Obama at Colonials Game

Pictures of President Obama at the GW game against Oregon State. When we heard about this game on the GW schedule, my friend Stu and I figured there was a very good chance Obama would be there. After all the Oregon State coach is Michelle's brother.

Obama at GW

Here are some more pictures of the President. The first picture is the last play of the first half. GW fell behind 16-0 in the first half. They came back in the second had the ball and could have cut the lead to 4 but blew it. Then in the last couple of minutes Oregon State allowed GW back in the game. GW was behind by just 3 with a minute left. But alas it was not to be.

This from the Post:

Obama stayed after the game was over to shake hands with players and coaches from both teams.

"He told us good game, great effort," Bynes said. "Personally, I felt like . . . I can't even explain the words right now. I was very excited to shake his hand. Even with the loss, that was a bright spot of the day."

Once again I'll say I love living in Washington, DC.

Be Italian from Nine

Nine the musical is coming to theaters. It opens wide on Christmas Day.

I remember seeing this on Broadway with the original cast with Raul Julia in the lead. I even have the Playbill. It's one of my favorite shows.

The movie is getting a great deal of buzz. I did a search on YouTube and found one of my favorite songs Be Italian.

I think watching this is a much better use of time then shopping.

Out to the Stores (Not)

Wow some of the local malls around here opened at midnight. Kohl's opened at 3 am. Kmart was open on Thanksgiving. Yes the holiday season has started in full swing. I feel at a great loss that I did not run out and participate.

I missed waking up well before the crack of dawn.

Driving like a maniac to get to the store before it opened.

Trying to find a parking place.

Waiting in line.

Almost getting trampled to death when the doors opened.

Elbowing out of my way fellow shoppers so I could get what I want.

Then standing in hours in line to pay for my treasures.

Wow I'm so sad I slept in.

Important Climate Change Video

A very important message about climate change. And it's pretty damn funny too!



By the way, Sam agrees with the above sentiments.

Suit Shopping

I need a new suit. I discovered this when I was going to see Christine Ebersole at the Kennedy Center. The pants to the suit didn’t exactly fit. They were just a little too small in the waist and as well as in the thighs. The jacket still fit. But I couldn’t figure out a good match with the pants that I have.

I went through all the other jackets that I have. Most don’t fit. Some are a little tight around the waist but most were too small in the chest. So I’m pleased about that.

The hunt has now begun for a new suit.

I went to Macy’s at Tyson’s Corner on Saturday. In less than ten minutes I was asked if I needed help by no fewer than 4 people. I almost left after the last guy asked. But they were having a sale and the prices were pretty good so I decided to take a look.

The first thing I ruled out were suits with three buttons. I really don’t like the way they look in general and I really don’t like the way they look on me. I was hoping to maybe find a double breasted one but no such luck.

I did find several styles that I really liked. So I tried some on. Here’s what I found out.

In the coat a 40 regular is just a little too small while a 42 regular is just a little too big.

In waists on pants the 34 inch is just a little too small (it would be fine if I didn’t have to sit down) and the 36 inch is just a little too big.

On pants inseam the 30 inch is too short and the 32 inch is too long.

What I figured out from this exercise was I need a 41 regular coat with a 35 inch waist and a 31 inch inseam. There’s a snow ball chance in hell that I’m finding something like that.

I will continue my quest. I’m thinking of going to Men’s warehouse over the weekend. They have a buy one get one free sale.

A Funny Sign

Here are two pictures of a sign that's down the street from me.

This would be a perfect sign if say the neighborhood was Booklyn as in Booklyn, New York.

But it's not a very good sign say if the neighborhood is Brookland as in Brookland Washington, DC.

Sesame Street Turns 40

I'm a few days late on this but happy birthday to a show that changed the way we watch TV and introduced the world to the muppets.

2Political Episode 21

2PP021 - 19 November 2009

2Political Podcast Episode 21 is now available. You can listen to it on the widget on the right side of my blog, or you can go the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode.

Get 2Poltical Podcast for free on iTunes

After special days, we look at the Sarah Palin book. That leads on to a discussion of the rightwing, which leads to a discussion of the problems the Republican party faces from its own right wing. From there it’s the latest madness from the christianist extremists: The increasingly unhinged religious far right pose a major problem for the Republicans, who continue to refuse to disavow the extremist rhetoric.

Please leave a comment (anyone’s welcome—agree or disagree!), or you can send an email to arthur[at)2political.com or jason{at]2political.com, or you can ring the US-based 2Political Comment line on 206-350-3982.

Back in about ten days!

Kalb Report: What Makes 60 Minutes Tick

A very interesting Kalb report last night. Executive Producer Jeff Fager and Correspondent Lesley Stahl were the guests. A wide ranging discussion on how 60 Minutes has lasted as long as did. Some of the triumphs and some of the not so triumphant moments there.

I thought it was interesting that Lesley looked at the opening video montage of the Kalb report to see who was all pictured. She also knew the director of the show Robert Vitarelli who’d been at CBS for many years before coming over to the Kalb report.

Marvin pressed Fager on what the budget for 60 Minutes is. Jeff although pressed would not say. During the course of the evening mentions of costs of various things came up and the audience would laugh.

They both said that at 60 Minutes they don’t have meetings, don’t have memos, don’t have a hierarchy. A story idea is proposed on what is called a blue sheet (they didn’t exactly explain what that was). It was then either accepted or rejected. No explanation given. Lesley said that if someone felt strongly about it they would go back and plead the case for it. It sound like you got three cracks at pushing the story and after the third no it was dead. It sounded like if you made a good enough case the story would get done.

There was a discussion over the cigarette story where 60 Minutes caved to the corporate suits and modified the story because of fear of a law suit. This lead into a discussion about the Dan Rather story on Bush and the National Guard. Neither Jeff nor Lesley were directly involved in what happened so they didn’t have a great deal of insight into what happened.

Other topics of note:

Don Hewitt said you couldn’t just do a voice over for a story. You had to take the viewer along on the journey

Stahl talked about the time she was scammed by a supposed Iraqi defector who said Saddam had mobile biological weapons labs that traveled around the country on trucks. This was not true.

They review stories from the perspective of are you letting the person say what they have to say.

Only about 15 percent of their stories are reviewed by lawyers. It sounded like they had two lawyers that they’ve worked with for years. These would have been lawyers for CBS not specifically for 60 Minutes.

The one gotcha moment for Stahl was when she was on Face the Nation interviewing Margaret Thatcher. The topic was Iran Contra. Lesley asked how Thatcher could ever trust the US again. Thatcher said things were fine. Stahl pressed until finally Thatcher said words to the effect of how Thatcher seemed to like the US more than Stahl did.

Stahl also talked about her interview with Nicolas Sarkozy (there was an opening series of clips from 60 Minutes and they showed part of that interview) where he walked out. Stahl had asked a question about his wife and he left. Stahl said she was told by reporters not to ask that question. She was told French reporter would never have asked such a question. Stahl’s response was to say she wasn’t a French reporter.

During the question and answer session Stahl was asked what one person she wanted most to interview but hadn't. Stahl responded Nancy Reagan. Stahl wanted to try and find out just how much influence Nancy Reagan had.

It was a very interesting night.

Kennedy Center

I went to the Kennedy Center last night to see Christine Ebersole at the Terrace Theater. Here are some pictures of the Center.

More From the Kennedy Center

The last five pictures are taken from the top of the Kennedy Center.

Sunday Smile

Well so all the rain did was inspire me not to be inspired. Today is bright and sunny and warm. All of those things merit a Sunday smile.

Another Soggy Saturday

Yes another one. It's been that way 4 out of the last five weekends. Rainy icky. Makes you want to stay in all day and just take a real long nap.

The last couple of days have been that way too. We got what was left of Ida and then another front came through. More rain. Tomorrow is supposed to be better. I hope so. This type of weather makes me not want to do anything. Like make a blog post.

But since I seem to have nothing but time on my hands, I may make a couple today.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day or as it was once know Armistice Day. For many people today veterans are the farthest thing from their minds on this day. For some it's a day off. It's a sale at stores.

There are parades and speeches and a recognition to those who have served and are serving. But to me it's not enough to honor what these men and women do for our country. It seems we only seem to remember them on days like these. That's just not enough.

