optikool comments

The new Congress is working much more smoothly than the old. It's good to see bi-partisan cooperation on important issues like free trade.

Yes, Democrats don't act like a bunch of children when they don't get their way and filibuster everything anonymously like Republicans did for the past 6 years. But they still have an issue in their own party trying to get anything meaningful done... I'm actually surprised Boehner is working with Obama and because of that, is probably the reason why they need Democrat votes. Luckily Democrats are making Republicans do something for the people in this country through a jobs retraining programs. Republicans wouldn't of thought of that on their own. But if Republicans where really serious they would tackle more important things like an Education bill, Clean Energy bill, Infrastructure bill or Immigration bill. But it's not likely they will think of that either...

I don't know... I always thought Japanese women were drop dead beautiful. That's just my personal opinion. And the men dressed stylish...

Base,

It's interesting that your premiums managed to double while my Platinum plan went from $1024 a month to $468, and before you talk yourself into typing up some idiot statement about subsidies, you can't get subsidies if you make over 6 figures which I do. But maybe, and I'm just throwing this out there, your plan doubled and mine didn't because you're a Republican and I'm an Independent and you just screwed yourself over, or you just didn't know what you was doing when you chose your plan. And if you think I still get a subsidy, then you clearly don't understand the ACA law.

In 2009, I made around 65K and now I make over 6 figures, along with buying a house, a Chevy Volt and Ford Focus electric and another house in the Philippines, so trying to get people to believe this President hampered people getting ahead or saying this President was bad for jobs, when Unemployment is below pre recessions level only works if you believe Fox, who's job appears to be to make stuff up and showing how ignorant they are. I more think of Fox as a comedy news station then anything else. But I'd say stop blaming Obama like some kind of taker and look inward. And I'm sure you will make an attempt at saying the job numbers are skewed and don't reflect the true unemployment, as if that wasn't the case before Obama came into office, further making your point mute. We could have done better on the job market if Republicans had passed Obama's jobs bill, clean energy bill, education bill, infrastructure bill or his bill to setup an infrastructure bank. But Republicans decided it was better to stick it to the President then help America... first making a pact on inauguration day to make him a one term President... then whining about him not working across the isle on the ACA... then the endless anonymous filibusters... then just not taking up any of his bills passed in the senate. But it's not completely their fault. I also blame Democrats and the Latino community for not showing up at the polls because they believed it was Obamas fault why things were not getting along, when if they had been paying attention would know where the true fault was.

It's refreshing that you don't consider Obama your President, because it would be a little annoying if you did. I would prefer to think of your President as being Ted Cruz or even John McCain... it suits you more. And Republicans may like "Dr. Ben Carson", but lets see just how much they like him if he announces he running for President... the finding might be surprising, but not really.

But I will agree with you that Republicans see Obama as an imminent threat, but not for the reasons you do. I believe it's because Obama is smarter and knows how to push Republican buttons so that he can work them into a frenzy causing them to make ignorant statements. And now that it's his last two years and Republicans control both chambers, it's almost child's play watching them do absolutely nothing, or backtracking on policies that totally piss off their base and just in general showing the American people why they shouldn't be in power. They have their chance now, and look what they are doing with it. I'm sure you're surprised, but I'm not. I'm just watching with popcorn in hand.

I'm curious, did Sony ask twitter to remove the posts before threatening a lawsuit? Or is this how they respond to the fact that they failed to properly protect their networks and was made a fool of as they coward into submission?

US and Israel developed Stuxnet to attack Iran but once the codebase was available Russians worked on it and wrote their Stuxnet-like malware to attack US energy companies. Possibly some groups have written their own version of DarkSeoul malware and have used it to attack Sony.

The fact that Russians had to build upon a US/Israel program because they didn't have the knowledge to create their own from scratch tells a lot about what Russia or N Korea can do, and you'd have to be the loyalist of the loyal to access networks outside the country. The people might accidentally learn there's a whole other world outside their country.

@Paul Richards the problem is, everything you just said to counter sonys claims can equally be countered. You can't just hook up a hard drive in a data center and expect it not to be notice. And Sony deals in video. Hi quality uncompressed video. They are not going to use the same kinds of connections the average consumer would use. An oc-48 connection can transfer data at 2488.32 Mbit/s. But whether N Korea can receive that much data is another question. The majority of IT professionals in that country think their Intranet is the Internet. I would take their ability to have that kind of infrastructure with a grain of salt. Doesn't mean they didn't sponsor it through a 3rd party though.

Judging by the previews, the movie looks pretty stupid and I wouldn't want to see it anyway. Definately made for the "sub90s" (people with an IQ of less than 90).

