Fitz and Colbert and FDL!

Fitz!

Can’t wait to see the Colbert program…blogs have told me what puzzled me at the cabin this morning…ABC’s complete absence of Stephen in their Sunday Funnies section. Gutless media narcissists, anyone?

But then it’s overt now. The Dictator-in-Chief decides…and the media abet. C-Span and blogs, the last vestiges of democracy.

One leftover OT from Friday’s Rush…just what is the timeline on the handy-dandy new Florida law that allows Rush [whose cynical disdain for the law as all too evident last winter in his show trailer…”I’m addicted to Rush”]–which came first, the Rush bust or the law? Special treatment, anyone?

Deguello!…slight return

Sheesh, EPU’d twice in one day. Remarks re the remarks on my remarks appear toward the end of the last thread, if anyone cares.

I would love to see a juxtaposition of the audience’s reaction to Colbert last night and the audience’s reaction to that truly odious “can’t find the WMD” schick a few years ago.

Prairie sunshine #3

I’m in P-wood. Could we be neighbors??

I read Glen’s post and all comments. Excellent.

I had to turn off c-span last night during Colbert’s schtick. Wany weird vibes in that room.

But, looking back on it makes his point so much better. The truth hurts. Many of the audience are the ultimate cocktail weinie chasers. His speech will live on. The other’s speeches will not.

Stephen Colbert was simply brilliant and TRUTHFUL, and Bush and all the neocons had to sit there and take it! I think it’s absolutely wonderful. The cat is truly out of the bag now! All medias will take this and run with it!

I LOVE COLBERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Greenwald’s work and the Globe reporting are very important. The “signing statements” and the overall expansion of executive power that this administration truly has in mind need to be exposed to the people, because I am pretty sure that it is not what the people want. I was at the censure hearing, and the leading Republican witness was an old professor (Harris?) who strongly made the claim that executive power had been significantly weakened after Vietnam and Watergate and needed to be restored. They were talking specifically in foreign policy/affairs areas, but the overall goal was general expansion of executive power. It seems that a good bit of this attitude comes from Cheney (and presumably Rumsfeld) who were, of course, Ford administration figures who still chafe at the fact that congress has something to say about how the country is run. As we get further from 9/11/2001, even the most uninformed Americans feel less need for this weird kind of father/protector administration that goes out and kills bad guys in the night but is sure to be home in time for ham and eggs before church, but that is the approach that Dick and George have chosen. Thank goodness that at least a few reporters have decided to look away from the tantalizingly easy stories like poll numbers and gas prices and point out that the president repeatedly, knowingly, openly, and notoriously, has decided to flout the laws that he is absolutely sworn to uphold.
Feeling safer?
jim

Funny that you should bring up the questioning of Colberts’ patriotism(what is patriotism anyway?) I had just said to Papa/Doug that I bet bush was sitting there wishing he could invoke the Sedition Act and throw Colbert in the Klinker!!

Can we send little crowns to the White House, sort of like the rubber stamps to congress?

More on this subject in Jim Hightower’s column at truthout.com.
peace,
jim

Daou Report re Colbert:

…tell us everything we need to know: Colbert’s performance is sidestepped and marginalized while Bush is treated as light-hearted, humble, and funny. Expect nothing less from the cowardly American media. The story could just as well have been Bush and Laura’s discomfort and the crowd’s semi-hostile reaction to Colbert’s razor-sharp barbs. In fact, I would guess that from the perspective of newsworthiness and public interest, Bush-the-playful-president is far less compelling than a comedy sketch gone awry, a pissed-off prez, and a shell-shocked audience.

This is the power of the media to choose the news, to decide when and how to shield Bush from negative publicity. Sins of omission can be just as bad as sins of commission…

It ought to be good to see how Colbert’s own audience responds to him at *his* next show. I’m thinking a loooong standing “O”.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Just back from Baghdad and eager to discuss promising developments, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice found herself knocked off message Sunday, forced to defend prewar planning and troop levels against an unlikely critic — Colin Powell, her predecessor at the State Department.

For the Bush administration, it was a rare instance of an in-house dissenter going public.

On Rice’s mind was the political breakthrough that had brought her and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to Iraq last week and cleared the way for formation of a national unity government.

