kamui

I guess Romney was just an upperclass prick with built in entitlement for a better life and who did have no idea how ordinary people live. And he seems to be an extremely clever guy in regard to finances and how to make money.

Media are only interested in 'scoops'. Obama did publish the negative stuff himself before he became president, therefore no scoop. IF he wouldn't have and the media would have found out about the cocaine it would have been like Christmas and 4th of July in one day for right wing media: a black president taking coke = almost probably a gang member in Compton. Anyway, generally US media don't respect the privacy of politicians at all - and US politicians make politics with their private, especially family life. Just look at Romney's wife having MS and five sons. And Obama being a devoted family man, e.g.. Both politicians are working hard to create an image of their personal life which pleases the masses. In Germany for example there is an unwritten agreement not to talk about the private lives of politicians (what the kids do, love affairs e.g.), AS LONG as the politicians don't use it for political gain. This keeps elections much closer to the topics. 99% of the policitians stick to it - and those few who didn't first flew high and later crashed down to earth when for example the marriage failed. They became fodder for the yellow press. BTW The latest rumor is, that the wife of the former president of Germany (not the chancellor) had worked as an escort some years ago. Also religion doesn't play a big role in German politics, if, where and how often a politician goes to church is his private business.

If you take the margin of error of ca. 3% in the polls the race is completely open. If outside developments don't change the current dynamics the three TV talks between Obama and Romney might decide the election. I have read the Romney is already training a lot for the talks.

I guess you are right, that's why I refrain from posting articles from Huffingtonpost, e.g. If you either just follow liberal or conservative media, soon you start to see US politics through heavily tinted glasses. It like living in political bubble while losing contact to the reality of the people in the street. When the bubble bursts either party is equally surprised that the reality looks quite different. You could see it after Paul Ryan entered the field. The left was sure that healthcare e.g. would destroy him in the eyes of the electorate. It didn't happen (but then he did it partly to himself with his convention speech). Now the rightwing media is shocked that Obama is actually leading regardless of the economic situation. See Politico

Bicycling in Scotland: (22 Mio. views at Youtube...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw

Nice source Flash: Here a quote on Washington Times from Wikipedia: In a 2008 essay published in Harper's Magazine, historian Thomas Frank linked the Times to the modern American conservative movement, saying: There is even a daily newspaper—the Washington Times—published strictly for the movement’s benefit, a propaganda sheet whose distortions are so obvious and so alien that it puts one in mind of those official party organs one encounters when traveling in authoritarian countries.[57]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times#Political_leanings

Congratulations Mekong. I guess you are one of the few Farangs who used the Thai law system against an upper class family and to win. (of course I don't have any numbers to support this)

It relatively safe investment. And I guess it's much less stressful for the decision makers, since they don't have to develop a new story and decide about the scrips and they even know the visuals already. Some time ago I saw a remake of Conan. Of corse the visual effects are much better, but we are very much used computer animated stuff. And as if Schwarzenegger could be substituted by a well build but completely average looking actor... I guess it's the same with Total Recall. No current actor has the physical presence (in regard to guys with huge muscles) as Schwarzenegger had in his younger years.

Yep, that's the micro news especially the US online media are full with. There are so many blogs, magazines, e.g. out there that any tiny bit becomes news now - even if it means nothing at all on the long run. PS: there was even a statistic about the number of tweets per minute during the convention speeches...

Welcome back to thread HH. You are the only conservative voice here and there is way too much agreement without you.

Yep, anyway infact the Mormons got a lot of pressure for posthumous baptizing Jews who died in concentration camps for the their faith. I think the Mormons recently stopped this practice.

Expendables 2 Watched it on large screen. With Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, e.g. The story is extremely flat and has holes a tank could drive through. Some good jokes by the old-stars on her previous roles. Not worth to pay for

Unit you are missing the point. It seems that it isn't about facts anymore - neither is it about ideology or moral like in previous elections (abortion, gay marriage, e.g.). It's just about to tell the people anything what they want hear, even if it is the opposite what they are planning to do: like declaring that the want to support the poor, but preparing for the biggest cuts for the poor ever...

It seems that Ryan's speech was mostly based on lies and falsehoods. As I understand it is the fist time in US history that a candidate (not some Super PAC or minor surrogate) was spreading so obvious lies during his most important speech.

