It's stories like this that make me urge money-strapped people to walk away from underwater mortgage. Imagine kicking someone out of a house they own outright over a $600 water bill!

Banks have no compunction whatsoever about screwing you if they can. So if you live in a state where you can walk away from your underwater mortgage without consequence, why on earth should you feel guilty? Shouldn't banks have to suffer for all the fraudulent things they did to pump up the cost of housing?

Rather than collect the overdue money they are owed, many local governments are selling tax liens. Buyers range from behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, and some regional banks and law firms, to small-fry investors lured by late-night television commercials promising quick riches. Investors generally bid in an auction for the right to collect delinquent taxes and other municipal debts on property owners, sometimes by paying only a few hundred dollars. When owners can’t pay, investors can pick up property at bargain prices.

It can be a good deal for everyone except the property owner. Selling the debts to investors can help governments efficiently ease budget woes without having the added expenses of debt collection, foreclosing and being a landlord.

Investors, meanwhile, can rake in hefty profits. That’s because they can tack on fees and steep interest rates, which can amount to 18 percent annually in Baltimore.

In Valentine’s case, legal fees and other charges climbed past $3,600–nearly 10 times her original bill.

Investors purchased an estimated $30 billion of real estate tax debt held by governments across the countryin 2009, double the amount a year earlier, according to the Florida-based National Tax Lien Association. Altogether, 29 states and the District of Columbia can sell tax lien debt to investors.

Lien sales in Baltimore have nearly doubled since the housing bubble of 2006. On Monday, the city sold 12,689 liens – a probable record. Properties ranged from boarded-up shells and vacant lots to row homes in gentrified neighborhoods and some commercial buildings.

City records show that one in five of these liens on properties is for unpaid taxes or other municipal bills amounting to $1,000 or less. If Baltimore’s 2009 tax sale is any indication, hundreds will stem from delinquent water bills; there were 666 such liens last year.

This is just plain crazy, because all the local government does is displace the problem. You've taken a relatively stable homeowner and pushed them out onto the street, where they will inevitably end up consuming much more in federal, state and local social services than it would cost if the city simply forgave the debt.

Not to mention the sheer immorality of it. Not that they care, of course. After all, we're running government like a business!

Perfect timing for CNN. Hugo Chavez gets cut off as he berates the U.S. for the genocide of our indigenous Americans, and CNN switches to live coverage of the G20 protests. The anchors are too dumb to realize the police are using sonic cannons, instead referring to it as "an annoying siren."

Our America grows more authoritarian by the day, and the election hasn't changed that. Citizens are seen as the enemy, corporate interests are sacred and the police are the ultimate authority, answering to no one. They deploy weapons developed for war zones against civilian populations - and nothing happens. The media? Don't make me laugh.

PITTSBURGH — Hours after the Group of 20 meeting ended, the protests did not.

The police here arrested 110 people on Friday night, according to the mayor’s office. They dispersed hundreds of students milling near the University of Pittsburgh with pepper spray and smoke canisters in a scene reminiscent of the previous night’s disturbances on the first day of the economic summit.

The group, estimated at close to 500 people, gathered near Schenley Plaza around 10 p.m., with students saying they were drawn because they were angry over how the riot police treated students at Thursday’s gathering. Some students said their curiosity was piqued by a university message warning them to stay off the streets.

The police used a loudspeaker to announce that the plaza assembly was unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse about 11 p.m. Soon afterward, plumes of white smoke could be seen rising near Bigelow Boulevard and officers beating cadence on plastic shields with long batons marched down Forbes Avenue, driving back students, onlookers and journalists. A block north, as people scattered, officers fired projectiles at a young man riding a scooter down Fifth Avenue, knocking him to the ground and arresting him.

It was the second consecutive night of turbulence in the bustling streets surrounding the university, where crowds of bar-hoppers were largely displaced by fleets of police vans, armored vehicles and phalanxes of officers wearing helmets, padded vests and shiny plastic shin guards.

On Friday morning a flier had circulated instructing people to gather again at the university to protest Thursday night’s events. The police then had rushed towards students in a dormitory courtyard and squirted pepper spray after black clad protesters dashed though nearby streets, smashing the windows of a University of Pittsburgh police sub station and several restaurants. Those protesters had also ignited a dumpster, which they rolled into the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Oakland Avenue before fleeing into the university campus.

Dillon Snyder, 18, a freshman at the university, said he was retreating from clouds of white smoke on Thursday, when he was struck above his right elbow with a kind of projectile fired by police.

On Saturday, he said his elbow was still sore, as he reflected on the events on his campus over the past two nights.

“There was really no reason for such extreme action,” he said. “The guns, the rubber bullets and the dogs probably did more to incite people.”

Oh, and watch Sean Hannity berate these protesters, who turn the table on him: