, did not inform Carter that she was being asked to sign a letter of resignation. … Oakley, acting on DeBerry’s instructions, and knowing that Carter did not know or understand the document’s content … indicated some urgency in having Carter sign the document.”

Oakley was not immediately available for comment.

The complaint alleges that on the evening that Carter signed her resignation letter, her husband, John Carter, came to pick her up from work and Oakley escorted her to the car. Oakley told Carter’s husband that “DeBerry had ordered that Oakley have Carter sign a letter of resignation.”

Also, allegedly on DeBerry’s instructions, Oakley said that Chief Judge Mark Anthony Scott “had ordered the Sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia, to forcibly remove Carter from office.”

Scott said he did not even learn about Carter’s resignation until after it had been tendered and that he neither attempted to remove Carter from office nor ordered the sheriff to do so. He said he did not even have that authority. “I read those allegations. I do not know where they come from,” he said.

According to the complaint, when Carter’s husband called Setser, the chief deputy clerk, to discuss the circumstances of the resignation, Setser allegedly said he and DeBerry jointly created the letter and agreed to have Carter sign it “to avoid media inquiries into Carter’s medical condition.”

The case, Carter v. DeBerry, 11cv4584, has been assigned to DeKalb Superior Judge Daniel R. Coursey Jr.

Big Banks Save Billions As Homeowners Suffer, Internal Federal Report By CFPB Finds

Release Date: 
March 28, 2011
Source: Shahien Nasiripour, The Huffington Post

NEW YORK — The nation’s five largest mortgage firms have saved more than $20 billion since the housing crisis began in 2007 by taking shortcuts in processing troubled borrowers’ home loans, according to a confidential presentation prepared for state attorneys general by the nascent consumer bureau inside the Treasury Department.

 That estimate suggests large banks have reaped tremendous benefits from under-serving distressed homeowners, a complaint frequent enough among borrowers that federal regulators have begun to acknowledge the industry’s fundamental shortcomings.

 The dollar figure also provides a basis for regulators’ internal discussions regarding how best to penalize Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial in a settlement of wide-ranging allegations of wrongful and occasionally illegal foreclosures. People involved in the talks say some regulators want to levy a $5 billion penalty on the five firms, while others seek as much as $30 billion, with most of the money going toward reducing troubled homeowners’ mortgage payments and lowering loan balances for underwater borrowers, those who owe more on their home than it’s worth.

 Even the highest of those figures, however, pales in comparison to the likely cost of reducing mortgage principal for the three million homeowners some federal agencies hope to reach. Lowering loan balances for that many underwater borrowers who owe less than $1.15 for every dollar their home is worth would cost as much as $135 billion, according to the internal presentation, dated Feb. 14, obtained by The Huffington Post.

 But perhaps most important to some lawmakers in Washington, the mere existence of the report suggests a much deeper link between the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, led by Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, and the 50 state attorneys general who are leading the nationwide probe into the five firms’ improper foreclosure practices, a development sure to anger Republicans in Congress and a banking industry intent on diminishing the fledgling CFPB’s legitimacy by questioning its authority to act before it’s officially launched in July.

 Earlier this month, Warren told the House Financial Services Committee, under intense questioning, that her agency has provided limited assistance to the various state and federal agencies involved in the industry probes. At one point, she was asked whether she made any recommendations regarding proposed penalties. She replied that her agency has only provided “advice.”

 A representative of the consumer agency declined to comment on the presentation, citing the law enforcement nature of the federal investigation into the mortgage industry’s leading firms.

The seven-page presentation begins by stating that a deal to settle claims of improper foreclosures “provides the potential for broad reform.”

 In it, the consumer agency outlines possibilities offered by the settlement — a minimum number of mortgage modifications, a boost to the housing market — and how it could reform the industry going forward so that investors in home loans and the borrowers who owe them would be able to resolve situations in which borrowers fall behind on their payments without the complications of a large mortgage company acting in its own interest.

