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Melinda Pillsbury-Foster talks with APJ's editor-in-chief Gene Gaudette about Neocon Sociopathy, the John Fund debacle and the future of Congress

Pundit Pap
for Sunday, April 16, 2006
Rummy Mutineers and Apologists On Easter Parade
by the Pundit Pap Team: Shystee | Xan | Gene G

April 16, 2006—correntewire.com / apj.us—April 16, 2006—correntewire.com / apj.us—While NBC's Tim Russert was engaged in his annual exercise of turning Meet the Press into The Catholic Hour, the other networks covered actual issues, some of which actually affect Americans and immigrants who want to be Americans.

This followed a week in which there were a plethora of news stories worth discussing.

Hundreds of thousands -- yes, hundreds of thousands -- of citizens and immigrants protested the Republican-controlled Congress' attempts to pass draconian anti-immigrant legislation (). When the legislation collapsed because of GOP infighting, former Texas governor George W. Bush disingenuously blamed Harry Reid (). So did the GOP, in a dishonest Spanish-language commercial ().
Iran boasted of the ability to enrich uranium -- and made some not-so-veiled threats directed at the US and Israel.
Six retired generals called for Donald Rumsfeld to resign as Secretary of War... er, Defense (). By the weekend, Josh Bolten was scrambling to get people lined up to defend Rummy; Richard Myers and Tommy Franks were carted out to the media to spin for Ol' Grampa Donald ().
Murray Waas, arguably the finest investigative journalist alive today, dropped yet another Tootsie Roll in the West Wing punch bowl, reporting in National Journal that Vice President Richard Cheney had in fact authorized the leak of a classified report in an effort to discredit Ambassador Joseph Wilson; on the same day of that leak, Cheney's chief of staff Irving "Scooter" Libby blew Plame's cover to reporters for TIME and the NY Times (). In a related story, the ever-vigilant Jane Hamsher reported that the judge in the leak probe told right-wing messenger boy Byron York (via Barbara Comstock via Irving "Scooter" Libby, no doubt) to put a sock in it... or else ().
A batch of 278 e-mails between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Bush administration GSA boss David Safavian were released by prosecutors to demonstrate what they very convincingly argue was a highly inappropriate relationship between the lobbyist and the indicted ex-Bush playa ().
Oops! In 2003, Bush announced we found bio labs in Iraq… two days after a secret fact-finding mission determined they were not bio labs after all ().
And, of course, baseball fans showed their love for former Halliburton capo di tutti capi Richard Cheney by soundly booing him as he threw out the first ball of the Washington Nationals' season opener ().

So what actually did get discussed? Onto the shows...

-- Gene G

CBS Face The Nation: George Allen, Gov. Bill Richardson
by Shystee

First Guest: George Allen (R-American Dumbass). Should Rummy fuck off and resign already? Allen recites the GOP talking points.

This is just the tradition of scapegoating in Washington, people are fixating on a personality. It's a way for Bush haters to criticize the president.
What difference would it make to the terrorists? Rummy's resignation would make no difference.
It's up to the Commander-in-chief to make the decision. So Rumsfeld is not my problem, as is the future of Iraq, that's up to the Iraqis.

Big Brown Alien Frenzy:

Unmanned aerial drones will stop the flow of immigrants.

George reminded me of why such a nitwit as himself became the Senator from Virginia: his father was a Redskins football coach. Never underestimate the appeal of the American Dumbass. See Bush, George W. and Homer Simpson. Duh-du-Duh! </Mencia>

Second Guest: Gov. Bill Richardson (D-Puffy Face)

Rummy should step aside. War has been mismanaged. We should listen to the generals. Probably most of them are Republicans. Rummy didn't listen to them.
This is a pattern seen in this administration: not willing to admit mistakes, not changing policy.
The US military should disengage, withdraw to the periphery. We should host a summit of Arab countries to help train the Iraqi army and help in reconstruction

Good to see that the Dems do have the semblance of a plan for Iraq now. For the past 3 years they have strenuously avoided coming up with a plan because, as we all know, proposing any kind of a solution or a taking a stand on an issue is political suicide. This is because that would only leave an opening for a Republican attack.

Fortunately, Rep. John Murtha (D-Deer Hunter Country) had the courage to single-handedly devise a plan for them. And more and more Democratic representatives are signing on to it after initially running away from Murtha as if he were some sort of pragmatic leper.

Iran:

The idea of tactical nukes is ridiculous. We should engage Iran directly with forceful diplomacy, stop outsourcing our foreign policy to the Europeans

Schieffer's Final Word:

Playing with Easter eggs is fun even if you're not a Christian.

What an... uhm... [cue sound of brain melting] enlightening and informative program.

Thank Jeebus for the Corporate Media.

ABC This Week With George Stephanopoulos: Gen. Richard Myers, Sen. Richard Lugar, Sen. Evan Bayh, Joe "Mama" Klein
by Xan

The essence of this week's 'This Week with George Stephanunspellable' is brought to you by the esteemed GrannyInsanity, from correntewire.com's comments:

It turns out that General Shinseki didn't say what he said to Congress, he was put on the spot so he had to make stuff up. No, Shinseki was not correct about the troop levels, because, I must confess that I do not know because it was right about then that. I lost consciousness when a recliner landed on my ear.

I do remember him criticizing the generals who have stepped forward to ask Rumsfeld to resign because they should have gone through proper channels, which nobody does because everybody is happy happy happy.

Then I think that Joe Klein refused to take the option of savagely raping his own children off the table because he is still negotiating their behavior. Of course Joe Klein does not believe that he should savagely rape his own children, but he doesn't want to take that option off the table because he is unsure about what they might do.

Farmer is talking about Divine Strake and STF says the Raw Story is reporting that we are already at war. I saw a blogger call another a traitor for printing the names of those who died in Iraq and I just want to vomit.

Somebody needs to get these guys off their sugar jag pretty soon.

That's pretty much the whole thing. Except that I am pretty sure I heard George S. tell Joe Klein that his statement about using tactical nukes on Iran was "insane". It was sort of under his breath and just may not show up on the official transcript, but if anybody goes to their website or gets the podcast, tell me if you hear it too.

Universally acclaimed as boldly shrill members of the reality-based community, the Bloggers of Corrente can be reached off the record, on the Q.T., and very hush hush at their highly fortified headquarters, The Mighty Corrente Building.

Gene Gaudette is a music and video producer, managing partner of a production company, and publisher/ringmaster/chief bottle washer of American Politics Journal.

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