Completely Unnecessary

This is a great interview. And I’m not just saying this because of the whole wanting-to-have-Jon-Stewart’s-babies thing. Amazingly, a comedian has emerged as one of the most articulate, rational minds of a generation. I’m pretty serious about this. It’s not so much that he says things that are incredibly new or bold - other people are saying them - but his ability to put them plainly and without a lot of bullshit are what make him amazing. Moyers says basically the same thing and is clearly in awe of him as well. Moyers, however, is both a man and too old, so I’m still in the running.

Check out some of the transcript after the jump. (I love PBS - I was thinking about how I didn’t have time to do a transcript of the sections I wanted, and then I scrolled down. Thanks!)

On the Administration, especially referencing Gonzales’ testimony:

I think [the Administration's] suddenly become clear to me. They would rather us believe them to be wildly incompetent and inarticulate than to let us know anything about how they operate. And so, they do Constitutionally-mandated things most of the time, but they don’t — they fulfill the letter of their obligation to checks and balances, but not the intent.

…

And I used to think, “They’re doing this based on a certain arrogance.” And now, I realize that it’s because they believe there is one accountability moment for a President, and that is the four year election. And once you get that election, you’re done.

And about his interview with John McCain the other night:

Actually, he– began to he stopped connecting and just looked at my chest and decided, “I’m just gonna continue to talk about honor and duty and the families should be proud,” all the things that are cudgels emotionally to keep us from the conversation. But, things that weren’t relevant to what we were talking about.

…

It’s but it’s again, the conversation that the Senate and the House are having with the President was very similar to the conversation that McCain and I were having, which was two people talking over each other and nobody really addressing the underlying issues of what kind of country do we want to be, moving forward in this?

And about the troop surge:

So, there’s a disconnect there between — you’re telling me this is fight of our generation, and you’re going to increase troops by 10 percent. And that’s gonna do it. I’m sure what he would like to do is send 400,000 more troops there, but he can’t, because he doesn’t have them. And the way to get that would be to institute a draft. And the minute you do that, suddenly the country’s not so damn busy anymore. And then they really fight back, and then the whole thing falls apart. So, they have a really delicate balance to walk between keeping us relatively fearful, but not so fearful that we stop what we’re doing and really examine how it is that they’ve been waging this.

So turned on right now. Eh, that’s a lie. I’m sleepy. Four ladies left! Sarah, Kate, Ada, and Jessie!

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