It’s a good day

First, the two Italian female hostages have been set free!

Then if that’s not good enough news – reports are coming in from all over the country that new voter registrations are flooding in , well above the rate they came in at 2000. Which means that recent polls showing Bush with a solid lead are worthless. They don’t poll newly registered voters. And since most of the new voters are in urban/ suburban areas which are typically Dem strongholds; and since the same reports indicate the Dems are being much more successful than the Repubs in their registration drives, this is very, very good news. Now the trick is to actually get these folks to the polls.

And then finally, O’Reilly gets shown up as the bullying, insulting blowhard he really is. You see, I’ve got a thing for Jon Stewart & the Daily Show. It’s one one of the few shows I really miss since we got rid of expanded cable. I go online and watch the highlights posted on Comedy Central’s website, but it’s just not the same. They frequently cut off segments or don’t post the ones I want to see at all. At the party conventions, I read with great interest how my boy Jonny held his own and interacted with the quote “real journalists” unquote. Like Ted Koppel . But I was especially annoyed at the recent transcript I read of Jon’s appearance on the O’Reilly’s Factor – where Bill, in typical fashion tries to totally belittle and discredit a cable media source that doesn’t parrot his fascist ideals. In this case, by claiming Jon’s audience is comprised entirely of “stoned slackers”. Jon, being the gentleman that he is plays along, and by doing so gets Bill to admit that puppets can vote in Florida, so long as they vote Republican (and aren’t felons). But then afterwards, the Daily Show producers did a little research of their own (an entirely foreign concept to O’Reilly and the folks at Faux News) and discovered that according to Nielsen, their viewers are actually better educated than O’Reilly’s . Which we knew all along.

Snip: "Comedy Central also touted a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which said young viewers of "The Daily Show" were more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don't."

The other big difference, which I think should be totally obvious – is that unlike O’Reilly & his audience, Jon’s has a sense of humor. The Daily Show is, in fact a serious news show masquerading as a total joke whereas O’Reilly is a total joke masquerading as a serious news show. “No Spin Zone” my ass. That show is spinning so damned fast the world around it blurs into O’Reilly’s fantasyland and any legitimate guest who dares to step on board his twisted merry-go-round ends up bruised and battered and puking in the posies. I’m just so damned proud of Jon for keeping his stomach long enough to help expose it for the circus it really is.