Yet Powell sideswiped her by revisiting the question of whether the U.S. had a large enough force to oust Saddam Hussein and then secure the peace.

He said he advised Bush before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to send more troops to Iraq, but that the administration did not follow his recommendation.

Journey through the past
Rice, Bush’s national security adviser during the run-up to the war, neither confirmed nor denied Powell’s assertion. But she spent a good part of her appearances on three Sunday talk shows reaching into the past to defend the White House, which is trying to highlight the positive to a public increasingly skeptical in this election year of the president’s conduct of the war and concerned about the large U.S. military presence…
_____

LMAO. Incompetent bitch.

Jane, I read this morning that the VP’s office is refusing to file the required report on what that office has classified since the last reporting period. Cheney is claiming - surprise! - that he’s exempt…

I find this “I don’t have to, and you can’t make me” attitude that permeates the Bush administration just galling - which is not a strong enough word, but I don’t know the word that would be the equivalent of “galling” to like the 10th power.

In addition to it being a horribly bad way to represent the people’s interests, it certainly sets a terrible precedent. It also is a less-than-flattering commentary on the priority the Republican Congress places on the country’s best interests, that it can uniformly and routinely ignore, assist and be complicit in the hijacking of government in order to consolidate power and advance a particular political agenda.

For me, it is no longer enough that these thuggish slugs will soon be handed their walking papers…if there is no punishment, no personal consequence, no accountability, what is to deter or prevent it from happening again?

Grrrr.

As most always, Jane, great points. Except, you don’t have to be a “bored old perv” to be kind of ga-ga about boobs. Boobs are fun. ;o). Still though, it was a good way to draw the picture you were trying to draw.

Esaud #6 - I wondered that too, so I dug up the clip of Bush’s WMD joke. Note the easy, happy laughter of the press corps, while 1000’s of our dead soldiers lay buried in Arlington, just a few miles from where they sipped drinks and dined. Shame.

Here is the clip of the WMD ‘joke’

http://www.musicforamerica.org.....er_page=50

Will getting more Dems in office really help? I just finished lunch, and then I saw this pic:

http://tinyurl.com/nl9wl

Now it’s all I can do to keep from hugging the porcelain bowl.

This UPI feature says Colbert’s father and brothers died in a plane crash, apparently when Stephen was around age 10. Includes quotes from Colbert on how this affected his comedic approach:

“Acceptance, or blind acceptance — of authority is not easy for me,” says Colbert. “Nothing is sacred — not religion, nor the media, nor politicians.”

lenny bruce. YES!!! got their knickers in a twist, didn’t he?

Bruce, walking on stage in a club in London, for the first time.
Before he says a word, a wag in the audience haughtily sneers, “Tell us a British joke”.

Bruce: without batting an eye, “You are one, Sir, you are one.”

People who know food and nutrition understand that the ingredients of cocktail weenies are best not spoken about in polite company. Somehow it seems parallel with what usually goes on in DC today…

BobbyG - Rice went out of her way this morning to make sure we all knew that the pre-war planning was the product of the military commanders, that Bush acted based on their advice…that squishy sound was the wheels of the bus rolling over everyone but Rumsfeld and Bush.

She was at her finest; they must have classes in how to blame someone else and save your own skin. She may be smart, but she has no honor and where I come from, what she displays on a regular basis is not what I would call “integrity.”

comment 223 on the Neil Young overnight thread said this:

“The Deciderer sure can do all that deciderererin’:
Charlie Savage today’s Boston Globe online lede:

http://www.boston.com/news/nat.....4/30/bush_ challenges_hundreds_of_laws/

“WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.â€
——–
btw: NO vetoes yet.
—-
I can tell ya, reading that first thing in the morning sure woke me up real quick.”
——
EPU would be proud. ;>

The Boston Globe article was a lengthy and damning summation of the many crimes that have been perpetrated by this admin– how do you get away with breaking one of our laws much less over 750 of them?

