Bullshite. Colbert doesn't have a moderate frigging bone in his body.

What's fun about Colbert is...
half the liberals believe he is a Conservative, and
half the conservatives believe he is a Liberal.

The other two halves agree with everything he says. ;)

I think he is a Goddammed fool. I have more respect for John Stewart.

I like them both.

Jon Stewart, no "h".

Colbert's personality is complete satire. He's a genius. His whole show/personality is about bringing to light the hypocrisy, inconstancy, and utter ridiculousness of much of our news and politicians. I'm surprised you don't agree with a lot of his points merc.

He was ASKED to testify, and so he did. He paid for all of his travel and stay. Cannot be any worse than having Elmo testifying. A lot of "experts" that testify at these proceedings are just as ridiculous and unqualified as Colbert. I think he did make a good point about us needing more work visas, and that if we improve the quality of working conditions for the lowliest, then the improvements would basically trickle up.

The really important thing: his testimony brought the whole proceeding to an audience that would usually ignore such things. My generation has a bad tendency to be uninvolved and apathetic, I think its great that there are people like Colbert and Stewart that make these issues accessible to us. We're not dumb and we don't just take them at their word. We research independently also, but these guys give us a jumping off point we might otherwise miss. I know that since I began watching their shows, I've become much more interested about current events, but I don't agree with either of them completely. I do a lot of my own research, but I'm more likely to after getting interested in a tidbit they had on the show.

mtp, I think you are the exception, not the rule. I applaud you for your interest in the politics that are going to effect you and your children, if you ever have any. But that is not the norm for your generation. I have three children, 2 in their 20's and one near so. Few if any of them or their friends are politically aware. I can't blame the youngest 2, they are college kids and consumed with their intensive studies, the oldest is quite liberal, and I support her, but she is the exception.

Again, I applaud you for taking the time to research and formulate your own opinions as well as to stay involved in current events.

Did you know he teaches Sunday School? The real guy, not the character. He's far more conservative in real life than Jon Stewart, and has admitted that actually, sometimes he agrees with large parts of his satirical rants.

Or more

The above quote illustrate that merc has absolutely NO sense of humor.

Nor is he aware of who Colbert really is.

Merc, your experience really is not so extraordinary, if either of us may be taken as examples. If you grew as I did, politics just wasn't all that interesting in your twenties, save only if something political directly affected you in your job -- military, and the like. Even then, it was something remote, no?

Only a very small fraction of the college-aged are into politics. Like Karl Rove, who was one of these, they grow up into campaign managers and staffers. Or they go to law school with intent to become pols. Perhaps a few aspire even to be solons.

In the late thirties, this begins to shift. Politics gets interesting to the fortysomethings; it's often as not a game for the old men. The young have other things on their minds.

That is why everything that comes out of his mouth should not be taken seriously and is considered nothing more than sitdown comedy.

I went. Wow. It was huge. I got fairly close, but not quite close enough to reliably hear. I've been to several events on the mall, and this was the biggest.

I got pics.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/...83101cff07.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1087/...f099245bfa.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1244/...3d68d11a35.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1166/...12a2c8e3c0.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4130/...3c487bb305.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1205/...ace8094d80.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4054/...2307710bda.jpg

But they all look like normal people, where are all the dirty pot smoking hippies? ;)

That's not quite the whole picture.

He makes fun of both sides with equal vigor when politicians do stupid shit, that's true. And he is very sharp in his critique of hypocrisy of any shade, from either side.

But when he satirizes politicians on matters of POLICY, he does it in two different ways. He rips on Republicans when they follow conservative ideology. He only rips on Democrats when they FAIL to follow liberal ideology.

I've watched hundreds of episodes of The Daily Show. I've never hear Stewart once rip on a Democrat for promoting a liberal policy. I've heard him rip on Republicans many times for promoting a conservative policy.

The subtly of that distinction is important.

I've never doubted he favors a liberal agenda. I doubt that anyone would mistake him for a conservative, or even a moderate leaning conservative, or conservative leaning moderate. But he could be a liberal leaning moderate, or a moderate leaning liberal.

Confused? That's because those labels don't tell you much. More often they are used to put someone in a pigeon hole, rather than discuss what their view is on any particular issue(s).

I think that's our biggest problem right now, stressing how we are different, ignoring what we have in common, which means no dialog.