They Call This a Paperwork Problem

(Via ProPublica)

While it may be true that (as the NPR news helpfully informed me the other day) Courts are holding up the foreclosure process - they're only holding it up because they're encountering this kind of crap:

GMAC, one of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, faced a quandary last summer. It wanted to foreclose on a New York City homeowner but lacked the crucial paperwork needed to seize the property.

GMAC has a standard solution to such problems, which arise frequently in the post-bubble economy. Its employees secure permission to create and sign documents in the name of companies that made the original loans. But this case was trickier because the lender, a notorious subprime company named Ameriquest, had gone out of business in 2007.

And so GMAC, which was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008, began looking for a way to craft a document that would pass legal muster, internal records obtained by ProPublica show.

"The problem is we do not have signing authority—are there any other options?" Jeffrey Stephan, the head of GMAC's "Document Execution" team, wrote to another employee and the law firm pursuing the foreclosure action. No solutions were offered.

Three months later, GMAC had an answer. It filed a document with New York City authorities that said the delinquent Ameriquest loan had been assigned to it "effective of" August 2005. The document was dated July 7, 2010, three years after Ameriquest had ceased to exist and was signed by Stephan, who was identified as a "Limited Signing Officer" for Ameriquest Mortgage Company. Soon after, GMAC filed for foreclosure.

An examination by ProPublica suggests this transaction was not unique. A review of court records in New York identified hundreds of similar assignment documents filed in the name of Ameriquest after 2008 by GMAC and other mortgage servicers.

In other words years after Ameriquest died a spectacularly public death - banks would like us to believe they are signing over loans to banks who just happen to need those very documents in ongoing foreclosure cases.

Also:If the banks cannot locate the proper documents - or convince the court to accept a "recreated" one - they'll just swear it was lost and try to foreclose anyway.

Because, really would a bank lie about something so serious?

Can we please get some coverage that calls the foreclosure mess what it truly is?

My Very Good and Trusted Friends

(Via CJR)

Imagine a parent losing a child to violent crime. Then imagine that crime becomes a national cause thanks to a team of newspaper reporters who refuse to let the story fade away. Laws are changed as a result of the coverage.

It would be easy to understand that the parent would have some affection for the newspaper that championed their lost child's cause.

Even if the paper was the now infamous News of the World.

Were it me, I could see myself writing a supportive column very similar to the one Sara Payne wrote in the NotW's final edition.

It is easy to forget in these dark times that the News of the World has often been a force for good and that has more than anything to do with the people that work on it  And its these people I have come to respect and it is for these people write this piece I do  not pretend that they are perfect or always got it right but I can tell you on a personal level there have been many times when they have stayed close and stood beside me not for the headline or public credit but just because it was the right thing to do.

 And were it me- I could hardly imagine what I would be thinking after reading this:

Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in July 2000, has been told by Scotland Yard that they have found evidence to suggest she was targeted by the News of the World's investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who specialised in hacking voicemail.

Police had earlier told her correctly that her name was not among those recorded in Mulcaire's notes, but on Tuesday officers from Operation Weeting told her they had found her personal details among the investigator's notes. These had previously been thought to refer to a different target.

Here's the thing: NotW was attempting to hack into a cell phone that - of all people - Rebekah Brooks gave to her.

Her friends at NotW give her a phone to help her keep in contact with her many supporters - and since the phone's details are known to the paper, their hacking wing swings into action to try and get personal information illegally.


Un. Be. Lievable.

Naomi Campbell, Ahead of the Curve

(Via CJR)

Funny how things are in plain sight as "no big deal" until those things turn out to be hacking into a dead girl's cell phone.

Here's Naomi Campbell going after now CNN anchor Piers Morgan back in 2007:

CAMPBELL: What do you think of the News Of The World reporter who was recently found guilty of tapping the Royals’ phones? Did you ever allow that when you were there?

MORGAN: Well, I was there in 1994-5, before mobiles were used very much, and that particular trick wasn’t known about. I can’t get too excited about it, I must say. It was pretty well-known that if you didn’t change your pin code when you were a celebrity who bought a new phone, then reporters could ring your mobile, tap in a standard factory setting number and hear your messages. That is not, to me, as serious as planting a bug in someone’s house, which is what some people seem to think was going on.

CAMPBELL: It’s an invasion of privacy, though.

MORGAN: It is, yes. But loads of newspaper journalists were doing it. Clive Goodman, the NOTW reporter, has been made the scapegoat for a very widespread practice.

