Dinah Lord

FNMA: I threw up a little bit in my mouth when I read this...

I haven't been doing much on the financial front because I have been so freaked out by the thought of having a real job again.  But, I read this from Bloomberg  and just had to share.  (tip of the sick bag to FReeper Lorianne.)

Give money away. That was a solution to the housing crisis mortgage giant Fannie Mae hit on last year.

Faced with growing numbers of homeowners unable to make mortgage payments, Fannie decided to fund loans to borrowers that were instant losers.

The point was to buy time. Even though those loans resulted in a $453 million loss, they helped keep troubled homeowners from defaulting. That meant Fannie for now didn’t have to make good on loan guarantees that may have cost it as much as $2.4 billion.

The big game of kick the can strikes at a deep-seated fear among many investors -- that banks and others faced with mounting housing losses are finding all manner of dubious ways to push a day of reckoning into the future.

If that’s the case, any improvement in the housing outlook might be a mirage obscuring even greater pressures building in the financial system. That would eventually counter better-than- expected first-quarter results from many banks.

Miss North Dakota: Not only is she languishing in an Iranian prison - she has man troubles too..

Oh boy.

<-- He looks a little old for her - no wonder the parental unit isn't happy.  Just sayin'. 

From the LA Times.

The Saberi case has become a tempest in which even the love of a weeping boyfriend, a gifted auteur and very public letter writer, is suspect. Director Bahman Ghobadi, whose films such as "Turtles Can Fly" have been widely acclaimed, has angered Saberi's parents with his public pleas for their daughter.

In an open letter posted on the Internet, and in an interview with The Times, Ghobadi blamed himself for Saberi's arrest. He said that she had wanted to leave Iran but that he persuaded her to stay while he worked on his latest film, "Nobody Knows the Persian Cat," on which Saberi is credited as a co-writer. The movie will be shown at the Cannes International Film Festival this month, and Saberi's parents sense a hint of insincerity.

"We think that he is using this opportunity to promote his films and gain global recognition," said Reza Saberi, who has traveled to Tehran from his home in North Dakota. "Our focus is on our daughter's freedom from prison. . . . We will not allow anyone to take advantage of our daughter's [situation] in order to promote their own agenda."

He added, "Roxana's case is a legal one and any outside material is irrelevant and unwelcome."

Roxana Saberi was writing a book on Iran when she was detained in January. It was on culture, art and politics. One might imagine new chapters will be added -- the verdict on her appeal awaits.

Let's hope she adds a chapter about kissing the ground when she arrives back in these United States of America, too.  ( Lest she be considered an ungrateful wench.)

Update and related:  Tammy Bruce - The First 100 days:  Obama abandons three American Journalists.  I wish someone would have asked about these three as opposed to playing some enchanted evening with the Teleprompter-In-Chief.  Gah!

ZoNation: Celebrating 100 days 'Under the bus'

Michelle Obama visits food bank in $500 tennis shoes.

Because it's all about the shared sacrifice... the Lanvin sneaker available at Barney's for $540.

(This gratuitous swipe at Michelle Obama's pathetic fashion sense brought to you in honor of 8 years of virulent Bush bashing. Enjoy!)

It's come to this...

An old colleague offered me a real job today.

Oy vey.

While my ukelele gently weeps...

h/t Jonah Goldberg at the Corner. Thanks Jonah, between 100 days of Obama and the job offer out of the blue I needed this today.

Obama: The first 100 days

So many captions, so little time.

Courtesy of the White House Flicker page.  I guess because having the MSM giving you wall to wall coverage just isn't enough.  Check it out- there are some beauts there.

It's good to be king.

Update:  I love you FReeper maggief.

Obama's Foolish Flyover - let the Photoshopping begin.

No kidding, I saw this video and I started hyperventilating.  What were they thinking?  I mean really.  (The company I used to work for had its HQ at 7 WTC after all. ) This was just plain wrong.  And boneheaded.  That's where the Photoshop Brigade comes in.    Have at it, possums.  This is going to make 'Mission Accomplished'  look like a cake walk.

Courtesy of The Corner over at the National Review.  Heh.

 

Indulge me while I add to my collection.

Lost boys of Minneapolis: Abubakar As-Saddique Mosque youth leader on no fly list...

He's stunned.  So am I.  It has to be the Bush administration's fault and the Obama administration will no doubt be apologizing and making amends in the form of a large cash settlement for the error.  

The question is - he learned he was on the no-fly list last fall.  Why's he bitching about it now?  Oh, that's right Obama was elected and the grand jury just subpoenaed a bunch of his homeys.  Nothing to see here folks, move along.  It's just the legal jihad strategery of  pissing in the jury pool.

From WCCO.com  (h/t FReeper ButThreeLeftsDo.)

Since last summer, dozens of young Somali men have disappeared from the Twin Cities.

And the FBI has focused its attention on the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis. Two of the leaders at that Mosque were put on the so-called no-fly list.

One of them is a volunteer youth coordinator named Abdulahi Farah, but he says he's done nothing wrong.  "It was a very bad experience," said Abdulahi Farah. He has been the youth coordinator volunteer at Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic center for two years.

He's also a Somali outreach worker for the Richfield school district. Last fall he was told he couldn't board a plane.

"He just said, 'Ya know, you're on the no-fly list and you just can't go on the plane.' I said why? He didn't know -- he said 'Google it,'" said Farah. "I felt like I was found guilty before innocent -- and you would say this is not America."

Farah was planning on going to the Hajj with his new wife. The pilgrimage to Mecca is a big deal.  It's a requirement that Muslims do this at least once in their lives.

"It didn't come into mind once that we would be stopped from going to Hajj," said Farah. "You wouldn't think that something like that would happen in America where someone who has not done a crime, someone who serves their community, someone who always tries to be positive and tries to add something positive to the community."

Cry me a river, whiner.  One of your 'youths' exploded himself on the streets of Mogadishu and a whole 'cell' of your 'youth' has disappeared.   What's up with that?  And while we're on the subject how do YOU afford a HAJJ Honeymoon for you and your bride in the first place?

More of those Muslim family values we're supposed to respect - Pt III

And this one takes the prize.

From Jonathan Kay at the National Post.

Having spent this morning catching up on my weekend reading, I came across this Page 4 article from Friday's New York Times. Here's the lead paragraph: "BAGHDAD — At least 80 people died and 120 others were injured Thursday in three bombings, one by a female suicide bomber in Baghdad who, Iraqi officials said, held a young child’s hand as she set off her explosives among a group of women and children receiving emergency food aid."

Even putting aside our baseline revulsion at terrorism, there are three especially hideous things that jumo out from this:

1) A mother deliberately taking her (presumed) child with her as she immolates herself. For all the hundreds of suicide bombings that Iraq has already witnessed, this has got to be a first.

2) This was a line for food aid. Islamists have gone from attacking U.S. soldiers, to attacking Iraqi soldiers, to attacking police stations, to attacking the religious ceremonies of rival sects — on down the line of nihilism until, now, they are reduced to blowing up hungry people seeking sustenance.

3) This hideous crime was played on page four of The New York Times. And a quick scan of other media suggests it got similar B-rate treatment elsewhere. This sort of act would have been worth a worldwide banner headline a decade ago. But now, it's just another demented Islamist senselessly slaughtering fellow Muslims. With her kid. Yawn.

Says a lot about the world we live in, doesn't it?

More of those Muslim family values we're supposed to respect - pt II

From the Oldham Chronicle-Examiner (courtesy of Jeffrey Imm at UnitedStatesAction.com)

A MOTHER holds still the legs of her pregnant daughter while her son strangles the life out of her — and then stands in the dock and defends her actions on the grounds of honour.

Rukhsana Naz was killed by her family because she refused to abort the baby she was carrying — a baby her family feared belonged to her boyfriend, not the husband they had forced her to marry.

The latest numbers coming out of the UK have been  presented at a conference on forced marriage in Oldham.

At least 12 honour killings take place each year in this country.  (The UK)

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has ordered 110 murder cases to be reviewed because they may have links with honour crime.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) deal with around 400 cases of repatriation annually and receive around 5,000 calls for support each year.

The majority of individuals are aged 15-24, but 30 per cent of cases involve minors, with 10 per cent under 16.

In 15 per cent of cases, men are victims.

Asian women are two to three times more likely to commit suicide- Karma Nirvana is concerned that this may be down to families encouraging women who are deemed to have brought shame on them to commit suicide because it is ‘cleaner than murder’.

Karma Nirvana provides an honor killing hotline operated and staff by women who know whereof they speak...

Karma Nirvana’s staff and most of its 18 volunteers are survivors of forced marriage and 'honour'-based violence. Project founder and director Jasvinder Sanghera wants the voices of victims “to be heard” and to “shape policy”.

An astute campaigner and powerful speaker, she has forged links with the police, Crown Prosecution Service, local authorities, judges and magistrates. Sanghera is working on a PhD on honour violence and her memoir Shame was published in 2007.

Jasvinder ran away from home at 15 after being shown a photograph of a man she had never met and told he was to be her husband. Her sister Robina committed suicide at 24 by setting herself on fire, rather than leave a violent relationship.

Karma Nirvana young persons’ project worker Shazia Qayum was forced into marriage and, aged 17, was escorted from her marital home at 3am by the police after phoning them to help her escape.