Lieberman Votes In Favor of 41% Credit Card Rates

While Dodd Disagreed, calling the predatory practice Usury Lieberman disagreed. The big credit card companies had their most powerful guns at the Senate Banking Committee chaired by Chris Dodd. These malevolent bankers, intent of preserving their profits cited a record 8.8% delinquency rate as reason to keep interest rates high.

Other members of the Senate Banking Committee argued that a person paying 30%-41% interest (not including late fees and over limit fees) was in fact loan sharking and a self defeating counterproductive loan. I personally agree that under such circumstances these terms and conditions are predatory and a mitigating factor, if not the reason defaults spiked to 8.8%.

The bank lobbyists warned that if such a measure passed, and banks had to limit their credit card rates to 15% like the credit unions that the financial markets would retaliate with negative action at the market opening. Sadly the bill was defeated with almost all Republicans (and Lieberman) voting with the Banks.

SEE NY TIMES LINK CLICK HERE

To See The Entire Vote Click Here

If you are thinking about giving Chris Dodd a "pat on the back" don't because Dodd is a supporter of the much more predatory "Pay Day Loans" or those loans aimed at the poor. Those interest rates are virtually unlimited. Suzy Orman represented that Pay Day loans can exceed a whopping 5,000 percent interest. In my opinion, Dodd has a dying career and is playing the game to get his numbers up. Do not think for a second that he somehow cares about your financial problems because he does not.

See the LINK

Full CT Prisons = Free Felons!

There are many scary and shady characters that are in prison in CT, some like the felon depicted in this picture are beginning to get breaks they never before imagined.

Prison overcrowding has earned felons two major breaks so far. The first has been a lift on the parole ban of violent offenders, the second the lessoning of time in prison for drug related charges. Upon introduction back into society these felons will be assigned a probation officer who will expect them to get a job and be productive.

The first break came courtesy of Gov. Rell who was confronted with maxed out prisons that demanded some immediate answers. The lift on the Parole ban now means that Felons who were never eligible for parole can now be released at the discretion of a parole board. The judgment of the people on these parole boards was already problematic after two felons who were released committed some terrifying crimes against a doctor and his family in Cheshire about a year ago.

The other big break came courtesy of the Federal Government who felt minorities were serving unjustly long sentences for narcotics possession and use. The argument was that the punishment mandated by federal statue was too extreme for the casual user who kept getting caught up under the three strikes rule and then sentenced to a long prison term. To remedy the problem sentences are expected to be reduced and offenders are going to be subjected to more intense rehabs and programs like NA or AA.

The bigger picture here is that our streets, already pretty rough in some towns in CT are about to get rougher. The statistics and odds of repeat offences by parolees and narcotics convicts are very high. To make matters more interesting these inmates are excellent complainers who are able to exert their rights in court. Many judges, knowing that horrific deteriorating conditions are threatening the stability of the prison system are putting a lot of legal pressure on the state of CT to either reduce the prisoner population to acceptable levels or to build new prisons.

Both of these prospects are absolutely hard to accept, the state mired with debt, combined with a sensible populous here in CT do not want a prison built in their town. Prisons are the proverbial NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) of chaos in politics. The problem goes full circle when these early release prisoners raise local crime statistics and the cyclical debate of crime and prison construction come full circle.

This is a problem we can all monitor through local law enforcement and your police reports, should the new prisoner reduction policy in our state create a surge in crime we have our first clue that our state is now engaged in "revolving door" justice and on the path to NIMBY politics.

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-ap-parole0127,0,7949647.story

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/uncategorized/court-eases-cocaine-sentencing/

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/general_news/new_haven_neighbors_press_stat.php

A Bad Economy Can Land You In CT's Debtors Prison

While the founders of our great nation abhorred the notion of a debtors prison, special interests from several areas of society pushed legislators hard to draft laws that force you to pay up or go to jail.

While no court in this great state would ever dare to use the term "debtors prison" they instead speak the legalese equivalent of "contempt of court." When it comes to paying up "Contempt of Court" and "Debtors Prison" is essentially the same thing. Both represent an individual going to jail for owing money.

This is particularly of grave concern in a bad economic period, because your loss of a job, decline in business, or failure to sell your home could very easily translate to a criminal act.

At the federal level the top jailers are the IRS and the contemptible failure to pay your income tax, file on time, or not report to the agencies satisfaction. However do not be too concerned about the law, because there is no law even requiring a person to pay an income tax but the IRS is all about collecting. According to several experts on the IRS and Tom Cryer a constitutional attorney "there is no law even requiring a person to pay." However do not tell that to Ed and former CT Citizen Elaine Brown a dentist in NH now in Federal Prison on tax charges. No one is exempt from the tax mafia not even U.S. Congressman James Trafficante who is in prison for not paying the tax.

At the state level we have similar but different circumstances. There is the constant flood of divorced people who get regularly incarcerated for not paying, or not paying enough child support, alimony, or what ever the judge orders in court. The process of having a court threaten you with debtors prison will last as long as your contentious other decides to subjugate you to the draconian logic of the judicial officer brandishing his gavel. Our legislators in Hartford drafted the debtors prison legislation under the belief that this is the only way to get people to pay up.

The harsh choice of having a judicial gavel pointed at you demanding your "money or your freedom" has also got the attention of the credit card companies who want to get in on the collection process. With millions of Americans having negative savings for the first time in history, the risk and exposure to the big banks is growing exponentially. Foreclosures, are the first hardship for homeowners, the next is bank Levy's and liens on anything remaining of value, and the IRS also jumps in to tax you on loan money you saved due to the bank selling your home at a loss. In many cases a bank will try to insulate against these losses by going to court and getting a court order against your bank account/s resulting in you bouncing checks, and missing other payments.

These court orders take no mercy on those who receive them, courts will allow banks to take Veterans checks, Social Security checks, and force the elderly, sick, and poor to lose the only access to the few dollars they have. The Federal poverty level of $14,000 per year has been routinely confiscated to the point where the sick and elderly have been dumped on the street for the benefit of collecting a debt. The panic to collect is spreading to all aspects of society, including our hospitals, who ask us about every asset we own upon signing in, and the brazen new generation of attorneys so eager to represent these big establishments to quell their own financial woes.

The need to collect a debt is something I respect as a business man, as I have several customer debts of my own that I try to collect, but under no circumstance is the money I am owed so important that I could stand to ruin a persons life over a few bucks.

The very nature of a debtors prison is abhorrent to me, and what is most alarming is when people who owe money are not even afforded the protections of living at the Federal poverty level. When a court of law would go so far as to confiscate a persons Social security check, or veterans check to satisfy a corporation I take issue with the lack of protections afforded society.

It is my opinion that the entire idea of "debtors prison" has no place in America, CT, or anywhere where freedom rings. Nor do I believe that a person should be stripped of their ability to afford the basics of food and minimal shelter, because of a bad debt situation. People and corporations should be accountable to their own lending mistakes, and courts ought not be used as collection agencies for special interests and big corporations.