Barack Obama Puts A "Joke" In There For Bloomberg

Obama had plenty of zingers for the right, the left and himself. He also had one for wherever Bloomberg's ambitions lay. Fast-forward to the 0:40 mark of this YouTubed clip of the President's speech this past Saturday night to see what Barack had to say to the mayor:



Now what's that saying about how there's some element of truth in every joke?

The Stirrings Of The Fourth Estate

For many years now journalism as we knew it has been falling apart. The media was meant to put a check on the abuses of power by the government. Now the norm is for 'journalists' to write government talking points verbatim without care or question. If you are going to all the ritzy parties and hob nobbing with important officials, why would you want to offend them in your articles?

The ultimate party has been the White House Correspondents Dinner. Nearly everyone in D.C. gets together to drink, laugh and network. Stephen Colbert sobered them up a bit with his scathing satirical humor last year. This time around they didn't want reality so up close and personal so they had Rich Little (who bombed) entertain the guests. A few days later, the New York Times had a revelation that maybe this whole thing about government/media bonding wasn't such a good thing.

So they pulled out of going from now on:

NEW YORK Tucked inside Frank Rich's Sunday column in the New York Times is indication that the newspaper will no longer play ball with 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.

Glad to see Frank Rich got it. It isn't just about the dinner, the problem goes on for 365 days a year (plus one next year). The Times made a good step forward, but only time will tell if their reporting will become more objective in the coming days, weeks and months. Hiding massive stories before an election because the President asked you to isn't exactly good journalism. So the Times still has a lot of making up to do.

Letterman's Top Ten For GWB 43

That damn impersonator failed miserably at the White House Correspondents Dinner, but at least they included a top ten from David Letterman. As usual, Letterman does well, very well in fact. Letterman doesn't have to say his commentary on the President, it is all in the video clips:

Sheryl Crow And Laurie David Take On Karl Rove: Live!

Last night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner there was an argument of epic proportions that went on under the radar of the traditional media. Karl Rove was confronted on the Bush Administration's terrible policy on Climate Change (being that there is none). Sheryl Crow and Laurie David tried to have a reasonable debate with Bush's Brain but it quickly went downhill.

From The Huffington Post:

In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

At that point Mr. Rove apparently decided he had had enough. Like a groundhog fearful of his own shadow, he scurried to his table in an attempt to hibernate for another year from his responsibility to address global warming. Drama aside, you would expect as an American citizen to be able to engage in a civil discussion with a public official. Instead, Mr. Rove was dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a bully.

Ultimately, we were left wondering what on Earth Mr. Rove was talking about when he said "the American people." If more than 60% of American voters, the Supreme Court, over 400 cities, the US National Academy of Sciences, numerous major US corporations, and others don't constitute the American people, then what does? The truth is, if this administration cared one iota about the American people, they would have addressed this problem long ago, and the sad reality is that this problem has been left to us, all of us, since the current administration has abandoned this issue entirely. In the absence of true leadership, we must guide ourselves. We can solve this, but we had better act fast.

That is precisely what Karl Rove is, a bully. Like any typical bully, he hides in his own ignorance and fear. The motivation behind that is unclear, but most likely points to fear of the truth and the possibility of that truth leading to the limitation of the power he now holds in the government. For him to actually converse with representative of the American people would be catastrophic for his narrow-minded approach to dealing with the world. For a self-serving bastard like Karl Rove, it is much easier to scurry away and hide.