Lil' Bush in Washington, cellphones and TV

Now the latest from US is "Lil' Bush"...

Bush cartoon takes lil' liberties
New political satire draws inspiration from Bush administration

NEW YORK - Like most political satire, Lil' Bush pinpoints the logical extreme of real life.
Take its title character. Lil' George Bush is a pushy if none-too-swift lad making mischief with his pals from Beltway Elementary: Lil' Condi, Lil' Cheney and Lil' Rummy (pint-size versions of United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Vice-President Dick Cheney and ex-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld). Another thing: Lil' George resides in the White House.
Oh, sure, this new cartoon show on the Comedy Central channel in the United States does take lil' liberties with the truth. For instance, it is set in the present, yet George H.W. (not current president George W.) Bush is the nation's chief executive.
On Wednesday's premiere, Lil' George and his chums go to Iraq to track down some good news about the war to cheer up his Dad for Father's Day. But once they arrive, where will the kids look?
'Right here: Baghdad!' says Lil' George. 'It's got 'Dad' right in it!'
Created by Donick Cary, whose credits include writing for talk show host David Letterman, Lil Bush 'is this fantastical Bush World bridging the two Bush presidencies, where anything can happen'.
'Now that I've gotten inside Lil' George's head, I really like the guy,' adds Cary, 38. 'He's got nuclear weapons and little-kid emotions.'
Indeed, when Lil' George is left by Dad unsupervised in the Oval Office, he launches nukes at schoolmates Lil' Hillary (Clinton) and Lil' John Kerry.
Although Cary thinks Washington's political scene resembles a class of rowdy 10-year-olds, he contends the man who inspired Lil' George is better suited than most to a show like Lil' Bush.
'Somehow, this president that we have lends himself to thinking in a simplistic, cartoony fashion,' he says. 'He's always been about sound bites, one-word answers, move ahead, act from the gut.'
At times the humour packs a punch. In one episode, Lil' George and his gang protest an unwanted menu change in the school cafeteria by torturing the cafeteria workers a la Abu Ghraib.
Will the president's supporters take issue with Lil' Bush? 'The good news is, 68 per cent of the country aren't his supporters any more - or whatever the number is,' says Cary, pretty close to the number in a poll released last week.
'But we aren't backing away from viewer criticism. I would have loved this to get on the first year of his administration.'
Lil' Bush premiered last autumn on cell phones as five-minute mobisodes. Apparently the first such series to cross over from cellular to TV, Lil' Bush has been fleshed out for Comedy Central into 12-minute stories, complete with beefed-up animation.
AP (STLife)