Iamon lyme: Like Maggie or Bush. I think Obama has more brains then to have another war at the moment. Your military acknowledge that the USA cannot afford logistically to have another war now, or in the future until it pulls out of Afghanistan.

Surely with the technology today regarding satellites, drones and other forms of spying and other 'intelligence' (I'm talking about actual intelligence, not the 'WMD' fiasco type) .....

... Those who can tell, can tell the difference between a nuclear power plant radiation signature and that of a weapon.

I'd hate to see (now that Syria is no longer really a threat) Iran being bombed and that radiation being released into the environment, causing disease, mutation and death (to men, women and children {including unborn.. which I thought were sacred to conservatives}) for years after.

... I don't think Iran has the ability quite frankly to clean up such a mess. We've seen during the later part of the 20th century thousands of children getting leukaemia through 'kids' playing with nuclear 'toys'. That's why we have an agreement not to test nukes above ground.

anyway.. with precision tech the ability to target and kill any launch system is much cleaner. Iran isn't exactly abundant with long range missiles.

The Col: ... Living in Canada you wouldn't know.

The Col: Prescribed by her physician J.R. Reynolds!!

The Col: He'd have been more interesting... Queen Victoria would have voted for him, the royal stash was always full!!

The Col: He's nicer in "Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo bay"...

.... But in that film he smokes......

The Col: So would I... This concept of politicians having to be squeaky clean is stupid.... They are human...or lizards??

Is that too Douglas Adams???

The Col: Joseph Smith... His religion at least seems have been 'blessed' at last by US Christians... Not sure about him though.. Last I heard he was of the Anti-ChRiSt.... A messenger of the devil and all his followers were bound for hell.

Anyone of the Mormon faith was a deluded fool, a Satanist, yada, yada, yada...

... values held gospel are more flexible when it comes to politics. I just wish they'd dump the duplicity.

..... eg, the Tampa Bay lap dancing clubs are gearing up for a quadrupling in custom during the republican conference this year... even to the extent of hiring a well known exotic dancer/porn actress who looks like Sarah Palin.

.... .... mmmmmmm

Iamon lyme: Gore... Gore.... Gore... Gore... Gore.... Gore...

Get it?

The Col: mmm... I can't say I can agree with that, ever since the UK politicians all adopted a standard code of using their hands that is deemed... less aggressive. I think it's more a case of we get what they think we'll swallow, thus the return of immoral "by the book" expenses when the people of the UK said....

"who do you think you guys are?"

"I don't think anyone knows what Romney really thinks or believes, he will basically say whatever that specific audience wants...."

It has been noted by certain commentators that is the case to a degree with all parties. One did state it would interesting to see an atheist be President, yet being from the Judeo/Christian seems to a pre condition... an instant 'appeal' to 70%+ of Americans. That the Republican message is sermoned at churches as God's message.. well.

One day... a moral atheist not bound by 'the people of the book' will get to be Pres... I doubt though in my lifetime.

In his visit to Poland, Mitt Romney praised Solidarity, the Polish trade union movement which helped topple the communist state.

But Solidarity distanced itself from Mr Romney on Monday, saying he had supported attacks on unions in his own country.

Iamon lyme: Are you stereotyping me?

Iamon lyme: Hey.. since when have I been limited to one word answers!! Is this a new conservative board policy restricting freedom of speech for liberals yet again!!

Where is my memo??

Iamon lyme: Jesus attacked those who abused devout people.

N' as "no rebuttal".. Is that why Al Gore keeps being used. He's not a good example, like those 'preachers' who take some families entire life savings.

.. If I really did want to attack a religion.. I'd start on Scientology.

Iamon lyme: So now because he didn't find in your view, you are begrudging him doing a job!!

If not as if he's some old preacher telling his flock the world is going to end and keeping the donations when 'the end' is a non event!!

... Is it that only Christian Preachers can use 'the end'??

A formerly sceptical climate scientist says human activity is causing the Earth to warm, as a new study confirms earlier results on rising temperatures.

In a US newspaper opinion piece, Prof Richard Muller says: "Call me a converted sceptic."

Muller leads the Berkeley Earth Project, which is using new methods and some new data to investigate the claims made by other climate researchers.

Their latest study confirms the warming trend seen by other groups. The project received funds from sources that back organisations lobbying against action on climate change.

The team argues that the good correspondence between the new temperature record and historical data on CO2 emissions suggests human activity is "the most straightforward explanation" for the warming.

The paper reiterates the finding that the land surface temperature has risen 0.9C just in the last 50 years.

In a piece authored for the New York Times, Prof Muller, from the University of California, Berkeley, said: "Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming.

"Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I'm now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.".....

.....Prof Michael Mann, director of the Earth Science System Center at Penn State University, said that there was "a certain ironic satisfaction" in seeing a study funded by the Koch Brothers "demonstrate what scientists have known with some degree of confidence for nearly two decades: that the globe is indeed warming, and that this warming can only be explained by human-caused increases in greenhouse gas concentrations".

Prof Muller, meanwhile, describes his own change in standpoint as "a total turnaround".

He explained: "These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming."

The Col: Nope. Billions are spent each year in 'lobbying' and back handers to make sure of that. The Nobles have not gone, they've just been renamed.

Commentator Sarah Wildman says the Affordable Care Act finally makes healthcare affordable and accessible for women.

Fact: Before the Affordable Care Act it was perfectly legal to charge women more for health insurance; indeed it was the norm.
Fact: Before ACA, pregnancy was a pre-existing condition. So was a Caesarean Section. Both were legal cause for denying care.
Fact: Before ACA, pre-natal care wasn't normal women's care. Some 87% of insurance plans on the individual market did not offer maternity or labour and delivery as part of their coverage package.

Women have been going into debt, declaring bankruptcy, ruining their lives; all to give birth....

......The Affordable Care Act changes all that. It ends what's called "Gender Rating" - which allowed insurance companies to charge women more for being women.

It mandates maternity coverage. It ensures that pre-existing conditions will not force a woman to go without coverage. It ensures that insurance companies will no longer be allowed to turn down a woman for health coverage because she had a c-section.

The majority of Americans - some 63% - are covered by employer-based health insurance. Another handful qualify for Medicaid. Those of us on the individual market, at any given moment, are only 5-7% of the population.

But that number is misleading. It doesn't show those who are between jobs or starting new projects.......

......When I told my story in 2009 - of being billed $22,000 for the prenatal care and delivery of my child, despite having insurance that covered maternity expenses - I was shocked to discover how many fraudulent plans were out there.

Plans that charged women over $1,000 a month to include maternity care - only to discover that care would be capped at $3,000 or less for an entire pregnancy, and hospital care.

Coverage that insurance companies were well aware did nothing to actually cover the costs incurred. Plans that insisted women pay extra fees for a full year before getting pregnant. Plans that didn't allow women to be pregnant at all.

>>>>>>>> Such Freedom that women have in the land of the free ..... NOT!!

Iamon lyme: I was thinking more of what happened at the birth of our universe.. If the laws of nature were uniform then.. we wouldn't exist.

But, if we go back to what I said "Strangeness is relative to the observer" .. Then to most in the UK the belief that God created the world in 6 days and then rested, and that such is still 'believed unquestionably' (as many are forced to accept from birth in the USA) as very, very baroque.

MissDelish: Strangeness is relative to the observer.

Everyone knows London will be Bedlam at the moment, it's called 100's of 1000's of people visiting... It'll be like rush hour all day.

That's why I've put off any trips I need to make into London until after the Olympics.

MissDelish: Next time when you are in London, we'll be sure to ask Paul to organize the ceremony. But I'm not sure of the exchange rate... Him and his people not being of this Earth.

The Col: .... Sending him to Alpha Proxima then would be a guaranteed win for the Republican party!!

