tagged w/ Support the Troops
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Bad enough there are countless victims of sloppy foreclosure mills (you know, like the firm that threw the homeless themed Halloween party a year ago, then tossed workers out when they shut their own doors just a couple weeks ago) now we find out illegal foreclosures on military personnel might be a huge issue too. 'Thank you for your service to the nation, now get out of this house the bank thinks it owns?' WTF?
"Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has launched an investigation into ten leading banks that may have illegally foreclosed on the mortgages of almost 5,000 members of the U.S. military, some of them activated to duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The OCC regulates banks and will study the reviews of foreclosures by Bank of America, Wells Fargo, One West, HSBC, US Bancorp, MetLife, Sovereign and EverBank.
In 2003 Congress passed the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) to provide protections for servicemembers when their military service prevents them from meeting financial obligations taken on before their entry into active duty. Congressman Miller introduced The Servicemembers' Rights Protection Act in an effort to eliminate any ambiguity about the protections for servicemembers under the SCRA. The measure passed in the Veterans' Benefits Act of 2010.
Miller statement on OCC investigation:
"It is hard to see this as anything except a flagrant disregard for a law that has been on the books continuously since the First World War. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is very clear: if you're in harm's way in our nation's military, you can devote your whole energy to our nation's service without worrying what's happening in a courthouse back home. And if you have a claim against someone in our military, you can wait until they get home and can defend themselves.
The SCRA is not some obscure legal technicality that might just have escaped the attention of mortgage servicers. Those servicers are all affiliates of the biggest banks, but they're huge and specialized. Servicing mortgages is all they do, and they really don't have that many laws to keep up with. They have got to have known what the law required, and consciously decided that they could just ignore it, the same way they apparently decided it was okay to file false affidavits in legal proceedings.
The continued failure to pursue criminal charges in the face of flagrant violations of the criminal law is destroying Americans' faith in their government and democracy. In a democracy, no one is too big to prosecute."
Rep. Miller is hosting a roundtable, along with the North Carolina National Guard next Monday, December 5th at the North Carolina National Guard Headquarters to talk about financial protections and hardships for military men and women who have been deployed and their families. Mrs. Holly Petraeus, Assistant Director for the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and wife of General David H. Petraeus (U.S. Army, Retired), Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will join the roundtable.
The roundtable discussion will focus on mortgage modification, refinance and foreclosure scams. There will also be general discussion of education benefits, tuition assistance, consumer protection and financial education, and debt collection.
Monday, December 5th
What: Financial Services Roundtable for Servicemembers and Advocates
When: Monday, December 5th, 11:30 A.M. to 2:45 P.M.
Media Availability with Rep. Brad Miller, Mrs. Holly Petraeus and North Carolina National
Guard officials 1:15 P.M. to 1:30 P.M.
Where: National Guard Headquarters, 1636 Gold Star Dr., Raleigh"Bad enough there are countless victims of sloppy foreclosure mills (you know, like the... more
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Are we at war -- or not?
The reason I ask this is this:
If we are at war, then there must be a pretty good fucking reason that we’re at war. We must be facing an existential threat so large, so well-organized, and so powerful, that it could wipe our entire nation off the map in an instant. If that is the case, then surely, we must be at war. War is something reserved only for the most extreme situations. War is our Tool of last resort. Because we’re America, and we’re a peace-loving nation.
And so, if this threat we’re facing is so massive, and so threatening, then we better get all hands on deck. We need to institute a draft and be at war for real. We need to tax all income at 90% and fund this thing and get it over with. We need every man, woman, and child to be part of the war effort. We need to institute rationing: No more coffee, no more sugar, donate your steel appliances to the war effort, grow a victory garden. Let’s be all in! Let’s win this thing!
But wait-- we’re not facing down any threat like that. There’s no invading army perched on our border. We’re facing down kids throwing rocks, and disgruntled teenagers with no economic future building bombs in their own backyards, who are a far greater threat to our soldiers stationed there, than to our national security.
Less than 1% of Americans serve in the military, and it’s not fair that we should be asking them alone to shoulder the burden of fighting our wars of convenience. Wars that are the pet projects of pencil pushers in DC, with abstract foreign policy agendas.
Some people complain about the constitutionality of these wars-- and they aren’t wars. But I actually don’t really care about the constitutionality of it. That to me, seems like an academic exercise in the face of the fact that people are dying for no goddamned reason.
Yes, while people bicker about the legality (which is important), back in the real world there are people dying for no goddamned reason (which is more important).
I work with so many women whose husbands are serving right now, who are on their umpteenth deployment, who haven’t been around to see their kids grow up. We, the 99% who do not serve, are far too willing to throw other people’s families through meat grinders. We are too willing to let 1% of the population bear all the burdens-- the heartache, the worry, the lost time with their family that they will never get back, the lost limbs, the vivid nightmares that never go away-- while we talk in the abstract about "Supporting the Troops." It's not fucking fair.
So-- are we at war or not? If we are-- let’s institute a draft and be at war for real. If we’re not at war then BRING THEM HOME.Are we at war -- or not?
The reason I ask this is this:
If we are at war, then... more
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asherp
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added this
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10 months ago
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President Obama has decided to send more than 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, at a cost of more than $1 million per soldier/year. But America cannot afford a war that does not make us safer, and Congress has the power to stop the escalation.
This is why a group of Afghanistan veterans will deliver a petition to be read on the Congressional floor by Rep. Alan Grayson urging his fellow congress members to Vote NO on any spending bill that would send more troops to Afghanistan. From the front lines of battle to the halls of Congress, these courageous men and women know the perils of the conflict and are ready to demand a new course of action
You stand with more than 60,000 people who have already signed. We need to reach 100,000 signatures - a number that Congress, mainstream media and the American public must recognize.President Obama has decided to send more than 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, at a... more
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Less Jobs. More Wars: What is this 'Iraq war' charge on my bill?
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Why Won't McCain Sign the GI Bill? Presenting the most blatant hypocrisy of the McCain campaign. Why Won't McCain Sign the GI Bill? Presenting the most blatant hypocrisy of the... more
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A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman
Senator Joe Biden is talking national security, and though no longer a candidate for the presidency, he just challenged Republican candidate John McCain on behalf of the Democrats on what some presume is McCain's main strength with voters.
"I think we as Democrats should not shy away from a direct confrontation with the Republicans on national security. The Democratic Party and the Democratic candidates are stronger on National security than George Bush or John McCain. ...
"The Democratic Party is not at all reluctant to debate national security with John McCain or George Bush. We are stronger on it, we will make America more secure and make it safer," he declared in an interview on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."
In a speech delivered Tuesday at Georgetown University, Biden critiqued the GOP and laid out a Democratic foreign policy vision that contrasts sharply with Bush's and McCain's. He called fear "the main driver of our foreign policy" and said, "Even if you look at the world through this administration’s distorted lens, you see a failed policy. This failure flows from a dangerous combination of ideology and incompetence and a profound confusion about whom we’re fighting."
Biden also said in his speech that McCain's remark about staying "100 years in Iraq" fuels conspiracy theories about America's motives in the region. As he later told Olbermann, "When we say to the Arab world that we would stay in Iraq even in peaceful circumstances, it feeds the assumption that we're there to control their oil and to have a permanent base ..."
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden said that in two weeks of hearings prior to General Petraeus' much touted testimony, he heard from many in the defense and foreign policy establishments who have come to "the exact opposite conclusion" about the wisdom of a troop drawdown than had General Petraeus, Ambassador Crocker and George Bush.
** Biden talking like a real Senator, doing what he's paid to do! **
** Thank you Joe Biden **A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman
Senator Joe Biden is talking... more
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Spc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, right, was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq in August of 2007. He is pictured here with his brother Jason Hubbard.
CBS News
Family's Sole Surviving Son Denied GI Benefits
FRESNO (AP) ― Army Spc. Jason Hubbard was forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, but once at home the soldier faced another battle: The military cut off his family's health care, stopped his G.I. educational subsidies and wanted him to repay his sign-up bonus.
It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local Congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.
Now that Congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, plans to join three other lawmakers in introducing a bill Wednesday that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under the sole survivor policy. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.
"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press Tuesday. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."
Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in RamadiSpc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, right, was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter... more
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I am tired of people saying that they support the troops by placing a sticker on the back of there car.
They would never send there child into war nor would they consider joining the service thierself.
B 4 real and pay your taxes and stop asking for cuts in your tax return. PAY your taxes in a time of war.... that is how you support the troops.
I am tired of people saying that they support the troops by placing a sticker on the... more
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The whole idea can make your head spin.
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