The infamous AUMF law

Stephen Colbert carefully walks us through the Authorized Use of Military Force (AUMF) legislation that enabled presidents Bush and Obama to take all the actions they have taken in the so-called war on terror and has given us torture, indefinite detention, drone murders, and the like. I had not realized that the operational part of this legislation, passed just one week after the events of 9/11, was so brief, consisting of just 60 words. Here is the relevant part: [Read more…]

The metamorphosis of Dylan Ratigan

Although I had never watched his show, I knew that Dylan Ratigan was one of those blustering talk show hosts who seemed to be in a state of perpetual outrage. He left his show on MSNBC to pursue a new direction in life working on an organic hydroponic farm. Al Madrigal of The Daily Show looks at his transformation, using the same techniques that these vapid cable news talk shows use: phony outrage, manufactured ‘balance’, and pointless panels. All these are staples of such shows, necessary in order to hide the lack of real news and to fill up the air time. [Read more…]

What happened to Toronto?

Canada does not have the reputation that the US has for breeding crazy politicians. So it came as something of a surprise that the people of Toronto, the largest city in that country, elected as their mayor in 2010 Rob Ford who seems to be almost a caricature of a scandal-plagued politician, embroiled in one embarrassing episode after another, sometimes involving alcohol and drugs, at other times racial and sexual insensitivity. Here is an article chronicling his past weird behavior. [Read more…]

Stephen Colbert on the Heritage-Richwine affair

He provides a pretty good summary and commentary of the issue that I have been writing about (see here and here).

(This clip was aired on May 14, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)