Terrific Stephen Colbert round up from HuffingtonPost. Must read.

[roguevalley]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/is-stephen-colbert-the-la_b_20774.html

Apparently Stephen hasn't read one thing about his performance and therefore has no idea of his impact on the blogosphere and in the public. Lovely boy, Our Stephen.

Commentary under story:

An old friend of mine grew up under the Communist regime of an East European country. When I told him Colbert would be performing at the dinner, he predicted it would be a "government sanctioned performance designed to release the steam of public unrest". When I showed him the video last night, he leaped up and paced around the room saying, "I was completely wrong. This is a great man with the courage of a lion! He sliced them with the sword of his tongue."

- umen, 05.11.2006

How about, "Stephen Colbert: greatest comedian or simply the best comedian ever?"

- cowboyneok, 05.11.2006

The stakes have never been higher...the adversaries to our freedom and to our very Constitution were never this powerful (and never this vicious)...and the need for someone to step forward and slap Bush and all of his various hookers in the so called MSM who have helped to facilitate the near demise of our once great Nation...with a cold-dead-fish has never been more keenly felt.

Therefore it must be concluded that Mr. Colbert is without peers.

There is simply no one with whom to compare him to. Not Swift or Twain and certainly not Bruce. His devastating attack can't even be compared the Boston Tea Party because quite unlike the good patriots of Massachusetts... Stephen's assault was a solo performance.

Alone in a room full of some of the most nefarious individuals that this country has ever produced...standing no more than five or six feet from the world's greatest living terrorist...he never once fell out of character...never missed a single lacerating blow.

It is really a tragic travesty that so few Americans have actually seen this extraordinary moment in American history.

Steven Colbert is the greatest living American Patriot. Period.

(And guess what...it wasn't supposed to be funny.)

- commanderwhitehead, 05.11.2006

Let's hope Colbert doesn't decide to sell out and hawk undies a la Dylan.

To Colbert's wife Evelyn, you must not let him stew in the cricket reception he got at the Correspondence dinner. Really, you must insist that he knows the millions of people who, because of him, raise their chins and battle on - against lapdog media, against bullies, against incompetence.

Stephen told the truth to their face and they didn't laugh. That just means that they now know that we know that they know.... they nothing but literate, elitist, greedy, sellouts that could right now be better replaced with a court reporter.

You pulled back the curtain and they were all caught giving a handjob to the great and powerful OZ.

- think4myself, 05.11.2006

In a time of compromise, Colbert went for the jugular. I've mentioned this before, but he was like Van Helsing sprinkling holy water and ramming wooden stakes at a vampire convention.

His greatest contribution was not his speaking truth to power, but to expose through their reactions during and in reviews thereafter with stunning clarity, all those "journalists" of the neutered mainstream media, who more than anyone have played the role of enablers to mad King George and his insidious cabal.

Colbert may not have "brought the house down" as gauged by the reaction of his audience of Bush Philistines, but he brought it down in the tradition of Samson in that other Philistine temple. And back then, those Philistines weren't laughing much either.

[IndyOp]

1. Poetic: He sliced them with the sword of his tongue.

Nice find RV! :hi:

[roguevalley]

24. thank you, IndyOp

:hug:

[WobbliesUnite]

2. Why was it courageous?

He knew going in that no one would challenge him at the event. I took it more in the vein of a sneak attack. Funny though

[Libby2]

3. Of course you did.

Brother......

[reichstag911]

4. Even using the words "sneak attack"...

...diminishes it. He did nothing sneaky; he did his act. It was focused on Bush and the WH Press Corps(e), but that's the nature of the audience at the event as opposed to his show.

[WobbliesUnite]

6. I disagree

The event was understood to be good natured kidding. Colbert certainly wasn't good natured about it. Yes, he was funny, witty and very insightful, but why do you think it was courageous? Was someone going to get up and hit him or verbally challenge him? He knew that wouldn't happen.

Sorry, it takes more than that for someone to be my latest hero.

[reichstag911]

16. Fuck good-natured kidding, OK?

This country has been hijacked by a plutocratic cabal intent on enriching themselves "beyond the dreams of avarice," and driven into a ditch which is filling with water. Colbert's duty as a citizen dictated that his act be something more than the false -- but oh so good-natured -- bonhomie that is de rigueur on the Beltway party circuit.

[WobbliesUnite]

25. Calm down my friend

We are only talking about someone's opinion of what courage is. I believe I have made my point quite well and it hasn't been refuted.

I wasn't opining on the general state of all matter in the known universe yet.

[reichstag911]

31. If you say so,...

...but I feel my post #4 shot down your "sneak attack" comment quite well. We'll agree to disagree on this minor spat.

[pacalo]

17. Would it take something like this?

[WobbliesUnite]

26. Please, no need to get THAT nasty.

Doens't take much courage to launch a sneak attack. Just sayin'

[pacalo]

30. The term "sneak attack" would apply only to those who aren't familiar

with Colbert. He doesn't hide what he is. Btw, he's very popular with young voters. My son, who isn't into politics, watched it on YouTube twice.

[Jacobin]

5. my my my

.............

[WobbliesUnite]

7. Yeeesssss.......?

[roguevalley]

9. First of all, name ONE person who has stood before the King

and told him his fly was open. Name one. Anyone? Right. It takes guts to go into an event knowing that what you are going to say will leave vertical red stripes across a humorless, brainless but vindictive dictators sorry ass. That takes guts. It takes guts to know what you are going to do and to have to sit and wait for that moment to rise and walk up and do it three feet from the worst dictator alive.

[WobbliesUnite]

10. Because

By doing it he faced what consequences?

[roguevalley]

12. Let me see. I can remember people being audited by the IRS

for less. The full force of the GOP attack apparatus. Economic support for his work from disgruntled idiots who believe in idiot in chief. Just to name a few.

And you still haven't named one person who stood before Bush and let him have it with both barrels. :)

[WobbliesUnite]

13. John Kerry did

Numerous hecklers have.

I would have no fear in doing it. Especially if everyone was caught off guard like they were at the event in question.

I would think doing what Colbert did would gurantee AGAINST being audited by the IRS. Wouldn't that be a little to obvious? I think so.

To each their own I guess.

[CatWoman]

8. Assholes unite!!!

[WobbliesUnite]

11. Say wha?

[FighttheFuture]

14. I guess you are a bit lost to what Bu$hitCo and the Corporate owned...

media does to its enemies and Colbert has certainly declared himself at this event. Colbert spoke truth to power with biting humor to the main puppet Bushie and some of his henchmen sitting just feet away. Given how little of that we see today, with so many fooled into "deference" and "respect" for these criminals who deserve only loathing and resistance, coupled with the ball-licking, deepthroating, bend-over-and-take-it lapdog mainstream media, it was a singular act of courage that will likely make the history books once this corruption in our country is dealt with.


Does this help?

[LilyLibber]

18. Well said!

I still think that some MSM folks are in the process of finding the biggest shovel they can to dig deep into Stephen's past, trying to find something incriminating to bludgeon him with a couple years from now, when the immediate response to his brilliant speech has cooled somewhat.

Hell, his name has become practically synonymous with the slang use of "balls" in some parts of the blogosphere... so, may more and more people have the Colberts to stand up in the face of complacency, cowardice, and criminality! :applause:

[WobbliesUnite]

29. That's just my point

I'm saying it didn't take much in the way of balls to say what he said.

It's all been said before. Because it made you personally glad that he did it within earshot of Bush* doesn't make it noteworthy. It seems like you have a lot emotionally invested in Mr. Colbert's comedy routines.

Colbert has his own life and you have yours..., I hope.

[roguevalley]

22. thank you. couldn't have said it better. :)

[WobbliesUnite]

27. Because something makes you feel extremely good

doesn't make it courageous. Looking at it objectively, he risked nothing and nothing has happened to him.

Again, answer the question: What consequences, aside from rather positive ones from various circles, has he faced?\

???

[pacalo]

15. "Sneak" attack? Are you familiar with Colbert's act?

He plays an O'Reilly character, poking fun of Faux News tactics.

Check out his program:

- No facts, only spin

- After he introduces his guest, he jumps up from his desk, grandiosely trots to the interviewing area with his arms waving in the air, as though the audience's applause was for him, because, after all, isn't O'Reilly's show all about him?

Also, did you notice how many times Colbert made eye contact with the wannabe king? Nothing sneaky about that.

[roguevalley]

23. I guess this is being missed. They smugly asked the funniest

comedian on tv, the hipster of all time to come and schmooze with them. They thought it would be wink-wink, nudge-nudge and they would all have a buff layer of his cool glossed over them too. They didn't get it. It was a sneak attack in that Stephen came as himself in that character that they obviously don't get from their reaction and they got plowed. it means that even with a comedian like Stephen, they don't get it. Stephen is the hipster, smart, ballsilicious dude of all time.

