Daily Show goodness

I mentioned before how I now have real cable in my home again. I am really loving watching the Daily Show again. Last week they did a bit about Senators Byrd from Virginia and Thomas from Alaska that put the two in a movie called Brokeback Senate. I almost fell off the couch after that joke.

Last night they had another good piece about the ludicrousness of Bush's recent speech where he declared open debate healthy and then outlined what areas of his policy we are allowed to debate. It was one of those Bushian moments where he turns sideways and steps into a surreal mode that confuses people who live in something I like to call 'the real world.' There is still nothing on television funnier than a clip of Bush looking foolish followed by Jon Stewart reacting to it. You can't script it or describe it but it's funny funny funny.

The speech

Here's what our genius president said on 1/10/06 concerning healthy debate of his war: "There is a vigorous debate about the war in Iraq today, and we should not fear the debate. It's one of the great strengths of our democracy that we can discuss our differences openly and honestly -- even in times of war. Yet we must remember there is a difference between responsible and irresponsible debate -- and it's even more important to conduct this debate responsibly when American troops are risking their lives overseas.

The American people know the difference between responsible and irresponsible debate when they see it. They know the difference between honest critics who question the way the war is being prosecuted and partisan critics who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, or because of Israel, or because we misled the American people. And they know the difference between a loyal opposition that points out what is wrong, and defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right.

When our soldiers hear politicians in Washington question the mission they are risking their lives to accomplish, it hurts their morale. In a time of war, we have a responsibility to show that whatever our political differences at home, our nation is united and determined to prevail. And we have a responsibility to our men and women in uniform -- who deserve to know that once our politicians vote to send them into harm's way, our support will be with them in good days and in bad days -- and we will settle for nothing less than complete victory."

Even though he may have mislead the American people, or at the very least, totally botched interpreting the intelligence he was given and had no plan whatsoever for a post-war Iraq, that stuff is in the past. Mistakes were made, lives were lost but we have to move on, get over it, look ahead and focus on total victory in the mess that is Iraq in the present. Jesus, what a dick.