I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about Rudy Giuliani. I thought that it was a joke that he would run. His record in New York as New York’s mayor was mixed at best. The fact that somebody shelled out tons of money because they thought that Rudy was the one is sad. The fact that the answer to any question was 9/11, now, that was funny.
Keith Olbermann and Dana Milbank discuss the flameout.
You know that I tire of story after story about Britney this and Britney that. We all know how this is going to end. Britney Spears is in a psychiatric hospital in California. I wish her well.
Here’s Britney’s latest video. Here are a ton of cool videos. Enjoy!
Signs of Global Warming are really everywhere. Those who can use their eyes can see it. Those that see those the lens of their pocketbook or Fox News, still can’t see it. There is a new study out which again points to human activity as the cause for Global Warming.
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From AP:
People driving their cars, cranking on their air conditioners and switching on lights and dishwashers are responsible for most of the climate changes that are gradually drying up water supplies in arid and growing western states, a new study finds.
Those climate trends are likely to increase, threatening a water crisis in the western United States, says the study published Thursday in the journal Science. (more…)
The King Faisal Foundation has recognized Donald Trunkey, MD, and Basil Pruitt, MD for their accomplishments in trauma. Dr. Trunkey wrote a paper in the late 60’s showing the preventable deaths in LA County and suggested that trauma centers be developed. These trauma centers would be dedicated to taking care of the trauma patient. Over the last 20 years, trauma centers have been shown to reduce mortality and morbidity in trauma patients. Basil Pruitt, MD has spent most of his caring for the Burn patient. He has helped develop and standardize the treatment of the burn patient. Currently, Dr. Pruitt is the editor long-time editor of the Journal of Trauma.
Both Drs. Trunkey and Pruitt have been extremely productive in their academic life. Each publishing well over 250 scientific articles and book chapters. These are 2 outstanding surgeons. I congratulate both of them for their contributions to medicine.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed John McCain. Arnold, the world’s greatest flip-flopper, has embraced McCain. Arnold is blowing with the prevailing Republican wind. 4 years ago, Arnold was at the national republican convention throwing out Bushisms left and right. Remember his take on the economy?
McCain seems to gathering steam. Mitt Romney seems to be dead in the water. He can’t keep presenting himself as a rich know-it-all who is more Reagan than Reagan. Didn’t Bush try to latch himself on to Reagan like a tick. Is that really what the Republicans want? I can tell that isn’t what the general American public wants.
In his Sunday column from January 27, Frank Rich of The New York Times talks about the risks for Democrats in nominating the Hillary and Bill team.
Here is an excerpt—
In a McCain vs. Billary race, the Democrats will sacrifice the most highly desired commodity by the entire electorate, change; the party will be mired in déjà 1990s all over again. Mrs. Clinton’s spiel about being “tested” by her “35 years of experience” won’t fly either. The moment she attempts it, Mr. McCain will run an ad about how he was being tested when those 35 years began, in 1973. It was that spring when he emerged from five-plus years of incarceration at the Hanoi Hilton while Billary was still bivouacked at Yale Law School. And can Mrs. Clinton presume to sell herself as best equipped to be commander in chief “on Day One” when opposing an actual commander and war hero? I don’t think so.
We can do better than Hillary Clinton.
Put on your progressive thinking caps. I have another contest that is coming up in February. Amazon gift cards for $100 for the winner. Great 2nd and 3rd place prizes. Look for the announcement in 2 days.
Rudy Giuliani couldn’t recover from one of the worst weeks in political history. In the end there really wasn’t much to Rudy. He was just a politician who happened to be a ground zero. He was a character out of the pages of Time Magazine. Once he became real, the warts began to show.
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From NYT:
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the combative New York City mayor who rose to national prominence during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, formally ended his presidential campaign on Wednesday and declared that he would throw his support to the candidacy of Senator John McCain.
