Conservatives and the Oscars
I really didn't want to go here again, but after some thought, I am really amazed at all the disdain for the Oscars coming out of the conservative blogs(CQ,Powerline,LaShawn Barber,LGF). As I posted here, I thought Rock did an OK job, and for once all the awardees kept their speeches focused on movies rather than their own lame political views.
However, conservative blogs have pointed out that most conservatives probably got turned off during Rock's monologue, particularly his jabs at GWB, and tuned out. I am confused just what Rock said that was so horrible. First, it is expected that monologues like this take some shots at whoever is in the White House. And Rock certainly did so, but he also took shots at prominent liberals and Hollywood luminaries as well.
Second, just what did he make fun of? He made fun of going to war and not finding WMD. Now, I am certainly bright enough to know that the argument for war was more nuanced (heh heh) than just WMD's, but if I was a conservative, I would LOVE it if someone made fun of GWB every day for our WMD intelligence. If such jokes at his expense occur frequently enough, maybe he will get mad enough to do the real thorough house cleaning of the CIA which is desperately overdue.
The other thing Rock poked fun at Bush for was the growing deficit. Hey, conservatives out there, what's wrong with that? Again, I am smart enough to understand there are valid reasons for deficits - wars and recessions are two of them. Also, I understand that if you want to cut spending, you usually have to cut taxes first, drive the budget into deficit, and use that as a lever for getting spending cuts. However, Bush has done NOTHING in four years to try to reign in domestic spending, and has done several things (e.g. prescription drug benefit) that greatly increase spending. Reagan ended up with large deficits but only after putting up a valiant fight with a Democratic-controlled Congress to cut spending. GWB has a Republican Congress and hasn't even tried. So what's wrong, even for conservatives, with taking a poke at GWB on deficits?
Oh yes, the blogs have one other complaint - that he said "ass". You know, whenever I hear this kind of complaint, it just reminds me of Beavis and Butthead going "heh, heh heh, heh -- he said ass -- heh, heh"
