Meet a self-described “bank terrorist”

Revolting (h/t: Moonbattery):

Bruce Marks, founder of the leftist Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, makes a good living shaking down banks for loans to deadbeat borrowers that he thinks are entitled to homes.

Last month, he and about 100 urban protesters stormed Fannie Mae’s headquarters, demanding it stop foreclosures on subprime houses — the same homes his group pressured Fannie to fund.

As usual, the bullying tactics worked: Fannie Mae is now reviewing every foreclosure, while increasing the number of mortgages it restructures by lowering interest rates and extending loan terms to make payments more affordable. The government-backed firm guarantees some 30% of the nation’s outstanding mortgages.

Marks founded Boston-based NACA last decade to fulfill his warped sense of the American dream. He thinks owning a home is a right, not a goal. And he thinks every American should have a house — even those who can’t pay for one.

Marks, who proudly calls himself a bank terrorist, has extorted billions of dollars from Citigroup and other large banks to subsidize uncreditworthy borrowers in the inner city, where he accused the banks of “redlining.”

In 2004, for example, he threatened to blow up a merger deal between Bank of America and Fleet Bank by complaining to regulators that the banks weren’t making enough loans to minorities under the Community Reinvestment Act. The banks, in turn, paid him off with $6 billion in mortgage commitments.

The nonprofit NACA uses such ransom money to fund its own mortgages to high-risk borrowers without requiring down payments or good credit. Marks considers such underwriting requirements “patronizing and racist.”

He boasts that 99% of the mortgage applications taken through NACA are approved, giving new meaning to the term “easy lending.” Listen to NACA’s pitch:

“Come to NACA, and regardless of how bad your credit is, regardless of how little you have saved, we will work with you for as long as it takes, until you are prepared for a mortgage better than what the wealthiest, most connected borrowers get.”

This tripe, unfortunately, is an all too common indicator of the liberal POV when it comes to anything, whether it be buying a home, a car, paying for your college education, having a decent healthcare plan, and a job. You’re owed it. If you’re a black person, Latino, or a female you’re “owed” because you’ve been perpetually “oppressed.” If you don’t fit in any minority category, you’re owed because there are people out there who make more money than you do for various reasons, and damnit – that just isn’t “fair.” Anyone more successful than you “owes” you what you didn’t earn on your own. It’s a way of trying to “level the playing field” by punishing success and rewarding mediocrity. That way we’re all “the same.” The more people who believe this, the better it is for the Democrat party. After all, what’s the point in working hard and getting ahead if in the long run you owe a substantial portion of your earnings to the feds so they can, in turn, “spread the wealth” around and pay for everyone else’s college education, healthcare, failed mortgage, etc?

At what point does it stop? At what point will the left say “enough’s enough”? When it’s 60 and 70% of a person’s income? Answer: It’s never enough for arrogant “progressives” who want to “progressively” tax you more and more because they think they know how to handle your money better than you do. It’s never enough for “community organizers” like Bruce Marks – and on a certain level President-elect Barack Obama. It’s never enough for Democrat “leaders” like out going DNC Chair Howard Dean, who is an open supporter of Socialism – not that you’d know it by reading any US papers. When you believe that you have all the answers already, you don’t bother asking the necessary questions (case in point). This is the same leftist mentality that helped enable the current financial crisis we see this country in now – a mentality that was, sadly, rewarded at the ballot box two Tuesdays ago by a majority of voters, many who apparently didn’t know any better.

As if this wasn’t depressing enough, wait til you read this Business Week piece on subprime loans. The headline? FHA-Backed Loans: The New Subprime.

Barack Obama’s not even taken office yet, and already I’m concerned as to whether or not I’ll have any hair whatsoever left on my head by the end of the year.