Maybe people are just not as uptight as you and can find humor in something you obviously can't. And so since you can't understand why people think this movie would be funny, you decide to insult there IQ in hopes that it would make you seem more intelligent and clever. But since you are not, you failed on both accounts...

I wonder if they are real hacker or not. This group does not seem they hacked. They want to stop movie release, sound they have nothing to do with hacking as they are based in Boston. SONY Pictures E is in Culver City CA. But this kind of demand created more people recognize such movie. Now more peo;e will buy in Walmart. Comedy fans will not miss this one. More income to SONY Picture E and Walmart Beside any DVD movie selling business. Are they trying to help SONY in Japan benefit from SONY PE sales in USA?

I think people will go see the movie because it's funny and anybody that has seen the previews and knows the two actors will know this to be true. Some hacker attempt is not a good enough reason for ME to go see this movie, but maybe it is for someone like you since this is your theory. Also if the hackers came from Boston, Massachusetts like you say, then the two are most likely unrelated. And anybody with a TV or internet connection probably would have already seen the preview. Nice conspiracy theory though... Proof would be nicer...

Sony should definitely release this movie just to spite these fools. I know I plan to watch it and buy it on Blu ray when it comes out. They achieved the opposite of what they were trying to accomplish...

Obama is an idiot socialist, most companies and states offer maternity leave under sick leave. Only the lowest, temp or part time jobs do not have benefits. Obama has been busy destroying the US economy that he knows very little about, while he also encourages illegals from Mexico and South America to take American jobs and give their children free educations, medical care, and food. they also are perpetrating massive voter fraud to keep the socialist Democrats in office against the will of the working people.

@knight_of_Honour So do you have any facts to back this up or are you just regurgitating what you heard on Fox? You're paragraph is only filled with opinions but nothing on examples or facts. I could just as easily replace Obama with your name and get people to believe it with little effort. Last I checked, yesterday, the US has had it's 5th strait month of job growth where jobs added was over 200k. Unemployment is at 6.1%, and the DOW closed above 17k on Friday. Those are my facts... where's yours???

Poor folks....they need additional manual how-to-drive printed specially for US citizens... @Sidekick That sounded pretty stupid. How much time did you give yourself to think about this before you decided to type it out? Probably not much time at all.

@WilliB

The contortions that some American party fanatics go through to absolve the Obama adminstration from this are almost funny.

You think that's funny you should hear some of the fairy tales they talk about on Fox comedy news to blame the Obama Administration for everything.

So basically what you are saying is some weapons being turned over to extremest in Syria, weapons pushed by the GOP, and now those weapons are being used by extremists, because they probably killed the rebel who originally had it, somehow is Obama's fault. Do you also blame Obama for the 190,000 AK47s that mysteriously went missing in Iraq back in 2007 as being Obama's fault too? It's a trick question, so think and do a little math before you answer.

If I had gotten us out of a Decade war, I'd be bragging about it too, especially since it was a campaign promise. And why should he go and poo poo the previous president over this? It was already a fact back then as it is now that that war was a mess. The president didn't need to bring this to anybodies attention. It was already out there.

@bass4funk

Ok, so now let's look at his replacement. "Barack Hussein Obama" didn't maintain NOT only the SOFA agreement between Iraq and Afghanistan, he just bolted out

It sounds like you were okay with the little clause that American military could be subject to Iraqi courts and military justice. I can see where a non American could miss that or accept that as part of an agreement, and if you are an American then you MUST be conservative, because with all the other things conservatives have had to say over these years, your priorities are out of whack.

And Obama made it 10 times worse. If you ever get a chance, visit California and you'll understand. Record debt, high unemployment and why, because Obama didn't make jobs in his first 4 years in office.

Obviously you DON'T live in California... I do and in this last fiscal year we had a surplus. Since the Obama Administration, my pay has gone from 65K to 135k and it will go up more next year. Picked up a house here, another house in the PI, a Chevy Volt and Ford Focus electric and my stocks are doing well. Also in the IT field, which I'm in I am constantly being told by recruiter they cannot find enough people to fill positions. I blame the GOP for blocking Obama's education reform bills. I also blame Jerry Brown for sucking the funds our of our education system which caused tuition to go up even more. I also blame conservatives like you for introducing stupidity into the conversation that has hurt our chances to grow faster. I'm not blaming all conservatives because I do have some conservative friends that have more common sense... just conservatives like you.

Not only his Obama worse, but he's more inept than we expected, doesn't listen to his men or his military and what is the result of that? Deserting soldiers are leaving as fast you can say "Fast!"

