Another 1st Place for the Penile State

Which can now be said to be truly earning the name this blog has bestowed upon it:

MIAMI - Florida's prison population has topped 100,000 for the first time, making it only the third state in the nation to break into six digits after California and Texas.

The Department of Corrections said the number was reached Thursday. At 100,000, Florida's prison population roughly equals incarcerating one out of every four residents of Miami, or almost all the citizens of Gainesville, home to the University of Florida. More... Many Happy Returns!

To all our wingnut friends in the penile state

Click on this guy for some hot action:

Click on the links and learn something about the world you ignore:

One

Two

Three

A Round of Bronxian Cheers for the Penile State

 A report out today puts the Sunshine State near the very bottom - ranking 50 out of 51 - in the nation for children's health care. Orlando Sentinel, May 2008.

Florida ranks dead last in a national report card rating access to emergency care, according to a study released Tuesday by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Palm Beach Post, Dec. 10, 2008.

Florida ranks 50th in nation in education funding; local districts foot much larger portion. Palm Beach Post, April 2, 2008.

Florida Healthcare System Ranks 50th, Says Florida Health Insurance Analyst. It's Florida Time, May 29, 2008

Study: Florida Ranks 50th In High-School Graduation Rates ...

Source:

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=florida+ranks+50th+in+health

An additional Bronx kudos for newspapers that fail to maintain web pages where their reports of public welfare appear.

Happy Holidays - The Mgmt.

What, him worry?

Iraqis Rally in Support of Man Who Threw Shoes at Bush

Penile State assists The Stupids

MIAMI — An obscure ballot initiative in Florida intended to end a legacy of bias against Asian-Americans was defeated Tuesday, apparently because voters incorrectly assumed it would prevent illegal immigrants from owning property.

Had it passed, the initiative, known as Amendment No. 1, would have removed from the state’s Constitution language adopted in 1926 allowing the Legislature to prohibit foreigners who were barred from citizenship — Asian-Americans at the time — from owning land. 

On the Web site of one group, Americans for Legal Immigration, a member wrote that it should be left standing because “ ‘illegal aliens’ should not have ‘rights’ like U.S. citizens have. The only right they should have is deportation!”

The group’s president, William Gheen, did not respond to e-mail messages seeking comment but Enos Schera, 81, who posted the message, said that he was “1,000 percent” satisfied that the law remained in place.

He is a founder of Citizens of Dade United, a Miami group opposing illegal immigration, and he said he knew the provision’s history but hoped that keeping it on the books would encourage lawmakers to prevent all illegal immigrants from owning property.

“They’re buying up the whole country,” he said. more

My O My

Polis, Polite, Police...Fascist

This, especially the comments thread, says a good deal about Murka. A fine country to be from. 

Far from.

  

Bombers need not be terrorists: Palin

footnotes: 

1. McCain's famously shiteating grin is somewhat dim.

2. "By his own admittance" - to the hospital? 

You Decide: Does McCain Support Bush or Not?

Let's hear what you decide:

Little Havana is Changing

"The Republican party that I knew and loved has left me behind, so this year I'm voting for change, I'm voting for Barack Obama," said 60-year-old Carlos Saladrigas. BBC

"I, I, I see Russia from my house"

courtesy Andrew Sullivan

Flaming asshole poses as "Journalist" in Florida

Reality TV like it oughta be:

Joe Biden was asked questions by Orlando WFTV "Journalist" Barbara West on Thursday that read like a set of Karl Rove-wannabe talking points. At one point the Senator actually stopped to ask, "Are you joking? Is this a joke? Or is that a real question?" 

You will be shocked...shocked to learn that West's Husband is a GOP Media Consultant.

3.  update

A bit of sense in Sarasota

Oct. 19th, 2008

Incompetent AND Malicious

Florida's GOP lawmakers blamed for early-voting lines

Saying early voting cost too much money with rules that weren't uniform, Republican legislators led a charge three years ago to set new statewide standards limiting the number of polling sites and their hours of operation.

Those revamped rules trimmed early voting from 12 hours per workday to eight.

