We love a good public ass-reaming as much as the next guy! And has there ever been a bigger jackass than Bill Bennett, so-called “Morality Czar” and professional right-wing scold?
Possessed of a mellifluous baritone, the glum-faced Bennett affects a tragic gravitas as he pumps out the bullshit. Where is the outrage, he moans. The outrage he speaks of is not over the Haditha massacre, or unauthorized wiretapping, or Congress being bought and sold by corporate lobbyists. No, our boy Bill is worried about “the assault on marriage” coming from all those lesbian commandos in Massachusetts.
Hawking a new book with the triumphalist title America — The Last Best Hope (of civilization, we assume), he is making the rounds of the news shows, gassing about the issues du jour. Yet not one of his interrogators — not Tim Russert, or Chris Matthews or Jim Lehrer, all serious journalists who pride themselves on hard-hitting interviews — has called him on the stream of non sequiturs and inanities that make up his anti-gay-marriage shtick.
No one, that is, until Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central. (Why is a comedian on a fake-news show the only really vigorous interviewer in America today? That is a question the historians will need to answer, and trust us, they won’t be kind.) Sit back, kiddies, and enjoy the show
AND IN RELATED NEWS: The White House’s use of double-talk on this issue is not going unnoticed by newspaper editorialists.
David Link writes in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece:
Listening to President Bush, you’d never know that the nation is having a debate over gay marriage. Instead, we hear such things as “Marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith … the commitment of a husband and a wife.”
Apparently, for the president, this is an argument of heterosexuals, by heterosexuals and for heterosexuals.
But heterosexuals already have marriage. The reason this debate is going on is because homosexuals do not — and, for the first time, have made the argument that they should…
The irony gets thick when the president purports to be evenhanded in conducting this half-debate. Bush said this in his most recent address on the issue: “As this debate goes forward, we must remember that every American deserves to be treated with tolerance, respect and dignity. All of us have a duty to conduct this discussion with civility and decency toward one another, and all people deserve to have their voices heard.”
What Americans is he talking about? The ones he consciously never named in his speech? Does he seriously think lesbians and gay men are being treated with ‘civility and decency’ — much less ‘tolerance’ or ‘respect’ — when he will not meet publicly with a gay or lesbian group on this issue and will not even mention that the debate over same-sex marriage is about them?
It is beyond laughable at this point for the president to say that “all people deserve to have their voices heard” when he is the chief person who will not hear those voices.
If homosexual Americans are not entitled to equal protection, then an honest president would say so and explain why…
For decades now, lesbians and gay men have been open about our sexual orientation. But the president’s message to his supporters is that we should just stick with what worked for so long — at least for heterosexuals. If lesbians and gay men won’t go back in the closet, he will do what he can to impose one.
Wonderfully insightful!
I am often overwhelmed by Jon Stewart’s ability to confront issues in a way that nobody else can or does. When he invites guests with controversial topics, he comes armed with humor and intellect that cuts through all the bs we hear from other interviewers, putting all the “real” newsmen to shame. Jon Stewart has become a national treasure and an invaluable resourse for both real and fake news.
DITTO to Rich’s comments
Considering all the scuttlebutt, rumor and hearsay (which is becoming less and less scuttlebutt and more and more likely) with Laura Bush relocating her digs because Bush and Rice could very likely be gettin’ it on, at least there’s a measure of schadenfreude to be enjoyed…so much for commitment, Mr. President.
I caught this wonderful set-em-up-knock-em-down that Stewart delivered up the night before last! My reactions were exactly the same: where are those shiny, happy people in the tele-newsmedia taking this misleading and ridiculous jerk to task? Brad and Angelina’s baby is more of a story it seems.
Did you see all those charts, family photos, and chest-puffery going on in the Senate? You know, I love heterosexuals as long as they don’t rub it in my face…
Remember folks, he’s not a decider he’s a divider.
haha! Great show, the fat guy sure has no leg to stand on than his conservative view of the world. It’s a shame he’s so blind to see that gay-marriage will eventually pull through anyhow. No matter how many death-fasts or protests the conservative/ religious people do, we will get our freedom.
Not I’m not free or anything, you will get your freedom. And we here in the Ntherlands have no problem with marriage, we are a free nation with equal rights, and a healthy distaste for any-one/-thing that strikes against our or anybodie’s freedom; reason nr.01 we dislike your president.
What an ass! Jon Stewart deserves an Emmy just for this show.
As for the person from the Netherlands, we don’t like our
president either.
Oy vey! We are being scapegoated for what exactly?
The quagmire in Iraq?
The devaluation of the dollar, hyper-inflation, record deficit spending and a collapsing manufacturing base along with a diminishing economy for the vast majority of Americans?
The lowest approval rating for any administration, ever?
Crumbling infrastructure, poorly educated citizens and an ever decreasing high culture?
Gun violence and homicide?
Illicit and prescription drug abuse?
These folks could care less about our rights or anybody else’s. They only care about their NeoCon agenda and enriching themselves further at any cost. History will judge accordingly.
I think there is actually no reason to be against gay marriage;
- If marriage was a loving bind (by Religion) than it surely should applie to gay people because we are happily able to love another guy/woman
- If marriage was a mere financial advantage for couples to support children for example, we should also get it, as we can adopt children (though I’m not really into that)
- If marriage would be a Christian binding of two lovers, male and female, it is a matter of extremism in that Book, I don’t think God would have any problem with it.
- Would marriage just be an old habit, of long gone times, than what the f*ck are we arguing about?!?!?!
Define your marriage, I’m getting married in Church when I find a good guy.
john stewert certainly took this fraud to task, and i agree with a lot that has been said about it. however, at the risk of drawing the ire of readers here, i would like to give you my 2 cents on this debate. i think it is a forgone conclusion that gay “marriage” will eventually be legalized. having said that, i really think this issue needs to be taken off the table. it is being used against gays and lesbians in a way previously unexperienced by the glbt community. solely for POLITICAL purpuses. it is like arming your enemies (the rapture-ready evangelical fundoz), a bunch of bronze-age children, with guns. this issue is being used to elect tyrants- to the detriment of not just gays, but, indeed, every living soul in the world. being intrinsically tied to and defined historically by religion, marriage is just too hot of a button to press right now. first things first. there is a bigger picture.
Sorry to be so late jumping in here, but are Tess’s remarks accurate? Are there really rumors of Bush and Condi getting it on? ‘Cause ladies and gentlemen, according to the newspeople I know–including a couple of high-rankers–Condi prefers the company of women…
You know as a gay man in a committed relationship for over 6 years now……and I’m not looking to infuriate other gay Americans here……. but maybe we’d better pressed to slap heterosexuals back with a “well if we can’t get married then after you have your first marriage, everything else is just a domestic partnership!” It just seems like the so called “sanctity” of marriage has been a mockery for so many decades now that this entire issue has just become a farce!
I would seriously like to see a “Dateline” episode examining the statistics for the entire country and state breakdown…I’d bet it be a real eye opener!
After viewing the clip, the reasons for the so-called breakdown in society are not so difficult to see. The main cause is the intolerance for diversity, the incompetence of leadership and political gamesmenship run rampant.
Bennett is a hypocrite of the worst type. Gambling could also be another cause for the breakdown of the family- studies have linked gambling to divorce, bankruptcy, domestic abuse, and other family problems.
“On July 12 of last year, for instance, Bennett lost $340,000 at Caesar’s Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. And just three weeks ago, on March 29 and 30, he lost more than $500,000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. “There’s a term in the trade for this kind of gambler,” says a casino source who has witnessed Bennett at the high-limit slots in the wee hours. “We call them losers.”
But then, isnt this merely a diversion set up by an administration bankrupt of any moral authority whatsoever? And remember all the farce prosecution of Clinton and the hand job? At least, thousands of soldiers were not thrown, undersupported and ill-equipped into an unwinnable war all for the sake of sustaining record-breaking oil prices.
Stewart takes the gloves off on a regular basis and often calls windbags to the mat. Yes, he’s engaging and hilarious on the surface, but underneath there’s a mind like a snap trap that’s just ready to be sprung. The man can hold his own against any self-aggrandizing dweeb.
I am pleasantly amazed and delighted how comedians like Steward, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher have slipped under the radar and unintentionally become great pundits. Their comedy is a mirror put up to hypocritical political/popular culture and it’s they who take the real risks in lampooning fatuous authority for all it deserves.