Last night, Jon Stewart really laid into the Fox News personalities for all their rhetoric that basically threw our Constitution's Bill of Rights in the trash, when discussing what we should have done with the Boston bombers.
Now, I don't normally ask this, but make this clip go viral. You don't even need to link to this transcript, in case some of your conservative friends see "DailyKos" in the URL and refuse to read it. Link back to the original clip. Show this especially to any conservative friends or relatives you may have, and then ask them how they can justify it. And if they give terrorism or some other excuse, then throw this Ben Franklin quote back in their face.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Make them chew on that for a while. But at least try to get them to admit that Sean Hannity is literally anti-American and anti-Constitution.
And that's why how we handle Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is so important. For the strength of our system lies in how durable it is, even for our most heinous citizens.
SEAN HANNITY (4/22/2013): I'm a little bit concerned because now he's, you know, he's got his Miranda rights, the right to remain silent.
ERIC BOLLING (4/24/2013): Miranda. Mirandize the guy or not?
GREG GUTFIELD (4/24/2013): I don't understand the point.
BRIAN KILMEADE (4/23/2013): First thing you gotta tell him is, you have the right to remain silent. Fantastic. So the bombs that could be exploding and the plots that could be unfolding, we can't ask him.
OK, first of all, not reading someone their Miranda rights doesn't mean they don't have their Miranda rights. (audience laughter) You have Miranda rights under the Constitution. You don't have to say them out loud for them to become real. You're thinking of Beetlejuice. (audience laughter and applause)
Now the only reason you have to read them is so that whatever the suspect has done or did, whatever they do say, is admissible at their trial. It's another hallmark of our constitutionally guaranteed right to due process.
4/22/2013:
SEAN HANNITY: I think it's a mistake not to treat him as an enemy combatant.
ANN COULTER: We ought to look at him as an enemy combatant, and moving him toward a military tribunal.
Yes, civilian trial for a terrorist, not gonna work! It's why Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, Ramzi Yousef, and the Blind Sheikh roam our fair country in a bus, going city to city singing medleys of original hits and.... (listens to earpiece) What's that? Really? They're dead or in prison, huh? Well, who am I thinking of? Is it... oh, the Muppets. Oh, all right. I get it. Well, to be fair, they both tried to take Manhattan.
So in the wake of an assault on our freedom and way of life, we have quickly jettisoned the Sixth Amendment's right to a fair trial and speedy trial, and the Fifth Amendment's right against self-incrimination! What's next?
SEAN HANNITY (4/22/2013): This guy ought to be, right now, being interrogated in a very intense way. ... I'd waterboard him. I don't believe enhanced interrogation is torture. I don't.
You don't believe enhanced interrogation is torture? Because torture, like Tinkerbell, depends on if we believe? So there goes the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Any freedom lovers want to take a crack at some of the lower ones, your Thirds, your Fourths?
4/22/2013:
ERIC BOLLING: Should the FBI be allowed to now go into mosques and wiretap and surveil? ... I think this is a great case for opening up that.
BRIAN KILMEADE: I think that we should be able to put in listening devices in there.
Sure, illegal search and seizure, done!
....
ANN COULTER (4/22/2013): I want to know about this wife as well. ... I don't care if she knew about this. She ought to be in prison for wearing a hijab.
(shocked and disgusted audience response)
AND DOWN GOES THE NINTH AMENDMENT!!! DOWN GOES THE NINTH AMENDMENT!!!
Ann Coulter doesn't just want a police state, she wants a fashion police state!
....
Well, hey, I have an idea. Since we're just throwing Amendments away willy-nilly, what if we wanted to, I dunno, track the weapons that any of these America-haters bought, or maybe do a background check, if any of them tried to purchase weapons here in America? (audience applause)
ERIC BOLLING (7/19/2011): The right to bear arms is protected in the Constitution.
