Just THIS About THAT ... - Democratic Underground

NanceGreggs

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Fri Jan-29-10 11:05 PM
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Just THIS About THAT ...

Edited on Sat Jan-30-10 12:01 AM by NanceGreggs

Well, it’s certainly been an interesting week.

The Wonder Gears: Early in the week, TDS featured a pricelessly funny segment comparing Obama to Wonder Years character Kevin Arnold, standing by helplessly as a station wagon drives off, leaving him in the dust. While I admit to being a Jon Stewart fan (okay, a fall-on-my-knees adorer), I think he missed the mark on this one.

That isn’t Obama’s car the GOP won’t let him into; it’s the citizenry’s vehicle – you know, the one that’s supposed to take us from Point A to Point B, from recession to recovery, from insurance company extortion to actual healthcare coverage, etc. But given the further events of the week, it was made obvious that the President knows a car that’s about to run out of gas midway through an ill-advised joy ride – and was about to let the populace know exactly who was more than happy to leave who on the side of the road.

The SOTU Address was delivered with Obama’s usual eloquence and style, along with a clear message that you fuck with the neither-rain-nor-sleet-nor-GOP-obstructionist-bullshit-will-stop-me postman at your own peril. Despite the fact that the Republicans wanted to refuse delivery – all having that no such number, no such zone look on their faces – the President wasn’t about to step away from the podium until the signed, sealed, delivered receipt was firmly shoved up their collective ~~butts~~ mailboxes.

While Obama continues to play chess, the GOP continues to demonstrate that tiddly-winks are beyond their skill set – and besides, nonny-nonny, they ain’t playing at all. And if there was any doubt about the matter, the American public was educated, in no uncertain terms, by the Smartest Guy in the Room (and surrounding environs, including the universe as we know it) on Wednesday night. Smirkless and heh-heh-less, President Smackdown was generous with handing out the rope – lest the Republicans not already have enough to hang themselves.

Smile! You’re On Candid Camera! This week’s episode featured John McCain mouthing the words “oh, yeah, blame Bush”, as the President talked about the mess he’d inherited before he even walked through the door. Honestly, it gave me a bit of hope for the aging senator’s state of mind. If he can own-up (intended or otherwise) to how we got where we are and who’s to blame, maybe – just maybe – he’s not so senile after all.

My favorite segment was, of course, Justice Alito’s bobble-headed reaction to the President’s comments on the recent SCOTUS decision confirming that corporations are people, too, god-damn it!. Too bad he didn’t have the foresight to have Mrs. Alito seated behind him within camera range, turning on the waterworks – just in time to qualify for an Emmy in the Nancy Kerrigan Cry-Alike category.

“Sarah, Sarah, no time is the right time for goodbye …” Actually, the right time for goodbye was pretty much contemporaneous with the first time you said hello. But I won’t debate the point here and now – while you’re busy trying to figure out what “contemporaneous” means. (Hint: It’s not the name of the suburb between North Korea and South Korea, just in case you were wonderin’.)

No SOTU is newsworthy until Sarah Palin weighs-in – and what more appropriate venue could there be for her to express her opinion than the political juggernaut that is FaceBook. Along with Sean D’s latest rant about his pizza being delivered cold and sans anchovies, and Mikey M’s FB wall photo montage of his most recent hangover, Sarah’s contribution to the must read! post-of-the-week was jam-packed with the usual nonsense we’ve all come to know her by. Unfortunately, Sarah forgot to tell whoever wrote the piece she passed off as her own that using complete sentences, properly paragraphed and punctuated, would be a dead giveaway that the response was written by someone (anyone) other than the Wasilla Thriller.

Note to Sarah: Never send a literate person to do your writing job. You’ll get caught every time.

CNN – The Most Trusted Name in Muse tried desperately to overtake FOX-News in the area of newsotainment yet again this week, with their après-SOTU coverage – not even close, no cigar.

The Best Political Team on TV (or is it the Best Li’l Whorehouse – I admit to being confused between the two) now bears a striking resemblance to Saturday morning kids’ shows – perhaps in an effort to appeal to its target audience.

We have John “Mr. Wizard” King and his Magic Board, David “Captain Midnight” Gergen (who is surely shilling a decoder ring that deciphers whatever the fuck it is he’s saying), and Miss Mary (Matlin) who wants to edumacate the populace like Miss Frances of Ding-Dong School once did – the only difference being that Dr. Frances Horwich held a doctorate in education, while Miss Mary is just a ding-dong, a similarity that CNN apparently feels is close enough to warrant the awarding of that still just-out-of-reach cigar.

Wolf (former Santa’s reindeer) Blitzer was quick to announce that CNN would be fact-checking the representations Obama made in his SOTU address. You’ve got to figure it will be months before their final report is available, as the CNN staff will first have to attend a lengthy seminar series on What is a “fact”, and how to report one when you stumble across it.

Note to CNN: If you’re going to quote Twitter posts as part of your “news” coverage, you might want to give the Twitterers a heads-up so they can tune-in and see themselves referred to on national TV – God knows they’re too savvy about news to be watching CNN otherwise. In addition, if you’re going to stay with this entertainment-as-news-coverage concept, I’d much prefer Senor Wences or that guy who could simultaneously spin ten plates atop eight-foot poles. They were at least worth watching.

But Wait – There’s More! The GOP-TV network ended its viewing week with Obama’s Q-and-A session with Republicans. I’m not saying the boys on the other side of the aisle bent over and set themselves up for a well-deserved spanking at every turn – but if the theme music for the next session isn’t “(Lookin’ Like a Fool) With Your Pants on the Ground”, some wanna-be marketing genius will have passed up the opportunity of a lifetime.