So now Obama, like Bush, has made a “joke” that views policies that resulted in killing innocent foreign civilians as fodder for mirth at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Obama at that dinner on Saturday night:
“The Jonas Brothers are here; they’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But boys, don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you, ‘predator drones.’ You will never see it coming.”
Alex Pareene comments in Salon:
Hah! It’s funny because predator drone strikes in Pakistan have killed literally hundreds of completely innocent civilians, and now the president is evincing a casual disregard for those lives he is responsible for ending by making a lighthearted joke about killing famous young celebrities for the crime of attempting to sleep with his young daughters.
Shades of George W. Bush’s jokes about missing WMDs at the 2004 White House Correspondents Dinner.
So much for the Obama uplift…. This is appalling, even by Washington standards.
The entire farrago of the hotly anticipated “White House Correspondents Dinner is about as worthwhile as a fart in a hailstorm. The media and the politicians like to assemble with the Hollywood preeners like a kind of Academy Awards and then laugh at their sparkling humor while the carcass is further gutted. I have a better idea. Maybe we can combine hollywood and our media sots together with our beloved politicians and have a Survivor Waziristan and take care of several looney birds with one stone. They are all doing a swell job of imitating the band on the Titanic.
That Obama is a quite a Joker. The drone bit is really a knee-slapper. Obama needs to develop his comedy act like Bush did. I thought Bush’s character, based loosely on Larry the Cable Guy’s dumb redneck bit, was brilliant. I think Obama needs to study Tim Moore’s character of Kingfish Stevens and work some of that type of humor into his routine. The Kingfish’s get rich quick schemes might really resonate with people struggling in this economy. Biden could join the act by wearing a derby and Obama could call him Andy. With a little work, Obama could be a really funny guy.
I’m not into reality TV, but I would certainly tune into Survivor Waziristan.
Does anyone else have a problem directly comparing a piece of technology with the way that it’s used?
Ever year, hundreds of innocent people are killed by axes. Should we place the ax alongside the predator drones with ‘things we can’t threaten the Jonas Brothers with?’
Should people suspected of ax abuse make ax jokes?
Time for a correspondent to take his shoes off …
Great quip!
I’m not sure if it would have the same moral suasive effect if it was Gucci.
“Does anyone else have a problem directly comparing a piece of technology with the way that it’s used?”
So sorry, that’s not the point at all. The obscenity here is the President of the United States joking about abusing his power to murder someone who personally displeases him in some way. The tool used to commit the murder is incidental. It would be just as bad if the “joke” employed an ax.
“Zeus then sent a lightning bolt down and a storm, killing all of Odysseus’ men.” The Greek god apparently had true surgical strike capability. Our presidents, on the other hand, have similar but less developed powers which are far less capable of either hitting the intended bad guys or preventing collateral damage. Remember, the myth does not say “killing a few of Odysseus’ men and two dozen innocent villagers.” Perhaps we should be thankful that, for the time being, the killings are limited to poor people in third world countries.
can you people please relax. he made a good joke about protecting his daughters by all means necessary, especially against horny teenage kids. any father of any daughter would be able to relate, similar to the whole “don’t let me get my shotgun” bid. shotguns have killed many people too, suddenly you’re upset? i laughed when a buddy of mine told me he got shot in the back with a .22 in florida because of his hormones and his girlfriend’s dad, right as he was escaping through the window. he got shot, I laughed and told me, “you should’ve known better”.
perhaps the terrorists who beckon these predator strikes like cheerleaders at a football game should kill the humor, or perhaps we should kill them.
dead people have no more worries. another thing… he made a joke, you are all taking this way too seriously and we don’t shoot missles unless we suspect a threat.
loss of innocent life is not a joke, yet you are the one making this joke about innocent life.
Lordie, lordie, lordie…
Does anyone have a better defense of Obama than the above???
Well, we haven’t heard from Rahm Emanuel yet, Jim.
I assumed Rahm was busy trying to put the final knives in the back of the “Audit the Fed” amendment.
…in which Rahm plays Brutus to the amendment’s Caesar!
Sean:
I get nervous when people consider Caesar to be a hero.
Good point, Lawrence!
Speaking of Rahm-bo:
http://amleft.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html#6684137977220515565