Where's the Outrage?

Protests and fighting in Syria continues despite brutal repression by the Syrian Government.

The U.S. embassy in Syria has been closed as the Syrian government goes on killing its own people.  

Here is  what President Obama has said  as reported in the New York Times—

“President Obama condemned what he called “the Syrian government’s unspeakable assault against the people of Homs,” saying in a statement that President Bashar al-Assad “has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community.”

Mother Jones magazine is a great liberal publication which has been keeping up on events in Syria. 

Here is Amnesty International on Syria. 

Here is a New York Times summary of events in Syria. In the middle right side of this resource are a large number of links to learn more.

Here is a BBC guide to the situation in Syria. 

From the BBC—

“Syria is a country of 21 million people with a large Sunni majority (74%) and significant minorities (10% each) of Christians and Alawites – the Shia sect to which Mr Assad belongs. For years, Mr Assad has promoted a secular identity for the Syrian state, hoping to unify diverse communities in a region where sectarian conflict is rife – as seen in neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq. The regime can still mobilise support, especially from minority groups and the upper classes However, he also concentrated power in the hands of his family and members of the Alawite community, who wield a disproportionate power in the Syrian government, military and business elite. Claims of corruption and nepotism have been rife among the excluded Sunni majority. And protests have generally been biggest in Sunni-dominated rural areas, towns and cities, as opposed to mixed areas. Opposition figures have stressed that they seek a “multi-national, multi-ethnic and religiously tolerant society”. But there are fears of chaos and instability – even talk of civil war – if Mr Assad should fall. Activists say these fears are overblown.” 

Here is a history of the Syrian nation. 

Here is the U.S. State Department overview of Syria. 

It may not be clear what difference a blog post or the concern of everyday people far away from Syria will do to change events in Syria. The government of President Bashar al-Assad will apparently only give up power when it is forced to do so.

Yet many brave people are fighting in Syria no matter the risk of violence or death. At the least they merit our acknowledgment and our concern. At best, an ongoing worldwide focus on repression and efforts to fight repression will help create a climate of hope and freedom in our connected world.

The message from Syria is that every person has a voice. We should each use the voice we are given in the best way we are able.

(Below—A 2011 anti-government protest in the Syrian city of Baniyas. Photo by Syria Frames Of Freedom.)  

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Obama administration by Neil Aquino
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I’ve mentioned this before but I think it’s worth mentioning again. I think it illustrates a very important point about Rick Santorum. Data and information do not penetrate his cranium.

Let’s go back to the dark days. We invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. One of the premier reasons for going to war was that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction. We all remember Colin Powell in front of the UN General assembly laying out the case against Saddam Hussein. According to the Bush administration Iraq had tons of weapons of mass destruction this included chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Many people have discussed the frantic in futile search for weapons of mass destruction in 2003. Thomas Ricks has done one of the best jobs at documenting the search in his book, Fiasco. The fact that President Bush and Vice President Cheney personally got involved in the search is critically important. Judith Miller, New York Times reporter and cheerleader for the war, went to Iraq to personally “show” the military where to look. Yet, there were no weapons of mass destruction found. By late 2003 and early 2004, it was clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq. By September 2004, the Iraq survey group announced that they did not find any evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction at the time of our invasion in 2003. More study and more handwringing by the Bush administration revealed even more evidence that there were no weapons of mass destruction at the time of our invasion. Yet, in June of 2006, then Senator Rick Santorum decided that he had found something that nobody else at found chemical weapons in Iraq. He called a press conference to announce his findings. He was wrong. He showed none of the judgment that one would expect from a Senator. Is clearly not the judgment that we would expect of the president.

Santorum proves that he can't evaluate information [ 3:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Elections, Iraq by ecthompson md
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Did you see this story? Very odd.

From NYT:

A bomber on a motorcycle killed a scientist from Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment site and his bodyguard-driver on Wednesday during the morning commute in Tehran, Iranian media reported, in an assassination that could further elevate international tensions over the Iranian nuclear program and stoke the country’s growing anti-Western belligerence.

It was the fourth such attack reported in two years and, as after the previous episodes, Iranian officials accused the United States and Israel of responsibility. The White House condemned the attack and denied any responsibility. The official reaction in Israel appeared to be more cryptic.

Iranian news accounts said the suspected assassin had attached a magnetized explosive device to the scientist’s car and escaped during the rush hour in northern Tehran. News photographs from the scene showed a car, a Peugeot 405, draped in a pale blue tarp being lifted onto a truck. Some photographs published by Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency showed what it said was the body of the scientist still inside the car. The head was covered with a white cloth.

I just don’t know what to make of it. It is something out of James Bond.

Of course we are the denial from the State Department.

Tags: Iran by ecthompson md
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C&L were counting down their best videos of the year. The third best was this one.

This is Sarah Palin and Greta trying to rip the president over his Libyan policy. Sure, Sarah Palin was her typical clueless self, but once again this clip reveals how the Right wanted Obama to invade with a major offensive. Instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars and losing hundreds if not thousands of troops, we accomplished our objective and didn’t lose one American soldier. Not one. A boil on the butt of the world is gone and we helped to make it happen. Obama has done some things right while in office and this is one of them. (Killing Osama Bin Laden was another, but I will not get into that now.) Gleaning information from the MSM, one would think that Obama hasn’t done one thing right and hasn’t accomplished anything. That simply isn’t true.

Tags: Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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The strange leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, has died. Everyone is worried about what’s going to happen. Hell, we couldn’t figure out North Korea before. North Korea has never been predictable. As a country, they have decided that it is better to let their people starve than accept foreign aid. So now I suspect that the situation will continue to be a head scratcher. Personally, I think that it is a great opportunity for South Korea to reach out to North Korea. Once again, to extend the hand of friendship. Try to open up the North Korea border with food aid and energy assistance. All you can do is try.

Tags: North Korea by ecthompson md
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I know that we’ve intermittently talked about this before, but now seems to be a perfect time to discuss our wars with Iraq (our troops are coming home, finally) and Afghanistan. Make no mistake, we were definitely attacked on September 11, 2001. A group of 19 terrorists with the aid of Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban took down the World Trade Center, tore a huge hole in the Pentagon and crashed an airliner into a rural portion of Pennsylvania. We now know that these acts of terrorism set in motion a cascade of events which have cost the American people well over $1.5 trillion. 6200 American soldiers have died. Tens of thousands of American soldiers have been wounded. What did we get in return?

When you invest blood and sweat into a project, you should at least hope to get something out of it. Stability in the Middle East? A thriving economy in Afghanistan? At the time of the Iraq invasion, many Americans believed that we were invading Iraq in order to secure their oil. Do we have secure oil agreements in place? Did we, at least, improve our relationships with other governments in the Middle East?

Some of these questions don’t really have answers. Others of these questions do have answers and the answers, unfortunately, are depressing. We spent a lot of time and effort and nearly destroyed our military in the process. We have simply the death of Osama bin Laden and several of his lieutenants to show for our efforts. Questions like whether we madr terrorism worse still linger. Now is the time for us to figure out what we did wrong. We should also assess what we did right. We need to make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes which led to the disastrous decisions to invade both of those countries. I would submit that we could have infiltrated Afghanistan with a couple hundred to a couple of thousand troops with appropriate air support and eliminated Osama bin Laden and most of Al Qaeda within a matter of weeks or months. I don’t know. What I do know is that spending $1.5 trillion and losing over 6000 troops, breaking our military and getting almost nothing in return is unacceptable.

Tags: Afghanistan, Bin Laden, Iraq, Terrorism by ecthompson md
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If you’re running for president, you should know some of the basics of foreign-policy. Over the last six months, our involvement with Libya has been questioned by conservatives and liberals alike. Muammar Qaddafi has been a thorn in our side since the Reagan administration. It is clear that his state has sponsored terrorists (Lockerbie bombing, bombing of a Berlin dance club). His state has been involved in trying to acquire nuclear weapons. (They did negotiate nuclear disarmament with the Bush administration.) We have sided with the rebels against Muammar Qaddafi and his Libyan regime. I know this off the top of my head. I understand that I’m not in a room with a bunch of journalists being asked questions but this is some of the basic facts that any and all presidential candidates should have at their fingertips. If you do not have this basic information you’re not a serious presidential candidate period.

Herman Cain’s excuse for his poor performance was that he was tired. Seriously. There might be no job that is more grueling than being President of the United States. I can’t believe he’s whining about not having enough sleep.

