Where's the Outrage?

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
No Comments »

• 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
No Comments »

• Isn’t calling for a sitting president to be tortured (water boarded) a treasonable offense? I might have to look that up. It’s clearly un-American.
• President Obama honored those who died at Ground Zero.  “When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”
• Corporations continue to pay some of the lowest taxes they’ve seen in over 50 years.

• As a government, our lack of revenue is the problem. The middle class is ponying up their share. It is corporations and the top 1% who are taking home more and paying less.
• Pakistan plays the Sergeant Schultz card. (See the video below.) They knew nothing about Bin Laden chillin’ in their country.

• The Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Representative Dave Camp announced today that repeal of the healthcare law is “dead.”
• Republicans continue to get blow back from Americans in their own districts about their attempts to dismantle healthcare reform.
• Pakistan has released photos from inside bin Laden’s compound.
• Remember Monica Goodling? She was a central figure in the US attorney scandal. She received an official reprimand from the Virginia bar.

Tags: Bin Laden, Economy, Healthcare, Pakistan, US Attorneys by ecthompson md
3 Comments »

As one conservative put it, “How did we find the Couriers? That info was gotten at Guantanamo Bay. Info that never would have been obtained had the detainees been treated as US criminals. This, in my view, vindicates the decision to sequester the detainees at Gitmo and ALL of their interrogation methods. It worked.” While there are many accounts of exactly what happened, some conservatives are focusing on the online magazine Slate. White House reporter John Dickerson wrote, “detainees being held at Guantánamo provided some of the strongest information about those who were trusted by bin Laden. They identified a courier and his brother who lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan, an affluent suburb where a lot of retired Pakistani military officers live.”

This single report goes much further than any other report with regards to the role of Guantánamo detainees in the assassination of Osama bin Laden. In a separate report by the Associated Press, they specifically point the finger at Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. I have a problem with this. It just doesn’t seem to make sense.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured in 2003. According to reports, it was 2005 before the CIA began to get information about a courier that was working for Osama bin Laden. The dates don’t seem to match. Did the CIA sit on information for two years? Separate reports state that the CIA was given a pseudonym for the courier. The CIA needed to do more leg work in order to find out the courier’s real name and where the courier was located. Again, this doesn’t quite add up. If, for example, I tell you that Popeye the Sailor is a close confidant of Osama bin Laden I’m not sure that’s going to help you much. On the other hand, if I can give you a courier’s real name and where he actually lives in Pakistan, that would probably be helpful.

On the Last Word last night, Michael Isikoff, veteran reporter from Newsweek, mentions there are clearly some questions about whether these enhanced interrogations (torture) really gleaned valuable information. Watch the video:

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

Marcy has more:

In other words, while the CIA may have learned the courier’s nickname earlier, they didn’t learn his true name until “four years ago”–so late 2006 at the earliest. And they didn’t learn where the courier operated until around 2009.

From these dates we can conclude that either KSM shielded the courier’s identity entirely until close to 2007, or he told his interrogators that there was a courier who might be protecting bin Laden early in his detention but they were never able to force him to give the courier’s true name or his location, at least not until three or four years after the waterboarding of KSM ended. That’s either a sign of the rank incompetence of KSM’s interrogators (that is, that they missed the significance of a courier protecting OBL), or a sign he was able to withstand whatever treatment they used with him.

With al-Libi, the connection between whatever torture he experienced and this intelligence is less clear (since he was first detained in 2005), but even with al-Libi, it appears clear he either never revealed the courier’s real name or only did so after he had been in custody for a year, and almost certainly until after he arrived in Gitmo.

Update: Putting the AP’s reporting here together with the DAB, it seems like al-Libi did give up the name, perhaps earlier than reported. Still no waterboarding.

Either these men didn’t know the true name of their protégé and assistant (which is highly unlikely), or they managed to withhold that information even under torture.

In fact, two people who normally would be crowing about the success of torture are not now doing it. Donald Rumsfeld suggests the discovery of OBL came from intelligence gained at Gitmo (therefore, not in Poland or Romania). And while Cheney assumes enhanced interrogation, aka torture, led to OBL, he admits he doesn’t know where the intelligence came from. That he was ordering up propaganda reports along the way to justify his torture program, yet can’t claim definitively that the intelligence came from it, is a pretty good tell that he can’t say it did.

If KSM and al-Libi revealed details about the courier (and al-Libi’s Gitmo file suggests he did; KSM’s, which is dated two years earlier, does not), they shielded the most important information about him for years.

Donald Rumsfeld, who I think is trying to stay out of jail, said,“The United States Department of Defense did not do waterboarding for interrogation purposes to anyone. It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.”

One thing is clear. We need more information before declaring that Guantánamo Bay, enhanced interrogations, torture, forced renditions, black sites or any of that other Bush administration quasilegal stuff was effective, needed or proven. We need more data.

Tags: Bin Laden, National Intelligence, Obama administration, Pakistan, Torture by ecthompson md
5 Comments »

Tonight the Washington Post is reporting one of the key founding members of Al Qaeda has been killed. As with all of these reports, we need to wait for further verification and confirmation. I am hopeful that this is a major blow to Al Qaeda. I am also hopeful that we are closing in on Osama bin Laden.

From WaPo:

A U.S. official said there is “strong reason” to believe that Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, known as Sheik Saeed al-Masri, was killed, apparently by a CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt within the past two weeks.

The official described it as a significant victory against the terrorist group.

“Al-Masri was the group’s chief operating officer, with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning,” the official said. “He was also the organization’s prime conduit to bin Laden and Zawahiri,” he added, referring to al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. “He was key to al-Qaeda’s command and control.” (more…)

Tags: Al Qaeda, Obama administration, Pakistan by ecthompson md
No Comments »

I’m going to work. More later -

From Political Animal:

• Mexico: “President Barack Obama is ‘deeply saddened and outraged’ at news of the murders of a federal employee and two relatives of workers at the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, an administration spokesman said.”
• Netanyahu is sorry U.S. officials are upset, but Israel isn’t changing course: “In the face of sharp American disapproval of an Israeli plan for an East Jerusalem building project, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly rejected Monday any curbs on new Jewish settlements in and around Jerusalem.” (ed. This is a big deal. This is a very big deal.)
• And predictably, GOP leaders are attacking the Obama administration for being unhappy with Israel. (ed. the knee jerk reaction of conservatives is nauseating but what is worse is that democrats are apologizing for standing strong and asking Israel how are more settlements helpful?)
• Step one is done: the House Budget Committee voted 21 to 16 this afternoon to send the final health care reform package to the House Rules Committee. Two Blue Dogs — Texas’s Chet Edwards and Florida’s Allen Boyd — voted with Republicans. Both voted against reform in November.
• Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) kicks off his initiative to reform the way Wall Street does business. The White House is pleased. More surprisingly, Elizabeth Warren seems to like the plan, too.
• Good to see industrial production edge up.
• Eyeing an overhaul of No Child Left Behind.
• Student aid bill “hobbles forward.”
• Fantastic interview with Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens from Jeff Toobin. Of particular interest: Stevens will retire before the end of Obama’s first term.
• Fareed Zakaria on the success of Obama’s approach to Pakistan.
• After Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-Ohio) votes against health care, against the hate crimes bill, against the Democratic budget, against the cap-and-trade bill, and against financial regulation, Nate Silver considers the liberal lawmaker’s value to the Democratic Party.
• Utah’s House Republican majority leader resigned in the wake of his under-age, hush-money, hot-tub scandal. Probably a good idea.
• Fact Checking the Sunday Shows.
• Harry Reid issued a statement today, noting that he still expects his wife to make a “full recovery.” (ed. I’m happy for Reid and his family. Both his wife and daughter were in a serious car crash on Thursday.)

Tags: Economy, Healthcare, Israel, Legal, Obama administration, Pakistan by ecthompson md
No Comments »

Errington starts the show by congratulating Aaron on his new full-time gig with Local Edge Radio, Monday through Friday 3 to 6 and then hits upon a few topical insights, starting with a private citizen’s billboard on Highway 1 in Wisconsin which suggests brazenly that we “impeach Obama.” The lawyer for this guy says it’s only an expression suggesting a change in Washington and a better focus on small business! We then go over a few other erstwhile concerns, like needing some definitive explanations about Afghanistan and how the 400 highest-earning American households grew by $345 million dollars in 2007, according to the IRS. Sure would be nice if my household had increased by 31%! Before heading into the segment with two great guests, Errington covers CPAC’s maverick-y no-show, Ms Sarah Palin, the inescapable and unexplainable tragedy of Joseph Andrew’s Stack’s last flight and the unnerving number of condoms distributed to each visiting athlete in Vancouver.

Errington’s guests for the show are Mark Karlin from Buzzflash.com and Professor Juan Cole from Informed Comment. With Mark Karlin, the conversation begins with the absurdity of Tiger Woods’ personal life coming before the healthcare crisis, the controversy about building nuclear power plants and the rising number of American deaths in Afghanistan. Karlin calls Republicans “complete hypocrites” with regard to the stimulus package, which did stabilize the economy, and challenges Democrats to give the Republicans the “back of the hand” and demonstrate some strength!

Professor Juan Cole, an expert on the Middle East who teaches history at the University of Michigan, lays out for us short-term and long-term rationale for the Obama Administration’s presence in and withdrawal from Afghanistan. Professor Cole, distinguished author of Engaging the Muslim World, puts into perspective the real concern about a “nuclear Taliban.” About purported exit strategies, he claims that, “stabilizing Afghanistan in an 18-month period is far-fetched.”

