The Weekly Rewind

Time for another review of the week that was in the world of politics, or as we like to call it; The Weekly Rewind… there are 297 days left in the Bush presidency.

Applaud: to five former secretaries of State for speaking their mind. The five – Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, and Colin Powell – were attending a University of Georgia roundtable discussion earlier this week and agreed (all of them that the next president should move quickly to close Guantanamo Bay…

Heckle: to subterfuge and obfuscation, Bush government-style. Almost four months after the disclosure that the CIA destroyed interrogation videotapes, the number of legal entanglements for the C.I.A., the Defense Department and other (Bush) agencies is only growing longer and longer, fighting off criminal and Congressional investigations of the tapes’ destruction, as well as major terrorism cases and a raft of prisoners’ legal claims that it may have destroyed evidence from their case… (And no one in this administration has faced impeachment hearings yet becauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse???)

Applaud: to a new kid on the block, albeit only temporarily. Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey “assume(d) command of U.S. Central Command from Navy Adm. William J. Fallon on Friday, weeks after Fallon unexpectedly announced that he was “retiring.” Dempsey, like Fallon, opposed the administration’s surge and is a “fan of transition” in Iraq, so expect his command to be over soon…

Heckle: to scary possibilities… for years Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had repeatedly denied that elected office was part of her “political future,” but after attending a weekly conservative gathering, one conservative pundit wrote; “She’s going to secure her future in Republican politics and to position herself as a ‘potential’ VP candidate on the McCain ticket.” (Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!)

Applaud: to news that makes me smile… according to U.S. News, a lot of senior and midlevel White House and administration officials are looking to land private-sector jobs “sooner rather than later.” (Abandon ship!)

Heckle: to sobering, yet not totally surprising, news. AFP notes that at least 97% of the 4,000 deaths occurred after “President” Bush announced the end of “major combat” operations (with a brand spanking-new ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner hanging overhead) on May 1, 2003…

Applaud: to more news that makes me smile… the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller home price index shows that U.S. consumers are “more nervous about the future” than they ever have been since Richard Nixon was President… (and we all know how that ended… please, please, please, please, please, please…)

Heckle: to more evidence that our standing in the world, and for that matter our safety, is lower than Bush’s approval ratings… a new report by Jane’s Information Group shows that 21 countries are ranked more stable than the United States based on a formula that assesses “political structures, social and economic trends, military and security risks and external relations.” (Yeah… big shock there. The measure of how far our country has fallen in the eyes of the rest of the world since Bush entered office in 2000 is staggering… and our next CIC – whether it be Obama, Clinton or someone else – will have their hands full in trying to rectify the damage done…)

Applaud: to telling our ‘leader’ what he needs to hear for once; the truth. Earlier this week, and behind the Pentagon's closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush they are “worried about the Iraq war’s mounting strain on troops and their families.” (about time he hears it from people in the know. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched our military to the breaking point, and yet Bush continues to dismiss the possibility of lowering tour lengths… this is gonna get worse before it gets better)

Heckle: to the MSM and the main stream public that views it. According to analysis by Huffington Post, after the US death toll in Iraq hit 4,000, a pathetically scant two U.S. newspapers — The Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Daily News in New York — honored the men and women with front page stories while The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post delegated the story deep within their paper… (Sad… just sad…)

Applaud: to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey to explain the decision to eliminate the public corruption unit in Los Angeles… the department that had been investigating Rep. Jerry Lewis’s (r-CA) “connection to a lobbying firm and the earmarks its clients received.” (well, I’m sure there’s no way in hell the two are connected, right? Right?????)