This is from Think Progress and it documents some of Herman Cain’s foreign-policy blunders over the last several months:

Tags: Elections, Foreign Affairs, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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I’m not a nuclear expert, but off the top of my head I know several countries that have nuclear weapons. Let’s see… there is Israel, France, Britain, Pakistan, India. Oh, Russia and North Korea. That’s it. Oh, damn, I forgot. CHINA. How can someone who is running for president (Herman Cain) not know that China is a nuclear country? Either he is a moron or he thinks that you and I are.

Tags: Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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It should be no surprise to anyone that we are more connected with our brothers across the ocean than ever before. With the Internet and various treaties and whatnot, it is now possible for me to order olives in Greece and have them delivered, here, next week. While this is sweet, this benefit also comes with a downside. Our financial markets are more interconnected than ever. This means it actually matters what happens in the European Union. If Europe falls into a deep, deep recession, our economy will stagnate. (I know some of you are asking how it could stagnate even more, but take my word for it, can.)

The news out of Europe is really awful:

The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou teetered on the verge of collapse on Tuesday, threatening Greece’s adherence to the terms of a new deal with its foreign lenders and plunging Europe into a fresh bout of financial turmoil.

Several lawmakers in the governing Socialist Party rejected Mr. Papandreou’s surprise plan for a popular referendum on the Greek bailout, raising the possibility that he will not survive a no-confidence vote scheduled for Friday that depends on his holding together a razor-thin parliamentary majority. Mr. Papandreou was holding an emergency cabinet meeting Tuesday evening to save his government, but the opposition and some members of his own party were calling for new elections immediately.

The impasse in Athens seemed likely to delay — and perhaps scuttle — the debt deal that European leaders reached after marathon negotiations in Brussels last week. Financial markets cratered on Tuesday for the second straight day, wiping out the gains since the Brussels deal was announced last week. Some analysts said that Greece was now coming closer to a messy default on its debt, and perhaps a departure from the zone of 17 countries that use the euro as their common currency.

Tags: Economy, Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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Several days ago, a series of earthquakes hit Turkey. This has caused the deaths of more than 500 Turkish citizens. When you’re sitting back and wondering about the role of government and how can government do better, look at disaster relief. The survivors of the Turkish earthquake are now having to live without adequate shelter. It is cold, raining and snowing there.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From the BBC:

Officials say 1,650 people were injured in the 7.2-magnitude quake which had its epicentre in Van province – 185 people have been rescued alive.

Rain and snow are hindering the rescue effort and worsening conditions for the thousands of people made homeless.

Tents and other aid supplies are being delivered after some initial criticism that the response was too slow.

Hundreds of people are still missing under collapsed buildings.

Rescuers in some places are continuing to search for those buried in the rubble, but at other sites they have stopped work and attention is turning to the needs of the survivors.

People in the hardest-hit town, Ercis, have formed long queues to try to get hold of tents but many have been told there are none left.

“Everyone is getting sick and wet,” said Fetih Zengin, a 38-year-old whose house was badly damaged.

“We have been waiting in line for four days and still nothing.”

Rescue efforts are continuing in the worst hit town, Ercis, but have ended in the city of Van
“We slept under a piece of plastic erected on some wooden boards we found. We have 10 children in our family,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Another survivor, Zeki Yatkin, lost his father in the quake.

“They say we will get prefabricated houses in one-and-a-half months,” he said, in an interview with Reuters.

“We can’t tolerate the cold, but what else can we do?”

Tags: Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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Today, President Obama has announced that all American troops are coming home from Iraq by the end of the year. I’m sure that there is going to be a lot of discussion and finger-pointing over time tables and such. In my opinion, it is past time for our troops to come home. We’ve lost too many Americans. Unfortunately, after much thought and consideration, it is difficult for me to come up with much that we’ve accomplished. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. Everyone will acknowledge that he was a dictator and a mass murderer. As we began what will no doubt be a protracted discussion on what was accomplished and when should we come home, I think it is important for us to remember our goals. I have to smile because our goals have changed over the last 8-10 years. Originally, our goals were to prevent Saddam Hussein from launching an attack on the United States or our allies with weapons of mass destruction (nuclear weapons, chemical weapons or biological weapons). As everyone now knows, we found no weapons of mass destruction – none. There were multiple other reasons placed out there in the ethernet which included securing Iraqi oil for the United States, freeing the Iraqi people from the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, freeing Iraq from the terrorists calling themselves Al Qaeda in Iraq and finally, the domino effect. By taking out Saddam Hussein and instilling democracy in Iraq, democracy would spread throughout the Middle East.

