Funny clip about the speech on the Colbert Report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCv9tGSvw5o

More good stuff on the speech from the Daily Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfuPewS5XGM

Sometimes you need to laugh at it all...

I'm kinda laughed out with these people.

Not exactly a uniter. (Audio link, or listen to OPB-FM tonight at 7:00.)

See also George Will.

If all of the issues we face were not so deadly serious, the antics of monkey and friends would be hilarious. Bill Maher is dead-on when he states the citizens of our country suffer from some serious f-up fatigue.

Are you saying African Americans are NOT concerned about financial security the the legacy they leave there children? Yeah....yur right. Those concerns are only for us white folks.

I think there were something like 59 African-Americans who paid (or whose estates paid) the estate tax last year. 59. And this year that number is going to shrink down to something in the 30s. Obviously a pressing matter of concern for the NAACP.

Next time, he will be talking about asset aquisition strategies-like the one he worked out with the City of Austin when he had the Texas Ranger franchise: overcondemnation, then rake in the increase in property value. That one is big in Oregon, as is misusing fiduciary responsibility and getting a friendly judge or pro tem to "validate" the abuse. Get the big O or some other such rag to do a "Monday profile", or your name in the "Portland Monthly" and you got it made in the shade. We need a lot more people of color participating in these shenanigans. Heck, it's only fair. You teach em, Chimp.

He's not John Kerry, thank God.

Are you saying African Americans are NOT concerned about financial security the the legacy they leave there children?

No, that's a distortion of what I said. Which is why I banned you and shouldn't have unbanned you. Go troll somewhere else.

He's not John Kerry, thank God.

Thank God for all the innocent blood that the Chimp has spilled, all the while making us less secure than we've been in our entire lifetimes? I'm not sure God's the one to thank.

Yes, we should all be so glad we didn't get some brainy stiff in the white house. What with all that book readin'/learnin', military duty, law degree, budgetary experience, and history for political perspective.

Oh yes, clearly the best man for the job is a guy who has failed and stumbled, all through life. That's fine if you're a regular schmoe like you or I, not if you have a nation on your shoulders.

Wake up! This isn't a movie...

It's really incredible when you think about issues that actually DO interest African American groups like the NAACP: education, economic revitalization in inner cities, health care, improved wages, crime, police brutality...I could go on and on, and perhaps might hit repeal of the estate tax and privatizing Social Security at about #128. Unbelievable that Bush just can't get off his pet subjects long enough to even appear interested in other people. What a sorry embarassment he is.

Sometimes I wonder if Jon Stewart is writing George W's speeches. The line about being in Canton, Mississippi and discussing the 401 k plans of a group of African-American workers is pure comic gold. "I wish I had your 401 k Mr. President."

Maybe the president watched The West Wing? Because they had an episode where a black Democractic congressman refused to vote against repeal of the estate tax because so many of his black constituents believed (perhaps falsely) that it would apply to them. He said something about "the first generation of black millionaires."

Is it any wonder that Bush and the conservatives would try make repealing the estate tax a populist issue? In 2002, only 3% of deceased adults' estates were affected by the tax, according to the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and figures from the IRS. Apparently, many estates that weren't above that threshold paid a higher % in taxes, ironically.

If you have the 'juice', you can find plenty of ways to subvert the IRS and dodge your tax obligations. Yeah, let someone ELSE pay their fair share.

It comes down to framing the debate to the lowest common denominator. 'Death Tax', 'No Child Left Behind', 'Clear Skies Initiative', 'Fiscal Responsibility', 'War of Terror', 'cut-n-run'... they're all just words that wash over us now, and the public has become numb to it. But hey, even though America feels disenfranchised, I'm sure we're a stronger democracy for it.

[Posted as indicated; restored later.]