The Col: I see Carl Lewis has the view... "Every Olympics is ready, I don't care whatever he [Romney] said. I swear, sometimes I think some Americans shouldn't leave the country. Are you kidding me, stay home if you don't know what to say."

Mitt was talking about how he 'ran' an olympics has rubbed many the wrong way. Including the PM and Mayor of London...

As the Daily Mail reports..."The Republican's most damaging blunder came when he questioned whether his hosts would be able to make a success of the Games, saying: 'It's hard to know just how well it will turn out.'"

This remark later rebounded on him, when Prime Minister David Cameron said: 'We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic games in the middle of nowhere.""

The Col: Lets just say... .... ... He's got great teeth.

Yep.

Ol' Mitt is certainly winning friends over here.... NOT!!

Ife he's gonna be ol presiden'te he'd better learn to remember the names of those he's meeting. Being called "Mr Leader" doesn't exactly go down well.

The Col: I'm sure the CIA could help him to find one!

Mexican regulators have imposed a fine of $27.5m (£17.7m) on banking giant HSBC for its failure to comply with money-laundering regulations.

The fine comes a week after HSBC's chief compliance officer resigned over allegations that the bank ignored warnings that Mexican drug money was being allowed to pass through the bank. The fine is the highest ever imposed by Mexican regulators.

It constitutes 51.5% of the 2011 annual profit of HSBC's Mexican subsidiary.
'Drug kingpins'

Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) said it had imposed the fine against HSBC due to its "non-compliance with anti-money laundering systems and controls". HSBC Mexico issued a statement acknowledging that it failed to report 39 suspicious transactions and had been late in reporting 1,729 others.

"HSBC Mexico recognises it failed to strictly comply with banking regulations, and with the standards that regulators and clients expect of our institution," it said. Last week, a United States Senate committee found that HSBC had provided a conduit for "drug kingpins and rogue nations".

HSBC's head of compliance, David Bagley, resigned at the Senate committee hearing.


>>>>>>>>>> Do the banks want our custom.... or are they trying to kill us??

rod03801: How?

"Yes, the more conservative our government, the better everyone's retirement can be in the long run. "

Not true. Over this side of the pond, pensions have been less secure.

""Mr Romney aims to boost his foreign policy credentials on the trip.

But as he arrived in London on Wednesday, his campaign found itself on the defensive after an unidentified Romney adviser was quoted by the Daily Telegraph newspaper as saying: "We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special.

"The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have."

The Romney campaign has distanced itself from the comments, which the newspaper said might "prompt accusations of racial insensitivity".

Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said: "It's not true. If anyone said that, they weren't reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign.""

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>How do we know that for true??

Übergeek 바둑이: ... He has to respect the Tea Party! His pension fund might go down otherwise

It says so in the Bible....

Revelation 7:1:
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

I have proof!!

Conservative conspiracy theorists!!

The CIA, FBI and other agencies I think would be able to stop a fake citizen.

But.. buy the DVD and buy the book. IT'S your duty to buy them as a good Christian.. or so it was said on the youtube exclusive.

mckinley: Probably in the same tax havens that are used to hide at least $21,000,000,000,000 of taxable liquid assets worldwide.

Eight people, including Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, will face a total of 19 charges relating to phone hacking, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

The two ex-News of the World editors are to be charged in connection with the accessing of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone messages.

They are among seven of the now-defunct paper's former staff facing charges of conspiring to intercept communications.

The CPS said the charges related to 600 alleged victims between 2000 and 2006.

The revelation that 13-year-old Milly's phone had been hacked by the News of the World (NoW) after she went missing in Surrey in 2002 led to the closure of the Sunday tabloid newspaper in July last year.

It'd be more victims, but many of the celebs have taken out of court settlements.... thus, less embarrassing for NI!!

The Col: If it was the "Sun" (newspaper) it'd probably be 'Ard Mitt'

The Col: Could have been "Sue"

Silvery Moon: Michael Moore embarrassed the right wingers. His name will always come to their minds.