We Can Do This!!

I'll be honest: I generally don't post comedic rants against conservatives because they're generally not balanced with attacks on leftists. True, I have posted Janeane Garofalo's disturbed ravings for the sheer spectacle of the events. But I've never posted Jon Stewart videos. For one thing, I simply don't watch him. Secondly, though, when students come to class and ask if I'd seen Jon Stewart's show last night, I get the weird feeling that not only is the youth generation getting their information in wholly different ways than I am (and thus I'm on a different planet), but that the game's rigged: Virtually nothing that I have to say, little of the deeper contextual and historical knowledge that I have to impart, is likely to sink into my students' minds, so hiply influenced by the popular culture. But Stewart's good, so I should at least be open-minded. And I'll certainly be more open to such openness if Stewart continues to take down the likes of Keith Olbermann with such cutting comedic aplomb. You gotta love this:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Special Comment - Keith Olbermann's Name-Calling
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Dan Riehl uses the Stewart clip to get a jab in at Glenn Beck, who also stepped way over the line in his showcase acts featuring Scott Brown. I'm not quite there yet (I'm still trying to cling to the idea that somehow Beck really is on our side). But I have to admit Beck really bungled things. As Richard at Three Beers Later argues:

Glenn, you don't tell obscene jokes about a bride at her own wedding unless you're drunk. You don't compare Scott Brown, a true candidate of the people, who knocked off a Senate seat owned by a genuine woman killing misogynist, to philanderer who impeded the murder investigation of his mistress, on Brown's election day, unless your judgment is similarly impaired.

Ya fucked up. Learn it, love it, own it, because the left is going to be throwing it back in all our faces for years... as in "Well, Glenn Beck said... "

And that's an outstanding prediction, by the way (one that Dan Riehl also made). It turns out that Gail Collins spoke to Keith Olbermann, who in a quasi-apology, justified his anti-Scott Brown screeds with reference right wing pundits who are allegedly way worse, and surprise!, especially Glenn Beck:

On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann called Scott Brown, the senator-elect from Massachusetts, “an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.”

Yipes. It was a Senate race, not the Battle of Hastings.

“In the personal scheme of things, I went too far. In the broad scheme of things, this was a blip on the radar,” said Olbermann, in a telephone interview, citing the multitudinous cases when right-wing talk-show hosts have said much worse. Given the fact that Glenn Beck has already claimed that Brown could wind up “with a dead intern,” I believe he may have a point.

Yeah, Glenn, you f***ed up. Never. Ever. Give. Radical. Leftists. An. Easy. Way. Out. ... NEVER.

Dan Riehl has more, "Glenn Beck Makes the NY Times."