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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (60748)	3/8/2009 11:00:27 AM
From: lorne	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224729

'Joe the Plumber' suing over snooping into his files Friday, March 6, 2009 3:08 AM By Jonathan Riskind THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH dispatchpolitics.com WASHINGTON -- The Toledo-area man who became famous in the 2008 presidential race as "Joe the Plumber" is suing three former Ohio officials, saying that they violated his privacy. Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, who got his nickname from GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain after challenging Democrat Barack Obama's tax policies, filed a lawsuit yesterday in U.S. District Court in Columbus. Wurzelbacher says his constitutional rights were violated when three officials in the Democratic administration of Gov. Ted Strickland, including Department of Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley, looked up private information about him in state databases. In addition to Jones-Kelley, he's suing Fred Williams and Doug Thompson. The lawsuit was filed for Wurzelbacher by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch and Cincinnati-based attorney David R. Langdon. It seeks unspecified damages. Wurzelbacher said at a news conference yesterday in Washington that he spoke out against Obama and campaigned for McCain because it was an "opportunity to help the country." He said the notoriety has left him unable to find work as a plumber. Jones-Kelley resigned last year near the end of a monthlong unpaid suspension for mining state computers for confidential information on "Joe the Plumber." The Strickland administration fired Thompson, deputy director of child support. Williams, assistant agency director, resigned effective Jan. 31. A report by Inspector General Thomas P. Charles found that Jones-Kelley approved the database checks for no legitimate government purpose. The checks came the day after McCain repeatedly mentioned Wurzelbacher by his nickname in a televised debate with Obama on Oct. 15. Charles found that Williams and Thompson participated in Jones-Kelley's authorization of the checks and that Thompson later directed an employee to lie about them. That staff member reported the incident to Charles. The actions drew outrage across the country after The Dispatch broke the story. The paper also reported that Jones-Kelley had used her state computer and e-mail to assist the Obama campaign, providing names of potential Dayton-area contributors. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, "No American should be investigated for simply asking a question of a public official." Judicial Watch gained attention in the 1990s after filing more than a dozen lawsuits against President Bill Clinton and his administration. Jones-Kelley's Columbus attorney, H. Ritchey Hollenbaugh, declined to comment. Dispatch reporter Catherine Candisky contributed to this report.

To: TideGlider who wrote (60748)	3/8/2009 9:25:23 PM
From: lorne	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224729

TideGlider... One would think that after 9/11, the cole, the embassies etc etc. that islam would NOT be making advances in the free world..certainly not in The United States of America...but it appears there are advances. just amazing! Minn. state agency offers Islamic mortgages LOADING Mar 08, 2009 bismarcktribune.com MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - For many Minnesota Muslims, it's been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. To help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants, the state's housing agency has launched a new program offering Islamic mortgages. Islamic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one's family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Muslims, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo. Nawawi Sheikh is one of them. The Somali-American said he and his wife just couldn't go against their beliefs, even if it meant giving up their dream of owning a home. Still, he grew tired of moving from one rented apartment to another. "One thing I hated was moving. I don't like to move all the time," he said. He has no plans to move again anytime soon. Sheikh is the first home buyer to get a loan through the state's New Markets Mortgage Program. That's because, program manager Nimo Farah said, he has all the makings of a successful homeowner. "I had lots of applications, but he's the first one, because really, he was ready. He has been working at the same job for quite a while; he took care of his credit; he had the right size family, and he had all his documents together," she said. "He was basically ready to go." The program is targeted at low-to-moderate income families. Qualified applicants have to complete first-time home buyer education classes. The goal is to help Muslim home buyers build wealth and reap the benefits of home ownership. Here's how the mortgage, known as Murabaha financing or "cost plus sale," works: The state buys a home and resells it to the buyer at a higher price. The down payment and monthly installments are agreed to up front at current mortgage rates. The deal is identical to a thirty-year fixed-rate loan, except there's no additional interest, because the higher up-front price factors in payments that would have been made over the life of a traditional mortgage. A handful of private banks and lending institutions offer Islamic mortgages in the U.S., but Minnesota Housing is the first state agency to offer such a product. The program is the brainchild of Hussein Samatar, director of the African Development Center in Minneapolis. "The process is different, but the outcome will look the same," Samatar said. "We wanted to be as conventional as possible, while respecting the tenets of Islam." Samatar, who used to work for Wells Fargo, tried for years to launch Islamic financing. He said the fact that Minnesota Housing has agreed to participate is a nod to the Muslim community's growing economic power. Chicago-based Devon Bank is underwriting the loans for the New Markets program. Devon is one of the largest Islamic lenders in the country. Corporate Counsel David Loundy said he expects the demand for Islamic financing to grow as more Muslims make their home in the U.S. Loundy said Muslims tend to be good risks. "If they worked so hard to get to this country, they don't want to screw it up now that they are here, so they tend to pay their debts pretty promptly," said Loundy. "In addition, you have a population that is religiously and culturally predisposed against having debt, so they want to pay down their debts as quickly as they can." The numbers back this up. In its five and a half years offering Islamic lending, Loundy said Devon Bank hasn't lost a penny, though he admits the recession could make that record difficult to sustain as more borrowers face job loss. But the bad economy is also offering opportunity. With housing prices at rock bottom, officials say the timing couldn't be better to match first-time Muslim buyers with foreclosures that need new owners. Nawawi Sheikh's new three-bedroom south Minneapolis home is a former foreclosure. The African Development Center's Hussein Samatar said there are thousands more potential buyers like Sheikh out there. He said the New Markets Mortgage Program will help the Minnesota Muslims community put down strong roots. "It is great news for the country, and it really sends a great signal that the United States is our country," he said.