Gotta nuke something…

Not so. A whale’s mouth is quite open and a whale can certainly swallow a whole person, but it’s not likely to. The baleen is around the perimeter of the upper mouth only, and traps food as the whale expels the water with its tongue. Anyone caught in a whale’s mouth would likely be crushed by the tongue during the water expulsion. Once the whale realizes that there is something pretty big in its mouth, it would probably spit it out. They can’t chew, you know.

The story is referring to the woman who is FILMING as being almost eaten…you guys think the camera was floating on a buoy???

Both the surfer girl AND camera person are well out of immediate harms’ way, so it’s still a prime example of sensationalistic journalism.

“When Whales attack! Blood in the Santa Cruz Harborrrrr of TERROR… Story at 7″

Put the bong down and back away, James.

You’re an idiot James…do you really think one person could do everything the 1% to 99% b.s claims. Besides, if Bush is as stupid as all you lefties claim he couldn’t have done the damage you claim anyway. Banks, corruption, filthy politicians, financial collapses, etc. have been been around or have been happening for for decades. Maybe if you payed attention in school you would know this. Again James, you are an idiot!

GARBAGE JIMBO…

Investors Business Daily dug into Census Bureau numbers and came up with some interesting statistical facts related to Obama’s recent complaint that income inequality between the middle-class and the wealthy has increased over the past three decades.

It has.

It increased most during the Clinton presidency, with the middle-class suffering the loss while the wealthiest saw their income increase by 45% …

And it DECLINED under George W. Bush … and has iINCREASED again — to the benefit of the wealthiest — UNDER THE OBAMA REGIME

Ugh, and I guess Carter’s community reinvestment act which forced the banks to offer loans to people who could not possibly pay them doesnt factor in at all right? Nor Clinton using the DOJ to threaten bank officers with Felony charges and personal fines for the same reason was totally innocent as well? How about “Personal Responsibilty?” Gee, I guess I should be honest to the loan officer when he asks me how much I make because heck, I sure would hate to get a loan that’s way over my income level and end up bankrupt.

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
NY TImes, By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999Sign In to E-Mail

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In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

”Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990′s by reducing down payment requirements,” said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and chief executive officer. ”Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.”

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980′s.

”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
Published: September 30, 1999(Page 2 of 2)Sign In to E-Mail

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”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990′s. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Excuse me, I apologize, you are right. Bush was way too stupid, verging on brain damaged, to pull it all off by himself. He was the mouthpiece run by Cheney and his band of merry criminals. They were responsible for siphoning off as much of the wealth of the country to themselves and their friends as they could manage through Haliburton, banks, etc. Of course he got to strut around and pretend, wreck havoc through misdirected wars, Katrina, etc. The government employees in Washington were leaving in droves, the positions not even filled, because everything he and the Republicans touched turned to ruin. But you don’t care, you just want to WIN, like it’s a football game, re-establish the aristocracy firmly with your feet on the necks of the rest of the people. You will say or do ANYTHING to gain as much control as you can, to siphon off as much as you can, to bring down Obama. The founding fathers roll in their graves. Nixon would be a vast improvement over the destructive, narcissistic, greedy, power-hungry repugs currently in office. Eisenhower would be ashamed, or a democrat. So, print out reams of falsehoods, it doesn’t matter, anyone with an ounce of common sense can see what has happened. There will always be those who would exploit the many hardworking people for the benefit of the few aristocrats, and they will be arrogantly proud of it. So may you get what you deserve, and if you are in trouble financially, thank the Republicans, the proud defenders of the very, very few and the manipulators of the ignorant.

Great whale video!

Jimmy- glad to see the Ivory Tower of Statist Idealism is as a open and accepting as ever. Keep at it, Markist.

“SAUL ALINKSY’S RULES FOR RADICALS #12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”