Friday, August 15, 2008

Kathy Griffin's Life on the D List at Walter Reed Hospital

I've not watched a lot of TV since I've been in Tacoma. But last night, after a long day of washing and re-washing the same dishes and cups over and over again, in addition to hours of trying to fix computer problems, I was in the mood to be diverted by something other than my pathetic reality. That and apparently I'd drained this house of all medicinal relaxation liquids. Appalling.

So, I turned on the TV right when the season ender of Kathy Griffin's current Life on the D-List show began.

Sadly, we quickly learned that Kathy's torrid, sordid romance with Apple Billionaire Steve Wozniak had gone sour. Too bad. Kathy seemed to have great hopes of getting her hands on some of those Apple Billions.

So, Kathy quickly moved on to other good works. Previously she'd gone to Iraq to entertain the troops. On this final episode she was heading, with her Team Griffin, to Washington, D.C. to Walter Reed Hospital to do a show for wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kathy met with wives of the soldiers to try and get some idea of what might work for her show. Then she toured the re-hab facility. She was a bit nervous due to her usual type humor wouldn't work so good, the making fun of celebs and Our Glorious Leader and targeting humor at her gay mafia.

And then Kathy found out there would be kids and 4 chaplains in the audience. That amped up her worrying. Which was borne out to be reality based when she bombed bad at first. But then this guy she met earlier wheeled himself in. He'd had "F**K THE IRISH" tattooed across his chest. Which Kathy got him to show to the audience. After that she seemed to hit her usual level of being funny.

But the reason I'm blathering about this has nothing to do with Kathy Griffin and her show. It has to do with the first amputeed vet she met. It was shocking to me. This kid looked so young looking, she joked with him that he looked 12. Because he did. But he was 20. And his wife was with him.

This kid was not happy. And with good reason. He had the rest of his life to look forward to, missing a limb. The idea that someone like George Bush could set in motion a series of incompetent acts that led to young boys like this being maimed just pissed me off. A kid like that, barely out of high school is too young to be sent to such unnecessary danger. Particularly when the situation we are facing was not dire like WWII, when it's so obvious to so many that the entire George Bush debacle was totally unnecessary.

And yet, where are the Impeachment hearings? Where are the calls for War Crimes Tribunals? No one died during Watergate, yet Nixon was forced to resign. No one died due to Clinton's sleazy shenanigans, yet Clinton was Impeached. George Bush is the worst president in most of our memories, committing what would seem to be all sorts of Constitutional violations.

But only in isolated outposts, like where I am now, in the Pacific Northwest, do you hear voices of reason calling for the Impeachment of this person who should never have been president.

It'll be a long time before the image of that victim of George Bush's Folly gets out of my head.

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