The Weekly Rewind

Hello Sports Fans! That is if your favorite sport takes place in the political arena! It’s Spring, the Bulls have advanced in the playoffs, the Kentucky Derby is this afternoon (gotta get there one year), well anyway lets get to this sport of the everyman a little thing we like to call The Weekly Rewind…..

Heckle: My boss is going to pout and stomp his feet until he gets his own way. “President Bush will not sign any war spending bill that penalizes Iraq’s government” for failing to meet the benchmarks that his own administration has set, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last Sunday, a fresh warning to Congress about challenging him. Ohhh I am sure the leadership of the House and Senate are shaking with fear….more likely they are laughing at how rediculous George is being.

Heckle: to the Ghosts of Ousted Dictators. It is said that a member of Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki’s office is reportedly playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias. Hang one and sure enough there is always another crazy waiting in the wings….

Heckle: I’ll say it again, we have way too many lawyers. The New York City Bar, one of the largest lawyers’ organizations in the country, charges that the Bush administration is trying to evade responsibility for problems at the Guantanamo Bay prison by falsely blaming defense lawyers for the trouble. The association’s criticism comes as the administration is proposing limiting attorneys’ access to detainees. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a measure Monday to force the Pentagon to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move the trials of Al Qaeda suspects to the United States. Ok, I don’t like the administration, but I have no problem with holding detainees in Guantanamo Bay. Break em, and jail em…

Heckle: Ok, so the number is a little skewed but is anyone at all surprised? The number of terrorist attacks worldwide rose by 20,000 (40 percent) last year, mostly due to greater violence in Iraq. … Iraq alone accounts for nearly two-thirds of all terrorism-related deaths last year. I guess our presence there is truly making a difference! (it’s so hard to express sarcasm in written form…)

Heckle: This thinking would give anyone whiplash. Paul D. Wolfowitz defended himself vigorously on Monday, declaring that it would be ‘unjust and frankly hypocritical’ for the World Bank’s board to find him guilty of ethical lapses. But he also hinted that he would discuss whether to resign as bank president if the board cleared him of misconduct. Ok, he thinks he is innocent of ethical lapses, but he will consider resigning…..my head hurts….

Applaud: to someone finally saying what many of us have been thinking (and saying) for years. In states across the country, local lawyers, politicians, editorial writers, members of Congress and defendants are questioning what they say is a pattern of investigating Democrats. They point to inquiries that drag on for years but end with no charges, an acquittal or convictions for relatively modest infractions. To this I can only say, DUH ! , a perfect example of this is the Lewinsky ‘scandal’. When republicans could not get Bill Clinton on any ‘land deal’ issues they grabed for straws and hounded him over something that was a personal matter that had no bearing on his running of the country….and yet ‘King George’ goes unpunished for killing thousands of US Troops…

Applaud: Scott Bloch has demonstrated a willingness to go after Karl Rove, at least on the small stuff: The Los Angeles Times has learned that Bloch investigated complaints that Rove’s politically related travel had been improperly billed to the government. Bloch’s action resulted in a reimbursement to the Treasury Department for what some described as a “bookkeeping error.” You know had this not been raised no reimbursement would have occurred….how many more things need to be looked into for reimbursement, my fear is way too many with this White House....

Heckle: Heckle to the Deputy chief. Karl (Emperor Palpatine) Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago to coach a top Justice Department official on what he should say to Congress about the prosecutorial purge. Investigators are suggesting that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that he may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress. No really, a top administration offical being involved in an effort to mislead Congress or an investigation, say it isn’t so! Once again it’s so hard to express sarcasm in the written form.

Heckle: Monkey see, Monkey do….. Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, made calls to the purged U.S. attorneys telling them to keep quiet about their dismissals. Elston recently told congressional investigators that those calls were placed at McNulty’s direction after he learned the prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals. Do I relly need to say anything…

Heckle: It safe to say these guys don’t have a membership to the Museum of Natural History. At this weeks debate, three Republican presidential candidates — Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Tom Tancredo, and Gov. Mike Huckabee — said they do not believe in evolution. So I guess we just magically appeared on the planet…sign them up for Scientology!

Applaud: it’s about time. Lawmakers of both parties are making a new effort to pass a federal shield law to protect reporters from being forced to reveal their sources. Such protection would give government whistle-blowers more reason to reveal corruption when they know that reporters will be shielded in most cases from prosecutors’ efforts to reveal information. This can only be seen as a good thing by all, unless you are trying to mislead Congress….

Applaud: Go get em Henry! U.S. News reports, “One of [Rep. Henry] Waxman’s next objectives will be not only to examine false claims by administration officials to justify invading Iraq but also to expose people and companies that have profited disproportionately from the war”, congressional sources say. Hill Democrats think this line of inquiry will be explosive and will tarnish war proponents. All together now…Halliburton….

Heckle: I want what I want when and how I want it. Congressional leaders met President Bush at the White House this week to open negotiations on new Iraq legislation. Several Republican leaders said Tuesday that they were likely to “support such benchmarks”, and White House aides said Tuesday that Mr. Bush…might back such a measure — “but only if the benchmarks are nonbinding.” What a surprise, rhetoric with no accountability, the battlecry of this president.

Well folks there you have em, the few good and the many laughable, questionable or just plain sad.

Be good, stay informed….later.