Check out this article by Robert Fisk re some unknown Americans fomenting civil war in Iraq. Tough read…

>>>>>>

The Americans, my interlocutor suspected, are trying to provoke an Iraqi civil war so that Sunni Muslim insurgents spend their energies killing their Shia co-religionists rather than soldiers of the Western occupation forces. “I swear to you that we have very good information,” my source says, finger stabbing the air in front of him. “One young Iraqi man told us that he was trained by the Americans as a policeman in Baghdad and he spent 70 per cent of his time learning to drive and 30 per cent in weapons training. They said to him: ‘Come back in a week.’ When he went back, they gave him a mobile phone and told him to drive into a crowded area near a mosque and phone them. He waited in the car but couldn’t get the right mobile signal. So he got out of the car to where he received a better signal. Then his car blew up.

http://www.informationclearing.....e12885.htm

Stop all this and get back to what’s really important: Klintoon’s official portrait has him posed as a swaggering Don Juan, and you can’t see his wedding ring. Woop woop woop.

Would like to have had a shot or two of whatever mechanism it was that was translating the actual content of Colbert’s jokes for the prez and 1st lady. I wouldn’t set any store whatsoever in the capacity of either to get Colbert’s material; but somehow or another it was transmitted to them. Laura’s reception of Colbert’s greeting as he left the podium lowered the temperature in my living room a good 20 degrees, and Monkey Boy himself was livid. Colbert, it turns out, is just what he’s been telling us he is on his show these past few months—an American hero.

Yeah, the WH press gave socko yocks to Bush’s little ‘make-believe raperoom’ pretense two years ago, but they all go tremulously ‘Winston Smith in Room 101′ when the joke’s aimed at them… Poltroons.

‘Grow a pair, or leave the air’

Funny how to Lucienne Goldberg, pimping a stained blue dress is patriotic, but zinging a President about his actual job performance is unpatriotic. Methinks she needs to re-read some American history not written for the wingnut sect. Or just some good, old-fashioned Mark Twain. Maroon.

I suspect Laura understood Colbert better than her clueless husband did …

he’s down to 32% — he’s getting desperate as he awaits the rapture — watch out

I just watch the Colbert thing. Brilliant. Ballsy.

Yeah, “it bombed.” Right, whatever. Narcissistic MSM press pricks don’t wanna hear it, along with His Most Serene Exaltedness.

Too fucking bad.

Notable for his effusive laughing, interestingly, was Scalia.

How dare a commoner poke fun at the King…

I watched that, and was waiting for Ashton Kucher to come out on stage and yell “Y’all got punked!”

caught the end of the Maury and Connie show which continues to be unusual for msm - Connie Chung is very good on so many issues - today she asked if Karl Rove gets “frequent testifier miles” for his appearances at the grand jury

not colbert but a certain sanity even with the pro&con mode of the show

Am finally back from our 10-day trip home, a trip that was wonderful in many ways — except that we only had internet connectivity during part of the time. Missed FDL something fierce, read the main thread postings when possible.

Colbert is a genius. Although the parking garage scene went on too long IMO, the part of the video showing him as press sec’y at a WH podium was effin’ brilliant. What I particularly loved was his exaggerated facial expressions during the “press briefing.”

Did you notice how his expression changed during the moment the “press sec’y” was asked a question which included a comment on the thousands of Iraqis and Americans who have died? His face, like warm putty, rapidly melted from manic glee to a replica of the thespian tragedy mask.

He took the court jester’s role as clown very seriously, much like the role of the fool in King Lear. I also enjoyed his “outing” of our latter-day Josef Goebbels. Karl was sure to be pissed.

And surely you all noticed that he never took swipes at the administration’s foes, to make it falsely “even-handed.”

Hats off to Colbert!

Good to be back. Will be in and out as time permits, still engaged in the decompressing,unpacking, and re-adjusting to AZ post-trip phase. Bless you all for keeping this site the wonderful insightful community it is.

aReader #22 - Thanks for that information about Colbert. It puts Colbert’s courage Saturday night into perspective and context, doesn’t it? He’s been through worse by far than anything a roomful of insulted elites can dish out.

And I applaud Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe for his comprehensive, important new article. This is the second impressive, well-written piece I’ve noticed from Charlie. Another good guy working hard to get the truth out.

And on the Rove/Luskin front: I think this new article in Newsweek reveals fresh information (from the Rove camp’s perspective) and also some seemingly-alleged new detail that doesn’t seem to be sourced at all (such as that the hidden email was turned over by Luskin to Fitzgerald “in October” 2004 for example). And has it been known that Rove testified to the grand jury twice in February, 2004? That point too is simply stated without sourcing:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12...../newsweek/

P.S. Christy - Thank you for highlighting and linking to that very valuable and informative New York Times Magazine article about child abuse and neglect.