 The presentation also details how much certain firms likely saved in lieu of making the necessary loan-processing adjustments as delinquencies and foreclosures rose. Bank of America, for example, has saved more than $6 billion since 2007 by not upgrading its procedures or hiring more workers, according to the report. Wells Fargo saved about as much, with JPMorgan close behind. Citigroup and Ally bring the total saved to nearly $25 billion.

The presentation adds that the under-investment far exceeds the proposed $5 billion penalty that has been on the table. People familiar with the matter say the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency wants to fine the industry less than $5 billion.

 The alleged shortchanging of homeowners has prolonged the housing market’s woes, experts say, because distressed homeowners who are prime candidates to have their payments reduced aren’t getting loan modifications and lenders are taking up to two years to seize borrowers’ homes.

 The average borrower in foreclosure has been delinquent for 537 days before actually being evicted, up from 319 days in January 2009, according to Lender Processing Services, a data provider.

 The prolonged housing pain has manifested itself in various ways.

 Purchases of new U.S. homes dropped last month to the slowest pace on record, according to the Commerce Department. Prices declined to the lowest level since 2003, according to the National Association of Realtors. About 6.9 million homeowners were either delinquent or in foreclosure proceedings through February, according to LPS.

 A penalty of about $25 billion — based on mortgage servicing costs avoided — would have “little effect” on the five firms’ capital levels, according to the presentation, since the five banks collectively hold about $500 billion in tangible common equity, the highest form of capital. Those numbers notwithstanding, banks and Republicans in Congress have complained that such a large penalty would have a disproportionate impact on bank balance sheets, hurting their ability to lend or pay dividends to investors.

 The presentation adds that given the extent of negative equity — underwater homeowners owe $751 billion more than their homes are worth, according to data provider CoreLogic — “we have gravitated towards settlement solutions that enable asset liquidity and cast a wide net.” The solution is an emphasis on reducing mortgage debt and enabling short sales, thus allowing borrowers to refinance into more affordable loans or to sell their homes and move on.

Top Federal Reserve officials and other economists have pointed to the large numbers of underwater homeowners as being one of the reasons behind high unemployment, as underwater homeowners are unable to move to where the jobs are. More than 23 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are underwater, according to CoreLogic.

The proposed settlement, as envisioned by the consumer agency, could reduce loan balances for up to three million homeowners. If mortgage firms targeted their efforts at reducing mortgage debt for three million homeowners who owe as much as their homes are worth or have less than 5 percent equity, the total cost would be $41.8 billion, according to estimates cited in the presentation.

 If firms lowered total mortgage debt for three million homeowners who are underwater by as much as 15 percent and brought them to 5 percent equity, that would cost more than $135 billion, according to the presentation. That would include reducing second mortgages and home equity lines of credit.

 In its presentation, the consumer agency said the new program, titled “Principal Reduction Mandate,” could be “meaningfully additive to HAMP” — the Home Affordable Modification Program, the Obama administration’s primary mortgage modification effort.

 The CFPB estimates that there are about 12 million U.S. homeowners underwater, most of whom are not delinquent, according to its presentation. Of those, nine million would be eligible for this new principal-reduction scheme born from the foreclosure deal. The new initiative would then “mandate” three million permanent modifications.

News of the level of the consumer agency’s involvement in the state investigation would likely be welcomed by consumer and homeowner advocates, who have long complained of the lack of attention paid to distressed borrowers by federal bank regulators like the OCC and the Federal Reserve.

But Republicans will pounce on the news, creating yet another distraction for a fledgling bureau that was the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s efforts to reform the financial industry in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, the banking industry will likely celebrate government infighting as attention is diverted away from allegations of bank wrongdoing and towards the level of involvement of Elizabeth Warren, a fierce consumer advocate and the principal original proponent of an agency solely dedicated to protecting borrowers from abusive lenders.

Warren is standing up the agency on an interim basis. It formally launches in July, at which point it will need a Senate-confirmed director in order to carry out its full authority. One of those areas will be how mortgage firms process home loans for distressed borrowers.

A spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. Spokespeople for the other four banks were not immediately available for comment.

Read the presentation attached.

GA Court of Appeals Does It Again!

GA Court of Appeals Does It Again!.

Judge William S. Duffey, Jr. Edited this Book on the Calling to Be A Lawyer? That Explains the Corruption

New Title! A Life In The Law: Advice For Young Lawyers, edited by William S. Duffey, Jr. and Richard A. Schneider American Bar Association, 2009
Call Number: KF 372 .L54 2009

In this book’s nineteen essays, editors Duffey (U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia) and Schneider (senior partner at King & Spalding in Atlanta) examine the calling to be a lawyer. Contributing authors include Griffin Bell, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge who was appointed by President Kennedy and served as Attorney General under President Carter; Paul Clement, former Solicitor General under George W. Bush; and Leah Sears, who at age 36 was the youngest lawyer and the first woman to sit on the Georgia Supreme Court, and later became its first Black female Chief Justice. These and many others write about the values of the profession, the responsibility of lawyers to their communities, and their duty of service to clients, to the public, and to each other. Also addressed are the troublesome issues of how hard lawyers are expected to work, and what sacrifices they should and shouldn’t make.

Georgia Citizens Rights to the Courts

http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleFriendlyLTN.jsp?id=1202473818462

Page printed from: Law Technology News

Georgia Mulls Citizens’ Right to Access Courts via E-File
Greg Land
10-25-2010

A DeKalb County judge expressed surprise Tuesday when an attorney representing the parent company of LexisNexis asserted that the public has no constitutional right of access to the courts. The exchange came in a hearing before DeKalb Superior Court Judge Robert J. Castellani on a motion for summary judgment in a case that seeks to have Fulton County’s e-filing system declared unconstitutional.

The case is the fourth iteration of a potential class action against Fulton County and its e-filing system, and charges that the Fulton court’s requirement that documents be filed via the fee-based LexisNexis File & Serve system declared an unconstitutional violation of citizens’ right to access the courts. The suit also says the Fulton court’s requirement violates Georgia law that stipulates the method by which legal documents must be filed and constitutes an “illegal scheme” between the county and LexisNexis’ parent company, Reed Elsevier, to “impose an unlawful mandatory e-filing system upon litigants in Fulton County State and Superior Court and to charge excessive and unauthorized fees in connection therewith.”

In a series of orders beginning in 1999, approved by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners and signed by then-State Court Chief Judge Albert L. Thompson, cases must be e-filed if they involve asbestos, Fen-Phen, mercury or lead, silicosis, welding rods, medical or legal malpractice, personal injury, cases with four or more plaintiffs or defendants, cases in which more than $50,000 in damages is being sought, torts cases, and those in which no specific dollar figure is demanded.

In Superior Court, certain asbestos and silicosis cases must e-file, and all filings in the criminal case against convicted Fulton County Courthouse shooter Brian Nichols also are required to be e-filed.

The complaint says that LexisNexis charges administrative fees of between $7 and $12 for each document filed in addition to the courts’ statutory filing fees, according to the complaint. A public access terminal at the courthouse allows pro se litigants to register and file documents without paying the fee.

The plaintiffs include three attorneys; a non-attorney who, as administrator of his father’s estate, “has been subjected to the Lexis fees”; and a corporate entity, Best Jewelry Manufacturing, which was a party to a suit in Fulton County State Court in 2008.

At one point, according to the complaint, Best’s attorney “was ‘locked out’ of defendant Lexis’ e-filing due to counsel’s alleged failure to pay fees,” and was thus unable to file a motion in the case.

The original eight-count complaint included charging Fulton County and Reed Elsevier with violating Georgia laws that require any court to accept paper filings, and forbidding “usage fees, interest, finance charges, administrative fees and other assessments not authorized by Georgia law.” Other counts allege violations of the rules governing state courts, and of the Georgia Constitution’s guarantee of access to the courts.