So that's CNN's current anchor saying "loads of newspaper journalists were doing it" back in 2007. Wonder if anybody's going to ask him about that?

And you have to wonder who else is going to get caught up in this chain reaction of crazy.

I mean Hugh Grant and Naomi Campbell?

Who writes this crap?

Phone Hacking Scandal - Has There Ever Been a Less Adequate Title?

Not that I think any title could keep up with the crazy now unfolding over the pond.

But consider:

• Corrupt Cops
• The Royal Family
• Actors wearing hidden microphones
• Murder victims
• Victims of Terrorism
• Political resignations
• Police resignations
• 168 year old newspapers vanishing in a puff of smoke
• Multiple arrests of corporate minions of one of the world's most influential billionaires
• Said billionaire being hauled into public hearings
• Said billionaire being attacked with a pie

Seriously, there's video and everything.

(Admit it, you thought I made that bit up... but no!)

Now the hackers are getting involved.
LulzSec claims they've obtained a host of News International emails - making you wonder what other insanity will come to light.

I mean, there isn't enough popcorn in the world for this kind of thing. And we're barely into the first reel.

What. The. Hell?

Also, just an aside, but it occurs to me that a (dubious) but immensely satisfying tactic of a hacking/leak organization would be to announce that they will release a major trove of compromised corporate emails the day after the company's CEO testifies under oath.

No, I Don't Want To Talk About It

And shame on you for asking.

Scoreline - July 17, 2011
Japan: 2
Miyama 81'; Sawa 117'
USA: 2
Morgan 69'; Wambach 104'
Japan win 3-1 on penalties

What have we learned, Mike Pesca? That in this struggle between David and Goliath, we are Goliath?

No.

We have learned that the soccer gods - in addition to being total a$$holes - play a very deep game.
They lure you into yet another love affair with possibility - wait until you're picking out china patterns - and then they burn it all down in front of you while you scream.

Once again, the US as a nation finally notices it has a world class team at the precise instant they fail in the most heart-rending fashion.

Wambach will never hoist the cup. Rampone won't either.  They're awesome, but they're done.

Four more years - and we get to do this all over again.

That's soccer.

Go USA.

Hunting Down Malware

This was awesome.

Computer security experts get a copy of malware called Stuxnet so they can write the counter for it - and in the process they discover something very, very interesting:

Within a week ... about 38,000 infected machines were reporting in from dozens of countries. Before long, the number would surpass 100,000. Stuxnet was spreading rapidly, despite signatures distributed by antivirus firms to stop it.

As Chien and O Murchu mapped the geographical location of the infections, a strange pattern emerged. Out of the initial 38,000 infections, about 22,000 were in Iran. Indonesia was a distant second, with about 6,700 infections, followed by India with about 3,700 infections. The United States had fewer than 400. Only a small number of machines had Siemens Step 7 software installed—just 217 machines reporting in from Iran and 16 in the United States.

The infection numbers were way out of sync with previous patterns of worldwide infections—such as what occurred with the prolific Conficker worm—in which Iran never placed high, if at all, in infection stats. South Korea and the United States were always at the top of charts in massive outbreaks, which wasn't a surprise since they had the highest numbers of internet users. But even in outbreaks centered in the Middle East or Central Asia, Iran never figured high in the numbers. It was clear the Islamic Republic was at the center of the Stuxnet infection.

The sophistication of the code, plus the fraudulent certificates, and now Iran at the center of the fallout made it look like Stuxnet could be the work of a government cyberarmy—maybe even a United States cyberarmy.

Read the whole thing at Wired.

(H/t Schneier)

Fruits of Their Labor

So Rebekah Brooks has finally resigned.

*Yawn*

In other news - the Telegraph has posted an online archive of the News of The World Stories that mention voicemail and email. I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but looking at newspaper stories that quote voicemail would be a pretty large indication that private voicemails are being accessed by the press.

Yeah, yeah, easy for me to say.

The Past is the Past

Scoreline – July 13, 2011
France: 1
Bompastor 59’
USA: 3
Cheney 9’; Wambach 79’, Morgan 82’

While the universe refused to allow a repeat of the previous game’s dramatics – the semifinal was not without its moments of fear.

First off, the US had no composure in moving the ball from midfield into the attacking third. We launched a missile into the French end and hoped that Rodriguez, Cheney or Wambach would snare it on a dead run and do something brilliant. Cheney managed to do this, but I’m hoping the team isn’t going to rely on this tactic. Somewhere between the Arsenal approach (everyone must touch the ball twice before we enter the box) and this hail Mary crap is a place where talented players like ours can produce goals with regularity without flaming out in the first half.

