Sooner Blue

Author Michael Wallis tells the truth about American folk hero David Crockett in his new book, "A Lion of the West" .. and I like it better than the myth. For one thing, he was an outstanding congressman, a populist .. was the only one who stood up against President Andrew Jackson (spit) and refused to vote for The Indian Removal Act -- "A vote that "will not make me ashamed in the day of judgment."

Here is a good review of the book.

Here is Wallis talking about Crockett on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-11-2011/michael-wallis

"I guess the reason conservatives hate it when liberals play the victim card is that it distracts from the real victims: conservatives." –Jon Stewart

"I had no idea that life for conservatives was so difficult in this country. Tell me a little bit, if you would, about the bad people holding your kind back." –Jon Stewart

[Video overlay] Sean Hannity saying iberals are "so vicious, so mean, and so cruel, and I don't hear this coming from conservatives about liberals."

Jon Stewart: "You don't? That is, if I may say, some of the most free-range, organically grown disingenuous, ideologically marinated, un-self-awareness I've ever seen in the wild."

"Is it so wrong we want pundits vetted? I want to get my news from news people, not random people with an AOL account." –Jon Stewart on Twitter pundits

"The 'debate' we've been having? Is that what that noise out of Washington has been? It sounded like an elephant seal trying to f**k a truck." –Jon Stewart, on the debt ceiling "debate"

"Did the president just quit? Seriously, you’re the president. You’re asking us to call Congress? ... I actually feel bad for the president. He interrupted 'The Bachelorette' to be like, 'Could you call your congressman? I can’t talk to these people.'" –Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart on John Boehner accusing President Obama of the largest spending binge in American history: "Which came on the heels of an almost absurdly reckless decade, unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unfunded trillion dollar Medicare prescription bill, and tax cuts for the wealthy that are the largest single policy contributor to our deficit; in fact, I myself voted for all of these…ahem, back to my original point!"

"The world’s saddest tangerine." –Jon Stewart on John Boehner

"I'm not saying this Congress is bad at its job. I'm just saying that this Congress is equivalent to a skunk with its head in a jar of Skippy peanut butter." –Jon Stewart

"My question to Congress, and, I think, a question many Americans may be sharing as of tonight, is this: do you want out of this relationship so bad, but don't have the balls to leave, so you've all decided to act like such giant a**holes you force us to break up with you? Because if so, just get the f**k out." –Jon Stewart

"I gotta say, of all my issues with Michele Bachmann's brain, migraines are not even in the top 20." –Jon Stewart

[a tip of the hat to Daniel Kurtzman and Comedy Central]

Poor Fox News is caught between a rock and a hard place .. their Horrible Boss is being investigated for I don't know what-all .. horrible immoral things (hacking a dead girl's phone, making her parents, and police, think she's still alive) .. illegal things (bribing police) .. and the Fox anchors are struggling to cover their boss as he struggles to save the reputation of his media empire.

BTW - Rupert is so wily that he faked nodding off at the hearing .. wanting to appear weak .. "don't pick on an old man" .. or maybe to show disdain ...

All the news shows and cable news channels are covering the scandal .. but Fox News pundits downplay it and complain that those other mean news guys are "piling on."

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show joked that he expected them to say it was "the biggest case of piling on since Common read a poem at the White House" .. then he mocked Cal Thomas for comparing it to rugby - "if you’re going to kiss Rupert Murdoch’s ass with a reference, at least call it Ozzie Rules Football."

I, of course, am drunk on schadenfreude .. it's so good to see Fox and Friends getting their "Fair and Balanced" share.

Stewart has a lovely funny skit about how Fox isn't wasting its time with the epic Murdoch scandal consuming Britain's journalistic establishment .. when it did it's share of piling on poor NPR, accusing it of being an agent of "jihadist inquisition" Watch how Fox News treats NPR far harsher than its sister News of the World.

Jon Stewart eats Fox News' breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Fox was lucky yesterday, in a way .. because while their boss was being grilled before Parliament, a crazy comedian rushed through and "pied" Rupert .. finally giving Fox something to talk about.

During a 15 minute break, while the other news outlets moved on to critique what Murdoch and son had said, Fox just kept showing slow-motion replays of Murdoch’s wife, Wendi, smacking the intruder .. oven and over again .. until the hearing resumed.

Do they wonder how long they have until it their turn in the spotlight?

That's the way The Daily Show's Jon Stewart explains how polls are part of a vicious cycle:

"They have to put Donald Trump on every show spewing the craziest shit he can think of, because Donald's poll numbers are high. Mostly because they keep putting him on television to spew the craziest shit he can think of."

Please Jon .. leave Mr. Trump alone , I want him to win the GOP presidential nomination .. please, let him win ..

Seriously, I just wonder what the founding fathers would think of today's "corporate media" .. I'm petty sure our lazy and wholly-owned infotainment media is not what they had in mind when they said "a free and unfettered press."

When it comes down to it, the only thing major media corporations and their shareholders care about is how much money the company is making. People like Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann are always saying "crazy shit" and it drives up ratings .. viewers tune in to see what wacky thing they'll say next. The higher the ratings, the more money can be made from advertising, etc.

The left would probably get this kind of play from the media if it were the the Democrats saying "crazy shit" .. but the right has better crazies than we do .. I mean milquetoast old fogies like Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer would only have viewers falling asleep .. or, even Barack Obama, who only gets really provocative a few times a year.

Then too, Democrats are a little more discerning and don't just fall in line because some one in authority said so. Notice how Fox News welcomes all the rightie loudmouths they can get .. while MSNBC kicks off leftie loudmouths like Olberman. Makes me think that liberals actually care about the truth, while conservatives only want to see their narrow viewpoints echoed back to them.

Yes, Republicans are funny .. just not in the witty sense, more in the awkward sense. The other night on the Daily Show Jon Stewart made fun of conservatives trying to be funny at their recent CPAC pow wow.

He took a swipe at this group of government-haters, opening with, "But of course, the Middle East isn’t the only place where citizens are calling for an overthrow of the government."

Stewart showed clips of some of the lamer "comedic" moments .. rightie after rightie failed miserably as they tried to "roast" President Obama with weak jokes and poor timing.

Stewart said, "This year it's a roast! Only with Barack Obama as their Pamela Anderson, and Socialism as their 'she was married to someone with a comically large penis."

My favorite was Michele Bachmann: "You may know that the president of China's name is Hu....With all the money we owe to China, I think we might rightly say 'Hu's your daddy?'"

Hardly anyone laughed .. but I did .. and not for the right reasons. Like Jon said, "OK, so now we know how you would tell a joke to kindergarteners or an English-as-a-second-language class ...!"

Then too, if the audience doesn't have a sense of humor in the first place .. I imagined a big red "Laugh" sign lighting up ...

The rightie sense of humor doesn't seem to mature past 5th grade .. they don't have it in them to be humorous without being mean.

I remember Fox News' take-off on the Daily Show .. they called it "The Half Hour News Hour" .. it ran only a few weeks before they yanked it.

One reason is probably because news humor doesn't come through unless one is already well-informed .. if you don't keep up with the news, most of the content goes over your head. And we all know that at Fox News "stuff is just made up." ...

Also, everyone knows that all the really good comedy writers are Liberals.

This all reminds me of my bartending days decades ago .. how I had to put up with old-white-guy drunks and their racist and sexist 'jokes.' Their humor was like this CPAC crowd, not all that funny, and almost always either directly mean or mean spirited.

Here's Stewart's C-Snap video:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-15-2011/c-snap

BTW - I loved how the CPAC crowd heckled and booed the swaggering and arrogant Donald Trump .. now *that* was funny.

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart took a Democratic congressman to task for over the top rhetoric on the House floor. See, the neat thing about Stewart is that he points out hypocrisy and asinine behavior regardless of who is the hypocrite.

Anyone who thinks that Jon doesn't go after Democrats doesn't watch the show .. a true comedian goes after where ever the joke is, regardless of political party.

The segment is called "Word Warcraft" .. "Steve Cohen compares Republicans to Nazis a week after making an eloquent case for civil and honest discourse." I loved it.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-20-2011/word-warcraft