Today's Daily Schadenfreude: George W. Bush

It's always a treat when you can laugh at the misfortune of Drunky McStagger himself. And today is even better, because there are two, two, two reasons to laugh and point at The Deciderer today.

First, it seems that the value of a picture with Drunky has declined just a tad:

Gas prices may be up, but there's something that's apparently a little cheaper these days: A photo with President Bush. Yesterday, Bush headlined a fundraiser for the New Jersey state GOP, where donors could pay $5,000 to pose for a photo with the Commander in Chief. Expensive photo op, right? Well, that's actually cheaper that what donors paid just a year ago for a grip and grin with Bush. Last summer, GOP officials around the country charged at least $10,000 a pop for presidential photo op, a bargain compared to the $25,000-a-flash Bush commanded during some Republican National Committee fund-raisers back in 2000 and 2004.

At this rate, next year Drunky will be paying you to have your picture taken with him. (He couldn't pay me enough ... but I digress.)

Meanwhile, Jenna Bush (a/k/a NotJenna's Sister or The Other Drunk One) is releasing a book. That's right, apparently there's one descendant of Poppy and Bar who can read and write (but this is probably the only one).

Jenna writes precious little about herself, as her book, Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope (right), chronicles the life of an orphan Jenna encountered during her work with UNICEF in Latin America. It's aimed at teens, so I guess you can think of it as, say, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, but with unprotected sex, AIDS, and teen pregnancy. Or something like that.

Anyway, the schadenfreude for Drunky comes from one of the messages of Jenna's (or is it NotJenna's?) book:

With such an earnest subject, Ms. Bush has done well to deflect criticism from those who might point out that her prose—comparing Ana's life to a song, for example ("To me her words and her life are like a song—a song of hope and resiliance. I met with Ana for more than six months and listened to the melody and lyrics of her life."), or the complete and utter lack of any details of place or setting—is, well, not particularly good. And while Ana's message—abuse is bad, AIDS is a reality—seems obvious to the point of stupidity, the book's pro-condom/pro-education message is a kamikaze-like leap from Daddy's nest.

"Daddy's nest," of course, promotes abstinence and forbids the distribution of condoms as well as financial aid to foreign agencies that provide abortions.

So, Drunky, how does it feel? Your presidency is a laughingstock and a failure of historic proportions, and even your own daughter (one or the other of them, anyway) doesn't buy your abstinence-only shtick. And so I take great pleasure in congratulating you, "Mr. President" -- today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

Now Falwell finds out whether he was right

Wow -- see what happens when I'm in a meeting for the afternoon and away from the news?

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73.

Atrios makes some great points about Falwell's opinions during his life. Who can forget Falwell's immortal words, "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals"?

And what about his commentary on 9/11?

Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for Tuesday's terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God's anger against America.

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.

"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."

Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "

And now, of course, he presumably knows (or knew) ... the rest of the story.

I always learned that if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all. So I'll stop there, and let Falwell's own words speak volumes.

UPDATE (4:34 pm 5/15/07): And didja see who was first out of the gate in making statements of condolence?

Sen. John McCain, [Liberty University's] commencement speaker last year, said Tuesday that his prayers were with Falwell's family.

"Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country," McCain said.

STFU, Saint John.