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headoverheels
s'il vous plaît
Member since 6/07 42079 total posts
Name:
LB
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Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
LINK
(Let me know if the link works b/c I am posting from work and I can't view YouTube on this computer).
DH sent this to me. He thinks that Colbert is "making a mockery out of a serious matter."
What do you think?
Message edited 9/24/2010 2:13:46 PM.
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Posted 9/24/10 2:13 PM  |
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Shorty
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Member since 5/05 30390 total posts
Name:
really
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
can't access youtube here.
transcript anywhere?
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:17 PM |
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headoverheels
s'il vous plaît
Member since 6/07 42079 total posts
Name:
LB
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
Posted by Shorty
can't access youtube here.
transcript anywhere?
I don't know if that would help - some of the "controversy" is in the delivery.
But I will look!
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:20 PM |
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headoverheels
s'il vous plaît
Member since 6/07 42079 total posts
Name:
LB
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
This is what he submitted prior to going on air - and he TOTALLY deviated from the script!
"Good morning. My name is Stephen Colbert: television personality, comedian and resident of New York. I would like to thank the committee and its members for their time today and their open minds as I present my statement for the record.
In July of 2010 -- in the midst of Arizona's immigration firestorm -- I welcomed Arturo
Rodriguez, president of United Farm Workers of America, as a guest on my television show to discuss the impact on harvests in California's Central Valley. During our interview and subsequent conversation, I learned of his "Take Our Jobs" campaign; offering unemployed Americans farm work, providing necessary training and addressing the chronic and endemic shortage of agriculture laborers across the country. While an enthusiastic endeavor, the project recruited a mere three participants. As a comedian and satirist, the temptation of subjecting my character to manual labor proved impossible to resist. I offered to be the fourth.
Joined by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren -- longtime advocate for farmworkers' rights -- I traveled to Upstate New York, where I spent 10 hours picking beans, packing corn and learning about the stark reality facing American farms and farmers. I learned that many farms are closing, growers are planting less or switching to other crops, and the production of fresh foods and vegetables is moving abroad. I learned that American farmers have moved at least 84,155 acres of production and 22,285 jobs to Mexico, and that between 2007 and 2008, 1.56 million acres of U.S. farmland were shut down; 1.56 million acres is about twice the size of Delaware.
At the request of Congresswoman Lofgren, I am here today to share my experience as an entertainer turned migrant worker and to shed light on what it means to truly take one of the millions of jobs filled by immigrant labor. They say that you truly know a man after you've walked a mile in his shoes, and while I have nowhere near the hardships of these struggling immigrants, I have been granted a sliver of insight.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my testimony."
I am looking for what he really said now...
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:23 PM |
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headoverheels
s'il vous plaît
Member since 6/07 42079 total posts
Name:
LB
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
This is interesting too:
Washington (CNN) - One of the more shocking early moments of the Stephen Colbert hearing did not come from the star witness.
It was when House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers asked a confused Colbert to "leave the committee room completely and submit your statement instead."
Conyers' visibly annoyed colleague Zoe Lofgren, who was chairing the subcommittee hearing, made clear Colbert was there at her request, and cut him off saying "the gentleman's time is expired."
After Conyers heard the opening statement of the Republicans witness, he said he wanted to withdraw his request that Colbert leave.
It was an odd moment, to say the least, to have the chairman of a committee try to kick out a witness invited by his subcommittee chairwoman.
But it was also unclear why Conyers did that, so I caught up with him right after the hearing and asked him:
Dana: "When you said he should leave, why did you want him to leave?"
Conyers: "Well I thought it was going to be a circus, and I wanted to avoid that."
Dana: "Was it a circus?"
Conyers: "No...I thought he was pretty profound."
Dana: "You didn't mind the jokes that he made?"
Conyers: "He was funny."
Dana: "Did you mind that he gave an opening statement that was quite different from what he prepared?"
Conyers: "Well, some people do it, nobody's done it as much as he has."
SOURCE
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:25 PM |
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eddiesmommy
best buds!
