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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (121599)	9/22/2012 4:10:35 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

My friend, if we do not act against the terrorists now, there will be no America after 20 years. So I suggest you don't worry about 20 years from now. Our institutions and beliefs are strong enough to revert back to the system at that time. THis is not a question of planning. This is about what we need to do today. As a friend of mine used to say when asked "What are your future plans." He would say "To plan for the future." Now we are in a situation where we have to eliminate all terrorists not just mere criminals, but terrorists.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (121599)	9/23/2012 1:28:47 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

A Dutch girl announced on Facebook she was having her sweet 16.........uninvited people decided to attend and her town was overrun...............rioting and vandalism broke out. Little was left unturned. Had there been an American embassy or consulate there, it too would have been attacked. Should we have invaded Holland? Dutch Teen Forgets to Make Facebook Event Private, Incites Riot Louis Peitzman Ah, the public Facebook invite. On the one hand, you want to be cordial and inclusive. On the other, you might attract some undesirables. Dutch 16-year-old Merthe Weusthuis inadvertently attracted 5,000. What was supposed to be a mellow party at her family home became a full-on riot — at least by Dutch standards. Inspired by Project X, a campaign was launched (not by Weusthuis) to turn this birthday party into "Project X Haren." T-shirts were made with Weusthuis' face on them, without her consent. All attempts to call off the party failed. On September 21, the small town of Haren was overrun: stores were vandalized, a car was burned, and barricades were formed. Haren mayor Robert Bats was appropriately horrified. Scum ran amok in our town. An innocent invitation on Facebook for a party led to serious rioting, destruction, plundering, arson and injuries in the middle of Haren. Chief police superintendent Oscar Dros said "Project X Haren" displayed "aggression seldom seen in the Netherlands." Worst of all, Weusthuis didn't get to attend her own birthday party. Shortly before the onslaught of troublemakers, her mother took her away to a "safe retreat." How she ended up celebrating is unknown: she did not create a second Facebook invite. [Image via Vladimir Wrangel/ Shutterstock]

To: RetiredNow who wrote (121599)	9/23/2012 1:32:15 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

WaMu unit banker convicted of fraud By Seattle Times business staff It took four years, two trials and one unsuccessful appeal by the prosecution to a higher court, but a former sales executive at Washington Mutual’s subprime lending unit Long Beach Mortgage was convicted of fraud Wednesday by a federal court jury in Sacramento. The maximum penalty for mail fraud affecting a financial institution is 30 years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000, or twice the value of the gain or loss, whichever is greater, according to Bloomberg. The news service said Joel Blanford, 44, was found guilty of six counts of mail fraud for his involvement in a scheme to falsify loan documents that earned him more than $1 million in commissions from 2003 to 2005. According to the 2008 indictment, Blanford worked for Long Beach Mortgage beginning in 1999 in two California offices in Dublin and Pleasanton. He was responsible for promoting the company’s subprime mortgage products to mortgage brokers acting on behalf of borrowers. In 2003 and 2004 he was instrumental in issuing more than 1,700 home mortgages collectively worth $360 million. Blanford paid a loan coordinator in cash and checks to falsify documents, provide false verification of borrowers’ employment or professional licensing status, and to turn a blind eye to fraudulent representations contained in loan applications and other documents submitted to Long Beach Mortgage, prosecutors said. His commissions were based on the number of loans the bank processed. An earlier trial resulted in a hung jury. Long Beach’s crumbling portfolio of poorly underwritten mortgages was a key contributor to WaMu’s financial collapse, and the company’s top officials later came under fire for not heeding warnings that the unit was rife with fraud. In one WaMu email cited by U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., an internal 2005 audit found that 83 percent of loans approved by the bank’s Montebello, Calif., office were fraudulent. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10. seattletimes.com