I’ve been out today and have not caught up with all yet, but I was thinking of you all. The annual daffodil festival in my town is in the park a few blocks from my house. My hubby and I walked over to take in the sights and to listen to a free concert by Aztec Two-Step.

All the other folks were our age (oh, about 3-400) sitting on bleachers in the 60 degree sun. It took us back to when we were in college and then the antiwar songs were about Vietnam, but they still ring true today, and by far got the strongest and loudest applause.

I felt like it was an FDL party. The only thing that could have made that afternoon better was if Ned came on stage and made a short speech.

You’ve got it right, Jane. The press is largely part of this mass delusion, if not colusion. And its a pretty damn concrete one. They all need ECT’s.

Mrs K8 - good to see you back - we were about to send out the dogs to look for you!

CONDI IS A MORON

http://www.unfogged.com/archiv.....tml#001675

Kevin Drum’s intern dug up this devastating pan of Condoleezza Rice’s 1984 book on the Soviets and Czechoslovakia. (The reviewer assumes Rice is male.)

he frequently does not sift facts from propaganda and valid information from disinformation or misinformation.

He passes judgments and expresses opinions without adequate knowledge of facts.

he uses a source written by Josef Hodic; Rice fails to notice that this “former military scientist” (p. 99) was a communist agent who returned to Czechoslovakia several years ago.

Rice’s generalizations reflect his lack of knowledge about history and the nationality problem in Czechoslovakia.

Rice’s discussion of the “Czechoslovak Legion” that was “born during the chaotic period preceding the fall of the Russian empire” (pp. 44-46) is ridiculous. (It was “born” on September 28, 1914.) He is clearly ignorant of the history of the military unit as well as of the geography of the area on which it fought.

Rice claims that “Czechoslovaks are supposedly passive and consider resistance to invading forces unnecessary and dangerous, preferring instead political solution” (p. 4). First, there are Czechs and Slovaks but not Czechoslovaks.

This is just a brutal review, and these aren’t differences of opinion; Kalvoda is basically calling Rice incompetent.

Will someone please admit it? Condoleezza Rice is a moron. She’s in way over her head and it shows. But at least now we understand the vaunted intellectual connection between her and Mr. Bush.

ReneND– P-wood? Meet L-wood…
We’re practically right next door.

CNN about to have a piece by Ed Henry on whether Bush found Colbert funny - this should be interesting!

siun –

Thanks! And dogs are always welcome, search party or otherwise.

Speaking of dogs, prayers (or good vibes) requested for our pupster. She had a quick check-up before we departed (leaving her with a sitter), and the doc found two things: an indeterminate “something” in the anal sac area (a place where cancer often starts) and a broken tooth which will require the always-tricky general anesthesia to repair.

Vet said not to worry, to continue on with the trip, as 10 days wouldn’t make any difference. But we’ll be getting her back in “toot sweet.”

Condi should have stayed a name for an oil tanker…or a pianist…or a cheerleader in fancy shoes…she is neither a stateswoman nor a person to be trusted with National Security. She is an unfortunate condi-ment atop this spoiled slab of spam…

chicago tom @ 41 -

OK, if I have to… Condi is a moron.

OK, if I have to… Condi is a moron.

LOL! I second the motion.

I caught Colbert on CSpan this afternoon. He was absolutely brilliant. The utter nerve of the guy, standing there so calm, so collected, while repeatedly slapping Chimpy upside the head. And the chimp with a grim grin plastered to his face, I loved it.

And flipping off Scalia? Marvelous.

sending good thought for your pup Mrs K8 - sounds like you have a good vet!

If we had news media that took their job seriously, they would get to work finding out how many of those 750 laws (that Bush claims immunity from via his “signing statements” he has already actually violated.

On topic (OT?) -

This disdain for the American political system Jane highlights is just a slightly modified version of what Josh refers to as: “… [the] bitch-slap theory of electoral politics.”

“Condi is a moron.” There–admission accomplished!

test– seems I am awaiting moderation @ 45– hmmm. was it one condi too many or was it the words national security??? ;)

Condimoron Rice. Leeza-kinda-Lies.

