The Weekly Rewind.

Ok so we now know it is going to be Obama vs McCain. I am not going to rehash what has been all over the networks and cable channels this week. No that would be boring. Howe about some stuff that flew under the radar? Here we go with this weeks Weekly Rewind.

Heckle: to being consistently clueless. It seems that despite fierce opposition by Iraqis to his call for a long-term occupation of Iraq, ‘President’ Bush this week expressed confidence that a status of forces agreement would pass. Bush said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “appreciates our presence there” and suggested much of the opposition “is based on inaccurate media reports and misunderstandings.” Hmmm, okay let’s see where these ‘inaccurate media reports’ and ‘misunderstandings’ are occurring….stay together, now follow me….As reported at ThinkProgress and various news agencies…

• Top Iraqi officials are objecting publicly to the United States’ effort to establish permanent bases in the country. “The Americans are making demands that would lead to the colonization of Iraq,” said Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite politician close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “If we can’t reach a fair agreement, many people think we should say, ‘Goodbye, U.S. troops. We don’t need you here anymore.’”

• Iraqi lawmakers say that the Bush administration is “demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed ’status of forces’ agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely.” Jalal al Din al Saghir, a leading lawmaker from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, called the deal “more abominable than the occupation.”

• Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is saying that “talks with the United States on a longterm security agreement have reached a ‘dead end’” because the U.S. proposals “do not take into consideration Iraq’s sovereignty.”

Well it seems that either our ‘President’ has no clue of what he is talking about, or Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has an evil clone that runs around saying the exact opposite of everything he does……hmmmmm I’m betting on the first scenario… which takes us directly into the next point…

Heckle: to not only being clueless but not having a conscience either. In an interview with the UK Times, President Bush said he regrets his legacy in making the world believe he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. But today, he added that “he had no regrets about the decision to invade Iraq.” Amazing, you gotta wonder what it's like to be that clueless!

Applaud: to the effort. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said he’s not going to let his effort to impeach President Bush die a quiet death in committee. He said Wednesday that he’ll bring his resolution “back in 30 days if the Judiciary Committee…doesn’t act on it.” “In 30 days, I’ll be joined by many more” members, he said. With the short amount of time left, we doubt it will go anywhere, however we heartily applaud the effort Dennis.

Applaud: to…..wait for it. President Bush is increasingly drawing on selected events of the past to argue that history will vindicate him. Unfortunately for the president, many historians have already reached a conclusion. In an informal survey of scholars this spring, just two out of 109 historians said Bush would be judged a success; a majority deemed him the “worst president ever.” See I told you to wait for it….

Applaud: to more people seeing the light. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey out this week, 78 percent of respondents rate the economic conditions in this country as poor. That’s up from 75 percent in March. Only 22 percent rate the economic conditions in the country as good. Give it time and a few more of the 22 percent will wake up.

Applaud: for the effort , but you still gotta laugh at the image. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has bought a new, fuel-efficient Vespa. According to the DC Examiner, “Mr. Macho recently stopped by the Vespa dealership in Glover Park and took home a LXV 150 scooter, which can reach speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.” When asked about his purchase, Rumsfeld reported cackled, “Ha ha ha ha, I’ll get you and your little dog too!” Okay not really, but can’t you just picture it?

Applaud: to not keeping silent. This week the scientific academies of the G8 countries and of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa “urged the world to act more forcefully to limit the threat posed by human-driven global warming.” They called on the industrialized countries to lead a “transition to a low-carbon society” and aggressively move to limit impacts from changes in climate that are already under way and impossible to stop. Ok, talk is nice, however all these countries need to put some actions behind their words or it’s just rhetoric.

Heckle: to once again pulling the rug out from under the average American. With soaring oil prices, Americans are increasingly turning to Amtrak, which saw record numbers in May when ridership rose a healthy 12.3 percent from a year earlier. The Bush administration, however, is of course threatening to veto legislation that would fund the passenger railroad for the next five years. What a surprise, one of our few pieces of infrastructure that could actually help is being threatened with being shut-down. Just another example of the ‘Bush-Whacking’ of America.

Heckle: to being once again being manipulated. As ‘President’ Bush travels across Europe to gain support for possible new sanctions against Iran, Israeli leaders have been working to lay the psychological foundation for a possible military strike if diplomacy falters. Reportedly in public threats and private briefings with American decision-makers, Israeli officials have been making the case that a military strike may be the only way to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Nice, here we go again. We screwed up in Iraq, so let’s try it again with Iran and this time let’s try the spin using a different ally. I can see Bush starting something near the end of his lame duck term and then running out the door to leave it to the next POTUS to deal with.

Heckle: to shortsightedness. Now the financial credit crisis is squeezing student loan programs that offer breaks to borrowers who enter critical fields such as nursing and teaching, as state-backed lenders in at least six states “have dropped or scaled back programs.” Ok so in about 10- 15 years when our kids are failing even worse than they are now, and when a large part of the population is in need of medical care we can slap the speculators and Administration officials who thought it wasn’t important to be pro-active. That is if we can find them.

And this weeks tool of the week is....... FEMA, for once again letting their stupidity show. A CNN investigation has found “FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims.” A FEMA spokesperson said, “We determined that they were excess to FEMA’s needs; therefore, they are being excessed from FEMA’s inventory.” But Martha Kegel, the head of a New Orleans nonprofit agency, responded, “These are the very things that we are seeking right now.” I’m sorry can we just scrap FEMA and just start over with FEMA 2?

