Mark Knopfler's "Punish the Monkey"

The first single from his upcoming album "Kill To Get Crimson" (due out Sept 18th), the song "Punish the Monkey" is just great (and annoyingly catchy; it's been stuck in my head all day). It's obviously very political, but given production turnaround times, I doubt that it's about any of the recent Bush administration resignees. Given the general time of year it was released, I'm speculating maybe it's about Michael Brown? Does anyone else have any ideas?

The monkey's already been shocked; isn't that punishment enough?