Daily Show Tackles Federal Response to Katrina

[JABBS]

Jon Stewart showed anger last night.

It's an emotion that Daily Show viewers have seen bubble just under the surface for some time. It's been clear for some time that Stewart and the writers of the Comedy Central show have little love (read: contempt) for the Bush Administration's lack of accountability and constant spin.

But last night Stewart, discussing the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, showed actual unvarnished anger. It may have been unintentional, but it came, ironically, after similar spurts of anger from the likes of CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Stewart chastised the Bush Administration, telling conservatives to shut up about blaming everyone but the commander in chief. Recalling that Democrats had to distance themselves from President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he suggested now was the time for Republicans to put country before party, because "Hurricane Katrina is Bush's Monica Lewinsky ..."

And with that, Stewart's rant ended. The laughs continued when Stewart continued: "... except for one difference -- tens of thousnds of people weren't stranded in Monica Lewinsky's vagina."

***

Later in the show, correspondent Ed Helms offered this wonderful bit of satire:

HELMS: While everybody else is busy setting up commissions and finding fault, through the President's leadership, he'll end up building a billion dollar dam in Arkansas.

STEWART: Why would he build a dam in Arkansas?

HELMS: His plan will be to fight the water over there, so we don't have to fight it over here.

During Helms' report, The Daily Show also provided a chart, "Major Disasters of Bush Administration," modeled after the alphabetical naming of hurricanes each year ("G" was skipped).

A -- Abu Ghraib
B -- Bin Laden
C -- Chalabi
D -- Deficit
E -- Enron
F -- Failure to Find WMDs
H -- Halliburton
I -- Iraq
J -- John Bolton
K -- Katrina

From there, the list gets silly, all the way to "Y -- Yam Shortage," and "Z -- Zero People Left on Earth," to which Helms quipped that if the U.S. did get to "Zero People Left on Earth," it would quickly forget about that yam shortage.

Such writing takes satire to a new level.

***

This article first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

1. It was GREAT: Surgically incisive satire

Thank you Jon Stewart and TDS (again and again and again....)

[Melodybe]

2. Best Daily Show ever, I can't wait until tonight

[Neocondriac]

3. FYI....

Lizz Winstead is one of the creators of the DAILY SHOW.

[Maccagirl]

4. After Jon and gang got through with them

there were no Bushbot bodies to bury. It was a beautiful thing-and so richly deserved.


:toast: