Mark Wilson Has Been Busy

The Florida legislature is passing $124 million in tax cuts. The cuts will go to benefit corporations. The cuts will go to benefit corporations.

(Gov. Rick) Scott is pushing a key element in the package that would increase the corporate tax exemption from $25,000 to $50,000, excluding 3,770 companies from the 5.5 percent tax and reducing state revenue by $29.4 million. The governor wants to phase out the corporate tax, which accounted for nearly $2 billion in state revenue last year.

Scott and other Republicans are billing this as a jobs bill. Florida has one of the lowest corporate tax rates at 5.5 percent. The result is the state has been running deficits shortfalls, which resulted in budget cuts. The corporate taxes have not produced jobs, as can be seen by the chart below.



Florida's unemployment is higher than the national average. There is no evidence that corporate tax cuts produce jobs. It is merely a talking point for Scott and fellow Republicans.

This legislation has Florida Chamber of Commerce president Mark Wilson. A man who represents everything that is wrong about Florida politics.

Wilson lobbied for the the Polk County Sunrail line. The only reason the project was approved because the line was near JD Alex Alexander's business Atlantic Blue. The property value of Atlantic Blue would increase greatly.

Alexander and Scott didn't approve the Sunrail line over high-speed rail over fiscal concerns. The high-speed line would cost $280 million and create 23,000 job. The Sunrail line will cost the state $901 million. State and Polk county would have to pay the cost for any Sunrail accidents caused by CSX. The deal is stupid beyond words.

Wilson's latest goal is gerrymandering the redistricting process. The most powerful man in Florida politics can't be bothered with subtlety. Wilson believes he is above the constitutionally-mandated fair districts law.

"Anybody who understands politics looks at a redistricting and says, 'This is a chance to reset the table,' Wilson said.

Many Floridians were illegally thrown out of their homes with forged foreclosure documents. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been accused by for employees of stonewalling an investigations of questionable foreclosures by banks. Florida's foreclosure courts do not review the documents, before forcing a homeowner to vacate his property. Apparently, the foreclosure process is too slow for Wilson.

"As our economy tries to recover, we recognize there is a lot of pain in the foreclosure process but the delay in the foreclosures is drawing out that pain throughout the entire economy."

Wilson can help you with your pain by making the chances that you become homeless greater. What a nice guy.

Occupy Tampa Saturday Meetings

National Day of Mass Action to Stop a U.S. War on Iran - Hands off Iran!

When: Saturday, February 4

Time: 12:00pm until 2:00pm

Where: Gandy Blvd & Dale Mabry Hwy, then head to MacDill for the march

Several anti-war groups will be present for the march. Occupy St. Pete will be at the march with Occupy Tampa.

Occupy Tampa will hold a public meetings on preventing war with Iran and the the foreclosure crisis this Saturday.

Occupy Tampa Foreclosure Defense Meeting

When: Saturday, February 4

Time: 4:00pm until 7:00pm

Where: 2101 W. Main St., Tampa, FL 33607

Compassionate Conservatism: Rick Scott & FLA Legislature Edition

Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald politial reporter Mary Ellen Klas has an article implying that Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida legislature are ignoring the problems of foreclosures, homelessness and unemployment. Scott and Republicans haven't ignored the situation. They have worked hard to make the problems worse for working class Floridians.

Scott publicly told the Florida Bar that he wants to make foreclosures faster for banks to process. There have been numerous cases of homeowners illegally foreclosed upon because of fraudulent legal documents. The Florida legislature set up the infamous "rocket docket" courts with judges who do not even read the foreclosure paperwork. In Rick Scott's world, the foreclosure industry is overregulated.

A true patriot, Scott vetoed $12 million for the National Veteran's Homeless Support Group. The funding would have been used to provide housing for veterans. Scott also vetoed $1 million in legal aid funding that goes to help to homeless and victims of domestic violence.

Scott signed into law a cut in unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20. To receive unemployment, one must submit to a drug test. The drug test part of the law has been struck down by the courts.

The question is exactly whose life is suppose to get better under the bill that Scott has signed into law? Scott gives lip service about caring. Can anyone cite a policy from Scott that has helped Floridians in need?

Occupy Foreclosed Homes

Occupy Tampa plans on protesting at homes up for foreclosure.

OPEN THREAD: Anyone know someone in Tampa who is about to lose their home to foreclosure? Tell us what day the eviction squads are coming and we just might Occupy Your House! We are the 99%, and so are you. Solidarity.

There have been numerous media reports on illegal foreclosures. Matt Taibbi reported on Florida's "rocket docket" foreclosure court. Homeowners aren't given a chance to defend themselves. Judges to not read the court documents before foreclosing on a home. The rocket docket courts were designed by the Florida legislature to make it easier for banks to foreclose on homeowners.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune found that the law firm David J. Stern used bogus documents to foreclose on homeowners. The rocket docket court. After the story broke, Stern resigned as CEO David J. Stern Enterprise. Stern's employees have filed a lawsuit being fired without proper notice.

Former Florida Attorney General' Office employees Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson accused AG Pam Bondi of firing them to shut down an investigation of a foreclosure mill. Former Assistant Attorney General Andrew Spark accused Bondi of having a cnflict of interest with the foreclosure firm Marshal Watson.

On the other hand, since Bondi has taken over, the 30 or so attorneys at the Economic Crimes Division have filed a total of approximately only 15 lawsuits. In fact, the 15 lawsuit figure is being charitable, since two were shared among several states filed in distant courts...

In fairness, many of Spark's complaints go back to Bill McCollum's tenure. However, it is easy to see why Occupy Tampa wants to proptest foreclosures.

Did Pam Bondi Stop Investigation into Illegal Foreclosures?

I have wrote extensively about how homeowners have been illegally removed from their homes by fraudulent attorneys and the "rocket docket" courts with judges that don't even bother to read legal docements. Don't expect anything to change with Attorney General Pam Bondi in office.

According to former Assistant Attorney General Theresa Edwards, she was fired from the office for pursuing banks too aggressively. In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, Edwards claims that she and colleague June Clarkson were in the middle of investigating the state’s foreclosure mills when they were fired.

At the time they were let go, Edwards and Clarkson were collecting evidence of legal malpractice and fraud engaged in by banks and loan servicers.

The investigations had originated under Attorney General Bill McCollum. But once Rick Scott and now-Attorney General Pam Bondi were elected, the focus and the spirit of the Attorney General’s Office shifted.

If Edwards' allegations are true then we have an Attorney General who is willing to destroy criminal investigations to protect powerful corporate interests. This is horrifying.

When Satire Meets Reality

Unfortunately, this Onion article really isn't fiction.

The Onion - Thousands Of Abandoned, Foreclosed Homes Threatened By Florida Hurricane

"Those who haven't already lost everything to the housing-market crash are urged to evacuate their homes immediately," said Robert Menken, head meteorologist at the National Weather Bureau. "That should be about 10 or 12 of you. Everyone else, please stay where you are, probably on the couch of some in-law who lives near Atlanta."

In preparation for the hurricane's landfall, the Emergency Broadcast System issued a number of safety warnings early Sunday. Due to expected high winds and torrential rain, citizens are advised to keep their windows and doors boarded up, as they pretty much have been through most of 2009.

Don't worry. Everything will get better when the Florida Chamber of Commerce succeeds in getting zero percent corporate income taxes.

Rick Scott Wants Faster Foreclosures

Breaking: Gov. Rick Scott made an appearance to Florida Bar conference. Scott want to do away with foreclosure courts. There have already been problems with the infamous "rocket docket" court judges not reading documents and wrongly foreclosing on homeowners. The law firm of David J. Stern is under investigation and has been caught forging foreclosure documents. Stern handled most of the foreclosures for banks in Florida. Matt Taibbi reported on how sloppily the foreclosure courts are managed by retired judges.

Obviously this is not criminal court and the presumption of innocence concept is not in effect. But I don't see a judge simply waving through every stack of bogus foreclosure papers that comes through his courtroom door as meeting any kind of sane evidentiary standard either. The mere fact that a bank is a bank, and a bank's laywer is a bank's laywer, and that both of them together claim that this or that homeowner is in default -- that has no legal meaning whatsoever, as far as I can see.

The judge's point here is that it's not up to him to mount a defense strategy for homeowners in default. But the idea that it is beyond a judge to open a file and simply check to make sure the names and dates are right -- particularly given the widespread coverage of this phenomenon, when we know that virtually 1005 of these securitized mortgages lack proper paperwork and will inevitably involve fraudulent or doctored filings upon foreclosure -- that is appalling.

