Nero Called: He Wants His Sense of Appropriate Timing Back

I can't imagine Valerie Plame Wilson's reaction to the president singing at the Gridiron Club Dinner:

"Down the lane I look and here comes Scooter. Finally free of the prosecutor."

It must have been a jaw dropper when she realized Novak and his date, Ann Coulter, were in the audience listening to Bush croon about pardoning the White House official who told Novak Wilson's undercover status was "fair game" because her husband debunked a report used as a case for war.

Bush ended the encore with jokes about an oil rich Saudi Arabian and the Vice President withholding documents. The Washington Post has a bizarre blog describing undercover YouTube coverage with the caviat: ("Wiseley?") That seems to be their concern - the public finding out rather than the fact that their reporter did not walk out on the proceedings.

But my jaw is still on the floor over the first stanza about the "big fuss" over FEMA Director Michael Brown. It was all sung to the same press corps who reported from our flooded city. My friend died in the Katrina aftermath. There will never be anything funny about that. Imagine the outcry if a sitting president worked in a comedy routine about lives lost in the Twin Towers.

With a harmonizing chorus, correspondents laughing after every line, lighters waving from the audience and a standing ovation.

New Orleans musician Johnny Sansone wrote the popular Katrina anthem "Poor Man's Paradise". With the line 'My Daddy used to be in a grave" describing the fact that, yes, graves floated in the flood, Johnny worked his ass off rebuilding his home and can sing about Brownie. Bush can't.

Brown, who claims he found out about thousands of stranded Americans by watching cable television coverage instead of from Homeland Security sources, says he was thrown under the bus by the White House. But as far as I'm concerned, he can't sing about it either.

One of the presidential candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain, has four Gridiron Dinners coming up and will hopefully not inject humor into any action that led to loss of life. McCain's "Bomb, Bomb Iran" routine does not bode well. But back to Bush's final knee slapper.

A good rule of thumb is, if you're the guy who appointed an Arabian horse expert to run the country's emergency management system, you are the last one who gets to pen Katrina lyrics without asking:

"Too soon?"

Nero called. He wants his sense of appropriate timing back.

Comments

[slg]

This will pass and be just another segment of "Bushed". They picked a guy who thrives on being mocked . These little moments are his revenge.

America is in the "let them eat cake" era of Empire. It's been so long i've forgotten what comes next.

[grisgris]

Karen, you said, "Imagine the outcry if a sitting president worked in a comedy routine about lives lost in the Twin Towers." Well, consider this: At least the Twin Towers was caused by an OUTSIDER. The levee failures and susequent flooding of 80% of the city of New Orleans was caused by our own FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. And, our President, the head of our government laughs at our dead and our losses. The "outcry" over this SHOULD be enough to run him out of office. Mind boggling.

[hoodrat]

Nero......good analogy. bin-Laden missed the REAL target., and if the fools sitting in our legislation can't bring these fools up on charges - then they need to be on trial also. Everybody laughs, talks about a hypocrate NY Gov., talks of color codes - and kids continue to die, far away from home. they all should go away in the exact same way Nero did. Dull knives and all.

[dollphingurl]

this is MY country? and these are the people entrusted to protect it, and to give me the information i need to feel safe and better enfranchised than any other citizen of any other country in the world.

this seems more like a Bohemian Grove meeting than this other bullshit.

to hell with them all.

[angeranddespair]

The Fourth Estate has the blood of all our Murdered and Maimed soldiers on their hands, as well as all the blood of all the murdered and maimed uncounted Iraqis ...because they don't count. (by the way that blood ain't ever washing off.) The Media, main stream and otherwise stood lock step with this Lying administration repeated the lies, upon lies upon lies, until they became the truth, repeated and sanctioned at every turn by the media. Tell us again why did we invade a country that never attacked us? None of the 9/11 criminals were from Iraq. Hers is another question for the media to ask; Why are we not in prison as accomplices? If someone lies (lets say President Bush) to get permission to commit a crime are not all the auxiliary events that happen under the commission of that crime also criminal? The murder and theft of an innocent countries people - men, women, children, and theft of their culture, arts, natural resources and livelihood. Hey you all in the Media take a hard look at the Invasion and Occupation you allowed and fostered to happen. Don't forget your glorious march up the middle of Iraq bombing her to smithereens while you were embedded(in bed with) the most corrupt lying administration ever.

[luziannagirl]

1) It's extremely hard if not impossible to parody something/someone who's already grotesque. Those who don't get it are those inside, involved, and won't get the joke anyway, and those who get it are MOSTLY too upset and shocked with the reality of the situation to laugh. What does that say about members of the "press corps" who found this so funny? That they are insiders and involved, or don't get it? Or, they are as antisocial and craven as those they pretend to cover?


2)Regarding then FEMA-head Brown's claim that he didn't know numbers of rescued hurricane survivors were gathered and stranded in New Orleans on highway overpasses and parking lots, awaiting the next leg of their transport to safety: B F'N S. Total, and utter.


I was here, at the edge of the abyss, monitoring radio broadcasts on a battery-powered radio. At least one radio broadcast featured a well-known Louisiana government official (a legislator?) who'd taken it upon himself to just get down to New Orleans and do what he could to help rescue folks, who was audibly distraught over, at that early point, "hundreds" of survivors languishing on the pavement, awaiting further transport. These were New Orleanians he'd helped NOT THE NATIONAL GUARD, but Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, pluck off rooftops. He anguished over where in heck were the Feds who Bush had promised, were supposedly standing by with hundreds of busses, just out of the danger zone? And this was hours after the storm left.


Little did this Louisiana leader know that hundreds of pavement-waiting survivors would turn into thousands, and hours would turn into days, and dozens more of the "rescued" would die of heat, thirst, exposure, and lack of medical care while waiting on a no-show federal government .


So, if I could manage to keep up with what was actually happening in the disaster zone by monitoring the radio while making do with no electricity, no a/c, no phone, and no stores open, why the heck couldn't 'Heckuvajob" Brownie? Of course he did, and of course he knew. He , like his old party-buddy-boss, just didn't care.

[Desiderata]

We all know Bush to be one of the most ignorant men on this planet. But how should the journalist-elite be considered for having been clearly so well entertained by this?

Oh, that's right__this gridiron thing is supposed to be off-the-record (not reported).

That worked....

[westwind]

Anyone who laughed at, gave a standing ovation to, or even just applauded George Bush's finger to the citizens of this country has no moral center. They probably think their presence in the company of the president of the United States demonstrates just how much they have achieved in life. All this video proves is that they are worthless sycophants. I feel ill.

[larry278]

It looks like the denizens of inside the beltway have an attitude toward the rest of the USA which can be expressed by a satire of Lincoln's 2nd swearing in address which would state, "With precious little for most people & contempt for all of the people [outside the beltway]...". The conditions in 2008 breed divisive attitudes which multiply & mutate most rapidly. No one trusts or respects others in the America of 2008. Solipcsim[sp] has become the American way of life in the 21st century. The line of the Kingston Trio's "Merry Minuet" says "...& I don't like anyone very much..." also sums up the USA's attitude in '08.

[stampingrrl]

For this alone, the man should be impeached.

[gulopartisan]

What we have lost, that diminishes us as a nation, is any sense of outrage. The center will not hold; we are all degraded by government whores and their media pimps.

[peterg76]

Don't act surprised - we all knew Bush was a sociopath.

[robotfog]

I just wish that *he* knew it too.