Because I believe that its very hard to stay sane in the time we live without watching some of The Daily Show... I try to post a few diary entries about last night's episodes when I get the chance. I hope you enjoy the video recap and feel free to weigh in with comments.

Last night's show dealt with Robert Novak's accident as well as Obama's continued trip overseas, part of the ongoing "Obama Quest" series. But wait, Jon says, there is another Presidential candidate on a quest (you jerks!) - it's John McCain's quest for attention, touring backwater towns in Pennsylvania.

Also, the continuous Osama/Obama brain farts are montaged and Jon does a run down for how you can tell the difference between Osama bin Laden and Barack Obama.

On last night's edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and John Oliver talked about the recent testimonies by members of the Bush administration on Capitol Hill for numerous different scandals. As Stewart explains - some or refusing to testify while others are testifying and refusing to say anything. Oliver claims that this is an historic administration that one day will have their names retired in the rafters of the Capitol building. Fathers will one day be able to tell their sons that yes, they saw the greatest douches of all time.

Also, Lewis Black rants about the economy and the "End of an Empire Sale". I'll try not to spoil it but suffice it to say that Lewis Black is always funny. There is also a new segment of Obama Quest up as well.

Enjoy the video recap and chime in with your thoughts / comments:

Last night on The Daily Show Obama's overseas journey to Iraq was covered in hilarious fashion as Jon waits eagerly for his first gaffe which never comes. They do however, play McCain's geography gaffe.

Colbert also covers Obama's trip thus far and gives some satirical commentary on the charges of media bias being leveled by people like FOX News' Chris Wallace and Steve Doocy.

The Colbert report also had one of the funniest interviews I've seen in months when he sat down with someone from the Sierra Club group of environmental lobbyists. While I consider myself an environmentalist, this interview was hysterical - especially the part with the polar bear (you gotta see it to understand).

Earlier today on Good Morning America, Senator John McCain made an incredibly confusing gaffe about the Middle East. When he was asked whether the situation in Afghanistan was urgent he said it was not, but that we had a "lot of work to do" given the "Situation along the Iraq-Pakistan border".

To anyone vaguely familiar with Middle Eastern geography this would be incredibly perplexing, given the fact that Iraq and Pakistan are separated by over a thousand miles and the land mass of Iran. Perhaps McCain meant to say "Iran-Pakistan" border...? But that wouldn't make much sense. Maybe he really isn't that savvy about foreign affairs.

Here is the clip and the full interview -

Its Friday and I'm sure we could all use a little bit of Daily Show humor at the end of this hard work week.

Last night on the show Jon's opening headlines covered the little-known reversal of Bush administration policy on negotiation or as they would inaccurately refer to it - appeasement. Despite the fact that Bush has criticized his political enemies for attempting to negotiate with evil "terrorist" countries like N. Korea and Iran... that is exactly what his administration has been doing (with success, actually) with North Korea and now with Iran.

He also takes a look at McCain & Obama's speech at the NAACP and the art of pandering to minorities. He tries to evaluate how each candidate is doing at pandering to Hispanics by using a Lou Dobbs meter.

Enjoy the videos and weigh in with comments -

Here is the NYT analysis of the speech:
http://www.nytimes.com/...

Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of electric power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.

Mr. Gore called for the kind of concerted national effort that enabled Americans to walk on the moon 39 years ago this month, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy famously embraced that goal.

This is just breaking from the AP and I pulled the clip below from C-Span.

"Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases."

What on earth? Maybe I just shouldn't be shocked anymore but its times like these that the phrase "reality based community" comes to mind and I'm happy to be a part of it. See, we in the reality based community make our decisions based on judicious study of discernible reality. People like Dick Cheney try to bury scientific study to suit their political/economic agenda. Thats the difference.

Watch the clip and weigh in with your thoughts on this breaking story:

I'm not kidding... well at least many on the right aren't kidding.

Pixar's new animated hit WALL-E has caused outrage amongst some on the right. Glenn Beck said that it was teaching his kids terrible environmental messages. Jonah Goldberg describes it a "Malthusian fear mongering" and the list goes on and on... leading many reasonable people to think "what the ****? this is a kids movie about robots in the future."

Here is a clip of Lars Larson from last night's edition of Verdict with Dan Abrams who defends his fellow right wing colleagues and says that  Pixar's WALL-E is dangerous propaganda for our children. Not only that, but he says that believing this doesn't make him a 'radical right' guy or the equivalent of (gasp) Keith Olbermann. Watch the clip below and weigh in with your own thoughts and opinions:

OK there may have already been a diary of this with the video clip, but I cannot find it if there was. Kristol's comments have become famous today and for good reason.

Bill Kristol said yesterday on FOX News Sunday that President Bush is more likely to attack Iran if he believes Sen. Barack Obama is likely to be elected President. He added that if McCain were elected Bush might feel that it would be "more appropriate" to let him make his own decision as commander in chief.

Not only does this reinforce the notion that McCain and Bush are joined at the hip when it comes to middle east foreign policy, but it also suggests that military decisions by the Bush admin. might be influenced by political poll numbers! That is absolutely unbelievable... the tone with which Kristol says "its difficult to base... on guesses about poll numbers" is astonishing to me and from the looks of even others like Hume on the panel I may not be alone.

