Can you contain your excitement now that Teabagging Day is finally here... Wait what did I say?

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If you don't understand by now why the term teabagging has most of the news commentators hard pressed (sorry) to try and keep a straight face while reporting on conservative teabaggers planning teabagging parties, then please look it up in Wikipedia or something.

I was surprised by how many newsfolk (and others) didn't know the double-entendre value early on while they blissfully encouraged teabagging across the nation in tax protest. The news suddenly became a hysterically risqué fun house to many people.

One such humorous report from MSNBC did a segment that just cracked me up. It was deliberate of course, tongue in cheek so to speak.
It was titled: GOP's taste for teabagging
While the anti-tax "tea parties" are officially toothless, conservative teabaggers are full-throated about their goals. They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending; spending they did not oppose when they were under Presidents Bush and Reagan.

If that doesn't at least make you crack a smile, listen to Rachel Maddow report after she totally gave up on trying to report for days without laughing. Most reporters as the days went on gave up trying to hide the linguistic challenge.

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I found myself these last few weeks reveling in the hormone fueled sexual humor of a teenage boy, which is an amazing feat since I've never been a teenage boy. I found myself laughing out loud at accidental and deliberate statements like:
April 15: The teabaggers' seminal moment. The GOP bones up on teabagging the nation. We even have Dick Armey teabagging. Tea bag Obama and Pelosi. The conservatives are hoping the government feels the full thrust of the bottom up grass root teabagging campaign.

Ah, comeon, I know it's juvenile, I really do but...
All I can find myself saying is "Happy teabagging on tax day... but why stop there? Seems to me teabagging is a great new way to protest the government. Wait, not that new, I hear it went on during the Boston Tea Party. You are partaking in a great national tradition.

Knowing the alternative definition of teabagging turned even the more serious newscasts into political satire of sorts. It made such easy sport of Glen Beck and others. I guess teabagging was seen as an innocuous enough word that there couldn't be anything wrong with using it. There really should be a lot more vetting going on before choosing terms and people it would seem.

Yes, I'm smiling.
But now I'm leaving before I get in even deeper hot water...
Gulp.

G'night.

Laura
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NASA jumps on the Stephen Colbert treadmill...

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Sunita "Suni" Williams NASA's Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office, an amazing woman who has accomplished so much was chosen as the spokesperson for NASA to appear on "The Colbert Report" Tuesday April 14. She made the announcement just a short time ago what the results of the contest to name the space node by voting for several names or writing in a suggestion were. Stephen had urged his "Colbert Nation" to write in "Colbert" and they did en mass.

It has been decided by NASA the space node won't be named Cobert after all.
It will be named Tranquility even though Colbert clearly won the contest with the most votes (230,000.) Tranquility was the eighth most popular name.

But wait...
NASA is naming the treadmill used for exercise inside the space station after Colbert which Stephen seemed very happy with. It'll be called the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT).

Another NASA spokesman Mike Curie said that the COLBERT treadmill is a new version that will be operational in August.

"We don't typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said, adding: "We have invited Stephen to Florida for the launch of COLBERT and to Houston to try out a version of the treadmill that astronauts train on."

Not too shabby Stephen Colbert. I do understand why perhaps it would have set an odd precedent to name a node after you but please let the members of the Colbert Nation know this is a great step for Colbertkind! Pretty cool compromise I'd say. Congrats!

One last thought for this early morning hour: Sunita is a strong role model for girls, there aren't enough of them and she's definitely good one!

G'night,

Laura
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Why did Jon Stewart allow Jason Jones to go quite so far to create laughter at the expense of the elderly?

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Jon Stewart is usually laugh out loud funny. I don’t get my news commentary from him as he picks his stories along different interests than I do. In all fairness I’m not a die-hard fan like many are. It’s only recently that I’ve been watching him more consistently though I rarely get to every episode. Jon is clever, intelligent, sarcastic and reasonably liberal from what I can tell and usually he’s a pretty funny comedian. I wasn’t crazy about the Mad Money Jim Cramer show as most were. Yes, I’m upset about the banks and stock market like everyone else but I didn’t think Stewart was an investigative reporter and the venue made me uncomfortable. Oh yes, Jon got ‘im and he deserved it, but as far as I could tell that was about as hard as shooting fish in a barrel and was way too long.

I for one was happy when Jon went back to being the funny guy that keeps track of the nonsense in politics that we all know and really appreciate. Then there was the show on April 9, 2009 where Jason Jones took an awkward and not all that terribly funny look at the rise in STDs among Florida's senior citizens in his segment. I rolled my eyes a bit and was annoyed by the blatant stereotyping that went on throughout the bit. I’m fairly tolerant of things that I don’t agree with but I found this skit relatively condescending and unfair though I’m sure many people would disagree with me (including Jon I expect). Did the elderly somehow deserve a takedown like Cramer or Carlson? I suppose everyone is fair game eh?


