VBVW for April 20, 2007:
Gaffes And Guns

• The Very Best

Customer uproar over the nonstop computer upgrade cycle has forced Dell Computer to resurrect the Windows XP operating system. Dell had planned to offer only the new Vista operating system, leaving existing customers in the lurch. Take that, Geek Squad.

Joseph Nacchio, the ex-CEO of Qwest Communications, was found guilty of insider trading for stock sales worth tens of millions of dollars. Take that, greedy CEOs.

Cho Seung-Hui commits suicide.

• The Very Worst

President Bush rebuked the Democrats’ plan to tie military funding to troop withdrawal, repeatedly emphasizing it is “unacceptable” to veterans, soldiers, families and the rest of America to delay our troops’ return home in any way whatsoever. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the very next day that tours of active duty would be extended from 12 to 15 months.

Thirty two workers were killed when showered by molten steel at a metal factory in northeast China. Industrial accidents killed more than 127,000 people in China in 2005.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales uttered a variation of the phrase “I don’t recall” 64 times while being grilled on Capitol Hill over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. This issue isn’t about firing employees — no law against that — but about how the highest profile lawyer in the country spent five weeks preparing for his testimony and could barely remember his own name.