SATURDAY SENATE UPDATE (CNN)

Democrats fail to get Senate vote on Iraq

Democrats failed to pass a procedural measure that would have allowed them to call a Senate vote on a resolution opposing sending more U.S. troops to Iraq. Some Republicans backed the move but Democrats were still four votes short. The unusual Saturday session followed the House’s passing of the resolution on Friday.

THE DECEPTIVE WAR DEBATE
FORECLOSURES UP AS HOUSING CRUNCH NEARS
KEITH OLBERMANN STAYS WITH MSNBC

As the words fly, and the war winds on, the debate has taken an even more absurd direction with the President blasting the Congress for opposing the plan he claims was forged by General Petracus who the Congress supported ad the New Commander. Joe Biden shot back on CNN that Generals don’t make plans and that this one was created by the White House. And so it goes, back and forth, message points in collision, the same partisan rancor that the public is tiring of. Selling or opposing the the war as an affirmative proposition is harder than ever, so all sides revert to negativity to trash hypocrisy and avoid tough policy choices.

NY TIMES: The Senate will convene in an unusual Saturday session to vote on the same resolution under debate in the House

Robert Dreyfuss argues on TomPaine.com that there has been a “ Breakdown At The Iraq Lie Factory”

Bush is discovering that boldly lying about Iran isn’t enough. He needs his chorus of liars behind him … and they’re gone.
http://ga3.org/ct/DpNLpbK1hzoc/

But note, as the debate continues, the Democrats opposed to the escalation of the war are not necessarily opposing the war itself as David Swanson points out:

Murtha Only Intends to Undo the Escalation

Congressman Jack Murtha makes clear that the limitations on additional war money that he intends to include in the forthcoming “emergency” supplemental bill are aimed only at undoing the recent escalation (a.k.a. “surge”), not at ending the war.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/18596

AND HOW IS THE MEDIA PLAYING THIS?

Fool me twice? — NY Times, CBS, NBC report Bush allegations about Iran without context, skepticism…

In reporting on the Bush administration’s allegations about Iran’s role in Iraq, media outlets have covered the matter in a muddled, incomplete manner, omitting any skeptical or critical analysis of these allegations, which suggests, in the words of washingtonpost.com’s Dan Froomkin, that “the lessons we should have learned from Iraq may not have been learned at all.”

Special Investigation: Dick Cheney’s Dangerous Son-in-Law

ON GUANTANAMO
“Interrogations Behind Barbed Wire.”
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3019

NUCLEAR POLITICS: NORTH KOREA VS THE US - PETER HAYES

The Beijing deal is a breakthrough, say its supporters; 1994 all over again, say the critics. Both are wrong
http://venus.opendemocracy.net/t/3828/38637/2787/0/

DISMEMBERMENT OF DONALD RUMSFELD
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2007/02/rumsfeld_the_de.html

DEBT WATCH: EXPOSING VULTURE FUNDS IN THIRD WORLD

Matt Pascarella writes:

I wanted to share with you the latest Palast report I researched and co-produced for BBC.It led the news last night on BBC Newsnight and has been syndicated internationally on BBC24 and is currently a headline story on World Service.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/15/1528209

AND HERE AT HOME:

Foreclosure filings soar in Brooklyn, Queens

A rapid rise in foreclosure rates could cost thousands of mostly low- and middle-income New Yorkers their homes.

The number of homes in foreclosure rose 18% in the last six months of 2006 compared with the same period of 2005, according to data from RealtyTrac.

More worrisome is the fact that filings tabulated by Profiles Publications show that 100 homes in both Brooklyn and Queens are entering the foreclosure process each week — double the numbers of a year ago.

http://newyorkbusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070212/FREE/70212009

THIS IS PART OF THE LARGER HOUSING CRUNCH

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of U.S. homes entering the foreclosure process because of nonpayment on mortgages rose to 130,511 in January, 25% more than in January 2006, according to data released Monday by Realtytrac Inc. The foreclosure rate was one for every 886 U.S. households. The 130,511 foreclosures is the highest monthly total since the firm began tracking national foreclosures two years ago. Foreclosures were up 19% compared with December.

http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsm/070212/92f4f7380060435696d9fbd4d077cd7c.html?.v=1

The Wall Street Journal reported on the way this crisis is rippling through Wall Street:

Mortgage Hot Potatoes

Merrill demanded in December that ResMae Mortgage Corp. — which in 2006 sold it $3.5 billion in subprime mortgage loans, or loans to borrowers with poor credit records — buy back $308 million of loans whose borrowers had defaulted. In a filing this week for bankruptcy law protection, ResMae said those demands “crippled” its operations. The Brea, Calif., company said that repurchase requests were “severe and unexpected.”

As more subprime lenders face losses or bankruptcy, big banks also face another problem: Many lent money to small firms like ResMae so that those firms could make more mortgage loans to borrowers. It isn’t clear how much of these loans will be paid back to the banks. Wall Street firms also are increasing their own internal generation of subprime loans by acquiring smaller mortgage loan originators or processing companies.

In 2005 and 2006, banks such as HSBC and brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch went on a buying spree, snapping up subprime loans from typically small mortgage banks that had lent money to homebuyers. At the same time, many lenders were loosening their credit standards and making riskier loans.

HSBC kept many of the loans, while Wall Street firms chopped the loans into pools sold to investors as mortgage-backed securities.

In recent months, as home-price appreciation fell and borrowers faced rising interest rates, more people defaulted on their mortgages. That prompted Merrill Lynch and others to exercise their contractual right to demand the sellers buy back the loans. Under mortgage contracts, mortgage originators must often repurchase loans that default very early in their term or that come with underwriting mistakes, such as flawed property appraisals.

“Following early payment defaults, we exercised our contractual rights to return loans to ResMae and protect our financial interests,” a Merrill spokesman said. HSBC declined to comment. J.P. Morgan declined to comment.

http://articles.news.aol.com/business/_a/mortgage-hot-potatoes/20070215063609990001?cid=403

BBC: Legislators from around the world reach an agreement that could break the political deadlock on climate change