SEAN HANNITY (6/28/2010): There's no ambiguity here. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Oh, no ambiguity there. You know, since, in the last few decades, there's been 3,400 deaths from terrorism, Islamic and otherwise, and in that same period, we've had nearly, I dunno, a million deaths from gun violence, 30 to 40,000 a year, every year, is there anything we can do about that?
BRIAN KILMEADE (1/10/2013: What Constitution? Vice President Joe Biden says the President may crack down on guns by executive order.
ERIC BOLLING (4/3/2013): a.k.a., taking our right to bear arms away.
Yes, it turns out there's only one Amendment in our Constitution's pantheon that is exempt from statistical analysis or emotional freak-out-itude. And it is the Second. So God help us if the Muslims ever decide to form a well-regulated militia.
We'll have no way to stop them.
Video and full transcript below the fold.
But we begin tonight with a celebration of what makes America the home of the brave and the land of the awesome, and why our enemies don't get it.
BRIAN KILMEADE (1/4/2013): Hey, the Constitution founded our great country.
ERIC BOLLING (7/6/2011): The American Constitution, the blueprints for our way of life...
SEAN HANNITY (7/2/2012): I really worry if we have lost an understanding of our Constitution, our founding principles, an understanding of what makes us strong.
LAURA INGRAHAM (8/27/2009): They hate our freedom, they hate our way of life, they hate who we are, they hate our liberty.
It is like we are the Anne Hathaway of countries. (audience laughter) You hate us, but only cuz you can't get with this! (Jon finger snaps)
Why do you hate America? Is it that we're too nice, that we sing too well, or that we're too hot? ♫ "I dreamed a dream...."
And that's why how we handle Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is so important. For the strength of our system lies in how durable it is, even for our most heinous citizens.
SEAN HANNITY (4/22/2013): I'm a little bit concerned because now he's, you know, he's got his Miranda rights, the right to remain silent.
ERIC BOLLING (4/24/2013): Miranda. Mirandize the guy or not?
GREG GUTFIELD (4/24/2013): I don't understand the point.
BRIAN KILMEADE (4/23/2013): First thing you gotta tell him is, you have the right to remain silent. Fantastic. So the bombs that could be exploding and the plots that could be unfolding, we can't ask him.
OK, first of all, not reading someone their Miranda rights doesn't mean they don't have their Miranda rights. (audience laughter) You have Miranda rights under the Constitution. You don't have to say them out loud for them to become real. You're thinking of Beetlejuice. (audience laughter and applause)
Now the only reason you have to read them is so that whatever the suspect has done or did, whatever they do say, is admissible at their trial. It's another hallmark of our constitutionally guaranteed right to due process.
4/22/2013:
SEAN HANNITY: I think it's a mistake not to treat him as an enemy combatant.
ANN COULTER: We ought to look at him as an enemy combatant, and moving him toward a military tribunal.
Yes, civilian trial for a terrorist, not gonna work! It's why Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, Ramzi Yousef, and the Blind Sheikh roam our fair country in a bus, going city to city singing medleys of original hits and.... (listens to earpiece) What's that? Really? They're dead or in prison, huh? Well, who am I thinking of? Is it... oh, the Muppets. Oh, all right. I get it. Well, to be fair, they both tried to take Manhattan.
So in the wake of an assault on our freedom and way of life, we have quickly jettisoned the Sixth Amendment's right to a fair trial and speedy trial, and the Fifth Amendment's right against self-incrimination! What's next?
SEAN HANNITY (4/22/2013): This guy ought to be, right now, being interrogated in a very intense way. ... I'd waterboard him. I don't believe enhanced interrogation is torture. I don't.
You don't believe enhanced interrogation is torture? Because torture, like Tinkerbell, depends on if we believe? So there goes the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Any freedom lovers want to take a crack at some of the lower ones, your Thirds, your Fourths?
4/22/2013:
ERIC BOLLING: Should the FBI be allowed to now go into mosques and wiretap and surveil? ... I think this is a great case for opening up that.
