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We all knew this was coming, given how much Jon Stewart already loves CNN. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Stewart had a field day after CNN's debacle where they claimed a suspect had been arrested for the Boston Marathon bombing.

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For anyone who didn't think Gov. Rick Perry was a big enough wingnut to suit the state of Texas, there's an even nuttier one waiting to take his place -- secessionist Larry Kilgore. The Daily Show's Jessica interviewed Kilgore and his sidekick, Lynn Troxel, and it was a surreal enough segment that it could have been something you'd find over at The Onion.

Sadly, this guy is actually talking about running for office in Texas: With Stickers, a Petition and Even a Middle Name, Secession Fever Hits Texas:

Secession fever has struck parts of Texas, which Mitt Romney won by nearly 1.3 million votes.

Sales of bumper stickers reading “Secede” — one for $2, or three for $5 — have increased at TexasSecede.com. In East Texas, a Republican official sent out an e-mail newsletter saying it was time for Texas and Vermont to each “go her own way in peace” and sign a free-trade agreement among the states.

A petition calling for secession that was filed by a Texas man on a White House Web site has received tens of thousands of signatures, and the Obama administration must now issue a response. And Larry Scott Kilgore, a perennial Republican candidate from Arlington, a Dallas suburb, announced that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters. As his Web page, secedekilgore.com, puts it: “Secession! All other issues can be dealt with later.”

In Texas, talk of secession in recent years has steadily shifted to the center from the fringe right. It has emerged as an echo of the state Republican leadership’s anti-Washington, pro-Texas-sovereignty mantra on a variety of issues, including health care and environmental regulations. For some Texans, the renewed interest in the subject serves simply as comic relief after a crushing election defeat.

But for other proponents of secession and its sister ideology, Texas nationalism — a focus of the Texas Nationalist Movement and other groups that want the state to become an independent nation, as it was in the 1830s and 1840s — it is a far more serious matter. Read on...

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After giving his viewers a little reminder of what the Republicans sounded like during the 2012 Republican presidential primary race and their blatant race baiting and fearmongering over "illegal immigrants" Jon Stewart took Sen. John McCain and his buddies to task for their "craven political calculation" to try to "squeeze out enough votes" to make states like Nevada competitive again with their flip-flop on passing some sort of immigration reform.

Stewart brought on his correspondent Al Madrigal for his input as to whether the Republicans are going to be successful in their endeavor and Madrigal wasn't too optimistic, given that they appear to be holding their noses while doing what's obviously just politically expedient rather than something they actually support and due to the length of time that "Latinos hold grudges" and who are not going to forget any time soon the way they've been treated by Republicans.

When Stewart asked if there was another demographic they might have any more luck with in the future, like African Americans or women, Madrigal's fellow correspondent Jessica Williams interrupted the segment and put in her two cents about the fact that Republicans aren't going to have any luck there either, especially after remarks like those from "legitimate rape" Todd Akin and the House Republicans deciding to hold their annual retreat -- where they were supposed to be focusing on minority outreach -- at a former slave plantation.

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This Wednesday evening's The Daily Show was recorded before the first presidential debate and rather than focus on what was depressing a lot of us with the sheer volume of lies Mitt Romney was allowed to get away with that night, they were still talking about the previous day's drummed up non-controversy over at Fox.

Jon Stewart and his "great American black panel" did a really good job of making a mockery of Hannity, Carlson and Drudge for their over the top, naked race-baiting and the treating five year old footage of President Obama like it's "breaking news."

As Stewart noted, President Obama was just echoing the same sentiments of the "notorious black liberation theologist George W. Bush" when it came to his remarks on the response to the hurricane in New Orleans they were freaking out about.

I'll just add one last note and that is thank you to The Daily Show and your panel for calling Hannity and Carlson out in no uncertain terms for being exactly what they are:

STEWART: Watching that Hannity piece, watching that Hannity, it's almost unbelievable to see such naked race-baiting on television. Black people talk wierd. What is that?

CENAC: It's some bulls**t.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, f**k Hannity. Your October surprise is that the President is black?

WILMORE: They are some desperate mother f**kers.

Desperate about sums it up with that clown show.

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Jon Stewart took a shot at Fox News, Republicans and their allies for not even trying to hide why they're passing these voter ID laws across the country, even though they're well aware that there is no problem with voter fraud.

As Stewart pointed out, they could care less about problems with absentee voting, which is one area where there are actually problems and John Fund just admitted why they're pushing these laws but don't care about problems with absentee voting: John Fund: Sure, Republicans Focus On Voter ID For Political Reasons:

John Fund, the former Wall Street Journal columnist who has been promoting voter ID laws for years, admitted Tuesday that some Republicans focus on voter ID laws which restrict in-person voting over laws which could limit absentee voting because the GOP has a perceived electoral advantage when it comes to voting by mail.

“Absentee vote ballot fraud is the tool of choice amongst fraudsters,” Fund told a group of bloggers munching on Chick-Fil-A at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday. “Everytime you see a truly massive, coordinated effort at voter fraud, it usually relies in part on absentee voter fraud.”

Fund said that many voter ID laws “take some provisions to curb absentee ballot fraud,” with a few exceptions. But he confessed that Democrats had a point when they say that Republicans focus on voter ID because of a potential electoral advantage.

“I think it is a fair argument of some liberals that there are some people who emphasize the voter ID part more than the absentee ballot part because supposedly Republicans like absentee ballots more and they don’t want to restrict that,” Fund said. “But the bottom line is, on good government grounds, we have to have both voter ID laws and absentee ballot laws.”

And as we posted here, Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Turzai openly admitted their new law will help Mitt Romney win their state in the upcoming presidential election: Shameless Republican Brags About Voter ID 'Winning the State of PA'. Stewart wondered if Turzai realized anyone had the camera running during that event, because Turzai was "going to look like an a**hole." I don't think they care too much as long as it means they win elections by hook or crook and stay in power.

Stewart then turned to his "Senior Voting Correspondent" Jessica Williams for further discussion on how these new regulations are going after minorities, the poor, students and the elderly and some potential new tests for eligibility to vote, like whether you understand Jeff Foxworthy jokes or not.