European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 30, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 30 2007 stars and stripes Page 15 opinion a Little letdown after Colbert assessment i t was throwback night at this months White House correspondents association dinner thanks to Rich Littles moldy Oldie comedy Rou Tine and Karl roves Retro dismissal of Glo h bal warms turd Ananna i Effington blossoms sputtering rudeness on the other hand was pure 2007 i had flown in to Washington for the event not sure what to expect Given Littles love Boa level Pedi Gree and pred inner pronouncements that he had no intention of making Waves and coming on the heels of last years on forthe Ages appearance by Stephen my expectations were decidedly discounted even so Littles performance was More excruciating than i could have imagined the entire evening had the surrealistic feel of a Salvador Dali movie Alberto Gonza Les gamely made the rounds at the dinner looking like a Man waiting for the results of a medical test he knows didst go Well i  Tell who looked More Ashen Gonzales or Paul Wolfowitz whom i kept run Ning into through out the night you could sense an edginess among the administration figures in the room waiting for the next round of subpoenas can have that so the Jovial my Rove of just a few weeks ago was replaced by the Bellicose boy Genius who took a gentle touch from the beguiling Sheryl Crow As the equivalent of a Glove slapped across his face hurled invectives from 20 paces at Dawn news of the dust up Between Rove Sheryl and Laurie David quickly travelled around the room when i went Over to their table to find out exactly what had happened i was proud to see the two of them huddled together scribbling their blog about the incident on the Back of a menu with Larry King looking on Back to the surrealism it would be hard to match the Absurdity of listening to presi Dent Bush explain that in deference to the shootings at Virginia tech he would forgo telling any jokes in Light of this tragedy at Virginia tech i decided not to be funny of i get that but it raises the question Why did he have no problem cutting up last year or the year before or the year be fore that As the body count of dead Ameri can soldiers and iraqi civilians continued to Rise is there some sort of comedy Rule i dont know about so if s co medically acceptable to goof around pretending to look for wed tinder your desk while the troops put in harms Way in the name of those wed Are killed and mutilated but not in Good taste to deliver a monologue in the aftermath of a tragic school shooting who knew or maybe the president just didst want to upstage Little who turned out to be irritatingly bad rather than soothingly Bland As intended Lawrence Rich Little gets a laugh out of president Bush during the White House correspondents association dinner in Washington on april 21 look i have nothing against Rich Little Hes a perfectly Fine entertainer if your idea of entertainment is impersonations of Dwight Eisenhower and Telly Savalas is there anyone still alive who would know the difference Between a Good Eisenhower impersonation and a bad one or jokes about haemorrhoids and full disclosure i didst watch his entire performance it was so painful at a cer Tain Point i ducked out but from what i saw Little delivered exactly what the White House correspondents association wanted give or take a Groaner or peo ple remember Colbert performance last year for his skewering of the president but in fact he also brilliantly and brutally skew ered the Media for their complicity in the outrages of the last six years heres How it works he reminded the stunned crowd the president makes Deci Sions Hes the decider the press Secre tary announces those decisions and you people of the press Type those decisions Down make announce Type just put pm through a spell Check and go Home get to know your family again make love to your wife write that novel you got kicking around in your head you know the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration you know fiction with the consequences of the me Dias failure to do their Job Over the last six years rain ing Down on us every Day if s no wonder that in Stead of being comi Cally called out for their role As enablers the assembled re porters would rather hop in the payback machine and listen to a lame Jimmy Carter impression that ended with a double Enten Dre punch line about nuts if s so much easier laughing at Karl Rove rapping and acting As his backup dancers than examining ones complicity in serving As a mouthpiece for roves thuggery announce one final Takeaway from the night according to Rich Little after the show presi Dent Bush told him that he thought the co medians performance was absolutely perfect so the president s record of being wrong on just about every single thing Dur ing his presidency remains intact dems mental health exception can expand f Ann Coulter or Cranky right wingers who think politicians dont listen to them this week i give you elected democrats running like scared school girls from the medias demand that they enact new gun control Laws in response to the Virginia tech shoot ing instead democrats Are promoting a men Tal health exception to the right to Bear arms weve banned mass murder and that Hast seemed to work so now were going to ban mass murderers yes that will do the trick this is a feelgood measure that is both wildly under inclusive the vast majority of nutcases receive no formal court adjudication of their nuttiness and wildly Overin elusive the vast majority of nuts dont kill the worst thing most nuts do is irritate everybody else by driving their elec tric cars on the Highway As Lovely As it would be we cannot identify mass murderers be fore they have broken any Law and mass murder is often the first serious crime they commit no one can be locked up permanently for being potentially dangerous even stalking Laws can put away a person known to be danger Ous for Only a few years at Best which is generally not Worth spending a Day sitting in court facing your stalker and then waiting a month for the court order so on one hand the mental health exception is a feelgood measure that would be largely pointless but on the other hand if s no skin off my Back liberals go to therapy conservatives go to Church and i think wed All sleep better knowing that David Brock could not buy a gun in fact i think we should expand the mental illness exception to cover first amendment rights As Well As second amendment rights i note that before mass murder the Only harassment the Virginia tech killer was guilty of involved speech Creepy emails Creepy Short stories Creepy phone Calls stalkers too engage in frightening speech but that is protected revealing a stalk ing victims address is speech but is Little democrats Are saying we should be Able to jail strange or but we cant de plane imams who demand extra length seat belts after boarding different from being the one to pull the Trig Ger this Small measure would have taken Dan whats the frequency Kenneth rather off the airwaves years ago prevent ing him from presenting doctored National guard documents to the american people to try to throw a presidential election a mental illness bar would Deal a Quick blow to air America and both its remaining listeners it would also free up about 90 per cent of the internet and it would end the Public lunacy of Jim Wallis the democrats Christian Wall is first remark on the massacre at Virginia tech was to Hail the remarkable diversity of the victims True seun Hui Cho murdered 32 people in cold blood but at least he achieved diversity anyone who thinks a single minded Fixa Tion on diversity must be the ultimate goal of every human Endeavor including mass murder is not the sort of person who should be Able to buy a gun or to publish his Daft ruminations in Public forums but just to get this straight democrats Are saying we should be Able to jail strange or angry people but we cant de plane imams who demand extra length seat belts after Board ing speaking of which has anyone else noticed the Public expressions of shame and contrition from the Korea american Community after the Virginia tech shoot ing of course no one blames this exemplary Community for the actions of one nut the koreans Are manifestly la abiding and at the heels of italians As the greatest americans and tied for second with the cubans korean congregations Community groups and the family members them selves Are issuing statements of sorrow not pleas for tolerance but sorrow re Morse remember those they were big Back in the Day if the koreans can do it Why cant the muslims what explains the Lack of a mus Lim guilt impulse Normal As seen in the Case of the saddened koreans after dozens of terrorist attacks on americans How about a Muslim exception to the second amendment that would have pre vented the do area snipers from killing 10 people within three weeks in 2002 but most important it would help us achieve diversity in our Gunlaw prohibitions prickly by Scott Stantis