gaza strip Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Monday Afternoon News Roundup

It seems to me that there’s more going on with Hamas in the Gaza Strip the meets the eye. I don’t understand the strategy of lobbing missiles into Israel. What were they hoping to accomplish? Were they thinking that they had improved relationships within the Arab world? Will their Arab neighbors like Egypt come to the rescue? That simply doesn’t make any sense to me. None of this makes any sense, unless Hamas was trying to lower Israel into a ground war. Maybe Hamas has obtained chemical or biological weapons from Iran. Maybe Hamas wants to sucker the Israelis into making some major error which would cause an enormous number of Israeli casualties. I don’t know. It simply doesn’t make any sense.

There are several things that need to be reformed in our government. In no particular order – we don’t need a debt ceiling. It has become a political hot potato in which Republicans can rail on about how much money the government is spending. Election reform is mandatory. We need some sort of national standards for elections. It doesn’t make sense that it took me seven minutes to vote (including time chatting with the folks working at the polling station) and other Americans spent more than seven hours in line waiting to exercise this basic civic duty. The filibuster in the Senate also needs to be rethought and revised. As of now, simply threatening to filibuster causes legislation to be derailed; therefore, almost everything requires sixty votes in order to pass.

British Petroleum is not a criminal. British Petroleum is a company. BP is nothing but a pile of papers and agreements. Criminal behavior can only be done by people; people like the executives of British Petroleum.

Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren should be placed on the banking committee! No one in the Senate is more qualified. In my mind, she should be Senate majority leader, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Look for the financial industry to fight hard to try to keep Elizabeth Warren off of the banking committee.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-11-19T21:12:44-04:00November 19th, 2012|Israel, Party Politics|2 Comments

Thursday Evening News Roundup

Israeli man takes cover as air raid sirens go off (Reuters)

Can somebody please tell me what’s going on in Israel and the Gaza Strip? I don’t understand why Hamas is lobbing missiles into Israel. The only reason that I can possibly think of would be that they’re trying to provoke a military response from Israel. They think they have something. I don’t know what it is. Maybe a new weapon – chemical, biological or nuclear? Maybe they have thousands of troops that have now been trained? I don’t know. The whole thing doesn’t make sense. (Look for the neoconservatives to start blaming Obama for the violence in Gaza. The reason that there is violence in Gaza is because Barack Obama has refused to lead on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. I guarantee you that’s gonna be there line of reasoning.)

Dell Computers’ third-quarter profit has dropped by 47%. Surprised? Just the other day I was talking to a friend of mine and I told him that for years I was buying two or three new computers every year. If I wasn’t buying one for myself I was buying one for my wife. One year I bought a desktop and the following year I bought a laptop. If I wasn’t buying a computer for myself, my wife or my daughter I was buying one as a present for my mother, my father, one of my siblings. I simply don’t do that anymore. My desktop computer is approximately 18 months old. I bought all the components to the computer online and got a local computer guru to put everything together for me. My computer’s fast as lightning. It cost me $700-$800 less than a comparable computer from Dell or Hewlett-Packard or any of the major brand names. Things changed. Dell needs to change or they’re in serious trouble. Tablets have been out for a while. Does Dell have a tablet that rivals the iPad? I didn’t think so.

The US Post Office is in financial trouble, again. Look for conservatives to smile and pounce.

I didn’t know that black people didn’t vote. Was there a meeting that I’d missed?

From the financial sector: Inflation does not seem to be a problem at least it wasn’t in October. Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, basically believes that lending standards have become too tight. The housing market is still problematic. Real income has fallen.

Walmart is in trouble. There’s a federal investigation into suspicions of bribery; not only in Mexico, but also China, India and Brazil. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-11-16T20:21:28-04:00November 16th, 2012|Business, Environment, Israel, Obama administration|2 Comments

What's Going On – News Roundup

The United States abstained from a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate and durable cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. The United States abstained. The United States abstained? I just don’t understand how we are not taking the lead in this conflict. It would seem that sitting on the sidelines is not a viable option.
A committee in the Illinois House of Representatives has recommended that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich be impeached. The recommendation was unanimous. Interestingly, Ronald Burris, soon to be the junior senator from Illinois, had to testify in front of this committee. He stated that there was no “quid pro quo” for his nomination.
As of today, it appears that only one of Barack Obama’s nominations for his Cabinet posts is going to be scrutinized or beat up by the Republicans. Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Charles Grassley are gearing up to oppose Eric Holder (Obama’s choice for Attorney General). The part of this saga that I find intriguing is that no one had any specific objection to Eric Holder shortly after the nomination was announced. Early in December, Karl Rove called Eric Holder, “one controversial nominee.” Since then, Arlen Specter’s rhetoric has become more and more negative towards Eric Holder. So here are some of my questions. Is Alan Specter worried about a challenge from his Right in 2010? Do Alan Specter and Charles Grassley take marching orders from Karl Rove? Has Karl Rove become the de facto president of the Republican National Committee? Why would Karl Rove have any significant pull in the Republican Party after getting trounced in two national elections?
Terrible flooding in Washington State.
Missile strike has reportedly killed two top Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. Only time will tell if these guys where truly top Al Qaeda operatives or just Al Qaeda foot soldiers.
Has Microsoft thrown in the towel on Vista? Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, has announced that Windows 7 is in Beta testings. He is calling it the best Windows ever. Well, it has to be better than ME.
Missouri Senator Kit Bond is rumored to be retiring. No run in 2010. This opens up another Republican seat for the Dems to challenge.

By ecthompsonmd|2009-01-08T22:52:32-04:00January 8th, 2009|Domestic Issues, Israel, Legal, Obama administration, Senate|Comments Off