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Following President Obama's big speech this Thursday on national security and counterterrorism, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took the opportunity to go after the Obama administration and the DOJ for their willingness to go after whistleblowers, journalists, potheads, hackers and even people who just lied on their mortgage applications, while refusing to prosecute a single Wall Street banker.

While I agree with Stewart on majority of his criticisms here, I'd use the term "journalist" lightly when it comes to anyone from Fox and as Tommy Christopher over at Mediaite pointed out, James Rosen was not just simply reporting that North Korea wanted to do more nuclear tests to draw the government scrutiny he did, as Stewart asserted here.

I'd also like to hear more about that AP story and what was going on there before rushing to judgement as well, although I think the bigger argument ought to be over all of our privacy rights and just how much of that has been thrown out the window.

In an age following the hysteria right after 9-11 and the Patriot Act and with the NSA pretty well out of control along with most corporations who aren't kept in check with protecting our private information, I'm glad to see there is at long at last some attention being drawn to the subject.

It's pitiful that it took some members of our corporate media finally being subjected to what sadly is potentially perfectly legal overreach for them to care at all about what's been happening to a whole bunch of our citizens for years on end now, and well before Barack Obama was elected president. Maybe they could do something constructive like calling for members of Congress and President Obama to roll back some of the horrid legislation that was passed during the Bush administration. But then, who am I kidding... right? They'd rather just use this as an excuse to pile on with the scandal-mongering we've seen over the last half a year or so.

But back to The Daily Show segment above, when it comes to criticism about these Wall Street bankers run amok and the fact that not a one of them has ever gone to jail, while they're aggressively going after things like medical marijuana dispensaries, or someone who lied about their income on their mortgage papers, or whistleblowers who are actually trying to uncover government malfeasance, and not the Benghazi/IRS Tourette syndrome scandal-mongering we've been subjected to -- by all means, have at them Jon Stewart.

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The Daily Show's Jon Stewart ripped former Reagan speech writer and fan girl Peggy Noonan for her selective memory on Meet the Press this past Sunday where she seemed to forget all about her former boss St. Ronnie and his problem called Iran-Contra.

STEWART: Now, think hard Peggy Noonan. Never in your lifetime have you seen a scandal this bad? What if the president secretely sold weapons to Iran in return for American hostages and then used the proceeds to illegally fund a bunch of coked up right-wing jungle rapists in Nicaragua? Ring a bell? Here's a hint. You worked in his White House as a high profile speech writer.

Stewart followed up by playing some old footage of her from back in 2001, where she was making excuses for The Gipper and claiming that he "wanted to help the hostages" "but it spun out of control and Reagan by the end was surprised at some of the things that had happened." And of course it was also just "bad luck."

STEWART: Bad luck! Reagan was just on the wrong place at the wrong time. Specifically the White House during his own administration. This Iran-Contra wasn't a ahhmmm... it wasn't a scandal.

NOONAN from 2002: It was a mistake. It wasn't a disaster, but it was a mistake.

STEWART: Mistake! It's like writing the wrong date on a check... or writing the wrong address on a box marked weapons. Oops...

So how about Obama? Is he off the hook then for his mistakes?

Of course it goes without saying that those two aren't held the same standard in Noonan-world. After reading some of her book about her imaginary boyfriend, Stewart wrapped things up by noting:

STEWART: But here's the deal. You can't really get so upset about Obama if you've written the book, Fifty Shades of Greygan.

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By now you may have heard about Toronto's crazy, allegedly crack-smoking mayor Rob Ford. The man's many pratfalls were the stuff of legend and local embarrassment, but are now finding international ridicule. And while Stewart highlights a few awkward moments, there are really so many cringe-inducing moments in Ford's less than stellar career it's actually hard to pick only a couple and leave out so many more. Slate has some here.

This is a few minutes of an eight minute segment. Later in the bit, Canadians Jason Jones and Samantha Bee educated Jon Stewart on Canada's true national pastime: smoking crack.

And lest you think Jon Stewart is the only comedian taken with Ford's brand of (unintended) physical comedy, last month Ford was also featured on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.

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Jon Stewart finally took a bit of a break from what he's been doing for the better part of the week -- which is feeding the trolls on this so-called "scandal trifecta" -- and called out Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney for acting like they should be allowed to pile on as well.

Jon Stewart calls out Rumsfeld and Cheney: Obama’s transgressions don’t wipe away yours:

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart ripped into Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney on Wednesday for their sanctimonious criticism of the current administration, saying President Barack Obama’s transgressions didn’t resolve them of their own.

Stewart lamented that conservatives now had government scandals to be justifiably outraged about. Many right-wing commentators were downright orgiastic at all the bad news pummeling the President and his administration.

“This week I can’t nitpick,” Stewart said. “The floodgates are open. Every critic suddenly has credibility. Every single one. Who wouldn’t have the standing to legitimately criticize this president? I can’t imagine.”

But one such figure did emerge: Donald Rumsfeld. The former defense secretary, who was key to the start of the Iraq war, remarked that the Obama administration falsely believed narratives that fit their hopes.

