The Weekly Rewind: The Return

It’s back and better than ever… TBWA’s Weekly Rewind. After a brief hiatus, it’s back with a vengeance… doling out snark, criticism, prognostication and opinion on all that is in the world of politics. Let’s get busy…

Applaud: to the incredible shrinking approval numbers. A new CBS News poll shows that “President” Bush’s approval rating has plummeted to 25%, an “all-time low for him and among the lowest approval ratings ever recorded for a President.” And before you Bush apologists cry about this disapproval numbers don’t indicate the same, the same poll pegs those at 67%. Only Richard Nixon and Harry Truman have had lower approval ratings than Bush with 24% and 22%, respectively… (history is not being kind to George, and I doubt that that will change over the next 5, 10, 25, 75, 100 years. Worst. President. Ever.)

Heckle: to idiotic housing arrangements. The Army is assigning soldiers with PTSD at Fort Benning to housing that is located 200 yards away from firing ranges… Complaints to medical personnel and officers have brought no relief despite the fact that the sounds of rifles and machine guns make these wounded soldiers “cringe” and “stay awake and on edge,” and recently sent one soldier to the emergency room with an anxiety attack… (How stupid is this? Are you honestly telling me that the Army doesn’t see anything wrong with this tactic? Scary… absolutely scary…)

Applaud: to Sen. Hillary Clinton for an impressive campaign. After winning one of the final 2 primaries this past week, she endorsed Sen. Obama today and ended her 17-month campaign for the White House. The two of them met this week in private and word is that the discussions went well and she will do everything she can to help Obama win the White House in November… just as I said she would all along. Yes, she was committed to winning and was doing what politicians do, sling mud, accusations, etc. But, and this was the harder part to get across to people, she is also dedicated to the Democratic party and wants to see a Dem get elected in November… prepare for the juggernaught.

Heckle: to even more depressing economic news. Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest retirement plan administrator, shows that the number of people making hardship withdrawals rose 17% last year as more and more Americans raid their retirement savings in order to make their mortgage payments, pay medical bills, and cope with rising food and fuel costs… (have no fear, the stimulus checks will be here soon and that will solve all the problems… what’s that? A lot of people have already received them and, as a majority of polls suggested, used them to pay down debt or buy essentials like food and gas which doesn’t help the economy? Wow, who would have thunk it… oh wait, everyone NOT in the Bush White House… where’s your economic messiah now?)

Applaud: to the American people who are waking up to see what’s going on in the world. A new poll from Public Agenda shows that 50% of those following the situation in Iran say “the one” best way to deal with Iran is through the use of diplomacy to “establish better relations” with a scant 7% favoring military action… but, as we know of this administration, they don’t care what the American people think, they’ll do whatever the hell they want and ignore the repercussions…

Heckle: to being the laughingstock of the G-8. Unlike all the other G8 nations, the US will not be able to meet large cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 despite the EU’s pledge to cut emissions by 30% by that year. Said the US’s chief climate negotiator (with this administration that has to be one heckuva easy job) told Reuters, “It’s frankly not do-able for us.” (Sad… just sad and pathetic…)

Applaud: to the NY Times (I know, I know – bear with me) for having the guts to say what many of us are saying of the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, that it’s “time for Michael Mukasey, the attorney general, to stand up for justice by enforcing Congress’s subpoenas. […] If he will not do that, Congress must ensure that its investigative authority is not thwarted. Mr. Rove seems willing to talk about this case everywhere except where he is required to.” (Bam!)

