After taking last week off, they're back with new episodes this week. Jon criticized the right-wing for reflexively being against whatever Obama called for, while also criticizing Obama for not communicating with the American public well enough to explain why we're doing this in Libya, but not other countries where the dictators are violently cracking down on the protesters.
I guess we should be happy that their intractable reflexive disdain for anything that the President does, is at least policy based.
ERIC BOLLING (3/16/2011): Libya's still burning, the disaster in Japan continues ... and President Obama, still golfing, throwing parties, hitting the gym, and playing lots of basketball. He's even found some time in his busy schedule to fill out his March Madness brackets. This President has forgotten his day job. Is the man on a permanent vacation?
.... By the way, watch that analyst's reptilian brain re-wire itself once it becomes aware that Bracketology is not particularly time-consuming.
3/16/2011:
CHRISTIAN DORSEY: Did you see his brackets? He picked four #1 seeds. It probably took him two minutes to do it.
ERIC BOLLING: You know what, you're right. Like everything else he does, he phoned that one in as well.
Damn you Mr. President! Not just for wasting time on the tournament, but for wasting so little time on it.
Video and transcript below the fold.
But let's begin tonight with the United States bombing of Libya, in our new segment, America at Not-War. For weeks now, many on the Right had been pleading for action in the face of Muammar Gaddafi's tyranny.
JOHN BOLTON (3/1/2011): I think we need a no-fly zone. We've got to put pressure on Gaddafi.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SC (3/16/2011): I'm just urging the President to do a no-fly zone with willing partners, and see if we can turn this around.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-AZ (2/27/2011): They're looking to America for leadership, for assistance, for moral support, and ratification of the sacrifices they've made in defense of democracy. America should lead.
Well, Mission Accomplished. Is that phrase tainted? Because as of Saturday, we opened up a huge can of no-fly ass on Libya. Those three must be thick as thieves with Obama this week.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-AZ (3/20/2011): Obviously, if we had taken this step a couple of weeks ago, a no-fly zone would've probably been enough. Now, a no-fly zone is not enough.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SC (3/20/2011): I'm very worried that we're taking a backseat, rather than a leadership role.
JOHN BOLTON (3/21/2011): Look, the President is close to doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason.
You got your fucking bombs, what more do you need?? You got your bombs! You got your no-fly zone! But also, you gotta see the President want it? John Bolton is like that dickish junior manager at an Applebee's. "Oh, looks like there's one thing missing from your customer's order." (makes a smiley face)
I guess we should be happy that their intractable reflexive disdain for anything that the President does, is at least policy based.
ERIC BOLLING (3/16/2011): Libya's still burning, the disaster in Japan continues ... and President Obama, still golfing, throwing parties, hitting the gym, and playing lots of basketball. He's even found some time in his busy schedule to fill out his March Madness brackets. This President has forgotten his day job. Is the man on a permanent vacation?
(Obama staffer voice) Mr. President, Gaddafi is at the gates of Benghazi, the Tomahawk missiles are at the ready, sir, what shall we... we await your... what's that? Yes, no I understand, VCU is surprisingly athletic, and the Hoyas were without the steadying influence of their veteran point guard, so it wasn't that much of a... no sir, I don't know what a Tar Heel is, should we... I'll just tell everyone you said that it was OK to bomb.
By the way, watch that analyst's reptilian brain re-wire itself once it becomes aware that Bracketology is not particularly time-consuming.
3/16/2011:
CHRISTIAN DORSEY: Did you see his brackets? He picked four #1 seeds. It probably took him two minutes to do it.
ERIC BOLLING: You know what, you're right. Like everything else he does, he phoned that one in as well.
Damn you Mr. President! Not just for wasting time on the tournament, but for wasting so little time on it.
So the Republicans are unhappy with Obama no matter what he does, but the left has his back. No?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH, D-OH (3/18/2011): We're sending a message that says the U.S. is ready to pursue aggression against anybody we don't agree with in that region. That's a very dangerous message to just send.
REP. ROB ANDREWS, D-NJ (3/21/2011): I'm concerned that the only vote that took place on that rationale took place in the U.N. Security Council, and not the United States Congress.
REP. MICHAEL CAPUANO, D-MA (3/21/2011): I think you have two problems. Number one, is he didn't come to Congress, which I think the Constitution requires, and number two, if you're gonna go in, if you're gonna go in for a dime, you'd better go in for a dollar. There's no halfway measure when it comes to war and peace.
In for a dime or a dollar. Uh, who was that, was that the Congressman from The Fighter?
