The Week Ahead

We’re still in our First Anniversary celebration here at TBWA, but we still need to take care of the mundane, every-day tasks at hand… including the never-mundane Week Ahead.

So as we get underway for the week of September 25th… here’s a few things you may want to take heed of as the week (and the months) progress… lest you like being a lemming.

• Pay attention to the infighting with the GOP. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) specifically cited several techniques that would be banned under his “compromise” bill on detainee policy (including but seemingly not limited to extreme sleep deprivation, forced hypothermia and waterboarding). Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) said McCain’s statement would “help(s) the terrorists.” (Apparently that’s the buzz phrase for republicans as,according to republicans, everything helps the terrorists). That’s not even bringing into account the fighting between House and Senate republicans that was started by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) demanding certain things be inserted into a defense policy bill. (That’s a sight I love to see; the republicans fighting amongst themselves… always brings a little smile to my face. Let’s all hope that it continues…)
• Keep your eye on Osama bin Laden as he may be dead… or alive… or sick… or healthy… or dating Whitney Houston… or if could be living in Scotsdale Arizona… or in a cave in Pakistan. Actually, let’s just leave it at this: Osama bin Laden is… something
• Keep an eye on Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). It seems the senator is suffering from delusions of grandeur as he’s still convinced that he could win re-election to his Senate seat. If he wins… then we should all call hell to make sure it hasn’t frozen over…
• Watch former President Bill Clinton. He was on Fox “News” yesterday and gave the “host” a good tongue-lashing despite Fox’s attempts to portray him as a “crazed” politician.
• Watch the Pentagon this week as some internal strife seems to be in the making as the 2008 budget has been withheld by the Army's top officer (Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker ) who has been imploring Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld about it being billions of dollars short… short to the point that the service would not be able to maintain its current level of activity in Iraq along with all the other (global) commitments it has. (Well, sure… why would we need to maintain a healthy budget for the military after all? It’s not that important… yes, I am being sarcastic. I’m not one of those Democrats that think the military should be restrained by a meager budget… after all, they are the ones keeping us safe by risking their lives. This administration… this republican administration… seems to cast an askew eye towards the military as if they were their own personal toy soldier collection and doesn’t seem to give a rats-ass about the military; of course that’s just my opinion…)
• Pay attention to Congress as they being their final week of work… wait a minute… why should we pay attention to them when they haven’t done a damn thing?? This group has epitomized the “do nothing congress” and I assign blame to both parties. Granted the gop is the majority, but I don’t believe the Democrats did enough either.
• Pay heed to a classified intelligence report that cconcluded the war in Iraq has indeed, despite White House officials denying it, spawned a new wave of Islamic radicalism and also increased the global threat of terrorism. Quick show of hands… does this surprise anyone??? Anyone with a brain of their own at least? Once again, the disaster that is the Bush administration has endangered the lives of Americans by fostering terrorism rather than eradicating it… good job guys, keep up the good work… schmucks.
• Pay attention as the Democratic Policy Committee is going to hold hearings this week on the planning (or lackthereof) and conduct (or lackthereof) of the Iraq war. They are scheduled to take the testimony of a handful of retired generals who have gone on the record and criticized Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. The committee expects one of them, Major General Paul Eaton, to rate Rumsfeld as “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.” Let’s also make note that sometime this week (even though he is destined to go down as the worst Secretary of Defense ever) he’s going to become the longest-serving Secretary of Defense.

All I have for now… take ‘em as you will.