I painfully caught a few phrases, here and there, of Obama's speech telling about the withdrawal of a few troops from Afghanistan. The painful parts were all total bullsh!t phrases about how the US, a law-abiding nation, has been waging a war against non-law-abiding ones. I thought I was going to puke!!! I had a hard time telling whether he was trying hard to keep a straight face. No, I didn't listen to every word....it is really sickening to listen to such idiocy and lies. Obama may be more eloquent of speech than Bush but the lies and inanities are still there. The "law-abiding" US committed war crimes in invading sovereign countries based on lies with an underlying agenda of less than admirable goals. Obama did not turn the tables on the Republican war criminals and became one himself when he not only went along with the criminal war crimes of slaughtering innocent civilians but he increased our presence by sending in even more troops and escalating the wars into other countries like Pakistan and Yemen. I wonder what ultra-right-wing think tank wrote Obama's speech? I don't know...did Obama mention the "evil doers"?

The fact is that it is election time and Obama has to make a little bit of a showing that might convince some of his waning supporters to vote for him. No telling what he'll do if he is actually reelected....but it is a very good bet that he will continue to do Wall Street's bidding and continue to screw the people. It is also a fact that we lost the war in Vietnam (although the MIC really did win but the taxpayers lost big time...and back then...the tax rate for the rich was much higher than it is now)....as we are losing the war in the Middle East. We created a costly mess and ensured future enemies and those who started the wars, the neocon/neoliberals in the MIC, only profit highly from it....leaving the people to suffer the costs. Obama and our other politicians claim that we have made gains and have won...but the fight is not yet over (such a patently false spin of reality). We have really lost...rather the majority of taxpayers have lost....and this very costly war, like the one in Vietnam, showed that we cannot win a war waged against insurgents, especially urban wars, who are inspired to kick out the criminals who illegally invaded and occupied their countries.

Do you bank on-line? Do you think the bank's security is good enough? After all it is all encrypted right? Do you think that the bank is responsible for the security of your money? Think again people....

"Judge rules bank is not responsible for hacked accounts

Patco v. People’s United Bank: The inside story

Patco Construction Company’s case against People’s United Bank (the owner of Ocean Bank) states that in May 2009, it was discovered that hackers were stealing $100,000 per day from the company’s online Ocean Bank account. Apparently, the company’s password had been stolen via a malicious email that placed trojan malware onto a Patco employee’s computer.

Nearly $600,000 was gone before Patco noticed and informed Ocean Bank. The bank was able to block $240,000 in transfers, but told Patco the rest was irretrievable. Patco’s lawsuit accused the bank of “failing to implement best security practices,” i.e. requiring customers to use multi-level authentication. Ocean’s initial defense was that because the online user identification and password matched, it had done its share of maintaining security.

While Judge Rich agreed that Ocean Bank could have done more to maintain security, he concluded that the law does not require banks to use the best security methods available. As Ocean’s security was similar to other online banks, Rich deemed that Patco was responsible for not securing its log-ins."

http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2011/06/08/ocean-bank-online-fraud/

I listen to Security Now podcasts and the last one once again mentioned the recent ruling against Patco in favor of the banks. Steve Gibson, of Security Now said that he has gone to his banks and made explicit requests that no wire transfers be made on his accounts until real security, and accountability of the banks are reality. Go to http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
and either read the transcripts or listen to the podcast #305 (Ghostery)...the part about the Patco/Ocean Bank ruling was somewhere around 40-45 minutes into the 76 minute podcast.

Whether we stop the destruction of our oceans depends basically on one thing: stopping the republicans, because the goal of the people who are running the current republican party is the destruction of increasing numbers of bodies of water, fish and other marine species, trees, land plants, animals, microbial life in the soil, clean air, clean water, clean food, and poor people. And they want everyone to be poor except for them. Only a few of them realize and fully approve of the fact that if they get what they want, this entire planet will be incapable of supporting any life at all. The rank and file republicans are simply so filled with fear, bitterness, hatred, and rage, that they want "religious" reasons to destroy things and not care about the results of their actions, and as these republicans see the results of their anti-life program, they turn to being democrats or progressives. But the people who run the republican party are what the Dalai Lama called "destroyers"- people whose entire purpose in life is to destroy life, people whose only joy comes from harming and killing others.

