aerockyulhim comments

And California twice elected actors to run their state. The American people twice elected an actor to be their president (and isn't he the right's diety and greatest leader in the history of the world and best president that they couldn't stop mourning for weeks on end and wanted to replace Abraham Lincoln for on the 5-dollar bill (I think it was the 5, but it could have been any of the others and still be a ludicrous idea)?). We have people elected into all forms of office in our country from ALL walks of life. Actors, former-athletes, former-wrestlers, veterans, draft-dodgers, etc. etc. The American government is made up of a snapshot of the American people. You CANNOT denounce Franken simply because he was a comedian and actor. So was the "greatest president ever" Ronald Reagan

And bushlover joins in the base use of President Obama's middle name. Must be the same guy, different account, as teleprompter. FAIL

Everyone that is undressing the far-rights on this site can take comfort everytime you see teleprompter use President Obama's middle name. That means you've defeated teleprompter's arguments and he's now going to act like a petulant child that just lost an argument with his kid brother.

We can only hope the police think of those other possibilities instead of dismissing a thorough investigation. While the cops can't do anything more than what they do to prevent stalking cases, they CAN investigate afterwards. Let's hope they do their jobs, as they should for any case.

Yeah, we'll see how long their celebrations last when they realize they didn't take advantage of the US forces being there to help train and prepare them for the coming storm. Regardless of why we were there, the US forces WERE THERE, so it's now on the Iraqis to use that to their advantage or ignore it.

Couldn't have said that better myself, SushiSake3. As someone with a vested interest in seeing the Iraqi forces fend for themselves and the US focus on more pressing issues at home and in Afghanistan (and maybe soon, North Korea), I'm extremely happy to see the US forces pulling out of Iraq.

TheQuestion--I guess that may work, but we're less than 7 months into a new presidency. Is it okay to forget so soon? Yeah, I'm with you in thinking we just need to fix the problem and stop fighting and arguing over whose fault it is, and analyze it after it becomes history. I also agree that the left doesn't help the situation by hiding behind history instead of focusing their energy on fixing it. I think it would be a far greater victory for the left now and in future history if they would just fix the problems they inherited and stop letting themselves get pulled down to the far-right's level of hurling blame instead of finding solutions. History would look kindly upon that sort of thing (solutions, not hurling blame). Alas, Democrats are fit to playing the same games. I truly believe that President Obama is doing what he possibly can to fix the mess he inherited, but admittedly his constituents aren't helping as much as they could be when they'd rather play political games with the right than find solutions to the problems we all are facing together.

Again, TheQuestion, it is relevant that he has to clean up the actions of his predecessor(s). The onus is on him to come to a solution, but we can't just slam the door on what got us here in the first place. Ignoring history is exactly what makes history repeat itself

TheQuestion, I think the Iraqi forces have had enough time to train, so it would be their fault for not absorbing what the US forces were trying to teach them. We warned them about it, and obviously they voted for us to leave. Now we're leaving, it's their responsibility now. Our soldiers have other, more pressing battles to fight, and families to get home to (depending on where they get sent after their Iraqi deployment. A lot will NOT be sent straight home).

Of course, the almost daily bombings that have occured for the past 7 years are now going to be Obama's fault.

Middle Name Hussein wanted the job.

Well, the left and right sure got a win-win situation here. President Obama is in power for the left, and now the right has someone to blame for their king's grievous war crimes and also have a "weapon" in President Obama's middle name. By that logic, every person who ever received that name is automatically an evil F. What's YOUR middle name? It could probably be linked to a criminal or evil person at some point in history. That makes you equally culpable, and from now on, everyone should refer to YOU by what someone else with the same name did or does. Great, GREAT logic

"The latest blast was a deadly example of the violence many Iraqis fear will increase with the departure of U.S. troops from urban areas" Why does the media continue to give us such conflicting accounts of what the Iraqis want? They want us out, but they fear for their safety if we leave. If we stay, they don't like the way in which we attempt to protect them (with our "cowboy attitudes" that one Iraqi in this article refers to). I can't wait for this whole fiasco to end.

usaexpat, I don't know if they should be let off so lightly. The amount of money and time they waste with their operations, with what they steal, and what the governments flush down the toilet to "catch" these people is probably well over what Bernie Madoff stole. I think some nice draconian sentences would work better, as the pain from flogging is only temporary, and probably wouldn't deter enough people if there's a buck to be made.

In good economic times, this would make sense. As Sarge said, "things are tough all over." What is going through the heads of the people approving these giant price-tagged projects that will do little to nothing to helping out the current economic state we're all living in?

BeaverCleaver, thanks, that was the movie I was talking about. And even if people somehow believe that would be an ideal situation, does anyone really want police coming after them for their thoughts or for the possibility of committing a crime? I hate stalkers and the stalker mentality as much as anyone, but really the police CAN'T do anything, it's not necessarily that they WON'T do anything (at least until after the fact).