The French team was excellent at supporting each other – they kept possession (with help from our consistent giveaways in their end) and were on the attack more often than not. The US shouldn’t be letting a team as good as France (or any team for that matter) bang on the gates for an entire half with a measly 1 goal lead. We’re not freakin’ Italy.

Solo looked too casual on more than one occasion. Her blithe service giveaway that France picked off right outside the box could have lost the game for us. Likewise her careless near-goal giveaway to an opportunistic Frenchwoman who thought to head the ball off Solo’s upturned palm and go for goal. Solo was saved by a foul call, but she should have known there was an attacker behind her and protected the ball accordingly. Even world-class keepers like Solo are one mistake away from being the next Robert Green

Bompastor’s goal was not on Solo, though – Frankly, I’d love to see the goal again. Thiney’s presence meant Solo had to stay put. If Thiney pulled up because she knew the cross was going in – that would be a seriously brilliant bit of football.

Things I did like:

Lauren Cheney talking about why she aimed the go-ahead corner to Wambach.

Lauren Cheney: I knew Abby was going to beat her [defender].

Q: How?

Lauren Cheney: Because she's Abby Wambach.

Damn right.

Also, Megan Rapinoe and her AttackAttackAttack mindset continue to create good things. Did you SEE her through ball to Morgan? That was a thing of beauty. The technical equal of her Waumbach ball in the quarters (sans the other drama) – but perfectly placed and paced to ensure maximum damage to the defense.
Wonderful.

And Morgan’s goal, a nice bit of inspiration to chip over the keeper. Pity she didn’t stick to that formula on her following breakaway chance or she’d have had another goal on the board.

Now it’s on to Swede-

Scoreline – July 13, 2011
Japan: 3
Kawasumi 19’, 64’; Sawa 60’
Sweden: 1
Oqvist 10’

-JAPAN???

Yes, why the hell not? Japan have been playing some entertaining soccer the whole tournament and while their group wasn’t exactly loaded with powerhouses – they held Germany scoreless and then knocked them out of the tournament. That’d be the reigning world champions, playing at home. Germany blew some chances, sure, but you’re not going to find a lot of commentators talking about how Japan didn’t deserve a win.

So, on paper – the Cup has set up a matchup between a world power and a new arrival. On paper, we should mop the floor with them. But this is soccer. And while I’m sure the US team isn’t kicking back and assuming a win- it would be good for everyone to remember the heroics of the past two games for the US.

Fix those moments of awesome in your minds.

-and understand that if the US women do not win the World Cup, those moments will be utterly forgotten.

Because this is the World Cup – and no matter how much you deserve good things, it just doesn’t care.

Go USA

Nothing is Written

With the US women beating Brazil in spectacular fashion, there's a certain frustration that comes from watching the coverage (my local paper put the win in the sidebar, next to huge front page photo of some minor golf tournament) or listening to the pat recitations of "buzzer beater" by news anchors who got their lines only seconds before.

US Women win at the world cup after a late goal by star forward Abby Wambach... and in Golf today

Yeah, that's one way of looking at it. But I much prefer Ian Darke screaming incredulity into the mic "It's been a near miracle, this!!", or Julie Foudy bursting with pride and admiration for Rapinoe's cross "What a ball!

Because this is the kind of thing that deserves to be related by someone who appreciates how mind-bogglingly unlikely the win was.

Not because the US team isn't good - they're fricking brilliant - but because the World Cup is famous for chewing up good teams and spitting them out like so much garbage.

The cup is pitiless - it doesn’t care if you deserve it.

---

Exhibit A is the infrequency of the finals. Not every year - every fourth year. Like all sport - speed, strength and youth are rewarded. But in the cup - if you wash out you're going to have to claw your way back when you're four years older.

Plenty of deserving people never get a shot. They're ready, but their team isn't. Or they get a shot - but their coach is an idiot. Or they catch a booking that ends the only chance they'll ever get.

It doesn't have to be them either, any teammate can bring the team down.

Your star player is kicked out? Too bad, play with 10.

Oh, but they didn't deserve it? Too bad, play with 10.

Did the ref blow a call that could have been made from orbit?

Too bad, at the World Cup instant replay is only for salting open wounds. Look how wrong that was...Now rewind and do it again. Now go home and wait four more years.

