Search This Blog

Thursday, October 7, 2010

I never fail to marvel at how dumb the media really is

In an article just out, Reuters is reporting that President Obama will not sign the bill that passed the Congress last week with regard to procedures on home foreclosures. According to Reuters he is sending it back to congress for further discussions. And what is wrong with the bill? According to Reuters, "The bill would have required courts to accept all out-of-state notarizations, including those stamped en masse by computers in a practice that critics say has been improperly used to expedite foreclosure orders."

This is so dumb that I almost do not know where to begin. First, the president cannot just send a bill back to congress once it has passed both houses -- he has to veto it. Indeed, by refusing to sign the bill, that is iexactly what obama has done. The procedure is called a pocket veto; the President fails to sign the bill within ten days after it is delivered to him and it has the same effect as a formal veto. Pocket vetoes are used when the President is embarrassed to actually veto a bill in public. Not surprisingly, Obama did not want to be seen vetoing this bill that the Democrats in both houses had passed. Now Reuters, rather than reporting fairly, is going along with the story that he sent the bill back for further discussions. What numbskulls. Obama vetoed the bill!!!

Secondly, when reuters tells us that the problem with the bill is the acceptance of out of state notary public stamps, I am certain that the reporter has no idea what he is talking about and perhaps he does not even speak English as a first or second language. A notary public stamp is a vestige of practice from long ago. It is simply the statement of a notary public that the person signing the dooument swore to the contents in front of the notary. The purpose is to make the person who swears to the document liable for perjury if the statements turn out to be false. Nothing more. that's right, NOTHING MORE!! An out of state notary can accomplish this purpose just the same as an in state notary. There is no difference whatsoever. In certain courts, however, homeowners facing foreclosure were using the state of the notary as a basis for a frivolous objection to the proceedings. the bill in congress took this objection away in order to expedite the process and bring the economy back sooner with less waste. This is the bill that Obama is now vetoing.

So, to be clear, Obama is vetoing an attempt by Congress (acting in a bipartisan manner) to stop the clogging of the courts with frivolous defenses against foreclosure actions. No wonder the White House did not want to issue a straightforward explanation of what had been done. Shame on Reuters for not understanding what was happening.

No comments: