president bush

More than five years after Comedy Central cancelled That's My Bush!, the network is planning to air another series that mocks the president. This time it's a cartoon called Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States. It portrays Mr. Bush and key members of his administration as "elementary school misfits". Characters include Lil' Cheney, who mumbles, and Lil' Condi, who does Lil' Bush's homework for him because she has a crush on him. Capers include torturing the lunch ladies Abu Ghraib-style when they serve falafels instead of hot dogs for lunch. The shorts are pretty funny, though they go for the easy laughs about the president's vocabulary and his cowboy attitude. It's a little more low-brow than edgier Comedy Central shows, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show.

The network has ordered six episodes of Lil' Bush, which got its start in September as animated clips through Amp'd Mobile. It's also up on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 230,000 times. This news isn't going to sit well with the creator of Lil' Bill and Lil' Hill cartoons, who accuses the Lil' Bush creators of ripping him off.

YouTube video of the falafel episode is after the jump.

If you've been watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, you know that Olbermann is no fan of President Bush. Lately he's been doing a lot of "Special Comments" in which he criticizes the administration for how they've dealt with Iraq and how Olbermann feels they've misused their power. I've talked enough about Olbermann before, so I won't get into that here, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find his impassioned rants at least intriguing.

However, David Burn on the blog Ad Pulp wrote that Olbermann could take a lesson from someone in the advertising world who realizes that selling ideas is always the same. He argues that Olbermann's approach is too "didactic," and relies more on berating the president for what he's done rather than convince people his point of view is the correct one. I think he has a point, but what do the rest of you think? I'm not interested in opinions about Olbermann himself, but rather, do you think news analysis like him, on any side of the political debate, spend too much time saying what's wrong and not enough time explaining why their view is right?

On the surface, That's My Bush!, the short-lived series from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, seemed trite and silly, a collection of tired sitcom and cliches and lame one-liners. Really, though, it was a show that was too damn smart and funny for its own good. The series ran for eight episodes in 2001, and ended four months before the 9/11 attacks. It's interesting to think how or if the show would have continued in the wake of the attacks, but while it was set in the Bush White House, its main target was not the president, but sitcoms in general. Every episode played with the sitcom convention in some way, and if that made you roll your eyes at the inane plots and over-the-top acting, well, that was exactly the point. The complete series will be released on DVD on October 24. The disc will include extra footage, bloopers and commentaries.

"Pleading The Fifth": Of course, it wouldn't have been the anniversary of an American tragedy without the president weighing in. "The attacks were meant to bring us to our knees, and they did, but not in the way the terrorists intended." Ha. He can't say that and expect us not to snicker! The Metaphorical Mapquest bit was beautiful. Being a Daily Show writer must be fantastic... How would you feel if you were paid to hang out with Jon Stewart all day, coming up with stuff like the World's Biggest Ball of Hope or the Jihad Junction? C'mon. It doesn't get much better than that. The Bush/Little Richard Geico commercial was absolutely hysterical. Maybe I found it amusing because I loathe those TV spots (well, not the one with Charo... Charo can do no wrong). Good line from the segment: "Say what you will about this presidency, but after that speech... it's fifteen minutes shorter."

There are three bits of news involving former and current American Idol stars so I thought I'd lump them into one post. First, President Bush appointed Clay Aiken to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Oh, there's a political joke here but unfortunately this is a television blog. It's not just some random appointment. Clay actually has a degree in special education and worked with disabled kids before appearing on American Idol.

Also, season one star Tamyra Gray got married to a guy who used to be in Color Me Badd. Yes, that '90s group that sang "I Wanna Sex... You Up" (since then he's been a successful songwriter and producer). Tamyra, 27, and Sam Watters, 36, wed in Capri, Italy on Saturday, according to People Magazine. Check out their wedding photo: they look downright gloomy. Tamyra had a short run on Boston Public in 2003, but there's no word on whether she's returning to television.

Okay, so Condoleezza Rice went to Rome for a meeting about the Lebanon situation. It didn't go so well. Jon showed a Condimeter graphic to illustrate just how bad it was (TDS has been really graphic-happy lately). Of course, the meeting wasn't as great as "Three days alone at Camp David with the President" or "Christmas morning"... It ended up somewhere between "Kofi Annan cops a feel" and "Bin Laden determined to attack WHERE?!". I have a feeling I may have switched up a few of those details, so apologies ahead of time. I swear TDS knows I'm scrambling to type this all down. They probably have a hidden camera on my monitor, broadcasting live right into Jon's office so that they can giggle at my panic.

The top ten finalists from this season of American Idol will have an audience with the President on Friday. The performers will already be in Washington, D.C. for their "American Idols Live" tour. They are the first group of American Idols to meet the President and the group may have Taylor Hicks to thank for that. His ninth grade teacher is now Laura Bush's personal secretary! I'm sure some jokes will be made about how Taylor Hicks got more votes than the President did in the last election, but that's super lame. Teen-agers with speed dial aren't exactly a fair comparison.

I wonder if the President watched American Idol this season. What do you think President Bush watches on television (other than Fox Newschannel)?

