Where's the Outrage?

Remember the put several months ago where several generals and Vice President Cheneywent to Iraq and asks the governement officials to get their act together?  Do you remember that?  Well, a funny thing has happened, in spite of all of the pressure that the Bush Administration has put on the Iraqi government, they have met NONE of their goals.  There is no agree on oil revenue sharing but we all knew that this would happen. 

Update:  As Anne pointed out, we haven’t met any of our benchmarks either.  We haven’t restored power to pre-war levels.  We haven’t restores basic law and order.  Iraqi fear kidnapping and death on an almost daily basis. 

We must all reject the “they will follow us home” mantra. 

Countdown - No goals met [ 2:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Countdown, Iraq by ecthompson md
2 Comments »

Senator David Vitter’s (Rep.) phone number has shown up on the DC Madam’s list.  Oops.  I’m looking forward to seeing how the GOP spins this one. 

Tags: Senate by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

Many people are looking at the Iraq situation and rumblings from Repblicans in the Senate and beleive that change is coming.  I’m not sure that all of this talk will equal action.  We’ll see. 

The President’s goal is not going to withdraw troops.  Condi Rice showed us a small peek into the heart of the administration.   She admitted on the Charlie Rose Show that they had no intention of leaving until Iraq had a stable government that could defend itself and its borders.  Hell, we can’t stabilize Iraq and we can’t secure its borders.  Therefore, unless Congress is willing to bring the hammer, they are wasting their time and our tax dollars.  We will have to do more than cut off funding for the war.  Congress will have to squeeze the Pentagon and the White House.  If 50% of the Republicans don’t have the stomach for toe-toe heavyweight bout with the White House our troops aren’t coming home.  At least not before January of 2009.

Change on Iraq [ 3:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Iraq, Senate by ecthompson md
No Comments »

Roger and Venus.  If you don’t play tennis it is hard to really understand the mental toughness that is needed to play the game.  You need no mental anything to hit the ball for 30 minutes with your buddy for college.  On the other hand, if you have been playing your butt of an hour or so and win the first set and lose the second then you understand about mental toughness.  You understand about momentum and the need to forget the last bad shot. 

Roger Federer suffers from not having a good American rival so he will never get his do.  He suffers from the fact that he is almost likable, almost.  I have been watching tennis for over 35 years.  He is clearly one of the best, ever.  He is not Conners or Borg or Sampras or Aggasi.  He’s Roger.  He plays.  He wins.  He moves on. 

Venus suffers from a different problem.  She is plenty likeable  and very noticeable in a sport with 99.9% White folks.  She kinda stands out.  Venus is a better than Serena at tennis.  Serena is a better athlete.  Venus who is taller moves better on the court and should have a more powerful serve.  Serena has that other 25% of tennis that Venus has trouble with – the mental portion.  Venus seems to have trouble forgetting that last bad call or bad shot.  It all begins to build.  Fault.  Double fault.  More badness.  Before you know if she has lost to someone none of us have ever heard of.  Serena seems to have the ability to move on and play the next point. 

For the last 2 weeks, Venus played about as well as I have seen her in years.  Hell, Venus Williams was ranked 31.  (31!!!  31 at Wimbledon that’s crazy.  Venus for the rest of her career should never be ranked less than 10th. )  Venus played like she should.  She was brilliant in decreaing mental errors and decreasing unforced errors. 

Congratulations to both GREAT champions. 

Tags: Sports by ecthompson md
No Comments »

If you have a population of people who feel that they are not apart of society.  That they have no where to go and nothing to lose then suicide bomber may not sound so bad.  This report makes it sound like there is nothing for the British society to do.  There is a ton that they can do.  Accept Muslims into their society or deport them. 

Britain's problem with homegrown terror [ 2:08 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Terrorism by ecthompson md
2 Comments »

So, Tucker has this right wing dude who is frothing at the mouth,  I thought only liberals were unhinged.  ;-)  Al Qaeda in Iraq is the most active and lethal part of Al Qaeda, he said.  Why didn’t anyone say that the part of Al Qaeda that is in Afghanistan is the part that attacked the US.  That is where we need to be.  

The Surge has proved what we already know, the American forces can control an area but we don’t have enough troops to control the country.  Anbar seems to be less violent but Diyala which is east of Baghdad is considerably more violent.  We move in and the insurgents move out. 

Richard Wolfe does make one good point there isn’t the political will on the part of Republicans to go against the president.  Next year with an election on the horizon they may jump ship but for now, they will talk like they are moving away from him but vote with him. 

Tucker - Who is running from Bush? [ 4:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Al Qaeda, Bush Administration, Iraq, Media by ecthompson md
1 Comment »