[snip]
Mr. Giuliani made his announcement at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., just hours before the candidates took the stage there for a debate. His decision, on a day that also saw the Democratic contender John Edwards bow out of the race, followed a devastating defeat for Mr. Giuliani in Tuesday’s Republican primary in Florida. After a series of early primary losses, Mr. Giuliani had made a great effort to win over Florida voters, but finished in a distant third to Mr. McCain in the polling. (more…)
Just 2 short months ago, the Democrats had a field packed with talented candidates. One by one they are dropping out. John Edwards was the latest causality. Now, we are down to Hillary and Barack. Oh, I can’t forget Gravel.
I’ll have more on this later.
The Democratic response was not quite as fiery as Jim Webb was. Nonetheless, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, did a great job at hitting all of the issues and making it clear that Americans are hurting and Americans need help.
While I have not been to a gay wedding, I have been to a wedding in which one of the participants was gay.
This was in Cincinnati, Ohio somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago.
Gay people can get married—even in Cincinnati—as long as they marry someone of the opposite gender.
That’s the catch.
Gay marriage is an excellent idea because people should have the right to marry the person of legal age that they choose to marry. Life is brutal and short. Why create barriers between people?
The groom was gay at the wedding I was at in Cincinnati.
An issue behind the wedding was, as I understood it, getting health insurance for one of the married couple. Though they were close friends as well.
Good enough!
I was not formally invited to this ceremony.
I just happened to run into the bride the day before the wedding and she said I should come. I knew her from around.
If you’re lucky, you had a point in your life when you could walk down a city street and know people.
There is nothing sadder than someone who thinks that they are smarter than everyone else then they find out publicly that they ain’t so smart. Early on, mayor Rudy Giuliani thought up this plan that he wouldn’t campaign any where except Florida. He was going to focus like a laser on Florida. He wasn’t going to “piddle” with Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina. Those were “unimportant”. He was going to be American’s mayor to only a select few and those few would put him over the top. It was a VERY risky strategy and tonight it fell flat on its face. Placing a disappointing 3rd in a state that he campaigned in for about 6 weeks straight has shown what I thought from the start, when you disagree with Republicans on social issues, you aren’t going to do so well. Reports are coming out that Rudy is going to throw in the towel tomorrow. (Maybe the Republicans have moved past 9/11 as the single motivating factor for everything. Quit laughing. No seriously. Oh, forget it.)
What’s up with Mitt Romney? He hasn’t gotten any of the major endorsements. It seems that he is having a big case of the Mike Huckabee Syndrome – the more that the public knows about you the less that they like you. Here’s what you have to be worried about if you are Romney 45% of the voting Republicans said that their number 1 issue was the economy. Romney lost to McCain on the Economy?!?! Mr. Investment Banker couldn’t convince conservatives that he knew what was best for the economy. This is in spite of the fact that McCain only 2 weeks ago stated that he didn’t know very much about the economy.
Mike Huckabee seems to be fading. He isn’t drawing the huge crowds that he once drew. Although he won some counties (3), he didn’t win any major metropolitan areas. Super Tuesday will be putting some southern states into play but since Huckabee didn’t win in South Carolina I think that it will be hard for him to pick up a significant number of states. With him running out of money he will have to be very selective about where he spends his money. BTW, another sign that Huckabee is in serious trouble is that he split with Romney those Republicans who described themselves as Born-again or evangelical Christian. For Mike Huckabee to have a chance he has to win this segment by a huge margin.
John McCain continues to look better and better (to Republicans). I find it funny that a man who said that he was thinking of getting out of the Republican party back in 2000 and who has opposed so many Republican “principles,” is now being embraced by the Republican party. Remember all the way back to Iowa. Pat Buchanan was the Republican talking head on MSNBC. Buchanan was almost seizing anytime that someone mentioned the fact that McCain was seeming like a good option to many Republicans.
Finally, this isn’t over. Super Tuesday should help around out the field but again I don’t think that there will a nominee crowned on Tuesday – for either party.
Psst – Hillary won the democratic primary. No one campaigned in the state. There were no delegates because of spat between the DNC and Florida legislature which is dominated by Republicans who believe in party first.
President Bush has gone out of his way to rally the American people behind inflated or imagined problems. Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, death tax, without tax cuts the economic will sputter, do you remember those oldies but goodies? Well, earmarks are the latest boogie man. Are earmarks bad? Yep. Are they worse than spending billions in Iraq? Doubt it. Are they worse than leaving New Orleans in the lurch? Nope.
I don’t believe that the President has any real intention of stomping out all earmarks. Instead, he is trying to get the public whipped up about something that he can pin on the Democrats (see Hoyer’s quote below).
OH, BTW, Bush signed an executive order to ignore earmarks that aren’t explicitly enacted into law. There is nothing like a democracy by executive order.
Update: Senator Bob Casey takes issue with Bush and his signing statements.
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From WaPo:
Bush warned he would veto any spending bill that does not cut in half the number and cost of earmarks from the year before. He also said he will sign an executive order requiring agencies to ignore any earmark not included in the language of legislation. “The people’s trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks,” Bush said.
Bush’s pledge was met with skepticism from many Democrats and even some in the GOP, who noted that the practice increased dramatically while Republicans controlled Congress. “The number of earmarks exploded under Republican leadership in the House, and for six years President Bush did nothing to slow their growth,” said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). (more…)
Barack Obama challenges every major point of President Bush’s State of the Union speech.
I sat at my computer with Tums in one hand and Pepto Bismol in the other and watched the State of the Union. Every now and then when the pain got too great, I had to turn away but the folks at Think Progress did not. They blogged and referenced throughout the State of the Union. They either have stronger stomachs than I or they had more antacids.
The good news is that we don’t have to guess what Barack Obama would say. Keith Olbermann interviews Barack Obama after the SOTU. One of the best questions was whether the Kennedy endorsement stole the moment from the President and his State of the Union address. I think that the answer is clearly yes. Obama and the Kennedy’s and American University sucked the wind out of the President and his address.
As I said before, this endorsement is huge. It means that the talking heads can finally shut up about whether Barack Obama is a viable candidate. When Edward Kennedy puts not only his reputation on the line but the reputation of the Kennedy name, that says we are backing the candidate that we believe has the best message, the best opportunity to bring America forward in this troubled time.
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From WaPo:
Sen. Barack Obama today picked up the endorsement of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), giving the Illinois Democrat a key boost as he and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) head into their final week of campaigning before the potentially crucial “Super Tuesday” presidential primaries on Feb. 5.
In a speech at American University in Washington, Kennedy, 75, a 45-year veteran of the Senate and a standard-bearer for liberal Democrats, joined his niece, Caroline Kennedy, and his son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), in publicly backing Obama for the party’s nomination. (more…)
Somebody pinch me. Did the president just pull out an oldie but a goodie? Al Qaeda is on the run. Isn’t it time for us to catch these guys who are “on the run”?
From October 25, 2006 -
Q Are we winning?
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely, we’re winning. Al Qaeda is on the run. As a matter of fact, the mastermind, or the people who they think is the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks is in our custody. We’ve now got a procedure for this person to go on trial, to be held for his account. Most of al Qaeda that planned the attacks on September the 11th have been brought to justice.
Extremists have now played their hand; the world can clearly see their ambitions. You know, when a Palestinian state began to show progress, extremists attacked Israel to stop the advance of a Palestinian state. They can’t stand democracies. Extremists and radicals want to undermine fragile democracy because it’s a defeat for their way of life, their ideology.
I had a great discussion with Bill Scher of Campaign for America’s future and Liberal Oasis. We discussed the democratic primary and the HealthCare Debate.
What to talk about? Let’s start with the economic stimulus package and the economy. We chat with Chad Stone from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Next we’ll explore Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Jose Padilla. We’ll chat with blogger and best-selling author Glenn Greenwald. Great show enjoy!
Remember I’m on iTunes and several other podcasting services.
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, full-time sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