OT but important. Josh Marshall has a piece up on TPM that perfectly describes how to take the fight to Bush regarding Iran. Josh’s message - go on the attack; point out that Iran is all about the 2006 midterms; Bush is putting the GOP above national security.

I have exerpted the key paragraphs below. If we all get in line and go on the attack against Bush on this, he cannot win.

“With respect to what’s coming on Iran, what is in order is a little honesty, just as was the case with the Social Security debate a year ago. The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with the president’s public approval ratings. Period. End of story. The Iranians are years, probably as long as a decade away, and possibly even longer from creating even a limited yield nuclear weapon. Ergo, the only reason to ramp up a confrontation now is to help the president’s poll numbers.

This is a powerful message because it is an accurate message. We have many challenges overseas today. Chief among them, as one of the Democrats’ senate candidates puts it, is “refocusing America’s foreign and defense policies in a way that truly protects our national interests and seeks harmony where they are not threatened.” The period of peril the country is entering into isn’t tied to an Iranian bomb. It turns on how far a desperate president will go to avoid losing control of Congress.

Go to his heart. Go to his weaknesses. Though the realization of the fact is something of a lagging indicator, the man is a laughing stock, whose lies and failures are all catching up with him.

To the president the Democrats should be saying, Double or Nothing is Not a Foreign Policy.

The great bulk of the public doesn’t believe this president any more when he tries gin up a phony crisis. They don’t believe he’d have much of an idea of how to deal with a real one. Enough of the lies. Enough of the incompetence and failure.

No buying into another of the president’s phony crises.”

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Ed Henry: COlbert really pulled no punches in his routine and the president sitting a few seats away was not laughing.

they then showed the govt. in iraq clip and then quickly shifted to the two Ws

Tell us about the Ed Henry CNN thingy. No cable, Thanks

CNN/Ed Henry blew it–not enough Colbert. That was the story.

Read the full transcript. The more you read it, the more you can see it’s truthiness.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/30/1441/59811

I had an epiphane on a long drive today;

the republicans spin to their constituents that they are “the party of traditional values”, and while it’s hard to find something further from the truth, the marketing sceme works on that mindless bunch

the democrats can have a legitimate theme that will evoke a similar response, but the democrats campaign will be true

democrats are “the party of the original vlaues of this great nation”

Is today’s book discussion going to be here, or somewhere else?

al-Scooter @ 21

“Bipartisanship is the new collaborationism”

;>)

CNN/Ed Henry blew it–not enough Colbert. That was the story.

Ed Henry looked to be painfully hungover.

MSNBC just played a long clip from Colbert’s routine. It was all about the media. He was slamming them.

Is there hope for the MSM if they acknowledge he has them dead to rights? Nah, couldn’t be.

neuro at #62 — Book club discussion upthread in the new post. :)

Anne 17, the equivalent to ‘galling’ to the 10th power, I humbly submit, is ‘egregious’.

Here is the only address I could find for Comedy Central:

1775 Broadway 10
New York, New York 10019-1997
(212) 767 8600

What about sending “thank you” flowers to Stephen Colbert?
Or at least a positive message on Comedy Central’s voice mail, or positive feedback message on their website. He’s sure to get a lot of ugly right-wing feedback, hopefully we can balance it out.

Mrs. K (#38):

I agree with you about the video. It wasn’t edited well at all. The tempo in the live part was off too. Much slower than he is on “The Colbert Report”.
Satire before that crowd is a tough call, in no small measure since they are, totally, not used to it.
The British are fond of saying that Americans don’t understand irony, which is true of a lot of us, but by no means all.To continue on the British riff, Colbert really “took the piss out of” the President and the Press,”Big Time”, as Deadeye would say. I believe that the Press was taken aback even more than Bush. I don’t think that many of them were expecting THAT! Maybe some even left in a Huff!

Make no mistake about it, the knives will be out for our man, Cujones Colbert.

me to me - Very good suggestion. I might change the wording to “the party of the founding values of this great nation” but that “theme” has been ripe for the plucking for months and months now. Too bad Harry Reid et al are too busy trying to get Ned Lamont to “back off” his challenge to Nasty Joe, etc., etc., to pay attention (source: Lamont via the Washington Post, yesterday I believe).

xyz — thanks for highlighting another super suggestion for any real Democrats out there, from Josh Marshall. [All this top-drawer advice FREE from disinterested “consultants” and all the Congressional Democrats can do is yawn (and then crouch down further in their foxholes).]

