The Weekly Rewind

Hear it is the end of another week. Time to take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of our favorite sport…politics. So lets get to the week that was in a little thing we like to call The Weekly Rewind.



Applaud: to taking action. This week, Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection launched a bipartisan, $300 million, three-year campaign to push for climate change legislation. Some of the “We” campaign’s TV ads “will team up offbeat celebrity couples” who “share a belief that it is important to address climate change,” such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and (wait for it) former Speaker Newt Gingrich. View the debut ad here. Okay, it’s not often if ever that we can say something nice in reference to Newt Gingrich, however we must give a tip of the hat to him stepping up and adding his voice to this very important issue. This is an issue that is important to everyone regardless of party affiliation, and the wait and see attitude is not gonna fly here folks.

Applaud: to taking on the establishment yet again. Director Oliver Stone currently casting his next film, Bush: The Movie. Word from Hollywood is that he’s negotiating with Elizabeth Banks (the nutty sexaholic in The 40 Year-Old Virgin) for the role of Laura Bush. Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) will play the President. And Robert Duvall is being rumored to play Dick Cheney. We hear it’s a roller coaster rid of stolen elections, strangleholds, deceit, debauchery, treachery, and a plethora of other things that you just couldn’t make up if you tried.

Applaud: to a growing number. 59 percent is the number of Doctors who “support legislation to establish a national health insurance program,” according to a new survey of more than 2,000 U.S. doctors. This number is up from 49 percent in the 2002 study. As with everything else that is painfully obvious, this country is slow to turn around, however it can be done.

Heckle: to taking a big step backwards. Fighting between Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militiamen last month has driven civilian deaths in the country “to their highest level in more than six months,” according to new Iraqi government figures. A total of 923 Iraqi civilians were killed in March, “up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007.” Mr. Cheney, tell us once again how we are winning the hearts and minds of those in the region now that the prior regime has been ousted from power?

Heckle: to more twisting and pulling. Prior to testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, House Republicans are launching a “full-fledged assault” on Democratic leaders, whom they accuse of trying to “legislate defeat” in Iraq. The campaign will include a “steady stream” of “op-eds and editorial board memos,” an “aggressive” TV and radio operation, and an effort to “engage conservative bloggers.” Also known as mindless drones.

Heckle: to a sad truth. While most agree the subprime mortgage crisis sparked the current economic downturn, some economists argue the Iraq war is deepening the economic pain. Even the most conservative economists acknowledge that Americans will eventually pay the price at home for a war financed entirely with borrowed money. Once again what ever happened to Iraq’s oil covering the cost of the war? Oh that’s right, that was yet another lie by the Bush‘Whacked’ Administration.

Heckle: normally on principles alone, however last month, President Bush said he would attend the Olympics in Beijing this summer because he views it as “a sporting event.” But given China’s poor human rights record, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Bush should consider “boycotting the opening ceremony.” In the words of Homer J Simpson…”D’oh”

Applaud: to not towing the party line. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, Army vice chief of staff Gen. Richard A. Cody said the 30,000-plus troop increase in Iraq and Afghanistan is “inflicting ‘incredible stress’ on soldiers and families” and posing “‘a significant risk’ to the nation’s all-volunteer military.” And just when will congress start actually listening ?.....

Heckle: to our forefathers turning in their graves. According to a secret Justice Department legal memo dated Oct. 23, 2001. For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, the Bush administration believed that the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures on U.S. soil didn’t apply to its efforts to protect against terrorism, The memo’s existence was disclosed this past Tuesday in a footnote of a separate secret memo about interrogation policy. Oh I don’t even know where to begin on this one….

Heckle: to continually looking like a clueless deer in the headlights. For a man “who came into office as the nation’s first M.B.A. president , Mr. Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch,” writes The New York Times. Even Bush’s conservative allies say that the President “is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.” In danger of looking out of touch!? Too late ! BTW, I didn’t know you could get an MBA from watching Schoolhouse Rock….

Applaud: to more people seeing the light. Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s.” The new survey found that “81 [percent] of respondents said they believed ‘things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,’ up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002. And remember folks it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Heckle: a BIG Heckle to 80,000. Which is the number of jobs the U.S. economy shed in March, the biggest monthly job decline in five years. … The March unemployment rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.8%, highest since a matching rate in September 2005. These numbers were “more bleak than expected“; economists had predicted a decline “of 60,000 in non-farm payrolls and a rise in the unemployment rate to 5%.” Just remember we are only in an economic slowdown…..

and finally it’s time for our Tool of the Week.

This week it is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). During a hearing this past Tuesday on an aid bill for sick New Yorkers, Rep. Issa callously dismissed the 9/11 attacks as “simply” a plane crash.

The New York Daily News reports:
The California congressman who called the Sept. 11 attacks “simply” a plane crash ran for cover Wednesday under a barrage of ridicule from fellow Republicans, first responders and victims’ families.

San Diego GOP Rep. Darrell Issa was under siege for suggesting the federal government had already done enough to help New York cope with “a fire” that “simply was an aircraft” hitting the World Trade Center.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) sharply criticized his fellow conservative’s remarks, stating, “New York was attacked by Al Qaeda. It doesn’t have to be attacked by Congress.” In his statement yesterday, Issa tried to insist that he only “asked tough questions about the expenditures” during the hearing.

Congratulations Rep. Issa you’re our Tool of the Week. Putz…..

That’s it for this week.

Be good, stay informed, later……