Saturday Morning News Roundup

The contrail of a meteor

A meteor flared through the skies over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region early Friday, triggering an atomic bomb-sized shock wave that injured more than a thousand people, blew out windows and caused some Russians to fear the end of the world.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has gone out of his way to prove that my home state, the state in which I grew up, has no clue, no ethics and no brains.

The downfall of Jesse Jackson, Jr and his wife is deeply distressing. About six or eight years ago, I met Jesse Jackson Junior in Chicago. At the time, I was representing the Society of Critical Care Medicine in a commission sponsored by the American Medical Association, which was tasked with figuring out how to end healthcare disparities. The young Congressman spoke to us. He was thoughtful; he was passionate. Healthcare for all. He was talking about a constitutional amendment which would guarantee the right of healthcare for all. I thought this was going a little far, but his passion was infectious. This is so sad. In my opinion, it is different when someone has no future and turns to crime. Somehow, I can justify that in my mind. On the other hand, when somebody has an extremely bright future and is making good money but wants to make the money faster, wants to take shortcuts, that is extremely disheartening. You can read the federal charges here.

The nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense has been held up by Senate Republicans. On one hand, this has been explained as Senate Republicans showing that they can still flex their muscle as the majority party. (Here’s a relatively straightforward explanation.) From my standpoint, it’ll be interesting to see what the Obama administration is willing to give Senate Republicans in order to free up the Chuck Hagel nomination. I know that Senator McCain is still upset that Chuck Hagel didn’t play his little “yes or no” game. One of the reasons that I am not a senator is that I’m not sure I could have shown the necessary restraint. I think I would’ve told John McCain that the answer to his question was no. No, you’re not right. The war was not worth fighting. The number of men and women we lost in Iraq simply wasn’t worth it. The surge didn’t work. The purpose of the surge was to allow Iraqis to figure out how to live in peace. Instead, we allowed the Shiite Muslims to ethnically cleanse neighborhoods of anybody who didn’t worship like them. But, I digress.

When will Congressman learn about twitting young women who aren’t your wife?

2 Comments

TCB February 19, 2013 at 11:33 pm

Tu quoque.

I would take the Democratic Senators’ allegations more seriously if their leader in the Senate, the Honorable Sen. Reid didn’t spend severable days in the chambers accusing Mitt Romney of not paying taxes.
ecthompsonmd February 22, 2013 at 3:42 pm

oh, and now I need to know Latin? I can’t even mastered English.

You know, in a campaign that was incredibly bizarre, Sen. Harry Reid statement, out of the blue, made no sense. It was almost those kind of statements… “Have you stopped beating your wife?” I’m not sure why he made the statement. I suspect, he wanted to take up a couple of new cycles with Mitt Romney answering questions about his taxes. If that was his goal, it worked. to be honest with you, I thought it was a cheap shot. I thought it was a shot designed to force Romney to spend time explaining and exposing more of his assets. Then again, nobody really listens to the Hon. Harry Reid. I know I don’t.

I’m not sure what this actually had to do with what I posted. I don’t see how former Sen. Chuck Hagel and his nomination has anything to do with Harry Reid and/or Mitt Romney. It seems to me that Hagel’s nomination has to do with his stand against the neocons. John McCain, representing the neocons and the Bush administration, is spearheading the fight.

Thanks for your comments