Free Republic

Welcome to 'Panthers Stadium' (UPDATED)By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 7/17/12 7:38 AM EDT National Democrats have repeatedly touted their stand against taking corporate money for their convention in September, and so it was striking to see two emails from the DNC host committee referring to the Charlotte venue where President Obama will speak as "Panthers Stadium." It's the place where the Panthers play, but it's actually called Bank of America stadium. A recent email from the host committee signed by former Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile urged people to win a trip to Charlotte for the event, which will wrap...

Our self-described most transparent administration in history is at it again. The folks who claim executive privilege over documents in the Fast and Furious case yet maintain the president wasn’t involved have decided transparency is overrated. The people who meet with lobbyists in coffee shops near the White House to keep unseemly names off the official visitor logs, have decided we don’t need to know who pays for their convention. The Washington Post reports, “In its marketing materials, the party promises that the “people’s convention,”…will be the “most open and accessible ever.” But the names of donors, some of whom...

A Democratic committee chairman overrode his own subpoena three years ago in an investigation of former subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. to exclude records showing that he, other House members and congressional aides got VIP discounted loans from the company, documents show. The procedure to keep the names secret was devised by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. In 2003, the 15-term congressman had two loans processed by Countrywide’s VIP section, which was established to give discounts to favored borrowers. Issa exposed Towns’ coverup by issuing a second subpoena, which disgorged all of the records: The effort at secrecy was reversed...

RIYADH: A US court has convicted Pete Seda, cofounder of the Riyadh-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in Oregon, of tax fraud and conspiracy, while another US court has dismissed the foundation's co-director Soliman AlButhi in the 9/11 terror-funding case filed by the families of victims of the attacks. "Such judgments indicate a sharp contrast in the American position and explicitly explain how Islamophobia is on parade in the US," said Thomas H. Nelson, the attorney representing AlButhi.

Now that the Democrats are gearing up to hold their September convention at the stadium, they can’t even bring themselves to type the words “Bank of America.” You know, because corporations are totally greedy, especially when they’re associated with the bankster one percent. For the record, Bank of America Stadium has never been called “Panthers Stadium.” Bank of America purchased naming rights in 2004, replacing L.M. Ericsson Inc. as the corporate (gasp!) sponsor. Prior to that, the facility was known as Carolinas Stadium. Yep, can’t have President Obama associated with an icky corporation when he delivers his keynote address at,...

TAMPA -- A man enters a Clearwater strip club. He leaves three hours later thinking he's spent $600. A few days later he checks his credit card account and learns he was charged $50,000. There's no punchline or joke. That's what Lokesh Simon James said happened to him after a March night spent at the Bliss Cabaret, 3860 Ulmerton Road.

Your account information will now be accessible to call center workers in the Philippines. Bank of America, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.America's second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the Philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the Filipino press. The move, which includes a portion of the bank's customer service unit, comes less than three years after Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout.Roman Romulo, deputy majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, bragged to the Manila Standard...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Morgan Stanley (MS) shares have had a rough 2012, underperforming those of major competitors by so large a margin that the bank is now lagging even perennial post-crisis losers Citigroup(C) and Bank of America(BAC) according to certain metrics. Morgan Stanley shares have risen just 4.69% through Tuesday, well behind Citigroup, the next-worst performer among the largest six U.S. banks with gains of more than 19% so far in 2012. Bank of America, still the top performer in 2012 despite having lost more than 15% in the past month, has seen its shares rise more than 40%...

Fortunately I sold all the B of A stock I had in Mid 2007 prior to the collapse. I never bought their stock but the shares I had in a small well managed regional bank Barnett was bought out by Nations and when they and B of A merged I ended up with that awful company. Read the May 14, 2012 , Article in Rolling Stone magazine by Matt Taibbi: "too crooked to fail" if you have the time or inclination. This travesty below is not a one off or just politically correct decision - they are inept and corrupt...

