Free Republic

Anyone heard this bit of audio? Economic crisis President Bush mortgage speech 2002 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9viaJatpo

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Besieged subprime lender Countrywide Financial Corp. is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for possible securities fraud, according to a news report Saturday. The Wall Street Journal report said the probe focuses on whether Countrywide's management misrepresented the quality of its mortgages in routine securities filings, which may have led investors to overvalue the loans it then securitized into more than $100 billion worth investment vehicles between 2004 and 2007. Banks and lenders lost billions of dollars over bad bets on mortgage-backed securities and analysts estimate they will continue to stanch the bleeding well...

TORONTO -- Canada's most dramatic confidence vote in decades loomed Thursday, one that will either defeat Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government or allow him to implement his widely popular federal budget. Martin called for the vote on his budget to deal with a weeks-long paralysis in the House of Commons, where the opposition Conservative Party has obstructed business by making repeated motions to adjourn and demands that Martin resign. The vote will stand as a test of confidence in Martin's 11-month government. If the budget fails, Martin has said he will dissolve Parliament, triggering general elections, likely in June....

Basketball star Kobe Bryant filed a formal answer Tuesday to Katelyn Faber's federal lawsuit, denying he raped her more than a year ago in Eagle County. "The plaintiff consented to all actions taken by Mr. Bryant during their encounter on June 30, 2003," the answer said. Bryant, who is married, has admitted having sex with Faber at the mountain resort where she was an employee and he was a guest, but he has insisted it was consensual. Bryant's answer agreed with Faber that, after he checked in, he asked her for a tour of the hotel. But it denied Faber's...