http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/ny...=1&oref=slogin

there were many buses organized from philadelphia. many organizations, unions, and individuals participated. actually, i'd say the largest contingent was teachers. In fact, the head of the LA teachers union gave an excellent speech - "a war budget leaves every child behind"

I watched the whole thing this weekend. I think the Bushes were not amused at all by that speech. Check out how the bushes act at the end. Laura refuses to even acknowledge Colbert and Bush unsmiling gives a quick handshake and they both leave. I am not sure what to make of it.


There was a weird Stewart/Karen hughes interview during the campaign where it was obvious that Hughes didn't get this brand of humor (she complimented Stewart approvingly on a segment on Kerry's flip flopping as evidenced by him sking to the left, and then the right, and then the left .. ) and stewart response was ... ".. but that was satire though"..

Kristol of the weekly standard was on the Colbert report last week and he made a comment about how he had gotten colbert that gig. I never got the impression that Kristol really was a huge fan of the Bush administration and given the fact that the colbert report itself is more subtle than that speech, coupled w/ colberts schtick as pro-bush conservative satirist, its possible they didn't realize what Colbert would do until it was too late.

You could really hear the audience become more and more uncomfortable and silent through that speech. As someone else said, I think that was Colbert's Crossfire moment, but the audience was vastly different. And given colbert's eviscerating criticism of the sycophantic press, vastly more important.

The obvious discomfort in the room made it for me. Salsa is sulking but it wasn't about Bush sucking. It was about everyone. He could have laid into the Democrats too as they so deserve it but I heard tell that he only had enough time to cover half his material.

I really don't think anyone can give a speech without the speech notes (and the video clip) being prescreened. Which, for me, made it stunning.

The flip side: http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoCha...d18bc70d54c1cd

From what I understand, Scalia laughed loudly throughout. One of the benefits, I guess, of having a lifetime appointment.

---Shosh

On the tape I viewed, he was laughing pretty heartily. He seemed to find it quite funny. At one point, it even looked like he had tears in his eyes.

__________________
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