An amended complaint in March added counts of conversion and money had and received, which pertains to the fees already collected from the system’s users.

Atlanta attorney Steven J. Newton previously filed two similar suits in federal court; he voluntarily dismissed the first one in 2007, and the court dismissed the second last year. He also filed and voluntarily dismissed a 2007 suit in Fulton County Superior Court where the current suit, with two additional plaintiffs, was filed in January. The Fulton bench recused, and the case was assigned to Castellani.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the court heard arguments concerning Reed Elsevier’s motion to dismiss the suit. Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker partner William K. Whitner, representing the company, argued that the dismissals of the earlier suits, and the submission of several amended complaints to them, indicated that the case has no merit and should be dismissed.

Further, he said, several of the allegations had no bearing on his client.

Reed “is a private party,” he said, and assertions that it could violate laws and regulations relating to the behavior of courts, clerks, or state agencies “have nothing to do with a contractual supplier like Reed Elsevier.”

Whitner pointed to the March 23, 2009, order dismissing the second federal case authored by U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey Jr., which includes the statement that “[p]laintiffs’ state law claims, to the extent they can be discerned at all, repeatedly allege violations of Georgia statutes and court rules that could be broken, if at all, only by the government defendants in this case.”

That order, said Whitner, “while not binding on this court, is certainly instructional.”

“It’s clear that, even if the e-filing were instituted improperly — which we do not believe — Reed has no control,” he said.

But it was Whitner’s statement on the constitutional claims that got Castellani’s attention.

“On the constitutional claims,” said Whitner, “they repeatedly refer to it as a ‘right to access to the courts.’ … The Georgia Supreme Court has repeatedly held that there is no constitutional right to access to the courts.”

“Did you just say there’s no right of access to the courts?” asked Castellani.

“No constitutional right,” said Whitner.

“So a court could establish a filing fee of $1,000, and if somebody didn’t have it, that would be OK?” asked the judge.

“It’s not even a close call,” said Whitner, citing Article 1 of the state Constitution, which states that “no person shall be deprived of the right to prosecute or defend, either in person or by an attorney, that person’s own cause in any of the courts of this state.”

“This provides a right to representation,” he said. “That’s the what the case law says; I’m not saying it’s right or wrong.”

“I hope that’s not what your case rests on,” replied Castellani.

Newton’s co-counsel, associate Shuli L. Green, rose for the plaintiffs, first arguing that Georgia’s voluntary dismissal doctrine clearly allows a case to be voluntarily dismissed and refiled, and that the addition of the new plaintiffs meant that they should certainly have their chance in court.

“Does that mean that no class action could ever be subject to the voluntary dismissal doctrine” as long as new plaintiffs were added? asked Castellani.

“Not until the putative class members are certified by the court,” Green replied.

“That makes sense,” she added, “since we don’t even know who the class members are yet.”

As to Reed’s assertions that it could not be held responsible for the actions of state actors, Green replied that the company is “the functional equivalent of Fulton County as far as setting these filing fees.”

But she saved her harshest critique for the defense argument that the state Constitution affords no right to access to the courts.

She cited the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling in Nelms v. Georgia Manor Condo Association (253 Ga. 410), which held that while the right to access to the courts is not unfettered, “it is axiomatic that an individual must have access to the courts in order to assert the right of self-representation provided by [the right to the courts provision].”

The requirement that all attorneys pay the fees and may not file by mail or in person is onerous enough, she said, but the burden on pro se filers — who have to either sign up with Lexis to pursue their case, or make their way to the Fulton County Courthouse, perhaps at considerable expense, to use the free PAT terminals creates a hardship that breaches constitutional strictures, she said.

Further, she said, the necessity to make that choice itself impacts a citizen’s right to select his or her choice of representation.

She also noted that, under the defense interpretation, there is no limit as to what fees can be charged.

“That proposition does concern me a little bit,” said Castellani, although “I don’t think it’s relevant here. There are alternatives available.”

“Their argument is that you don’t have to pay [to use the PATs],” she said, “but if you do have a lawyer your only option is to either have your lawyer file orders and pay him for his time, or pay a lawyer to use the free terminal, so it’s not free.”

Castellani did not issue any rulings, nor did he indicate when he might do so.

In response to an inquiry, a Reed Elsevier spokesman provided an e-mailed statement.

“LexisNexis has worked with the Fulton County courts since 1999 to provide court personnel and legal professionals with an efficient way to handle the exchange of legal documents through File & Serve,” it said. “The service allows for increased control over case file management, quicker and more cost effective filing and service, improved access to information and enhanced case monitoring. We believe the residents of Fulton County also benefit by the Court’s ability to more efficiently manage documents and reduce costs for document storage and administration.”

The case is McCurdy v. Fulton County, No. 2010CV179757.

A similar case is proceeding in federal court in Texas, where a class action was filed earlier this year against a judge, court clerk and county. In 2003, Montgomery County District Court Judge Frederick E. Edwards issued an order requiring that civil case documents be filed only through LexisNexis, exempting only filings filed by the state, Child Protective Services, adoptive actions, and new divorce and annulment cases that are resolved within 90 days, according to the complaint.

The Texas suit alleges constitutional equal protection and due process violations, and asserts that the arrangement between the company and county constitutes a violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.

The case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas is McPeters v. Edwards, No. 4:10-CV-1103.

Beware of Court’s Clerks

Order on Appeal from Probate Court

After waiting for almost four years for an Order on Appeal/Void Judgment from DeKalb County Probate Court Judge Rosh’s Order. The Court had set three peremptory hearings, and a jury trial hearing. This morning another peremptory hearing was scheduled. Judge Elliott A Shoenthall replaced Judge Scott. When he performed roll call, he informed James that the case had been dismissed March 2006 by Order. He stated that something must have been filed wrong. Judge Shoenthall announced a two minute recess. The Judge and clerks were gone about twenty minutes.
Judge Shoenthall obviously read the file and read the Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law James filed in January before the jury trial hearing date.
Judge Shoenthall promised James if he would wait, he would get the Order. Not only did James receive the Order from Judge Scott’s 2006 Ruling, he presented us with an appealable Order dated today. The clerk made sure to inform James that the Order would be appealable.
Judge Shoenthall must have realized all that James had ever wanted was the Right to Appeal the Order, but without an Order, you cannot Appeal. Notice of Intent to Appeal had been filed with Judge Scott before he Ruled, and two Motions for Orders had been filed, but no Order was forthcoming.

Thanks Judge Shoenthall!

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Georgia Supreme Court Opinions Database: Direct Appeal Opinions

Georgia Supreme Court Opinions Database: Direct Appeal Opinions.

Georgia Supreme Court Opinion: Smith et al. v. Baptiste et al.

Georgia Supreme Court Opinion: Smith et al. v. Baptiste et al..

Georgia Supreme Court Opinion: State of Georgia ex rel. Doyle v. Frederick J.Hanna

Georgia Supreme Court Opinion: State of Georgia ex rel. Doyle v. Frederick J.Hanna.

Court Thwarts Governor’s Attempt to Investigate Debt Collection Firm (via Georgia Supreme Court Blog)

In a 4-to-3 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court has upheld a ruling by a Cobb County court prohibiting a state official from investigating a law firm that collects debts on behalf of creditors. Background Joseph Doyle is the Administrator of the Fair Business Practices Act of 1975, Georgia's principal consumer protection law that prohibits deceptive practices involving consumer trade. Doyle enforces the law through the Governor's Office of Consum … Read More

via Georgia Supreme Court Blog

In the Domain Name World

For all of those who are involved in domain names, visits Domain news websites, and/or keeps up with the Rick Latona auctions…

All I have to say is the following in support of John Zuccarini in the DS Holdings v Zuccarini and/or the Zuccarini v NameJet, Network Solutions, Verisign, Enom cases:

“Equal Justice for All”????

If you go back to the original Office Depot v Zuccarini suit, the Court lacked jurisdiction and venue. They claimed quasi in rem jurisdiction under ACPA, but still a problem… In that case they should have had to go to VA to do the suit.

Then Office Depot gets this judgment, and never tried to collect on it, yea DSH has repeatedly claimed that Office Depot couldn’t ever collect because of Zuccarini and his notorious way of moving around and not being able to find him. That too is hogwash.

The facts clearly show that Zuccarini was living in FL since 2001 and was fairly easy to find (most of the time); nevertheless, Office Depot never bothered to file the Judgment in FL, so that means they never tried to collect on it.

And for everyone else that wants to say some really bad things about Zuccarini… he may be alot of things, but really people “criminal notorious cybersquatter”; “serial cybersquatter”, and other references, which are really quite worse… Then you have some asshole attorney, Kronie, who claims that the Shields case is where some of the worse comes from. I read the Shields Appellate Court Opinion, it didn’t say that at all. It said:

“Although Zuccarini’s sites did not involve pornography, his intent was the same as that mentioned in the legislative history above — to register a domain name in anticipation that consumers would make a mistake, thereby increasing the number of hits his site would receive, and, consequently, the number of advertising dollars he would gain.”

So John was given a bad time, and there are a lot of wild rumors out there, and a lot of people want to say a lot of BullShit, but really… does that make DS Holdings, Rick Latona, or any other number of entities better? They are actually bigger crooks than Zuccarini could ever be… Kronie does it under the guise of being an attorney.

Maybe that is why attorneys have bad names (not all attorneys, Berryhill has shown to not be quite like the rest, and I hear good things about several others that run domain news websites)

Then you have this Judge…Illston. What the hell kind of Judge allows that much fraud upon the Court in their Courtroom? Is she just stupid, or is she in on it too?
Does DS Holdings somehow own Illston?

Hell, now I have more questions than I had before I found out that Kronie is DSH!

The Invention of a criminal statute in order to arrest a citizen

Basically that is exactly what happened.  I don’t really know onto who’s Birthday cake John Zuccarini shit so many years ago, but the whole incident has had the Domain world talking about it off and on for more than ten years. 
Yes, the gov’t did invent a new crime in order to arrest Zuccarini; why?  Because they could.  Where in the hell is due process of law when that happens?
Don’t take my word for it, John Berryhill is an attorney, and well known in the “Domain” world… Berryhill was responding to one of my questions on the matter as I was trying to learn more about the situation…
John Berryhill
June 9th, 2010 | 3:38 pm

“My question is this… If Zuccarini was prosecuted for using these particular domain names, are they not illegal?”

There are several legal actions involving what might be termed “Zuccarini domains”.

The basic lay of the land in THIS case is that an attorney in California bought uncollected civil judgments against Zuccarini and used those judgments to levy against his *other* domain names. In that view, *these* domain names were not the ones which triggered the civil judgments (which I believe also transferred the infringing domains). It is something like my putting a lien against your house because I obtained a judgment against you for hitting me with your car.

Now, there is another shoe to drop here, because the US government also has some outstanding issues, and has filed to intervene in the case. The US issues relate, IMHO, to back taxes and to a judgment with the FTC obtained against Zuccarini at some time in the murky past. Interestingly, the FTC order prevented him from engaging in a laundry list of activities involving trafficking in the entire set of his domain names.

Apart from all of that, there was a criminal conviction of Mr. Zuccarini resulting from an alleged violation of the Truth in Domain Names Act (or whatever it was called). Oddly, the indictment in that case relied on acts committed prior to the effective date of the statute, but Mr. Z took a plea deal for reasons unknown. US Attorneys can be very persuasive.

While the US has not completely dropped its shoe yet (the last time I checked the docket), it is not outside of the range of possibilities for the US to see things your way – i.e. that the collection of domains itself (cybersquatted or not) is somehow tainted as “instruments of crime” or some other theory that will snatch defeat from that clever California attorney’s hands.