I’m ecstatic that our troops are coming home. I am deeply saddened that we spent over $800 billion (more than our economic stimulus package) and have so little to show for it. Over 4400 Americans have been killed and over 32,000 have been wounded. I know that our troops have fought bravely. I’m in awe of their sacrifice and dedication to duty.

Mister President – let’s bring them home quickly and safely.

Tags: Iraq, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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I find it hard to believe that it was just six or eight weeks ago that we were talking about the last possible government shutdown. Tempers flared. There was a lot of finger-pointing but, in the end, Republicans backed off from their extreme positions and the government continued. Once again, we’re looking at a government shutdown. In a terrible game of déjà vu, Republicans have again decided they need to use the American economy as a bargaining chip. Democrats cannot agree to any short-term measures, in my opinion. Republicans are playing a game of death by 1000 cuts (pun intended). They want to hold the economy hostage in order to get not just some of what they want, but all of what they want. The fact that their demands were unreasonable, shortsighted and harmful to the economy (long-term) doesn’t seem to matter to them.

Elena Kagan has now been on the Supreme Court for year.

Average weekly hours worked in the private sector has plummeted over the last several weeks.

Gas prices at the pump continue to decline.

The European Union is still struggling to come up with some rational way to save Greece.

The mainstream media seems to be ignoring protests on Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street could turn into a huge movement. We need Wall Street to begin to work for us again. Currently, they only seem to work for themselves.

Remember when Republican candidates attacked Barack Obama for not supporting Israel? According to the Israeli president, Barack Obama is a great friend of Israel. In fact, Barack Obama has essentially embraced the policies of George W. Bush, who embraced the policies of Bill Clinton. There’s been no discernible movement in America support for Israel for more than 50 years.

What stories are you following this morning?

Tags: Economy, Israel, Obama administration, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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I’m still recovering over my disappointment… No, that’s not right. Frustration? No, that’s not quite the right word either. I’m still recovering after witnessing the utter collapse of the Dallas Cowboys on national TV. I have no idea how a team that is supposed to go deep into the playoffs loses a 14 point lead in the fourth quarter. More on this later.

Staying on sports, Serena Williams lost to Samantha Stosur on Sunday. (No, that’s not right either. I’m having trouble choosing the right words. Sorry.) Samantha Stosur dominated and embarrassed Serena Williams like we’ve never seen in a grand slam. Serena was never in the match. Rafael Nadal, defending champion, lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets today in the U.S. Open. No matter who you’re rooting for, if you love tennis, there was great tennis played in both of these matches.

The Republican Tea Party debate is going on now on CNN. I have no further comment.

After 30 years of Republicans eagerly cutting and Democrats timidly cutting the safety net, real hardship is returning to the United States.

Speaking of hardship, Americans are on pace to spend a record amount of money on gasoline this year.

Do you remember when you were asked to give up your pensions and pour your money into a 403B or 401(k) in order for you to get “higher returns on your money”? Well, how do you retire when there are these huge market swings? You can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars if you retire on Monday instead of on Friday. These huge market swings and market volatility are excellent examples of why we, the average American citizen, should not be in the market.

There seems to be some mounting evidence that this is the most anti-environmental Congress in history. I’m not quite sure how you measure that, but I can tell you they haven’t been supportive of the environment.

I don’t understand how you vote to rebuild Iraq but for some reason you oppose rebuilding America. How is this possible in an American congressman? I guess you’ll have to ask Eric Cantor.

It appears that Diane Feinstein has got some campaign finance issues. Her campaign appears to be out of money. I’m not sure how that happened. Then again, I’m not supposed to know. The senator is not sure how that happened. I’m pretty sure that she is supposed to know…

So, what’s on your mind this evening?

Tags: Economy, Iraq, Sports by ecthompson md
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AK-47 plus crazed man equals chaos in Carson City, Nevada. Three people are dead. Seven people were wounded. The incident happened at an IHOP. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has unveiled his jobs plan. Cut the corporate income tax from 35% to 25%. Make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Eliminate taxes on dividends, interest and capital gains. Oh, just to top off this “jobs plan,” he would push for free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. More drilling for oil. Where are the jobs in this jobs plan? This appears to be more of the same. Free-trade equals exporting jobs. This is simply a bunch of Republican gibberish and there are almost no jobs in here. I don’t see anything that would actually grow the middle class.

