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Jon Stewart pokes some fun at the pork in the budget that just got signed into law and the earmarks for Congress' "pet projects".

Sadly despite the jokes had this bill not been signed into law the government literally would have had to shut down had it not been passed. From the article:

Most of the government has been running on a stopgap funding bill set to expire at midnight Wednesday. Refusing to sign the newly completed spending bill would force Congress to pass another bill to keep the lights on come Thursday or else shut down the massive federal government. That is an unlikely possibility for a president who has spent just seven weeks in office.

I don't think most rational people would think that shutting down the government in the middle of our worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is a good idea. I guess President Obama thought the pork was worth the trade off to stop that from happening.

Of course in the mean time there's nothing like poking a bit of fun at the Congress and their hypocrisy on earmarks.

UPDATE: John Amato

Don't forget to tune in tonight to TDS because Jim Cramer is going to join Jon Stewart and try and hash out their differences. I do hope it's two segments instead of one so Jon can really dig in. Blowhards like Cramer aren't usually prepared to go up against an excellent interviewer like Stewart, but then it falls on Jon's shoulders to get down to business. I kind of think he will tonight because Cramer went out of his way to smear Stewart on so many shows.

If he's easy on Cramer then it makes the recent kerfuffle not all that important. We always seem to ask this question. Why is it up to Stewart to expose these hypocrites?

March 12, 2009 BBC

March 12, 2009 CNN

On Monday Van Jones was named Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at CEQ (Council for Enviromental Quality). Jones is the founder of Green For All and the author of the 2008 New York Times best-seller, The Green Collar Economy.

In the clip above, Van Jones lays out the historical context and present day significance of the environmental movement for African Americans, a group he sees could singularly benefit from Barack Obama's proposed and ambitious Green Revolution. With unemployment among black youth (16-24) running well over 30% now the need is certainly there. Jones was addressing the 2009 State of the Black Union.

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From Countdown:

Keith Olbermann places the blame for the economic downturn past President Barack Obama and President Bush to the Wall Street executives who paid politicians and bought deregulation.

From the Wall Street Watch Project, here is their list of the 12 deregulatory steps to financial meltdown. Read their report for more details.

1. Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the Rise of the Culture of Recklessness

2. Hiding Liabilities: Off-Balance Sheet Accounting

3. The Executive Branch Rejects Financial Derivative Regulation

4. Congress Blocks Financial Derivative Regulation

5. The SEC’s Voluntary Regulation Regime for Investment Banks

6. Bank Self-Regulation Goes Global: Preparing to Repeat the Meltdown?

7. Failure to Prevent Predatory Lending

8. Federal Preemption of State Consumer Protection Laws

9. Escaping Accountability: Assignee Liability

10. Fannie and Freddie Enter the Subprime Market

11. Merger Mania

12. Rampant Conflicts of Interest: Credit Ratings Firms’ Failure

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Matthews smacks down Ari Fleischer who's been out on a Bush redemption media blitz of late for his Bush kept us safe from a terrorist attack nonsense. He obviously got under Fleischer's skin since Fleischer got pretty snitty with him for daring to challenge his talking points.

Matthews did a pretty good job here but as friend of the site and fellow contributor Jon Perr pointed out to us Matthews has disappointed in the past and is sure to continue to in the future.

For all his ferocity towards Fleischer today and his claim about the Bush White House in 2007 that “they won’t silence me,” Chris Matthews spent an awful long time calling George W. Bush and his friends, “good guys.”

As Jon noted at Perrspectives back in 2007 Chris Matthews: Bush White House "Good Guys" Won't Silence Me:

But what we do know is that Chris Matthews likes George W. Bush and the "good guys" of his White House - a lot. They may be, Matthews now suggests, thugs and criminals, but they are thugs and criminals you want to drink a beer with all the same:

"I thought in listening to the president, I was listening to one of the great neoconservative minds. We were given a rare opportunity to hear the real philosophy of this administration with regard to the war in Iraq." (August 9, 2007)

"I like him. Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left." (November 28, 2005)

"Sometimes it glimmers with this man, our president, that kind of sunny nobility." (October 25, 2005)

"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical." (May 1, 2003)

"For example, George Allen is a lot like George Bush. He's friendly. He's a jock in a way. He's happy go lucky. He's a good guy to hang out with, kicks back." (May 24, 2006)

"They're very adept politically, this White House. And whatever you think of Karl Rove, he is good and he is tough." (October 29, 2004)

"Tony [Snow] has no regrets, nor do any of us for being his friend. Good guy, he has been, he is, and he will be." (September 4, 2007)

"And as we sign off today, it was the last day on the job for White House press secretary, the very likable, the very good guy, Tony Snow." (September 17, 2007)

"Tom DeLay, you are not in this buisness for the money. You live modestly. You commute back and forth from Washington to Houston, Texas. Why? What drives you every day?" (January 24, 2006)

"We'll be right back with House Majority Leader John Boehner. You can see this man's greatness." (March 6, 2006)

"And Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico - a good guy, by the way - intends to retire from the Senate when his term ends next year." (October 3, 2007)

"I think you beat a good guy [Jim Talent]. I looked at all the Republican candidates running for election in tough elections. I thought he was probably the best of them." To Missouri Senator-elect Claire McCaskill, (November 28, 2006)

"Mike DeWine, a good guy." (February 9, 2007)

"Chris Shays, actually a good guy, we'll see how he deals with this thing." (August 28, 2006)

So today we get a smackdown from Matthews. We'll see what tomorrow brings. If anyone would like to watch the entire segment instead of my mash up my friend CSPANJunkie has it up in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

March 11, 2009 MSNBC Keith Olbermann

March 11, 2009 MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show

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Sen. David Vitter (R-Diaperland) is the subject of David Shuster's Hypocrisy Watch for his double talk on earmarks.

Think Progress has more here: Vitter Stands By His $249 Million In Earmarks While Complaining That The Omnibus Bill Is ‘Bloated’

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Fox News' Sean Hannity doesn't let his religion get in the way for his support of a controversial anti-terror tactic.

Hannity invited Meghan McCain on his show to talk about a court filing by 9/11 defendants detained at Guantanamo Bay. The group of detainees had admitted that they were "terrorists to the bone."

"They declared war on us and we're fighting a war and we know there is about 60-some odd detainees that have gone back to the battlefield. Why for the first time ever would we give rights to enemy combatants?" asked Hannity.

Meghan McCain seemed to agree. "What competent person thinks this is a good idea? Literally when I think of my brother and his people and his platoon, the people I know over there fighting for this so we can let them go so they can attack us again? It's insane," she said.

Hannity then moved to the subject of torture. "Do you disagree with your dad at all about enhanced interrogations?" asked Hannity. John McCain has been vocal about his opposition to torture.

"My attitude is that if we capture an enemy combatant in the battlefield -- or we can use Osama bin Laden -- who may have information about a pending attack. You know what, I don't have any problem taking his head sticking it underwater and scaring the living daylights out of him and making him think we're drowning him and I'm a Christian," declared Hannity.

McCain disagreed. "I think it's what separates us from the terrorists . My father could never lift me up as a child because he can't move his arm. He can't ride a bike because he can't bend his knee because he was tortured. I think he knows better," she said.