You look at George Bush's statements, where he called other people freedom-haters, traitors, and terrorists, and the inescapable conclusion is that the terms he applied to non-republicans, are actually and very specifically the terms that most accurately describe the republican party. Republicans are totally transparent in that whenever they accuse anyone else of doing something or being something, you are safe in assuming that it is the the republicans who are doing those things and being those ways. They call democrats "elitists," when if you look at the actions of the republicans it's quite clear that the republicans are elitists. They call Muslims "terrorists," when if you look at the actions of our own American military overseas, it's quite clear that while there are Muslim terrorists, the American military is basically a terrorist organization that spreads fear and hatred throughout the Muslim world and even here in America. They call people who don't want war, traitors, when in fact America has engaged in illegal and therefore traitorous wars for decades. They call people who don't want war freedom haters, when in fact it is the wealthy republicans who hate freedom and who have been urging our government at every turn to infringe upon our freedoms and our constitutional rights.

Thank you so much Tom for reminding people how the media is so bias against Muslims when it comes to terrorism or crime incidents.

Me and Bobbi Magee written by Kris Kristofferson. I' give all of my tomorrows for a single yesterday, holding Bobbi's body close to mine". One of tje best lyrics ever. Also wrote Sunday Morning Comin' Down sung by Johnny Cash

The issue is that raising taxes make PROFIT more expensive. Businesses and wealth hoarders will re-invest when tax rates rise thus increasing money being placed back into the economy and increasing demand. Anyone telling you that tax giveaways to billionaire welfare queens driving Bentleys create jobs is surely a fool AND lying to you.

Although lowing specific taxes on specific transaction can lower barriers of entry in specific areas, tax breaks are always detrimental in the long run.

Before his statement gels too much, I have to point out that Ken Klukowski is wrong that the Supreme Court didn't have original jurisdiction over Marbury v. Madison. Article III, Sec. 2 says, "In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction." A justice of the peace is a public minister.

Although, maybe because Marbury hadn't actually received his commission, that might be a loophole. (Was there a lower court that Marbury could have gone to?) Anyway, Klukowski said the the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction only when a state is involved, and that's obviously incorrect.

Well, a slight hooray for Max Baucus, but it would be great if he cared about people outside his state.

I worked on asbestos testing of dirt from Libby, MT, connected to the lawsuit, so the topic holds special meaning for me.

The "model" the IMF uses has not worked, ever! They need to read Paul Krugman!

@Barliman: You're absolutely right. I'm British and spent 3 months in Australia last year. The Australian health care is OK but not quite as good as the British - we need never think about money no matter what happens to us - no signing up to health plans and reclaiming money, no co-pay, etc.. (We love our National Health System btw).

@delster: I sympathize 100%. I worked in USA for 2 years (2005 - 7) and I know your case is repeated for others on a vast scale.

@2950-10K: It's happening in UK too.

@Street Punk: It's a romantic, old fashioned view of Ireland. I'm a natural born underdog supporter but the Ireland question needs to be studied to be understood. I don't have sympathy for past British actions (we've always been too big-headed and overbearing with our empire building) but can't support the IRA either (99.999% of the current Irish generation are now against them).

My wife recently had Cancer. We had AETNA health insurance and felt with a their flagship policy we had nothing to worry about. My wife is now 62 years old but when she was 27 years old she had melanoma. Her recent claims were denied due to pre existing illness. We almost lost everything die to health care bills over two hundred thousand dollars. Providence forgave over 75% of the bill due to hardship. My wife was narrowly accepted into the Oregon Health Plan. I am self employed and sole income. Yes this is a remarkable system and I hope every hard line Republican reads this blog to see how successful it's working. I've been in business for over twenty five years and I've learned you better love your business enough to just be in it. If your in it just for profit you'd better get out because your already doing something counter productive.