Summary: I've been waiting for this moment all week.  When "WALL-E" came out, there were complaints on the Internet from the Political Right about how that movie was trying to sell us Leftwing propaganda.  Surely, when "The Dark Knight" came out, and argued that not even superheroes should be trusted with dictatorial powers, someone was going to see this, equate Batman with George Bush, and interpret the movie as a critique of the "necessary" measures that Mr. Bush implemented in his fight against terrorism.

So when Keith Olbermann (recently called a "propaganda Pez dispenser" by Stephen Colbert) informed us during WPITW about the Wall Street Journal's comparison of Mr. Bush and Batman, I knew that my moment had arrived...though not as I'd expected.

Tonight's guests are:

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

Last night on The Daily Show Obama's overseas journey to Iraq was covered in hilarious fashion as Jon waits eagerly for his first gaffe which never comes. They do however, play McCain's geography gaffe.

Colbert also covers Obama's trip thus far and gives some satirical commentary on the charges of media bias being leveled by people like FOX News' Chris Wallace and Steve Doocy.

The Colbert report also had one of the funniest interviews I've seen in months when he sat down with someone from the Sierra Club group of environmental lobbyists. While I consider myself an environmentalist, this interview was hysterical - especially the part with the polar bear (you gotta see it to understand).

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.

Neocon godfather Irving Kristol once famously said that "a neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality."  By that standard, the political right will need to coin an altogether new term to describe John McCain in the wake of the beating he has taken over the past several days.  In the span of just two weeks, McCain has seen Barack Obama's call for a strategic refocus from Iraq to Afghanistan validated by the Pentagon and in Baghdad.  And now, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has come out in favor of Obama's approach to drawing down U.S. forces in his country.

I've been thinking some more about the New Yorker cover and the question of satire (my first post is below). Long-time readers may recall that we've had disagreements here over Stephen Colbert, whose "satire" I have claimed is often not (although I feel that less so recently than I did a year or two ago).

Expanding on things I've written before, here's my working definition, which applies to Colbert and the New Yorker: if the only thing that distinguishes alleged "satire" from an original is the source, it isn't satire, it's "imitation." It may or may not be funny, but it isn't satire.

If you could take a transcript of a Colbert interview, hand it to Bill O'Reilly, and have him read it without batting an eye, then it wasn't satire - it was imitation.

For some reason -- maybe because it's summer in Arizona; maybe because I'm having a mini-midlife crisis -- I'm re-reading a lot of books I liked in high school and freshman college. This includes the novels of Ayn Rand and Kurt Vonnegut, an odd couple by any yardstick.  

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

Summary: Apparently forgetting that freedom never sleeps, Stephen Colbert decided to take off this week.  So I won't be getting to hear his take on the US being ranked the 16th happiest country in the world.

What follows is my attempt to show how he'd cover the story.

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.

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."  

Dear Friends,

Last night, while in NY, I had a whirlwind tour of a number of studios - not least of which my good friend Stephen Colbert.

Suffice to say, this time, I declined his invitation to "repeat after me."  I had a great time though, and if you haven't seen the interview, I'm sure it's available online.

However, I thought you'd be most interested in the fact that I took my argument for Impeachment Hearings straight into the heart of conservative media: Fox News.

Yes... they actually let me in the building.  Twice.

On both Hannity and Colmes as well as this morning on Fox and Friends, I explained my belief that Congress has no choice but to address these's obvious and deliberate abuses of power.

I argued that we can protect our nation - and still adhere to the Constitution.

Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain has been rapidly establishing a rampant pattern of inconsistency and outright contradictions, yet has essentially been receiving a free ride on it.  I wrote about this Sunday.  

Two days later, the Washinton Post's allegedly liberal columnist, Richard Cohen, wrote an editorial that provided an implicit -- and quite extraordinary -- rationale for this lopsided media focus, which he himself then exhibits in spades. Nor is this the first time Cohen has said something outrageous about a presidential election.  And after the last time he did it -- contributing to the excessivly negative and utterly false stereotpying of Al Gore, he spent several subsequent columns, years later, blaming others.  

Tonight, I attended a live taping of the Daily Show. Before the show, Jon Stewart answered questions. Among a bunch of trivial stuff, I got to ask a more serious one: "Are you at all bummed that Viacom is not letting people share videos of you on YouTube?"

His reaction (approximately): "The YouTube thing? You know, people were only putting up 3 or 4 minute bits, but Viacom said take them down. I never understood what the big deal was. And now they have some new video service anyway - Hulu?" ("Hulu," a confident colleague of mine asserted from the audience.)

Good for Jon Stewart - not towing the corporate line! Techies can be proud. Answers to more trivial questions below...