The Monday ‘BushWhack’ing

Another start to another week in the beginning of another month… with the year coming quickly to an end…. I don’t know what I’m trying to say here…

• Venezuelan voters narrowly rejected President Hugo Chavez's wish to stand for re-election indefinitely… (this should end well…)
• The Larry Craig gay-sex scandal is NOT going away… 4 8 men have now come forward claiming they had “encounters” with Craig during his political career… (This is not going to go away any time soon, so the time for Craig to either acknowledge this or jump ship is fast approaching, so stay tuned…)
• republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is going to try to “reassure” voters about his Mormon faith. The gop “frontrunner” is expected to make a speech in Texas later this week regarding religious freedom and will bring up his Mormonism as some voters are (incorrectly I think) having an issue with a Mormon running for president. (I don’t like Romney, but it has NOTHING to do with his religion. A primary reason this country was founded was religious freedom, and to say that a certain religion shouldn’t be elected president is not only inane, but also hypocritical… especially since we currently have a man in the White House who said God told him to run for president. Call me silly, but I think the ONLY thing we should measure a politician by should be, I don’t know, their POLITICAL standings…)
• As they return today for a short session, many think that Congress will (supposedly) be very busy this month with bills, legislation or debate on taxes, Iraq war funds, farm subsidies and domestic wiretapping on the agenda… and “President” Bush wants Congress to finish things quickly… assumedly so he can get his ass to Crawford even earlier than usual. (this should be an interesting abbreviated session… some Democrats are finally starting to grow a pair and seem to be girding up for battles over some things, but I’ll be more convinced when I see it…)
• And have we mentioned? That the Food and Drug Administration is underfunded and understaffed? It’s true, and an advisory panel to the FDA has written a report that says the underfunding and understaffing is “putting U.S. consumers at risk” relating to food and drug safety… (This isn’t new… we heard about this a few weeks ago and— what’s that? That was the CPSC?? Oh right… well, with this administration we should all know that any department that doesn’t have anything to do with Iraq is going to be underfunded… how else would they pay for the war?)