During the first presidential election since Gov. Jeb Bush signed the bill in 2005, the new law's impact can be seen throughout South Florida: exhausting lines at polling sites in Miami-Dade and Broward that led voters to miss work, senior citizens to beg for chairs and voting advocates to question whether some are being disenfranchised. more via Digby

Penile state: small and limp

St. Louis, Oct. 19, 2008: Crowd estimated at 100,000




Tampa, Oct. 20, 2008: Crowd estimated at 8,000





Must be some kind of southward devolution...

debate antics

The Herald Tribune of Sarasota seeks to be a lessor

From Sarasota Voices:

I was amused to read of the Herald-Tribune's request to renege on the agreement they made in order to gain a special deal with the City - you remember they threatened to "Go Out East" if the City didn't cut them a deal.

Illuminating, too, is the rationale given for the request - belt-tightening, cutting staff, soon the whole building may be vacant. What then?

"Article 13 of the above-referenced Agreement (copy attached) provides that until December 31, 2016, occupancy of the redevelopment project which was the subject of the Agreement is restricted to "an office building to be used by the Sarasota Herald Tribune or any affiliated business thereof." Because of a drop in the number of employees from 357 persons to 262 persons, the Herald Tribune desires to lease out 15,000 square feet in its building to another office user. 

It's never a good thing to see a newspaper fall on hard times. But in fairness, the Times-owned Herald-Trib has failed to develop a loyal readership because it refuses to put truth before treacle.

...Rumor has it they've been talking to a donut shop to take over one area of the great elephantine whiteness on Main St., Sarasota...

Have I Got the Candidate for You!

How the real-estate market could turn Florida for Obama.

"The mood in Florida is very different from 2000 and 2004," he says. "Then we were a confident, wealthy state. Now we're broke. I've been here 30 years, and I haven't seen Floridians this anxious in a long time." He says older people are worried about their pensions and 401(k)s, and his students are wondering if there will be jobs for them when they graduate.

Join John and Sarah

A Sarah of taste and judgment

Palin finds a state worthy of her racist horseshit

Sappy Paleface - perhaps we can reverse the "dark" coloration of her baseless insinuations - hey, the whole world's going to hell in a handbasket, let's talk slime:

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.   Wash Post

Florida (special kudos to Clearwater), you deserve the moron...



and she, you.

Count em: Five aircraft lost by this bozo

McCain lost five U.S. Navy aircraft.

Navy pilot John Sidney McCain III should have never been allowed to graduate from the U.S. Navy flight school.  He was a below average stNavy pilot John Sidney McCain III should have never been allowed to graduate from the U.S. Navy flight school.  He was a below average student and a lousy pilot. Had his father and grandfather not been famous four star U.S. Navy admirals, McCain III would have never been allowed in the cockpit of a military aircraft. and

a lousy pilot. Had his father and grandfather not been famous four star U.S. Navy admirals, McCain III would have never beenNavy pilot John Sidney McCain III should have never been allowed to graduate from the U.S. Navy flight school.  He was a below average student and a lousy pilot. Had his father and grandfather not been famous four star U.S. Navy admirals, McCain III would have never been allowed in the cockpit of a military aircraft.  allowed in the cockpit of a military aircraft. 

McCain No Friend to Florida

Remember the Keating 5?

McCain Is No Friend to Florida Voters and Senior Citizens

More on the Keating 5

More on McCain:

McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five

"For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk", New York Times, February 21, 2008, pA1

Remember the Keating Five?
McCain’s own standards would have hung him.

"McCain Says He's Been Baptist For Years", by Bruce Smith, The Associated Press, September 12, 2007

Candidates' Vices: Craps and Poker, by Michael Sherer and Michael Weisskopf, Time Magazine, July 2, 2008

"Profiles: McCain's Party", by Connie Bruck, New Yorker Magazine, May 30, 2005

"Candidates invite questions about their faith", by Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, September 18, 2007

"The Pampered Politician", by Amy Silverman, The Phoenix New Times, May 15, 1997

"See John Run Off at the Mouth", Phoenix New Times, October 1, 1998

"Flashes: What's Up, Murdoch?", Phoenix New Times, September 17, 1998

the US Veteran's Dispatch web site.

Election 98: Arizona Governor, Fox News web site, 1998 coverage (no longer on web)

"Keating Gets New Trial", CNNfn Web Site, December 2, 1996

"No More Wagging,", (editorial) by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, January 3, 1999

"John McCain, rock-and-roll dad", by Andrew Essex, The New Yorker Magazine, December 6, 1999 p52

"Unmasking Darth McCain", by William Cleeland, The Daily Illini, March 9, 2001

"Famed McCain Temper is Tamed", By Michael Kranish Boston Globe, January 27, 2008

Palin admires Buchanan, who admires Hitler

Did you know...