I’m not sure what’s going on in Libya. There seems to be a convoy of senior Libyan officials from the Qaddafi regime who have fled to Niger.

The chief of Yahoo has been fired. Yahoo, in my opinion, is an excellent example of a company that has needed executive leadership for more than 15 years. (I talked about Yahoo here.) Now, I think it’s too late to resuscitate the company.

Americans are smoking less. This is good. Now, if we could eat less and exercise more…

Rep. Tammy Baldwin announces that she’s running for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin.

Now that Texas is fighting some of the largest wildfires in its history, I find it interesting that it was Rick Perry and his Republican friends who cut funding to fight fires.

One of the biggest drags on the economy is the fact that our economy over the last 15 years switched from manufacturing to housing. We started building tons of houses. Now that the housing sector has collapsed, we need something to take up the slack. The graph below shows construction payroll jobs. Notice a huge increase from the mid-’90s through 2007. How do we make up the slack? This is the problem. The only way that I know of to fix this is putting all of these construction guys back to work building schools and roads and fixing our infrastructure. This is something we can do now!

Tags: Domestic Issues, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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Many of us are not able to camp outdoor cookout today because of heavy rains. The rains are welcome.

These rains are helping the swamp fires in southern Louisiana.

The EU and NATO believe that we are safer 10 years after 9/11. I think they’re probably right.

New survey shows that almost 70% of Americans believe that we’re in a serious to moderate recession. This should be no surprise. With tens of millions of Americans either unemployed or underemployed and the economy stuck in neutral Americans are feeling the squeeze.

The New York Stock Exchange is closed today but stocks opened much lower in Europe.

Pakistan and America are trying to make nice.

The Washington Post has published the five myths of 9/11. Take a look. See what you think. #5 is that US civil liberties were decimated after the attacks. I think this point is somewhat questionable. I think there’s no doubt that we’ve given up some freedom, everywhere from more invasive screening at airports to warrantless wiretaps. Have these government powers been abused? Have we, the American citizens, suffered? Only time will tell.

Conservatives decided that the failure of that solar plant that the Obama administration had so publicly supported means that it is time to jump on the anti-solar power bandwagon, again. Some in the conservative media have even pushed the idea that solar power doesn’t work. Moronic. (How conservatives decided to embrace nuclear power but shun solar power?)

I simply don’t understand how anybody can embrace more corporate tax cuts. Corporations, major corporations, are sitting on billions of dollars in profits. Some still believe, though, that if we give these corporations even more money that will somehow make them decide to stop hiring people overseas and begin to hire Americans here at home. The idea is complete nonsense.

Sarah Palin believes that the Tea Party is winning. Winning what exactly? The Tea Party is more unpopular than ever.

On Labor Day, let’s take a quick look at Labor. Labor seems to be working harder and getting less. From the BLS report – In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 3 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $23.09. Decrease? We need an increase in take home pay. Period. Any decrease has to be seen as a huge setback. We as a labor force, are already behind the 8-ball.

Post Office is running into a money crush. To be honest and nonpartisan for just a second, I have no idea how the post office stays open. I receive most of my bills via e-mail. I pay most of my bills via e-mail/Internet. I can’t be the only one who’s doing this. This must account for a huge decrease in volume in US mail. Has the US Post Office made adjustments with service? Have they streamlined? Are they more efficient in this more competitive environment?

Finally, from the Associated Press – Today in History:

Tags: Economy, Pakistan, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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• If you read just a little bit about the Great Recession, then you know that whenever one of the big Wall Street firms was in trouble, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and even Morgan Stanley, they all at one time or another called Warren Buffett for an emergency loan. So it is interesting that Bank of America just got an infusion of $5 billion from Warren Buffett. Bank of America is having trouble fending off lawsuits over its Countrywide acquisition. It appears that several parties believe that countrywide acted in a fraudulent manner and continue to sue countrywide for large sums of money, with which Bank of America needs to settle. Warren Buffett’s infusion of cash does help.
• Hispanics are currently the largest minority group in college. They have just recently surpassed Blacks. All I can say is that we need more Americans in college. We need more Americans to graduate college. We need more government loans and grants to help pay for the ever-increasing expense that is college.
• Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, and the rest of the world’s financial gurus are all gathered at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This is the annual Fed meeting. This is the meeting where you would expect a lot of discussion and then finally a brilliant intervention to fix what is ailing our economy. Don’t expect it. With Republicans mired in reactionary policies which are going to hurt the economy and the Democrats mired in indecision, as usual, the Fed is stuck in molasses.
• Pakistan is becoming the new wild wild West.
• The US economy is growing, although it is growing at a very slow pace.
• One of the few programs that the government has instituted to help homeowners was buried in the Trouble Asset Relief Program. Over $45 billion was set aside to help homeowners fend off foreclosure. Only $2 billion of that has been used. Somehow, that money is going to be rolled back into the treasury in order to pay down the deficit.
• The manufacturing sector expanded modestly this month.
• Our own obesity is starting to cost us billions of dollars. Estimates that obesity is going to cost us over $66 billion by the year 2030 are hard to swallow (pun intended). As we struggle with our healthcare costs, we’re going to have to address the obesity crisis in the United States.

Jill St. John as Tiffany Case in the James Bond movie – Diamonds Are Forever

• A new planet has been found in another galaxy. This planet is made entirely of crystallized carbon – it’s a diamond. How cool is that?

Tags: Economy, Healthcare, Pakistan, Race, Science by ecthompson md
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• One thing you can say about the media is that they will always find something to go bonkers about. They have completely forgotten about the earthquake in Virginia and are now focused on the hurricane that is projected to hit North Carolina sometime on Friday. They are also in a tizzy over Steve Jobs’ resignation. It is clear that Apple Computers is not to be the same company without Steve Jobs. He was the one that had the drive, the determination and the vision to create the products that we now associate with Apple Computers. In my opinion, his greatness was in creating a user interface that was beautiful to look at and easy to use.

Irene:

• Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill in the Senate to strengthen Social Security. We need more of this.
• One of the things that is great about writing your own memoir is that you can say whatever it is you want to say. I know that everybody’s been on the edge of their seat waiting on former Vice President Dick Cheney to write his memoir. Well, the wait is over. By the way, how is he staying out of jail?
• The CIA is editing and re-editing a new book on 9/11. The FBI’s is written by a former FBI agent, an Arab-speaking counterterrorism agent. Ali Soufan should be a name well known to those who have followed the events of 9/11 very closely. He testified in Congress about the torture techniques that were used by the CIA. He stated, without hesitation, that they were unnecessary and counterproductive. If the CIA does not edit the book to death, I’m looking forward to the publication.
• J.P. Morgan has been fined. They basically broke US sanctions with regards to Iran, Cuba and Sudan. The fine was only $88 million.
• Fox News shuts down Karl Rove when he begins to describe Sarah Palin as thin-skinned.  I wonder what that’s all about.
• Robert Reich is calling for a protest on Labor Day. Marches instead of parades. I’m down with that.
• There’s a growing dissatisfaction against companies who seem to be discriminating against unemployed workers. Please follow the link. This is important.
• The Bush tax cuts are still contributing significantly to our debt. The CBO has the latest numbers.
• Mark Thoma tackles the question concerning why the Fed is hesitant to do more to help our economy.

Tags: Bush Administration, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Senate by ecthompson md
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By now, everybody knows about the earthquake which occurred in Virginia yesterday. I felt it here in Asheville, North Carolina. The news coverage from the mainstream media was over the top to say the least. There appears to been some damage to the National Cathedral. There appears to be only minor damage to the Washington Monument.

The North Anna nuclear power plant, which is located on an earthquake fault line, shut down yesterday as a precautionary measure. At least, that’s what we were told yesterday. Today, we find out that its off-site power supply had been lost. It was basically using diesel generators in order to cool the units. I’m not sure about the wisdom of building a nuclear power plant on a fault line. Also, we found out that this power plant, which is indeed located on a fault line, removed all of its seismic detection equipment because of budget cuts. Finally, the North Anna plant was built to withstand an earthquake of approximately 5.9 in intensity.

Hurricane Irene is now a category three hurricane. Currently, projections have it possibly hitting the South Carolina/North Carolina coast early Saturday morning. It is projected to be a strong category three if and when it hits the coast.

Al Sharpton is getting his own show on MSNBC.

Jamie Leigh Jones, the former KBR employee who stated she’d been drugged and raped in Iraq, is now being sued by the company to recoup their attorneys fees for over $2 million.