To understand the day a little better here's a little of the history of the day:

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.

Finally on this Veterans Day a salute to those men in uniform who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Those We've Lost. Heroes all.








Pfc. Zachary T. Myers
Lost September 8, 2009 in Iraq










Sgt. 1st Class Duane A. Thornsbury
Lost September 12, 2009 in Iraq









Spec. Demetrius L. Void
Lost September 15, 2009 in Afghanistan









Sgt. 1st Class Bradley S. Bohle
Lost September 16, 2009 in Afghanistan

Health Care Something

I don't know what else to call it. But health care something. It was important that on Saturday the House voted on their version of a bill for heal care reform. It moves the process along. the next hurdle, in what seems like an endless line of hurdles, is getting the Senate to act.

I'm not sure that Harry Reid is going to be able to get the job done. Well I guess he will try and get something passed but it appears more and more like a final bill will not be passed until next year. This is of course exactly what the Republicans want to do. The longer they can keep the process going; the better they feel they defeat it.

There are of course more lies from them (thus the reason I think the party should be renamed to the Liepublican Party). Dick Army was on CNN calling the bill socialized medicine. There were of course the other usual suspects carrying the party shill about the bill. I don't understand why the media doesn't call this people out more often. But they don't

I guess I'm a little ambivalent on what happened on Saturday. It is, like I said, important to get a bill out. But there is still a long way to go. The President needs to step up and get more directly involved. He did go to the House on Saturday and urge support for the bill. Also Bill Clinton was on the Hill t0day at the Senate. After meeting with Senators he said:

"It's not important to be perfect here. It's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling," he told reporters after the meeting. "There will be amendments to this effort, whatever they pass, next year and the year after and the year after, and there should be. It's a big, complicated, organic thing. But the worst thing to do is nothing."

I just hope they have enough balls to get this thing done. This country really needs this.

Renwick Gallery

This is the Renwick Gallery which is right by the White House. It's one of the hidden treasures of Washington. Most people don't even notice it because they are heading to or from the White House. But this museum has some amazing exhibits to see. It's grand room is a wonderful place to sit and admire all the wonderful pictures this gallery has.

Right Near Work

Every once in a while I have to stop and remember exactly where I am. Washington, DC and that I work just a few blocks from the White House. So on Friday I walked down there to remind me of just how lucky I am to live where I live. The weather was cooperative too; no rain.

2Political Episode 20

2PP020 - 5 November 2009

2Political Podcast Episode 20 is now available. You can listen to it on the widget on the right side of my blog, or you can go the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode.


Today we look at some of the results of the US elections. It was no referendum on President Obama or the Democrats, but there was a bit of a one against extremists who were trying to purge the Republican Party of moderates. We also take a look at the referenda in Maine, along with the implications of the much more positive results from Kalamazoo, Michigan and Washington state. We also talk about some of the bigger issues and trends, and that even the loss in Maine is as dire as it may seem to some—though Arthur thinks there are some threats arising from it.


Get 2Poltical Podcast for free on iTunes

The election results

As CNN put it a Republican Renaissance. As the Post puts it GOP wins reveal cracks in Obama coalition. Yes the Democrats are on the verge of complete and total defeat. As one pundit put it they’ve lost independents and that’s a bad sign for 2010. Another said economic factors make for a grim prospect for the Democrats in 2010. Yes, that’s certainly true but this is 2009. The economy is most likely going to be in a much different place than it is now.

What do the results of the elections have to do on the national level? Not much. These elections were much more about local issues and local candidates and the strength and weaknesses of those candidates.

Yes, the Democrats lost in Virginia and New Jersey. In Virginia the Dems got their clocks cleaned.

With Virgina it would have been nice if someone on TV or in the papers had given an historical perspective on the Virginia governor contest. Here it is. See if you notice a trend
Year     President       Governor
1977    Carter      Dalton-R
1981    Reagan      Robb-D
1985    Reagan      Baliles-D
1989    Bush      Wilder-D
1993    Clinton      Allen-R
1997    Clinton      Gilmore-R
2001    Bush      Warner-D
2005    Bush      Kaine-D
2009    Obama      McDonnell-R

Also about 1.7 million fewer people voted. Now does that excuse how badly the Democrats did no it doesn’t. Deeds was just a horrible candidate. As one of my friends said, who lives in Virginia, Deeds never made a strong case for voting for him.