Sarah Palin supported Buchanan (Pat) in the 2000 Presidential Election.

Many Floridians consider Buchanan to be an anti-Semite. Why? 

In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler’s anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was “an individual of great courage…Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path.” (The Guardian, 1/14/92)

Writing of “group fantasies of martyrdom,” Buchanan challenged the historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel exhaust at Treblinka: “Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody.” (New Republic, 10/22/90) Buchanan’s columns have run in the Liberty Lobby’s Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter and other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist concoction.

Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan — despite protests — to visit Germany’s Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried. At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that they were “Americans first” — and repeatedly scrawled the phrase “Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews” in his notebook. Buchanan was credited with crafting Ronald Reagan’s line that the SS troops buried at Bitburg were “victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.” (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96) 

More here.

And Buchanan loved Palin's debate performance - it's a mutual fascist love thing, we imagine.

Is McCain determined to lose Florida?

TPM

• McCain called for allowing offshore oil drilling.
• McCain is opposed to the creation of a national hurricane insurance fund.
• There is also his well-publicized vote against an appropriations bill that would have funded Everglades restoration.
• McCain is stuck in a rabid anti-Castro time warp that is popular with a dying generation of original Cuban exiles, but is increasing questioned by younger Cuban-Americans, recent exiles, and people who still have family on the island.
• Let's not forget his support for Bush attempt to privatize Social Security, and his own contradictory confused statements on the subject. 
• Of course, in addition to these issues with particular resonance in Florida, voters there will also be voting on the Iraq debacle, the tanking economy, the growing income disparity in America, global warming, and other issues that work in Obama's favor.
  

Love you Cokie!

Ever notice that Cokie Roberts is such a complete cunt?  NPR ought to be ashamed to have her on their airwaves. 

The image is ancient, by the way. 

While you're at it, don't miss:

Make-Believe Maverick

A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty

Trig or Treat?

The thinkable has happened- casting notice for Sarah Palin porn

Mayor of Swallow-silla

An adult film company in Los Angeles is casting a Sarah Palin look-a-like for God knows what. (No anal- oh well.) Well, theywere casting. The ad was posted Sept 10th, and for reasons we'll never understand, we missed it. Apologies to any 23/6 readers with frameless glasses and an 80's bun. A screenshot of the ad is below, and apparently the movie still needs a title. Vote in our first ever 23/6 Vice Presidential Porno Title poll (after the jump). We'll send the reader favorite to gigs-836109998@craigslist.org

Don't fail to send in your suggestion for a title for the Palin Porn:

Penilers again decisive in significant vote

The Penile State delegation helped sink efforts to relubricate the credit crisis yesterday. The margin needed to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was 12 votes:

Fourteen Florida members voted against the bill, which was 13 votes shy of passing, and 11 voted for it.

Tampa Bay area members voting no were Republican Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, Gus Bilirakis of Palm Harbor and Vern Buchanan of Sarasota, and Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, who has close ties to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The speaker had worked to pass the bill. tampabay.com

Philosophy unnecessary for Penilers

Old news now, but nonetheless, given the impermeable texture of Penile State views of what makes sense, relevant:

Philosophy Dumped

(Cross-posted at Become What You Behold)

Our administration at the University of Florida has decided that, to offset mounting budget cuts, they should eliminate the doctoral program in Philosophy.  I see this as a dark day for my University and for the state of Philosophy in American Higher Education.  Our president, Bernie Machen, remains one of the highest paid officials in public education. 

Read the story here: 
http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/budget-cuts-res.html

Sign a petition protesting this measure here: 
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/145/petition-to-president-machen-to-keep-philosophys-phd-program

Instead of Ph.D.'s they can offer Dancing Master D.'s, or Real Estate Genius D.'s, or just toilet paper with pictures of fake developments.

Morans gather

Sarah Palin excites huge Florida crowd - Free Viagra

Tens of thousands of Morans in Florida's Republican heartland turned out to hear vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin speak.

