{"id":67543,"date":"2011-10-13T00:59:54","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T04:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/67543\/basketball-pizza-michelle-bachman\/"},"modified":"2011-10-13T00:59:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T04:59:54","slug":"basketball-pizza-michelle-bachman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/67543\/basketball-pizza-michelle-bachman\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball, Pizza, Michelle Bachman"},"content":{"rendered":"

I may not have been down at the Occupy Seattle demonstration this week, but I did do something to improve my community today.<\/font><\/p>\n

I complained about a broken crosswalk button at an intersection I use almost everyday.\u00a0 I tried to refrain from writing an entire blog on the city of Lynnwood’s Public Works complaint page…<\/font><\/p>\n

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So I watched last night’s Republican debates.\u00a0 Again, I tried to refrain myself from writing a blog when Michelle Bachman tried to blame the federal government, specifically Fannie and Freddy, for the subprime mortgage crisis.\u00a0 I wanted to take a moment and explain to her how the mortgage market worked back in ’06 and ’07.\u00a0 I was the loan officer for dozens of subprime loans during that time, and of the 30 or 40 loans I was responsible for, I can only think of one that got picked up by Fannie Mae.\u00a0 We were required (whether it was company policy at Countrywide or some regulation, I don’t know) to put all of our risky loans at the doorstep of the government and ask “will you back this loan?”\u00a0 Again, one out of 30 or 40 loans (say, 3%) was within the risk standards of these quasi-federal agencies.\u00a0 That loan was when a little old lady wanted to cash in on the $80K she owed on her $400K home (at the time).\u00a0 She wanted to up her mortgage to $160K and use the proceeds to make some necessary improvements and repairs.\u00a0 This meant her loan-to-value was still under 50%.\u00a0 Fannie Mae thought this was a good risk and “took” the loan. So, despite her really bad credit score, she did not get a subprime loan.\u00a0 She got a “conforming” loan and saved hundreds of dollars a month.<\/font><\/p>\n

It is inaccurate to blame Fannie Mae for the subprime loan disaster.\u00a0 By definition, any loan Fannie backed was NOT a subprime loan.\u00a0 There might have been a few subprime borrowers getting Fannie backed loans, but they were the lucky ones and few and far between.<\/font><\/p>\n

Now, with that introduction, I bet you thought this blog would be political and might refer to Huntsman saying he initially thought the “999 Plan” was the price of a pizza, but no, I won’t be talking about that.\u00a0 I won’t be talking about how incensed that made Herman Cain, the Republican frontrunner for the nomination.<\/font><\/p>\n

My impression of last night’s debate is that once again, Mitt Romney won.\u00a0 It’ inevadible.\u00a0 Put your money down.\u00a0 Mitt will be GOP nominee in 2012.<\/font><\/p>\n

I’m already working on a cover of the Cranberries’ song “Zombie” entitled “Romney”.\u00a0 They do rhyme, afterall.<\/font><\/p>\n

No, the basketball and pizza references are to this video, which I recorded 4 years ago this week.\u00a0 It’s mildly entertaining.\u00a0 There is a certain nostalgia in telling the pizza guy, “did you know this very establishment was the subject of a top 20 blog on MySpace this week?”\u00a0 That only would have meant something in 2007 or earlier.<\/font><\/p>\n

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<\/object><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

Oh, what the heck, lets look at the other years…<\/font><\/p>\n

2008! One month before the election. Sarah Palin debates Barry Kitten.<\/font><\/p>\n

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<\/object><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

And in 2009, proving that ANYTHING is entertaining when set to “Yakkity Sax”, even unpacking. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may not have been down at the Occupy Seattle demonstration this week, but I did do something to improve my community today. I complained about a broken crosswalk button at an intersection I use almost everyday.\u00a0 I tried to refrain from writing an entire blog on the city of Lynnwood’s Public Works complaint page… […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,1428],"tags":[81,234],"class_list":["post-67543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendburst","category-life","category-politics-2","tag-joko","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}