New Jersey is the more problematic loss. But just about everyone around Corzine and his mother was under investigation and indictment. Also the economy in New Jersey was lousy.

Lost in all of this coverage is what happened in New York in the special election in district 23. A Republican district that’s been Republican for like 125 years was won by a Democrat.

What would have been nice is some balanced coverage about what was happening.

A Mouse in the House, Again

Nothing more enjoyable than coming home from a hard days work and find your cat playing with a mouse in your bedroom. Oh what fun. The mouse sure wasn't going anywhere. I "trapped" him under a trash can. Put a newspaper underneath the can and then a magazine under that.

Next I took the can outside and released the mouse. Now I'm cleaning and seeing if there are any more visitors in my house. I was going to do a post on the election but that will have to wait until tomorrow

A Spinning Update

Good news on the spinning front. I made it to my class on Saturday. Michelle was there. Instead of just being the sub for one more week, she is now taking over the class. I couldn’t be more happy about this. Saturday morning are back to normal.

Speaking of Saturday the class was a little different. Usually in spinning classes there are more women then men. Usually if you have a class of ten you might at the very most get 3 or 4 guys. On Saturday at the start of the class, there were 6 men and no women. In the end there were 11 of us (people were late it is after all Saturday at 9 am). Five women ended up joing the class once it started. Although one only stayed for half of the class.

I asked my trainer, Ed, why women seemed to be in more of the classed offered by gyms then men. He said the reason was that women know how to do cardio but don’t know all that much about the machines and even less about free weights. He wasn’t saying it as any sort of a put down but that’s sort of the way things work at the gym. He said women should be doing more with machines and free weights to help them out with their bones and posture.

One other bit of training/exercising/weight news and I was below 175 on Saturday morning. The weight is ever ever so slowly moving in the right direction. The goal of course is to have a weight ceiling of 175 pounds and a weight floor of 170.

Like I said slowly getting there!

Sunday Smile (a day late)

Changing the clocks always throws off my timing. Also this is the third weekend in a row when one or both days its been cloudy and rainy. So here's something to smile about on Monday. And I can always use something to smile about on Monday.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Here's a very funny picture a friend sent to me.

The caption is as follows:

Have fun but remember………..too much could give you a tummy ache!

The Saga of the Credit Card from My Credit Union

Or how to be disabused of the notion that a credit union treats customers better than a traditional bank.

The story starts back a few months. Interest rates were dropping and it occurred to me to try and refinance my house. The rates got low enough that it would be worth doing. Several people at work talked about hot credit unions usually had lower interest rater than traditional banks. So I looked into which if any credit unions I could join. As an alumni of GW, I could join the NIH Federal Credit Union which is what I did.

By the time I got around to joining the rates had gone back up.

Several months pass and I decide to take advantage of the low rates they have on a credit card.

And thus my saga begins.

I was told that you apply for a credit on-line. A it usually takes a couple of days to be approved. I figured great this will be easy. I finally got around to on October 6. I did it in the morning before work. It didn’t take very long. I only had one problem with the form. The problem was I couldn’t figure out where one line of text was attached to if it applied to the box above it or below it. But I soon figured it out. I finished it up and pressed send.

Later that day I got an automated e-mail thanking me for submitting my loan application. I was a little confused about this. I made a call to the credit union a couple day later to ask about this. I was told that the credit union looks at credit cards as a loan. The guy I talked to was a little surprised someone hadn’t been it touch with me. He said it should happen soon.

Move forward 16 days when I finally got around to calling the credit union again. Here's part of the letter that I sent to the Credit Union outlining the series of events:

On October 22, I called the credit union since no one had bothered to call me back. It was then and only then that I was told that in order to get the credit card I would have to supply additional financial information. In the course of my conversation with your representative (I unfortunately did not get her name) I confirmed what additional information would be needed. I asked this on three different occasion. The final time I asked I said so I need to provide these three things and that was all. I was told that was correct.