I have to admit, Bushco “hater” that I am, I thought the twin Bush act was funny.
It’s the have a beer with him thingy, or something.

OT.

Read this newsclip from Yahoo and tell me if the headline shoud read: US/Bush negotiate with Terrorists.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....0430154923

Also, the news that Rasmussen, the polling outfit is changing their sampling is floating around too. Seems they had to admit that their numbers were consistently higher than EVERYONE elses so now they are changing their tactics a wee bit. Apparently they are admitting that folks may be changing their political affiliation. So Rasumussen is getting rid of faith based sampling. Bushies numbers should be taking an across the board dive now.

Nice work asshats.

-GSD

bobbyg #16 - condi an incompetent bucktoothed bitch, rolls trippingly off the tongue, don’t it?
Sunday talk shows are always measured by the Condi-meter. More appearances mean more lies needed by Admin. This was a 3-condimetermorning.

Kitt #18, god help me for noticing, but with reference to your ‘boobs’ comment, Valerie Plame’s nipples were jutting out when the camera panned to her and Joe, after Colbert’s hamming it up that he blurted her name. By the third watching of his performance I had time to note details.
And savor the long, steady looks he kept giving the object of his skewering - after each skewer. Talk about a gunslinger!

pow wow (#70):

we should all just send reid this message:

“back off on Lamont”

Josh Marshall’s take on Iran is pitch perfect — he should lead the effort to derail the insane BushCo war.

One minor addition — while Iran is now a decade away from having a nuclear bomb, if we attack them, it will help them acquire a bomb sooner, not later.

An attack on their empty bunkers will tell them how deep and how hardened their production facilities need to be; furthermore, an attack undercuts the moderates in Iran and strengthens the radicals; it also destabilizes the region, and may lead to a radical coup in Pakistan.

BushCo’s belligerency makes us less safe — not safer.

xyz at 56–hey I know that quote about true national security, it’s from my guy Webb! Take back the Senate: Webb can defeat Allen.

Interesting to read the actual examples of the signing statements. What’s so WRONG about this remember, these are bills HE SIGNED.

If he didn’t like them, the constitution envisions that he would REFUSE TO SIGN THEM or veto them. But, no, the moron just signs them but refuses to follow them. That’s illegal. But of course, since he’s the DECIDER and the ENFORCER it doesn’t matter how many laws he violates.

He just better hope that the Diebold machines can steal enough votes for him this fall to not lose the House.

http://www.boston.com/news/nat.....tatements/

good luck for your pup MrsK8

I thought the timing was perfect for people like me, at home, ROFL so hard that faster would have made me lose then next zinger.

Decider - Announcer - Typer; DAT. It was a dissinDAT presentation for sure.

LHP - I heard that Byron York was on C-Span this morning. I don’t know if it was a replay or not, but if not - I’d say from what I heard that Clift is just making the announcement after the program has started. He was, from what I was told, pretty nasty about the Prosecutor having more power than the AG and abusing it and “making” people who did not want to sign waivers and YaDa yAdA yADa YadA

I didn’t see him, but if what I was told was right — first I’ve heard that no one wanted to sign those waivers. I thought it was all “everyone was happy to cooperate”

Shez - from way way back - I don’t know what it means for the moon to be in Gemini, but if it gives us another shot at an Evening with Stephen & Reality - is there some way we can interene with the laws of astrophysics and leave it there?

Thanks Josh. Great piece. Combine that theory with the Globe article and we’ve got the fixins for Fascism. Keep it up Colbert.

word of the day;

poWned

Yeah, but who says Bush is going to stand for an election at the end of his term? He’ll most likely stage another 911 and declare a state of siege or something. He’s already put in place the mechanisim to spy on everyone, and the laws to declare all political dissenters terrorists, and the concentration camps to hold them. So why shouldn’t he just say, I’m the king and that’s the end of it?

http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....72,00.html

Colbert on 60 minutes tonight? Is that right?