Finally, on a Sad note, Tim Russert of NBC died suddenly Friday at the studio in Washington doing what he loved. This was a man of great integrity who was respected and admired by both sides of the aisle. I spent many, many Sunday mornings watching him on 'Meet the Press' and considered him to be one of the fairest people in the arena of political reporting. I looked forward to his perspective on the issues. I will miss his wit, wisdom and insight as we enter this historic general election. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. God bless you Tim, you set a standard that will be hard for others to acheive.

That’s it for this week.

Be good, stay informed….later…

The Weekly Rewind

It's the end of the week! What does that mean? Football? sure... drinking to an excess? ok for some of you perhaps.... However for us at The "Bush"-Whacked Administration it means a look back at some of the things that you may have missed this past week, both good and bad. Hence the Applauds (good) and Heckles (bad). Ok, let's get to it.....

Applaud: to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for a soundbite from this past week’s democratic debate. The bit isn’t nearly getting the amount of airtime it should, but it is a classic. Biden described gop candidate Rudy Giuliani thusly; “There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.” (Nicely said Mr. Biden, well done)

Heckle: to poor campaign practices. Waking potential voters up at 2 in the morning to ask them to vote for you is probably gonna have an opposite effect. Just ask Westchester (NY) County Legislature hopeful Domenic Volpe. A firm his campaign hired, and I would imagine later fired, to dispatch recorded calls asking for their support accidentally was programmed to call voters at 2 a.m. instead of 2 p.m… oops

Applaud: to Dennis Kucinich (did I really just write that?) for saying what many others are surely thinking, that Bush may need his racket restrung.

Heckle: to Vice President Dick “President” Cheney and his Dan Quayle impression this morning. During a speech in Dallas, a reporter asked Cheney about his views on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Cheney responded that the people of Peru “deserve better” leadership than Chavez… um, okay. Last time I looked, Chavez was the president of Venezuela and the president of Peru was Alan Garcia… but I could be wrong.

Heckle: to avoiding the US like we have a plague. The number of foreign visitors to the United States has plummeted since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington because foreigners don’t feel welcome,” according to tourism professionals. The decline has cost America “94 billion dollars in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and 16 billion dollars in lost tax revenue.” Ok, just for the record, we like visitors, we don’t like illegal immigrants.

Heckle: to knowing that almost everyone saw this coming. While there are pockets of security where life in Baghdad is starting to get back to normal, it’s not normal by most standards. Across the city Sunnis and Shiites live in sectarian enclaves, many walled off. Sunnis fear visiting Shiite areas and vice versa, even if it is just a few blocks away. Trust has broken down so much that a stranger in a neighborhood can arouse enough suspicion to warrant an attack. Nice, someone walking to the market takes a wrong turn and ends up getting killed because they are wearing the wrong scarf…sounds like what….. that’s right, major gang areas in the US. We can’t control them here, so what makes us think we could do it in Iraq?

Heckle: to proving that he needed to go. As Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld wrote 20 to 60 “snowflakes” — his trademark missives for developing policy — each day. In a sampling of them obtained by the Washington Post, Rumsfeld “argued that Muslims avoid ‘physical labor’ and wrote of the need to ‘keep elevating the threat,’ ‘link Iraq to Iran’ and develop ‘bumper sticker statements’ to rally public support. As if we didn’t already know that the administration was burning to expand our real estate holdings in the region…oh and by the way Don, no one takes anything on a bumper sticker seriously.

Heckle: to a sad reality. The number of Americans without health insurance “rose by nearly 8.6 million to 47 million from 2000 to 2006, with children and workers from every income level losing coverage,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. The increase was “driven primarily by the continued erosion in employer-provided health insurance.” I wonder how many of those 47 million voted republican in the last 2 elections. And you hope they will be smart enough to vote democrat next year. Remember the only values that the republicans care about are the values that their corporate handlers tell them to care about.

Applaud: to 67 percent: Which is the number of Americans who “support giving contraceptives to students”, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. About as many - 62 percent - said they believe providing birth control “reduces the number of teenage pregnancies.” Thank you for exhibiting common sense.

Heckle: to One in eight: Which is the number of veterans under the age of 65 who are uninsured, a finding that contradicts the assumption many have that all vets qualify for free health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Approximately 1.8 million veterans overall lack health coverage, a jump of 290,000 since 2000. This is unacceptable. These men and women risked life and limb for this nation and this nation owes them a debt of gratitude, which includes the health care promised to them.

Heckle: to being just so damned hippocritical. Lawmakers have increasingly steered federal funds to overtly religious organizations — many of which claim proselytizing or religious conversions as their primary function — using earmarks. For instance, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) tried to earmark $100,000 for a creationist organization. Since when do we get to pick and choose when church and state are separate.

Heckle: to Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Who, according to a new book on Blair’s tenure, “turned down a last-minute offer from President George Bush for Britain to stay out of the Iraq war because he thought it would look ‘pathetic,’. Well Tony, now your position looks as pathetic as ours. Nicely played.

And finally-

Applaud: to a financial wizardseeing the light. Warren Buffett this week told CNBC that he believes there is a “fairly significant” chance that the United States is headed toward a recession. Maybe Warren should take over for Bernake for a while.

Ok, all these heckles have left me tired and depressed. That’s it for this week.

Be good, stay informed….later.