(in thick Boston accent)
"If you're gonna fight Gaddafi, you gotta lay it on the line, you gotta have heart."
"I'm just tryin' to keep this country together, Charlene!"
By the way, if you enjoyed that, you'll enjoy my one-man show, "Operation: Wicked Awesome".
Where Jon Stewart uses the characters of The Fighter to explain American foreign policy. Starts at 8, and ends when Dennis Leary comes down and punches me in the head.
Are these criticisms of Obama just a typical expression of the right's disdain for the President, or the left's disappointment in the President? I don't know. I think I would have to know the administration's rationale for this operation, and I kinda don't. I mean, I know what the administration said we were doing.
BARACK OBAMA (3/18/2011): We will provide the unique capabilities that we can bring to bear to stop the violence against civilians, including enabling our European allies and Arab partners to effectively enforce a no-fly zone.
Stop the violence against the civilians, I kinda like that. But see, there are other civilians in other countries protesting, and they're being killed too, and for them, we're enforcing a not-even-gonna-try zone. And the Libyan civilians were actually armed. So it seems like we've just taken sides in a civil war. And if that's the case, I'd love to hear more about our new allies. What are their likes, dislikes? Is one of their dislikes, I don't know, us? Do they believe America, the Great Satan, or just your average run-of-the-mill Satan?
See, I do feel like one of the problems we're having with you, Mr. President, is a communications gap. Here in America, we've become accustomed to what's known as "the run-up to war". The certain amount of time where the President and his emissaries make a case for military action or whatever euphemism they've come up with: freedom-seeding, democracy-showering.... And then the President's adversaries make their case for why military intervention's a terrible idea, usually in direct opposition to whatever arguments they were making when their party had the Presidency, and they got to invade stuff. Then we the people have a couple of marches, ribbon colors are chosen, and then about 6 or 9 months later, you get to blow the shit out of whatever it was you wanted to blow the shit out of.
Now, I understand that there was a time constraint here, people were in peril, but it was a time constraint of a few weeks. I'm not suggesting we need a whole Bush-style flood the airwaves with everyone who has a White House ID card media blitz, and let's have a U.N. anthrax parade. No.
By the way, none of that turned out to be true, but we did appreciate the effort. But you, Mr. President, you don't even seem to think enough of us to lie to us. I don't even know who your team is. For God's sakes, who's your Chief of Staff? All we know is your old Chief of Staff is running around Chicago screaming, "Fuck you, I'm the mayor!" You know who this is?
Do you know who this is, Mr. President? Do you know who that is? Me neither. Turns out he's your National Security Advisor, your Condoleezza Rice. You know who he should meet? The press. Now, your administration has put a lot of military officials out on the media Lazy Susan, but all they can say is what we're doing.
GEN. CARTER HAM (3/21/2011): Our mission is to protect civilians from attack by the regime ground forces.
But it's not why we're doing it. It's like you're using them as some sort of human shield against a full-scale media attack. Now I know you said when you took office that you were going to talk to the country like we were adults. But we didn't think that meant like adults who've been married for 40 years, and have that weird shorthand/repressed anger that keeps them from actually having to talk to each other at all. And by the way, I think even they would have a sit-down when it comes to going to war.
"Hey honey, did we invade the neighbors?"
"DIDN'T YOU SEE MY POST-IT?!? FOR GOD'S SAKE, WOMAN!!!"
Look, Mr. President, I still think this relationship is worth saving. I think it can work. And I know we've put an awful lot of our hopes and expectations on you, after you did that whole "you can put your hopes and expectations on me" thing. But I guess what I really want to know is, are you in it with us too? Are you in it for the long haul? Are you sick of us? Do you want to work this out with us?
CHRIS WALLACE (3/20/2011): ... the President continuing with the trip to Brazil, while U.S. forces go into war ...
(crying) Oh my God, you went to Brazil!?! Well, you can have your naked-butted floozies!! There you are! There's all your Stevie Wonder CDs!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!! (runs off screaming)
Jon also
covered this on Monday night with
Aasif Mandvi, and
John Oliver explained why different countries get different "Freedom Packages" in the form of a late-night infomercial.
Last night, Lewis Black also had a
hilarious segment explaining why Donald Trump is the perfect GOP nominee for 2012.
Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert looked at the
world crises, as well as the
sniping between CNN and Fox News over their Libya coverage. He also looked at how Californians are
responding to the Japanese disaster.
Jon interviewed
Sarah Vowell on Monday, and
T.J. English on Tuesday. Stephen had on
Steve Martin on Monday, and
Ayman Mohyeldin on Tuesday.