rickjump1

There is no shortage of adoptable children here in the US. There may be a shortage of healthy, white babies in particular (and healthy babies in general), but there is not a shortage of children, even healthy children, waiting to be adopted. "More than 100,000 children in the United States are in foster care waiting for permanent families." -Adoption.com They can even browse a photolisting of available adoptable US children here. http://photolisting.adoption.com/ Color is no issue here. One young couple has been trying to adopt a couple of brothers in Hati. Now they are worried about their safety after the hurricane. The other couple in their 50's want to adopt a child from Guatemala. This couple have a special needs son at home. I'll show them the link. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

QuoteShe is currently being groomed by the corrupt political machine in AZ. < She will be briefed not unlike other VP candiates. She has no grasp of anything not Alaskan. < You mean something like Chicago politics? Even the media conservatives realize she is a pathetic, pandering choice for VP. < Not everyone liked Bush's choice. But once again Obama is proven right..."people get disheartened and vote their religion and guns" < Yes, a lot of us do when a presidential candiate has the potential of taking away both. But here is the really scary thing. Her lack of foreign policy knowledge is terrifying because...McCain's foreign policy advisors are the same idiots that brought us the Iraq war. google Robert Kagan. If McCain goes down the "advisors" will have us in Iran in minutes because the hockey mom doesn't have a clue.

Why of course I'm serious. Democrats elected a peanut farmer/governor. Why not a hunter-gather/governor from Alaska? Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

As long as they were cowboy hats. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

The vice presidential Republician candidate has more experience than the "neighborhood organizer" who is running for president and she was not groomed by a corrupt political machine. I think you should say what a joke both tickets are (excepting Sarah of course). God help us. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

That is the MAIN reason I like her.

George looks like Harpo Marx. The Abe Lincoln 5 dollar bill would be more appropriate as he freed people of color. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

Fans from both parties know she's not a lawyer (no insult intended) nor a professional politician. All this sweetheart has to do is pretend its high school career day as a politician and remember her lines. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

How many of the 90,000 victims became pregnant? Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

I think you would be surprised at the number of grandparents raising grandchildren; my electrician for instance. I know of two couples that I attend a small church with who are adopting out of country because of a shortage? of children. Both already have at least one child. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

::golf clap:: Zero for zero. And how many children have you adopted Rick? Or, perhaps a more fair question: "What contributions do you make to foster or help underpriviledged/unwanted children?" Or is 'life' no longer your concern once it's outside of a woman's body? Keep it classy. .jim Ok, I'll keep it classy. Funny you should ask, but my first daughter was adopted. 2 years later my wife had a baby daughter. After my adopted daughter's failed marriage, she dropped off her 6 month old daughter whom we have to this day. We have guardenship over this 5year old who just started kindergarten. Her mother remarried, had another girl, but we still have her daughter (they talk a couple of times a week). end of story Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

You don't mean the life of a child in a botched abortion do you? I thought the abortionist murdered the live baby by sucking its brains out. Perhaps you can find a few fundamentalist "right to life" women who will be surrogate mothers for the fetuses sired by rapists when the rape victims are forbidden to get abortions. Seriously, I would think surrogate mothers could be found. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

Interesting: tricycle gear, lots of room for the crew, and looks like it will fly. What is VNE. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

And I'd be willing to bet that they've even saved a few lives. You don't mean the life of a child in a botched abortion do you? I thought the abortionist murdered the live baby by sucking its brains out. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

I wrecked a new Baracuda 2 weeks before going to Vietnam the first time. My next new car was a VW bug that I still miss. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

Thursday, July 10, 2008 Consumer Warning Network Report: FSU Profits Off of Student Credit Card Debt TAMPA, Fla., July 10, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----The Consumer Warning Network has just released a report exposing secret details of a marketing agreement between Florida State University and credit card giant Bank of America. At the same time Florida State University is warning students in a slick video to avoid the "credit card monster," the university is funneling their names and addresses to credit card giant Bank of America. The bank then uses that information to market credit cards to those very same students, as part of an "exclusive" deal allowing the bank to use FSU's official colors and symbols. Consumer Warning Network has obtained a copy of the contract between the Seminole Boosters, FSU's athletic fundraising arm, and Bank of America. The deal, which FSU endorsed in a side letter, was supposed to remain confidential. Under the secret terms of the agreement, FSU pockets a piece of every dollar charged by students and alumni under the program, with a guarantee of more than $10 million over 7 years. That money goes directly to the private Seminole Boosters, FSU's athletic fundraising arm, which among other things helps pay the multi-million dollar salaries of coaches like Bobby Bowden. The card marketed to students by Bank of America has less favorable terms, like higher interest rates, than its non-student credit cards. Students on campus were troubled by their school's role in the deal. "It's like they're setting us up for failure," said Yari Alpizar, a freshman from Marathon, Florida. "I don't think they should be allowed to do this. It's an invasion of privacy." FSU is not alone. Bank of America has acknowledged it has arrangements similar to the one with FSU with more than 900 participating schools and colleges. Congress and some State Attorneys General are investigating these relationships between credit card companies and Universities. To read the entire report and review the supporting information visit: www.consumerwarningnetwork.com . The Consumer Warning Network is website launched by a team of former Federal Prosecutors, Investigative Journalists and former FBI Agents working together to expose fraud and educate the public on consumer issues. SOURCE Consumer Warning Network http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com [url] Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