---

Exhibit B is timing.
Waumbach's equalizes in the 122nd fricking minute. US audiences are conditioned to expect last minute heroics from years of watching games where the players and coaches have incredible influence on how long the game lasts. In football and basketball they can save time. Numerous options exist to stop the clock - making the game last longer and increasing the likelihood that a last gasp game changer will occur.

In soccer, you can't save time. Only the ref can. If you're losing, your opponent (unless they are stupid) will kick long, slow arcing balls into the corners. They'll dribble in a circle in the corner - daring you to foul them or (worse) give them a corner kick.

Late equalizers can and do occur in soccer - but they are vastly more improbable than in other sports.

Exhibit C is the PK tie-breaker.

As mind-bogglingly awesome as the US comeback against Brazil was, the soccer gods are more than capable of ignoring the US team's guts, effort and pedigree. Two US players slip or shank their shot and suddenly all their team's prior valor is worthless.

PKs are hugely dramatic - but they have no relationship to which side played better, or worked harder, or deserved it more.

Which isn't to take anything away from the US team. Quite the opposite.

I wanted to point out that for once a talented, hardworking, deserving team was pushed to the absolute limit and did - in fact - get what they deserved: a storybook victory on a global stage.

And they were our team.

In soccer, that's not improbable, or miraculous - it's unheard of.

Save Your Needles

This is seriously clever:

The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader's family, a Guardian investigation has found.

...

The vaccination plan was conceived after American intelligence officers tracked an al-Qaida courier, known as Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, to what turned out to be Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound last summer. The agency monitored the compound by satellite and surveillance from a local CIA safe house in Abbottabad, but wanted confirmation that Bin Laden was there before mounting a risky operation inside another country.

DNA from any of the Bin Laden children in the compound could be compared with a sample from his sister, who died in Boston in 2010, to provide evidence that the family was present.

...

A nurse known as Bakhto, whose full name is Mukhtar Bibi, managed to gain entry to the Bin Laden compound to administer the vaccines. According to several sources, the doctor, who waited outside, told her to take in a handbag that was fitted with an electronic device. It is not clear what the device was, or whether she left it behind. It is also not known whether the CIA managed to obtain any Bin Laden DNA, although one source suggested the operation did not succeed.

Mukhtar Bibi, who was unaware of the real purpose of the vaccination campaign, would not comment on the programme.

Not Much of a Fan of Gordon Brown, But...

This is downright obscene:

In October 2006, the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks, contacted the Browns to tell them that they had obtained details from the medical file of their four-month-old son, Fraser, which revealed that the boy was suffering from cystic fibrosis. This appears to have been a clear breach of the Data Protection Act, which would allow such a disclosure only if it was in the public interest. Friends of the Browns say the call caused them immense distress, since they were only coming to terms with the diagnosis, which had not been confirmed. The Sun published the story. On the Sun's website it claims it 'set the news agenda' by 'breaking the sad news that Gordon Brown's baby boy Fraser has Cystic Fibrosis'.

Five years earlier, when their first child, Jennifer, was born on 28 December 2001, a small group of specialist doctors and nurses was aware that she had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was dying. By some means which has not been discovered, this highly sensitive information was obtained by news organisations, who published it over the weekend before Jennifer died, on Monday 6 January 2002.

In 2003, Devon and Cornwall police discovered that one of their junior officers was providing information from the police national computer to a network of private investigators. The Guardian has established that one of these investigators, Glen Lawson of Abbey Investigations in Newcastle upon Tyne, used this contact to commission a search of police records for information about Brown on 16 November 2000. Lawson also commissioned searches related to two other Labour MPs – Nick Brown and Martin Salter.

Lawson made these searches on behalf of journalists, a previously unreported court hearing was told. Transcripts obtained by the Guardian show that the search on Martin Salter was made at a time when the News of the World, then edited by Brooks, was attacking him for refusing to support the paper's notorious "Sarah's law" campaign to name paedophiles. Lawson currently refuses to name the journalists who commissioned him.

An attempt to prosecute this network was blocked by a West Country judge, Paul Darlow, who shocked police by ruling that it would be a misuse of public money to pursue the case. However, Devon and Cornwall police contacted the office of the then chancellor to warn him that he had been a victim, as they also did with his two Labour colleagues.

(H/t The Awl)

Hope Beyond Hope

OK, having finally unscrewed myself from the ceiling - I can now state the obvious:

That was the greatest performance by a US soccer team that I have ever seen.