Who's soldiers? Our soldiers?? I only know of one possible soldier which has yet to be determined. If you are talking about Iraqi soldiers... well those are Iraqi soldiers, not American soldiers... learn the difference.

No, Obama wanted to play the Sainted Anointed know everything, but little of any foreign accomplishments.

Yeah kind of like Bush and Cheney right? No Obama just used common sense, something the Bush Administration lacked. And the worst president ever??? Really? Ever??? You'd make a good pundit on Fox comedy news. I hear they have great skits and you'd be perfect.

Here's an idea, if the GOP is successful in getting us back into Iraq, perhaps you can enlist and go over there and make sure every thing goes smoothly. And don't let the little bit of knowledge that you would now be on the side of Iran in the conflict stand in your way. And if you don't understand why that would be the case, then all I can say is... WOW...

Also proof reading your posts before you hit submit can go a long way...

Now that's how you do it! Kudos to Japan. Seriously hope Obama is watching this, he could seriously learn something on the first steps on dealing with an out of control Russia.

Well seeing how Obama lead with sanctions and in added more today, I would have to assume you haven't been paying much attention to what's been going on...

.... Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the King's horses and all the King's men, Couldn't put Humpty together again......

If you didn't have a good response, don't come back with a children's nursery rhyme, as your alternate contribution. The point was, Russia has lost any support hes going to get from Ukraine. There may be Russians all over Ukraine, but the majority was in Crimea and that's now gone. What did he get by taking Crimea? Yes he got more loyal supporters, but that's about it. Russia's not even connected to Crimea so he would have to take more of Ukraine just to get to Crimea over land unless he builds a bridge or ferry. And the Obama Administration has already said if he did that the US will sanction their economic sectors like oil. I could see that 500 billion dollar deal with Exxon mobile going out the window...

If the U.S. could set up a base in Ukraine, that would be a direct mechanism of influence in case Russia decided to leave the "oil-for-dollars" trading system, which is what Americans fear the most and try to delay at any cost. Remember, dollars are printed in the U.S. No money donations are needed, really.

This wouldn't make a lot of sense. The US just finished setting up a temporary base in Romania to handle the exit of Afghanistan which is right next door to Ukraine. There will be a lot of US military personnel on Ukraine's border soon. Why would they setup a base in Ukraine too? And since Russian oil make up around 80% of their revenue, it's doubtful they will be making changes anytime soon. Also US dependence on foreign oil has dropped substantially under the Obama Administration and if Republicans would help pass his clean energy bill instead of filibustering it, dependence would drop even further. It will hurt Russia more then it hurts the US. I doubt the US is too worried about Russia getting out of the oil business, even if they could. However they could do us a favor and get out of the industry and collapse their government, but that would be wishful thinking. The US is not going insolvent any time soon. The US economy is currently growing and as the economy grows and the fact that the deficit has been cut in half DURING A RECESSION, oh wait, recession ended in 2009, it's only a matter of time before we start gaining surpluses, unless Republicans find a way to screw it up...

What are the odds that US would win against Russians in Ukraine or Crimea? In addition, sending troops requires a lot of money. Is the US willing to pay? Unlike the Gulf war, not so many countries in the world would donate maney for the war in Ukraine.

@CH3CHO odds would be pretty good, because it wouldn't be just the US... it would be the US and it's allies along with Ukraine's people. What allies does Russia have left? North Korea? Syria? But that would pretty much devastate Ukraine and make it look like another Afghanistan. Instead, it makes more since to start stacking on sanctions in a progressive manner. And just spit balling here, but If the Obama Administration is able to get Iran to agree to a nuclear deal, perhaps, Iranian oil will then be sold on the oil exchange instead of the black market, and perhaps a deal could be made with the EU so Russian oil is no longer needed or not as much. Wonder what kind of a devastating effect that would have on Russia seeing how oil is 80% of their revenue. Shots being fired would not be needed.

Don't be surprised if Putin tries to take over the rest of Ukraine. The ousted president only won elections by half a million votes. Now that Putin siphoned off a Million pro Russian voters by taking over Crimea, not to mention invading another country, his hope for another pro Russian president in Ukraine is now a fantasy. He probably didn't think about that before he decided to send in troops.

I think his plan was to start a civil war there and then, under the mandate of U.N. and/or NATO as a guarantor of Ukrainian territorial integrity, move U.S. troops into Sevastopol or another place on the coast and form a U.S. military base there. That would be the ideal scenario which they envisioned, I think. Remember that this whole "coup" is sponsored mainly by the Americans, the E.U. have a second role in this opera.

After moving in the troops and starting up a U.S. base, anything is possible. They could have envisioned perhaps even a partition of Ukraine along some lines, where both U.S. and Russian troops would guarantee security in their own sector or some such arrangement. The main thing being, the U.S. base in Ukraine would be a reality.

@zaldaus Do you have any facts to back this up or are you just fantasizing?

This is what happens when you make a socialist lawyer the President of the United States. I never saw such an weak and undetermined USA with no strategy. My America is history. Many Americans even don't know what role USA had been playing in the world. USA falling down is really a sad thing to see.

Yeah to bad we don't have a President like the previous that just made decisions based on his gut and then invaded the wrong country because he thought he could take their oil, instead of having a thinking man that would rather invest in alternative energy so we didn't need that oil. Those Americans that you talk about are pretty much Republicans that still believe the sun revolves around the earth. Yes your America is history, welcome to the 21st century. Enjoy your stay. We now have a President that doesn't invade a country just to show who's junk is bigger like your boy McCain. And the USA falling down is only in your head and if you don't like it don't let the door hit you on the way out as you migrate to Russia.

After readying many of these posts, a lot of memories came flooding back with my ex fiancé that I new for 6 years before deciding if I should marry her. Pretty much all I read here I saw the potential in her. Not willing to be married until I bought a house is cash, wanting a 20K wedding, saying if I ever lost my job, she would take the kids and go back to Japan, wanting to start a business here in the states while she was still in Japan, asking for my help to manage it here but not wanting to be partners, telling me when we got older we would have separate sleeping areas. Eventually it got to the point where I had to ask myself, what kind of future will I have with a woman I totally adored knowing this could be the outcome. I mean, I thought she was kidding when she would tell me this but over time I came to realize this may be the case. My advice, listen to both what she says when you two are separated in other countries as well as when you are together, and ask her to elaborate on thoughts you find not the norm. This will help to give you an idea of what to expect. I decided not to marry her and married a Filipina instead...

Sounds like Little Kim needs a spanking. I'd like to see him start something with the US so his country can get dunked on, but we all know he's just another Chihuahua barking behind the trash can trying to pretend he's brave.

Hmmm what bright person thought this was a good topic to ponder when the answer was obvious. Probably someone that went on a drinking binge.

@ControlFreak

So one of our law makers thinks justice should be dependent on timing. It does not get too much more self-righteous than that.

Only if you came to this conclusion without using a brain. What she really said was he should of come to the Senate Intelligence Committee with his information instead of screwing over the US and like all anarchist, trying to bring the government down by turning it's friend against it. I'm sure there are enough Republicans that would of taken it up just to get back at the president and he would of been clear. Instead he used the thinking of a child and did what he did and now he's in the situation that he's in. He is naive to think he can ever come back to the US and so he should accept the fact that his home is gone and his new home is in Russia. Seems like a contradictory move but people do stupid things when they don't fully think their plan through, which he clearly didn't...

What an interesting idea.... lets slap sanctions on US trade and in turn US does the same and see who blinks first. Germany might fair well for a while, until we stop buying their cars. With sanctions in place how will this affect Russia, the country harboring the anarchists snowmen. Will Russia receive less oil revenue when people who have lost their jobs over the sanctions use less resources. Guess that would be one good trade off. We all know the US has better spying technology then the rest of the world, even Europe with there million cameras trained on everybody. If the cooperation to fend off terrorism stops because the US no longer shares information with the rest of the world and we tell the rest of the world good luck to you, I wonder who will get hit first? Which country is an easier target to reach? And hitting an Embassy is no comparison hitting a railway system or financial district. If these countries who are publicly "outraged" had the same advanced spying techniques, would they in fact not use this technology to the fullest of their ability or would they pretend to be the good samaritan?

We know about these facts because some pretender infiltrated the US government and stole it's secretes and then ran away to the two countries who stood to benefit... as if he was turned, like the cowardly anarchist he is. If another Snowden wannabe appeared from Europe spilling state secrets, I wonder what kind of tune people would be singing then. We all know the people here that don't like the US would still find a way to tie it back to the US. And the person that said the US should be spanked... be careful what you wish for, trying to spank a grown adult is likely to get a fist put through your chest. And people wanting to slap sanctions, well that can be a two way street too, so I guess we can just sit and watch who falls first...

@Lizz the reason why you don't know what other message could possibly be getting through is because you are living in a different reality. So you are basically saying, because the President decided to take a walk and think and then decided not to become the cowboy we saw in the previous president and just start lobbing bombs like if he was throwing candy, somehow this means he's weak. To me it says we have a thinking man in the office this time instead of a man that just goes by his GUT like the last President. But you wouldn't know any of that because you seem to agree that once a President makes a decision he should never EVER change that decision no matter what!!!!

