I won’t hold my breath.

Free cars for poor fuel road rage

Gov. Deval Patrick’s free wheels for welfare recipients program is revving up despite the stalled economy, as the keys to donated cars loaded with state-funded insurance, repairs and even AAA membership are handed out to get them to work.

But the program - fueled by a funding boost despite the state’s fiscal crash - allows those who end up back on welfare to keep the cars anyway.

…

The program, which is provided by the State Department of Transitional Assistance, gives out about 65 cars a year, said DTA Commissioner Julia Kehoe.

The state pays for the car’s insurance, inspection, excise tax, title, registration, repairs and a AAA membership for one year at a total cost of roughly $6,000 per car.

So where do the cars come from?

The program, which started in 2006, distributes cars donated by non-profit charities such as Good News Garage, a Lutheran charity, which also does the repair work on the car and bills the state.

One of the challenges to being separated is setting up two households where there was previously one.  Such is my life.

We did marginally good with what we had, and so far only a minimal amount of purchases and such to complete the picture.

As a lot of my free time is cleaning out stuff, moving stuff, dividing stuff and occasionally selling stuff, my blogging will continue to limited for a week or so.

But that won’t stop me from a few posts, including this round up of interesting links I found. 

First up, a pair of miracles.  The first brings echoes of Harry Potter:

 Baby survives Baghdad bomb in slain mother’s lap

A baby miraculously survived a Baghdad car bombing cradled in his mother’s lap as she was burned alive in a blast that claimed the lives of eight people on Tuesday, witnesses said.

Harry, of course was attacked by he who must not be named.  I have no such problem naming the bastards who nearly killed this child, and did slay its mother.

In a battle against nature as opposed to man, our second miracle:

Padmé: [to Bail Organa] So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause…

The quote may be over the top, but the overall trend of this administration has been a serious power grab, and no we see that the Feds are moving to increase power in another area:

The Pitch for Expanded Powers: Geithner, Bernanke Seek the Authority to Seize Failing Firms Other Than Banks

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke pressed Congress yesterday to give the federal government unprecedented new power to seize financial firms beyond banks whose collapse could jeopardize the world financial system.

Inside a hearing room crowded with snapping cameras, petulant politicians and pink-clad protesters, the two men pointed to the troubled insurer American International Group as a cautionary tale, offering an ominous account of the global fallout that could have come if the company had collapsed in the fall.

“At best, the consequences of AIG’s failure would have been a significant intensification of an already severe financial crisis and a further worsening of global economic conditions,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee. “Conceivably, its failure could have resulted in a 1930s-style global financial and economic meltdown, with catastrophic implications for production, income and jobs.”

I am a bit under the weather today, and will make this brief.  I will return to my long winded self tomorrow.

I personally am sick of the outrage emanating from congress over the bonuses. 

Bad enough how many of our elected leaders took donations from these companies, but now we find out that the exclusion of the bonuses was inserted by Dodd for Geitner.

So anyone saying this was a surprise is likely lying, including the president, though his people are lining up to protect him, as expected.

But now, now we see congress acting strongly and harshly by trying to pass a bill to tax the bonuses of these people at 90%.

First of all, if a million is bad, a $100k is still bad.  If the standards is that they should get none then make it none.

But the real problem, what scares me dry, is that congress is passing legislation to target private citizens from receiving money they were owed for completion of a legally binding contract.

This is a horrible abuse of power and frankly I expect litigation to stop it.

Like most people, I find the recent information that AIG paid out 165 million dollars in executive bonuses fairly outrageous.  For a company to claim to be on the verge of death and to take Billions in tax payer dollars to remain afloat, for our own good of course, then to shower some of that cash on the top execs is arrogant and condescending.

I mean, the bonuses are supposed to be a merit bonus, yes?  So where is the merit in being on the verge of corporate failure.  Well….I guess you could say they were a success in sucking us. 

But while gross, that is not the worst outrage over the situation.  (I will deal with the fact these were contractural bonuses, and what this means if the government starts interferring with legal contracts later.)

Worse is the fact that we had to bail them out, twice to the tune of many Billion dollars in the first place.  Worse yet is that the Federal Government has become the teat for corporate America to suckle at.

But in something even more outrageous, maybe we ought not act so surprised.

CNN provides this clip of their poster child for mortgage reform.

On the surface she seems sincere and sympathetic, but the more you watch the more questions this raises.

To start, why are they in foreclosure?

Yes, I get that her property equity is upside down, but that does not affect the loan payment.

So why are they behind?  Was she laid off?  I could support that.  Was her husband?   Same. 

Granted, even she admits that they bought more than they can afford, but without explaining why they are in foreclosure, this appears to be a couple whining that there house is upside down value wise.

And that addresses the people I am the least sympathetic to:  People, and she is made to seem this way in the video, whose only problem is that their investment is not working out so well.

The CNN article milks the heart strings.  She will lose everything…the house is at risk.

Everything is there but the simple raw facts as to why.  This is journalistic malpractice.

This morning I got an email concerning Obamanomics, as it relates to the real estate crisis.

It started out with this article from the NY Times:

The long-awaited housing bailout will finally be announced on Wednesday.

In a speech in Phoenix, a signature real estate boomtown gone bust, President Obama will explain his plan to reduce foreclosures. And the key to understanding that plan will be remembering that there are two different groups of homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure.

The first group is made up of people who cannot afford their mortgages and have fallen behind on their monthly payments. Many took out loans they were never going to be able to afford, while others have since lost their jobs. About three million households — and rising — fall into this category. Without help, they will lose their homes.

The second group is far larger. It is made up of the more than 10 million households that can afford their monthly payments but whose houses are worth less than what is owed on their mortgages. In real estate parlance, they are underwater. If they want to stay in their homes, they will have no trouble doing so. But some may choose to walk away voluntarily, rather than continue to make payments on an investment that may never pay off.