The Weekly Rewind

Well here it is the end of another fun filled week (as my esteemed colleague says, it’s so hard to express sarcasm in the written form). However, being the end of the week, you know what that means, no not payday (ok, for some it might be payday), not laundry day (that’s Thursday), no it’s time for The Weekly Rewind. You know that little thing we do to go back and give a ‘quick-hit’ overview of some of the political happenings of the past week, as well as any major news events. So without any further delay, let’s get to it.

Before we get into the political dealings of the previous week I have to give a serious what the hell is wrong with this guy?, Heckle to just being senseless.

Another deranged idiot took children hostage at a school in Bailey, CO and when the standoff ended, a 16 student was dead as was the deranged idiot. With all the safety precautions that schools take today how was this 53 year old able to get into a school in the first place. At a later press conference the Sheriff stated that while the idiot (my word) held six girls hostage he sexually molested all of them. I am glad that the idiot is dead, but for what he did to those ‘children’ he should have suffered before he died. My heart goes out the girls family and all the children in Bailey whose lives have been forever changed by this senseless act.

Ok, let's get on to the political happenings of the past week.

Applaud: to telling the truth and nothing but the truth. At this weeks Democratic Policy Committee hearing on Iraq planning, retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the former commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, said the administration’s “plan allowed the insurgency to take root and metastasize to where it is today.” He and retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton declared that Rumsfeld must go. “He knows everything, except ‘how to win,’” Batiste said. Click here to see highlights of the hearing.

Heckle: to stating the obvious. “Americans clearly want a system that guarantees health care for everyone,” concludes a new report by the Citizens Health Care Working Group. The group was created by Congress and is composed of 15 members, including Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. We needed a ‘group’ to tell us what we all already knew…nice waste of time and tax dollars.

Heckle: to facts behind the obvious. Since 2000, workers’ health insurance premiums have risen a total of 84 percent, while their wages have increased 20 percent and inflation has risen 18 percent.

Heckle: to a sad reality. Most of the 9 million uninsured children in the U.S. live in homes where at least one parent works full time,” a new Families USA report finds. “In more than one-quarter of the cases, there are two working parents.” This is truly sad when families with two working parents cannot afford basic health insurance benefits.

Heckle: to the number 6. Why?, well that is the United States’ position on the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, a fall from first last year. The U.S. lost its position as the world’s most competitive economy to Switzerland as budget and trade deficits prompted a slide.

Heckle: is it warm in here or is it just me? The Earth’s temperature “has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals,” the National Academy of Sciences reported. “This evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution,” NASA’s James Hansen said.

Heckle: See I knew it was warm! The journal Nature reports that Bush administration officials “blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes,” the third such cover-up accusation in the last two weeks.

Heckle: I am sure glad that I don’t have to be the one to tell them. In a new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said that 3,800 U.S. soldiers will be staying in Iraq about six weeks beyond their one-year combat tours. Rumsfeld flew to the tiny nation of Montenegro with hopes of tapping a new source of troops for Iraq and Afghanistan. Hey how about seeing if any of the citizens of the tiny nation of Monaco are interested as well?

Heckle: And we all know how the first report went over. Bush terrorism adviser Fran Townsend acknowledged yesterday that a second intelligence estimate on Iraq exists, and will be released in January 2007. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), ranking member on the intel committee, said yesterday the White House is deliberately withholding the second NIE until after November’s elections. Wow, what a surprise! The administration withholding potentially self-damning information until after an election, who would have been able to guess that one?

Heckle: Congress is on the verge of barring the construction of permanent bases for U.S. forces in Iraq. The ban, which was inserted into the annual defense spending bill, won House approval last night with the passage of the defense appropriations bill.

Applaud: Thank you Rudy. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said yesterday, “The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton [for 9/11] is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don’t think he deserves it.”

Heckle: to still not getting it. The New York Times calls the “compromise” military commissions legislation about to be approved by Congress “a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.” Congress should hang it’s head in shame.

Heckle: to 'President' Bush on principles alone.

Heckle: to more of the same stupid stuff from this clueless administration. “The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there,” according to Bob Woodward’s new book. Woodward also claims “Bush’s top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms,” and that Bush said as recently as November 2003, “I don’t want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don’t think we are there yet.” Well George listen to your Generals and read the papers, do you think we are there now?

Heckle: I wonder if George is starting to realize the problems with misplaced loyalty? Former White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. on two occasions tried and failed to persuade President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, according to a new book by Bob Woodward that depicts senior officials of the Bush administration as unable to face the consequences of their policy in Iraq. So when can we expect to see Donald’s resignation?…not soon enough.

That's all I got this week. Noticing not a lot to applaud, welcome to America under George W. Bush.

Be good, stay informed...later.