Heckle: to sad and pathetic news. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) declared yesterday that cost overruns for Pentagon weapons had “reached crisis proportions” and because of that he proposed an independent office at the Defense Department that would attempt to ensure the accuracy of cost estimates used in defense contracts… (and the actions of this administration continues to screw this country more and more… sad and pathetic)

Applaud: to pulling the rug our from under one of the most inanely conservative members of the Senate, Kit Bond (r-MO). The Bush(whacked) Administration is bypassing Bond, the top republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and is talking directly with Democrats about re-writing the nation’s surveillance laws. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), “bond, he’s just complicating things.” (Ouch, being snubbed by the leader of your own party – that’s gotta hoit… and is EXTREMELY funny…)

Heckle: to VA psychologist Norma Perez, who wrote an e-mail discouraging diagnosing veterans with post-trauamtic stress disorder… naturally she says it wasn’t a suggestion brought up because of financial concerns… considering the VA’s track record under this administration, I have no problem believing that the email was written because of the money… who agrees with me?

Applaud: to savory disagreements. Among all the people in the world that think Sen. McCain’s gas tax holiday is a bad idea, you can add Vice President Dick Cheney to that list as Cheney also believes that McCain’s gax tax holiday is a bad idea, saying; “I think it’s a false notion, in the sense that you’re not going to have much of an impact, given the size of the gasoline tax on the total cost of the gallon of gas.” (Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah)

Heckle: to the same shit, same as the old shit… opponents of teaching evolution in schools have adopted a new strategy that wants the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution taught instead of pushing for the so-called “intelligent design” curriculum. (Give me a break… the phrase may sound innocent but it’s still an attempt to undermine the teaching of evolution… and that’s just wrong>)

Applaud: to the Senate Intelligence Committee. They will release the last in a series of reports on the Bush(whacked) Administration’s use of false intelligence ahead of the Iraq invasion which “reinvigorates a longstanding debate over whether the intelligence failures in the lead-up to the Iraq war were largely because of faulty intelligence or because of policy makers’ faulty use of intelligence.” (And which they’re doing again for Iran…)

Heckle: to the 70’s repeating themselves. Many economists are saying that “[p]rices have been soaring long enough and fast enough” and the US is at danger of a “self-reinforcing cycle of inflation like that experienced in the 1970s.” (Could be worse… disco could be making a comeback)

Applaud: to a new report by NASA’s inspector general that concludes (not at all surprisingly) that the Bush(whacked) Administration’s “distortion and suppression of climate science” is “‘inconsistent’” with the law that established the space program 50 years ago and found a “sustained pattern of activities, largely supervised by senior political appointees, that included muting or withholding news releases on global warming” and blocking scientists from the media. (Wow… color me, NOT surprised. The glaciers could be melting all over his Crawford Ranch and Bush would STILL deny global warming… what a putz)

Heckle: to yet another ‘senior moment’ from Sen. McCain.” Earlier this week he was speaking at a campaign rally in Nashville and said; “If we do everything right — and we can and we will — I will win in January, and I will be the next President of the United States.” (Who wants to tell the elder statesman of the Senate that the election is in November/)

Applaud: to proof that sometimes kids know more than they let on. During the recent National Spelling Bee, a newspaper asked some of the contestants about their thoughts on national politics… their responses show that Bush’s legacy is not going to improve with age. When asked if “President” Bush can spell “constitutional”, Jessica Shakesprere, an 11-year-old from West Virginia, replied that she doesn’t think he could (pretty safe bet)… Raymond Soriano, a 14 year old from Texas, remembered that Bush had misspelled ‘business’ one time and said of that, “That’s embarrassing.” And 11-year-old Vincent Medina from Florida had the best response when he told the paper, “Anyone can out-spell Bush.” (Smackedown by a middle-schooler, that’s gotta hoit…)

And finally…

This week’s conservative TOTW is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Acting like a spoiled brat earlier this week, he basically shut down the Senate floor week by “forcing the Senate clerk to read aloud the entire 500 page global warming bill.” His reason? He alleges that the Democratic leadership “refused to honor its commitments” and push through a significant number of judicial nominees… stop the work of the government because they didn’t do something you wanted them to do? Sounds rather republican childish to me… and for that pathetic display of immaturity, we give McConnel, our Tool… of the week.
All I have, take ‘em as you will…