Scoreline – July 10, 2011
Brazil: 2
Marta 68', 92'
USA: 2
Daiane 2' OG; Wambach 120'+2

Solo to Melksham: You'll go home before I do

I mean, let's check off the setup:

High stakes? It's the World Cup Quarterfinal, duh.
Rivalry? Brazil. Yes, there's a bit of history there.

Hope Solo has a bum shoulder, or at least is taking great pains to appear to be in pain during warmups.

Tense? Yeah.

Kinda.

So, we have one of those dream starts where the soccer gods (who are a$$holes) gift us an own goal off Brazil's Daiane panic stab.

Hard to feel good about that - but given the US fragility through the rest of the tournament - it's almost divine providence. Brazil on the back foot and the US can focus on playing their game. Brazil drip talent from every pore, can score on the smallest mistake, and God help you if you get behind on goals or players.

But Brazil have a history of mental breakdowns. When they are winning, they are the Samba Queens. When they are losing, they turn into the Drama Queens - every bit as cynical as an Italian mens team.  Diving, Pouting, The pleading cous-cous gesture in front of the ref. Writhing on the ground for every imagined foul.

Vs. the Samba Queens, I'm thinking the US will have a hard time - but the US women can beat the Drama Queens any day of the week.

A goal down, Brazil is looking very dramatic - and the US, while not being bulletproof at the back, is playing a very solid game. Wambach is doing more damage by drawing fouls than anything else - but its a solid 1st half that any objective observer would have to cede to the North Americans.

But in the 62nd minute, the game reverts to type.

Enter the BS Red Card:

 Melksham: I will now utterly F#*k up the game

That's Rachel Buehler getting thrown out because - well, Marta did something clever that didn't work out. Buehler was the closest US player - so naturally she's thrown out of the game.

I'm sure a Brazilian would see that play differently, and you could certainly make the case for a penalty. But Marta was never going to get the ball regardless of Buehler - so the red card is just a load of crap.

The Drama Queens are gifted a PK and it's all onto our injured keeper, Solo. Penalty kicks become goals 80% of the time - so this will become a goal, and the US will play for the remainder of the game with 10 players.

Great.

Only Solo stops it. Incredible.The US is down a player, but they keep the lead.

Solo's screaming at the heavens and the US is in mid-exultation when the ref decides that she hasn't f#*ked up the game quite enough yet.

The Drama Queens will get a do-over - because (take your pick)

1. Solo moved off her line before the kick to a degree that is only perceptible to persons named Melksham; or
2. A US player was 1 step leaning inside the 18 yard box as the ball was struck

Reason 1 is total crap, and reason 2 is an incredibly tight ruling on a colossal play. Encroachment in the box is a big deal, but the merest step in the box is something forgiven in virtually every case unless there is some argument that it affected the resulting play.

It did not, the shooter was not distracted, and the resulting deflection was easily cleared without the encroaching player gaining some advantage.

In other words, much like the red card, the do-over call was total crap.

Marta steps up for the re-do and slots it home.

We're 1-1 with the Drama Queens - awaiting their inevitable transformation as our shorthanded team is ground down by their speed, talent, and (totally undeserved) numeric superiority.

Seen it before. And while I'm sure the US will be valiant, you just can't hope to contain and then score on Brazil while you're shorthanded. They'll lay back and burn you on the counter.

But then something strange happens - the US midfield steps up huge. Brazil is getting picked apart before they get deep into our end. Repeatedly.

We're getting chances in the Brazilian end. And the crowd has seriously turned. Every time Brazil has the ball in our end, the stadium erupts in whistles and boos. They start totally hating on Marta. I can't recall ever seeing a player of her skill booed so vehemently.

And the ref takes the hint. She's totally blown the game apart with her ineptitude, so a flurry of make-up calls start falling against Brazil. And incredibly, Brazil stays in Drama Queen mode.

Pouting, whining, diving - the whole act. Somehow they forget that they are a gifted side - and the USA hold them  until the end of regulation.

At this point - you have to be proud of the USA for hanging in there. But all that valor has earned is another half hour of the same treatment.

Extra time - and we're right on script. Marta gets an impossible ball and does something impossible with it to score two minutes in. It would be deserved if only one of their players hadn't been totally offside.

Brazil is insane, the crowd is not pleased and we're set for a grind down of the US until the final whistle. Down a goal and a player - this is about as dark a hole as you can find yourself in.

Still, the US plays on the attack - we get pressure up on the Brazilian goal against all odds - and the Brazilians are not grinding us down. There's a lot of takeaways in midfield - but no classic torching of the back line.

