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…

Wanted: Employees with acting experience

Just when you thought that Bush and his merry band of cronies couldn’t sink any lower (eventually you would have to go underground; right?), they do.

Just when you think that FEMA couldn't do anything more to embarrass themselves, they do.

According to Washington Post's Al Kamen, during a presser yesterday with FEMA Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson, there were an odd number of so-called softball questions levied against him… well Kamen has revealed that the “reporters” in question were actually FEMA employees.

You read that right, FEMA employees posed as reporters in order to give their boss an easy press conference…

That’s just sad and pathetic…

From Kamen’s WaPo article:

“The first questions were about the "commodities" being shipped to Southern California and how officials are dealing with people who refuse to evacuate. He responded eloquently. […] He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters -- in one case, he appears to say "Mike" and points to a reporter -- and was asked an oddly in-house question about "what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration" signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.

But something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.”

I don’t know what’s more incredible; that they did it, or that they tried to pass it off as being okay.

When they started getting negative feedback, public affairs deputy Mike Widomski defended the propaganda pageant and insisted that FEMA staffers were simply asking the same questions that real reporters had been asking all day…

The AP does NOT agree;

“One way to get decent coverage in this rough-and-tumble city is to arrange to have your own employees interrogate you at your news conference. […] That would seem to be the strategy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago.”

Nor does E&P;

“It appears the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has found the answer to nosey reporters in the two years since Hurricane Katrina: have a press conference and have your own people ask the questions.”

Nor Rolling Stone;

“Somebody needs to be fired for this.”

This has to be one of the most pathetic displays ever carried out by a Bush(whacked) Administration leader… and considering the source, that’s saying a lot.

FEMA's screw-ups continue

As mentioned this morning, FEMA hasn’t finished screwing Katrina survivors just yet… now it’s because the trailers they put people in have levels of formaldehyde that was 75 times the recommended maximum for U.S. workers…

And it seems that FEMA not only suppressed warnings from its own field workers about health problems, but they had prior evidence that the people using the trailers would get sick;

“A trail of e-mails obtained by investigators shows that the agency’s lawyers rejected a proposal for systematic testing of the levels of potentially cancer-causing formaldehyde gas in the trailers, out of concern that the agency would be legally liable for any hazards or health problems. As many as 120,000 families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita lived in the suspect trailers, and hundreds have complained of ill effects.”

Lovely… three months after reports of the hazards first surfaced a FEMA logistics expert said that FEMA’s legal department advised officials to not do testing for hazardous materials, because it would “imply FEMA’s ownership of this issue.”

On June 27, 2006, a Slidell man was found dead in his trailer after complaining about the formaldehyde fumes. In a conference call to discuss the death, 28 officials from six different agencies recommended that the circumstances be investigated and trailer air quality be subjected to independent testing.

FEMA lawyers rejected those suggestions…

So let me see if I have this right… the Bush(whacked) Administration put people in government trailers with toxic gas… despite warnings of such… and didn’t follow-through on suggested health tests all so they could avoid court troubles…

This on top of the well-known fact that the administration all but ignored these same people in the midst of a natural disaster.

My God… it’s almost hard to believe that this administration could be this callous… but then I think about Bush’s track record and it all makes sense.

But now, thankfully, and after six years of gop-led ignorance, we finally have a (Democratically-controlled) Congress that is more than willing to conduct oversight hearings on FEMA…which is, naturally, causing a LOT of people at FEMA to scramble like mad to keep up appearances.

And this past week, on the eve of a hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, FEMA “suddenly” reversed course on the issue and said it has asked federal health officials to help conduct a new assessment of conditions in trailers.

Too little… too late…

The revelations of the agency’s earlier position of ignoring the problem has come to light, and it’s attracted some very harsh criticism… some very harsh bi-partisan criticism.

Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) decried what he called FEMA’s indifference to storm victims and said the situation was “sickening.” He said the documents “expose an official policy of premeditated ignorance” and added that “senior officials in Washington didn’t want to know what they already knew, because they didn’t want the legal and moral responsibility to do what they knew had to be done.”

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (r-VA) said FEMA had obstructed the 10-month congressional investigation and “mischaracterized the scope and purpose” of its own actions. “FEMA’s reaction to the problem was deliberately stunted to bolster the agency’s litigation position,” Davis said. “FEMA’s primary concerns were legal liability and public relations, not human health and safety.”

It’s about time someone in Congress got these people’s backs…


Let’s hope we’re not too late…