Arabic Translator Discharged from the Army because He's Gay

Dan Choi, an Arabic translator, was discharged from the Army because he is gay.

Choi, 28, who majored in Arabic language at West Point, announced he is gay during an appearance March 19 on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show." Soon after, the army made plans to fire him, saying he had "negatively affected good order and discipline in the New York Army National Guard."

Choi said he was disappointed and angry, and it took him only 30 minutes after receiving the letter to decide: "I'm fighting this."

The Daily Show explains...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Dan Choi Is Gay
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Jon Stewart: "Republicans...Pace your rage."

Jon Stewart nailed it last night on the Daily Show...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

From Crooks and Liars...

Stewart: Yes, tyranny. A.K.A. our democratically elected President. You know what guys....I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing. And I feel for you because ah...I've been there. A few times. In fact one of them was a bit of a nail biter. But see, when the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he's probably going to do things you disagree with. He could cut taxes on the wealthy. Remove government's oversight capability. Invade a country that you thought should not be invaded but that's not tyranny. That's democracy.

See now you're in the minority. It's supposed to taste like a s#%t taco. And by the way, if I remember correctly when a disagreement was expressed about that President's actions when ya'll were in power I believe the response was "Why do you hate America?". "Watch what you say." "Love it or leave it." "Suck on my truck nuts."

.....

For god's sake guys. You've been out of power for ten f*%#ng weeks. You've got a mid-term election in twenty months. Pace your rage!

Liberals Love the Daily Show, Moderates Watch Colbert

Surprisingly more liberals watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and more moderates watch the Colbert Report.

A recent PEW survey shows the breakdown...

	Conservative	Moderate	Liberal
Daily Show	22	24	45
Colbert Report	14	45	36

From Open Left...

It's interesting that both liberals and conservatives drop off from Stewart to Colbert. I sometimes wonder how well conservatives get what Colbert is doing, and I think this is some evidence they do, and really don't like it. The whole Colbert persona is an ongoing satire on common right wing personality traits, assumptions and worldview.

This is why I think Colbert is more liberal. His whole show is actually a non-stop assault on conservative values. Additionally, Stewart has distaste for the extremes and the partisans, engages in equivalence fallacies and rhetorically plays up the center as if he is just mocking absurdity with no specific ideological mission. It's as if it just so happens that there's more absurdity to mock on the right, but of course this is no coincidence. I think Colbert gets this pattern better than Stewart.

To that end, it may be a good thing that Colbert attracts more moderates. His message is not being heard just by the choir.

Not really sure why liberals drop off from Stewart to Colbert. Maybe we don't tend to like Colbert's shtick, even knowing it is a satire it can be a bit much, particularly when he won't let his guests speak without interrupting (my only beef with Colbert, lighten up on the act with the guests who can't keep up).

Daily Show Slams the Economic 'Experts' at CNBC

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Vilsack Not Half Bad on The Daily Show

I was impressed with Governor Vilsack's appearence on The Daily Show last night. Vilsack began by giving Jon Stewart a gift, which turned out to be an Aflac duck. Vilsack told Stewart that when it came to duck humor, he wasn't going to duck the issue.

A lot of the talk was on Iraq and I thought Vilsack held his own. He had a good talking point when he said that "we have created a culture of dependency with our presence there". Then he had, what I thought was a bad quote, when he said that Iraqi's "must fight for it and die for it". Overall, Vilsack held his own and made a good introduction to a large group of people. Here is video from Drew Miller...

Vilsack on The Daily Show Tonight... For Real This Time

Vilsack is really on the Daily Show tonight. Last week, I posted that he was going to be on the show on Thursday.

Vilsack On The Daily Show Tonight

Radio Iowa is saying that Tom Vilsack will be the guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight.

Vilsack Attack

The Daily Show had a funny take on Vilsack's presidential campaign and the Des Moines Register wrote about the spot today and has the clip from You Tube. Check it out. It is pretty funny.

Late-night talk show hosts have been getting a lot of mileage out of Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack's unusual last name as he's been out promoting his presidential candidacy.

Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" probably had the most creative approach yet. As Stewart reads a story about the launch of the Iowa candidate's campaign, he struggles to recall the governor's last name, until a little animated duck walks onto the screen and quacks: "Vilsack!" Sort of like the AFLAC commercials. The video's now posted on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK43amjiI94.

Maybe Vilsack should embrace this approach and adopt the duck as a campaign mascot to help build name recognition. It's certainly more endearing than being mistaken for a pickle.

**Update** Here is the clip from the Colber Report on Vilsack's announcement.

The Daily Show Asks if We are Safe

Here is a clip of Monday's episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart asks where's bin Laden now and then discusses a quote from Bush from last month where Bush said, "America is safer than it has been, but it is not yet safe."

The segment ends with the Stewart asking the correspondent, John Oliver, to sum it up and Oliver responds...

George W. Bush is the right man to lead us into the era of post-whatever horrible calamity he leads us into next.

Here's the clip from Crooks and Liars.

Gore on the Daily Show last night...Here's the clip.

Al Gore was on the Daily Show last night talking about his movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

Here is the clip, courtesy of the Huffington Post.

The movie opens in Ames this weekend and is showing in Des Moines, Iowa City, and the Quad Cities.

The Daily Show's segment on Paul Hackett

The Daily Show had a great segment on Paul Hackett dropping out of the Ohio Senate Race and how Hackett failed to fit the "Democrats Matrix."

You can download it from Crooks and Liars.
See the clip on WMP here.
See the clip on Quicktime here.

The Democrats need to stand up and fight. Paul Hackett has courage and is a fighter. It is a shame that he dropped out of the race.