What Scott is proposing is allowing banks to foreclose on homeowners without any legal recourse for homeowners. The Florida legislature set up the rocket docket courts to be extremely friendly to banks. Apparently, people aren't losing their homes fast enough to Scott's liking.

Side note: how does Scott think he is going to rebuild Florida's economy if homeowners are wrongly foreclosed on? Is Scott's idea of rebuilding Florida similar to turning parts of the state into ghost towns. Scott should take note of what happened to Michigan in the 80s. People left Michigan. Florida's tax system can't fund i9tself without growth and tourism. Does Scott know who are going to buy goods from businesses when there are no consumers?

Jamie Dimon Made $21 Million Last Year

The Financial Times reports that American and European banking CEO pay went up by 36 percent in 2010. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, made $21 million in 2010.

JPMorgan Chase had to pay a $722 million fine to the SEC for attempting to brides for bonds scandal. JPMorgan Chase tried to bride politicians in Jefferson County, Alabama. JPMorgan Chase also hired inexperienced young people to deal with mortgages. The young workers were labeled the "Burger King kids."

And even when banks did begin hiring to deal with the avalanche of defaults, they often turned to workers with minimal qualifications or work experience, employees a former JPMorgan executive characterized as the “Burger King kids.” In many cases, the banks outsourced their foreclosure operations to law firms like that of David J. Stern, of Florida, which served clients like Citigroup, GMAC and others. Mr. Stern hired outsourcing firms in Guam and the Philippines to help.

The law firm of David J. Stern filed false foreclosure claims. The actual David J. Stern is under investigation and is a rather mysterious man.

Ask yourself if Jamie Dimon skills as a CEO is worthy of $21 million.

Homeowners Strike Back Against Bank of America

Via Raw Story: Maureen and Warren Nyerges paid for their house in cash. They never had a mortgage. Bank of America still tried to foreclose on their home. The couple fought Bank of America in court for a year and a half. The judge eventually dropped the case and ordered Bank of America to pay Nyerges' $2,534 legal fees. Bank of America didn't pay up. The Nyerges decided to take action.

The Nyerges' attorney, Todd Allen, showed up at the bank, along with moving trucks and deputies, demanding that they be allowed to seize property to pay off the debt the bank owed to the Nyerges.

"Having two Sheriff's deputies sitting across your desk, and a lawyer standing behind them, demanding whatever assets are in the bank can be intimidating," said Allen. "But, so is having your home foreclosed on when it wasn't right."

After an hour-long standoff, the bank cut the Nyerges a check. Allen called the turned-tables situation "sweet justice."

Maureen and Warren Nyerges should have never even had their house foreclosed on. The defunct law firm David J. Stern is under investigation for falsifying foreclosure documents. Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi wrote about Florida's "rocket docket" court with judges that don't read foreclosure documents. How can there be any doubt that banks are illegally kicking people out of their homes.

No Mortgage Principal Relief For Florida

The Florida law firm of David J. Stern was caught falsifying foreclosure documents to force homeowners out of their homes. The "rocket docket" foreclosure courts, set up by the Florida legislature, was found to have judges that did not review documents before evicting homeowners. Forbes reports that Florida has led the nation in reported cases of mortgage fraud two years running. Banks have been illegally kicking people out of their homes and are now trying to settle with the federal government.

Yet the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and FDIC have entered into a consent decree with the 14 largest mortgage lenders that illegally foreclosed on thousands of homeowners. The deal includes no fines or criminal penalties. Banks must hire outside consultants to review all foreclosures from 2009 and 2010 and identify those who lost homes or were denied loan modifications due to fraud by the banks or firms they hired to assist with the foreclosure process and repay them. Does the government seriously believe that consultants who rely on the banks for their paychecks will find any home­owners who were victims?

The answer is no. The defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen signed off on Enron CFO Andrew Fastow's money laundering hedge funds. Andersen feared losing the highly profitable Enron account. Anderson changed its name to Accenture. Countless people have been made homeless because of the big banks illegal foreclosures. The Federal Reserve's and the Obama administration's response is to file no criminal charges. It is sickening.