We lurch into the second half of extra time and I'm thinking we'll avoid the undeserved blowout score. The one critics will spout on about how we were "outclassed" and "outplayed" when in fact we were undeservedly hamstrung and hung out to dry.

[[Late Edit: Anonymous rightly points out another winning moment from the match - Ericka's laughably bad rendition of I've been crippled for life, get the stretcher. Naturally this was followed by her immediate and total recovery as soon as her erstwhile deathbed was carried over the touchline.

The crowd's prolonged outrage was satisfying enough, but the ref was apparently so offended by Ericka's cynical abuse of the game - she carded her. The look on Ericka's face was priceless.

Would that all recipients of the "magic sponge" were so rewarded. Or (as I've said to anyone who won't taze me) perhaps the rules should be amended such that any injury that results in a stoppage requires the speedy removal of the player by stretcher and a minimum amount of recovery time off the pitch. You wanna waste time? Waste your own team's time - the rest of us have a game to play.]]

Wambach is trolling for fouls and Lloyd keeps trying from distance. Morgan is doing her best but we're at the end of extra time and we're clearly going down.

Lloyd's getting run down in mid-field and Ian Darke is looking at the clock saying "She really has to get this pass off.." Literally two minutes to go and Lloyd guts it out to get a pass to Rapinoe, streaking wide.

Rapinoe taps it once, looks up - and fires an orgasmic-ly  brilliant cross into the box-
-and of course - late in the game - have we packed the box with players?

No, there's no one...

-No one except Abby-Freaking-Wambach. My brain starts into ...but she's been in a slump...

And then she heads it home like a guided missile!

Wambach to World: The Drought is Muthafu*#-ing Over.

It's unbelievable. I'm screaming Are You Kidding Me??!! as Abby roars towards the corner flag and the crowd blows the roof off the stadium. Brazilians are looking at each other with expressions of total defeat.

Too bad pouty faces and playacting don't count in PK shootouts.... Awww.

I don't know how Brazil managed to piss off the soccer gods, but the shootout was scripted by someone who clearly wanted to see them suffer full blown agony before death.

The US kicks first and - in a act of karma that is too perfect by half- Boxy's shot is stopped. And the ref calls a re-do because Andreia came off her line. 

Boxy's mulligan goes in - and the life drains out of the South Americans.

Solo's been baying for blood ever since Marta's do-over - so you better believe she's ready.

Daiane (of the I-kicked-the-ball-into-my-own-net fame) gets stuffed by Solo, and now Brazil knows they are doomed.

The US demands it, the crowd demands it- The goddamned universe demands it - and it will happen.

Today the soccer gods are d!cking with somebody besides us.

Alex Krieger steps up with the weight of the nation on her shoulders - and buries it.

• Boxx: Way to step the hell up. You were awesome.
• Rapinoe: All's forgiven for that perfect cross. 
• Wambach: You were just playing with us, weren't you? Waiting for that perfect moment to start scoring again? Well stop that, you're going to kill somebody.
• Solo: FIFA's calling you the player of the match, but only because they're sorry for how bad their ref tried to punk you. You're the player of the match by worldwide acclamation. Rock out and ride this to the final. You earned it.

I am literally dying to see the mash-up of crowd reactions to this match, because I think you're going to see some people seriously lose their sh!t.

Jaw dropping. No other words for it.

I've never seen the like.

Go USA.

Wambach and Solo: Do you see, Brazil??
Do you see how we crush your dreams??!!

Allonges...Not Throat Lozenges from Switzerland

Adam Levitin posted this awhile back, but it's a great issue to raise - now that we know banks are willing to pay for document fabrication so they can foreclose.

Do We Have a Fraud Problem? The Case of the Mysteriously Appearing Allonge

The shorter version is that bank paperwork is supposed to be processed and signed in a specific manner. The chaos and complexity of life has led to an accommodation  called an allonge - basically another piece of paper affixed (stapled) to the primary document that provides additional, relevant information.

This is a very unusual procedure - since most times a document can be corrected electronically and re-issued for wet ink signatures on the spot. But if a document was jam packed with text and the process was strapped for time - they might create an allonge and staple it to the transfer documents.

Again, a safety valve for the weirdness of everyday life.

But now bankruptcy courts are seeing allonges falling like rain. And after discovering that their initial trust of the banking industry was seriously misplaced - they are beginning to wonder if these allonges are merely the newest attempt to fabricate proper documents where none previously existed.

(H/t naked capitalism)

News International's Version of Cooperating Fully

Oh, how the rats are running over at News International's News of the World:

(Via the Guardian)

Police are investigating evidence that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive, in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.

