Tonight's guests are:

The Daily Show: Will Ferrell
The Colbert Report: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings

Back to life, back to reality.

Tonight on The Daily Show: Richard Bitner, author of Confessions of a Subprime Lender. Tonight on The Colbert Report: Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). Tonight's Sausage Grinder of Snark setting: exhausted.

I know, I know, that title is gonna get more than a few people's blood a-boilin' around here.  But think about it, doesn't the overwhelming media reaction of outrage at the cover illustration (the same media that perpetuated the smears against Obama) prove The New Yorker's point, that these caricatures of the Obamas are patently absurd and thusly any discussion of their validity is equally absurd?

On last night's edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart took the time to go over the biggest Obama controversy to hit the airwaves since... well, at least a week or so. I'm talking of course about the New Yorker's satirical cover of Obama smears and mis perceptions.

I was glad to find that Jon & his writers feel the same way about this issue that I do - that its really blown totally out of proportion and that it's just a satirical cartoon. The incredible "outrage" that people in the media are displaying over such a clearly satirical spoof also comes across as disingenuous because it is people in their profession that have allowed these rumors and smears to go on without seriously being debunked. If there is no merit to these accusations why lend weight to them or treat them as serious concerns?

Here is the Daily Show clip to watch and then feel free to weigh in with your own reactions to it and/or the New Yorker cartoon:

The link is here:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/...

Browsing through TDS archives, as you do, I found this interview -- right in the middle of McCain's brief breakaway from the Republican Party, the heart of Maverick Country and the continuing link between the mainstream media and McCain. (The McMedia, if you will.) It's fascinating to watch, especially in the modern day -- to savour, if you will. And so my thoughts after the jump, on McCain's method and manner, and what this means for the man and our politics.

Not much from me tonight. I planned on writing an actual blog entry, but I was de-railed by a family emergency this afternoon (including a trip to the hospital).

Tonight's guests are (with links to TiaRachel's original diaries:
On The Daily Show: Ted Koppel
On The Colbert Report: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Paul Goldberger

So this is my first of two Daily Show/Colbert Report Open Threads. TiaRachel’s original diary on tonight’s episodes are here and here. The guests tonight are David Iglesias on The Daily Show and Junot Diaz and Dr. Uma Mysorekar on The Colbert Report. I’m not sure what else to write, so I’m including a few random things.

Just another Manic Monday...

And while we all could use some comic relief, Jon and Stephen somehow think they're entitled to a summer vacation. Bastards. So we're in reruns for the next two weeks.

Tonight's TDS rerun is from June 18 and features Daily Show alum and Get Smart star Steve Carell. Our fearless leader TiaRachel was eating flourless torte with famous people that evening, but her original thread is here.

Tonight's TCR rerun is from June 19 and features Bishop N.T. Wright. He wrote some book. Religion...zzzzz. TiaRachel's original bloggy goodness is here.

FLIP!

Wexler going back to Colbert, despite previous controversy

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

Trend-setter and teacher Congressman Robert Wexler may have mentored many a freshmen class of Representatives.  Well into the future, the newest Congressmen and women will study the mistakes that might define an earlier Wexler performance.  Certainly, Robert Wexler did.  Upon reflection, his trials helped him to acquire great knowledge.  The Democrat from Boca Raton, Florida learned his lessons well.  He illustrates why, as retired Major League Pitcher Vernon Law attests, "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."  

Here is a link to a huffington post from a few days back from Joseph Palmero:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It says, amongst other things that:
"The producers should be careful when poking fun at Obama not to provide fuel for the right-wing slime machine. Poke fun at Obama all you want, but do it in a way that also reveals the Republicans’ mendacity and hypocrisy."

Come again? While I may be an Obama supporter no politician is without their faults. In my opinion The Daily Show can't be relied upon to trump up Obama and put down McCain in some partisan way - nor should it be. Thats not to say that its always going to be balanced, but The Daily Show's purpose is to go after media and politicians for their absurdity and to call them on their BS.

I don't think its constructive to give instructions to Jon Stewart et al on how to manage their show to highlight Republican hypocrisy. In light of that, I wanted to see what people at KOS think about this issue and I've posted a few recent clips that go after Barack Obama.

Check them out and weigh in with how YOU feel about the Daily Show and humor that pokes fun at Obama:

Here is a recap of last night's episode of The Daily with Jon Stewart. It was a particularly good episode so while I haven't done one of these recaps in a while I feel this one is worthy.

It starts off with Jon reacting to Charlie Black's statement that a terrorist attack would help John McCain rebound in the polls. Jon then explains to the audience why terrorism helps Republicans by writing a complex formula on a chalk board. I'm not going to spoil the ending but its pretty good.

Jon also goes after Barack Obama and MoveOn.org's ads for pandering and making even people that agree it cringe. He also goes after John Cornyn's absurd "Big Bad John" commercial in Texas and they even do their own parody with "Big Jew", an elitist Jew who drinks lattes and plays chess for fun.

The interview is James Harding, the editor from the Times of London. Weigh in with thoughts, comments and opinion below: