Sunday, May 21, 2006

Colbert New Comic-in-Chief

Wow. Colbert stands up for America. You gotta watch this amazing display of guts to believe it. Colbert gives Bush and the administration a withering attack right in front of the President and everyone else. For some reason my machine was crashing, I think the secret service is trying to corrupt the video stream... Okay, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but you gotta see this masterpiece. It's on CSPAN, too.

None of the major newspapers have covered it in detail. Is that because of threats from the White House? I agree with Colbert: it's criminal the self-censorship of the press. It's so sad that the only place covering Colbert's performance is slashdot (of all places) and other blogs.

Transcript here.

Since the mainstream press is sooo afraid of being disinvited to the white house (at least for the next couple of years), I'm hoping it will go viral. Track progress on the net: at Google blogsearch.

The slashdot posting:
Colbert New Comic-in-Chief: "scottzak writes 'Hail to the Chief! Stephen Colbert addressed the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday (attended by the President, the elite of Washington politics, and the White House Press Corps) and told the truth. Jaws dropped. Eyes popped. The live audience gasped. Scalia laughed his ass off. You want to see a brilliant comic display some real courage? Look no further. Enjoy the reaction shots, and Colbert's audition for Press Secretary job.' The BBC covers the act just prior to Mr. Colbert's, where the President and a look-alike took turns making fun of his speaking skills.

-- updated May 1

The only places I could find comment on this other than blogs:
HuffingtonPost.com
and
Editor and Publisher
with letters from readers -- some appear pretty pissed... so I think Colbert must have scored.

I can't believe no one else treated this even as a news story. At least they could have said that he bombed.

-- updated May 2

The New York Times finally gets the guts to mention it...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/arts/03colb.html

-- updated May 8

SF Indy Media (whoever they are -- not mainstream media, I guess) gives more details.

NY Times covers the move of the video from YouTube to Cspan.org and Google video.

-- updated May 21

Audio portion available for $2 at audible.com. But the video is still free to download from Google video.

NYTimes editor says it was wrong not to anticipate a reaction to the clip and write a news story about it.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

When things go bad, scapegoats ... immigrants and gays

I seem to recall there is a tendency for politicians and people to find scapegoats when things go wrong. Usually these scapegoats are minorities of all flavors. Immigrants are the current diversion tactic. Sometimes, as in the case of gas prices, Democratic politicians try to put it on big business to show their regular people populism. But under a conservative administration usually all the blame gets put on the little guys on the fringe of every flavor and color. The Constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage -- discussion of it says, look it's not my privileged straight ass' fault, it's the gays' fault. I'm not predicting anything, but things are so bad that I don't doubt that all except the core of this administration's target demographic will be blamed.

I, for one, think we should turn it around. This time around it's not scapegoating. It's the truth. And it's not the fault of the fringe, it's the fault of the big middle. The damn red-state, church-going idiots of this country are to be blamed. For starters, they should take their medicine having control of both houses of congress taken away from their corrupt minions.

U.S. Backs A Gayer U.N. (Finally!)

Previously, US did not back UN recognition of gay groups saying they were linked to pedophiles. But now the US has changed it's tune, probably they weren't paying attention as Queerty says below. My previous post on this.

Copy of the Queerty post:

U.S. Backs A Gayer U.N. (Finally!): "The United States is quietly switching its position on the acknowledgment of gays here on planet Earth: for years, gay organizations have attempted to achieve 'consultative status' with the United Nations, which would allow them to voice opinions on issues concerning the rights of LGBT people. Currently there is no such organization with the UN. Obviously.

In the past the US has always voted against giving giving these organizations official recognition; no word on why our beloved country has suddenly changed its mind. Whatever the reason, we're thrilled, as are the millions of oppressed people in countries where there is no one to stand up for their rights. We presume George Bush is asleep at the wheel again, letting other people do his job for him, and someone decided to sneak this one in. Shh. Don't wake him up.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Bush and polls

Was reading that people are now very negative on Bush because of his handling of gas prices. Of all the mistakes of the Bush administration: Why gas? Because people refuse to admit they were wrong. If they said they didn't support him about Iraq, that would be admitting a flaw in their own judgement about him...

.. So they register their disapproval of Bush, but they misrepresent the reasons to hide their own stupidity.

-- updated 5/9

NYTimes poll shows Americans actually are finally admitting Iraq was the wrong thing to do.

I should take back what I said above. People are wiseing up. My fellow Americans are smarter than they look. :)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Intelligence officials: CIA operative Valerie Plame working on Iran

Consolidated posting by gay blogger Andy Towle on Valerie Plame working on Iran anti-nuclear proliferation when the Administration blew her cover.

Intelligence officials: CIA operative Valerie Plame working on: " Intelligence officials: CIA operative Valerie Plame working on tracking Iran's nuclear program when she was outed. AmericaBlog: 'Karl Rove personally set back this nation's efforts to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. We are at war. And we are about to get involved in our third war, specifically because we don't have enough information about Iran's nuclear program, and part of the reason we don't is Karl Rove. What Karl Rove did is an offense worth of treason. And what is George Bush's response to the fact that one of his top aides intentionally and maliciously hurt our ability to stop Iran from getting nukes?? Nothing. Rove is still working out of the White House, with George Bush's blessing.' Crooks & Liars: 'If Iran is such a threat, why does Bush still have on his staff a man (Rover) who betrayed the identity of a CIA agent that was working on this very serious issue?'"