Last week, President Obama signed a financial reform into law – as a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission “no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act”.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings.”

Hm… Really?

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Does this mean that Russia is going back on their original claim that the accused weren’t spies?

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The suit, filed in Phoenix, is built on the premise that the immigration law in Arizona is unconstitutional, as immigration is the responsibility of the federal government, and using state and local police to enforce immigration policies would therefore be a violation.

There is already a law on the federal books that makes it illegal to be in the US without the proper paperwork (hence the term illegal immigrant). When the federal government didn’t actually do anything about it, Arizona passed a bill also making it a state crime, not just a federal crime, allowing state and local police to enforce it – only within the state of Arizona. The lawsuit is basically saying – “Hey, Arizona, you can’t have that law ‘cus we’ve already got it, even if we aren’t doing anything about it. You just have to accept how we’re doing it.”

Contrast this to another law… According to federal law, you have to be 18 years of age to purchase a long-barrelled gun such as a rifle or shotgun. However, the state of Illinois has a law stating that you have to 21 years of age for all firearm purchases. Now – this is already on the federal books! Illinois shouldn’t have a law they might actually enforce that a federal law already adresses? Where’s the lawsuit here? Oh wait – I forgot… It all depends on what kind of law we’re talking about.

Let Arizona have its own laws. Individual states should be allowed to say who they want or don’t want in their state – especially if the people they don’t want are already breaking the federal law by being there illegally, and if they’re responsible for the recent dramatic increase in crime.

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We lost 70 of our 160 men in one push. I never heard the F-word. During six days of vicious fighting at Kunishi Ridge, I never heard the F-word.

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On NASA’s own site, their mission statement is thus: “NASA’s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”

NASA is there to get us (The USofA) ahead of the game when it comes to airplanes and spaceships – why are they even involved in foreign policy, in any way, shape or form?

Well – as we all know, more government is the answer to what ails us. Maybe the thought process is that if every government department is involved in foreign policy, one of them might get it right?

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Regardless – this site is back online and has been redesigned. Begin to expect some new updates in the very near future!

He’s currently at a 47% approval rating – meaning that more than half of the US disagrees with him. Hm… Now ain’t that a shocker?

Here’s the link to the news article.

What’s happened to all of the global warming? I thought the melting ice caps were going to cause our seaboard cities to disappear by floods by now… Oh wait, that’s right… it’s not global warming anymore; it’s climate change.

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I can see a return to the Republicans here in the near future, but there are a couple of issues that I see with that…

First of all… Isn’t it a little early to claim a Republican victory in the next Presidential election? Shouldn’t we be waiting until at least late 2011 before we start declaring the GOP’s victory over the DNC?

Second… Maybe we should start pushing for a victory over the DNC in the 2010 elections for Congress… Which leads me to my third point…

Do we want a Republican revival? I say no. I don’t believe the Republican Party is any better than the Democratic Party right now. I personally think it would be best if we had a revolution in the Republican Party, returning to the conservative base. What good is changing from a liberal party to a slightly less liberal party?

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This was due to a new policy in place prohibiting stickers or statements on lockers because of recent images that offensive or racist in nature.

OK… this is yet another case where they don’t address the real issue – was the issue really about putting stickers on lockers? Or was it more about racist or offensive images in the workplace? I mean, c’mon! Seriously? Does an American flag offend anyone here in the US? Since when would a US flag be considered offensive in the US??? (excluding, of course, the people within the US that hate the US… I don’t really care too much about them.  I think we should put flags everywhere for the sole purpose of offending them…)

Like the firefighter, James Krapf, said, “It’s the American flag, we should be able to fly it wherever we want…”

Even the moon… Oh wait… did that offend anyone? Tough luck, we got there first – finders keepers.

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With support from a lone Republican, a key Senate committee Tuesday approved a middle-of-the-road health care plan that moves President Barack Obama’s goal of wider and affordable coverage a giant step closer to becoming law.

Health care legislation is expected to be on the Senate floor the week after next, said a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. But it won’t be the Baucus bill. Reid will combine the Finance version with a more liberal proposal from the health committee — with unpredictable results.

The vote in the Finance Committee was 14-9, with Snowe joining all 13 Democrats in support. In a sign of long political battles ahead, every other Republican voted against it.

At least there’s some glimmer of hope… It only passed in the committee 14-9, and all but one Republican voted against it. Unfortunately, we’re going to need every vote we can against the health care bill…

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The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize came as a huge surprise today as people across the world found out the Obama received the award. BUT FOR WHAT? What has Obama done to deserve one of the most prestigious awards on the planet? The man hasn’t done anything but run our country into more debt and isn’t even through one term as president. And yet he joins only 2 other sitting presidents in the history of our country that have received the award…Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson,

“Roosevelt was honored largely for brokering an agreement between Russia and China, and Wilson took the award for his role in ending World War I and creating the League of Nations.”

I like what this fox news article stated: “Giving President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is a “premature canonization” and an “embarrassment” to the process of designating a laureate, a presidential historian says.

But then again, this isn’t the first time that the committee has botched it…remember 2007?

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The biking debate started last spring, when school district officials told Kaddo Marino that Adam was violating school rules by biking to class. Walking to the school also is not permitted.

Since when does the school tell how you can or cannot get to school? What if you literally lived right next door to the school? Would you still not be allowed to walk to school then?

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According to the FDIC’s Mission Statement on their website: “The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent agency created by the Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system…”

This is yet another example of when government ran programs go wrong. I don’t know about you, but knowing that the FDIC is insuring the deposits for failing banks, and then needing money from bigger banks, doesn’t exactly instill confidence in our nation’s financial system. I think that ship has sailed long ago…

The FDIC is also a good example of socialism at work… Do you know where they get the funds to insure deposits for the failed banks? They leverage ‘operating fees’ from banks. Couldn’t these fees be the very reason some banks are unsustainable? I mean, I know that some banks are just doomed, because of their really bad business practices, but some could probably make it, if it weren’t for all of the governmental fees on them.

Also, “the FDIC directly examines and supervises about 5,160 banks and savings banks, more than half of the institutions in the banking system.” Whew – that makes me feel much better… The government is watching the banks… That will help… They supervise the majority of the banking system: we don’t even have to worry!

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According to the Jerusalem Post, ‘everybody is saying no to the American president’. Not only that, it’s how it’s being done:

• The Saudis say no to gestures toward Israel
• The Saudis say no to gestures toward Israel (yes, I know this is here twice… it happened twice…)
• The North Koreans say no to talks, and test launch missiles
• Russia and China say no to tougher sanctions on Iran
• Iran says no to talks (specifically, yes to everything unless it involves radioactive materials)
• Palestine says no to talks unless Israel stops settlement proceedings
• Israel says no to stopping settlement proceeding until the Arab nations extend gestures to Israel (see Saudi response above)

So, it seems like the POTUS does not have what it takes to command the attention of world leaders. Does this mean that we are being marginalized as a nation in the eyes of the world? As the representative of our country to the world, does our President’s impotency translate to apparent impotency of the US as a whole, in the rest of the world’s eyes?

other relevant article from the Guardian