Friday Evening Grab Bag

Posted on: October 29th, 2010 by ecthompson md No Comments
  • There has been an attempt by Al Qaeda to ship explosives in cargo jets. The exact details of the plot have not been revealed. The exact variety of explosives has not been revealed. Exactly how the explosives were to be detonated has also not been revealed. Update: From LAT - "One of the packages was found aboard a cargo plane in Dubai, the other in England. Preliminary tests indicated the packages contained the powerful industrial explosive PETN, the same chemical used in the Christmas attack, U.S. officials said. The tests had not been confirmed."

  • The GDP did rise in the third quarter although the economy is still sluggish.
  • The Democratic candidate for Senate in Florida, Kendrick Meek, has made headlines because he staying in the race. Polling clearly shows that he's about to get trounced in Tuesday's election. Rumors began to fly that former president Bill Clinton asked him to drop out of the race. Both he and Clinton denied this. All I know is Kendrick Meek has not run a very good campaign. If he could solidify the Democratic base, he should be able to easily win as the moderate Republican, Charlie Crist and the ultraconservative, Marco Rubio, would split the conservative vote.
  • The owner of a McDonald's franchise in Canton, Ohio, told his employees that unless the Republicans win, the employees can't get raises.
  • Verizon has been ordered to pay an additional $25 million on top of a $52 million refund to its customers for overcharging. This is the largest fine in FCC's history. Ripping off Americans seems to have become a sport to American big business.
  • It looks as if we've spent $18 billion to reconstruct Afghanistan. That's the good news. The bad news is we really don't have a good way to track reconstruction dollars and have no way of knowing whether the money went to pay off Afghan warlords or to build bridges and schools, according to a new report. (More on this here and full report here.)
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"some members asked why should they invest the mental effort in mastering the details" of financial reform. Mr. Baird found parts of the bill mind-numbing. Although he voted for it, he says he was troubled that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the entities at the heart of the housing meltdown, weren't addressed. They have clearly exercised undue influence on Capitol Hill, he notes." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303284604575582320752384384.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop Rut ro. 'Financial reform' that ignored the heart of the problem? Say it aint.....oh ok we know it is so. Same thing with 'health care reform'. Just because it's called 'reform' doesn't mean a thing. "Regarding health care, his specialty, Mr. Baird gave House Democrats real heartburn. He voted against the first version of ObamaCare in November 2009, because the Congressional Budget Office and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services hadn't yet analyzed the bill's impact on insurance premiums and medical costs. "What the hell were we doing voting on this? I had labor groups come to me and insist the bill was so important we couldn't wait to know what was in it," he recalls. "I asked them if they were handed a new union contract and told it was so important they had to agree to it without reading it, would they go along?" They continued to insist he vote for the bill and threatened him with a primary challenger." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To

Joe - Your point is lost on me. I know that the majority of legislation isn't read by the vast majority of our congressman. Why should the HCR bill be any different? I know of only 2 senators who read the classified CIA white paper on Iraq and their WMD. None of the republicans read it. Hillary didn't read it. Only Russ Feingold and Bob Graham. That's it. If your point is that most of our congressman are lazy then you are correct. If your point is that most of our congressmen send more time fund raising than reading bills, then you are right. Errington C. Thompson, MD Sent from my iPad

It's not just that they don't read the bills, but because they dont read them they make claims about what the bill will accomplish that aren't true.

Get ready for Hillary to run for President. from http://www.wtop.com/?nid=213&sid=2099680 Among Democrats, 47 percent say Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination and 51 percent say he should not be opposed. Those favoring a contest include most who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's unsuccessful faceoff against Obama for the 2008 nomination. She will probably announce by the end of March, I'm guessing.