Why Neoconservative Pundits Love Jon Stewart

Back in April, when the debate over torture was roaring, Jon Stewart invited Cliff May, a national-security hawk and former spokesman for the Republican Party, to come on The Daily Show and defend waterboarding. May was hesitant. He thought Stewart would paint him as a crazy extremist. The audience would jeer. It would be a disaster. “I was apprehensive about going on, even though I’ve been on TV for a dozen years,” says May. “A lot of my friends told me: ‘Don’t do it. You’re meat going into the sausage factory.'”

But May had a change of heart after soliciting advice from his friend Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. “Kristol told me: ‘You’ll be pleasantly surprised. He doesn’t take cheap shots. Jon is smart. You’ll do just fine.'” Kristol proved to be right. Stewart’s interview of May — a crackling, lengthy debate about where to draw the line between freedom and security — produced one of the most clarifying discussions about torture on television. “Literally, this is the best conversation I’ve had on this subject anywhere,” May told Stewart.

“There is genuine intellectual curiosity,” May told New York. “He’s a staunch liberal, but he’s a thoughtful liberal, and I respect that.” May isn’t the only conservative gushing about Stewart. While the movement professes a disdain for the “liberal media elite,” it has made an exception for the true-blue 46-year-old comedian. “He always gives you a chance to answer, which some people don’t do,” says John Bolton, President Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations and a Fox News contributor, who went on the show last month. “He’s got his perspective, but he’s been fair.” Says Bolton: “In general, a lot of the media, especially on the left, has lost interest in debate and analysis. It has been much more ad hominem. Stewart fundamentally wants to talk about the issues. That’s what I want to do.”

Full NYMag.com Article

The article goes on to say that since the beginning of the Obama administration, he has interviewed more conservative pundits than liberal ones.

It’s funny – he’s a comedian, liberals of course love him, and many conservatives trust him in regards to interviews even if they don’t like his comedy about the news.  Maybe that’s why many people consider this comedian the most trusted man in the news today.

Posted in Political, Pop Culture | 1 Comment

ChefStack – Perfect. Panless. Pancakes.

The ChefStack automatic pancake machine is a revolution in the making. Now, for the first time, perfect panless pancakes can be produced in a matter of seconds. With ChefStack, the ultimate comfort food has now become convenient to make. Resulting in more profits for coffee shops, convenience stores and cafeterias everywhere.

Link

chefstackslide_imag_1

Hopefully the next version will include the ability to cook bacon simultaneously.

Posted in Interesting | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness

  • Not only did we get a new air conditioner yesterday, but we also got a new hot water heater.
  • Shouldn’t it be called a cold water heater?
  • Or just water heater?
  • We also had a Grundfos hot water recirculating system put on the water heater.
  • It was like Extreme Makeover Home Edition at GeedingManor yesterday with four AC guys and two plumbers.
  • Oh, and my router went out so I had to get a new one.
  • When it rains, it pours.
  • The two plumbers were brother-in-laws, and so were two of the four AC men.
  • When people come to work on the house, the first thing I do is fill up a big cup of ice cold water and give it to the workers.  I learned that from my mom.
  • When I woke up yesterday morning, I decided to get a breakfast burrito at our local Market Street, where I saw a soccer mom park her Suburban diagonally across two handicap spaces just to walk in and get a breakfast burrito like myself.  I walked around her vehicle just to make sure there wasn’t a handicap or disabled sticker – I couldn’t find one.  I was ticked, and wanted to say something, but I just walked away shaking my head.
  • Later that evening as I drove by that same place, I saw a pushing his Suburban.  WifeGeeding forced me out to help him push, although I would have done it on my own.  Turns out the guy simply ran out of gas.
  • Funny thing, I store my farts in the same type of container.
  • Evidently our church hosted a church from Wasilla, Alaska as I saw this message in one of the rooms in church.
  • But good for Sarah Palin for asking restraint be shown at all the town hall meetings.
  • Everything you wanted to know about mom jeans.
  • Paul Krugman  of the NY Times and a Nobel Prize winner in Economics had an interesting commentary on the town hall mobs that I pretty much agree with.
  • It’s fun follow The Edge from U2 on Twitter.  Recently he posted a picture of a gold Ferrari.
  • Combining old music with new music
  • I’ve been thinking a lot regarding my air conditioner situation.  The last two nights I had to sleep without air conditioning, and then I started to think about my family in Vietnam who sleep every night without air conditioning.
  • Grace
Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

Religious Progressives Flex New Muscle in Pushing Healthcare

With a new television ad out today and a national conference call featuring President Obama scheduled for next week, religious progressives advocating universal healthcare coverage are flexing their organizing muscle in a way not seen since the movement was jolted into action by the 2004 election.

“This is the most organized we’ve been around a legislative goal,” says Katie Paris, program and communications director for Faith in Public Life, a progressive beltway group that got off the ground after the ’04 election and is coordinating faith-based efforts to push Democratic plans for healthcare reform.

This morning, a coalition of progressive faith groups that includes Faith in Public Life, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Faithful America—none of which existed before the 2004 election—unveiled a pro-healthcare reform ad that will air nationally on cable television and announced the president’s participation in the conference call, scheduled for next Wednesday.

“I can’t remember any president doing anything like this,” says John Green, an expert in religion and politics at the University of Akron. “Presidents have tried to reach out to religious groups, but typically it’s done beneath the radar.”

Organizers hope the call will attract tens of thousands of religious Americans who favor Obama’s backing of a government-controlled healthcare plan. One of the groups involved said that it alone is aiming to sign up 15,000 participants for the call.

“This is a fundamental moral issue,” says Jim Wallis, an evangelical activist who leads a group called Sojourners, which helped sponsor the ad and organize the call. “The healthcare system is broken. It’s leaving too many sick people by the side of the road, and too many Samaritans are taking care of them.”

Full U.S. News & World Report Article

Posted in Political, Spiritual | Comments Off on Religious Progressives Flex New Muscle in Pushing Healthcare