01 February 2006

Reality TV: State of the State of the Union

Usually I'm not one for so-called reality TV, but I couldn't resist the temptation to watch Smilin' George and the Republican Jacks/Janes-in-the-box (the ones who kept springing up to applaud at the most inane cheerleaderish boosterisms) last night. The pre-game show was interesting in and of itself: great satire of Joan Rivers's pre-Oscar red carpet party ("Oooh! There's the Joint Chiefs! And the Supremes! Oh! Oh! Justice Alito? Can we talk? Can we talk? Whadaya mean you've already wiretapped what I was saying?...) But the thing that really got to me was the mention on CNN that one of the especially invited guests was a dog - that's right, man's proverbial best friend - who apparently served in Iraq as a bomb-sniffer and is considered a veteran, and hence was considered worthy of one of the exclusive tickets. (So what now? Does he go to obedience school under the GI Bill?)

Too bad Fido couldn't sniff out all the prevarications, fantasies and deliberate "misleading the House" (although that's really a Canadian and British term) that went on in the nearly one-hour talk. I could tell when George was stretching the truth - his nose didn't grow, but he put on that "I've just pulled a fast one and no one noticed" smirk of his.

I got news for you George: people noticed - especially these good folks over at Think Progress, who have supplied an issue-by-issue fact check guide to the State of the Union Address. So for all those out there in U.S. TV-land, who actually believe Survivor is about surviving on a deserted island, and forming collaborative teams, and that there's really no script, yeah, the state of George-the-younger's union is strong, I guess. For the rest of us, there's some 'splainin' to do.
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