Okay… I’m back. After all, they’re cancelling “Jersey Shore.”

Okay, so obviously I had quite a few more things on my list of demands that I didn’t get, but since they have agreed to cancelling of the television abomination known as “Jersey Shore” was high on my list, I feel like a compromise has been reached… and so I’m back this week, tearing into the idiocy that we refer to as our government and political system for all of the right reasons, the foreclosure crisis being just the one in the lead in our race to the bottom.

Did you miss me? I know some of you did because quite a few took the time to write to me and for that I am truly grateful. I have to tell you that I did miss you… all of you.

It all started as a couple of weeks off, something I’ve been doing each summer for the last two or three years, but this time it stretched out to being an entire month off, and sorely needed time off it was. I thought I might take a sabbatical and it turned into a mondical and a tuesdical, as the iconic Pete Seeger once said.

With our daughter being a senior this year, it was time to visit college campuses where we were toured around, while being proposed, pitched and peddled the merits of various institutions of higher learning, from Northwestern University, which is on the banks of Lake Michigan just outside Chicago, to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, which is only a couple miles from California’s Central Coast… and both schools were beautiful by the way.

All were a study in just how inconceivably expensive it has become to become a person growing up in these United States of America. The check at Northwestern comes in at $57,000 a year… PAUSE FOR EMPHASIS… and personally, I’d be fine with them rounding it up to $60k and be done with it. Add it as a “tip” for the presenters… I really don’t care. But calling it $57,000 isn’t fooling anyone into thinking any sort of smaller number than $60k, of that much I’m right darn sure.

Were they to read the amount out loud I’m convinced that many would gasp, if not audibly, then through body language and/or facial expression. Fifty-seven thousand dollars. Plus more for other stuff as well. Some would no doubt laugh.

That’ll make you tingle as a parent, wouldn’t you say? I would and so I’ll be covering some more about that nationwide scandalous situation, you can be sure of that.

But, not to worry, because the foreclosure crisis is only about to heat up into something like round two and I will be right there at its center screaming my head off when necessary, but more importantly I plan to solve this mess, or at the very least be a part of solving it. And taking these past weeks off has helped me crystalize how I plan on doing that.

For one thing, I’m going to be launching state specific pages that will drill down to provide specific solutions to those facing the potential of losing a home to foreclosure. That means that you’ll be able to click on your state and get information you can trust for your specific state… because foreclosure is a state-by-state issue. It’s a national crisis and tragedy, but it’s only going to be solved on a state-by-state basis.

Look for the state specific pages in another week or so. I’ll be starting off with Mandelman Matters for Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington… and from there I’ll be launching Illinois, South Carolina and Florida before heading to New York and the Northeast.

You’ll also be seeing some new logos and portals on Mandelman Matters… for starters Bank of America and Ocwen will be more formally helping me get the job done for homeowners and they’ll be featured and integrated into my blog so that homeowners can get the help they need with me in their corner, but without having to reach me at every step of the way.

You’ll also find Mandelman Trusted Attorneys by state, and you get to know each of them not only through what I and sometimes they write and talk about on podcasts, but also by seeing them on documentary style video segments that I truly hope will make it easier to get to know them as I do… because although no one can tell you the specifics of your case in advance, I can tell you that I trust and rely on those in this group regularly.

Here are my goals for this coming (5^th? OMG) year:

Provide real and effective solutions for homeowners on a state-specific basis, track and report results.
Publish easy to understand guides on all sides of a given issue… yes, quiet title is going to be the first, but others will follow.
Continue to produce podcasts with the leading voices against homeowner injustice in the country.
Remain the place where the facts are correct and nothing gets offered that I wouldn’t offer my mom.
Stay on the leading edge and increase my level of political involvement and establishing relationships with financial institutions that truly want things to be better everyday until this is over.
Try my darndest to keep being a site where in addition to real learning and real help… people keep saying I’m real funny…. or at least marginally so.

So, to everyone that put up with my month’s long sabbatical… thank you… it was very much needed. To those that need me right away, please re-email me so I can see it towards the top… or call me again. I know I’ve been impossible to reach, but that won’t be the case going forward.

And to those that cancelled “Jersey Shore,” I want to say thank you as well. You guys did the right thing, it really was an abomination, and I hope we can be friends in the future.

Paraphrasing a report by EW Weekly.com here’s the answer to the question “Why is MTV ending Shore?

Chris Linn: “We’ve always said we’d do the show for as long as it made sense. We noticed what was going on… and it felt like the right time to bring it to a close…”

Now, I have to concede that I agree with her thinking here, as I’ve chosen to excerpt it anyway, the show made no sense. So kill it. What’s the question?

Maybe… who knows? I’m going to choose to go on believing that it was done for me… one small concession to a man who’s endured. You want to believe otherwise, it’s a free country. Either way, it’s a win for the good guys.

A last word about the politicians who continue to remain largely silent, while I know increasingly losing sleep over what they now see the future holds… please consider the message, “no man is an island.”

Ask not for whom the bell tolls… it tolls for thee. Yesterday’s gone… tomorrow’s not here yet. All that matters is now and you’re welcome over here on the solutions side of this fight at anytime.

And… to those that want to continue the fight… like the man said: I’m still your Huckleberry.

So, let’s get to it then.

Mandelman out.