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May 1, 2006

Stephen Colbert at White House press dinner; Bush challenges hundreds of laws; Why Van Gogh cut off his ear; cat deterrents for gardens

AP
Valerie Plame Wilson, a former undercover CIA agent outed by the Bush administration, and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, leave a party after Friday night's White House Correspondents Dinner. The Wilsons were guests of ABC News.

Buzz: The annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. You wouldn't know, from reading Elizabeth Bumiller's account in the Times today (At Annual Correspondents' Dinner, a Set of Bush Twins Steal the Show), that Stephen Colbert -- a Jon Stewart spinoff comedy star and coiner of the word "truthiness" -- was the evening's featured entertainer.

Minnesota City Pages notes, in The truthiness hurts,

President Bush had the press eating out of the palm of his hand at last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner. (If you need proof, a Google news search reveals more than 300 articles dedicated to the celebration of Bush and his look-alike lampooning the president for such now-innocuous foibles as mispronouncing "nuclear." If you control them, they will follow...) But it was comedian Stephen Colbert's biting political satire, and the awkward silence that followed, that brought the real "truthiness" to last night's event.

If the mainstream press' allegiance to the current administration wasn't painfully obvious enough, so far only Editor and Publisher has extensively reported on Colbert's roasting, which, in the best kind of political satire, resonated as hard-hitting political commentary disguised as stupidity in the form of Colbert's faux-Republican persona. ...

If you'd like to check out Colbert's remarks, here's a transcript, video , clips at YouTube, the entire piece in two formats at Crooks and Liars -- Video-WMP (low res) Video QT (it's a big file) -- and a blow-by-blow by Amrita Rajan at Blogcritics.

A sample from the transcript:

...As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story: the president's side, and the vice president's side.

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....

Editor & Publisher notes,

Colbert closed his routine with a video fantasy where he gets to be White House Press Secretary, complete with a special “Gannon” button on his podium. By the end, he had to run from Helen Thomas and her questions about why the U.S. really invaded Iraq and killed all those people.

The headline on that story: Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Not Amused?

Related: In yesterday's Boston Globe, Charlie Savage reports (Bush challenges hundreds of laws; President cites powers of his office) a troubling story for anyone with an admiration for the checks and balances the founders built into the Constitution. It begins,

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

Former administration officials contend that just because Bush reserves the right to disobey a law does not mean he is not enforcing it: In many cases, he is simply asserting his belief that a certain requirement encroaches on presidential power....

Having revolted against a monarchy, the founders clearly distrusted unlimited executive power .

Why Van Gogh cut off his ear: The Independent (U.K.) reviewsThe Yellow House by Martin Gayford, which details the weeks leading up to the amputation. It has to do with... St. Peter? via Robot Wisdom

No littering: Cat deterrents for your garden: Scroll down to this post at GardenWeb for an extensive list of ways to convince your cat that your flower bed is not a litter box. I've chosen the "lay down clippings of brambles and rose bushes" method as least likely to affect the soil and be washed away by rain. Don't use cayenne pepper; cats will get it in their eyes and scratch till they hurt themselves.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:22 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: H.A. Page on May 3, 2006 6:14 PM