Monday Morning Observations

So Robert Gates doesn't believe the Air Fore is doing enough to help the war effort. He says he wants more drones. It's nice to know that with all that expensive training the pilots are reduced to the equivalent of playing video games. What he really wants are more bodies to stop bullets and IEDs because he's running out of criminals and gang members and as he says, the outcome is still in doubt.

"In my view we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield."

No wonder a Navy officer would rather take a less than honorable discharge than to go into a battle zone they aren't ready for. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the disconnect continues. After watching 60 Minutes last night it is glaringly obvious that the longer we are at war, the more coordinated and dangerous the enemy becomes. And as is typical of the never right wing commenters, they believe the story of the Green Berets is either: propaganda because it is two years old and we're in an election year; Laura Logan is smarmy and condescending (news people aren't supposed to be warm and caring, that's what Oprah is for); or that it's all lies. As if closing your eyes and covering your ears will change the fact that the Taliban are learning how to coordinate attacks and are willing to sacrifice hundreds at a time to rid the country of intruders. If we had found Osama been Forgotten seven years ago we wouldn't be in this mess. Seven years and we're back at the starting point. Minus a few hundred troops and the original objective is nowhere in sight.

Oh boy, you just know fees are going to go up.

Who didn't see this coming? Relief agencies and charities are being overwhelmed by the increasing amount of people who need their services.

“It started increasing, and it just became overwhelming,” said Maxwell Amsong, a professionally trained chef who oversees food services at the nonprofit Christian mission, which served about 16,000 clients last month, a 23 percent rise over March 2007.

The story is retold over and over: 40 percent more clients for the Salvation Army in Panama City, Fla.; 20 percent more for Urban Ministries of Raleigh, N.C.; almost 200 percent more for the Community Ministries Food Pantry in Boise, Idaho.

It’s a double whammy. At the same time that the sagging economy is producing more mouths for relief agencies to feed, it is also drying up donations to help feed them.

Muslims want to adopt Mecca time instead of Greenwich Mean Time because they think Mecca is the center of the earth. I guess Miller time is out of the question.