A bipartisan group of state attorney generals are working to provide reduction in the mortgage principal owed by homeowners. This would provide relief to about 2 million Florida homeowners. CNBC reports that Florida has the seventh highest foreclosure rate in the country.

43 state attorney generals have reached bipartisan census on banks lowering mortgage principals. One of the seven against making banks comply to this agreement is Florida's Pam Bondi. Hysterically, Bondi claimed that lowering the mortgage principal would encourage homeowners to default. What Bondi doesn't add is that the agreement would allow states to be able to fine and have other penalties against banks.

Bondi's decision to not sue BP is proof she values protecting corporate interests above the people of Florida. Bondi could care less how many people are thrown out on the streets because of fraudulent mortgages practices by banks. Floridians have an Attorney General just as horrible as its Governor.

What Eviction Looks Like

Bob Norman interviews Scarlett Rabalais. She chained herself to a poll after she was evicted from her motel. Rabalais is the owner of Ask Me Inn on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

All of that is gone now. Rabalais this morning was sitting on the side of her property by the sidewalk, chained to a power pole support wire. She and her motel guests were being evicted by Landmark Bank after it foreclosed on her, leaving her hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

​Rabalais -- who held a sign with the words "Landmark Bank Is a Liar" -- says the bank not only refused to work with her but also manipulated her into losing the property. I've left a message for comment from Landmark Bank Vice President Peyton LaCaria that has yet to be returned.

Out of her complicated legal battles, Rabalais owes Landmark Bank $950,000. This is depressing and happening across Florida.

Why Obama Doesn't Care About Foreclosure Crisis

Remember this campaign promise by Barack Obama?

"I will change our bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to stay in their homes," Obama told supporters at a Colorado rally on September 16, 2008, the same day as the bailout of AIG.

Can anyone name a financial law Obama signed that protected homeowners from banks? Didn't think so. Obama mentioned the the foreclosure crisis zero times in the State of the Union speech.

JPMorgan Chase & Company was a company that hired inexperienced people to deal with mortgages. These so-called mortgage experts were known as the "Burger King kids."

The issue gained new urgency on Wednesday, when all 50 state attorneys general announced that they would investigate foreclosure practices. That news came on the same day that JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that it had not used the nation’s largest electronic mortgage tracking system, MERS, in foreclosures, since 2008.

That system has been faulted for losing documents and other sloppy practices.

Obama recently hired JPMorgan Chase & Co, Midwest chairman, William Daley to be the new White House Chief of Staff. Does anyone believe Obama intends to reform the mortgage system by hiring an executive from a highly incompetent mortgage company? News flash: Obama doesn't care if you lose your house. Obama talked about mortgage reform on the campaign trail as a cynical ploy to garner votes. Hiring Daley is Obama giving the finger to the homeowners of America.

David J. Stern Update

I blogged about the law firm of David J. Stern being caught falsifying foreclosure documents. Foreclosure judges are more concerned with speeding the process than reviewing the documents. This has allowed for homeowners to be illegally evicted from their homes.

After the story broke, Stern mysteriously fired his employees. Since Stern has one of the largest foreclosure law firms in Florida, the courts have been at a standstill. Former employees of Stern's are now suing. A total of 700 employess are suing.

The lawsuit claims Stern was suppose to give his employees 60 days notice. The WARN Act requires that Stern file that he gave his employees 60 days warning. Stern files termination paperwork, much like foreclosure documentation. The paperwork's dates are fudged.

Stern is the CEO of DJSP Enterprises.

As employees were being let go, DJSP Enterprises filed a WARN notice Nov. 9 saying that 435 people were being terminated between Nov. 4 and Nov. 12.

"They belatedly filed a document that purports to be compliant with the WARN notice [requirement]," said attorney Gary Farmer, who filed the lawsuit along with Dawn Rapoport and Chandra Parker Doucette. Farmer said the notice is "worthless" because employees were not given 60 days' notice ahead of time.

WARN notices are required for any for-profit or non-profit companies with 100 or more employees.

In related news: Stern resigned as CEO of DJSP Enterprises. DJSP is short for David J. Stern Enterprise. The company was a mortgage and real estate processing offshoot for Stern's law firm. Stern's law firm is now being investigated by the Florida Attorney General's office.