Errington wraps up with a reminder about his Foreign Policy Week blog posts, revisiting some important notes on North Korea’s bargaining chips and the mismanagement of the situation by the last administration. Now this is some great progressive radio!

The Errington Thompson Show - 2-20-2010 [ 54:24 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Podcasts by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

This week was supposed to be foreign-policy week here at Where Is the Outrage. I did start off well with North Korea then I got sidetracked. Now, let’s take a look at Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a country of approximately the same size as Texas. It’s extremely mountainous and dry. There’s never really been a central government in Afghanistan, as best I can tell.

The Taliban is nothing more than a religious political movement that is made up mostly of ethnic Pashtuns (the major ethnic group in Afghanistan, making up approximate 40% of the population). They took over the central government in 1996 led by a reclusive and rarely photographed leader Mullah Omar. Exactly how they came to power is not important, in my opinion. The fact that they were embraced by many Afghans is important. They were not thought of as outsiders. They did provide basic services including law and order, which many Afghans appreciated.

When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, we did not kill or capture members of the fleeing Taliban government. Instead, we pushed members of the Taliban into the Tora Bora mountains and into Pakistan. Many of the leaders were not captured. We had opportunities in 2002 and 2003 to provide basic services and help rebuild the country. Unfortunately, that was not the focus of the Bush administration. We never really dismantled or engaged the local tribal leaders/warlords. They are the ones who control the power.

By 2004, it was clear that the Taliban was regrouping. We never got adequate control in southern Afghanistan. Because the Bush administration was bogged down in Iraq, we didn’t have adequate troops in Afghanistan to push back against the Taliban surge. One of the biggest mistakes that the Bush administration made was to try to turn over security of Afghanistan to NATO. NATO is no better (and no worse) than UN security forces. Each member country sets up its own rules of engagement. All countries were risk-averse, which was perfect for the Taliban. They were able to engage in the heroin trade in order make money for weapons and food knowing that NATO was not really all that interested in a head-on confrontation.

Without spending an inordinate amount of time discussing the multiple failures of the Bush administration, let’s fast forward to where we are now. We now have a re-energized Taliban organization that is as strong now as it has ever been the last six or seven years. They are embedded in Western Pakistan, the Tora Bora mountains and southern Afghanistan. It is clear that they are making a big push to take over most of the altar country. It is also clear that they will be a safe haven for Al Qaeda. So, here’s what I think I know –

• Al Qaeda and the Taliban are two peas from the same pod
• the Taliban are skilled warriors they have been fighting nearly continuously for almost 20 years
• defeating the Taliban will require a much greater effort than the “Surge” did in Iraq
• we’re going to have to win over the population, not on a city by city basis but instead on a tribe to tribe basis
• we’re going to have to provide basic services — new roads, better agriculture, including irrigation systems
• in order to defeat the Taliban, we’re going to have to be in Afghanistan for some time
• finally, in strengthening Afghanistan, we are strengthening the Pakistani government (remember… they have nuclear weapons)

Tags: Afghanistan, Obama administration, Pakistan by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

I highly recommend that you read yesterday’s post on North Korea. I looked at North Korea’s history of nuclear interest dating back to late 1950s and early 1960s.

To use a football metaphor, I’m not going to tell you that the Clinton administration had taken a football (North Korea’s nuclear issues) down to the two-yard line and all the Bush administration had to do was to carry the ball over the goal line. President George Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary Colin Powell needed to do much more than that. In retrospect, Bush was ill-prepared for North Korea. I have no idea how much he was briefed. I have no idea if alternative viewpoints (outside of the neoconservative line of thinking) were presented to the president. (Here’s a North Korean timeline.)

In my opinion, foreign policy is like three-dimensional chess. There are lots of moving pieces. You need to be very smart and very prepared in order to anticipate your opponent’s move. In foreign policy you are playing multiple opponents at the same time.

As far as I know, there were no high-level discussions about how to approach the North Koreans when President Bush announced to the South Korean president that he was unclear if North Korea was holding up their end of the bargain. He basically stated that North Koreans were liars and cheats and could not be trusted. “We’re not certain as to whether or not they’re keeping all the terms of all agreements.” (NYT) While such a provocative statement would not get a second look in downtown Baltimore, in the world of diplomacy it was a slap in the face. Now, the big question is, if the United States were to break off discussions with North Korea which were agreed upon in the “Agreed Framework,” then what? What leverage did we have against a country that is already isolated? Was it possible that we could squeeze China and Russia in order to use their leverage against North Korea? None of this had been discussed prior to Bush’s statement. This all happened in early March of 2001. By September of 2001, we were focused on Afghanistan and some in the Bush administration had already begun to focus on Iraq.