The archive is believed to have reached back to January 2005 revealing daily contact between News of the World editors, reporters and outsiders, including private investigators.

...

The allegation directly contradicts repeated claims from News International that it is co-operating fully with police in order to expose its history of illegal news-gathering. It is likely to be seen as evidence that the company could not pass a 'fit and proper person' test for its proposed purchase of BSkyB.

A Guardian investigation has found that, in addition to deleting emails, the company has also:

• infuriated police by leaking sensitive information in spite of an undertaking to police that it would keep it confidential; and

• risked prosecution for perverting the course of justice by trying to hide the contents of a senior reporter's desk after he was arrested by Weeting detectives in earlier this year.

CJR's Dean Starkman puts it well. "...like a trapped wolf chewing off its own leg."

Phone Hacking Money Quote

...courtesy of the Guardian's Alexander Chancellor:

"...it is worth pointing out that, however ghastly journalists may be, nobody would know anything about anything without us – not even the extent of our own ghastliness."

Bravo!

Murdoch Takes His Ball and (Tries to) Go Home

Incredible.

News of the World will be shut down in three days.

You have got to wonder if this is an attempt to lance the boil before the public learns just how bad it was.

Over and over, NOTW has said this was not a big deal, only to revise their statements after their falsity became obvious to all.

So, now they go dark - and you have to hope that the police (other than the ones on the take) will seize their office computers and records to discover the full extent of their crimes.

And given the swelling believe that NOTW is anything but unique in its behavior, you have to wonder if there will be wider inquiries into the affairs of other newspapers. Now that they all know what they should be looking for.

Hats off to the Guardian. Way to beat on a story.

Late Edit: Reading the recaps of how this story developed, you just have to marvel at how it took this long to detonate. I mean it has everything: Celebrities, politicians, corrupt cops - even Hugh Grant secretly recording a journalist to out his misbehavior.

Makes the collusion on Fleet Street seem even more likely.

Wonder what else those folks are sitting on?

Peter Oborne Puts the Right Spin on It

You'll need to put a part of your brain in Brit-mode to savor all the snark in Peter Oborne's smackdown on the News of The World scandal, (and the tepid media coverage and government response thus far), but it's worth it.

[British Prime Minister David Cameron] finally woke up to the kind of company he has been keeping on Tuesday when during his Afghanistan visit he declared the Milly Dowler revelations ‘truly dreadful’. David Cameron has repeatedly displayed an inability to make a distinction between right and wrong. The press ought to have stepped into the breach. Unfortunately, we in Fleet Street have forgotten that the ultimate vindication of journalism is not to intrude into, and destroy, private lives. Nor is it the dance around power, money and social status. It is the fight for truth and decency.

(H/t CJR)

Hacking the Phone of a Thirteen Year Old Girl

(Via CJR)

I'm probably guilty of ignoring the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal overseas. I mean, it's overseas (the Brits are handling it) and it involves rich and powerful people (who presumably have the money and connections to make NewsCorp pay). The short form is that NewsCorp tabloids in Britain have paid private investigators to hack into the phones of famous people- and that the authorities had tried to give them a pass on it until their efforts were discovered.

All pretty horrid. But again, I've had other things on my mind.

But this is pretty damn horrid:

[Milly] Dowler, a thirteen-year-old from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, went missing in the spring of 2002 on her way home from school. Six months later she was found murdered, dumped naked in the woods.

In the meantime, the Guardian reports, the News of the World had paid its crooked private investigators to hack into Milly’s cellphone and listen to her voicemails:

As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World was listening and recording their every private word.

Oh, it gets worse. That’s merely abhorrent and illegal. This, on the other hand, is downright evil:

But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly’s voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the paper intervened - and deleted the messages that had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it.

Right. So, not content with merely illegally hacking into the voicemail of a thirteen year old girl - they saw fit to destroy her data (read: evidence) so they could continue to eavesdrop on people trying to contact her.

Holy. Fricking. Hell.

Late Edit:
The Awl's Alex Balk points out a great primer on the whole phone hacking mess.

It gets so much worse... after the News of the World hacked into the girl's phone (and gave her family the false impression that she was still using her phone), they went further:

Later [Milly's] family granted the News of the World an exclusive interview, where they discussed their sense of hope - without any knowledge of the fact that it was that very newspaper's interference which had misled them.

Asshats, with a capital "A"

The article's author, Ian Dunt, is less than optimistic that this scandal has run its course.:

It is highly unlikely that the News of the World was the only newsroom to indulge in the practise [of hacking phones].

