In case you missed it, PA's senior Senator has, in this age of Constitution shredding, illegal wars, other such impeachable offenses, decided on the perfect target for an investigation: the NFL.

That's right, Sen. Specter wants to open a Congressional investigation, a la the Mitchell investigation into steroids in baseball (because, of course, we know that nobody in the NFL uses steroids), into the so-called 'spygate' controversy, in which the Patriots are accused of stealing other teams' defensive signals. Specter's ire is particularly provoked by the suggestion that the Patriots, in effect, cheated the Eagles out of a Super Bowl win.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3395829

There is currently a bill in the US Senate dealing with the predatory lending crisis, and there is a small provision in it that is really important to keep. The provision lets judges who preside over bankrupt homeowners modify terms of loans to make them affordable. Back before we started selling homeowners down the river, this was the law. Let's just say the changes have not yielded positive results.

This bill would protect an estimated 600,000 people, and save homeowners surrounding foreclosures an estimated 72 billion dollars in lost home values. And, it costs us nothing. It simply gives judges the latitude in bankruptcies the same latitude they have if you showed up to bankruptcy with other assets- like investment income, a boat, etc.

This is a sensible, win-win measure that could be really, really important to keeping people in their homes. And right now, Arlen Specter is a key vote in getting this out of the Senate. (A companion bill would likely pass the House.)

I just called Arlen Specter's office, and I would strongly encourage you to do the same. All you have to do is say something like this:

I encourage Senator Specter to support the Durbin Bill- Title IV of Senate Bill 2636, to allow modifications to mortgages in the bankruptcy process.

His phone number is (202) 224-4254, and your one minute call can really make a difference.

Below the fold, is a memo from the Center for Responsible Lending about why this bill is so important. One minute can make a difference.

Call today!

I have been pretty busy over the last few weeks, and haven't been able to touch on as much as I wanted, so I thought I would give a quick round-up of some random things worth noting. Most of this is stuff I would like to (and still may) write more on, but have not had the time.

1) As Helen noted earlier, Arlen Specter has come out swinging for Philly, in the Carl Greene vs. HUD pissing match. That is good news. Specter passed a 'Sense of the Senate' (read:non-binding) resolution demanding that 50 million go back to HUD PHA. HUD can simply ignore it, and as the article notes, they are hinting they might do just that. At that point, Specter and Bob Casey Jr. can probably be more assertive. Kudos on this, Senator Specter.

We don't talk about Arlen very much. However, let me just say that I think he is a total joke. Is that wrong to say now? I know that occasionally Arlen burps out a decent vote (like SChip). But I cannot take his faux-moderation, which he uses to certify radical Supreme Court Jurists like Sam Alito, and to toothlessly go along with the war, with torture and with just about anything Dubya wants. He will once in a while roar, but like his conduct with the present and past Attorney Generals, there is not much behind the curtain.

But hey, he does use that same Judiciary platform to inquire into whether the Patriots cheated in the Super Bowl...

My random prediction is that Arlen loses to Pat Toomey in a Senate Primary in 2012, who then promptly loses himself, to someone like... Mike Nutter.

2) There was yet another attack on the ethics boards right to regulate campaign finance reform. This time, the lawsuit is by Cozen O’Connor, basically as an attempt to help Bob Brady pay legal bills out of Tom Knox’s challenge to him.

So, lets see here… We have Bob Brady almost getting kicked off of the ballot, because of a type of technical mistake that the party loves to go after. Does he come out and try and help end the practice, seeing the faults of his ways? (Remember this post? "Will Congressman Brady Now Help Us End Gotcha Ballot Challenges"). No, instead he gets Cozen to represent him, and then afterwards, instead of working to fix it... they go after campaign finance? Awesome.

I will have more soon, but, I suspect the case will be thrown out for lack of standing.

3) On a predatory lending/mortgage foreclosure note- it is bizarre to see big ol Bear Sterns fail, almost exclusively because of their involvement in subprime lending. Way back in 2001, I started doing a little research on foreclosures in Philadelphia. Even back then, you saw a lot of Bear Sterns as the foreclosing entity. And now, they have failed. I have no yay or nay for that fact that they were bailed out, but it sure would be nice if you government put that much care into… people.

Like Countrywide and New Century and so many other subprime lending failures before it- a ‘market correction’ that puts these lenders out of business it not a particularly new idea. See page 61 of Lost Values, for example. However, the same point remains there: a market correction and/or a bailout may ‘solve’ problems for Wall Street, but none of that stops an ongoing wave of foreclosures in our, and every other, City in the US.

4) I have seen the Obama campaign in three places around the City so far, registering people to vote. Very cool. As they note over there-->, you must register to vote by next Monday in order to be able to vote. If you know of anyone who needs to do this, git ‘er done.

5) Finally, thanks to Alex and Drupal: for those who have not noticed, there is now a small editing function when you write a blog entry that allows you

• to bullet;

1. make lists;

use bold, use italics, and embed links, all with just a click. (Make sure that you use "http" when you put those links in.

Oh, and it lets you do what all those on blogs love to do:

Easily Quote Yourself.

Hopefully that will be helpful.