DJSP stock is at 47 cents. DJSP and Stern's law firm are folding. Expect Stern to file for bankruptcy to get out of paying claims from the lawsuit.

Update: DJSP defaulted on a $12 million line of credit set up by Bank of America. I am not sure if DJSP owes the entire $12 million or only money set up from the BOA credit account. Money and interest is only paid from money withdrawn from line of credit accounts. I am uncertain if DJSP took out $12 million or the line of credit account held that amount of money.

More on Rocket Docket Scam

I blogged about the "rocket docket" foreclosure courts in Florida. There is good indication that the David J. Stern law firm forged foreclosure documents. Judges in Florida foreclosure courts have been known not to review foreclosure documentation before evicting a homeowner. The problem became public thanks to Matt Taibbi's reporting in Rolling Stone.

Apparently, the problem has garnered the attention of the Treasury Department. Phyllis Caldwell, Chief of Homeownership Preservation Office, testified before the Senate Finance Committee.

The reports of "robo-signing", faulty documentation and other improper foreclosure practices by mortgage servicers are unacceptable. If servicers have failed to comply with the law, they should be held accountable. The Administration is leading a coordinated interagency effort to investigate misconduct, protect homeowners and mitigate any long-term effects on the housing market. While Treasury does not have the authority to regulate the foreclosure practices of financial institutions, nor to ensure that those practices conform to the law, it is working closely with agencies that do have such authority.

The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, a broad coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies that brings together more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorneys Offices, and dozens of state and local partners, is working to ensure that foreclosure practices are thoroughly investigated and any criminal behavior is prosecuted. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has been reviewing servicers of loans it insures for compliance with loss mitigation requirements. Additionally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has directed all large national bank servicers to review their foreclosure management processes – including file reviews, affidavit processing, and signatures – to ensure that the processes are fully compliant with all applicable state laws. The other independent banking regulatory agencies are doing similar reviews of institutions under their jurisdiction. Attached to my testimony is a fact sheet providing more detail concerning the activities of the coordinated interagency effort.

I hope Caldwell cracks down on these bogus foreclosures. We could be talking about millions who were thrown out of their homes because of shady legal practices.

The Florida Foreclosure Scam

Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi wrote about Jacksonville's "rocket docket" foreclosure court in Jacksonville, Florida. The judges do not read the dockets. The judges are only concerned with going through as many as 25 foreclosure cases in an hour. Obviously, the banks love this court. The retired judges in the rocket docket court do not examine if the homeowner has been swindled in a fraudulent deal.

The foreclosure courts were created by the Republican-controlled Florida legislature. The retired judges staffed to the court are not familiar with current financial and foreclosure laws. The foreclosure hearings were not open to the public. There is a good question on if this honors the spirit of the Florida Sunshine laws. Judge A.C Soud threatened to hold attorney April Charney in contempt for bringing Taibbi into a hearing. First amendment advocates wrote a letter to Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady urging that foreclosure hearings be made public. The Jacksonville foreclosure court was moved to a public courtroom.

The Sarasota Hereld-Tribune reports a David J. Stern law firm did illegal foreclosures.

There, on the foreclosure documents open to everyone, is the evidence that at least one law firm's employees repeatedly broke a state law in a rush to push cases through the courthouse so banks could seize people's homes.

The evidence -- missing signatures and misdated documents that could have not been signed on the dates specified -- can be found on an important document called a "mortgage assignment." The paperwork helps prove a lender has the legal right to seize a property.

This wasn't in the Jacksonville rocket docket court. Taibbi reports the problems are widespread in the Florida foreclosure courts.

Obviously this is not criminal court and the presumption of innocence concept is not in effect. But I don't see a judge simply waving through every stack of bogus foreclosure papers that comes through his courtroom door as meeting any kind of sane evidentiary standard either. The mere fact that a bank is a bank, and a bank's laywer is a bank's laywer, and that both of them together claim that this or that homeowner is in default -- that has no legal meaning whatsoever, as far as I can see.

The judge's point here is that it's not up to him to mount a defense strategy for homeowners in default. But the idea that it is beyond a judge to open a file and simply check to make sure the names and dates are right -- particularly given the widespread coverage of this phenomenon, when we know that virtually 1005 of these securitized mortgages lack proper paperwork and will inevitably involve fraudulent or doctored filings upon foreclosure -- that is appalling.