Bush’s idea for policy began to gel between September and December of 2001. It was a simple dichotomy. Either you with the United States, against the terrorists, or you supported the terrorists. North Korea’s interests are in the survival of the regime, first, and survival of the Korean people, second.

One of the most interesting figures throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s was a Pakistani scientist named A. Q. Khan. He may have been more of an entrepreneur than a scientist. As one of the heads of Pakistan’s endeavor to build its own nuclear weapon, A. Q. Khan was in a unique position to gather nuclear technology for Pakistan and, at times, to sell that technology to countries like Syria, Libya and North Korea. It appears that he supplied both centrifuges and centrifuge designs to the North Koreans in the late 1990s. It appears that Pakistan got missile technology while North Korea received nuclear technology.

The Bush administration believed that a show of force in the Middle East would cause other rogue regimes to fall in line. I have no idea why they thought this would work on North Korea. Soon after United States invaded Iraq, North Korea announced that they are going to withdraw from the nonproliferation treaty. They then restarted the reactor. Two years after insisting that the United States would not sit down and talk with North Korea, six-party talks began in September of 2005. During this time, it appears that North Korea had made enough plutonium to make 4-13 nuclear bombs.

So while the United States stood tough, what incentive did North Korea have to negotiate? How could conditions be any worse for their people? Their only bargaining chip was the one they’ve been working on for over 40 years — a nuclear weapon. We can never seriously entertain a military option because of North Korea’s close proximity to Seoul, South Korea. North Korea needed and wanted food, fuel and respect. With nuclear weapons, they have an opportunity to get most of that. I’m sorry, but no matter how you slice the situation, the Bush administration fumbled the ball with North Korea. They allowed North Korea to increase their nuclear arsenal three or four times.

This is the world that Barack Obama has inherited. So what should he do with North Korea? What price should we pay to keep North Korea from making more nuclear weapons? I think it is clear that North Korea will never give up all of its nuclear weapons. I think it’s also clear that we don’t know exactly how many nuclear bombs they’ve made. The North Koreans have shown a willingness to sell technology to rogue regimes like Syria (the reactor that the Israelis blew up in 2007 was based on a North Korean design). So, I don’t believe it is a leap to believe that North Korea would sell technology to Al Qaeda if Al Qaeda had the money. How do we prevent this? How does Barack Obama fix the North Korean problem?

Tags: North Korea, Pakistan by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

I don’t know if any of you remember Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition. These guys would show up in the middle of scenes and yell, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” Well, this is Blackwater. They are everywhere. This is what progressives feared. Blackwater would be used as a military force to go around Congress. With their tanks and copters, there isn’t much that Blackwater can’t do. They aren’t tied down like our military. They can do whatever they want.

From the Nation:

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so “compartmentalized” that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, “We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature.” A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. “We don’t have any contracts to do that work for us. We don’t contract that kind of work out, period,” the official said. “There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services.” (more… )

Tags: Pakistan, Security by ecthompson md
No Comments »

This is an outstanding show. I opened the show by talking about Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. There is some that are angered on the right and left. Some on the right say that Barack Obama hasn’t done enough. Those on the left point to the fact that Guantánamo Bay still hasn’t been closed. Those that allowed torture to occur in the name of the United States have not been brought to justice. Both sides mentioning that Barack Obama has sent more troops to Afghanistan. I agree with all of these but President Barack Obama has also done an enormous amount to change the tone of America. He is also changed our relationship with many nations and the Muslim world. There is still a lot to do. I’m not sure if I was on the committee how would’ve voted for Barack Obama but I congratulate him and the United States for having the vision to choose him as our president.

Again I reminded my listeners that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. I continue to encourage those that have the means to give generously.

There was some sort of attack on the Pakistani military base early Saturday morning. At the time of my show there weren’t many details. Several of the attackers and Pakistani soldiers were killed. It is critical to our national interest to have a stable and prosperous Pakistan. Former Texas Representative Charlie Wilson, the man who is credited with funding the mujahedin in Afghanistan to help topple the Russians, said we need to get out of Afghanistan now. To be honest, I’m still studying the issue and reading whatever I can on it. Words like quagmire and goals keep popping into my head.

A recent poll showed only 38% of parents were likely to vaccinate their children against the swine flu (H1N1). This sets up an extremely dangerous scenario. If 38% of children do not get vaccinated this leaves an enormous amount of children and adults vulnerable. I talk with Greg Dworkin (physician and Daily Kos contributor) about this virus and where we are. We discuss health care reform and the fact that we are closer now than ever to getting something passed in both the House and the Senate.

I also talk with Doctor Eddie Cornwell who is the chief of surgery at Howard University. Ever since Representative Alan Grayson (Democrat — Florida) mentioned a study which clearly showed that health insurance status affects your ability to survive illness, many in the media have been reporting this like it was new. Doctor Cornwell published a nice paper in the surgery literature which clearly showed that race affects outcome and insurance status. Surprisingly, insurance status was a stronger predictor of survival than race.