I find it kind of funny that Rick Perry’s campaign continues to disavow his book that he only published nine months ago. The communications director actually had the nerve to tell the Wall Street Journal that the book did not reflect the governor’s current views. Although I doubt that Governor Perry actually wrote the book, I do believe that there was a team of consultants who sat down with Rick Perry and went through the book line by line before it was published. The book reflects exactly what he thinks would get him elected. That’s why he wrote it.

Libya is still in turmoil. The party seems to be nonstop in Tripoli. The elusive Colonel appears to be in hiding.

Worst Persons in the World:

Tags: Domestic Issues, Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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From PA (I inserted some good stuff, I couldn’t help myself):

• Libya: “Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi remained at large Monday, and loyalist forces still held pockets of the city, stubbornly resisting the rebels’ efforts to establish full control, but there was little doubt that the Libyan leader’s four-decade grip on power was ending.”
• The Gaddafi regime is collapsing sooner than anticipated, forcing Western countries to scramble to put together post-conflict plans for Libya.
• Egyptian/Israeli tensions reach their highest point in three decades: “Diplomats scrambled to avert a crisis in relations between Egypt and Israel on Saturday, and the Israeli government issued a rare statement of regret for the killing of three Egyptian security officers by an Israeli warplane.”
• Iran: “Two American hikers imprisoned in Iran for more than two years have been convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in jail, according to a news reports.”
• The world probably didn’t need an easier way to enrich uranium, but General Electric has developed a successful new laser-enrichment technique.

• President Richard M. Nixon started a radical program to control inflation on this date in 1971. Wage and price freeze. It sort of worked.
• The Keystone XL pipeline, which would “carry diluted bitumen — an acidic crude oil — from Canada’s Alberta tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast,” is generating controversy.
• Juan Cole has an interesting item noting the “top 10 myths” about the war in Libya.
• A long-awaited memorial honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.opened to the public today, near the Washington Mall.
• Not suspicious at all: “The e-mail accounts of Rick Scott and most of the governor-elect’s transition team were deleted soon after he took office, potentially erasing public records that state law requires be kept.”
• Rick Perry wrote this very extremist book and now people are saying him about it. It seems that he doesn’t like or believe the ideas in the book which he wrote.
• This whole economy has me worried.
• Gas prices look like they are going to fall for the next several months. That’s good news.
• Something’s wrong with this picture: “[T]he total cost of tuition, room, and board at Amherst College, for instance, is $53,370 a year. Even relatively affluent people can’t easily manage to shell out $53,000 at one time. And so Amherst uses a company called Tuition Management Systems to help make tuition payments more affordable. But TMS charges a 2.99 percent fee for every credit charge transaction. That’s $1,595 a year.”

HP just killed the TouchPad and WebOS

• For those who believe that business always gets things right, I present to you HP’s touchpad. HP had the pad market and did little if anything with it for years. They bought Compaq and Palm several years ago and Compaq had those little devices that were almost useful. The iPad comes out of nowhere. Apple kicks everyone’s butt. HP retools. They rework the OS and present a flop. I don’t understand how you spend all of that time and effort and come out with garbage. Engadget said it best, “Oh, happy day, when one first receives a device that’s been eagerly anticipated for months. Sad, sad day when that device fails to live up to one’s expectations. We all wanted the TouchPad to really compete, to give us a compelling third party to join the iOS and Android boxes on the ballot. But, alas, this isn’t quite it.”

Tags: Domestic Issues, Foreign Affairs, Iran, Israel by ecthompson md
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It appears after months of fighting Gaddafi and his government are falling.

Video from Sky

Tripoli is Falling [ 1:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From BBC:

A convoy of Libyan rebels has rolled into central Tripoli past celebrating crowds after a day of heavy fighting in and around the capital.

They appeared to meet little resistance and civilians emerged to cheer them, waving flags and firing celebratory shots as they passed in their pick-ups.

Video from the city apparently shows the rebels celebrating on Green Square.

The rebels reportedly captured Col Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam as the leader himself vowed to fight on.

“I have received confidential information stating he has been arrested,” International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told AFP news agency.

The court has indicted Saif for torturing and killing civilians.

Another of Col Gaddafi’s sons, Muhammad, was also detained, according to rebel sources.

The BBC’s correspondent in Tripoli, Matthew Price, says the rebels appear to be trying to take control of the hotel where he and other journalists have been staying. Gun battles have raged around the Rixos Hotel all day.

Col Gaddafi is believed to still have thousands of armed followers in the capital but other reports suggest a number of them have been surrendering to the rebels.

Tags: Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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