Just watched the entire dinner on CSPAN, which put it more into context for me. The event was pretty stuffy, and the George/George act was funny only up to a point, kind of like a SNL skit that keeps going and going and going. Then Stephen stepped up to the mike and really let Bush have it. I was amazed that he wasn’t interrupted and yanked from the stage. A streaker would have been less shocking. True brilliance on Colbert’s part. I hope he wins an Emmy for it.

Mary — I understand that Moreley Safer is doing the interview. :) Should be a fun show.

“Stephen Colbert On Insincerity” … yes, he’s on 60 Minutes tonight.

xyz — #56 “It turns on how far a despertate president will go to avoid losing control of Congress.”

I haven’t had a chance tyo reads the whole threas yet, but I was struck by your comment.

For years I’ve said what I posted in a recent fdl thread: There is NOTHING the Bush administration won’t say or do to achieve its political and global ambitions. Bush himself has said on at least three occasions that the US would be a lot easier to govern if it was a dictatorship — “as long as I’m the dictator.” Clearly that’s how he sees himself, Decider-in Chief completely beyond the reach of the law.

I’m steeling myself for an October surprise, if not sooner.

On a related topic, speaking as we are of the media’s reaction to Stephen Colbert, did anyone see Molly Ivin’s latest column on the FBI’s attempt to confiscate Jack Anderson’s papers?

“AUSTIN, Texas — It’s nice to know that the investigative reporter Jack Anderson is still under investigation, although seriously dead.

Anderson died last year, and for 19 years before his death he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was increasingly less active as a reporter. Now that he’s safely deceased, the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to go through nearly 200 boxes of his files to see if there are any classified documents in there. If it’s classified, they want it back — even though Anderson was in the habit of printing anything he ever got that was of any interest.

This is apparently part of the Great Bush Reclassification Project, in which government information that has previously been declassified and offered for public consumption is now being reclassified as secret so nobody can find out about it. Those who saw government documents between declassification and reclassification are just going to have to forget what they saw. That, or some Man in Black will be sent around to zap your memory with a little thingamajig.”

(snip)

“Anderson’s son Kevin said family members are willing to go to jail rather than let Anderson’s papers be confiscated. “It’s my father’s legacy,” he told The New York Times. “The government has always, and continues to this day, to abuse the secrecy stamp. My father’s view was that the public is the employer of these government employees and has the right to know what they’re up to.”

***

Why can’t we hammer home this message to Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, Rover and friends? Hey, a-holes, we pay your salary, you work for us, not the other way around.

jesusmotherfuckingchrist, i hope you all are catching the 60 min report on hanford and bechtel’s criminal negligence with the complicity of the energy department.

more bush twofer — staggering incompetence and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars wasted.

Thanks Christy & Rob!

bkny - I wasn’t going to watch any of it except the end, bc I’m not too interested in anotehr Da Vinci Code redux, but the Bechtel story made me stick with it. It’s like competence and money have become the north/south magnetic poles in this country.

Watched Colbert go “Hop-Frog” on Bush for a second time on CSPAN this morning, and found the cutaway shots to the audience the most (unintentionally) funny part about it.

Anyone remember the audience reaction shots from the opening night of “Springtime For Hitler In Germany?”

That’s what I’m talkin’ about . . .

I’ve watched Colbert’s presentation three times and I’ve read the transcript a couple times. The more I experience it, the more amazed and delighted I am. He took it to everyone. Colbert was true to form, edgy, bold, raw, and witty. It should not be a surprise to anyone who knows Colbert’s schtick, that he would hit hard and make them squirm. Oh, those darned roasts. Too bad that some folks got their toes stomped. It was all in fun, wasn’t it?
It has been reported that the “traditional media” has ignored Colbert’s contribution to the event, while complimenting the presnit ’s clever skit. It will be interesting to see what the fallout will be, but I would bet that today there are a lot of people in DC thinking that they got awfully close to one of those “liberals” last night and he is on to their game. Let’s just let them think about that for a while. Sleep well tonight George and Laura. Thank you Mr. Colbert.

http://thankyoustephencolbert.org

For serving as an example, telling it like it is, I’ve thrown together a site to collect thank yous for Mr. Colbert.

Hopefully this site will help boost awareness of this story, which is already being distorted in the mainstream press.

Some of you may know the drill.

Go over and say thanks.

