The White House is having trouble finding someone to be the new “war czar,” and it has apparently decided the problem is the name. The position will now be called “execution manager.” Is it just us, or has this administration lost its flair for snazzy Orwellian lingo? Bonus: Jon Stewart catches Bush in a lie obstruction of the truth.
Doing both the Iranian people and the Beach Boys a grave dishonor in one extraordinary gaffe, John McCain made the ill-conceived move of covering that classic good-time hit “Barbara Ann,” with a slight, hawkish adaptation: he changed the lyrics to “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.”
It looks like the two senators have decided to skip their respective primaries and run against each other directly on the “Situation Room.” In all fairness, this isn’t a feud so much as John McCain sniping at Barack Obama’s airtime with e-mail.
Jon Stewart swings away at the Wolfowitz scandal: “Last week it was disclosed Wolfowitz had used his influence to get a promotion and a raise for his longtime paramour, World Bank employee Shaha Ali Riza—considered to be a foremost expert on the Middle East. Which means—you know what they say—opposites attract.”
If Don Imus’ Rutgers smear marks the boundary for what is considered indecent on radio, conservative pundits beware. Here is a sampling of the racism, sexism, homophobia and hate pumped out by talk radio every day.
Jon Stewart covers the shenanigans of the Bush administration as some of its key members attempt to (mis)lead the press as it follows the crumb trail in search of those pesky missing e-mails.
Keith Olbermann interviews a computer forensics expert, who explains various ways the White House might uncover those pesky missing e-mails. All in all, the chances that up to 5 million e-mails have completely disappeared are very slim.
Jim Lehrer reports that the Army may be underestimating the severity of disabilities, denying servicemen and -women lifetime benefits. The Veterans Disability Benefits Commission found that disability ratings made by the Veterans Affairs Department were typically higher than those of the Army.
The “Real Time” host argues that many of America’s problems aren’t caused by the liberal, Washington, Hollywood or media elite, but by the prevalence of unqualified “hayseeds” in George W. Bush’s government. Take Monica Goodling, who, in her early 30s and with no prosecutorial experience, oversaw the U.S. attorneys.
“The Daily Show” takes a trip back in time to chart CNN legal pundit Nancy Grace’s relentless coverage of the Duke lacrosse case, sampling from her various contradictory, hyperbolic, graphic and biased reports over the last year. Make sure to catch what happened on her show the day the charges were dropped.
Jon Stewart and John Oliver riff on the administration’s plan to empower a war czar. Oliver explains that the position will occupy the gap between commander in chief, secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In other words: the blame.
George W. Bush is upset with the Democrats for wanting to withdraw from Iraq just when we’ve finally started to make progress. Just starting? The president has been citing “progress” in Iraq for years now, and Jon Stewart has the clips to prove it.
In this episode of the outstanding Web documentary series “Hometown Baghdad,” Adel interviews his young brother and cousin, both of whom had just witnessed a gruesome killing. He is convinced the two young Iraqis already show signs of the psychological trauma that comes from growing up in a war zone.
John Oliver delivers this hysterical report on the nation of Israel. At one point the “Daily Show” reporter gives the Israeli ambassador a chance to clear the air: “There is a nasty conspiracy theory going around that your country is run by Jews—a cabal of Jews who set the domestic agenda and run the media. Would you like to put that to rest now?”
MoveOn.org recently held a virtual town hall giving every Democrat running for president a chance to sound off on the biggest issue of day: the Iraq war. Here are the highlights.
Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation’s editor and publisher, Tuesday night braved a second appearance on “The Colbert Report,” where she was congratulated by Stephen Colbert for her “courage to come back, since I handed you your ass last time.”
If you missed John McCain’s recent damage control session on “60 Minutes,” here are the highlights. The senator tried to blame his ill-conceived springtime-in-Baghdad campaign on his shoot-from-the-hip style. The straight-talk express, with nonstop service to a concession speech.
Barack Obama recently sat down with David Letterman and managed to hold his own with the humor. When asked why his campaign needed so much money, the candidate said evenly: “We’ve got to advertise on the Letterman show.” According to Amy Goodman, that’s no joke.
A massive procession made up of tens of thousands of Shiites marched to the holy city of Najaf on Monday to protest the U.S. occupation on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. One might recall that these are the very Iraqis who, having been oppressed by Saddam Hussein, were supposed to greet us as liberators.
For a guy who says he’s a Democrat, Joe Lieberman doesn’t show much party loyalty. The senator took a break from defending Bush and his war on Sunday to pile on the criticism of Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria. Luckily Arlen Specter, a Republican no less, was on hand to defend the logic of diplomacy.
In this musical clip, legendary troubadour Tom Waits offers some irreverent incentive for getting the kids to church on Sunday, combining those two time-honored Easter staples: chocolate and Jesus.
Rep. David Wu brings some much needed Star Trek fandom to the capital, arguing that unlike the wise and logical Vulcans, the administration has behaved like a pack of war-hungry Klingons.
On last week’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher took on conservative personality Michael Smerconish to defend John and Elizabeth Edwards’ right to privacy: “Since they announced this last week, so many people have become experts on what you should do when you get sick, when I don’t think it’s really anybody’s business but theirs.”
Why Do They Hate the West So Much, We Will Ask
