Where's the Outrage?

• It seems inevitable that a meltdown will happen at the main reactor in Japan. There’s now evidence surfacing that more than 30 years ago three people resigned or were transferred after complaining about the nuclear reactor design.
• As if Japan does not have enough going on. A 6.0 earthquake rocked the country just yesterday.
• The King in Bahrain has declared martial law. Look for Saudi Arabia to have a huge interest in what goes on in Bahrain. The Middle East is really starting to get ugly.
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has come up with six simple tests of any corporate tax reform. Seems to be pretty simple and straightforward. This means it will never be adopted.
• Budgets should never be balanced on the backs of state workers.
• Maine’s new governor is trying to pay for tax cuts by asking state workers to contribute more to their pensions. Now, where have we seen this before?
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Egypt. I’m not exactly sure what she’s doing in Egypt besides giving the reformers a pep talk. Look for more on this soon.
• Representative Dennis Kucinich continues to try to see Bradley Manning. He’s being blocked by the Department of Defense. I’m not sure how the Department of Defense has the legal authority to block a member of Congress from seeing a prisoner. Doesn’t sound kosher.
• NFL Players are considering a boycott of the draft. This is getting very ugly. $9 Billion to split between players and owners… and they can’t figure it out. Don’t look for football this September.

Any thoughts? What’s on your mind?

Tags: Energy, Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Saudi Arabia, Taxes by ecthompson md
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Wednesday Morning News Roundup

I find Guantánamo Bay extremely disturbing. Yesterday, we found out another prisoner has killed himself. This gentleman, Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, also known as Al Hanashi, had been detained since 2002 without charges, of course.

The fact that Osama bin Laden is still alive to issue press statements or edicts is a crime against the American people. Yet, he is alive enough to spew more of his vile rhetoric: “…new seeds of hatred and revenge against America.” What atrocity have we committed now? We’ve asked Pakistan to stand firm against the Taliban and we have provided assistance. When do we quit playing around with Osama bin Laden? Why are we going to send 100 elite troops with whatever backup and support they need into the Pakistani mountains to hunt down and kill or capture Osama bin Laden?

President Barack Obama has traveled to the Middle East. His first stop is in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow he will address an audience in Cairo, Egypt, where he is widely expected to ask for an improved dialogue between Muslims and Americans. It will be interesting to see Obama’s relationship with the Saudi royal family.

It is my personal opinion that torture did not produce any valuable information. It appears that VP Cheney may be parsing his words a little bit. Cheney said in a recent interview with Fox News, “Yes, but the way I would describe them is that they have to do with the detainee program, the interrogation program. It’s not just waterboarding. It’s the interrogation program that we used for high-value detainees. There were two reports done that summarize what we learned from that program, and I think they provide a balanced view.” Notice that VP Cheney is trying to wrap the issue of torture inside the larger program of detaining high-value targets. I think this is typical for Cheney and several of the others. They will argue and argue a point until they’re blue in the face. Once they’re called on that argument, they’ll segue into what they really meant.

Watch the video:

US has signed a contract with MedImmune to produce the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.  We’ll see how far $90 million goes.  I’m figuring that it ain’t going to go that far.

Buzzflash is having a contest to name Dick Cheney memoirs.  There are some great entries.  Check it out.

Tags: Bin Laden, Countdown, Domestic Issues, Healthcare, Obama administration, Saudi Arabia by ecthompson md
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My picks from the day’s news:

• One of my readers is not happy with my discussion of the Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin and teenage pregnancy. I’m sorry that he wasn’t happy and that he thought that I’m gutless. I wonder if it’s fair to talk about Palin the reformer? Maybe that is off-limits too.
• I am still puzzled by Presidential hopeful John McCain’s refrain of “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Why is drilling a good thing? I don’t think that it is bad, but applause? Why?
• Speaking of oil and drilling… OPEC is thinking about cutting production in order to keep the price of oil over $100 per barrel. Our friends the Saudi’s, have vowed to keep production at its current level. Well, that fills me with warm fuzzies.
• There seems to be lots of reporters who are writing about the back-and-forth between the Obama camp and the McCain camp regarding lipstick on a pig. Of course, this distracts Americans away from the real issues. Our economy is in the toilet. We still don’t have a strategy for getting out of Iraq. We are no closer to Osama bin Laden. More and more of our troops are dying in Afghanistan as the Taliban returns. (Admiral Mullen stated that we are not winning in Afghanistan.) These are the issues that I want to hear about.
• Lehman Brothers are desperately trying to restructure their debt and sell off whatever everything they can. They released their third-quarter earnings statements early in order to fend off criticism and speculation. They lost $3.9 billion last quarter. That is added to the $2 billion they lost in the first quarter of this year. Lehman Brothers have survived two World Wars and a Great Depression but may not be able to survive the deregulation in tax cuts by the Bush administration.
• You knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Drudge, of the Drudge Report, has been on the sidelines. He really hasn’t made any headlines are breaking news. He really hasn’t done anything significant since the Clinton camp stopped feeding him information. Drudge completely botched the lipstick story. Is anyone surprised?
• A new scandal is beginning to engulf the Department of the Interior. These are the kind of scandals that I like. It contains sex and drugs but, unfortunately, no rock ‘n roll. It does contain lots of money though.
• EJ Donnie of the Washington Post asked the question, “Does the Truth Matter any More?” Nice OpEd.