Posted on Mon, Sep. 22, 2008

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BY BETH REINHARD

breinhard@MiamiHerald.com

Related Content

PHELAN M. EBENHACK / AP

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov., Sarah Palin, left, waves to the crowd as her daughter Piper, 7, applauds during her first public Florida appearance in The Villages, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008.

» More Photos

• Poll | Floridians on state issues
• Poll | The Presidential Race
• Political Currents | Campaign coverage

LADY LAKE -- In the biggest event of the 2008 campaign in Florida so far, Sarah Palin drew tens of thousands of people Sunday to a Central Florida town square decked out like the Fourth of July for a speech aimed at pumping happy juice into the state's Republican heartland.

Palin focused her speech on her track record as governor of Alaska, John McCain's experience in wartime, and did not delve into the nitty-gritty of the ailing economy. That suited several people in the crowd who said they came to kiss the arse of the governor who rejuvenated the ticket.

''She's the sunrise on Velvet wall hanging in my lanai, not the sunset,'' said Linda Cusumano, 57, of Orlando. ``She makes me feel there's nothing we can't do - even take our kids to unaffordable places like Disney World.''

Despite her Medusa expression, the crowd endured the sight of the dynamic newcomer to national politics. A new Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll showed that 40 percent of voters who back McCain said Palin made them feel stronger about their choice.

Juxtaposed with feel-good appeals to patriotism, Palin delivered some tough blows to Obama, accusing him of sitting on the sideline during the current economic crisis. The governor of Alaska also said he was blocking the nation's path to energy independence.

''Maybe if he'd been the governor of an energy-rich state, he'd get it,'' said Palin, an advocate of offshore oil drilling. ``Maybe if he'd been on the front lines of securing our nation's energy independence, he'd understand.''

Obama has suggested he might be willing to support limited offshore drilling but only as part of comprehensive legislation that focuses more on investing in alternative energy sources.

Campaigning in Charlotte, N.C., on Sunday, Obama repeated the message he brought last week to Miami, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville: the Bush administration is to blame for the economic turmoil, and McCain promises more of the same.

''We're now seeing the disastrous consequences of this philosophy all around us, on Wall Street as well as Main Street,'' he said, according to The Associated Press. ``Yet Sen. McCain, who candidly admitted not long ago that he doesn't know as much about economics as he should, wants to keep going down the same disastrous path.''

Palin made her Florida debut in The Villages, one of the fastest-growing retirement communities in the country and a treasure trove of Republican voters. President Bush put it on the map when he campaigned here in the homestretch of the 2004 campaign.

But Palin drew thousands more than the estimated 20,000 people that turned out for Bush. A fire rescue official estimated the crowd at 25,000 to 30,000, while the Republican Party of Florida pegged the audience at twice that size.

''The South is Palin Country,'' read a banner trailing from a plane overhead. The Spanish moss-covered trees in the area made it feel more southern than South Florida.

Palin promised etc. etc. etc.

The taste of freedumb

more like this.

Florida's man of the year, Andy Lacasse, if the year is 1596:

State ballot recovers sanity

Florida Supreme Court maintains somewhat surprising stance of rationality. Acknowledged and applauded.

ACLU understandably wary.

Raising the Cain

Finally, an accurate scientific analysis of:

“. . .two quarter-pound stools of alien space shit crashed into a toxic-waste dumpster in Stamford, Connecticut, fucked, and out came their mutilated, blood-soaked carcass of a baby rat-child, Senator Joseph Lieberman.” Centers for Disease Control.

One reason we'll always love Joe

Penile State is about to be Fayzed

there goes the industry...

the four-member Florida Cabinet, acting as the Financial Services Commission, unanimously approved a stricter set of emergency rules that ban people from obtaining mortgage broker licenses if they've been convicted or plead no contest to felony financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering, dishonesty or breach of trust, including extortion, grand theft and embezzlement. Business Week

Herald Trib eviscerates self yet again

The Sarasota paper, "flagship" of the Times group - all that means is it has the largest circulation of a group of weenie papers - announced more newsroom cuts in face of growing mortgage payments on its Main St. White Elephant office building, and a certain lack of interest in its former readership in looking at ads for useless real estate.

