In Nepal, thousands lay dead and dying in a horrendous earthquake and its aftermath. In Baltimore, righteous anger over the crushed spine and death of a young black man in police custody was triggering violence and arrests.

And last night while those events raged, the Washington political and media elite were hypocritically and drunkenly joking and partying in their formal finery, a mere 40 miles from Baltimore itself, at the White House Correspondents' dinner.

For CNN and its fearless leader Jeff Zucker, it wasn't even a close call as to how best to handle this confluence of simultaneous events.

They simply provided hours of wall-to-wall coverage of the partying elite, while reassuring everyone that they'd catch up with the deaths and arrests later, after their crucial coverage of boozing and backslapping at the big party was over and done.

Oh yes, and they suggested that if for some perverse reason you cared less about the 1% yukking it up than mass deaths and protest arrests, you could just go searching around online and maybe you could dig up something -- assuming you had a decent Internet connection and a means to access it, of course.

Well, to paraphrase "Major Kong" from "Dr. Strangelove" -- I've been to one world's fair, a picnic, and a rodeo -- and this is one of the most egregious examples of the "Nero fiddling while Rome burned" syndrome I can recall in my entire lifetime to date.

"Obscene" and "perverse" are the only "polite" terms I can think of to describe this situation. The invectives that more properly illustrate the depths of this depravity and what they tell us about income and social disparity here in the USA, are unfortunately not words suitable for family audiences.

The big party could have been turned into a big opportunity, of course. The "good old boys" jokes could have been set aside and the focus turned to earthquake relief and even (horrors!) serious discussion by the powerful individuals present. It appears that the number of persons killed in the Nepal quake is similar to the numbers killed in the 9/11 attacks. But apparently when victims are overwhelmingly not Americans, it just doesn't count.

We all deserve one hell of a big apology from the political and media snobs who are responsible for this sickening display of hypocrisy and elitism run wild.

But don't hold your breath for that apology. 'Cause they got the big bucks and the big power -- and we don't.

We ordinary people one and all must say polite goodnights to our masters, for when you're hot you're hot. And when you're not -- you're not.

And we're most definitely not.

--Lauren--