Tags: Afghanistan, Economy, Election 2008, Energy, Saudi Arabia by ecthompson md
3 Comments »

This is the $64,000 question. No one can know for use but I believe there are a number of forces which are driving Bush.  First, I believe that President Bush was surprised by the ferocity and the frankness of the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations.  The recommendations were complete repudiation of his policies.  Really, all of his policies.  Therefore, he couldn’t endorse all of them.  On the other hand, the Iraq Study Group was caught between a rock and a hard place.  They had to come up with recommendations that were forceful enough to acknowledge the problems in Iraq currently.  The American people would not have accepted an endorsement of the current policy.

Secondly, there are the regional realities.  Saudi Arabia is a major player.  Saudi Arabia is the home of most of the 9/11 hijackers.  Saudi Arabia is made up of mostly Sunni Arabs.  Therefore, a policy that punishes the Sunnis would not be suitable to Saudi Arabia.  There was an interesting piece in the Washington Post by a Saudi adviser.  The piece almost went unnoticed.  Once the pieces read then it becomes clear of why the Vice President went to Saudi Arabia.  I don’t know this for a fact but it appears that he was summoned to Saudi Arabia.  I am positive that Vice President Cheney was told that if the United States begins a phased withdrawal in Saudi Arabia will enter the conflict to protect its Sunni brothers.  This will cause to protect its Shiite brothers.  Regional conflict will ensue.  An article in today’s New York Times supports the fact that Saudi Arabia will become a major player if the United States begins to pull out of Iraq.

Thirdly, it is unclear how the new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, will fit into this whole mix.  How much influence will he have over policy?

I think it is clear that President Bush is not going to do any type of withdrawal.  The question is how much are we going to “stay the course?”  Bush is a political animal.  He has seen the polls no matter how much he tries to tell us he hasn’t.  He also knows that he is unable to do much without the will of the American people.  I look for Bush to try to convince the American people that we need to follow Senator John McCain’s idea — increasing troop strength.  I look for only a few of the recommendations of the Iraqi Study Group to be implemented.  Iraq is going to get uglier and our political scene is going to get uglier before we see any improvement, in my humble opinion.

Tags: Bush Administration, Iraq, Military, Saudi Arabia by ecthompson md
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The following is a chilling piece written by Nawaf Obaid, adviser to the Saudi Royal family.  He has subsequently resigned his post but his words are no less important.  This is a window into the complexity of the Iraqi problem.  This is why President Bush (41) did not invade Iraq.  This is also why a diplomatic solution is necessary.

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In February 2003, a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, warned President Bush that he would be “solving one problem and creating five more” if he removed Saddam Hussein by force. Had Bush heeded his advice, Iraq would not now be on the brink of full-blown civil war and disintegration.

One hopes he won’t make the same mistake again by ignoring the counsel of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who said in a speech last month that “since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited.” If it does, one of the first consequences will be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.

Over the past year, a chorus of voices has called for Saudi Arabia to protect the Sunni community in Iraq and thwart Iranian influence there. Senior Iraqi tribal and religious figures, along with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and other Arab and Muslim countries, have petitioned the Saudi leadership to provide Iraqi Sunnis with weapons and financial support. Moreover, domestic pressure to intervene is intense. Major Saudi tribal confederations, which have extremely close historical and communal ties with their counterparts in Iraq, are demanding action. They are supported by a new generation of Saudi royals in strategic government positions who are eager to see the kingdom play a more muscular role in the region.

Because King Abdullah has been working to minimize sectarian tensions in Iraq and reconcile Sunni and Shiite communities, because he gave President Bush his word that he wouldn’t meddle in Iraq (and because it would be impossible to ensure that Saudi-funded militias wouldn’t attack U.S. troops), these requests have all been refused. They will, however, be heeded if American troops begin a phased withdrawal from Iraq. As the economic powerhouse of the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam and the de facto leader of the world’s Sunni community (which comprises 85 percent of all Muslims), Saudi Arabia has both the means and the religious responsibility to intervene. [Read more →]

Tags: Iraq, Saudi Arabia by ecthompson md
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