The three things were a pay stub, a photo copy of a picture ID and the NIH Federal Credit Union personal financial statement. I gathered this information and turned it in this morning in person at the GW branch of the Credit Union.

Imagine my surprise and shock when I was told I would have to supply my 2008 income tax return as well. I would really like to know why I was not told this when I called last Thursday. If I had, I would have been able to turn in everything at once. Instead I have to make another trip back to the GW branch. It also further delays an already far too delayed process for applying for the credit card.

The tax return is enclosed. Hopefully there are no other surprise documents that I need to provide to get this process going.

I have to say I am less than impressed with the way I have been treated so far. This gives me pause as to whether, or much more likely if, I will transfer my checking account and other financial services to the credit union.

When I told people about having to supply the tax return, most people's jaws dropped. Several said why are you still doing business with these people. I have to say I'm thinking the exact same thing.

The upshot of the letter was that I did receive a call from someone from the credit union. But it was not someone from the loan department. It was someone from the GW branch. I wasn't at my desk so she left a message. I called back and she wasn't in. She was off today but will be back in tomorrow. I'm going to give her the morning to call me. If she hasn't I'll call her in the afternoon. It should be interesting to see what she has to say.

Oh and as for the credit card, I have no idea if I have it or not. But after all this that's not too much of a surprise. Why would the loan department contact me? After all I'm only a customer.

Working Out is really Starting to Work Out

I’m pleased with my progress. My recovery between work outs is much quicker and we’re moving into a new phase of training.

First the recovering part. I rearranged my training schedule so I could add an extra spinning class on Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning training was moved to Tuesday evening and I got my second trainer Shawn. So now I have training Tuesday night and then a spinning class at 7 am Wednesday. Actually if you get there at 6:45 the instructor is already there so instead of 45 minutes of spinning you can get in a hour. His class is fairly challenging. After working out the night before I’d fell pretty wiped out by the end of the class .

Needless to say when I started this, I’d wake up on Thursday mornings and could barely get out of bed. But now it’s not that hard and in fact I have enough energy to go out for my morning walk. The reason for the quick recovery is that I’m getting stronger and it’s very noticeable to me by the level of energy I have on Thursday morning. Also I don’t hurt like hell all over the place most noticeably in my legs. Doing leg work during the Friday training session used to really hurt. Now not all that much now.

I asked Shawn some questions during Friday’s session (Shawn was filling in for Ed who was at a meeting). I asked Shawn if he came up with a different routine for each person or just did the same thing for everyone. He said each one was different. He said I seemed to like free weights and not machines so much (this comes from training with Randy and Ed). My workouts then concentrate on that. Shawn knew of trainers that did the same workout no matter who the client was. He said that was boring and didn’t help the client out all that much. He then added that there are a limited number of types of exercise that you can do for each of the muscle groups. A chest press is a chest press. The same type of action is used for the exercises even if the exercises itself is not always the same. You can do all sorts of variations on a lunge but at the end of the day it’s still a lunge.

I also learned the order you should do exercises in. You start with the legs because they have the biggest group of muscles. Then you can either do chest or back. It’s interesting Shawn likes to do chest while Ed does back. Finally you do arms. Shoulders you usually work in with back work.

The training is undergoing a change. The emphasis is going to be adding muscle mass. This means higher weight with fewer reps. The higher weight I started to encourage a couple of weeks ago. When either Ed or Shawn ask if I want to try a higher weight I’ve been saying yes. I figure we can lower the weight if necessary. I’m excited about the next phase of training.

The remaining part of the training regimen which is still not exactly where it should be is the eating end of things. My weight is holding between 175-179. I want to try and make 175 my ceiling and my floor around 170. I’m hoping to get there around the first of the year if not sooner.

I have to say I’m very pleased the way things are progressing.

Drippy Dreary Saturday

Saturday was another dreary Saturday. There was actually some sun out but very early in the morning. The day clouded over and then it essential rained on and off for the rest of the day. I thought well this would be a good time to do all sorts of things around the house. Also get up a whole bunch of posts on subjects that I’d been thinking about.

The fact I’m posting on Monday about Saturday shows how well that worked out.

I did get in three loads of laundry. I changed the bed with of course the help of Sam who is always likes to help out with changing the bed. I got together some financial information for the credit card I was applying for through my credit union. More on that story later.