Needless to say, the US government has large shoes.

The decade-long sweep of this story is epic.

Our Legal Filings

As a Pro Se litigant, it is often difficult to know or understand what a Motion, Objection, etc. is supposed to look like. So, what I have done is uploaded to two different websites some of the legal filings we have filed in Probate, State, Superior, District, Court of Appeals of GA, US Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Courts.

Feel free to check out the filings, they are very useful and informative. Feel free to use the case law, it has all been checked and is what it says. Feel free to contact us should you have any questions.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND… WE ARE NOT ATTORNEYS, WE DO NOT GIVE LEGAL ADVICE!
We supply this information only as information in hopes of a better United States and in hopes of combating the corruption within the legal system and courts!

Go to: http://www.docstoc.com/profile/NootkabearMcDonald

Documents

Superior Court Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit

Ya know…

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of corruption at Superior Court Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit.

Now Judge Becker, the same Judge that we have a case against in Federal Court, and who refuses to recuse from the Superior Court case, has set a Summary Judgment hearing for GA Power.

Because she is defendant in a case in federal court along with GA Power and two of the attorneys representing them in the Superior Court case, she cannot legally preside over the Superior Court case. She refuses to recuse.

How in the hell is anyone to have a fair and impartial tribunal in that Court system? The day after she was properly served with Summons and Complaint, she dismissed with prejudice our case against GA Power leaving only their counterclaim.

This is truly a sign of the done deal syndrome!

DeKalb Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott

Keep in mind, Judge Scott has had an Appeal and Void Judgment in front of him for over three years. He set it for Jury Trial that was to begin January 26, 2009. He failed to send Notice of trial to any of the parties.



Monday, January 26, 2009 in a wheelchair, I attended a “Jury Trial” calendar call in Superior Court before Judge Mark Anthony Scott for an Appeal from Probate Court, which was filed three years ago. When my name was called I responded; Judge asked if I was ready for trial, I responded that I was. Judge asked if I was proceeding Pro Se, I responded that I was. Judge asked if I was represented by counsel, I responded that No, I am proceeding Pro Se. The Judge asked me two more times if I was represented, and/or if I was proceeding Pro Se, I responded that I am proceeding Pro Se both times.



The clerk, very quietly spoke to the Judge. The Judge stated that there are “technical difficulties” in the file. I asked what the technical difficulties are. The Judge, very irritated stated to the Bailiff “take him out back!” I stated to the Judge: “All I did was ask what the difficulties are”; Judge responded: “I didn’t like your tone of voice!”; I responded: “I am in constant pain, I wasn’t rude”; Judge said: “Why didn’t you tell me that to begin with, I was having you arrested for contempt!”; I said nothing. The Judge then said: “Bailiffs take him out of my Courtroom!”



At that point the Bailiffs, one grabbing the handles of my wheelchair physically removed me from the courtroom. I waited outside approximately 30 minutes, decided I should go in case this Judge decided to have me arrested for contempt. I have heard nothing sense.

Judicial Corruption

I don’t know about the rest of yall, but I have had about enough of the corruption within the Judicial System. I see that it’s not just in Georgia, but all over the whole country.

It’s just a damn shame that the greatest country in the world is riddled with such corruption and apparently everyone knows it and nothing is done about it.

If anyone else (I’m not speaking of attorneys, or law students, I am speaking of those of us forced to fight for our Rights in the Courts as Pro Se litigants) if anyone else has ever sat back and read case after case after case for caselaw, it is obvious that what is going on goes against everything our country was created for. The Supreme Court in many cases goes through and analyzes what it was that the “framers intended” when they made laws.

I can tell you…. the framers did not intend justice to be only for the rich, only for those who can afford attorneys, only for friends and family of Judges. They never intended the Judges to be bias/prejudice and treat litigants without dignity, to treat them as idiots, to humiliate them.

We have studied the law diligently for four years now. No, not at college, but studied in the same way one would study in college. We are not idiots, and we will not quit, we will not go away!