You should see some of the cars our junior officers drive.... Give an example. Better than the CO's ? Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

The students who run up credit card debt are not mature enough to choose the military as a career. Part of an ROTC student's training does cover financial responsibility for an officer. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

Nothing wrong with recruiting on campus for ROTC. It gives students a chance to serve their country and a career. As for credit card companies signing up students and allowing them to get in debt before they graduate while knowing not all will be employed after graduation (lucky you), I think it's predatory. Of course the credit card companies don't care who defaults because the paying customers will pick up the tab. Kind of reminds me of the our government and me the taxpayer. Bill, you may have missed your calling in the credit card business. I sure agree with you about handing over personal information. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

To repeat myself again: Both "contribute" to the mess. This bigoted anti Clinton rant was quoted from the NY Times. Please don't tell me the NYTs is to conservative for you.[url] The New York Times | 1999 | By STEVEN A. HOLMES 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.'' Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

Well, you must be proud of yourself. Being enrolled in ROTC, the only offer I got was my branch choice before graduation. It was that or being drafted. From the beginning, I have not targeted college students; just the credit card companies that prey on students before they enter the work force. Apparently you think this is fine. I disagree. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

It's a sign of the times when universities and colleges give out names and addresses to credit card companies who suck up students with no source of income. Our educational system failed these kids in simple economics and then baited them. Forcing banks and loan companies to give loans to people whose only source of income is welfare and public assistance is another way of preying on dumb people with the offer of a "free" house. That's a lot of comingling going on there. You have NO evidence at all that students default on their credit card bills any more than anyone else does, NOR do you have evidence that students go on to be on welfare or public assistance more than anyone else, NOR do you have any evidence that loans to low income people are the primary cause of the financial meltdown. In fact, the available data suggests that they are NOT. I don't believe I said anything about "students" going on welfare or public assistance. Having raised two daughters I can say that during high school they had friends with credit card debt. Don't know how or why a high school kid had a credit card, but they did. College was even worse with kids holding a large amount of debt with a credit card IN ADDITION TO STUDENT LOANS. As for giving home loans to people whose only source of income is welfare and public assistance, it's not fair to expect the American taxpayer to pay for these loans, and now ask us to foot the bill because they failed. Did I say that these 2 things caused the meltdown? Nope, but they sure contributed. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

OK, sorry to keep you waiting QUOTE........"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. " NYT 1999 NY Times Article Revealed True Cause of Current Fannie Mae Crises By P.J. Gladnick September 25, 2008 - 16:25 ET Excerpted from Newsbusters at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/25/1999-ny-times-article-revealed-true-cause-current-fannie-mae-crises This is probably an article that the New York Times wishes it didn't have in its archives because it reveals the true culprits behind the current Fannie Mae meltdown. You will find "uncomfortable" truths in this September 30, 1999 article by Steven A. Holmes starting with the title, "Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending," that you won't find in current editions of the New York Times (emphasis mine): 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. Get that? Pressure by the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans by lowering its credit requirements. ''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.'' That would be the same Franklin Raines whom the Washington Post identified as a mortgage and housing adviser for the Obama campaign until that newspaper told us not to rely on its own reporting. We return you now to the article that the New York Times wishes didn't exist: 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. END OF QUOTE. [url] Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

As far as I know Dresden had minimal tactical or strategic value and the bombing was indeed for pure terror effect (and revenge for Coventry in 1940). I'm not sure there's any evidence at all that terror bombing of civilians affects dictators very much. Even in Britain, which was not a totalitarian dictatorship, the 1940 London Blitz just reinforced the nation's will to fight on. . As for dictators, two nukes brought the end of the war with Japan. Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

That would indeed be a bad idea. That's probably why banks and lending institutions have never been forced to offer such loans. Where did you get the idea they had? Ask Bill Clinton Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.