April 2006 (II): Who Let *Them* In?

Baseball season opens, with actual headline:

Cheney booed loudly, throws out first pitch

Even Fox (Sports) covers this (in a story no longer online) – "Cheney booed loudly at Nats' home opener." Another Fox outlet still has a working link for their story–with headline worded to imply it was the pitch that got the reaction:

Cheney's Baseball Bounces, Booed

Bush appears on April 10 at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. A student asks him what laws govern the actions of military contractors in Iraq, since the Code of Military Justice does not.

Which the deadly buffoon-in-chief turns into a joke about how he was gonna ask Rummy the answer. He turns it all into a jokey anecdote about his delegatin' CEO ways, because "That's How I Work." For the strong of stomach, the video is here.

On April 30, The Boston Globe runs Charlie Savage's report on the scope of Bush's signing statements:

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750laws 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.

And somehow, there will be more than one occasion this month when truth is spoken in the presence of G.W. Bush. It changes nothing, but on those occasions, millions are thrilled by experiencing something that feels like representation.

Early in the month there's this:

Bush Faces Rare Audience Challenge in N.C.

Near the month's end, Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Driftglass:

Holy Christ. Watching the Whores of Pennsylvania Avenue, and their retainers and lackeys in the MSM being fed, nipples first, through the Colbert Woodchipper it felt – for a moment – like a free country again.

Where people walk right up to trolls and monsters, bold as brass, and call them by their True Names.

It was – for that interval – a vision of a world, not without peril or enemies, but without fear.

And from watertiger:

Stephen Colbert displayed more guts in ten minutes of performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner than the entire Bush family has in their collective lifetime. He, along with the ever-feisty Helen Thomas, deftly exposed the "truthiness" to the world (or at least those who were watching) that Bush AND the D.C. press corps are indeed a naked emperor and his gutless courtiers.

Because they Are Not Amused, the courtiers choose to ignore a story that has much of the populace on fire. Which leaves the job to unwashed masses and blogs—for example, thankyoustephencolbert.org still (in 2009) commemorates the event.

The entire video of which is here. A transcript is here.

As to Colbert's real stature, they seem to be onto something here.