Indy Media Watch

The New York Times piece, Laura Bush Talks Naughty discusses the First Lady's Spring Dinner stand-up comedy routine.

On Saturday night, Laura Bush set a new standard. After interrupting her husband and telling him to sit down, she did a stand-up routine that included what was probably the first joke told in earshot of a president that involved him and a horse's phallus.

Mrs. Bush called her husband Mr. Excitement for going to bed by 9 o'clock and turning her into a "desperate housewife."
...
Noting that Andover and Yale did not have "real strong ranching programs," she said Mr. Bush had started his ranching career by trying to milk a horse - a male horse.

Her timing had the audience howling, and the edgier lines had them gasping. Jokes about pent-up sexual frustration from a prim librarian? With her born-again husband sitting there and enjoying it? And cameras recording it for Republican preachers who are determined to get sex out of schools and off television?

For the mainly Democratic audience - this was a crowd of Washington journalists and luminaries from Hollywood and Manhattan - it was an evening of cognitive dissonance. How to reconcile this charming image on stage with the Bush they love to bash?

An article on Melbourne Indymedia (That's Melbourne, Australia funnily enough) appears to be having the same difficulty.

You thought you had heard it all from the Bushes. As young Americans die and kill in Iraq, the First "Lady" does a standup comedy routine before all the bigwigs in Washington and to the national and world press, joking that her husband, America's Protector, has Portnoy's Complaint, going to bed early and leaving her a Desperate Housewife. Did that leave "Lady" Laura to practice animal housewifery? Tell us about yourself, too, Laura. Show us your Lyndie England routine.

The NYT says:

Mrs. Bush's performance, and her husband's reaction, wasn't a shock to the reporters who cover the White House. For years they have tried to convince their friends outside Washington that Mr. Bush is actually not a close-minded dolt, and Mrs. Bush is no Stepford Wife or Church Lady. Yes, they're Texans who go to church and preach family values, but they're not yahoos or religious zealots.

The coverage of Mrs. Bush's comic debut may change some minds, but for devout Bush-bashers, it's much easier to stay the course.

Indymedia proves it, and shows that some people really don't have a sense of humour either:

File your FCC complaint against Laura Bush...

If man on animal sex (horse masturbation) jokes on a public CSPAN broadcast aren't indecency, what is?

(UPDATE) It has been pointed out to me that the FCC might not cover this because CSPAN is a cable channel. So be sure and include in your complaints that the FCC should expand its mandate to cover these types of outrages whether they are on broadcast OR cable TV. (END OF UPDATE).

Here is where to find out information about how to make a complaint.

Maybe we should be alerting the American Family Association (AFA) for their aid in fighting this case of broadcast obscenity?...

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Maybe you should just lighten up?