All of this an more! Enjoy this podcast.

The Errington Thompson Show 10-10-09 [ 54:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Healthcare, Pakistan, Podcasts by ecthompson md
No Comments »

My special guests – Brian Katulis from the Center for American Progress, Middle East expert and Rick Newman, Senior Business Correspondent for US News and World Report.

I start the show by discussing healthcare. Since the discussion in Washington has become so confusing, I start at the beginning. I play a clip from Barack Obama’s news conference in which he lays out the facts of what happens if we keep the status quo. I think it is clear that the status quo will more than double our health care over the next 10 years. We know the statistics about bankruptcies and the crushing burden of healthcare on small businesses.

We need to do something different. The question is what? In my mind, in order to organize this process, I think it is important to lay out the goals. The goals that I have laid out for healthcare reform our portability, efficiency and cost effective. Many of the proposals that are currently floating around Washington are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The goals that I’ve outlined, in my opinion, are the minimum qualifications for healthcare reform.

Let’s simply look at the numbers. In 2007, we spent $2.2 trillion on health care. This averages out to approximate $7400 per American. Approximately $700 billion was spent on health insurance overhead. If the government takes the $700 billion and spends it on covering the 46 million Americans, we can do this and have money left over. We don’t need to inject any more money into the system. I then mention several ways that we can control costs. Finally, I discussed a few elephants in the room — immigration reform, which I think is intimately associated with health care reform and tort reform. One of the things that I didn’t mention, because of time, was that we should also look at Medicare and Medicaid fraud. How can we reduce the cheating in the system?

I chat with my special guest Brian Katulis, fellow at the Center for American Progress, Middle East expert. We begin the conversation by talking about Pakistan and what’s going on in Pakistan. We talk about this huge refugee crisis that has been caused by the military offensive against the Taliban. We also talk about the internal politics of Iraq and Iran. I appreciate Brian’s knowledge and his time.

I then talk to Rick Newman, Senior business correspondent for U.S. News & World Report. Malls. Rick has a series of columns on the health of our economy by looking at the health of several malls. Currently, malls are dying all across the United States. We talk about how we’ve got way too many retail stores and many of these malls are not going to survive this recession. We also discuss another one of his columns which focuses on several industries that are still don’t have a tough time even after the recession is over. This is a great discussion. I appreciate Rick’s insight into these topics.

This is a fun and informative show. Enjoy!

The Errington Thompson Show 7-25-09 [ 54:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Economy, Healthcare, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Podcasts by ecthompson md
No Comments »

This roundup is brought to you by Steve Benen (friend and master blogger) of Washington Monthly.

* The major indexes on Wall Street were expected to soar in light of the new Geithner plan on toxic assets. And soar they did.

* On a related note, it probably helped that there was an unexpected boost in existing home sales.

* Bloodshed in Baghdad: “At least 25 people were killed and 45 were injured when a man walked into a tent of mourners and detonated himself in a town north of Baghdad on Monday evening. The death toll was expected to rise, hospital officials said.”

* An encouraging move: “A federal court today ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the agency’s controversial decision limiting non-prescription access to the morning-after pill Plan B to women age 18 and older.”

* Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is on a quixotic crusade against U.S. Ambassador-designate to Iraq Christopher Hill.

[Read more →]

Tags: Blogging issues, Economy, Iraq, Pakistan by ecthompson md
No Comments »

Tuesday Morning News Roundup

• In a story that ties in with my own outrage over the chaos I encountered at the airport, airlines misplaced over 40 million pieces of luggage last year. One million were completely lost. This is simply unacceptable. If we only had a government that had the power of the people behind them, that government could put industry in a headlock and say, “Fix it!”
• The Pakistani government has avoided a showdown with its legal community. Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the fired Chief Justice who was removed by President Pervez Musharraf, has been reinstated. Lawyers were protesting that the rule of law was being violated and it prevented them from practicing… law. I spoke with Brian Katulis from the Center for American Progress about this issue last week. Check out the interview.
• One congressman thinks that we have the power to get those AIG bonuses back. I would hope so.
• Barack Obama seems to be everywhere and doing everything. The conservatives are saying that he is doing too much and needs to focus on the economy and nothing else. The American people disagree, which brings me to Obama’s $730 million plan to help small business. This is targeted to help small business get the credit they need in order to keep the doors open. I’m not sure that $730 million is enough, but it is a start. You know, it is sad when $730 million doesn’t sound like enough.
• It is a great sign for Democrats that Meghan McCain is being attacked by other Republicans. Their line of attack? She’s too fat. Talking about running out of ideas. The Republicans are completely done.
• Finally… was the CEO of Citigroup caught lying to Congress? On Monday, Reuters reported that CEO Vikram Pandit made over $10 million but he testified in front over Congress that he made just over $1 million. Now I don’t know about you, but if I got paid $10 million in a year I would know it. I would know that that is a lot more than a million dollars. Watch the video below.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Economy, Pakistan, Party Politics by ecthompson md
2 Comments »