This country doesn’t place a great value on the elderly. They are often portrayed as ditsy or angry people that are tolerated rather than valued for being wise. They are made fun of because of failing health. Punch lines for erectile dysfunction, memory loss or bladder control jokes. They are portrayed often as less useful as the younger, prettier, healthier, smarter, more tolerant folk. (Complete balderdash)

All of which is simply a complaint of mine with a lot of television: so I didn’t like the skit and that’s fine. I knew it would be over soon and the show would move on. Unfortunately The Daily Show closed with Jason Jones doing an obnoxious parody of the seduction scene from “The Graduate”

Jon:
You chose to end the show with Jason Jones filmed through the leg of what we are to assume is an elderly woman similar to that famous shot from "The Graduate." Not the typical moments of zen you normally end the show with. Jason Jones, your stooping that low was disappointing but Jon, it’s your show and your approval stamp. The skit was enough without the last thing we were to hear on your show:
"Mrs. Rubenstein you're trying to nauseate me... aren't you?" (looking ill and making a drawn out sick sound) "Oooooohhh.... What is that?"

I’m sorry Jon but it was tasteless. Maybe appropriate for a different forum but not where you want to be seen as a politically relevant man with a show that is a valuable venue as well as making important points through comedy. It seems sometimes that you have trouble deciding just where you fit in. Comedy, political satire, interviewer of interesting authors, statesmen and actors, or… something else?

Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, you owe my mother an apology and probably your own too.

Suddenly I find myself more interested in whether or not Stephen Colbert gets a space node named after him.

G’night,

Laura

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Jim Cramer vs Jon Stewart: The Smackdown

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I have to admit the news recently has been fun to behold.
We had Octomom, Limbaugh, and Bill Maher vs Ann Coulter at Radio City Music Hall.
But the Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer feud is completely engaging, I can’t stop watching (and laughing).

It boils down to this: The Bull Vs the Bear.
Cramer’s the Bull of course and Stewart’s the Bear.
If you picture a leathery Jim Kramer with a ring through his nose and smoke coming out of his flared nostrils next to Stewart’s big cow eyes in a fuzzy koala suit right here: then you’ve successfully channelled my sad, sorry little mind. Congrats!
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Background as I see it: It’s easy in a stock market bubble to recommend buying stocks especially strong stock. Cramer’s show is in the “business” of “stock market entertainment” whether he sees it that way or not. However CNBC gives it’s stamp of approval on it with the slogan “In Cramer we trust.” Why they do I don’t know. I don’t trust anyone trying to sell me on parting with any of my money, especially on tv shows with gongs, horns, music and exceptionally angry wild people telling me what to do while looking like they should be taking xanax or valium by the barrel full. If I wanted “crazed” advice I can go down to the street corner in almost any city and find that format. I still wouldn’t listen, but I could find it.

As anyone that recently follows the stock market knows, it’s even easier to predict the rise or fall of stocks when you have insider information. Of course that’s illegal, just ask Cupcake Stewart and while she makes you a wreath made from old socks and walnuts she’ll tell you all about it. No one in the field will admit to inside info but they sure do have miraculously strong gut instincts based on extensive research and years of stock market experience (wink, wink) that they pass on with the devotion attributed to any good evangelical minister.
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Jon Stewart on the other hand is a comedian. He’s also a news junkie with a rather sarcastic viewpoint that shows clearly through in the social commentary of what he finds in the news stories. I completely sympathize with the sarcasm and enjoy it. Jon likes to show videos of what people say or do and take them to task for it using humor. Often these clips speak for themselves even without Jon’s commentary and visual effects. I understand Cramer himself is going to be on the show tonight. It will be interesting to see how that goes- if it happens. (Same Bat time, same Bat channel)

This is the last clip on Cramer from Jon’s Comedy Central show:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Enter Cramer who clearly over time has made mistakes… especially the past year in particular, so it’s not surprising at all that Stewart took him to task for his very visual and repeated recommendations of Bear Sterns. It was almost too easy and he was fair game. Cramer’s righteous indignation is almost as amusing as Stewart’s skits. He should have tried to quietly take his lumps, admitted a “mistake” while hoping the story would fade away and be forgotten. Better men than Cramer have taken Stewart’s jabs with either anger, humor, or they didn’t care at all. But for the most part they didn’t go on a celebrity tv tour bleating about the unfairness of it all. At some point mad seems like whining when, um, how to say this nicely Jim… you were wrong. How dare Jon Stewart pick on you? Seriously Jim, let it go, pack up your tent, go back to your show and maybe toot a few less horns for a while. A long while.
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Mix into this brewing stew of video clips and words NBC’s Scarbourough, Vieira, and anyone who else will listen and put Cramer on the tv and you realize that it’s all entertainment and boy does celebrity rule!

Any normal Stock Broker has backpedalled away from this market mess, minced their words and taken losses along with their clientelle (unless of course they’re running huge ponzi schemes). But they did it quietly not with a tv show that’s glitzy, revved up hype that runs on hopefully just caffeination and the personality of a crazed stock man.

Cramer's Book

I rest my case.
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Stewart keep up the good work.
It’s sometimes a dirty job but someone has to do it.
By the way, anyone that can talk directly to Dora the Explorer is a God in my mind.
Jon, I’d buy you lunch any day of the week in a New York minute, it’d be a really cheap lunch but hey…
I bought Bear Sterns stock.

G'night

Laura
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