Keeping an Eye on the Lame Duck

( – promoted by undercovercalico)

OK, so I’ll admit it, I’m a Rachel Maddow groupie. But watching her show, I really appreciate that in the middle of everyone focusing all of their attention on the election and feeling the need to pontificate on every word Obama says, she is spending at least a few minutes keeping her eye on the criminals that will continue to be in office for the next two months.

Rachel has a segment called Lame Duck Watch (that’s a link to the video of last night’s segment) where she’s highlighting what the Bush administration does over its last few days in office (boy, does that feel good to write!!)

In last night’s installment, Rachel tells us that the Bush administration has, this week, scrapped the work they were doing on Mideast peace. I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing – I don’t trust what those guys would even try to pull off in that arena. And given their love affair with everything Israeli and complete dismissal of Palestinian concerns, it was destined to fail anyway.

She also tells us that Bush’s Interior Department is relaxing protection rules against mining for uranium within three miles of the Grand Canyon. I don’t know what impact that would have on this national treasure and home to some of the most important historical records of previous generations of Native Peoples. But Rachel focuses on the fact that it is near the Colorado River, which provides drinking water to places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Yummy uranium in the water…hmmmmmm

And finally, she tells us about a report in the New York Times by Alissa Rubins on how the Obama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics. The article is indeed interesting in looking at the Status of Forces Agreement and where it stands after the election. It seems that the Iraqis are a bit more interested in cooperating to reach an agreement knowing that they will ultimately be working with Obama instead of Bush/McCain.

That might seem to be more a story about the election than the lame duck. But Rachel grabs a quote out of the article that’s telling.

“Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.”

(emphasis mine)

Did this Shiite Leader just say that they didn’t believe a word out of the mouth of Bush/McCain? I think so. And just imagine that writ large around the world.

I appreciate what Rachel is doing with this piece as a reminder that, while we celebrate and get busy thinking about how to work with/challenge Obama, we’ve still got to keep an eye on the criminals for another two months.