Excellent segment from Jon Stewart last night, where he defended teachers from right-wing attacks, as only he (and maybe Stephen) can do.
2/23/2011:
BALD FOX BUSINESS ASSHOLE: It's a part time job. They're done at 2:30 in the afternoon and they don't work summers!
JUAN WILLIAMS: Their job doesn't end at 2:30. I mean, they're doing homework, preparing...
BALD ASSHOLE: Oh please! My mom was a teacher, I was shopping with her at 3...
JUAN WILLIAMS: I'm telling you, that's not my experience.
BALD ASSHOLE: ... down at the mall at Marshall's, Loehmann's.
(audience booing)
You know, it's funny, my mom was a teacher too, and she actually worked her ass off for not a lot of money. Hey, maybe your mom was a shitty teacher. (wild audience applause) And not for nothing, but maybe you're bitter because after school, instead of going to play with your friends, you had to go to Loehmann's with your mom.
Video and transcript below the fold.
The real issue in all this is simple: the country's broke. Whose fault is it? Wall Street? Main Street? Sesame Street? Why didn't you warn us, Count? Seriously, his only job is to count.
Hey, you know, one thing we could do, not extend the Bush tax cuts to the top 2% of the country. That would earn us $700 billion dollars over the next 10 years. Oh, and maybe, maybe also, we could close some corporate tax loopholes. I think that would be....
LARRY KUDLOW (6/25/2010): Instead of spending more, why don't we lower corporate tax rates to create investment and jobs?
KUDLOW GUEST: I favor that too, Larry.
FOX BUSINESS BULLS & BEARS GUEST (12/10/2010): What would really help us is if we literally did cut taxes on corporations...
DON EVANS (11/16/2010): I frankly think they're going to be extending the Bush tax cuts...
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (11/14/2010): I think they should be extended...
SEN. RAND PAUL (12/11/2010): I would be for extending them permanently.
Oh, OK, so that idea's out. Uh, where are we going to get the money?
ANDREW NAPOLITANO (2/23/2011): Teachers know that kids are going to be in the seats, and the taxpayers are just going to be sending in the money, no matter how poorly they do. So they have no incentive to do a good job.
DAVID ASMAN (2/18/2011): The average salary of a teacher in Wisconsin's $51,000 a year. ... The benefits from that package are $25,000; we're talking about $76,000 average.
Average?!? Fuck!!! Really? We're going to get it from teachers? Are ya sure?
2/23/2011:
BALD FOX BUSINESS ASSHOLE: It's a part time job. They're done at 2:30 in the afternoon and they don't work summers!
JUAN WILLIAMS: Their job doesn't end at 2:30. I mean, they're doing homework, preparing...
BALD ASSHOLE: Oh please! My mom was a teacher, I was shopping with her at 3...
JUAN WILLIAMS: I'm telling you, that's not my experience.
BALD ASSHOLE: ... down at the mall at Marshall's, Loehmann's.
(audience booing)
You know, it's funny, my mom was a teacher too, and she actually worked her ass off for not a lot of money. Hey, maybe your mom was a shitty teacher. (wild audience applause) And not for nothing, but maybe you're bitter because after school, instead of going to play with your friends, you had to go to Loehmann's with your mom.
But point taken. Sounds like you're casting aspersions on all teachers, and the greed that's growing out of an unchecked system, and that that teachers' union system needs to be destroyed. I guess you probably feel the same way about Wall Street.
BALD ASSHOLE: I think people who villianize (sic) Wall Street have the wrong perception of Wall Street.
FOX BUSINESS WOMAN: There was a few bad apples, you know, excuse the cliché, out there, and it's killing the entire sector.
ERICK ERICKSON, CNN: We bash banks. Let's not deny as well, though, that they create a lot of jobs in the country, and why is it that we feel comfortable bashing job-creators?
See, bankers, unlike teachers, provide a valuable service. And they don't work till 3. Their bell doesn't ring till 4, at which point they all head to Loehmann's... to take a shit on their way to Bloomingdale's. So don't let these teachers fool ya! Unlike Wall Street bankers, teachers are no friend to the working man. But of course, some people want to change the subject. Some people will say or do anything to get our top marginal tax rate back to what they were in the 1990s.
SEAN HANNITY (12/3/2010): Democrats are falling back on their favorite theme: class warfare.
BERNIE GOLDBERG (12/13/2010): I've never seen class warfare as nasty as it is today as a result of this tax debate.
ANDREW NAPOLITANO (12/7/2010): Class warfare, the bitterness and the hatred of wealthy and successful people...
