After a long hiatus, African American Opinion is back! Just in time for the 2012 Election!
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Well look at this, According to published reports, Wells Fargo who happens to be the NAACP's favorite predatory lender, donor and “Lead Sponsor” of the NAACP’s 101st annual convention is the Target Of Justice Department Probe.
Get this, The NAACP which appeared to get "promotional kick back money" after mysteriously dropping it's lawsuit against Wells Fargo, the nation's largest home mortgage lender, for allegedly preying upon African American borrowers during the housing bubble and steering them into high-cost subprime loans.
This is not the first bad news for the NAACP's lead sponsor, Wells Fargo.
As reported by Faye Anderson over at Anderson at Large, On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board ordered Wells Fargo to pay an $85 million fine for steering borrowers with good credit into subprime loans.
The order reads:
The $85 million civil money penalty is the largest the Board has assessed in a consumer-protection enforcement action and is the first formal enforcement action taken by a federal bank regulatory agency to address alleged steering of borrowers into high-cost, subprime loans. […]
The order addresses allegations that Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel steered borrowers who were potentially eligible for prime interest rate loans into loans at higher, subprime interest rates, resulting in greater costs to borrowers. The order also addresses separate allegations that Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel falsified information about borrowers’ incomes to make it appear that the borrowers qualified for loans when they would not have qualified based on their actual incomes.
There is more... In 2007, the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against 15 of the nation’s largest subprime lenders for “systematic, institutionalized racism in sub-prime home mortgage lending.”
One of the defendants included Wells Fargo Bank & Company.
As Faye Anderson reported in her blog post dated April 28, 2010, "The NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous was an outspoken critic of Wells Fargo. So you can imagine my surprise when earlier this month, I read the NAACP dropped its lawsuit against the predatory lender." So what did the NAACP get? As Citizen Journalist Faye Anderson ask in the same article.
Easy answer, that the Justice Department needs to probe. The NAACP in my humble observations accepted Wells Fargo’s tainted money as a "kick-back" for dropping the lawsuit.
AAP says: "Forget all the black celebrities that kiss the NAACP's ring in order to get an Image Award. Average black Americans who are hurting and facing depression-like unemployment levels have questioned for years the integrity and credibility of the National office of the NAACP.
Average black Americans have wondered for years if the NAACP represented them of the interest of big banks and corporate kickbacks. Well again, here is the smoking gun. Let's hope the Justice Department probe includes the "corporate kickbacks" from Wells Fargo to the national office of the NAACP."0Add a comment
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Seeds of Change
edited by John Joseph Adams
Published by Prime Books
Forthcoming August 2008
Here’s the cover copy and the full table of contents of my forthcoming original SF anthology for Prime Books, Seeds of Change.
Imagine the moment when the present ends, and the future begins–when the world we knew is no more and a brave new world is thrust upon us. Gathering stories by nine of today’s most incisive minds, Seeds of Change confronts the pivotal issues facing our society today: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution. Many serve as a call to action. How will you change with the future?
These nine stories sow seeds of change across familiar and foreign territory, from our own backyards to the Niger Delta to worlds not yet discovered. Pepper, the mysterious mercenary from Tobias S. Buckell’s Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin, works as an agent for change—if the price is right—in “Resistance.” Ken MacLeod envisions the end-game in the Middle East in “A Dance Called Armageddon.” New writer Blake Charlton imagines a revolutionary advance in cancer research in “Endosymbiont.” Award-winning author Jay Lake tackles technological change and the forces that will stop at nothing to prevent it in “The Future by Degrees.” Other stories by K.D. Wentworth, Jeremiah Tolbert, Mark Budz, Ted Kosmatka, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu range from the darkly satirical to the exotic. All explore the notion that change will come.
Will you be ready?
Table of Contents:
Introduction by John Joseph Adams
N-Words by Ted Kosmatka
The Future by Degrees by Jay Lake
Drinking Problem by K. D. Wentworth
Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton
A Dance Called Armageddon by Ken MacLeod
Arties Aren’t Stupid by Jeremiah Tolbert
Faceless in Gethsemane by Mark Budz
Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Resistance by Tobias S. Buckell
The cover features a very nice blurb provided by Robert J. Sawyer, which says “A first-rate anthology of provocative stories.” Which was redacted down from:
“Isaac Asimov said science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology. His definition put humans in a reactive role, and essentially had science and technology changing on their own. But we can also be proactive, actively making the future what we want — or what we dread. A first-rate anthology of provocative and disturbing stories gathered by the always reliable John Joseph Adams.” — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS4View comments
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Effective July 1, 20086
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Here's a video I made after the Supreme Court struck down a Washington DC ban on handguns.
George Cook www.letstalkhonestly.com
6View comments
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Excerpt from Black Entertainment USA
As I mentioned a day or two ago (I've kind of lost track) I purchased a new home. Since I have shared my experiences on getting approved for the mortgage, as well as my thoughts on most every other subject, I thought you might want to know more about the house (or at least see inside).
The house is 2005 sq ft (which I plan to expand to 3500 sq ft due to the attic and basement). It's a 1910 brick house in relatively excellent condition. The house is filled with American Cherry wood, which I am told you cannot find anymore....
Full Post Found Here>0Add a comment
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9 year old Thamia Kelley of Fruitridge California has been missing since June 14. See this beautiful child's picture and learn more about her case by clicking the link below. Let's all pray that she is found alive and in good condition.
http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/missingblackwomen.html0Add a comment
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Lauryn Williams
The Olympic Trials are June 27th through July 6th. Bust out the popcorn. The best from between the sky scrapers of New York, from the open plains of Alabama, to the rolling asphalt of Massachusetts. They take with them the hopes of their cities, towns and homes and converge on Eugene, Oregon. From there it's a journey to represent the Red, White and Blue in beautiful Beijing, China.LaShawn Merrit
Check out updates on some of these sites :
Track and Field News
USA Track and Field Site
Running USA
Trackshark
Runners SpaceAllyson FelixBernard Lagat
This is a pretty cool site. Check it out Flocast.org. It's like Youtube for track and field.Wallace Spearmon3View comments
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The steel industry has been reaching for ways to move ahead, but is looking for a boost. All that McCain has come up with is, "let's push free trade", which is a bunch of hot air. How about giving the steel industry some real solutions. The Employee Free Choice Act for instance. More info on the Employee Free Choice Act here. Barack has been supporting the passage of this act for a while. It would give steel worker employees a chance to improve their unions and, accordingly, their jobs. The U.S. steel industry has been feeling the brunt of globalization and trade acts, which hasn't really been addressed. There are several things that could help. Research for new types of steel would be one. Lower costs fuels to run the factories would be good, too. Probably one of the priority aspects would be to improve manufacturing techniques. Barack has another approach, re-negotiating free trade acts to get better results for our manufacturers. Alot has changed since the first NAFTA agreement was passed, and it's time some of its policies were revised. While at an event for steel workers, he said :
And to those who think that the decline in American manufacturing is inevitable; or that manufacturing has no place in a 21st century economy; we say right here and right now that the fight for manufacturing’s future is the fight for America’s future. And that’s why we’ll modernize our steel industry, strengthen our entire domestic manufacturing base, and open as many markets as we can to American manufactured goods when I’m President.
Here are some links about the steel industry :
United Steelworkers Endorse Obama
Obama Calls for Passage of Employee Free Choice Act
Obama Talks to Indiana Steel workers0Add a comment
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