Former Congressman Alan Grayson, who is running again for a House seat in 2012, criticized the Democratic leadership in a discussion in Los Angeles this weekend, saying that they don’t understand the basic concept that voters need something to vote for. Grayson, speaking at the offices of the progressive filmmaking organization Brave New Films in [...]

As Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach explained yesterday, the three trade agreements passed Congress in a whirlwind of activity last night, because a present for the President of South Korea’s visit to Washington today is more important than a considered debate about the role of neoliberal trade agreements and what they have traditionally done to US [...]

The median net worth of white Americans is 20 times more than the net worth of African-Americans, and 18 times that of Hispanics, according to a new Pew survey. The biggest reason for the growth of this disparity over the past few years is that, prior to the bursting of the housing bubble, Hispanics and [...]

Some bad news for Democrats as the House losses mount. • Baron Hill has been defeated in Indiana, in what was seen as a bellweather race in IN-09. Republican Todd Young is the victor. Republicans have won the open seat in IN-08 as well. Joe Donnelly is barely holding on in IN-02. • In Virginia, Rick [...]

It’s a testament to the measure of Alan Grayson that, on the day before he end see the untimely end of his Congressional career, he was still fighting for his constituents on the foreclosure crisis. Specifically, he penned a letter to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which includes Timothy Geithner, saying that the recent reports [...]

The Alliance for Retired Americans have placed ads in six key districts across the country, attacking what they describe as Republican plans to raise the retirement age for Social Security benefits. There’s a residual benefit to this as well – it’s a warning shot against Democrats who would like to do the same. The spot [...]

I wasn’t the only one to deride the FHFA’s ingenious plan to end the foreclosure fraud crisis. Indeed, the reliance on internal reviews, and encouragement to engage in more foreclosures, raised the eyebrows of many housing advocates and prominent politicians. Now, six Senate Democrats have sent a letter to FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco and [...]

In a letter to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the board made up of chief regulators of the financial industry, Rep. Alan Grayson has called for a national moratorium on all foreclosures because of the systemic risk of fraudulent practices. Grayson has essentially taken this up a notch, beyond the documentation problems that were the [...]

If you want a nice 8-minute primer into how the foreclosure fraud crisis works, here’s a video from Rep. Alan Grayson, complete with four real-world examples. He talks about a man who was foreclosed on when he didn’t have a mortgage and paid cash for the home; a home that had two foreclosure suits against [...]

The Florida State Supreme Court today denied a request from Florida’s Alan Grayson to halt all foreclosures being handled by the state’s “foreclosure mill” law firms, which are under investigation from the Attorney General. U.S. Rep Alan Grayson, D- Orlando, asked for the action to target the law offices of David J. Stern, Marshall C. [...]

Via Atrios, three Democratic members of Congress have sent a letter to Michael Williams, the CEO of Fannie Mae, challenging him on his GSE using “foreclosure mill” law firms in foreclosure cases. I’ve added the letter on the flip. At issue are the law firms who are under investigation by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum [...]