Wednesday News Roundup

• There was a terrible shooting in Alabama in which 10 people, including the gunman, died. Victims ranged in age from 18 months to 74 years old. As usual, the news is searching for an answer or a reason, when in fact there are no adequate answers or reasons.
• There seems to be an increasing war between Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Jim Cramer, CNBC financial analyst. Monday, on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough wanted to stand up for Jim Cramer. I’m not sure why. I have a problem with financial analysts who tell us on Monday that the company is solid when by Friday the company is filing for bankruptcy. In my opinion, this means that the financial analyst is not really analyzing anything but is, instead, a financial cheerleader. Joe Scarborough is so far out in left field on this issue that I’m not sure he’s in the same stadium.
• President Barack Obama has introduced new earmark guidelines. Look for John McCain to say that these guidelines have not gone far enough.  Wouldn’t it be up to the Senate to write its own rules?
• Veteran reporter Seymour Hersh stated that Bush had a squad of CIA killers.  “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us.” Now that gets my attention.
• Merrill Lynch is being asked to pay a fine of $7 million for leaving a phone off the hook. From what amounts to insider trading some daytraders made a whopping $8,000. Really? Bernie Madoff was able to rip off investors for over $50 billion. Allen Stanford was able to abscond with $8 billion. The SEC is chasing down an $8,000 scandal? Please.
• If there’s one country that has nuclear weapons in which we need and pray for stability that would be Pakistan. I spoke with the Center for American Progress’s Brian Katulis about the complex political issues in Pakistan, yesterday (great interview). There is a large protest that is organizing in Islamabad, which could be a huge problem. (An interactive map of our predator air strikes can be found here.)
• A new photo has been found from 1865 which is now thought to be the last photograph taken of Abe Lincoln before his assassination. Although this is a neat photograph in front of the White House, it is very blurry. If experts say that is Abraham Lincoln, I guess I’ll believe them.
• Maureen Dowd has written the first thoughtful column that I have read of hers in maybe two or three years. She basically applauds Michelle Obama for being comfortable in her own skin. What Maureen doesn’t mention is that you have to be comfortable with who you are in order to be a successful black woman who is in her 40s.
• Robin Givens is back in the news, now an expert at domestic violence. Just because you’ve been a victim does not mean you’re an expert. I’ve been in a car crash, as have most Americans, but I don’t think that makes us experts on car crash technology, geometry or prevention. Domestic violence is a serious problem in the United States and around the world. We need real experts to discuss the Chris Brown and Rihanna problem. There are issues of self-esteem, cultural pressures and, quite possibly, instincts. I’m not sure how a gloss-over by Robin Givens is really helpful.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Obama administration, Pakistan, The Daily Show by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

Monday Evening News Roundup

President-elect Barack Obama has formally announced his environmental and energy team. I’ve already mentioned Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu and Carol Browner. For Secretary of the Interior, he has named Senator Ken Salazar from Colorado. It is also rumored that President-elect Barack Obama will choose Chicago Public School Chief Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education.

The Illinois House has voted 113-0 to begin impeachment proceedings against Governor Rod Blagojevich. Hearings will begin tomorrow morning. I believe that is vital for the citizens of Illinois to send a clear signal that the governor needs to step down. Pressure needs to be placed on the governor from all sides.

Multinational giant, Siemens, has agreed to pay $1.34 billion in fines to the United States and Germany. Siemens is accused of bribing officials all over the world. German prosecutors were able to find records of slush funds and illegal payments. All I know is that it’s nice talking about a company screwing up that’s not American. It seems as if it is always Halliburton or KBR that are screwing up.

A new report documents the multiple failures that have occurred in the rebuilding of Iraq. It appears to me that we simply have a lack of leadership. With President Bush asleep at the wheel, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was left in charge of reconstruction. Donald Rumsfeld had no interest in reconstruction; therefore, it failed.

Bernard Madoff is a legendary Wall Street trader who has now been indicted for defrauding investors of somewhere around $50 billion. Recently, I’ve often mentioned billions and billions of dollars as if I were talking about Monopoly money. Many on Wall Street were playing with real money as if it were really Monopoly money.

More information is coming out about the Mumbai terrorist attack. Increasingly, links to the banned Pakistani terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, are being discovered.

A grand jury in New Mexico is investigating one of Governor Bill Richardson‘s Political Action Committees. (Governor Bill Richardson is Obama’s choice for Secretary of Commerce.) The question surrounds a company called CDR Financial Products and whether they were given government contracts only after having donated $100,000 to several of the governor’s efforts. This could be trouble.

The Federal Reserve is looking into reforming the credit card industry. New regulations could ban credit card companies from changing interest rates and charging exorbitant late fees without giving customers sufficient notice. I say almost any reform of the credit card industry is welcomed.

A huge storm in the Northeast has left approximately 1.2 million people without power. Maybe it’s just me, but it would seem like places that get a significant amount of snow and ice every year would have buried power lines.

Tags: Economy, Obama administration, Pakistan by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

Thursday Evening News Roundup

It should be no surprise to anyone that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich still dominates the news. It appears that several members of the Illinois House of Representatives are testing the waters to see if an article of impeachment would pass the House. I would hope that the Illinois legislature would move quickly to impeach the governor, removing him from office and not allowing him to taint any appointment to the Senate.
From the Illinois Constitution:

The House of Representatives has the sole power to conduct legislative investigations to determine the existence of cause for impeachment and, by the vote of a majority of the members elected, to impeach Executive and Judicial officers. Impeachments shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting for that purpose, Senators shall be upon oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to law. If the Governor is tried, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators elected. Judgment shall not extend beyond removal from office and disqualification to hold any public office of this State. An impeached officer, whether convicted or acquitted, shall be liable to prosecution, trial, judgment and punishment according to law.

The bailout for Detroit is being held up by several Republican senators.  Senator Bob Coker (Republican from Tennessee) has proposed a plan that would reduce wages and benefits of union workers. US auto workers must have a big target on their backs. Republicans have been after them for years and this is their opportunity. Perhaps auto workers need to give in to concessions now and renegotiate once we have the new Obama administration. Seems GM and Chrysler need this money desperately…now. (Basically, this is union-busting by the United States Senate.)

There is ongoing violence in Greece. For the last six days there have been fiery protests over a 15-year-old boy’s shooting by the police. Youthful demonstrators have forced schools and universities to close. There has been looting of banks and other public buildings and raw anarchy seems to reign.

Glenn Beck, conservative CNN talk show host, gave an interview to Time Magazine recently. The interview focused on his move from CNN to Fox News. Mysteriously, Glenn Beck states, “I was the most well researched show on CNN.” If that is true, CNN needs to close its doors now. Here’s just a short list of falsehoods that could have easily been looked up by anyone who is actually doing “research.”

From Think Progress:

– On Taxes: Falsely claimed the U.S. is the “number two” highest taxed country in the world.

– On Energy: Falsely claimed “drilling in ANWR alone would yield 100 million barrels a day.”

– On Global Warming: Falsely claimed that “the globe was the hottest” and “America’s temperature peaked” in 1934.

– On Sub-prime Crisis: Falsely claimed that the sub-prime lenders were “blackmailed” into lending to the poor and minorities by community organizers.

– On The Iraq War: Falsely claimed that the U.S. “went into Iraq…to prevent World War III.”

– On the Middle East: Falsely claimed that Palestine is “being run now by Hezbollah,” President Abbas is an extremist.

– On Obama: Falsely claimed that Fidel Castro endorsed Obama’s candidacy.

A bipartisan Senate report released today clearly states that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other top Bush officials are completely responsible for the abuse of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Okay, the obvious report has been released…now what? Who goes to jail?

Just a little more about the auto industry bailout. A 22-year-old tax law has been reversed so that the auto industry can write off their losses. I feel pretty confident that this is a huge mistake by our lawmakers.

Pakistan made some arrests in the Mumbai attacks today, which is reassuring news since it shows that Pakistan is taking the attack seriously. With any luck at all, this will defuse some of the tensions between India and Pakistan.

Tags: Economy, Obama administration, Pakistan by ecthompson md
No Comments »

Here’s the Thursday evening news roundup:

• If you’ve been following the $700 billion White House proposal to bail out Wall Street, you have seen the world’s best E-ticket ride. Around noon (Eastern Standard Time), some of the networks were reporting that an agreement was imminent. An hour or two later, the networks were talking with congressional Republicans who weren’t at all happy with a $700 billion bailout. Late this afternoon, congressional leaders met with President Bush and the two presidential candidates — Barack Obama and John McCain. This huge presidential pow wow was supposed to yield a deal. Nothing.

  Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, opposed the bailout and mentioned a letter written by leading economists stating that we may be jumping the gun. I find it interesting that Republicans are starting to listen to academics. When the academics said that tax cuts weren’t necessary and would probably hurt the economy, the Republicans didn’t listen at all.

• One of the most intriguing developments within the last hour or so is that Senator Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters that John McCain floated a previously unheard-of proposal. It appears that some Republicans have signed on to this possible legislation. As far as I know, the contents of this proposal have not been printed anywhere.
• Representative Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, has led a group of conservative Republicans in a proposition for governmental insurance of securities purchased by private companies. This proposal does nothing to change the culture of greed on Wall Street. Plus, it causes the U.S. government to enter the insurance business. I’m not exactly sure how this would work. I’m going to have to read some more details on this one.
• On previous blog entries, I’ve mentioned that Pakistan shot at American forces. Well, this trend seems to be continuing. American forces are crossing the Afghan-Pakistan border in search of members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Pakistan has stated in no uncertain terms that this is a violation of their sovereignty. This is starting to get uglier.
• So is Friday night’s debate between John McCain and Barack Obama– on or off?
• Louisiana State Representative John LaBruzzo floated a proposal to pay poor women to get sterilized and pay rich women to have more kids. This lawmaker, not surprisingly, is from the same district as the White Supremacist David Duke.
• I wonder if George Steinbrenner is kicking himself right now. The Yankees owner fired longtime Yankee manager Joe Torre who was immediately hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers haven’t participated in the post-season over the last five or six years. For the first time, an extremely long time, the Yankees have not made the playoffs. The Los Angeles Dodgers have made the playoffs and won the West. Joe Torre knows how to manage.

Tags: Economy, Election 2008, Pakistan, Sports by ecthompson md
4 Comments »

Here’s the Monday evening news roundup:

• What the heck is going on in Pakistan? For three years, we’ve allowed Osama bin Laden to become entrenched in the hills of western Pakistan. During that time we did virtually nothing besides beg Pervez Musharraf to do something. Last week the U.S. actually went into Pakistani territory and attacked a village. It appears that the terrorists that we thought were there turned out to be innocent civilians. The Pakistani government was furious. Today, the U.S. again went into Pakistan and they were shot at by the Pakistani military. This is starting to get very ugly.
• It appears that President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe signed a power-sharing deal with Morgan Tsvangirai. Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete, chairman of the African Union, voiced the concern on many minds. “Will it hold or will it not? That is the question,” he said.
• Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films has a new ad featuring a Vietnam veteran who convincingly states that Republican presidential nominee John McCain is unfit for election.
• Governor Sarah Palin installed a tanning bed in the governor’s mansion. Sweet! This is clearly the reform that McCain has been espousing. By the way, did you know that she cut funding for the Special Olympics?
• McCain continues to tell us that the fundamentals of this economy are strong. In my opinion, this economy is geared to do one thing, make the rich even richer.
• With Wall Street in full meltdown mode, it may be time to conjure up one of McCain’s old ghosts: The Keating Five Scandal. The scandal should be familiar even to those of you who are not old enough to remember it. You have a bank who wants to make risky investments. You have a bank owner, Charles Keating, who’ gives large sums of money to five senators. Those senators pressure bank regulators to look the other way. You have greed and fraud that should look much like the subprime mortgage failure that we are having now.
• Glenn Greenwald had an interesting post from a couple of days ago. He pointed out the hypocrisy of many of the right wing pundits who ran to Palin’s rescue, including Charles Krauthammer. Glenn went back and looked over the last several years and found several of the right-wing pundits discussing the “Bush doctrine.” If Palin had done her homework, she would have noted that Charlie Gibson asked both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates about the Bush doctrine. As the Boy Scouts say, “be prepared.”

Tags: Domestic Issues, Election 2008, Foreign Affairs, Pakistan by ecthompson md
3 Comments »

Once again, Tom Brokaw leads with a negative question for Senator Barack Obama: Why haven’t you been to Afghanistan, if you really think that it is the central front on the war on terrorism, before now? (That’s not quite as bad as “Have you stopped beating your wife?”– but close.) Again, Obama does a very good job getting out of this negative frame. He explains that he hasn’t been down at the corner barbershop playing dominoes. He states what he has been doing.

I would urge Obama to step back from phrases like “We must win in Afghanistan.” This type of phrase echoes of discourse on Iraq. All sorts of questions arise. What does “winning” mean? Will defeating the Taliban lead to a formal surrender with Mullah Omar (who is still on the loose) handing over his sword or AK-47 to our General on the ground?

Instead, Obama needs to talk about our goals. Afghanistan needs to develop a viable economy which exports something other than heroin. Farmers must have a reason to plant something other than poppy. We need to help the Afghans build roads, schools, and a real economy. I have no idea how to deal with the local tribal leaders who are used to having an enormous amount of power over their own regions, but these leaders must be made to work within the framework of their constitution.

Obama shows a national audience that he has command of foreign policy. His plan isn’t wimpy. Instead, it is aggressive and thoughtful.

If Obama made a mistake during this discussion it might have been with the phrase, “We know where they are.” However, he did qualify it by saying that military commanders have told him that they are… I don’t know. We’ll see if Senator John McCain and his gang will make something out of this.

Tags: Afghanistan, Election 2008, Pakistan, Sunday Morning Shows by ecthompson md
1 Comment »