Member since 5/09 11524 total posts
Name:
Melissa
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
I love him, but I was just reading about this and I agree, I think he made mockery of a serious issue. Which is fine on his show, as that is his platform to with what he wishes, and I think its funny in that context. however, it is not the time or the place for it at a Congressional hearing. Nor do I really think he has the expertise on the subject matter to speak before congress anyway.
It is what it is though, worse things have happened, its certainly not the end of the world.
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:29 PM |
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BaroqueMama
Chase is one!
Member since 5/05 27530 total posts
Name:
me
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
It doesn't offend me, I mean, honestly more people are going to listen to him making his point that way than if he was some other stuffed up suit on cspan, right? But then again, I'm not easily offended. I think he got his point across and let's face it, many more well-spoken people can't even do that!
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:37 PM |
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nrthshgrl
It goes fast. Pay attention.
Member since 7/05 57538 total posts
Name:
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
While I love his comedy, his delivery & his show - he shouldn't be wasting the time of the congress during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security with it.
If he wanted to make valid statements, stating his opinon, as an American, he has that right. I don't think comedy & sarcasm translate into the congressional record. It doesn't have a place there.
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| Posted 9/24/10 2:37 PM |
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iamme
LIF Toddler
Member since 6/10 495 total posts
Name:
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
really what were they expecting? he is a comedian....there were bound to be at least a few deviations from the script...
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| Posted 9/24/10 4:27 PM |
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
Considering it has been said that most Americans trust in Colbert and Jon Stewart more than the established gov't... I feel that Colbert feels the gov't in itself is a joke.
That being said, what he did doesn't bug me. A lot of things that are said or go on during those things bug me at times, even when it's "serious," KWIM?
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| Posted 9/24/10 4:34 PM |
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GoldenRod
10 years on LIF!
Member since 11/06 26792 total posts
Name:
Shawn
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
Like Colbert mentioned on his show, Elmo gave a speech in front of Congress....
From Wikipedia:
Elmo is the only non-human or puppet ever to testify before the U.S. Congress. At the request and with the assistance of Rep. Duke Cunningham, he testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education in April 2002, urging support for increased funding in music education.
I think he brought a lot of attention to a topic that would have otherwise not been watched by most people. I think that's what celebrities do. Not necessarily give "words of wisdom", but bring attention to a subject so more people watch it.
He had a lot of valid points in his statements, and just enough humor so everyone knew it was he that wrote it.
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| Posted 9/27/10 7:54 AM |
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july4mrsO
Happy boy!
Member since 5/10 2867 total posts
Name:
Jess
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
Posted by iamme
really what were they expecting? he is a comedian....there were bound to be at least a few deviations from the script...
Exactly. I find it weird that Congress invites celebrities and puppets to testify at all. Especially when it's a celebrity that doesn't spend a lot of free time supporting specific causes. You recruit a comedian to testify, he's going to make jokes. Doesn't bother me at all because it's what I expected.
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| Posted 9/27/10 9:37 AM |
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headoverheels
s'il vous plaît
Member since 6/07 42079 total posts
Name:
LB
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
Posted by GoldenRod
Like Colbert mentioned on his show, Elmo gave a speech in front of Congress....
From Wikipedia:
Elmo is the only non-human or puppet ever to testify before the U.S. Congress. At the request and with the assistance of Rep. Duke Cunningham, he testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education in April 2002, urging support for increased funding in music education.
I think he brought a lot of attention to a topic that would have otherwise not been watched by most people. I think that's what celebrities do. Not necessarily give "words of wisdom", but bring attention to a subject so more people watch it.
He had a lot of valid points in his statements, and just enough humor so everyone knew it was he that wrote it.
That is exactly, almost to the letter, what I said to DH.  I love that he delivered his statement this way - but then again, DH has been known to call me a tree hugging hippie liberal 
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| Posted 9/27/10 9:54 AM |
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itkocak
Member since 7/07 7639 total posts
Name:
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Re: Opinions please: Stephen Colbert's opening statement
Message edited 11/27/2011 1:01:03 PM.
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| Posted 9/27/10 9:56 PM |
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