It’s not so much that Jon Stewart is lampooning Glenn Beck for the heck of it that makes this clip from Thursday night’s “Daily Show” so inspired, it’s that he practically out-Glenn-Becks Glenn Beck, all the while stealing a potential conspiracy theory that the excitable Fox News showman might soon have cooked up if left to his own devices.
Unemployment reaches 10.2 percent—do we need a bigger stimulus? What do the GOP victories in Virginia and New Jersey mean for both parties? Will the House’s historic health care bill pass, and, if so, why wait till 2013 to implement it?
President Obama told a gathering of tribal leaders at a rare Interior Department summit that he intended to devote more time and attention to the concerns of American Indians. In closing, he also addressed the Thursday shooting at Fort Hood.
Wow. It’s eminently clear from this pretty amazing faux news report by The Onion News Network that staffers at that hallowed humor hub really, really don’t like Fox News scenery-chewer Glenn Beck, as they’re willing to go to the very edge of acceptable humor, or perhaps past that, to make their point here.
Barack Obama’s top campaign strategist, David Plouffe, paid a visit to “The Daily Show” on Tuesday night, the anniversary of his candidate’s big win, to look back on Obama’s strategy for getting to the White House and how the president has done over the course of his first year. Jon Stewart doesn’t let Plouffe off easy, especially when it comes to Obama’s choice of economic advisers.
Who knew that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ate smiley faces for breakfast? State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano may have an inkling that this is the case after provoking the governor—Stephen Colbert’s Alpha Dog of the Week—to the point where Schwarzenegger, or someone in his office, embedded an expletive in an official document.
The president’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, told CBS News that Abdullah Abdullah’s withdrawal from the Afghan runoff election was a “political decision” and that the White House would “deal with the government that is.”
The battle between the Obama administration and Fox News hasn’t ended yet (sigh), but luckily, Jon Stewart takes this timely opportunity to dissect what exactly the conservative-leaning channel’s raison d’être is, and here’s a hint: It’s not necessarily the news.
Consumer spending drives the real economy, and it has taken a plunge. Did we save the banks at the expense of the people? Also this week: The health care reform bill finally appears on the scene, and Hillary Clinton attempts a precarious balancing act in Pakistan—are either of these developments successful?
Thursday’s mass display of Democratic delight over the newly introduced health care reform mega-measure was countered by the sober declaration, courtesy of House Minority Leader John Boehner, that what we have here is “a bill that really is a government takeover of the health care system.” Sigh.
George W. Bush’s dream of Americans on Mars got a little bit closer to reality Wednesday as NASA successfully launched its prototype Ares I-X rocket. A version of the new rocket is planned to launch Orion, NASA’s replacement craft for the aging space shuttle, as America’s preferred method of getting off-planet.
Having trouble finding gainful employment in these difficult times? Wouldn’t it be great if, say, Lorenzo Lamas could help you out in your job search for the low, low price of $300? Lucky for you, this is an achievable dream—or you can do it for free with a handy e-mail-ready semi-personalized endorsement from Stephen Colbert.
Despite widespread public support and momentum in the House, the public option faces White House officials and conservative senators who looking to undermine it. In this plea for MoveOn, the always-insightful Robert Reich says to vote the bums out if they vote against you.
If an athlete is caught cheating in the Olympics or another sports competition, that person is disqualified, and it is seen as a disgrace. In the case of the recent election in Afghanistan, however, cheating has been rewarded and even praised by no less than the president of the United States, says Link TV’s Jamal Dajani in this week’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report.”
Continuing on his Doing Too Many Things at Once ’09 Tour, President Barack Obama made a stopover at Cambridge, Mass., on Friday to push for “the passage of comprehensive legislation that will finally make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy in America.” Echoing himself on the subject of health care reform, Obama warned that the negative buzz from naysayers will get louder as the pro-reform team inches closer to its goal.
Well, that public option idea keeps creeping back to the table as Congress debates the health care conundrum, but will it stick around? Does the federal government have the right to limit executive bonuses when taxpayers hold a majority interest in the company? And is President Obama wasting his time by tangling with Fox News? So many questions this week!
Ballots are being distributed to voting centers throughout Afghanistan for the runoff between incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his top challenger from Round 1, Abdullah Abdullah, slated to take place on Nov. 7.
One country’s taking the piss is another’s bigotry. A blackface sketch on an Australian variety show has exposed what the Global Post calls “an ugly side of the Australian character.”
By far the best thing to come out of Britain’s expenses scandal is this video series of ducks lampooning the shenanigans of elected officials. It’s part of a campaign to bring an open primary to the U.K., but forget the politics and enjoy the poultry.
The Bold Progressives (aka PCCC) have taken the health care fight to the home states of conservacrats Ben Nelson and Max Baucus and Republican swinger Olympia Snowe. Now the group is going after the man himself with a new public-option pressure ad.
Relations were already strained between Israel and Turkey, owing in large part to the Israeli-Palestinian clash in Gaza last winter, and then came this week’s diplomatic drama caused by a Turkish TV show that depicted Israeli soldiers shooting children in Gaza.
Ann Coulter’s guest appearance Thursday night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show took a startling turn when she veered from lamenting how Rush Limbaugh’s NFL dream supposedly got sacked by the far left to holding forth on the subject of domestic abuse, declaring: “Husbands rarely beat up their wives ... single women get beaten up more.”
Wall Street got a boost, as if it needed one, from the Dow’s rise past 10,000 this week—but let’s not confuse that with economic stability. Consider the unemployment rate and the ballooning federal budget deficit, as Arianna Huffington, Bob Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller do on this week’s “Left, Right and Center.” Just don’t ask Arianna about “Balloon Boy.”
If ever there were magic words guaranteed to provoke instant fury in America’s far-right ranks (besides “Nobel Peace Prize”), they might sound a little like “Al Franken.” The comedian-turned-senator’s recent proposal—related to the rights of rape victims who are employees of government contractors—met with some baffling resistance from Republicans in Congress.
Stephen Colbert is on a serious tear in this “Colbert Report” clip from Tuesday night’s show, tackling religious symbology, reptilian champion of atheism Christopher Hitchens, canary-eating Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the infamous Three-Fifths Compromise all in one go—and that’s before he busts into the Apostles’ Creed.
Salvador Floods Kill 50
