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Grab Bag Wednesday

It seems inevitable that a meltdown will happen at the main reactor in Japan. There’s now evidence surfacing that more than 30 years ago three people resigned or were transferred after complaining about the nuclear reactor design.
As if Japan does not have enough going on. A 6.0 earthquake rocked the country just yesterday.
The King in Bahrain has declared martial law. Look for Saudi Arabia to have a huge interest in what goes on in Bahrain. The Middle East is really starting to get ugly.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has come up with six simple tests of any corporate tax reform. Seems to be pretty simple and straightforward. This means it will never be adopted.
Budgets should never be balanced on the backs of state workers.
Maine’s new governor is trying to pay for tax cuts by asking state workers to contribute more to their pensions. Now, where have we seen this before?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Egypt. I’m not exactly sure what she’s doing in Egypt besides giving the reformers a pep talk. Look for more on this soon.
Representative Dennis Kucinich continues to try to see Bradley Manning. He’s being blocked by the Department of Defense. I’m not sure how the Department of Defense has the legal authority to block a member of Congress from seeing a prisoner. Doesn’t sound kosher.
NFL Players are considering a boycott of the draft. This is getting very ugly. $9 Billion to split between players and owners… and they can’t figure it out. Don’t look for football this September.

Any thoughts? What’s on your mind?

By ecthompsonmd|2011-03-16T06:39:54-04:00March 16th, 2011|Energy, Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Saudi Arabia, Taxes|Comments Off

What's going on – News Roundup (Update)

Wednesday Morning News Roundup

I find Guantánamo Bay extremely disturbing. Yesterday, we found out another prisoner has killed himself. This gentleman, Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, also known as Al Hanashi, had been detained since 2002 without charges, of course.

The fact that Osama bin Laden is still alive to issue press statements or edicts is a crime against the American people. Yet, he is alive enough to spew more of his vile rhetoric: “…new seeds of hatred and revenge against America.” What atrocity have we committed now? We’ve asked Pakistan to stand firm against the Taliban and we have provided assistance. When do we quit playing around with Osama bin Laden? Why are we going to send 100 elite troops with whatever backup and support they need into the Pakistani mountains to hunt down and kill or capture Osama bin Laden?

President Barack Obama has traveled to the Middle East. His first stop is in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow he will address an audience in Cairo, Egypt, where he is widely expected to ask for an improved dialogue between Muslims and Americans. It will be interesting to see Obama’s relationship with the Saudi royal family.

It is my personal opinion that torture did not produce any valuable information. It appears that VP Cheney may be parsing his words a little bit. Cheney said in a recent interview with Fox News, “Yes, but the way I would describe them is that they have to do with the detainee program, the interrogation program. It’s not just waterboarding. It’s the interrogation program that we used for high-value detainees. There were two reports done that summarize what we learned from that program, and I think they provide a balanced view.” Notice that VP Cheney is trying to wrap the issue of torture inside the larger program of detaining high-value targets. I think this is typical for Cheney and several of the others. They will argue and argue a point until they’re blue in the face. Once they’re called on that argument, they’ll segue into what they really meant.

Watch the video:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

US has signed a contract with MedImmune to produce the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. We’ll see how far $90 million goes. I’m figuring that it ain’t going to go that far.

Buzzflash is having a contest to name Dick Cheney memoirs. There are some great entries. Check it out.

By ecthompsonmd|2009-06-03T10:21:08-04:00June 3rd, 2009|Bin Laden, Countdown, Domestic Issues, Healthcare, Obama administration, Saudi Arabia|Comments Off

What's Going On? Evening News Round-up

My picks from the day’s news:

One of my readers is not happy with my discussion of the Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin and teenage pregnancy. I’m sorry that he wasn’t happy and that he thought that I’m gutless. I wonder if it’s fair to talk about Palin the reformer? Maybe that is off-limits too.
I am still puzzled by Presidential hopeful John McCain’s refrain of “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Why is drilling a good thing? I don’t think that it is bad, but applause? Why?
Speaking of oil and drilling… OPEC is thinking about cutting production in order to keep the price of oil over $100 per barrel. Our friends the Saudi’s, have vowed to keep production at its current level. Well, that fills me with warm fuzzies.
There seems to be lots of reporters who are writing about the back-and-forth between the Obama camp and the McCain camp regarding lipstick on a pig. Of course, this distracts Americans away from the real issues. Our economy is in the toilet. We still don’t have a strategy for getting out of Iraq. We are no closer to Osama bin Laden. More and more of our troops are dying in Afghanistan as the Taliban returns. (Admiral Mullen stated that we are not winning in Afghanistan.) These are the issues that I want to hear about.
Lehman Brothers are desperately trying to restructure their debt and sell off whatever everything they can. They released their third-quarter earnings statements early in order to fend off criticism and speculation. They lost $3.9 billion last quarter. That is added to the $2 billion they lost in the first quarter of this year. Lehman Brothers have survived two World Wars and a Great Depression but may not be able to survive the deregulation in tax cuts by the Bush administration.
You knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Drudge, of the Drudge Report, has been on the sidelines. He really hasn’t made any headlines are breaking news. He really hasn’t done anything significant since the Clinton camp stopped feeding him information. Drudge completely botched the lipstick story. Is anyone surprised?
A new scandal is beginning to engulf the Department of the Interior. These are the kind of scandals that I like. It contains sex and drugs but, unfortunately, no rock ‘n roll. It does contain lots of money though.
EJ Donnie of the Washington Post asked the question, “Does the Truth Matter any More?” Nice OpEd.

By ecthompsonmd|2008-09-10T18:30:43-04:00September 10th, 2008|Afghanistan, Economy, Election 2008, Energy, Saudi Arabia|Comments Off