The credit score (FICO) has gotten out of control. It was meant to assess risk when lending someone money. That’s it. It’s now morphed into assessing risk for renting apartments and getting a job. Two things a lot of people desperately need. The funny thing about FICO is that it failed miserably at what is was born to do.

Sometimes I just don’t understand why there is always a financially struggling college kid, a low wage worker, or a middle class citizen that feel as though they have to go out of their way to defend tax breaks for the rich. At least once a month I find one person that wants to argue against their own interests and it continues to baffle me.

With economic turmoil widespread across the country and the globe, urban communities and cities find themselves dealing with disturbing unemployment numbers. This has everyone brainstorming solutions to deal with high unemployment rates in cities such as Baltimore.

During a conservative radio show with Bill Bennett last week, GOP Rep. Paul Ryan agreed with a caller that the big banks should once again be regulated by Glass-Steagall.

And now comes the greatest obscenity of all: the Iraq War. With this monstrosity of an endeavor now coming to a long overdo end, the final price tag has far exceeded the trillion-dollar mark, and that’s not counting the impact it had on the economy.

The middle class is being crushed right now and in so many words she was saying that the people that appreciate a good education and did the right thing have a price to pay. I am sure that everyone would agree that there is no mystery and that price to pay is no job or an underpaying job when you graduate from college.

It is no secret that the Republicans want President Obama to become a ‘One Term President.’ They are trying to stifle the economic recovery in order to make the slow recovery his ‘Waterloo.’

I now realize that it is the most powerless, the most voiceless of our population who have the biggest stake in this movement. They are the ones who’ve lost the most; their homes, livelihoods and their families. And they must battle daily to maintain their self respect. It is only fitting and extremely satisfying that they are the ones who have stepped forward and are assuming these roles in our own little corner of the occupy movement.

The facts are as clear as the nose on your face. Not only has this bastard-child of an economic scheme been responsible for the bulk of the U.S. debt over the last three decades, which the vaunted defenders of the faith fail to even acknowledge, it has been responsible for the biggest upward redistribution of wealth in this country since the 1800s – the time of the great land barons.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Romney criticized President Barack Obama for not allowing banks to foreclose on American families fast enough. When asked what he would do to jump-start the ailing housing market, Romney said, ‘Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.’

The $447 billion package of tax cuts and new spending failed by a vote of 50 to 48, short of the 60 votes it needed to advance in the 100-member Senate.

Who are the real heretics in this country? The people challenging corporate power and greed or the people who have made Wall Street their god?

As we watched the Tea Party grow and become somewhat less than civil in some cases, there is one thing that was never present from the left. There was not outright instance of subterfuge that included efforts to infiltrate the party, their gatherings, nor they leadership groups. Even despite cases of totally un-American behavior such as spitting upon a Congressman as he proceeded to the Capital Building for the Heath Care Bill vote, to town-hall plants to disrupt open communication between Democratic representatives and their constituents, there was no infiltration nor subterfuge.

As I started my quick run through of morning New shows, I was completely brought to ‘alert’ by something that is nothing shy of intriguing. CNN reported that the job numbers for July and August 2011 have been adjusted to reflect higher numbers. (the previous link include actual jobs data for July, August and September).

As America and Congress continue to squabble over who is to blame for the current financial crisis, a closer and more balanced analysis of the situation reveals that there is plenty of blame to go around.

From 2009 – 2010 the poverty rate in Baltimore City increased 20%. The poverty rate in Baltimore City is now 25.6%, which is 15% higher than the poverty rate for Maryland and 10% higher than the United States of America.

The more I think about the economy, and the mess it’s in, the more convinced I have become that neither side of the political spectrum has a clue about how to fix it. Both seem hopelessly locked into a narrative that, on its own, will not solve the country’s systemic problems.

Right there, two simple sentences in a comedy film, nailed the entire human experience and wrapped it into one rather neat and sad little package, complete with a bow and ribbon. Give somebody a paycheck – especially somebody who hasn’t had one in a while – and they’ll believe anything you say.

Terrorists come in many colors, from many different ethnic backgrounds, and from many different fundamental religious backgrounds.