[WobbliesUnite]

28. I thought the jokes were okay, funny

But nothing to write home about. I think you are reading too much into his "act". But, of course, that's just my opinion.

[FighttheFuture]

32. and a lame opinion it is!

[rocktivity]

19. He's "nursing a tender spot" about his "chilly reception?" Oh, come now.

...Millions have watched the video of (Colbert's) performance...and/or read the transcript, and tens of thousands of people have posted letters of gratitude and appreciation...

...When I ran into him the other night...he told me that he had strenuously avoided reading anything about his appearance--the good, the bad, or the ugly...

If anything, he seemed to be nursing a tender spot about the chilly reception his utterly brilliant performance got in the room that night...(I)t's tough for any performer, especially one used to appearing in front of a wildly appreciative crowd ...to suddenly find himself playing to a hostile crowd.

Either Colbert was "Colberting" you, Arianna, or you've mis-under-interpreted him. Do you honestly think that if his goal was to get the kind of roaring belly laughs that the Bush impersonator got, he would have said what he did? Put another away, remember that scene in F9/11 where Bush said, "They call you the elite--I call you my base"? Colbert's message was, "They call you the elite--I'm CALLING YOU OUT on behalf of my base!" The people in that audience weren't the "crowd" Colbert was playing to--the millions who have responded so "appreciatively" to his performance was!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Peace Patriot]

20. He is the child who cried, "The Emperor has no clothes on!"

I just realized it. This is the mythic hero that his action reminds me of. A comedian--traditionally an innocent "Fool"--can tell the truth. And a child can tell the truth. And the impact was identical to that in the children's story, "The Emperor's New Clothes." Suddenly, the stupid, mesmerized, power-gaming adults--who kissed the emperor's ass and pretended to believe that the Emperor's invisible clothes were real--had the delusion ripped from their eyes, and the REALITY of the Emperor's egregious FALSEHOOD hit everyone at once. A child, a classic "Fool," a comedian, can both see the truth and say it, because they are not part of that sullied, ass-kissing adult world.

As for Stephen Colbert's courage, the truth is that he is not a child; his comedian art--the art of seeing through facades--gave him the content, but the heart and soul of the man gave him the nerve to expose the naked Emperor to his face, in full knowledge of what he was doing, even with all the Emperor's minions surrounding him and fawning upon his invisible suit, made of the gossamers of war profiteering corporate news monopoly faked up stories of our "commander in chief". And the Emperor stood naked before us all.

No, they will not forgive him for this. There is nothing worse than saying, "The Emperor has no clothes on," to George Bush. Because that is the essence of the problem. He has no skills as emperor or commander--let alone as a president. He is a fake--a puppet of the super-rich, the oil giants and the war profiteers. He isn't even a good king. He is just a mean little man who used to blow up frogs as a child and the perfect candidate for putting a Jesus face on slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, torturing prisoners, stealing from the poor to give to the rich, and destroying every "common good" program and law in our country. He cannot BE "commander in chief," no matter how hard his fawners try to dress him up that way. And he cannot BE, and never will be, president in any real sense of the word, because he has NO CARE--zero, zilch--for our country or its people.

Colbert stripped these raiments away. And they will never forgive him. He knew this going in. That is courage.

Just imagine if it had been an ADULT in the crowd cheering the Emperor and his "new clothes," who had shouted out the reality. Even a clown. He would have been putting his life at risk. That's what Colbert did. He put his life at risk--among the most dangerous and vicious people on this earth--to speak the child's words: "The Emperor has no clothes on!"

There is a time for lightheartedness and jest. And there is a time, when grave harm has been done, and untold pain inflicted, when lightheartedness and jest cannot be tolerated. I think Stephen Colbert's timing was exactly right. There is nothing funny about what the Bush junta and its news lapdogs have done. It cannot be forgiven over dinner and cocktails; it cannot be chuckled at, at a Beltway laugh fest. The fiction around this murderous "commander in chief" and this traitorous president cried out to be punctured. And I am very glad that Stephen Colbert did so--and hugely admiring of his skill and his composure, in view of the lethal audience that he was facing.

[rocktivity]

21. Actually, Colbert cried "The emperor has no clothes

and there ISN'T an emperor, either!"

:headbang:
rocknation

[zann725]

33. Poetic with Truthiness. Good post!

n/t:thumbsup:

[nickinSTL]

34. "literate, elitist, greedy, sellouts"

I don't dispute the "elitist greedy sellouts", but...

Is "literate" really an insult? :wtf: