United States News Digest
Bush Signs 'Roadblock' Act To Counter LaRouche's HBPA
Dec. 21 (EIRNS)President Bush yesterday signed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which was devised and steered through bipartisan Congressional channels as a counter to the growing momentum for the FDR-type, economy-saving emergency measures called for in Lyndon LaRouche's HBPAthe Homeowners and Bank Protection Act. Best called the "Roadblock" bill, all the new law will do, is to erase some tax obligations for those mortgagees who receive debt reductions as part of their mortgage restructuring. "My view of the economy is that the fundamentals are strong, that we've had strong growth for a reason: that we're competitive, we got flexible workplace, that we kept taxes low, exports are up," Bush said.
In fact, barely a fraction of the nearly 2 million homeowners whose mortgage payments are re-setting upwards now, and over the coming months, can look to any relief of any kind right now. The global financial system is blowing out, detonated partly by the deflation of unpayable mortgages in the speculative debt bubble.
In August 2007, LaRouche laid out guidelines for emergency Federal action to stay home foreclosures, shore up banks and needed credit flows, and create a work-out time period for eliminating worthless, speculative obligations. Resolutions backing this have been introduced in many states, and also passed in dozens of municipalities, from Stockton, California to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In Pennsylvania alone, 20 localities have demanded action on the HPBA.
More Congressional Signers for Cheney Impeachment
Dec. 22 (EIRNS)On Dec. 19, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) became the 24th member of Congress to add her name to H.R. 333 (which was referred to the House Judiciary Committee as H.R. 799), the resolution to impeach Dick Cheney, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). The growing momentum on impeachment also has picked up Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who told Democrats.com that he would sign the op-ed by Reps. Bob Wexler (D-Fla.), Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) calling for impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee. Wexler's impeachment petition, posted on wexlerwantshearings.com, had well over 127,500 signatures as of this morning.
A number of articles appearing on opednews.com over the past couple of days note that between Wexler's call and Kucinich's resolution, nine of the 21 members of the House Judiciary Committee have shown support for impeachment (Baldwin has signed both). Wexler is planning to send a letter to committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) in January calling for hearings, and is recruiting committee Democrats to sign it.
Stockton: Top Foreclosure City Attacks LaRouche's HBPA
Dec. 19 (EIRNS)Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, backed by "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger, visited Stockton, Calif. Dec. 18, on Paulson's road tour to promote his made-on-Wall-Street solution to the home foreclosures and mortgage securities crisis. Stockton has the highest foreclosure rate of any U.S. city, roughly 1 of every 25 homes.
Today, following the Paulson/Schwarzenegger show, the Stockton Record featured a prominent attack on Lyndon LaRouche's Homeowners and Bank Protection Act (HBPA), the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM), and LYM leader Jason Ross, who spoke to the city council about the HBPA. More than 35 city councils across the countryand the number is growing day-by-dayhave urged Congress to enact HBPA; every day this is delayed, including by attacks like the clueless column in the Record, the urgent solution to the banking crisis and mass foreclosure wave is made more difficult, and thousands more homes are lost.
The Record column, by Michael Fitzgerald, counterposes to LaRouche's record as leading economic forecasterincluding of the current banking blow-outto the academic credentials of one Prof. Bill Herrin of the University of the Pacific, who called LaRouche's HBPA "ridiculous. It cannot work. It shows no understanding of how mortgage markets operate. No understanding," Herrin huffed.
Herrin's "critique" boils down to saying that because mortgage markets have been changed by "securitization" of mortgages, the actions Franklin Roosevelt and Congress took to stop mass foreclosures and protect banks in 1933-34, cannot work today. "It's the holder of the mortgage security [not a bank] that has the legal claim to that cash flow," Herrin insists, so don't try to take it away.
But many economists will admit today, that "securitization" is exactly what has turned the ongoing mortgage meltdown into such a serious crisis, with mass foreclosures and huge attempted bailouts of Countrywide Financial Corp., etc.
Cheney, Bush Lawyers Discussed Destroying Torture Tapes
Dec. 19 (EIRNS)The lawyers for President Bush and Vice President Cheney participated in discussions with the CIA about whether the Agency should destroy videotapes showing brutal interrogations of two alleged al-Qaeda operatives, the New York Times reported this morning, noting that White House involvement was more extensive than officials have so far admitted. At least four top White House lawyers took part in the discussions between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy the videotapes, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials interviewed by the Times.
One former senior intelligence official, described as having direct knowledge of the matter, told the Times that there had been "vigorous sentiment" among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official said of the discussions taking place in 2005, that some officials believed then that any disclosure of the tapes would have been particularly damaging after the Abu Ghraib revelations of a year earlier. Those who took part in the White House discussions included White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney's counsel David Addington, National Security Council legal advisor John Bellinger, and Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel after Gonzales became U.S. Attorney General.
There are at least six crimes potentially involved here, says George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. "This is a very significant development, because it shows that this was not just some rogue operator at the CIA [who] destroyed evidence being sought by Congress and the courts," Turley told CNN this morning. "It shows that this was a planned destruction, that there were meetings, and those meetings extended all the way to the White House.
"There are at least six identifiable crimes here, from obstruction of justice, to obstruction of Congress, perjury, conspiracy, false statements, and what is often forgotten, the crime of torturing suspects," Turley pointed out.
State Budget Revenues Continue To Evaporate
Dec. 19 (EIRNS)As the housing market tanks, more and more U.S. states find their revenue coffers shrinking. At the end of October, states had begun to report collapsing revenues. California then estimated a $10 billion shortfall in revenues, while Florida, Maryland, and Virginia each estimated a $1 billion-plus revenue gap. EIR reported in mid-November that these shortfalls were only the tip of the iceberg, and that by January, governors and legislators would be faced with bigger budget holes. Indeed, California's newest shortfall estimate is $14 billion, Florida's has doubled to $2 billion, while Arizona and New Jersey joined the $1 billion-plus shortfall group.
Three reports released since Dec. 1 each found that states' deficits are growing rapidly and that the housing market crisis is a major cause of evaporating tax collections. The latest report, issued on Dec. 18 by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), found nearly half the states are predicting budget shortfalls over the next two fiscal years, with 13 indicating a deficit will likely occur when the new fiscal year begins July 1, 2008. The CBPP estimates that deficits, cumulatively, could hit at least $23 billion. "We're really teetering on the edge," said Iris Lav, the center's deputy director. "With the deficits this large already, before there's actual evidence we're in a recession, that seems quite serious."
Split Among Democrats Blocks FISA Reform Bill
Dec. 18 (EIRNS)Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday put off until January, Senate consideration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform bill, after he was unable to find agreement among Democrats as to how to proceed with the measure. At issue is the provision in the bill produced by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which would give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that have participated in the Bush Administration's domestic spying program. President Bush has said he would not sign any bill that comes to his desk without that provision in it, but the Democrats are split on the measure. The Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), has produced a bill that includes the provision, but the Judiciary Committee, led by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), has produced one that does not. Proceedings on the bill stopped when Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) objected to a request by Reid that all amendments to the bill be considered under a 60-vote requirement, a request fully supported by the Republicans, but which would exclude just about any amendments, including one by Dodd to strike the immunity provision.
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