The only people beating the drums of war is McCain and Gram. No real American's take these politicians seriously. These are the same idiots that criticized the President for putting together a Coalition in Lybia instead of going in alone. And they are also mad because this President did in 3 years what the previous President couldn't do in 8 when he killed Bin Laden.

@Kuya 88 You are spot on in your assessment. Apparently there are a lot of nations around the world that would like this President to go into Syria but they will not stand with him publicly. They can't have their cake and eat it too, meaning they can't secretly say GO FOR IT, but be able to keep their hands clean if something goes wrong. And their opinions do not matter while they openly hide behind their desk. They are like the little dog that barks behind to trash can pretending to be fierce but runs at the sign of trouble.

This President needs to continue to take his time and make Congress accountable, after all they are the one's that kept winning about wanting a say... now they have it. This also gives the President the opportunity to speak about this at the G20. And at the very least this will give Asaad the time to gain his confidence and become complacent and make a mistake...

@babsey3Sep I don't think you know what a Liberal is... time for you to go do your homework...

It's interesting how a lot of people here keep talking in the Future-tense as if the Strikes had already happened. Everything I've heard from these idiots all week has been second guessing this President only to be proven wrong. But I guess stupid is, stupid does...

But I have a feeling the President is playing a long game. While all these talks about strikes goes on, this Fool Asaad is having to move around and hide all of his weapons and equipment. Which means he can't very well use them now can he unless he risk their location be exposed. I'd rather Asaad continue bombing his country back to the Stone Ages, this way the US doesn't have to do it. A lot of militants that went to kill Americans and Coalition forces in Iraq came from Syria so I don't have to much sympathy for that country. But at the same time, making him constantly have to move his weapons around or underground so they can't be hit (and used for that matter) is another alternative too...

@Jean That's a nice thought to try and spread around, but in reality I doubt it. The US people would never put up with Syria becoming another Iraq war and this President is to smart for that, otherwise we would have been in Syria last year. Now if John McCain was President I could see where you're argument could be true, because we'd probably have troops in Libya and definitely would never have left Iraq if he had become President. But if you want to blame someone for a possible reason why Syria is where it is today, blame China and Russia. If they hadn't been obstructionists the UN probably would have slapped sanctions and other things they could have done and we might not be here today. It's their fault...

@kurisupisu Can you explain what resources Syria has that the US would want because I must have missed it. It can't be oil because our dependence on foreign oil had dropped. And Russia is already encircled and not much of a threat now anyway. Arab nations are doing a pretty good job disabling their strengths without much help from us. All you have to do is look at the chaos in those countries and how it's effecting their economy.

Personally I thank god we have this President instead of the alternatives. People trying to compare this Presidents decisions with the last or even Reagan just sounds ignorant. I don't remember this president going in alone in Lybia, or Egypt for that matter like a lot of these moronic politicians on the right would have liked. I really don't want the US to get involved with Syria just like I wouldn't want us to get involved if something happened between China and Japan... let them handle their own business. From my understanding the Syrian people didn't even like us until their government decided to slaughter them. Why can't their brethren in neighboring countries help them? Maybe it's because they still have the 15th century mentality. However at the same time what other countries are gonna help? China? Russia? Japan? The EU? Get real... Nobody will do a damn thing unless the US does it first. And giving them guns the help keep the killing spree alive doesn't cut it.

I think the President's approach is better then a full on invasion, especially alone. Take out important targets and leave it at that. You're move Assad. Obviously this won't topple the Assad regime, which Jay Carney has already said. We don't trust either side and it wouldn't make since to get rid of Assad only to be replaced by a disorganized group of people infiltrated by Al Qaeda. This also will give the US and UN an idea of Syria's military capabilities. The US shouldn't act unless we have willing partners. And the US Government should give clear evidence that these weapons where in fact used by Assad and not by Al Qaeda. But apparently they government will be declassifying documents to make there case.

@YGHome3 Well if you're going to put your life on the internet, which the majority of people do, (look to social media) then to expect that information to not be data mined would seem pretty naive. Just look at google with their attempt to translate all data on the net.

@techosphere Snowden may be a hero (to you) but he still need to come back and face the consequences just like he said he was prepared to do. Regardless of weather you think he's right or wrong, he signed a disclosure and knew what the consequences would be before he decided to violate them. If you spilled the secrets of your company, at the very least you'd be fired and most likely face a lawsuit and prosecution.