If you missed it check out the clip below and weigh in with your thoughts / opinions:

This morning on Meet The Press, Brian Williams announced that Tom Brokaw will be the moderator of the show through the 2008 November elections. Brian added that it was an honor to host the show this morning and said that he may be back from time to time to fill in as moderator.

While it remains unclear whether Brokaw will maintain the position through the 2008 elections I'd say that the odds are probably better than 50/50 that he stays on. What are people's thoughts about Brokaw taking the position if this is true? I think its a far better option than say, Chris Matthews for the MTP format and would be content with it. While he may not be Russert I think he can maintain the tradition of hard questioning and journalistic objectivity that Tim was able to juggle for so many years.

Last night on Verdict with Dan Abrams it was revealed that John McCain has stated (repeatedly) that he didn't really love America until he was deprived of her company. While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with those statements (Abrams even says that they are eloquent) how are they really any different from Michelle Obama's comments that she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life?

Michelle has tried to clarify her remarks by saying that she was referring to her pride in America's political process but to no avail. Will these recently uncovered comments by McCain blunt the "Proud" assault on the Obamas? Weigh in with your thoughts and opinions below:

John McCain's chief economic adviser helped create what Olbermann calls "a legalized form of insider trading". This is a pretty in-depth report with a lot of details that shows how the road to four dollar gas begins with a little company called Enron (remember them?).

Keith Olbermann looks at the infamous "Enron Loophole" and how McCain Senior Advisor Phil Gramm is highly involved in policies that screwed the public for corporate / financial gain. They were able to take advantage of post-9/11 confusion and were awarded deregulation across the energy market.

Take a look at Countdown's special report and weigh in with your own thoughts and opinions below:

Today on The View, future first lady Michelle Obama guest-hosted the show. Below are all the video segments from the show. The often criticized but always confident and well spoken Michelle did a good job on the show.

She was asked a lot of tough questions but seemed to handle them with grace under fire (much like her husband). Anyways, I'm just going to share the videos below and allow others to weigh in with their own thoughts and opinions:

It recently came to my attention that FOX News host Brit Hume said something absurd (maybe thats not news?) on last night's broadcast. I have included the video below so that people can watch the segment and make their own judgments.

In a nutshell, he summarizes how Obama's new website Fight The Smears states that he has never been a Muslim and has always been a Christian. However, Brit says, Obama's half brother Malik Obama is "not so sure" that this is the case. His half brother apparently stated that:  "if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background."

While it is unclear exactly what context that was said in, or what was implied - Brit's statement of his half brother being "not so sure" about Obama's Christian faith seems distorted unless it can be backed up with a substantive quote (it was not during the Special Report broadcast).

Watch the clip and weigh in with thoughts / opinions below:

Last night on The Daily Show the show did a segment called "Still President Bush" chronicling his trip to Europe. The President says he doesn't regret his decision to invade Iraq but regrets the mis perception he gave off that he wanted war through his rhetoric and insists he does not like war. Jon points out that his rhetoric toward Iran at that very same conference, mirrors his Iraq rhetoric. No sense of irony.... none at all...

Also, Jon interviews Richard Engel about the Iraq war and Stephen Colbert interviews Dickson Despommier about vertical farming. Weigh in with thoughts and opinions below:

Last night on "The Factor" or the "no spin zone" or "whatever the **** it is", Dennis Kucinich stopped by to talk about the 35 articles of impeachment he introduced against President George W. Bush.

Bill O'Reilly doesn't seem used to dealing with a guy as cool-headed and factual as Kucinich. He dismisses his attempt to read from the Rockefeller report, refuses to answer a hypothetical about how he'd feel if he knew for a fact the war was based on lies and tells him to stop with the silly "partisan" nonsense that is "going nowhere" on the impeachment issue.

I'm not really sure why I'm posting this other than being a fan of Dennis and admiring what he did on the floor of the U.S. House. Weigh in with thoughts/opinions below:

Last night on The Daily Show w. Jon Stewart Senator Jim Webb of Virginia (my favorite for Vice President) stopped by to promote his book "A Time To Fight" and discussed his G.I. Bill, the military, mercenaries and the current state of affairs in American politics.

The show also does a great job of covering the media's obsessive non-story about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's secret meeting, the barrage of questioning given to Obama on whether he'll select Hillary Clinton as his Vice Presidential choice etc.

But the best reporting last night was done on the media's lack of coverage over the Senate Intelligence Report that indicates we were lied into war in Iraq. You know when The Daily Show cares more about the Senate Intelligence Report than any of the 24 hour networks or big 3 cable channels' nightly news broadcast.

Weigh in with thoughts / opinions below:

Conservative icon and Pulitzer prize winning syndicated columnist George F. Will stopped by Morning Joe today. He made some pretty bold predictions about the general election, saying that Obama's edege in the polls is even greater than the current polling indicates because it doesn't take into account the probability for turnout. He says that Barack Obama has energized the voting public in a way that makes the current gloomy poll numbers even gloomier for conservatives.

George Will also had some frank words regarding the state of the Conservative movement in today's America. He said that today the Conservative movement is in a state of deep but not terminal confusion. He says that while it may be cliche "we came to Washington to change Washington... and Washington ended up changing us".

Check out the highlights from the interview: