What is really in bad taste is the soldiers getting killed everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan. What is reall in bad taste is the rich getting richer off the hard work and broken backs of the poor. What is really in bad taste is the homeless Veterans and all the starving children in this country, the best in the world. What is really in bad taste is people like Lenny, not seeing any of this.

Stephen Colbert was hilarious! The emperor obviously has no sense of humor, much less any clothes.

Maybe the issue is really this: if the MSM is claiming the "audience" didn't find Colbert's speech to be funny, then they themselves didn't get the audience. We are the audience. The press, and the president, were merely part of the show.

On that basis, one would have to conclude that Colbert was, indeed, funny. Brilliant, in fact.

Colbert was brilliant, incisive and hilarious, as usual. It was fantastic to watch him delivering a real lesson in 'shock and awe' to those who need and deserve it most. He's not getting credit in the mainstream media, because he dared to move the debate beyond the usual bland safety zone. He's getting street cred instead.

No one else has succeeded in getting as in-your-face, up-close and personal, with this crowd. (They've done their best, after all, to keep such democratic disruptions to a minimum by controlling all events and reporting, and through blatant intimidation tactics.) Colbert was brave enough to seize the opportunity when it came his way, and to do it with a wonderful sense of the absurd. He is a hero for standing up for us all. What amazing grace!

I don't know *anyone* who finds any of the president's and/or his cronies' b.s. "comedy" routines remotely amusing. How can one look at these people, after all they have done / not done, and not want to cry? Or puke? But that is what gets coverage, because the lapdog media is so complicit...

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"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but also for the appalling silence of the good people."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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"The beauty of the democratic systems of thought control, as contrasted with their clumsy totalitarian counterparts, is that they operate by subtly establishing on a voluntary basis -- aided by the force of nationalism and media control by substantial interests -- presuppositions that set the limits of debate, rather than by imposing beliefs with a bludgeon.

Then let the debate rage; the more lively and vigorous it is, the better the propaganda system is served, since the presuppositions (U.S. benevolence, lack of rational imperial goals, defensive posture, etc.) are more firmly established. Those who do not accept the fundamental principles of state propaganda are simply excluded from the debate (or if noticed, dismissed as “emotional,” “irresponsible,” etc.)."

- Noam Chomsky (with Edward S. Herman)

Not only was it great satire, it was laugh out loud hilarious and truthful at the same time. More than that, it was a brave performance. Colbert took the risks the meek mainstream press fears to take by telling it like it really is, with the mis-Leader of the Free World looking on in astonished bewilderment. Colbert has the guts the corporate media lacks, to go out and tell it like it is, and the only reason more of the press didn't laugh was their cognitive dissonance induced stupor. Members of the Bush enabling press couldn't laugh louder without acknowledging the truths Colbert was pointing out about their role in bringing down the last fifty years of American progress. Shame on the corporate media, and thank you Stephen Colbert for making me laugh and for putting the truth out there. Yes, the truth hurts some times. Get over it.

I just watched it again. People laughed through the whole thing. And clapped. There was only one joke followed by a big silence, and that was the line about retired generals being strong enough to stand at a bank of computers and order young men into battle. Other than that -- laughs. The glacier line, a big laugh. The mallomar line, a big laugh. And even Colbert's line about having "nothing but contempt for you people" got a laugh.

So I don't know who wasn't laughing that night -- I guess the same people they've found to say it "wasn't funny."

I, too, noticed the wimpy coverage by the major media, how all the articles were about the Bush double. I was shocked by the lame coverage of Colbert by the NY Times. Why did they even bother?

I have to say: I'm SO GLAD there is the internet, and venues like Salon. Otherwise, we'd all be stewing in our little corners, wondering if we were going mad!

The last time I felt such a delicious/horrified sang froid was when Vincie Van Winkle spit in the eye of the odious Dave Maddock at Halldale school playground, thus ending the reign of terror the latter and his toadies had perpetrated throughout our entire first and second grade years. Yes, Vincie had to wear a cap on his permanent front tooth, but he never ate lunch alone again.

For Stephen Colbert to stand there in front of a hostile audience and not break character and say the things at least a billion of us have only fantasized saying to that fucking moron, took balls the size of Texas. Perhaps someday one of Mr. Colbert's grandkids will find this site archived somewhere on whatever passes for the historical register by then and know that their grandfather was considered every bit the national hero as the Jeffersons and Paines, and Franklins who founded this nation back in the time of that other demented King Georgie.

Very few people impress me with their bravery any more. Sir, you've bowled me over.

Bless you forever!

Thanks for covering the disconnect between the bloggers' take on the Colbert affair and MSM's sour grapes opinion.

Colbert was dead on and awesome. While I've enjoyed his show, I haven't given it as much a chance as I've given The Daily Show. After Colbert's display of testicles, I'm a huge fan.

Any pandering idiot can make a room laugh, but Colbert made me gasp in a way that only Dave Chapelle has been able to recently.

Thanks for the link to the video, and thanks for not being a clueless/souless media organization.

Sincerely,

Michelle.