WHAT

Just WHAT?! Pasco couple fear losing home to foreclosure for paying mortgage too early:

Seventy-year-old Sharon Bullington may lose her home because she paid her mortgage a week early.

That may not make much sense to the thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgages in Florida. But it seems it does to Bank of America, which has filed to foreclose on Bullington and her husband, James, 78, who is terminally ill.

"It's like death to me," Sharon Bullington said, her voice quivering on the phone Friday. "My husband is bedridden. It's almost more than I can bear."

...When James became ill, the couple encountered financial difficulties because of high medical bills. The couple asked Bank of America to modify the loan.

...Sharon Bullington made the January payment on Dec. 23, and the bank accepted the money, according to court records. ... In March, the bank kicked the couple out of the modification plan.

Bullington pleaded for help in a June letter to Bank of America president Brian Moynihan and U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor.

One of Moynihan's aides, Ana Olivera, told Bullington the foreclosure could not be stopped. She wrote in a two-page letter that the payment due on Jan. 1, 2011, had been made in December.

"In accordance with the Trial Payment Letter dated December 15, 2010, it indicates that if you are not able to make each payment in the month in which it is due, you will not be eligible for a modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program," the letter said.

Olivera told Bullington she could avoid a foreclosure by selling the home in a short sale or by signing it over to the bank. The letter said the bank values Bullington's business and strives to provide exceptional customer service.

"I understand that you may be disappointed with our final resolution and appreciate the opportunity to clarify this matter," Olivera wrote. "While this may not be the response you were hoping for, I trust I have addressed your concerns."

Olivera, a California-based employee, declined to comment about the case when reached by the Times on Friday. Bank of America replied in an e-mail: "We are going to re-review the Bullington's case."

I should fucking hope so.

Again I ask: Anyone else got a problem with the Obama administration proposing profit-making opportunities for corporate owners on foreclosed homes while this sort of dodgy land-grabbing by financial institutions is ousting people from their homes?

I sure as shit do.

This weekend, I watched Inside Job, Charles Ferguson's film, which deservedly won the Oscar for Best Documentary last year, about the causes of the economic crisis. I highly recommend it. The control over the US (and, by extension, global) economy, and the control over people's lives, with which corporations have been empowered is breathtaking.

And the abdication of responsibility of the US government to protect its citizens, in favor of subsidizing the profiteering of international conglomerates which have absolutely no patriotism, no loyalty to this country, no affinity for its people, no allegiance of any sort to anything but for-profit exploitation, is amazing and terrible to see in all its naked grotesquery.

We have truly been abandoned by the people "we" elect to represent our interests.