As other news anchors gush over Thursday’s face-off between President Obama and former Vice President Cheney, Jon Stewart enlightens us on the discrepancies in their speeches. While Cheney wooed the crowd with his usual charm, Obama’s rhetoric sounded oddly familiar. Check out this clip from “The Daily Show.”
Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham says the CIA didn’t brief him about the use of waterboarding on suspected terrorists, and he has the records in his personal notebooks to prove it, as he points out during a timely book tour stopover on Wednesday’s “Colbert Report.”
Fox News gasbag Sean Hannity and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura tackle the state of our nation before and after Bush. Watch them finger-point, talk over each other and play the deficit blame game in their debate on Monday.
Cheney’s back, baby! And he’s here to defend the real America and save us all! Watch as Stephen Colbert educates us about how to solve the problem of relocating Guantanamo detainees. There does, in fact, exist a place outside the laws of physics strong enough to contain those barbarians.
On Monday, Sen. Byron Dorgan took the chamber floor with visual aids to warn of the dangers of luring small children into bad spending habits with colorful credit cards. While we applaud his efforts, he does seem a bit fixated on Hello Kitty.
While the cameras rolled, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled at the White House on Monday and waxed diplomatic about the usual lineup of regional concerns: Israeli-Palestinian relations, Iran and the possibility of peace in the Middle East.
Will Nancy Pelosi survive the onslaught of scrutiny and criticism in the wake of recent CIA torture-briefing revelations with her House speaker status intact? Is President Obama in over his head, what with all the hubbub over torture photos and military tribunals?
As new information leaks out on the Bush administration’s torture program and as Dick Cheney pumps up his role as the poster child for waterboarding, we can slowly start connecting the dots on the previous administration’s criminal practices. Rachel Maddow and guest author Jane Mayer break down the shaky legal justifications behind the invasion of Iraq and the use of waterboarding—a method now known to produce false confessions—to try to force detainees to reveal a link between al-Qaida and Iraq.
President Obama this week blocked the release of controversial photos of detainees in order to not “further enflame anti-American opinion.” But without the pictures, whatever are we to do with all these frames? Meanwhile, Lt. Dan Choi an Arabic interpreter (for those who give in to harsh interrogation techniques) has been discharged because he is gay. Once again, torture is rendered less intelligible.
Last night, John McCain’s 95-year-old mother Roberta appeared on “The Tonight Show” to talk political punditry. Watch as she bashes Keith Olbermann and responds to Rush Limbaugh’s call to kick her son out of the Grand Old Party. “ ... He does not represent the Republican Party that I belong to,” she said.
Having ignored the whole Miss California brouhaha in recent weeks, Jon Stewart finally succumbed on Tuesday night’s show, and it’s completely worth it—if only for his Donald Trump imitation.
Everyone’s favorite client No. 9 is making the rounds of the cable news shows and is actually dropping some interesting takes on the economy and Wall Street regulation. Check out his two-part interview with Rachel Maddow.
Wanda Sykes gets heat from commentators about her jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Jon Stewart echoes the critiques and reminds us that bad humor is harmful to the country but torture, well, maybe not so much.
Wanda Sykes stirred controversy at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, taking a jab at Obama’s nipples, Dick Cheney’s creepiness, and calling for Rush Limbaugh’s kidneys to fail. The White House is now distancing itself from the comedian’s comments. Watch as Wanda brings down the house!
Alert the media—banks need money! Who’s stressed, who’s reassured by the government’s test of the banks’ capitalization? Meanwhile, Pakistan is in serious danger, and Afghanistan is hardly a model of an emerging democracy. Their leaders are in Washington; what will America’s role be?
Stephen Colbert walks us through Sean Hannity’s new symbol for the state of our nation under President Obama: the Liberty Tree. Watch as Colbert traces the journey of a Liberty apple through Joe Biden’s digestive tract.
With Taliban insurgents only 70 miles away from the capital city of Islamabad, Jon Stewart asks: What’s happening in Pakistan? How can we avert nuclear disaster? And why are you still here, President Zardari?
Warning of the potential dangers of citizen journalism while correcting misconceptions on the grand old days of the “family-owned” newspaper model, David Simon, creator of HBO’s “The Wire” and a former reporter at the Baltimore Sun, testified Wednesday at a Senate hearing on the future of journalism.
It’s definitely “do as I say, not as I do” material, but Bristol Palin showed up on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday morning with dad Todd and baby Tripp in an effort to prevent other teenagers from becoming parents before they’re ready. Matt Lauer snuck in a question about babydaddy Levi Johnston, but Bristol totally wasn’t having it.
Tuesday on “The Colbert Report”: Condi Rice and Dick Cheney should have to justify their support for the use of torture to a jury of children. Perhaps the Bushies’ flip-floppy justifications might actually make some sense in Kidsville.
Justice David Souter is leaving his lifetime post at the Supreme Court at the tender age of 69 to return to his woodland cabin and his previous occupation as … the Unabomber!
Four years ago, Lawrence Cann founded Street Soccer USA, an organization that empowers the homeless by giving them both a new perspective on the way they see themselves and a welcome break from daily problems.
They may be drawing from the same ol’ value system—based on buzzwords like individualism, faith, “family values” and free market capitalism—but prominent members of the GOP, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, are looking to revamp their party’s image and regain political traction.
Having moved from the Bush administration to Obama’s camp, Defense Secretary Robert Gates takes stock of the White House’s new occupant on Sunday’s episode of “Fareed Zakaria GPS” and defends Obama’s recent diplomatic outreach during his international debut: “I have not seen it as an apology tour,” says Gates.
Despite the fact that only two cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the region, the top stories around the Middle East have been about the H1N1 threat—even to the point of edging out reports of violence in Iraq in the news lineup.