Bannana Republic, Within The Republic

Oh, how I love this:

There's an address in Cheyenne, Wyo. — 2710 Thomes Ave. — where 2,000 companies are based. But it's not a skyscraper. Or even an office complex.

It's a basic, 1,700-square-foot brick house.

Not because it's good news or anything. But because it's yet another example of one of those things that only happen in other countries - happening right in our backyard.

(Via Reuters)

Hipshot

(via the Awl's ranking of state slogans)

# 38. "Virginia is for Lovers"
North Virginia, however, is for motherf[*]ckers.

The Wisdom of Others

There's just a ton of stuff I'm catching up on - and while I could write up my thoughts on each, I'd just be wasting your time.

Here's a sampler of what I've been reading, and a teaser for each.

First, Blame The Lenders - Barry Ritholtz

There is a familiar odor to the “Blame the profligate Greeks” meme now circulating. It is little more than a brilliant marketing ploy. This distraction ignores the simple reality that lending to insolvent people, institutions and countries is first and foremost the fault of the lenders.


Let us start first with the Greeks, who lied their way into the EU (with the help Goldman Sach’s financial engineers). The ridiculous pay and vacation structure, the absurdly generous pension plan, the excessive spending by Athens. They are a nation that can honestly be described as tax scofflaws. Yes, Greece is a mess.


Which begs the question: WHO THE FUCK WOULD LEND A DIME TO THESE PEOPLE?

(H/t CJR)

The Wageless, Profitable Recovery - Steven Greenhouse, NYT

In their newly released study, the Northeastern economists found that since the recovery began in June 2009 following a deep 18-month recession, “corporate profits captured 88 percent of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent” of that growth.

(H/t CJR)

Wisconsin Court Supremely Slippery - Brendan Beery

But the Wisconsin Supreme Court stated—citing another case from the same court from 1943—that a court cannot determine whether a law is constitutional until after it has been published because prohibiting its publication somehow interferes with the process of making law. (The idea here seems to be that although a court may rule that a law already made is unconstitutional, a court may not hold that the legislative branch has behaved in an unconstitutional way while making the law. Why this would be so is anyone’s guess.)


In support of this proposition, the court did no more than cite the antique case from 1943 and restate its premise. In so doing, as was noted in a stinging dissent, the court simply skipped right past more recent cases that seem to point in the opposite direction.


But more importantly, the court never explained how stopping the publication of a law interferes with the lawmaking process. By the time a law is ready for publication, it has already been made. No more committees will meet, no more floor debates will erupt, and no more drafting or editing will be undertaken. So, again, how does stopping the law from being published interfere with the process of making the law? If there is any intelligible answer to this question, the Wisconsin Supreme Court certainly could not have been bothered to provide it.

(H/t Illusory Tenant)

A Corporation, but not a Gableman, is a Person - Illusory Tenant

In the Wisconsin statutes, the distinction between the court's supervisory and original jurisdictions is codified by their separate numberings:
§ 809.70 and § 809.71. The Department of Justice chose the latter.


It would not have occurred to the Department of Justice to petition the court to take jurisdiction of an original action because Ozanne v. Fitzgerald could not, obviously, be an original action for the purposes of the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction. Hence the supervisory petition.

¶7 This court has granted the petition for an original action ...

No such petition existed, until the Gableman court manufactured it.

How Wal-Mart Swiped JPMorgan in $16 Billion Debit-Card Lobbying Battle - Phil Mattingly and Robert Schmidt, Bloomberg

(Via CJR)

It's hard to pull a single quote out of this one - it's pretty much a tale of powerful corporate interests waging political war. The right thing for consumers ends up happening, but only because it also happens to benefit retail operations who were wealthy enough to pay for a lobbying war.

...and there's this winner

Biggest Tax Avoiders Win Most Gaming $1 Trillion U.S. Tax Break - Jesse Drucker, Bloomberg

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) has cut its income taxes by $7 billion since 2005 by booking roughly half its worldwide profits at a subsidiary at the foot of the Swiss Alps that employs about 100 people.


Now Cisco, the largest maker of networking equipment, wants to save even more -- by asking Congress to waive most federal taxes due when multinationals bring such offshore earnings home. Chief Executive Officer John T. Chambers has led the charge for the tax holiday, which would be the second since 2004. He says it would encourage companies to “repatriate” as much as $1 trillion held abroad, spur domestic investment and create jobs.

(H/t CJR)