An Arizona-based firearms company says it is being treated unfairly by Bank of America for the type of business it does, a claim the bank denies. Kelly McMillian, operations director of the McMillian companies – which makes rifles, ammunition, gunstocks and related firearms equipment – said a bank vice president explained at a meeting last week that he no longer wanted McMillan's business because the companies manufacture firearms. “This has nothing to do with our financial position,” McMillian said Friday. “He said the bank needed to assess the risk of doing business with a firearms manufacturer.” McMillian said he was...

[UPDATE: In an email late this evening, Ryan McMillan has confirmed the validity of this story.] When the Bank of America was founded back in 1904, no one ever thought that it would one day truly be the Bank of America. As in (partially) government owned. Just like Government Motors, Chrysler, the entire student loan industry and more, the federal government’s insatiable grasping tentacles are woven throughout one of the world’s largest commercial bank and brokerage operations. And as has always been true, if you take the king’s shilling, you’re damned well going to do his bidding. The folks...

ST. PETE, Fla. - Customers who come to the St. Pete Bank of America on Third St. S will be greeted by protesters telling them to take their money else where. Occupy St. Pete Elders will host a demonstration at the bank Friday to urge customers to ditch big corporate banks for credit unions or small community banks instead.Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_south_pinellas/st_petersburg/occupy-st-pete-elders-demonstrating-against-big-banks-at-bank-of-america-today#ixzz1oe2XTspU

Earlier in the week, we posted the criticisms leveled at Bank of America by the former head of their Merrill Lynch brokerage unit, Lyle LaMothe. LaMothe said he grew weary of the emphasis on the "goals of the bank rather than specific needs of Merrill's brokers and clients" and that many brokers were dissatisfied. Following that post, we received a series of emails from a source close to the company backing up LaMothe's claims that Merrill Lynch brokers are increasingly unhappy at Bank of America. The source said that "many brokers are saying they are not happy with management and...

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman sued three of the nation's largest banks over a private national mortgage registry system, contending it has resulted in a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent foreclosure filings. The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, names units of Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo Corp. as defendants, as well as MERSCorp., which owns and operates the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, known as MERS. In his complaint, Mr. Schneiderman alleges that MERS has effectively eliminated the public's ability to track property transfers because those...

Well, isn't this rich? And I do mean rich. President Obama, man of the people, will deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. -- so that Democratic Party fundraisers can reward big donors with skyboxes and other lavish perks. As usual, the White House and its allies are trying to camouflage naked partisan money-grubbing in populist garb. "I think this would be a great opportunity to have tens of thousands of North Carolinians and others outside of the state to see and participate in the convention process," one North Carolina Democratic Party...

Picture Emerges of Teen Suicide Pilot CHARLES BISHOP: To some, he was a smart, humorous student, which makes his suicide flight all the more incomprehensible. By CURTIS KRUEGER, KATHERINE GAZELLA and ED QUIOCO © St. Petersburg Times published January 8, 2002 ----------- Charles Bishop was a teacher's dream. He read Shakespeare in class, pulled together a middle school literary magazine and enjoyed a good game of flag football. Friends and family members who knew him best described Charles as a patriot. The teen who flew an airplane into the Bank of America building, carrying a note sympathizing with Osama bin...

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure. Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said. Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side. The fuel did ...

Part of article from St. Pete Times after Sept 11. "Robert C. Cooper, president of National Aviation Flight School and Aviation Rentals, stressed that the extra security cannot be done at the expense of those of Middle Eastern descent. "I don't want to get involved in profiling," he said. "I have faith in my government. I have to work on the belief that my government has basis to allow them into the country and show them proper respect." end of article. Cooper is head of National Aviation Holdings that owned A/C. Many Florida flight schools train Arab students. Wonder if ...

Attorney General Eric Holder said a federal probe found discrimination against at least 200,000 qualified African American and Latino borrowers from 2004 to 2008, during the height of the housing market boom. He said that minority borrowers who qualified for prime loans were steered into higher-interest-rate subprime loans.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking into contracts between the government-sponsored enterprises and mortgage servicers to determine the best step to take when a servicer fails to perform well. In the third quarter, Fannie Mae bought back mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America covering $74 billion in unpaid principal balance, according to its third-quarter financial statement. It was 11% of the Fannie loans being serviced by BofA.