Heckle: to more news that points to the US entering, if we’re not already in, a recession. Recent GDP numbers released earlier this week show that the economy grew by just 0.6% in the fourth-quarter of 2007, confirming the slump the economy has entered and matched the expectations of weak growth predicted by many economists… (so there…)

Applaud: to republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) for slamming Vice President Dick Cheney’s callousness towards not only the American public but our troops as well… he also attacked Cheney’s credibility since he was a Vietnam draft dodger… (well said Mr. Hagel, thanks for sharing…)

Heckle: to failed policies having the chance to fail again. The Bush(whacked) Administration said earlier this week that it plans to model its long-term Iraq agreement on one that the US already has with Afghanistan. That agreement, reached in 2005, states that the US will “[c]onsult with respect to taking appropriate measures in the event that Afghanistan perceives that its territorial integrity, independence, or security is threatened or at risk.” (This should end well…)

Applaud: to the swelling of bipartisan support for the DOJ to open an investigation into the unauthorized searches of all three presidential candidate’s passport files… and speaking of PassportGate;

Heckle: to the outsourcing of government jobs. The contractors who breached the aforementioned passport files were all employees of a private workforce that has increasingly assumed responsibility for processing the travel documents. State Department officials said earlier this week that 60% of the 4,400 passport employees work for private firms and are NOT government employees. (wow… who wants to guess that at least one of these private firms is connected to Halliburton)

Applaud: to the University of Chicago for proving Sen. Clinton wrong… something that is becoming easier and easier to do over each passing day. Over the last several days, the Clinton campaign has suggested that Sen. Obama was embellishing his role at the school by calling himself a professor when he was listed as a ‘Senior Lecturer,” turns out he was right as the university has stated that Mr. Obama does accurately describe himself as a onetime law professor at the school. (and this isn’t common sense; how?)

Heckle: to the unraveling of a cease-fire. The cease-fire that was highly vital to the improved security situation in Iraq (which republicans of course attributed to the ‘surge’) game unglued earlier this week when one of the militias that are loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in western Baghdad, which happened to coincide with a crackdown in Basra by the Iraqi government. (This should end well…)

Applaud: to comeuppances. 9,000 people in Kentucky that have switched their political affiliation since Jan. 1st so they could vote on the Democratic ticket and throw a wrench into the Democratic primary are finding out that they won’t even be able to vote in the May 20th primary… (can we say; Karma?

Heckle: to fuzzy logic. The Bush(whacked) Administration is taking credit for the Iraqi government’s offensive against Shiite militias and is calling it a “byproduct of the success” of last year’s surge… (and if the opposite would have happened, who wants to bet that the administration would have thrown the Iraqi government under the bus?)

Heckle: to a trip that could very well end badly… who am I kidding, it’s Bush so it’s definite that it will end badly. Earlier this week “President” Bush announced that he will travel to Russia after a NATO summit next week so he can meet with President Vladimir Putin in hopes of repairing relations that have grown strained… (Let’s just hope he doesn’t decide to give Putin a back rub, things might get awkward…)

Heckle: to scary thoughts… Rudy Giuiliani is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign… (does he really think he’s electable to ANYTHNG any more? People have either grown sick & tired of him or don’t like him… I don’t think he would be elected garbage commissioner if he was running against Homer Simpson)

Heckle: to saying incredibly stupid things. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said earlier this week that your $600 tax rebate check and the economic stimulus package will create 600,000 new jobs… (Wow, that would be a neat trick…)

Applaud: to DNC chairman Howard Dean. Why not?

Heckle: to more economic news that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Health-care costs are “whacking away” at the wages of working class Americans as premium amounts for family health coverage have increased 78% since 2001… (and yet, the current administration does nothing…)

For the second week in a row, we’ve decided to hand out our Tool of the Week to Vice President Dick Cheney. Since telling the American people to ‘ef off last week he’s been a busy little Beelzebub … after the US death toll in Iraq hit 4,000, Cheney was interviewed on ABC and not only asserted that Bush “carries the biggest burden” of the Iraq war (WHAT??) but also implied that the troops volunteered for duty (while true, mentioning it when speaking of 4,000 US deaths is callous) But Cheney wasn’t done, he then compared staying the course in Iraq to Richard Nixon's pardoning (riiiiiight) and called Sens. Obama and Clinton “wannabes” because they want to, eventually, and unlike McBush, get out of Iraq…

It’s clear that Cheney doesn’t give a damn what the people of the United States think, but regardless of that, for a Vice President to say these things is not only pathetic, but also a sad reminder of how far our country has been pushed back with Bush and his cronies in office. 1/20/09 can NOT come soon enough…

All I have, take 'em as you will...