harikari.com

As in “Grand Old Pity Party.”

During this week’s edition of “The Word”, Steven Colbert could not even pretend to like Sarah Palin.

Today I spent some time between the Vikings vs. Packers game and game 4 of the World Series filling out my mail-in ballot for the Washington State, King County, Seattle elections.  (Damn I miss going to my neighborhood polling place to vote.)  Anyway, when I got to the Referendum 71 box, I recalled a great segment from The Colbert Report last week. 

If you are not sure why you should approve Referendum 71, watch and learn.

Stephen Colbert got it right last night in this edition of The Word.

Things are getting worse more slowly.

…

Let me say something postitive.  We do actually have people in the white House who understand the stuff.  I think they’re not forceful enough, but they’re not stupid people.  They’re not crazy people… they understand what the problems are… which is a big improvement on previous management.

Watch and learn…

…and advises John McCain to follow suit.

For a summary of arguments from both sides of the debate on The Bailout, you can read this post by Paul Krugman (whom we love) or you can watch this segment of “A Formidable Opponent” from the October 2nd airing of The Colbert Report:

and laugh your ass off.

You are free to choose.

… and you really should read Mr. Fish’s latest comic.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before the Senate today about his agency’s abuse of provisions of The Patriot Act.  “Abuse” meaning of course that federal laws were broken.

…Mueller testified at the panel’s second hearing into a Justice Department inspector general’s report this month that revealed abuses in the FBI’s use of documents called national security letters to gather data.

Reviewing headquarters files and four of 56 FBI field offices, Inspector General Glenn Fine found 48 violations of law or presidential directives during 2003-2005. He estimates there may be up to 3,000 unidentified or unreported violations throughout the FBI.

Mueller said he had instituted procedures for issuing these letters. “What I did not do and should have done is put in a compliance program to be sure those procedures were followed,” he added.

…

Mueller said he had reduced such inaccuracies since learning of the problem in 2005 but noted that warrant applications are long and contain thousands of facts.

“I’m not impressed with your assertion that there are thousands of facts,” Specter said. “That’s your job. You asked for these powers; we gave you them. If these applications are wrong, you’re subjecting people to an invasion of privacy that ought not to be issued.”

Specter, a Republican, was correct in his assertion that Mueller’s FBI had violated the rights of the American people. 

But what did other Republicans have to say?

Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Orrin Hatch of Utah opposed altering the law to curb FBI authority. “You’ve acknowledged the problems and pledged to fix them,” Hatch said. “That’s what Congress and the American people need.”

“Pledged to fix them?”  Didn’t Mueller “pledge” to follow the laws when he took over the FBI? 

You’ve just got to laugh out loud when you read this stuff.  These are the same Republicans that were in power when Clinton was president and they wouldn’t give him a break on anything.  They were out to get him from day one and were ready and willing to impeach him on any charge they could find.  They had to settle for a blow job. 

They would have loved to have one of Clinton’s appointees testify before them and admit to how his department broke the laws.  They would certainly not accept any “pledge” to “fix” the problem.

I say pin this on Mueller and Bush and impeach the whole lof of them.  They don’t have any respect for laws–and they admit it!  They are all a bunch of criminals.

Come on Democrats!  Stop being so craven.  Do what you swore to do when you took office–defend the Constitution and the rule of law.  The survival of our Constitution depends on it.  Impeach the entire Executive Branch.

Need a list of impeachable offenses besides the illegal intrusions into privacy that Mueller admitted to?  Stephen Colbert listed all the offenses last week on his show and dared the Democrats to “buckle on your balls like men and impeach the president.”  Watch it.

Fox News reported yesterday that, “Comedy Central’s fake news stars have no intention of making a run for the White House.”  Oh really?  Did Fox ever really think they would make a run?  It’s news that they’re not running?

Jon Stewart said this about the shirt: 

Nothing says “I am ashamed of you my government” more than “Stewart/Colbert ‘08.”

And ashamed we are.

Stewart had more to say about reports of people actually getting their news from The Daily Show: 

“There’s no way you could get the news from us,” he said. “I’ve seen the show. It couldn’t happen.”

Funny… That’s what Daily Show viewers say about Fox News.

If you haven’t realized by now that Stephen Colbert is brilliant and one of our nation’s greatest treasures, you need only watch this video on the Media Matters website:

Colbert lampooned conservatives who equated Ahmadinejad letter with Democratic-progressive talking points

Summary: Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert mocked various conservative media figures for recent outrageous statements, all of which had been noted by Media Matters for America.