Interesting how the right tries everything to paint Obama's story as negative. If you turn the above quote around it means that while Obama worked extremely hard as a black kid without a father and having to live in different countries with a single mother, he got scholarships for his work, went to one of the best university of the world without rich parents who paid for the preparation and access, took over a prestigious position because he seemed to have out-shined others, Ryan seemed to have been a mediocre student who neither was able to enter a leading university nor was he deemed worthy of a scholarship. Therefore he had to flip burgers.

The Dems are doing the same since years. Romney is just catching up, maybe using more advanced methods now.

I don't think that everything is being saved, but it's clear that everything is being monitored. Normal chatter by people like us is being scanned automatically checked for keywords. Also they don't need to store all the data, they just need to connecting existing databases commercial and governmental data bases for to get a pretty good view on what you are doing and _thinking_: financial information, health, political views, religion, e.g.. Also don't forget that the USA is starting to collect huge sets of data on anybody who is traveling form Europe to the USA. http://www.bbc.co.uk...europe-17764365 The PNR information includes names, addresses, credit card and phonenumbers, but in some circumstances may also include sensitive data on an individual's ethnic origin, meal choices, health, political views or sex life. The US authorities say they will "employ automated systems to filter and mask out sensitive data from PNR".

Up, Obama cancelled all manned flights. I think manned flights don't make much sense at the moment. Especially not to the moon. As we currently see NASA is going much further while using a technology no other country could copy at the moment. Nevertheless the NASA still has the most current and upcoming unmanned lunar missions. Obama Scrubs NASA's Manned Moon Missions Ker Than for National Geographic News Published February 1, 2010 If U.S. astronauts land on the moon again before 2020, it won't be aboard aNASA spacecraft. The space agency's 2011 budget, released today, reveals plans to scrap the Constellation program, including the rockets and spacecraft that NASA has been developing over the past four years to replace its aging space shuttle fleet. .... National Geographic

Just try to imagine what happens when other people close by would draw a gun as well. It would take the term 'friendly fire' to a new level. ------- From a distance of less than 10 feet, the officers, Craig Matthews and Robert Sinishtaj, answered in unison; one shot nine times and the other seven. Investigators believe at least 7 of those 16 bullets struck the gunman, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. But the officers also struck some, if not all, of the nine bystanders who were wounded. NYT

Poll: 0 percent of blacks for Mitt Romney By: Mackenzie Weinger August 22, 2012 05:04 PM EDT President Barack Obama continues to beat Mitt Romney among African American voters with a staggering 94 percent to 0 percent lead, according to a poll released Tuesday. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll — which gives Obama and Vice President Joe Biden a small lead over Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan — shows Obama has a massive lead over his Republican rival in the key political base of African-American voters,NBCNews.com reported. Obama also beats Romney among Latinos, voters under 35 and women, while Romney does better than Obama with whites, rural voters and seniors. The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters Aug. 16-20. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Politico

So what?

Who?

It's a well known fact that the ratio of the spread of wealth in USA is coming close to second world countries like LOS: i.e. a lot of very poor and lower middle class and small group of super rich. Here is what Ferguson wrote at Newsweek and below the fact check: "Welcome to Obama's America: nearly half the population is not represented on a taxable return--almost exactly the same proportion that lives in a household where at least one member receives some type of government benefit. We are becoming the 50-50 nation--half of us paying the taxes, the other half receiving the benefits." It is true that 46 percent of households did not pay federal income tax in 2011. It is not true that they pay no taxes. Federal income taxes account barely account for half of federal taxes, and much less of total taxes, if you count the state and local level. Many of those other taxes can be regressive. If you take all taxes into account, our system is barely progressive at all. But why do almost half of all households pay no federal income tax? Because they don't have much money to tax. Here's the breakdown from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Half of these households are simply too poor -- they make under $20,000 -- to have any liability. Another quarter are retirees on tax-exempt Social Security benefits. The remaining households have no liability because of tax expenditures like the earned-income tax credit or the child credit. In other words, the poor, the old, and children. Not exactly the "50-50 nation" of makers and takers -- or "lucky duckies" -- that Ferguson imagines. http://www.theatlant...t-obama/261306/

The new GOP attacks on Obama's medicare plans are complete nonsense. It's clear that GOP want's to create a new distortion field in regard to this topic. If they succeed they might gain some points. If not they will lose the retired and with this Florida.