Mostly because I'm stuck at home, I'm reading more political and local
blogs and online news sources than in previous elections. As I've said
in the past, I'm a big fan of MinnPost (and we've recently become members). And ever since the RNC, I've become equally enamored with the Minnesota Independent.
With a very small staff, they are covering local and national stories
with often much greater depth than the two local dailies. I also love
that they don't truncate their RSS feeds. Here are some examples of stuff they've been covering:
Subprime targets and the CRA
Created more than 30 years ago, the CRA essentially worked like
this: In turn for taking money from low-income communities, banks would
have their lending practices examined by federal regulators to ensure
they’re making loans for mortgages, small businesses, and community
development in those same neighborhoods. In other words, they’d be
examined to ensure they weren’t discriminating against low-income
neighborhoods that supplied them with monies to make loans to other
customers.
But what actually happened in the last few years, Orfield says, is
much different. “One of the purposes of the CRA was to ensure that
prime credit would be extended into poor neighborhoods,” Orfield says.
“And it never really has been that way. It’s been 30 years of
enforcement, and it hasn’t really gotten better. Neighborhoods have
become more racially segregated, particularly in the Twin Cities. The
CRA has become perverted. It’s often become a way to have subprime and
predatory lending and to reinvest in projects that deepened poverty.
This is what CRA has come to mean.”
For one thing, the CRA never required banks and lenders to create
risky loan packages and market them to consumers who would be unable to
afford them after the terms changed. For another, the banks never had a
specific quota to meet under CRA, but instead were simply required to
show they reinvested back in the community.
Geoff Smith agrees with Orfield’s assessment, and says blaming the
CRA is woefully misplaced. “The CRA wasn’t the problem,” he says. “The
mortgage crisis went well beyond the scope of the CRA. What’s more, the
vast majority of lenders were not covered by the CRA. In fact, it was a
loophole in the CRA that subprime lenders were not covered under CRA by
regulation.”
Tingelstad runs for Supreme Court on mission from God
Officially, Tingelstad says his campaign is mainly concerned with
maintaining the election of judges in Minnesota, a process that has
been under serious criticism for years. But his campaign web site tells
a different story.
“As God’s Word has been removed from our public lives, the resulting
darkness has led to our present social disorder and political
divisions,” his website, Highest Hill,
reads. “The correction of these problems will only begin when the Light
of Truth is returned to our land’s highest hills, the Supreme Courts.
Until our highest courts return to an acknowledgment of the existence
of God and His Truth, the people will continue to walk in the confusion
of darkness.”
The separation of church and state, Tingelstad argues, is a myth.
Justices should rule from the “Word of God” first, and from sources
such as the constitution, statute and case law second.
Look, I'm not boneheaded enough to vote for a judge without a bit of research, but others are. This guy is scary.
That's
just two examples of the good work being done by the Minnesota
Independent. I've been planning on doing something a little more
thoughtful about them, but they got screwed over by Coleman today, so here is something quick to get you to start reading.
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