RICK SANTORUM (12/8/2010): Class warfare, it is what the Democrats are all about...
Disgusting! The Democrats have pitted the top 2% against the lower 98, when the Republicans know the real battle should be fought within the middle class. Preferably amongst neighbors.
ERIC BOLLING (2/22/2011): My problem is when teachers make substantially more than what the private sector workers are making, yet they want more...
ANDREW NAPOLITANO (2/23/2011): How hard would you work if you couldn't get fired?
JOE SCARBOROUGH (2/18/2011): You have a union that is so greedy, that they want their people to be held to different standards than working class Americans.
FOX NEWS GUEST (2/27/2011): It is about that "we are better than you, we deserve to have your money"...
SEN. RAND PAUL (2/23/2011): Their benefits greatly exceed the private sector...
CHARLIE GASPARINO (2/27/2011): A lot of middle class or working class people who are just repulsed by the amount of... about the benefits that they get.
INDIANA GOV. MITCH DANIELS (2/27/2011): There may have been a time, a century ago, where public employees were mistreated or vulnerable, and many... and underpaid. If that was ever a problem, we have over-fixed it.
Yeah! Now those teachin' fat cats, living next to other people who are less fat, causing all kinds of problems. Well, if it isn't Mr. Fancy Pants and Middle School Social Studies Teacher. Yeah, I got your cup of sugar right here! (grabs crotch)
Rather than bring the highest marginal tax rate back to what it was in the 1990s, we need to bring teachers' abilities to negotiate their own livelihood back to the 1890s.
(bell rings)
Oh, OK, I'm sorry class, we're going to pick this up tomorrow. Very quickly, though, teachers, could you stick around for just one second? I want to have a quick word with you at camera 3.
Hey. The reason I asked you to stay after headline is, I don't know if you were listening, but you're destroying America. Look at you! With your chalk-stained irregular blouses from Loehmann's, and your Hyundai with its powered steering, and it's wind shield!
I guess bugs hitting you in the face doesn't cut it for old Mr. Chips. Mr. Holland? Whoever the Dead Poets guy was? All right, forget it.
Three months vacation every summer? Special textbooks with all the answers in them? And who outside of Google employees have both a cafeteria and a gymnasium at their workplace? Don't think we don't know about those shiny red apples you get day after day after day after day. You think those apples grow on trees, mister? Well, I don't, because I don't have all the answers in a book.
The point is this. The greed that led you into the teaching profession (wild audience laughter) has led to the corruption of it!
But Jon, there's a correlation between poverty and poor test scores! Teachers shouldn't bear the total blame for a larger systemic failure!
Pish posh piffle! If you can't create a competitive labor environment for us to school our children, someone else will. That is right, ladies and gentlemen, you heard me. I am recommending right now that we as Americans look to outsourcing our children's eduction. Now, obviously, we cannot fly in thousands of Chinese teachers. They would overtax our nation's health care system. What I am proposing is that we disassemble our children, ship them, and have them reassembled over there. We will win the future!
Also, Stephen discussed how Anonymous (seemingly) hacked his show last week, as well as the Americans for Prosperity website. Here's the meat of it.
And I am not the only victim of these cyber-terrorists. Last night they declared war on Americans for Prosperity, a group that supports Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in his fight against the unions, and was founded by two conservative billionaires, the Koch brothers.
No, Jimmy, I don't think Emilio ever had a problem. No, the other Koch brothers. There you go. We watch TV to find out more.
NAOMI KLEIN (9/12/2010): These two incredibly powerful, wealthy industrialists ... come out swinging against things like cap and trade policies ... because they've got a history of polluting in a very big way.
ED SCHULTZ (2/7/2011): Koch Industries is one of the biggest polluters in the United States.
ED SCHULTZ (1/31/2011): The billionaire brothers, who inherited the private energy company, Koch Industries, from their father...
Yes, it is a family business, because blood is thicker than water, unless you live downriver from one of their factories. Then it gets a little viscous. Anonymous, I am hereby telling you to lay off of Americans for Prosperity. If you have a problem with the Koch brothers, go after them the democratic way. By funneling millions of dollars into a front organization that runs attack ads against teachers. Call it Anonymous for Prosperity.
So I had no clue about the whole Anonymous hacking Colbert stuff, but here's the links to the PC Magazine and the Raw Story articles. But how would they have hacked into the show itself? Could this be a publicity stunt by Stephen? I'm not well-versed with Anonymous's tactics to know either way.