The Wednesday ‘BushWhack’ing

Wednesday...

• “President” Bush is drawing some harsh criticism (like this is anything new to him) from both Democrats and republicans because he is backing General Petraeus’s proposal to withdraw only 30,000 troops by next summer, despite a lot of Democrats, some republicans and a majority of the American public that want more dramatic changes… (This should not come as a surprise to anyone… this is the way the Bush White House works; ignore the public, ignore the parties, and do whatever the hell you want to do, regardless of the facts that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and US casualities continue to climb. January 20, 2009 can NOT come soon enough…)
• Rudy Giuliani can not be a happy camper now that Fred Thompson is in the race, as he’s seen his gop lead reach its lowest point of the year at 28%, down from 37%. Oddly enough, Thompson’s polling is 19%, more than double his previous polling position. (Hmmmmm, I wonder if the two are in any way connected… it’s so hard to express sarcasm in the written form)
• Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) ties to Norman Hsu are not going to go away… at least not if the Fourth Estate has anything to say about it...
• Russian President Vladimir Putin dissolved the Russian government today by dismissing his long-serving prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, and nominating Cabinet official Victor Zubkov as his replacement… and instantly throwing Zubkov ahead of the pack to replace Putin as president next year (the timing is a little curious on this, and one has to wonder what exactly Putin is up to… stay tuned)
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned today, essentially putting an end to a weak political party that was absolutely crushed in parliamentary elections back in July. No word yet on a replacement, so, like above, stay tuned.
• And have we mentioned? That, according to Newsweek, a separate internal report that’s being prepared by the Pentagon will “differ substantially” from Petraeus’s recommendations and will recommend a “very rapid reduction” in American forces? More specifically the report will call for a drawdown of as much as two-thirds of the existing forces… (The White House’s ignoring of any Pentagon recommendations in five, four, three –)