Yet another example of a large sum of money going to the wrong places in this recession. Who are all the people that are going to be able to come enjoy these new expansions? Last time I checked, Disney wasn't lowering its daily prices for visitors. So this expansion stuff may create a few jobs, but if no one will be able to afford to come (or be willing to part with money that they'd rather save or spend on something more useful), that's a mighty small benefit when you look at that price tag for expansion.

Yeah, I also really hope it was indeed the stalker and not an innocent person (like the Japanese police would be bothered to really investigate instead of listening ONLY to witnesses (which shouldn't be discounted, but even witnesses make mistakes)). I think other than the warnings the police are handcuffed unless the stalker actually touches the stalkee. Anything else would require preemptive arrests. Wasn't that the point of that Tom Cruise movie a while ago? I didn't watch it, but I knew about the story. Anyway, police aren't supposed to preemptively stop crimes before they happen. They can only act during or after a crime. I think stalker cases could definitely be handled differently, but imagine all of the ethical and legal issues of a police force going around arresting people for things they MIGHT do.

I hope to go there before I have to leave this country. I've never heard a bad thing about Izu since I arrived here.

Scammers in all forms will continue to exist (as they have for millenia) as long as there is a big, uneducated mass of morons willing to buy what the scammers are shoveling.

A lot of people flee the scene of accidents here because of the way the laws are written. I think the blame is always 100% on the driver, and there's no grey area. Now, in this case, yeah, the guy is 110% guilty, but in other cases, even when the driver isn't at fault, they still get blamed and charged (even if the person is jaywalking or drunkwalking or whatever)

And yet the J-population continues to eat this stuff up... If I were a cynical and ironic marketer I'd have made her say that stupid curry line on purpose to metaphorically jab at the mindless J-population that keeps these talentos working

Punish the people that use the stuff. The distributors will move onto something else if there is no market for this filth. Just attacking the distributors alone won't stop others from stepping in trying to make a buck. Go after the users AND the distributors and we'd perhaps get somewhere in the fight against child pornography.

Hooray for driving drunk in the morning! It's not like Japan has several options of public transportation to fall back on if you simply MUST get somewhere after drinking yourself stupid.

That guy is pretty lucky he found a woman who shares and participates in his hobbies...

So many better things at home that those tens of millions of dollars could be going towards. Such as stopping the flow of illegal drugs into America, instead of worrying about Europe, Russia, and Iran. Let them pay for their own vices.

I'm glad to see a bystander actually doing something in these cases more and more. tjfrancis--I hope you are not insinuating that the girl wanted that behavior or welcomed it? It could have taken less than a second to do what he did, and it wouldn't be too hard to imagine her being too shocked to act within that second. Most girls don't walk around expecting someone to actually go so far as to stick his hand that far in. The girl was probably wearing sweats or something loose fitting (college student). If she was wearing jeans, I would be right with you in saying she probably didn't act quickly enough. The article doesn't say she was, though. Let's leave the "blame the victim" mentality out of this. Let's blame the transport ministry for continuing to employee this d-bag.

Does anyone actually know anything about William Eacho or Bruce Oreck? I couldn't find anything about their backgrounds, and the article only seemed interested in their monetary contribution. However, for the other appointees, the article states that they are career foreign service workers or at least have some experience with the country they were appointed to (such as David Thorne). So for the majority of positions, it looks like Obama did at least a little homework and chose people who were qualified. However, at least in this article, we don't know about Eacho or Oreck (also nothing much turned up in a quick search related to their respective posts (Austria and Finland)). Perhaps they do have good experience in those specific countries that would be relevant, and perhaps they don't. Of course, if the article divulged all of that information it would give Obama-haters less reason to light up the comment pages.

If some of you actually voted for Obama on the grounds that he would change Washington, then you have a right to constantly bring it up in a facetious/vindictive/spiteful way. I doubt some of you actually did though, so what the H are you complaining about? Do you think McCain would have done any different? If you somehow believe that Obama is carrying on the status quo, well, that's exactly what you would have gotten with McCain. Most people who voted for Obama, though, aren't under the completely ludicrous assumption that he could possibly change over two hundred years of Washington politics in, what is it now...6 months??? The winds of change don't necessarily have to be hurricane force, and most rational people understand this.

Mixed messages here. The information given tells us that some of these people are "career foreign officers" which is great, but some of the others only have business backgrounds mentioned. That doesn't look too good from an experience standpoint. But he's hardly the first president or world leader to give positions to campaign donors or supporters. (Of course, why would he give posts to people who don't support him? That already blew up in his face early on with one of his cabinet nominations of a Republican and some of the numerous times he's tried to "reach across the aisle." I think I'd be weary of the opposition as well.)

timorborder, that's exactly what I was thinking

Is "a blend of more than 15 natural essences" what they're calling all those exotic chemicals in beverages now? I'm on board with TheguyNextdoor, but good luck finding anything with cranberry outside of an import shop.