“You believe the Obama administration is promoting a narrative? Not because it is real but because fits their hopes and what they want to be the case? You?” Stewart said. “So, no. You alone don’t get to come to the victory parade for the Republicans. You’re the only one who doesn’t get to weigh in.”

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Jon Stewart ripped into Fox "News" and their continued hyping of the trumped up Benghazi "scandal" which they've been promising over and over is about to "have the lid blown off a giant coverup" at any moment now since the attacks first happened.

Stewart took his viewers back through some of Fox's coverage for the last few months now, whether it was the Greta hyping the Petraeus testimony, or Hannity ranting about the Clinton testimony, to Lindsey Graham promising that the hearing this week was "going to make you mad" and if not, well, they'll just keep having more of them until you are.

Stewart reminded his viewers that this Congress has had nine full hearings on Benghazi, but during the Bush administration there were fifty four attacks on diplomatic targets that killed thirteen Americans, but Congress only held three hearings total on embassy security back then with zero of the outrage we're seeing from Republicans now.

After asking what made things different this time around, Stewart went through the recent list of items that the wingnuts on the right believe are "worse than Watergate" and crazy GOP Rep. Steve King's remarks that Benghazi is "Watergate and Iran Contra together" and "multiplied by ten." Stewart put into perspective just what King was comparing the so-called Benghazi "coverup" to and asked, just what did President Obama do that Republicans believe is worse than some of Nixon and Reagan's worst scandals combined.

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The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his audience through the good, the bad and the crazy that was the NRA's 2013 National Convention over the weekend. After pointing out that it looked a whole lot like a recycled CPAC convention with the same lineup of guests complaining about the same set of grievances, Stewart noted that they did eventually get around to the fearmongering and guns.

After showing some of Wayne LaPierre's "simple message" about how the only one that can stop a "bad guy with a gun" is a "good guy with a gun," Stewart pointed out that the message wasn't quite so simple at the convention this year, since the lot of them didn't seem to know just who the bad guys or good guys are, or what the definition of democracy and tyranny are for that matter.

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Jon Stewart did his best to make a mockery of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for being brazen enough to consider a presidential run in 2016, given the fact that he's not exactly popular with most of the country, or even within his own party, with his penchant to stick his finger in the eye of his fellow Republicans if it means he's elevating his own profile.

After going through a series of video clips and a long list of why most Americans should never take this man seriously, Stewart brought up the one other item that might prove problematic for Cruz should he decide to run for president -- and that's the fact that he was born in Canada. He was however, ready to put "the Donald" on the case since he's already been so helpful with investing President Obama's birth certificate.

I had to wonder after watching the clip above from the Daily Show if one of Stewart's staffers read this post on Cruz: 5 Reasons Ted Cruz Would Be A Democrat’s Dream 2016 GOP Nominee:

In a move that only surprised people who assume there’s some limit to the ego of Ted Cruz (R-TX), the freshman senator from Texas has let it be known that he is considering running for president in 2016.

“If you don’t think this is real, then you’re not paying attention,” says a Republican insider. “Cruz already has grassroots on his side, and in this climate, that’s all he may need.”

“There’s not a lot of hesitation there,” adds a Cruz donor who has known the Texan for decades. “He’s fearless.”

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Following months on end of watching the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham and his BFF Sen. John McCain do their best to beat the war drums for the United States to be injecting ourselves into Syria's two year long civil war, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart took the lot of them to task for their push to intervene in that country with very little thought involved as to what happens next if we would decide to go in there.

Jon Stewart: Republicans think ‘freedom magic’ is key to U.S. adventure in Syria:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) has insisted the United States needs to intervene because the country had never sat back and allowed innocent civilians to be killed by dictatorial regimes.

“Thank you,” Stewart said sarcastically. “Well, obviously except for, you know, Rwanda, and Darfur, and Bosnia, and Cambodia — point taken. We as America have never let something like that happen before — in Syria with this particular Assad.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-KY) has called on the United States to provide arms to the Syrian rebels. But he warned the United States should only arm the “right” rebels and not extremists.

“Maybe we can do background checks,” Stewart joked, poking fun at the senator’s stubborn opposition to the gun law.

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I'd say these members of Congress ought to be ashamed of their behavior and taking care of themselves first when it comes to fixing any of this budget sequester debacle that's causing real pain and economic harm to many of the most vulnerable among us, but as Jon Stewart noted in his opening segment this Monday, they really do have no shame.

Jon Stewart: Congress doesn’t care about meals-on-wheels unless it is rolling down an aisle:

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart took Congress to task on Monday night for funding air traffic controllers because they were personally affected by flight delays.

“We all know that if you look up Congress in the dictionary it says, ‘Do-nothing fucktards who couldn’t solve a problem if it was eating them alive anus first,’ he said. ”

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Fox's Eric Bolling and Bob Beckel were not happy about the fact that The Daily Show's Jon Stewart went after them on his show this Wednesday night, where he took the two of them to task along with a lot of the other bed-wetters on Faux "News" for being more than willing to completely shred our Constitution and Bill of Rights when it comes to terrorism, while at the same time not wanting do a single thing about gun control in the United States.

To no one's surprise, they addressed just about everything Stewart said about them, other than the main point of his segment.

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