memeorandum @ 5:30 PM ET, April 30, 2006

5:30 PM ET, April 30, 2006

RELATED ITEMS:

Colbert's White House Correspondent Dinner Performance Underscores Irony's Power And Delicacy — The scene: The White House Correspondent Dinner. The time: right after President George W. Bush put in a boffo performance next to a top-notch Bush impersonator. It was a hard act to follow.

Discussion: Riehl World View, David Frum's Diary …, RightWinged.com and The Heretik

democraticunderground.com:

Text captured by DUers Great CeasarsGhost and tridem — {closed caption transcript of Stephen Colbert} — Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Before I begin, I've been asked to make an announcement. Whoever parked 14 black bullet proof S.U.V.'S out front, could you please move them.

Discussion: Democrat Taylor Marsh … and Sisyphus Shrugged

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:

Bush Plays It For Laughs While Colbert Bombs — George Bush attended the White House Correspondents Dinner tonight, an annual event that encourages all parties to engage in some self-deprecating humor and relax in each other's company for an evening. Fox News showed Bush's speech live …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Power Line and PSoTD

Bloggle / Bloggledygook:

Beyond Satire. — By now it should be evident that those who portray themselves, or allow themselves to be portrayed as courageous for pointing at pointy-heads in the government or media are actually those who are most worthy of ridicule. — I have taken a moratorium from political blogging …

Elizabeth White / Associated Press:

Bush Lampoons Self at Press Corp Dinner — WASHINGTON - It was twice the fun for members of the White House Correspondents' Association and guests Saturday night when President Bush and a look-alike, sound-alike sidekick poked fun at the president and fellow politicians.

Discussion: AMERICAblog

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Colbert Does the White House Correspondence dinner — Was he snubbed? — Stephen Colbert spoke tonight at the dinner and lampooned pretty much everything he could think of and Helen Thomas. I used the second half of his performance because it included the Generals, Scalia, the Faux press briefing and as E&P reported:

Discussion: News Hounds, Hullabaloo, Firedoglake, Left I on the News, Althouse, driftglass, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, The Next Hurrah, Loaded Mouth, City Pages Blogs, Alternate Brain, The Agonist, The All Spin Zone, Pacific Views and Rising Hegemon

Teresa Wiltz / Washington Post:

All Georges — At the White House Correspondents' Dinner, A High-Level Meeting of Multiple Personalities — There on the dais last night at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner stood the president and his id. Now there are those nattering nabobs of negativity who would argue …

Peter Daou / The Huffington Post:
Ignoring Colbert: A Small Taste of the Media's Power to Choose the News

Discussion: Dependable Renegade and Daily Kos

Pam / Pam's House Blend:
Stephen Colbert scorches the admin at dinner

Discussion: Firedoglake, Booman Tribune and Brilliant at Breakfast

Paul the Spud / Shakespeare's Sister:
Stephen Colbert has Balls as Big as Church Bells

Discussion: Preemptive Karma

USA Today:
Bush, celebrities attend press corps dinner

Discussion: US Politics

Dan / Riehl World View: Colbert Should Have Phoned It In — Perhaps it actually might have been funny.

crooksandliars.com: Colbert Does the White House Correspondents' dinner:

Pamela Leavey / The Democratic Daily Blog:
Bush Not Amused as Colbert Lampoons Him at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Discussion: Prometheus 6

Charlie Savage / Boston Globe:

Bush challenges hundreds of laws — President cites powers of his office — WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts …

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast, The Left Coaster, Shakespeare's Sister, Running Scared, Booman Tribune, The Democratic Daily Blog, Pam's House Blend, The Liberal Avenger, AMERICAblog, State of the Day, Upper Left and A Tiny Revolution

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Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:

Media finally starting to report the President's systematic lawbreaking — (updated below) — On March 24, 2006, The Boston Globe published an article by Charlie Savage reporting that the President, after signing into law the bill which renewed the Patriot Act, issued a "signing statement" …

Discussion: Riehl World View and Left in the West

Martin Weil / Washington Post:

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith Dies at 97 — John Kenneth Galbraith, the author, scholar, diplomat and presidential adviser, who was a preeminent symbol and source of liberal political thought, died last night in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97. — His son Alan said his father died …

Discussion: Blogcritics.org and The Blogging of the President

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New York Times:
John Kenneth Galbraith, 97, Dies; Economist Held a Mirror to Society

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Semi …, The Sideshow, NewsBusters.org, Outside The Beltway, Greg Mankiw's Blog, Marginal Revolution, Houston's Clear Thinkers, The Glittering Eye, Ed Driscoll.com, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, BrothersJudd Blog, Lean Left, Economist's View, Swords Crossed and Ezra Klein

Henry / Crooked Timber:
Galbraith dies — John Kenneth Galbraith died yesterday.

Discussion: Marginal Revolution

Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:

Where's the dissent about source of quote? — John Kerry announced this week's John Kerry Iraq Policy of the Week the other day: "Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to deal with these intransigent issues and at last put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military."

Discussion: Betsy's Page, Ace of Spades HQ, Blue Crab Boulevard and Power Line

Michael Smith / Times of London:

Al-Qaeda leader plans an Iraq army — THE leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organised resistance movement, according to US intelligence sources.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Power Line, Dinocrat, USS Neverdock, Jihad Watch and Outside The Beltway

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Nelson Hernandez / Washington Post:
Killing of Al-Qaeda 'Emir' Called Blow to Insurgency

Discussion: Riehl World View and Jihad Watch

Bryan / Hot Air:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Loses Her Home — Via Peaktalk, the story of Ayaan Hirsi Ali just gets worse. Hirsi Ali is the Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian whose outspokenness on the rights of women under Islam has made her a marked woman. Islamists have issued a fatwa calling for her death.

Discussion: expatica.com, Secular Blasphemy, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Corner on National …, Blogs for Bush and lgf

Robert Kagan / Washington Post:

League of Dictators? — Why China and Russia Will Continue to Support Autocracies — Ever since liberalism emerged in the 18th century, its inevitable conflict with autocracy has helped shape international politics. What James Madison called "the great struggle of the epoch between liberty …

Discussion: The Glittering Eye and Norwegianity