One other thing I did was go to a spinning class. I was sort of on auto pilot heading over to the class. I say that because I was going to the wrong Results location. The class I was taking on Saturdays got canceled. The new one is at the Mt. Vernon Square location. I was about half way to the old place before I realized what I was doing. I was able to get there on time. It turns out my old instructor was subing for the guy who normally teaches. It was a great class.

I read my book a little and played Civilization and the took a very long nap.

And that was my drippy dreary Saturday.

2Political Episode 19

2PP019 - 22 October 2009

2Political Podcast Episode 19 is now available. You can listen to it on the widget on the right side of my blog, or you can go the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode.


Get 2Poltical Podcast for free on iTunes

No Special Days today, because Jason talks about a holiday special instead. Then we talk about a topic today: Glass houses. We take three recent incidents of people completely missing the point of pushback against things they’ve done, instead attacking their critics: A Homophobic column by British columnist Jan Moir, Rush Limbaugh missing out on the chance to be a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams and the Mormons claiming they’re being treated the same as African Americans in the 1960s.

These topics allow us to elaborate on one of the background issues about these folks: They can’t see their own homophobia, racism or religious intolerance, nor the consequences of them. We even mention George H.W. Bush—in a different context.

Please leave a comment (anyone’s welcome—agree or disagree!), or you can send an email to arthur[at)2political.com or jason{at]2political.com, or you can ring the US-based 2Political Comment line on 206-350-3982.

Afghanistan Moves onto the Stage

In the past few weeks Afghanistan has been slowly moving to center stage.

The election there that turned out to be not much of an election at all. Something like 1 million votes were fraudulently cast for the current president Hamid Karzai. It sounds like there was a great deal of arm twisting but Karzai finally agreed to a run off (the Afghan constitution says there has to be a runoff if no candidate receives 50% of the vote):

Having pushed for a do-over, U.S. officials have even less ability to scold the winner. That winner is likely to be incumbent Karzai, who conceded Tuesday, under heavy international pressure, that a runoff was “legitimate, legal and according to the constitution of Afghanistan.”

Here’s an interesting take from Secretary Gates on the election:

“The outcome of the elections and the problems with the elections have complicated the situation for us. But the reality is, it’s not going to be complicated one day and simple the next,” he said. “We’re going to have to work with this going forward, and I believe the president will have to make his decisions in the context of that evolutionary process.”

The question has to be asked will the election this time around be any different from last time.

As to the war itself well there are decisions to be made. The background for this is of course the failure of the Bush administration for finishing what it started. Instead it spun fantasies about Iraq and then got us into a war there. We took our eyes off of Afghanistan and that’s come back to bite us in the ass.

The debate is on going on what exactly to do. The debate needs to thorough but it needs to be done with some dispatch. General Stanley McChrystal wants an increase of 40,000 troops to help fight the Taliban. This is based on the situation on the ground.

But is also came from a meeting in March that decided on:

>>That conclusion, which was later endorsed by the president and members of his national security team, would become the first in a set of recommendations contained in an administration white paper outlining what Obama called “a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Preventing al-Qaeda’s return to Afghanistan, the document stated, would require “executing and resourcing an integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy.”<<

But it seems not everyone interpreted this to mean a huge increase in the number of troops:

To some civilians who participated in the strategic review, that conclusion was much less clear. Some took it as inevitable that more troops would be needed, but others thought the thrust of the new approach was to send over scores more diplomats and reconstruction experts. They figured a counterinsurgency mission could be accomplished with the forces already in the country, plus the 17,000 new troops Obama had authorized in February.

Not having everyone on the same page seems to have slowed down the decision process on the part of the Obama administration. As I said before, they need to decide something soon.

The bottom line is we need to finish what we started in Afghanistan but we need to have an idea of what being “finished” is. If not we'll end up like so many countries before us (Soviet Union, Britain etc) that have been sucked into Afghanistan and then spit out years later with the country being in just about the same shape before we came. And that cannot be acceptable.

Red Bull at Union Station

At Union Station there was an exhibit by Red Bull of what people could make from Red Bull cans. Here's a sample.