BRIAN KILMEADE: I think that we should be able to put in listening devices in there.
Sure, illegal search and seizure, done! The freedom lovers at Fox are jettisoning Amendments like Han Solo dumping cargo to make the jump to light speed at the first sign of Imperial Cruisers, right Chewie?
But you know what? Anybody can toss away the lesser-known Amendments. Only a true patriot can set a course straight for the First.
BOB BECKEL (4/23/2013): We really have to consider, that given the fact so many people hate us, that we're going to have to cut off Muslim students from coming to this country for some period of time.
Yes, a religious litmus test for school enrollment!, says Fox's most prominent liberal voice. Holy shit, what's left? A prohibition on the unmentioned personal rights in the Constitution that are designated to the people?
ANN COULTER (4/22/2013): I want to know about this wife as well. ... I don't care if she knew about this. She ought to be in prison for wearing a hijab.
(shocked and disgusted audience response)
AND DOWN GOES THE NINTH AMENDMENT!!! DOWN GOES THE NINTH AMENDMENT!!!
Ann Coulter doesn't just want a police state, she wants a fashion police state!
Now of course, to their credit, any of the Fox contributors or anchors who have studied law, have a somewhat different take on this subject.
ANDREW NAPOLITANO (4/23/2013): To try him as an enemy combatant ... the government can't just willy-nilly do that.
MEGYN KELLY (4/23/2013): I think now you're getting into a dangerous place.
4/22/2013:
BRIAN KILMEADE: Is that possible?
PETER JOHNSON, JR.: No.
But of course, these types of legal arguments are no match for freedom math.
ERIC BOLLING (4/23/2013): How many Muslims in the world, anybody? ... 1.57 billion ... Let's just say 10% dislike us or hate us. ... That means 157 million Muslims hate us. If 5%, 10%, 1% are radicalized and would kill us, you know how much that is? That's one and a half million people who are radicalized to the point where they would want to kill you, kill us Americans.
Wow, that's interesting. Can I see a footnote citation for those figures?
Oh, that's where he got them. All right, I wasn't sure. (wild audience cheering and applause)
Well, hey, I have an idea. Since we're just throwing Amendments away willy-nilly, what if we wanted to, I dunno, track the weapons that any of these America-haters bought, or maybe do a background check, if any of them tried to purchase weapons here in America? (audience applause)
ERIC BOLLING (7/19/2011): The right to bear arms is protected in the Constitution.
SEAN HANNITY (6/28/2010): There's no ambiguity here. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Oh, no ambiguity there. You know, since, in the last few decades, there's been 3,400 deaths from terrorism, Islamic and otherwise, and in that same period, we've had nearly, I dunno, a million deaths from gun violence, 30 to 40,000 a year, every year, is there anything we can do about that?
BRIAN KILMEADE (1/10/2013: What Constitution? Vice President Joe Biden says the President may crack down on guns by executive order.
ERIC BOLLING (4/3/2013): a.k.a., taking our right to bear arms away.
Yes, it turns out there's only one Amendment in our Constitution's pantheon that is exempt from statistical analysis or emotional freak-out-itude. And it is the Second. So God help us if the Muslims ever decide to form a well-regulated militia.
We'll have no way to stop them. We'll be right back.
Jon then looked at how the
price of gold plummeted a few weeks ago.
Jon then talked with Egyptian comedian
Bassem Youssef, which went long. You really should watch the complete interview in two parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Meanwhile, Stephen looked at how the AP twitter hack caused the stock market to
momentarily crash for a few minutes. Scary thing, it was all done by computers, and not humans!
He then bemoaned how Bill Clinton hadn't been on Twitter since they met at the Clinton Global Initiative University a few weeks ago. Which resulted in a surprise guest,
Clinton himself!! And he's now
tweeting!
Stephen then noted how the Mars Curiosity rover has now
drawn a penis in the Martian sand.
Stephen talked with race car driver
Danica Patrick.