Greg #92: Man you really started something good. The “Thank You Stephen Colbert” page is filling up like wildfire. The feeling is very positive. Thanks to you.

The thing with the performance last night — it was brilliant and depressing. What does it say about us as a culture that the only person in the room brave enough to speak the truth is a comedian?

At any rate, Mr. Colbert became a hero, if not a legend, last night.

A link on Daily Kos front page Diary to thank the more than courageous Colbert and to tell him we have his back:

http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/

“..Ladies and gentlemen, I believe it’s yogurt. But I refuse to believe it’s not butter. Most of all, I believe in this president.â€

Crooks and Liars: Colbert Does the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Editor & Publisher: Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner– President Not Amused?

The Video

idnt mean to leave that out…there was so much nervous laughter when he said it!==One highlight not posted above that deserves to be remembered:

“What are you [reporters] thinking? Reporting on things like NSA wiretaps and secret prisons in eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason — they’re super-depressing!“

Even MENTIONING secret CIA prisons in that situation: WOW. Respect to Colbert.

Here’s my collection of Colbert quotes from this evening:
http://www.docstrangelove.com/.....ss/…

This was the funniest stuff I have seen in a very long time! I loved the part where Colbert tells the press they were doing so good for the first five years of Bush’s presidency ignoring the WMD intel.

Dear FireDogLake:

I don’t post many things many places, but from what I gather, those of us who witnessed Colbert Saturday night witnessed something memorably rare. Hats Off to HuffPo (lead story w/video).

Whoever had the idea for the ‘Thank You Steven Colbert’ site had an excellent idea (my 2cents are currently number 1940). And though I did mention to whom ever reads those ‘Thank yous’ that Colbert rhymes with Voltaire, I should’ve quoted Voltaire: “It’s dangerous to be right when the government is wrong”. Which leads me to my point: we (as I’m certain everyone of you are wholly and well aware) are living in a dangerous, dangerous time. Never in our history (that I recall) has our ‘government’ ever been so ‘wrong’.

So now, poof! Stephen Colbert drops a mouthful Saturday night, which come Sunday morning should be the talk of the town. Not surprisingly, the mercenary press refuses to initiate ‘the conversation’ (the absense on Antiwar.com particularly galls me, and I hope it’s merely a ‘weekends off’ policy as opposed to to to…WHAT COULD THEIR THINKING BE?). Anyway, the silence Sunday morning, regarding the ‘news’ Saturday night should tell you ‘the game is almost up’.

Do you realize a system like the internet could eliminate the ever-pervading presence of this shameful government (and every shameful government hereafter? Do you realize this shameful government is wholly aware of what this internet could do, and God damn are nippin’ that ****ing notion in the bud right now (see Ron Carter’s [Tx] proposed legislation?)

I personally would like to see these hundreds of thousands, perhaps tens-of-millions of people who populate these sites form something like a ‘union of citizens’ who simply demand ‘net neutrality’ be a Constitutional guarentee/extension of the first Amendment, at the threat of economic boycott (hey, it’s a start).

I wish somebody would tell me I’m not the only one who’s ever thought of this, ’cause American Idols on and I gotta go…

CIAOALOHA

Welch Williams

Colbert is a genius. Although the parking garage scene went on too long IMO,

That went over my head the first three times too. I was like, “what the hell is with this glacial [ha] pacing in this video clip? How long does he have to struggle with the keys?”

Then I realized he’s compressed three years into three minutes. You’re supposed to be edgy at the fact it took him 45 seconds to figure out how to open the car door.

If his writers are good enough, there’ll be a 45-day interval in the news-stream this is isomorphic to.

OK, I don’t really expect Joyce from these guys. But the slow pacing is almost certainly an explicit rhetorical device.

Media whore Bumiller of the librul NYT wrote a whole article on the correspondents’ dinner without a WORD on Colbert, featured speaker of the evening.

Bumiller, Miller, Bumiller, Miller — what’s in a name?

Looks like Colbert just got himself disinvited from the best DC cocktail parties. That’ll show him.

The corporate TV and print media, courtesy Colbert, have definitively proven their absolute dispensibility. If you are looking for the point, dear reader, when America had its “a– ha” moment over a sycophant lick spittle media who drummed the way to perdition— you’ve just found it.