I haven't time to read every post here, but I've read a lot and I haven't so far seen anyone mention SC's timely appearance on "Sixty Minutes" Sunday.

Watching his performance at the WHC dinner, I kept asking myself in stunned wonder, "Where did this guy get his balls? Definitely not from the same supplier as mine!" Then, on Sixty Minutes it came at least partially clear: SC explained that he came from a family of eleven children and that, when he was ten his father and two of his brothers were killed in an Eastern Airlines crash (DC-9, Charlotte, NC, 1974). After that, he said, nothing could touch him. No one could take anything away from him, so where's the threat, the fear?

Very few of us could turn the personal tragedy of a ten-year-old boy into the greatness that Stephen Colbert has. Bravo!

Ok, snarkiness aside on my part. Pound's poetry--here I admit my weakness as I am really only familiar with the "Cantos"--deserves to stand apart from the man. That is why one can cite some aphorism of Jefferson's without bringing up slavery etc. Perhaps it was just the idea of mixing Pound's name into a general conversation on "speaking truth to power" that took me off guard for the same reason that I would not allude to Jefferson in a conversation about racial equality.

I remember a story about Pound that a young journalist went to find him late in his life and spent some time tracking him down. The young man finally knocked on the door and surprised to se Pound answer asked, "Mr. Pound, how are you." To which he replied, "senile," and closed the door. Great answer, despite his past.

Best,

Mytoonk

Why does she have a clue? Maybe because she didn't grow up under Reagan, when it was high-school cool to be a sycophant. Many journalists watching Colbert couldn't comprehend what they were seeing--they have never known a relationship to power that doesn't involve their lips and power's ass.

For those who ask (and even though we are unable to read body language in this media I can almost see the noses being tilted upwards, the tiny self-righteous sniffs going on as the question is asked) what did Steven Colbert accomplish, I would say read dottygirl5161's letter on this site. She has it right; no, she nailed it. Steven-My-Idol-Colbert set an example for all of us who have sat at home for the past several years wringing our hands as Bush & Co. killed our children, our democracy, and our planet and said "what can we do?" Steven Colbert showed us what we can do. Thank you, dottygirl--we should indeed all have a small StevenColbertMinute every day of our lives. Another observation--the negative letters on this site appear to me to be very cautious. I don't perceive that any of you believers that Colbert was unfunny and unpatriotic want to go head-to-head with him. Excuse me now. I must see that amazing history-in-the-making performance again.

They're too stupid to understand the subtleties of Satire. When Colbert on his show mocks Bill O'Reilly's posturing, going one step further and says "I'm, George Bush's biggest fan." The idiots bought it. They truly thought Bush was going to hear some nice things about himself.

Colbert made his point by stretching it past absurdity. It was too blatant for them to ignore.

Oh, quite a few people laughed. And Bush, well, he (finally) got the point when his less opaque cronies did not laugh.

As to what he's accomplished? It's nice that Bush finally sees himself as he truly is. That accomplishment enough for you?

http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/vkraemer?entry=confer_the_search_witty_irony

Hail Stephen, full of "in your face", the Force be with thee;

Blessed art thou among pundits and blessed is the fruit of thy mind, Satire!

Holy Moly, Master of Panache, Prey for "US" on those bad, bad, BEARS, now and forever, AMEN.

Kudos for outing "the sicko" in all those bushy sycophants.

There's applause aplenty in cyberspace; you just happened to be stuck with a live audience of lots of really guilty people.

And don't regret having but one life to give for your country. I hold out hope that C-Span's thinking about reruns.

"Thou shalt not torture" is my 11th commandment, but you can slay me anytime!

Your Numero Uno Sicko-fan(t),

Pris Black

Colbert is a true American hero. He publicly rebuked the president and the press corp for lies, deception and the undermining of our democractic form of government without being arrested or silenced by the mob... God bless Colbert! paz tomas

The ability to rehash the last 5 years in a tongue-in-cheek yet frightening fashion sends shivers up and spasms down my spine. After watching the video feeds, I didn’t know if the tears were from laughter or something else.

oh my god. what did colbert just say? (saturday night: c-span (www.c-span.org) breaks into our general evening banter.) OH MY GOD. he's saying REAL stuff, hard PAINFUL stuff to the scrunched up face of the adolescent president and his very uncomfortable sometime-friends in the crowd. i thought laura was going to kill colbert as she and Dubya left with a rapidity and clumsiness i've never before seen: YES! let them be uncomfortable. "you'll be sorry..." warns helen thomas in the press parody video, and she should know. yet, with subtle zings and hardcore uppercuts (OH BALBOA!), he's doing it for himself, but also for me, for the soldier, for the iraqi, for us... you know who you are... stand up and be counted!

so many lines stick with me: on photo ops: "the president not only stands FOR things, he stands ON things..." on inflexibility: "he believes the same thing on wednesday as he did on monday, no matter what happens on tuesday." on denial: "if i want to say that the panama canal was built in 1942, it's my right AS AN AMERICAN. i'm with the president: we'll let history decide what happened." on irate retired generals, he suggests using the stop-loss program: "if you've got the guts to go on one of those pundit shows, you certainly have the courage to stand behind a computer terminal and order men into battle."

on the issue of iraq, colbert broke my heart. yes, i was laughing, but it was painful, wasn't it? wasn't it? "think about it... i haven't." oh yes you have, stephen. misery accomplished. thank you, stephen colbert.