Bush Makes Joke of The Sacrifice of U.S. Troops In Iraq

On this day of reflection, it is important for Americans to really see the kind of people who are running this Country. It is important to look back and to see how Bush really feels about the sacrifice of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. He always talks about the bravery of the soldiers and expresses his admiration for them in his photo ops, but would a man who really admires the troops do something like this?

This joke incident happened a couple of years ago but never received any significant news coverage.... the corporate news networks were too busy covering Britney Spears, or studying the size of Anna Nicole Smith's chest.

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Bonus Video (although I don't see the impeachment idea as being practical or achievable... I thought that the placing of the lies side by side with the denials was great).

At least one member of the Fourth Estate has finally caught on to the sheer wrongness that is the White House Correspondents Dinner, that annual farce whereby journalists gush at the chance to hobnob with the very subjects they are tasked with objectively investigating.  From Frank Rich's subscription-only New York Times column, via Editor & Publisher:

NEW YORK Tucked inside Frank Rich's Sunday column in the New York Times is indication that the newspaper will no longer attend the annual White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington, which he calls "a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era." He writes that the event "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows."

"After last weekend's correspondents' dinner, The Times decided to end its participation in such events," wrote Rich. "But even were the dinner to vanish altogether, it remains but a yearly televised snapshot of the overall syndrome. The current White House, weakened as it is, can still establish story lines as fake as 'Mission Accomplished' and get a free pass."

Rich mixed this criticism of the press in with regret over the death of David Halberstam this week, who Rich said it would be hard to imagine "yukking it up with Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz and two discarded 'American Idol' contestants" at the dinner. "It's our country's bitter fortune that while David Halberstam is gone, too many Joe Alsops still hold sway," writes Rich, comparing the Pulitzer-winner to the now-forgotten Vietnam War cheerleading columnist.

If you are among the few lefties (or are among the even fewer righties reading this) who have not see Stephen Colbert's 24-minute 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner presentation one year ago (April 29, 2006), then take sixteen minutes out of your busy life to play the Swing Speech.

This was the moment, folks, when the Press started to realize how stupid it all was. Stephen Colbert, I think it will be historically argued, changed history.

He was the first to call Bush's number to his face, and only obliquely, by truthiness. But he put every single member of the White House Correspondents Dinner on notice, that they were complicit in clothing the emperor. Listen to the quality of the laughter from the crowd. They're embarrassed.

Before that, W was the Chief who was Hailed. Colbert's performance, standing with balls of adamantium 12 feet away from the President, was incredible. He concluded with an overstretched puff piece, allowing all to pretend they could applaud, at the end.

At the recent Correspondent's Dinner, there was a verbal altercation between a preimminent American entertainer and everybody's favorite Presidential adviser.

Karl Rove implied that one of America's sweethearts is not an American citizen after she had the audacity to exercise her freedom of expression.

Apparently, Karl does not believe global warming is something the American people are concerned about. :-)

I touched on the Sheryl Crow-Karl Rove incident at the painfully unfunny White House Correspondents Association dinner, where Crow and Laurie David tried to engage Rove on the subject of global warming and Rove snapped "Don't touch me."  Rove's take on the matter was that “She came over to insult me and she succeeded.”

Top Democrats will never do this, but it seems to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to give the Republicans a taste of their own medicine.  Republicans live to feminize Democrats; see the fake Edwards haircut controversy for an example.  Now we have the GOP's top strategist running away from two women, shrieking "Don't touch me!" like Margaret Dumont in an old Marx Brothers movie, and snootily harrumphing that he was o-ffended by the whole thing.

What a little baby!  If the Republicans are always trying to frame the Democrats as the Mommy Party, why aren't we similarly always framing them as the Baby Party?

I am back from the Progressive States Network's first annual gala in conjunction with the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in Washington, D.C. - a city where ruling class warfare rages on, despite (or perhaps because of) the new partisan makeup of the nation's capital. While our event trumpeted the courageous group of progressive state and federal lawmakers who are fighting on our side, a look at news from the Beltway this week nonetheless broadcasts the steep odds this courageous group faces in its efforts to make government even acknowledge the existence of the vast majority of Americans.

I have been following with great admiration Laurie David and Sheryl Crow's Stop Global Warming College Tour. They started in Texas and ended up in DC. Actually, they ended up in DC at the White House Corresponsdents Dinner where they - respectfully - approached Karl Rove.

At one point, Sheryl Crow evidently put her hand on Turd Brain or whatever W calls him.
"Don't touch me" he wailed.

Excuse me, you have a chance to talk about one of the single most important issues facing our country with two beautiful and smart woman and one touches you? And you bitch about it?

Please answer the poll question and I will send onto Laurie and Sheryl.

It had to be said.

And as a Canadian, I have to apologize on behalf of this unfunny man who originated from my country.  You suck, Mr. Little.  And you embarrassed my country with your witless performance last night.

I especially loathe your disingenuity by telling us before and during your silly shtick that "you're not a political satirist" (a la Colbert).  You see, Mr. Little, I would argue that by you ARE indeed political in what you touch and what you don't touch.

You ARE as political as the American network news who's bias never touches the flag draped coffins of 3,000 American servicemen and women returning home from a blood-drenched Iraq.  You ARE as political as this sycophantic media who would rather chat endlessly about tragedies involving rich white people -- but not the 700,000 brown people who have been slaughtered with the help of the government you cozied with last night.

Oh, and this proves my point somewhat, too...

So is he a Republican?

"No, I'm a Canadian," [Rich Little] cracks, then adds: "I'm a Conservative."

I heard a hearsay report of a confrontation between Sheryl Crow, Laurie David, and Karl Rove on Good Morning America today. The anchor whose name I don't know said that she was freshly back from the Washington Correspondent's Dinner and reported hearing about an encounter between the three. I managed to find a first-hand report thanks to Google News.

After last year's debacle, in which the White House Correspondents Dinner featured Stephen Colbert being actually funny (video here), the organizers swore nothing like that was ever going to happen again. From here on out, safety would be the watchword.  If it came with stupidity and unfunniness, so be it: To these people, boredom is preferable to anyone being challenged.

And Colbert challenged not only the president:

I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound -- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.

Now, there may be an energy crisis. This president has a very forward-thinking energy policy. Why do you think he's down on the ranch cutting that brush all the time? He's trying to create an alternative energy source. By 2008 we will have a mesquite-powered car!

...snip...

The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will.

He challenged the press:

But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason: they're super-depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished. Over the last five years you people were so good -- over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!

So to avoid making another mistake like that, what did they do?  They booked Rich Little:

Rich Little, with shockingly dyed hair, said at the outset that he is "not political" but rather a "nightclub performer who does a lot of dumb, stupid jokes," then proved that.

He started with a couple of Canada (his native country) jokes and a weak Sen. John McCain, which bombed, as did an impression of.Arnold Schwarzenegger, causing him to look at the crowd askance. "You thought Colbert was bad," he finally joked.

...snip...

Little followed by doing six presidents, including a man he "loved," Ronald Reagan. He put in false teeth to play Jimmy Carter saying that when he was a peanut farmer "I had the biggest nuts in the county."

As the presidents got more recent, the impressions got weaker: George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and then possibly the worst impression of all, the current president. But he closed with the one he is most famous for, Richard Nixon, saying, "Let’s bring him out of the mothballs one more time."

E&P also reports that more people walked out of Little's routine than out of Colbert's.  Given the widespread reporting last year that Colbert had flopped horribly, it will be interesting to watch how that one gets spun.

       I know this goes without saying, but George W. Bush needs to get his priorities in order.  Take what he did last night for example:

President Bush, deferring to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, passed up any attempt to be funny at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday, leaving those efforts to impersonator Rich Little.

In explaining himself, the President said this:

I was looking forward to doing a little poking myself but in light of this tragedy at Virginia Tech I decided not to be funny.

Okay.  That’s fine.  Refraining from humor in public for the past few days has been appropriate and expected.  But why didn’t he hold back last year?

I don't know how many of my fellow Kossaks are watching this tonight, but if you are and want to join me for some commentary about this year's dinner, turn on C-SPAN1 and let's see if this year's dinner turns out to be as memorable as some of the years past.

Like this lovely reaction by Bush to Stephen Colbert:

More on the flip:

...was the name of the play and thematic song in Mel Brooks, "The Producers."   It popped into my mind as I watched Karl Rove and George W. Bush do their routines at this weeks annual correspondents dinner.  

Continued after the jump:

or, Somebody Talk Me Out of Boycotting "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

I think I want to be sick.  No, really, I WANT to be sick.  Like I've eaten a beehive full of little buzzing, stinging bastard bugs, and I have to yack them up for my own good.

More bitching to follow.  And yes, I'm sure this has been diaried to death already.  Fuck.  I just got off work at 11 pm my time -- working my second job, isn't that just fantastic, to quote the brush-clearing Preznit.  I haven't had my moment to rant.

Yes, I am sure the very thought expressed in my headline was going through the minds of many in the media and the Bush administration last night, at the White house Correspondent's Dinner.

As the porcine Kkkarl Rove did his racist rap shtick, NBC's David Gregory was aiding and abetting the scene of the crime. Link: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/...

Which crime you ask? Follow me after the fold for more ranting.....

The best ever would have to be the Colbert one, but the one I'm talking about is theorhetical and exists only in the confines of my obnoxious little mind.

I didn't see the real one, but I've read the highlights.  It sounds pretty funny, and I have to give Bush's writer credit for coming up with some good stuff, and I even have to give Bush credit for being a good sport enough to deliver them.  It does take some guts to make jokes like the following about yourself...

"A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice president had shot someone. Ah, those were the good ol' days."

or declaring that his memoirs would be a pop-up book.  That's funny, and I give Bush props for that much.

Is that enough being nice to him to create the illusion that I'm fair and balanced?  Good!  Now let's let the savagery begin!

I'm pissed... again.

There were rumblings about this two weeks ago, when Faux Freaks in the AM took a poll as to whether or not they should get a seat in the front for the gaggle and kick Helen out. I figured they were full of s**t.

Guess not.

Most have of you have no doubt already heard about the choice of Rich Little to headline the White House Correspondents Association dinner this year. Clearly they are engaging in a bit of over-compensation for the delicious disaster delivered last year by Stephen Colbert.

But here are a few lesser known items on the event and some new gristle to chew.

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