Foreclosure cases across the state are stalled after David J. Stern has been dropped by it's clients. Stern has laid off so many staff that they don't have attorneys to show up to foreclosure hearings with clients they still have.

"What we're seeing is multiple cases where it's set for hearing with the Stern firm, but they don't send the paperwork like they're suppose to, either to withdraw or for summary judgement (of foreclosure)." said Chief Judge Thomas McGrady. "So we've had court time set aside that they request, but they didn't bother to call us and notify us. They just don't show up."

Something fishy is up. The real David J. Stern lives in a $15 million mansion and could not be reached for comment by the St. Petersburg Times. I would not be surprised if Stern leaves the country before an investigation starts.

Where is Rick Scott and the Republicans in the Florida legislature on this. These people complain about the need to investigate ACORN. Floridians were illegally kicked out of their homes and Republicans are silent. Why aren't the few elected Democrats in Tallahassee making a stink about this.

Remember...

Bow in reverence to the dogma of free market capitalism. Society will be safe and more prosperous when the government stays out of the market, because there's certainly no regulation needed here.

At JPMorgan Chase & Company, they were derided as “Burger King kids” — walk-in hires who were so inexperienced they barely knew what a mortgage was.

At Citigroup and GMAC, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on home foreclosures was outsourced to frazzled workers who sometimes tossed the paperwork into the garbage.

And at Litton Loan Servicing, an arm of Goldman Sachs, employees processed foreclosure documents so quickly that they barely had time to see what they were signing.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of the loan,” a Litton employee said in a deposition last year. “I’m not a loan officer.”

Nope, no regulation needed here.

Known as "Burger King kids" at some banks, the new hires were brought on and tasked with dealing with foreclosure paperwork—a 250-step process—with little training or understanding of the housing industry. Other banks outsourced to firms who were outsourcing, having employees in Guam and the Philippines process paperwork. The result was "chaos." "The girls would come out on the floor not knowing what they were doing," one former employee said. "Mortgages would get placed in different files. They would get thrown out. There was just no real organization when it came to the original documents."

The system is perfect, and everything is fine.


See? Now just toodle along please, communist scum -- but not before you give us another bailout, becasue we need that. And we don't need regulations. Thank you.

Crist on Morning Joe

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Gov. Charlie Crist went on Morning Joe. Crist proclaims the real estate market has rebounded. Obviously, Crist missed the memo about Florida being second in the nation in foreclosures. The People's Governor will make up whatever narrative that best suits his worldview.

Crist stood by his statement that Obama will be a one-term president.

CRIST: Well, I see it because I think back in '76... when Jimmy Carter got elected. I think people were in a mood for change. Clearly, they were. We were coming off the Nixon years and Gerald Ford had inherited that. The people wanted a change from what they had seen before and they had elected then Go. Carter president.

I think the same thing existed last year, in our political climate. I think that people wanted change. Obviously, President Obama, to his credit, and to his campaign's credit, tapped into that in a very effective way and was elected. I think change is what people wanted. I don't think this kind of change is exactly what they expected. I think government has grown too much, too fast, too far and I think there is maybe a little buyer's remorse by some.

Crist runs on about the people wanting more freedom. Who exactly does Crist think Obama is locking behind doors? Crist just rambles on with Republican talking points.

Crist claims unemployment is coming down and that he lowered taxes. Unemployment went up during his term from 3.3 percent to 10.7 percent. Crist does not have a legacy to run on. Crist will create a new storyline and will drone on with conservative bumper sticker slogans.

Florida's Rising Foreclosures.

The September unemployment rate for Florida hit 6.6 percent. Florida's unemployment rate is higher than the national average. In May of 2006, the Florida unemployment average was 3.3 percent. The rising unemployment created massive foreclosures.

Florida had the second-highest rate of foreclosures in the nation in September, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

One in every 178 Florida housing units received a foreclosure filing last month. Foreclosure filings were reported on 47,956 Florida properties during the month, an increase of 44 percent from September of 2007.

The foreclosure numbers were a driving factor in counties that leaned for Barack Obama.

The analysis compared a county's economic data with its presidential election results. It showed a correlation that for every 1 percent of Florida households in foreclosure in September, McCain lost 16 percentage points to Obama.