And banks and lenders carried through that fraud to every level of the mortgage process. They committed origination fraud through faulty appraisals and undisclosed trickery.

They committed servicing fraud through illegal fees and unnecessary foreclosures.

They committed securities fraud by failing to inform investors of the poor underwriting on loans they packaged into securities.

They committed mass document fraud when they failed to follow the steps to create mortgage-backed securities, covering up with fabrications and forgeries to prove the standing to foreclose.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/sep/25/eric-holder-resign-mortgage-abuses-americans

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/30/isis-iraqi-air-force_n_5908864.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Iraqi military pilots mistakenly gave food, water and ammunition to enemy ISIS militants instead of their own soldiers, a senior security official and a brigadier-general told NBC News. The supplies were supposed to help besieged Iraqi army officers and soldiers who had been fighting Islamist extremists for a week in Saglawyah and the village of Al-Sijar in the country’s western province of Anbar.

“Some pilots, instead of dropping these supplies over the area of the Iraqi army, threw it over the area that is controlled by ISIS fighters,” said Hakim Al-Zamili, a lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament who is a member of the security and defense committee and acts as a security liaison for service members and commanders formed by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. “Those soldiers were in deadly need of these supplies, but because of the wrong plans of the commanders in the Iraqi army and lack of experience of the pilots, we in a way or another helped ISIS fighters to kill our soldiers.”

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4213550.ece

All German universities will be free of charge when term starts next week after fees were abandoned in Lower Saxony, the last of seven states to charge.

“Tuition fees are socially unjust,” said Dorothee Stapelfeldt, senator for science in Hamburg, which scrapped charges in 2012. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

http://www.cnn.com/go/

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/cost-of-air-war-against-islamic-state-already-near-1-billion-as-strategy-shifts-1.305511

WASHINGTON (MCT) — The air war in Syria and Iraq has already cost nearly $1 billion and ultimately could cost as much as $22 billion per year if a large ground force is deployed to the region, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The study, due to be released Monday, shows a range of costs based on sustained but low-intensity combat up to a force of 25,000 U.S. troops on the ground.



Edit: think of the America we will have when we use our resources for good, instead of war.

EDIT 2: Bush Jr's Iraq war was originally estimated at 80 billion. Instead, it cost 3-6 trillion. We can reasonably extrapolate this war will cost 750 billion to 3 trillion. More, if you factor the Bush war cost was a one year 3 month estimate.

Why does Obama refuse to ask for tax concessions from those that can afford it? It's their war, their oil we are defending, they can pay this time. They're asking our troops to possibly give their lives, the wealthy can give up a portion of their Hoarde for this war they are lobbying for. They will never go without food, they will still live in mansions.

That can afford to pay. Let's have a convo about taxing them, now!

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/saudi-pilot-arrested-refusing-bomb-isis-syria/

According to social media activists, a Saudi Air Force officer has refused orders to carry out an airstrike on Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) positions in Syria. The Saudi officer, Captain Faisal Al-Ghamdi, is said to have refused to participate in the airstrikes due to his support of the terrorist group. The news has circulated amongst pro-ISIS pages and has been referenced by their ground activists in Saudi Arabia, adding to the already turbulent relations between the terrorist group and Wahhabi-led government.

Saudi officials have yet to comment on the validity of this story; however, a picture and the soldier’s identity has been released by pro-ISIS media sources. ISIS has a strong presence in Saudi Arabia – the country’s government has financially supported rebels in Syria and Iraq to overthrow their governments. Recently, Saudi Arabia agreed to participate in the Anti-ISIS Coalition to quell the terrorist group’s presence in the region.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/09/17/349223674/tiny-spanish-island-nears-its-goal-100-percent-renewable-energy

The plant consists of five big industrial windmills and two lakes. On windy days — and there are plenty — the windmills harness the Canary Islands' Atlantic gusts. When production exceeds demand, such as at night, excess energy is used to pump water from a sea-level lake up into a natural volcanic crater half a mile uphill.

When the wind dies down, the water is released down through a pipe connecting the two lakes. On its way, it passes through turbines, which generate hydro-power.

For eighteen years from 1993 to 2011, Russ Feingold represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate. He served on the Foreign Relations, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Budget Committees. He also served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1983 to 1993 and practiced law for six years at Foley & Lardner and LaFollette & Sinykin in Madison, Wisconsin.

Well known for leading the fight for campaign finance reform in the Senate alongside Senator John McCain, Senator Feingold was also the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, and was the first senator to propose a timetable to exit Iraq. Feingold was the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award in 1999 and also received the Four Freedoms Award from the Roosevelt Institute in 2011. Feingold graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with honors in 1975, received an honors degree from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1977, and then went on to Harvard Law School, where he earned his honors degree in 1979.

Since leaving the Senate, Feingold has been a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School, the inaugural Mimi and Peter Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University, the Stephen Edward Scarff Distinguished Visiting Professor of Foreign Policy at Lawrence University, and was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School.

Feingold founded Progressives United in 2011 to address corporate influence in the U.S. political system following the Supreme Court’s decision on the case of Citizens United, and the organization continues today while Feingold serves in government. Feingold recently served as a co-chair for President Obama’s reelection campaign.

Feingold is also the author of the New York Times bestseller While America Sleeps, about American policies both domestically and abroad since the terrorist attacks of September 11, and discussing what steps must be taken to ensure that the next ten years are focused on the international problems that threaten America and its citizens.

Who pays? If the threat is real, we need a special wealth tax now, they are the people who can afford another 10 year war.... Working Ameticans are tapped.

Seems like a continuation of the perpetual war doctrine of the neocons. Ten years of war got us ISIL.... What new Hydra will emerge from the next ten years?

Link to quote from today NYT: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/world/middleeast/obama-syria-un-isis.html?smid=re-share&_r=0&referrer=