Not long ago the Herald webmaster quit after being told, by corporate higher-ups, that instead of being helped to technology used daily by the mother ship paper, the Trib would have to dumb-down its website in order to be cheaper to operate. The site is now looking dumber than ever, and the webmaster, we hear, is headed for the Wall St. Journal. Good luck!

What's more, in the latest round of layoffs, the paper cut its senior staff -- the people who have been there long and cost it the most. Junior folk, it's time to grow an institutional memory, like, immediately.

Grin, Invade, and make them Eat Shit

Ol' shiteatin' grin getting some new ideas:

A Surge on the Homefront?
August 01, 2008 12:48 PM

Source: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/a-surge-on-the.html
ABC News' David Wright reports: Answering a question at the Urban League about his approach to combating crime, John McCain suggested that military strategies currently employed by US troops in Iraq could be applied to high crime neighborhoods here in the US.

McCain at first praised the crime-fighting efforts of Rudolph Giuliani when he was mayor of New York City. Then he down-shifted into an approach that sounded considerably harsher.

McCain called them tactics "somewhat like we use in the military."

"You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control," he said. "And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement." More.

but you can call me scum....

I am a commercial real estate lender and that means that I am trained to assess and price risk. I do not get them all right, but I get enough right that I have been successful over the years. But I am trained to deal with certain types of risks. For example, K-Mart has announced that they are walking away from 335 major retail leases across the country, a significant potential loss for the properties and developers involved, but the commercial real estate industry is prepared to deal with this type of event.

The problem is that we have no training in how to assess and price the risk of terrorist acts. I can assess and price the risk of a K-Mart bankruptcy, or I can buy insurance against the risk of a building burning down. But if I cannot assess the risk, and borrowers are unable obtain insurance, I will not do the deal, particularly when various government officials continue to state that the chance of another terrorist attack is 100%.

That was a mortgage banker, one Kieran Quinn -- current Chairman of the Mortgage Banking Association -- in 2002, testifying calmly secure in his craft, his competence. Testifying before a House subcom on the topic: "How Much are Murkins @ Risk Until Congress Passes, heh, Terrorism Insurance Protection?"

Mr. Kieran Quinn was quite sure that his training enabled him to deal with certain types of risks. Things like terrorism, tho, not he, therefore the need for the insurance, l'assicuranza.

Only now we see, from the perspective of Mr. Paulson, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and with a splendid view of a nearly non-finite passel of Fuckin' Mooks that the story is not that. The very people who were trained to assess risk but not terrorist acts are now beginning to develop a certain Osama-ish flair, having -- despite their best efforts to manage the risk (to their own professional stature) -- succeeded in demonstrating that they themselves in fact were the real and present terrorist threat - a far more serious one than the imaginary and real enemies of Mr. Bush - that they confessed to being incompetent to assess.

National Bullshit

If the economy or the nation go into a tailspin, one could look here for a clue as to why, how, and who:

Congress Passes Housing Bill

By MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN
July 27, 2008 4:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate lawmakers on Saturday overwhelmingly passed a broad package of housing legislation, hoping to send a calming message to financial markets and voters amid the ongoing deterioration of the housing market and a growing number of bank failures.

Meeting in a rare weekend session, the Senate voted 72-13 in favor of the bill, which includes tax breaks for homeowners, a $300 billion program to refinance loans for struggling borrowers, and a dramatic rescue plan for embattled mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Other provisions include an increase in the federal debt limit to $10.6 trillion and long-sought reforms to the Federal Housing Administration.

"For Americans out there today with distressed mortgages and worried about their economic future, we hope this legislation could be the first piece of good news in a long time," Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), told reporters after the vote.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said provisions in the bill dealing with Fannie and Freddie, including the creation of a new regulator, were especially important.

"These components are orders of magnitude more important to turning the corner on the housing correction," Mr. Paulson said in a statement.

The vote completes congressional action on the legislation, which is the result of months of political wrangling and negotiations between the House and Senate, Treasury Department, and other federal regulators. The House voted 272-152 to pass the bill on Wednesday.

It will now be sent to President George W. Bush, who the White House has said will sign the bill despite voicing earlier misgivings about certain provisions of the legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said Saturday the bill could reach the White House on Monday.

The White House has made no plans to have an official signing ceremony for the bill, though most major pieces of legislation typically receive such treatment. When asked about it Saturday, Mr. Dodd said he was disappointed and said a public ceremony with lawmakers and Mr. Bush would "reassure the American people we're on the job trying to make a difference."

