Saturday, September 01, 2007

The Weekly Rewind

Another month is coming to a close, and we start this week’s rewind off with three resignation-laden ‘applauds’…

Applaud: that today, Friday, is Karl “President” Rove’s last day at the White House… (woot, woot!)

Applaud: to Attorney General Alberto “Albatross” Gonzales resigning Monday. His last day is scheduled to be September 17th… now we have to see which Crony Bush nominates to replace him…

Applaud: to the news that White House Press Secretary Tony “Job” Snow will resign September 14th and will be replaced by White House Deputy Press Whiner Secretary Dana Perino… (as I’ve said here many, many times before; will the last Bush Administration employee leaving please turn out the lights…)

Heckle: to Rep. Jon Porter (r-NV). He recently returned from a visit to Iraq where someone, he wouldn’t say who, said that an Iraq withdrawal would cause gas prices to rise to $9/gallon. Said Porter; “To a person, they said there would be genocide, gas prices in the U.S. would rise to eight or nine dollars a gallon, al-Qaida would continue its expansion, and Iran would take over that portion of the world if we leave.” (And this is based on what exactly?)

Applaud: to the family, specifically the “wife”, of Sen. Larry Craig (r-ID). Whatever her relationship is to him, she has to be going through absolute hell.

Heckle: to the fact that none of the 115 “critical priority projects” that NOLA city official’s have identified have been completed. Close to $34 billion had been earmarked for the projects and “less than half” have made its way to municipal projects. (And Bush had the audacity to say earlier this week down there that the Administration will never stop rebuilding… ya may want to check things out before you speak ya putz…)

Applaud: to Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)… he made his first public appearance since he underwent emergency brain surgery last December saying simply; “I am back.” (Good news Senator, welcome back! And the news that you expect to return to work on Sept. 5 is good news as well.)

Heckle: to $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq that “President” Bush plans to ask Congress for… and the request is being prepared now because the White House believes that Congress will fall into place about Iraq after hearing the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. And more heckles to the Democratic leadership for not even bothering to wait for the White House report on the alleged progress in Iraq before kowtowing to Bush and giving him his money. As I said this morning, the Dems are scared… and need to get what they can.. but blindly giving Bush his funds before the report, as spun as I’m sure it will be, is both sad and pathetic…)

Applaud: to someone at Fox “News”… I know, it looked strange when I typed it. Fox’s Brit Hume said earlier this week about Alberto Gonzales that: “Gonzales was a man almost without fans in Washington at the end, because he was never much appreciated or accepted by the conservative base of the Republican party and the conservative activists in Washington. […] He was simply a crony.” (Well how about that?? Someone finally saw Gonzo for what he was… too bad it didn’t happen until he was halfway out the door…)

Heckle: to placing blame at the wrong feet. Sen. Larry Craig (r-ID) blamed the media earlier this week for his guilty plea of disorderly conduct (how a newspaper can do that is anyone’s guess) He went on to say that he has been “relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman. […] The Statesman has engaged in this witchhunt. In pleading guilty, I overreacted in Minneapolis because of the stress the Idaho Statesman investigation and the rumors it has fueled all around Idaho.” (Give. Me. A. Break)

Applaud: to Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA). She made a visit to Iraq recently and has not stopped pounding away at the republicans who also made recent visits and are saying that the surge is working. First she blames a Green Zone “XXX” and then she added her name to the (very) long list of analysts, pundits and lawmakers who are raising concerns about Gen. David Petraeus’s “conflicting loyalty” between his “desire to please the president” (ewww) and to report the truth about Bush’s strategy… (Way to go Rep. Tauscher… keep it up!)

Heckle: to more fear-mongering from the man in the oval office. In a speech to the American Legion earlier this week, “President” Bush warned that allowing Iran to pursue nuclear technology would put the region “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.” (Hmmmm, this sounds remarkable like his fear-mongering lead-up to invading Iraq and his pre-war claims that the US couldn’t wait for actual proof of WMD’s because the “smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud.” What. A. Tool.)

Applaud: to a new UPI/Zogby poll that shows 49% of voters believe the troop surge is not working.

Heckle: to incredibly stupid ideas. The crime rate in New Orleans has increased, and instead of focusing on how best to address the piss-poor conditions that face some of the region’s residents, right-wing pundit moron Glenn Beck offered an alternative solution… give them guns. Said Beck; “There’s not enough guns in New Orleans” so he suggested an “exchange program” where willing donors pay for guns for poor people in New Orleans… (Wow… that could very well be THE most inane, idiotic statement he’s ever made. And considering the source – that’s saying A LOT)

Applaud: to Sen. John Warner (r-VA). Sure, he’s incredibly late to the party, but he suggested this past Sunday that he might support Democratic legislation ordering a withdrawal. Said Warner; “I’m going to have to evaluate it. I don’t say that as a threat, but I say that is an option we all have to consider.” (Excellent… now if we could only get other republicans to see it that way…)

Heckle: to mixed-signals and crossed-wires. First the White House confirmed that they would write Gen. Petraeus’ September report… but earlier this week he said’ “the White House won’t write my September report.” (So which is it everyone? Will the September report on Iraq actually be “written by the White House” or are Petraeus’ assurances to lawmakers that he won’t let the White House interfere with his analysis the truth… I honestly don’t think the administration knows anymore…)

Applaud: to the White House’s front group on Iraq escalation, Freedom’s Watch, meeting with some difficulties in getting its pro-war ad campaign in gear as CNBC and MSNBC have refused to air the group’s ads. (And I’m sure they won’t be the only problems the group encounters…)

Heckle: to the forgotten war and its subsequent results… a U.N. report released this week finds that Afghanistan “produced record levels of opium” in 2007 for the second straight year” and that the gains were “led by a staggering 45% increase” in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province… (way to go George… the country where bin Laden, and al-Qaeda actually were has fallen back into chaos… the Taliban, who gave bin Laden sanctuary, are increasing in power and are making millions of dollars by growing opium, and yet you continue on your tunnel-visioned quest of Iraq. What a dumbass)

Applaud: to a scant 28% of Americans approving of “President” Bush’s handling of Iraq. A new Harris Interactive poll shows that the number is down from the May report of 30%. And it should also be mentioned that 61% of those surveyed said Mr. Bush had been “too eager to go to war in Iraq.” (I guess that’s a nice way of saying it…)

Heckle: to the search to replace Gonoz. There are five people being thrown around as possible candidates to take over as Attoreny General: former Solicitor General Ted Olson, former DAG George Terwilliger, Sen. Orrin Hatch (r-UT), another former DAG Larry Thompson, and Solicitor General Paul Clement. (I doubt any of them are the actual names being considered. I think the White House released these in order to divert attention from other like-minded possibilities. But that’s just my opinion…)

Applaud: to another foreign leader not falling into line behind George Bush. French President Nicholas Sarkozy has called for a timetable to withdraw foreign troops from Iraq, saying; “The Iraq tragedy cannot leave us indifferent. France was, thanks to Jacques Chirac, and remains hostile to this war.” (Uh-oh, better be careful Nick, or someone might revert the Congressional cafeteria to put “freedom fries” back on the menu… cuz it did oh-so-much the first time…)

We started with three ‘applauds’, we end with three ‘heckles’…

Heckle: to the sobering statistics that the number of Americans without health insurance rose last year from 44.8 million to 47 million and the number of uninsured children rose more than 600,000… and despite that, the Bush(whacked) Administration continues to limit the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Wake up George, stop worrying so much about Iraq and see what’s happening to YOUR country…)

Heckle: to the fact that it seems as though the Democrats are falling under the republican spell and are having a difficult time agreeing on anything. They couldn’t create a single message on Iraq, they allowed the administration to get their way with warrantless wiretapping, and are kowtowing to every White House request… things they promised to NOT do if elected… (This is NOT good. Scott and I both said before last November’s midterms that it would be all find and good if the Dems won control of Congress, but that it wouldn’t mean anything if they didn’t unite as one and maintain a single goal and strategy… not it looks as though they’re falling apart and arguing among themselves. Way to fuck up control of Congress guys! Get your collective heads out of your asses, pry some lips away from Bush’s ass and GET TO WORK!!!! Or you will find yourselves losing the majority and the country falling further into the abyss…)

Uber-Heckle: to the embarassing steps being taken by the Pentagon when Congressional delegations with individuals who don’t support the war visit Baghdad. The Washington Post reported Friday morning on a story on how lawmakers are being “slimed in the Green Zone” when they travel to Iraq for congressional delegation trips. Reps. James Moran (D-VA), Jon Porter (r-NV), and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) recently returned from such a trip andwhile there, Tauscher and Moran noticed sheets of paper that “seemed to be everywhere” in the Green Zone. The papers were distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank and contained short, thumbnail biographies of the lawmakers. Rather than being given the official bios readily available on congressional websites, the U.S. troops were given new ones that “cherry-pick” the representatives’ “most incendiary” statements about the war. (This has to be one of the most disturbing things I have ever heard, and someone needs to launch an investigation into this. For the Pentagon to be doing this is not only disturbing, it’s also incedibly pathetic and shows just how far this administration will go to win an argument… sad)


Take ‘em as you will...

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