The Weekly Rewind

It... is... Friday...

We all know what that means, right? Payday! Whoo-hooooo!!!

But it also means that it is time for The Weekly Rewind, our attempt to recapitulate the past week in politics... the only way we know how. With attitude! And a good dose of caffeine...

What's that?? It's not normal for me to be flittering around like a hummingbird? Hmmmm, I wonder if it could be the 2 pots of coffee I drank today...

The Rewind for the week ending March 31, 2006... starts... right now... (this is when I wish we had theme music...)

Applaud: to the reshuffling of cards in the Bush Administration that comes with the resignation of White House Chief of Staff (COS) Andrew Card. Anytime we can jettison a piece of Bushcrony crap, it’s a good thing. Having said that though, his resignation also leads to this...

Heckle: to a shake-up that isn’t really a shake-up (unless you’re one of the countless lemming running amok in this country right now). Replacing Card will be Josh Bolten, who currently works for the Bush Administration... but in a different capacity. Some within the administration are touting this as the first salvo in a massive “second-term overhaul, others think that if you are trying to shake things up, you don’t bring someone in from another part of the administration. This can be seen one of two ways; Card getting the hell out of Dodge before the you-know-what really hits the fan… or he was pushed out because he is starting to garner too much attention with PlameGate. Stay tuned…

Applaud: to more telling it like it is. This time it comes from CNN’s Lou Dobbs, currently traveling abroad with Bush in Mexico. Long and short of it, Dobbs stated that President Bush and Congress are defying the people's will. I could explain it more, but I feel pointing you to the actual article (HERE) and urging you to read it works better in this situation.

Heckle: to bringing up painful memories of the past. I understand the need to release the 911 tapes from the September 11^th terrorist attacks to the families that lost loved ones on that day… what I don’t like is the way the media is playing them over and over and over. Leave it for the families… please.

Applaud: Former US national security advisor (under Jimmy Carter) Zbigniew Brzezinski has put together a four-point plan for the United States to withdraw from Iraq with a plan that would allow BushCo to extricate gradually in Iraq, “without victory, but also without defeat.” Let’s hope the Bush Administration listens and heeds what we at TBWA always say… show respect and practice tolerance for those who disagree with them… and listen to others who may have some very good and very practical ideas. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that to happen, but I won’t hold my breath, lest I lose consciousness.

Heckle: to piss-poor planning and calculation. The Bush administration announced Thursday that the cost of rebuilding New Orleans's levees to federal standards had been miscalculated and has now tripled to $10 billion. So far Congress has only approved $2 billion for the rebuilding effort and will next week will consider a White House request for an additional $1.5 billion. Local leaders are stating that the federal government is backing away from its promise to rebuild the area to better protect it from future storms. The even worse news is that the start of the 2006 hurricane season is only 2 months away and this season is forecast to be as nasty as last season. Now do you want the punch line? Because of the ballooning costs, there may not be enough money to fully protect the entire region now. Brilliant… absolutely fuc**** brilliant! Just keep kicking them while they’re down and hope they leave…

Applaud: to the release of hostage Jill Carroll. No smart-ass comments, no ‘snark’, just a big sigh of relief. We’ll ignore her comments that she was ‘treated well’ by her kidnappers and attribute it to Stockholm Syndrome. But… this incident does illicit one:

Heckle: to Don “Old Fart” Imus’ sidekick (or lackey if you want to get technical) for comparing Carroll, on the air, to a suicide bomber. Want to read the exchange? Click HERE. Sounds as though even Imus, who is just this side of senility, is aghast at what his co-host and producer are saying.

Applaud: To Snark-filled radio – Liberal style. Today marks the 2^nd Anniversary of the liberal radio network Air America. Remember that conservatives? The network you all claimed would shut down after 6 months. Today they're heard on 85 stations (& XM Satellite Radio) and you can stream their programming on the ‘internets.’ As BiPM said on his Daily Kos Cheer & Jeers diary today: “It's not just talk radio---it's crack for the reality-based soul.” ‘Karma, baby!’

Heckle: to an issue that will put ally vs. ally, family vs. family, and politicians vs. politicians. Immigration reform is gearing up to be THE hot-button issue for this years midterm elections and beyond. I am still in the middle of the road on this topic, seeing intelligent arguments being made on both sides. What I do know is that it will not go away soon… it will not go away quietly… and the debate will get louder and louder. All I can say about it now is… stay tuned.

Applaud: to the great city of Chicago, who announced that they may “buck” the feds on immigration and will not enforce any immigration law that criminalizes undocumented workers. Tip of the hat to Mayor Daley for standing up for one of your largest ethnic blocs… very, very smart.

Heckle: to SCJOTUS Antonin Scalia. Not for his decisions and opinions, but rather for… how do we say this… for acting like a street punk when he made an obscene gesture and said "Vaffanculo" (literally "Go get f'd up your ass")… did we mention there is photographic evidence? Did we mention it was in church? Nice...

Applaud: to not kowtowing to the current administration. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan rejected requests by the Bush-Cheney campaign to order the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce tougher regulations on "527" political committees. In a ruling issued earlier this week, Judge Sullivan gave the FEC a choice: explain in detail why regulations are not needed… or begin proceedings to develop such rules. Nice… very nice ruling your honor…

Heckle: to nothing good can come of this. Iran announced that it had successfully test fired a new missile. Not only is this new missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, but is also claimed to be invisible to radar and is able to avoid anti-missile missiles (Patriot). They already have the Shahab-3 missile that is nuclear capable and can hit not only Israel but also U.S. bases around the Middle East and now they add another to thier arsenal. Clueless George has already lost all credibility here and overseas, so this will be interesting. Three words: cuban... missle... crisis...

Applaud: to even more in-fighting among the GOP (hee hee hee). Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has been facing mounting criticism this week from fellow Republicans who have stated that he has proved to be an ineffectual leader whose legislative agenda was predicated by his ambitions for the Presidency. Rumbling about Frist were seen before, but have been exacerbated by his push to debate immigration reform, which some Republicans say put a spotlight on a hot-button topic that caused squabbling within the party. Frist is not a leader… he was placed in his current position of power due to lack of other options. He has a long history of looking out for himself and only caring about his own political ambitions. Now others, including some within his party, are starting to see that. (I think we can now say that his presidential ambitions are on life-support. Let’s hope President Bush can cut short his current trip and rush back to DC to save him… sarcasm is SO hard to convey in a blog)

Applaud: to getting what’s coming to you, and it’s only the beginning. Lobbysit extraordinarie Jack Abramoff, he of the disgraced lobbying fame, was sentenced earlier this week to nearly six years in prison for fraud. As we said on this blog earlier this week, this has nothing to do with his problems in DC… so it’s likely that he will receive more prison time… unless he starts naming names, which is always a possibility. (All together now: ‘Karma, baby!!’)

Heckle: to not knowing the difference between Iraq and Turkey. Howard Kallogian, a Republican candidate in the CA-50 special election, posted a picture on his campaign site (which you can see HERE on Daily Kos) which he claims he took in Bahgdad, in order to show the “good things” happening over there that are being ignored by the mainstream media (msm). Wow, that is a nice picture of Baghdad… except, wait a minute, the women are wearing shorts and t-shirts… that doesn’t sound right. Oh wait, that’s right; it’s not Bahgdad, it’s a suburb of Istanbul… which (hopefully this fact doesn’t really need to be pointed out) is in Turkey. The man is an idiot. The only thing more entertaining than this picture being seen as the fraud that it is? Watching Kallogian trying to spin the story. Karma, baby!

Applaud/heckle: I honestly can’t decide what this one should be classified as. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated in a speech today that the Bush administration has made "thousands" of tactical errors in Iraq. Well, duh. That statement alone would illicit an applaud, but then she had to add that history would judge the strategic decision of invading Iraq favorably… huh? Ya see, that makes me re-think that it’s an heckle. Sigh… I give up.

Applaud: to approaching milestones. We at TBWA have been posting and giving you our unique approach to politics since September 2005. Here we are, the last day of March and we are very, very close to 10,000 visitors… that’s right… 10,000. It boggles the mind...

That's all we got, what are you Applauding and Heckling as this week (and the month of March) comes to an end?