The Friday ‘BushWhack’ing

Another end to another week…

• Sens. Clinton and Obama are on a unity trip that started in Unity, New Hampshire, a town in which they got the exact same number of votes in the primary… that was serendipitous…
• The Senate has finalized the bill that funds the Iraq (99%) and Afghan (.00000001%) wars and includes Sen. Webb’s 21st Century Bill and disaster assistance for the flood-ravaged Midwest… (good job guys, keep it up…)
• Speaking of things getting passed in Congress, the House approved a bill that gives financial help to mass transit systems that are facing a huge upswing in riders due to high gas prices…(naturally, because it would help the average American, republicans had to block something within the bill, and they chose to block the Democrats attempts to require oil and gas companies to drill on the millions of acres of government land and water on which they already own federal leases but on which they don’t drill… because that would make too much sense apparently. Why drill on land they already own when they can drill offshore and in ANWR… anyone want to try to defend this dumbass decision?)
• Democratic Sens. Feingold & Dodd were successful in getting the FISA bill tabled until after the July 4th break… a small victory yes, but a victory none the less that will allow them to twist arms convince more of their peers into opposing the bill when it’s taken up again after the break… stay tuned)
• Federal agents from the ATF raided Blackwater Worldwide this week as part of an investigation that is looking to find out if the private security company “sidestepped federal laws prohibiting the private purchase of automatic assault rifles.” (oooooo, this sounds promising, stay tuned)
• You can count California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger among those that think offshore drilling is a bad idea, saying “Anyone who tells you that this will bring down our gas prices immediately or anytime soon is blowing smoke. […] To look for new ways to feed our addiction (to oil) is not the answer.” (wow, what an incredibly smart, investigative and Liberal-type answer, thanks Mr. Schwarzenegger)
• SCOTUS struck down a portion of the McCain-Feingold bill that allowed opponents of wealthy candidates to exceed strict campaign spending limits… (because if its one thing conservatives don’t want is a level playing field, cuz that would force them to act more responsibly… and that would cause the world to collapse on itself, so we owe them our thanks. Snark, like sarcasm, is so hard to express in the written form)
• And have we mentioned? That it seems as though Vice President Cheney isn’t happy with the administration’s decision to take North Korea off of the terror watch list? Cheney was asked by Steve Clemons of The New America Foundation what his opinion was of the action and Cheney froze, saying; “I’m not going to be the one to announce this decision. […] You need to address your interest in this to the State Department. Upon which he declared that he was done taking questions, and left the room (sounds like there’s trouble in paradise…)