"I think that's a moment you don't want to miss by just having a secret, closed-door signing ceremony as if you didn't do it," Mr. Dodd said. "I think it's more important for him to stand up and be heard on this and express through that office the importance of making a difference for people."

The presumptive presidential nominees from both parties weighed in following the Senate vote, though neither Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) nor Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) attended the vote.

McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said in a statement that "relief for struggling homeowners is overdue."

In a statement released by his office, Mr. Obama said the bill would help prevent hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and "provide critical support to communities that have been hard hit by the housing crisis."

Policymakers hope the wide-ranging bill will help invigorate a housing market that continues to collapse and has roiled financial markets worldwide. Data released in recent weeks reveal that home sales have hit a 10-year low and home prices continue to decline around the country. Importantly, the number of homeowners facing foreclosures continues to rise, raising the specter of vacant homes and neighborhood blight.

Foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac said Friday that 740,000 properties received some form of foreclosure filing in the second quarter, a 14% jump from the previous quarter and soaring 121% from the second quarter of 2007. More breathtaking: One in every 171 households received a filing in the second quarter, and all but five of the nation's 100 largest metro areas experienced year-over-year increases.

The omnibus housing package completed Saturday attempts to deal with the housing crisis on a number of fronts. It includes $180 million for "pre-foreclosure" counseling for cash-strapped homeowners, creates an affordable housing trust fund to increase the supply of rental housing, and would raise the size of loans eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to 115% of the local area median home price, with a nationwide ceiling of $625,000 for loans.

The centerpiece of the legislation is a program of up to $300 billion of FHA-insured mortgages to help refinance cash-strapped borrowers into affordable loans. The program would rely on lenders voluntarily writing down the value of a distressed loan for the homeowner to qualify for the new FHA-backed loan, and in return borrowers would have to share future price appreciation with the federal government.

Lawmakers hope the program will help avert foreclosures, with Democrats estimating it could help up to 400,000 borrowers that now face defaulting on their loans. To encourage lenders to work with borrowers, the legislation also provides some legal protections for mortgage servicers and lenders who modify the terms of loans.

Also included is an emergency plan authored by Paulson over Paulson over the last two weeks to provide a federal backstop for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Hatched in the wake of financial market concerns about the firms' solvency and capital, the plan would expand the $2.25 billion lines of credit the firms have with the Treasury, as well as allow the Treasury to take an equity stake in the government sponsored entities. Importantly, it also gives the Federal Reserve a "consultative" role to work with the firms' new regulator to ensure their safety and soundness.

It also includes tax relief for future homebuyers and current homeowners. First-time homebuyers purchasing a home between April of this year and through June of next year would receive a tax credit for 10% of the value of their home, up to $7,500, while current homeowners who do not itemize their tax returns would be able to deduct up to $1,000 for property taxes.

Other provisions include nearly $4 billion in grant money to state and local governments to buy up and rehabilitate foreclosed homes. Intended to avoid community blight in areas hard hit by foreclosure, the program directs that homes purchased through the program be offered to low- and moderate-income families.

Write to Michael R. Crittenden at michael.crittenden@dowjones.com

Guess where?

From 2000 to 2007, regulators allowed at least 10,529 people with criminal records to work in the mortgage profession. via

No blog was never more aptly named than this...

Want more?

• More than half the people who wrote mortgages in Florida during that period were not subject to any criminal background check. Despite repeated pleas from industry leaders to screen them, Florida regulators have refused.

• Confronted with a growing epidemic of mortgage fraud -- Florida now has the highest rate in the nation -- the number of license revocations declined over the last five years, leaving borrowers at the mercy of predatory brokers.

• During the peak of the housing boom, the Office of Financial Regulation ignored a state law enacted in 2006 that compelled it to perform nationwide criminal background checks on applicants. That failure allowed people convicted in other states -- and in federal court -- to peddle loans in Florida without any scrutiny.

• Regulators allowed at least 20 brokers to keep their licenses even after committing the one crime that seemed sure to get them banned from the industry: mortgage fraud.

''I knew we had a problem. I had no idea how bad,'' U.S. Sen. Doofus Mel Martinez, Ripyouoffagain-Fla., said when told of The Miami Herald's findings.