The Monday ‘BushWhack’ing

Hope all you fathers out there had a Happy Father’s Day, let’s get back to it.

• Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the family and close friends of NBC political pundit Tim Russert. While we may not have always agreed with the way he did things, his knowledge, grasp and reporting of politics is still a standard by which other political reporters will long be compared to… thank you Tim.
• Sen. Obama laid out his tax and energy plans this past Saturday and at the same time took Sen. McCain’s plans to task… and people say he doesn’t have experience, the way he was able to laud his plans while simultaneously laying waste to McCain’s was executed well. Obama’s plans call for tax cuts for the middle class, raising taxes for the wealthy and giving more money into so-called “green energy.” (This as opposed to McCain’s which is to cut taxes for the wealthy and strip the world of its resources while we can and let out children worry about the consequences. I’m paraphrasing of course, but you get the idea…)
• CNN’s latest poll of polls shows that Obama has a 4 percentage point lead over McCain…
• “President” Bush drummed the Iran war drum once again on his current European trip. Appearing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the duo announced another warning to Iran with new sanctions. It was after that that Bush said something that should make every person’s skin crawl; he hasn’t ruled out the use of force to end Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, but added that he preferred to resolve the dispute diplomatically… (Wow, where have we heard that before? To answer your question, yes we should be worried. Very, very worried…)
• The UK press doesn’t like “President” Bush very much with most of them detailing his final Euro visit with disparaging assessments of his legacy… my favorite was the Daily Mirror's greeting to Bush with an emphatic: “Bush off!” before describing him in the article as “one of the worst American presidents in history.” The Guardians was a much more placid “Goodbye to all that.” Even the conservative-leaning Daily Mail criticized Bush by tying his trip to the deaths of five British paratroopers in Afghanistan. (You hear about these and you wonder if any US President has ever been more disliked and distrusted on a global scale than Bush. I suspect not)
• FEMA director David Paulison is defending the department’s giving away of an estimated $85 million in hurricane relief supplies by accepting the blame. Just kidding, he’s throwing Louisiana officials under the bus by saying they turned down the stockpiles… (raise your hands if this story surprises you… Wow, not a one)
• “He’s (Obama) got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be.” A republican congressman? Nope, it’s the words of Fred Hobbs, a Tennessee state Democratic Party Executive Committee member and super-delegate, when asked why he hasn’t endorsed Obama yet… the stupidity of some people is mind-boggling… and if he feels like this, he needs to be stripped of his super-delegate vote because he’s NOT a Democrat but yet another Southern conservative in Democratic clothing…
• And have we mentioned? That former House speaker Newt Gingrich is busy fearmongering? Appearing on Face the Nation this past Sunday, Newt said that SCOTUS’ decision to re-instill habeas corpus “could cost us a city.” (Wow, fear-monger much Newt? Explain to everyone WITH their own brain and NOT following the lemmings over the cliff how exactly it could cost us a city??? I’ll be waiting for your call or email…)