Yesterday, President Bush signed into law a bill that increases FCC indecency fines tenfold, from $32,500 to $325,000 per violation. The sponsors of the bill, as well as the members of the Parents Televison Council, pushed for the higher penalties so they can make more of an impact on the networks. "For some broadcasters, this amount is meaningless," said Bush at the signing ceremony.

The law states that broadcast networks cannot air any obscene material and no indecent material from 6 to 10 PM. The problem is, the definition of "indecent" is still up in the air, and the mechanism for the FCC to intiate indeceny investigations is coming under fire for its inequites (as in: 4,000 PTC members with Internet access and a form letter can trigger an investigation). The push for higher fines was sparked, of course, by Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl.

Oh, Janet. What have you gotten us into here? All this hoo-ha over a misshapen, nipple-ring-clad breast. And, to be honest with you, considering what's happened since, that looky-loo you gave us so wasn't worth it.

Hey, guess what? Karl Rove is not going to be indicted. Jon Stewart's audience doesn't take this very well and starts boo-ing and hissing. Jon finds their reaction pretty amusing and says of his audience, "You may remember them from Salem. 'See if she floats! If she does, she is a witch!'"

Ahhh. Live television. There's nothing quite like it, is there? Tonight, CNN cut to President Bush's speech on immigration a tad bit early. The president was actually rehearsing as CNN suddenly interrupted an anchor's pre-speech analysis by cutting to the President delivering a line from his speech. Then, the President stopped and looked away.

It turns out, it wasn't really CNN's fault. NBC was the pool network on the speech and it was supposed to keep up a graphic on the screen until a countdown showed up and then the President gave his speech. But, some NBC producer had the graphic taken down early so the network feed showed the President speaking. I would guess that the folks in the control booth at CNN crapped their pants when they saw the President appear on the network feed early, delivering his speech. Of course, all the conspiracy theorists will argue that CNN was trying to make the President look stupid.

The video of CNN's goof is after the jump (or catch it here later, if YouTube is busy):

Adding fuel to the fire about FOX Newschannel's political affiliations, FOX personality Tony Snow has reportedly accepted the Press Secretary position at the White House. The rumblings of this possibility started last week. His appointment to replace Scott McClellan is supposed to be made official Wednesday morning. I fully expect the rest of the press to essentially freak out and suggest that Snow's appointment will mean more exclusives and tips for FOX News. A valid concern, really.

Snow is less of a news anchor and more of a talking head and political analyst. He was a speech writer for the first President Bush in 1991, and a nationally syndicated columnist for The Detroit News and USA Today. It's also worth noting that Snow is currently battling colon cancer.

Putting this guy in the hot seat should be interesting, to say the least. He's used to pontificating in front of cameras and probably doesn't mind getting in the faces of reporters. He's bound to be more animated than McClellan, the White House robot whose only directive is to 'stay on message'.

(S31E16) Not too shabby. For her third SNL hosting gig, Lindsay Lohan wasn't all that bad. I did find it odd that she's doing SNL again so soon though. Especially after that big hoopla about the Vanity Fair article a few months ago. But her arms did look much plumper this time around. Besides, she has a new movie coming out and I would assume that she and Tina Fey have a good relationship. So I guess it does makes sense that she would be doing SNL again so soon. See that? I answer my own questions.

The Situation Room - It seems like we've officially reached the point where every single cold open that SNL does is going to be a take-off of one of the many political pundit shows from across the cable universe. I'm fine with that. I'm just saying that I can't remember the last time a cold open that wasn't Hardball, or Anderson Cooper, or this. I suppose it makes sense though when the government is giving out plenty of material to spin into a sketch. Might as well use it. This was funny. Wolf (Chris Parnell) had numerous guests commenting about the recent news that White House Chief of Staff Andy Card had resigned (well, I guess it's not that recent). It seems everyone they interviewed, who now worked for the President, had come from a temp agency. I loved it when Kristen Wiig (she's the new Resident Iran Expert) asked to have her time card initialed.

This gives new meaning to that old advice that you should never talk politics at the office. It also gives fuel to the fire that the mass media is full of liberal, left-wingers. The executive producer for Good Morning America Weekend is serving a one-month suspension for writing nasty things about President Bush in a company e-mail. The e-mail was written back on September 30, 2004 by producer John Green to a colleague about a Bush-Kerry debate. It said, "Are you watching this? Bush makes me sick. If he uses the 'mixed messages' line one more time I think I'm going to puke."

The e-mail turned up two weeks ago on Matt Drudge's website. Green has since apologized. He's been the executive producer of GMA Weekend since it launched in 2004.

Jessica Simpson turned down a seat at a Republican fund-raiser and a face-to-face meeting with President Bush recently to talk about the charity she supports, Operation Smile. The charity provides free plastic surgery to disadvantaged kids overseas with facial deformities. I just hope it isn't like Plastic Surgeons Without Borders.

Anyway, Simpson apparently didn't want to politicize her charity or make her own political views known. I guess I can respect that, although I don't see any clear political affiliation regarding this charity, so her reasoning seems a little odd. Simpson did agree to the meeting initially, then changed her mind at the last minute.

Update: According to IMDb, Simpson is denying everything the press has been reporting, and has stated that the president merely didn't have enough time to meet with her.