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Colbert! Congress!

Or, alternately, they will just ask him for a written statement and he'll go have some brunch.
 
Well, they do now, I think.

From the huffington blog above:

10:41 AM ET Stephen Colbert

Colbert says he is happy and honored to be there, to share his "vast experience" of working on a farm for one day, and hopes his fame will get this show bumped up to "C-SPAN ONE."

He offers to prove the value of vegetables by entering his colonoscopy into the Congressional record.

By the way, the comedy is way too fast for this liveblogger!

Colbert says he "rejects the idea" that Americans won't do farmwork because he is an American and he did it, in an effort to prove that he already had a way better job. He jokes that in November, a lot of Democrats are going to know what it's like to lose a good job. "I do mean this sincerely...please don't make me do this again."

"Apparently, the invisible hand doesn't pick beans." Adam Smith comedy.

"I'm not a fan of the government doing anything, but I have to wonder, why isn't the government doing anything? Like me, it's possible that they haven't read the bill." He then does the inversion thing, where he comes out in favor of the bill, along with a rather cutting, subtle admonishment that Congress doesn't always seem to act with much urgency.
 
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CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/23/clark.colbert/

When I was the age of Colbert's legion of fans, I turned to the novels of Orwell, Huxley and Burgess to sharpen my skepticism toward the language of those in power. Such fiction is likely to wane in influence in an era when so many read less and care less.

In its place is something quite different but, in its own way, quite good: comedy and satire shining a disinfecting light on the language of scoundrels. Turn on the telly. Pass the popcorn.
 
huffington live blog:

Smith turns his attention to Colbert, and thanks him for bringing up November and the need to read bills. Offering him a chance to "be more serious," he asks how many of the workers he worked with were illegal. "I didn't ask for their papers," he says, "though I had a strong urge to."

Does he know how much they were paid? "I didn't work well enough to get paid, so I have nothing to compare it to."

Would he call himself an expert on farm workers? Colbert points out that he was one of the sixteen people who participated in the program, and if anyone in Congress has similar experience, his presence at the hearing are unnecessary.

Was the work on the farm hard? Colbert replies: "It's certainly harder than this." Is it harder to do your comedy show? "Much harder than punditry."

Colbert says he not only endorses the "Pledge for America," but he endorses all Republican policies "without question."
 
I so love him.


Jackson-Lee says that the Democrats can't get their colleagues to take these matters seriously. She asks Rodriguez to respond to Swain's contention that the "Take Our Jobs" program was bogus. He says the program was designed by the workers themselves, to demonstrate that people did not want to perform those jobs. "We're very serious," he says.

But how do you refute Swain, Jackson-Lee asks? Is it time for comprehensive immigration reform? Colbert says that it's time for Congress to "roll up its sleeves and face the issue mano a whatever the Mexican word for mano is."
 
http://www.necn.com/09/24/10/Stephe.../landing_arts.html?blockID=317523&feedID=4214

While in character, he told the committee that, "This is America, I don't want my tomato picked by a Mexican, I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian." He then continued into a tirade about how American workers should have more incentives to work on their own farms.
 
FSM said:
Jackson-Lee says that the Democrats can't get their colleagues to take these matters seriously. She asks Rodriguez to respond to Swain's contention that the "Take Our Jobs" program was bogus. He says the program was designed by the workers themselves, to demonstrate that people did not want to perform those jobs. "We're very serious," he says.

But how do you refute Swain, Jackson-Lee asks?
Click to expand...

Of course, when responding to criticism of your program as being little more than a publicity stunt rather than serious, the best thing to do is show up at a Congressional hearing with a comedian doing his shtick...:rolleyes:. No wonder some Democrats are not happy with this.
 
Augustine said:
Of course, when responding to criticism of your program as being little more than a publicity stunt rather than serious, the best thing to do is show up at a Congressional hearing with a comedian doing his shtick...:rolleyes:. No wonder some Democrats are not happy with this.
Click to expand...

Good point. Except the schtick has become more serious than the reality. Which of the congressmen on the committee has ever done even ONE day of work on a farm with immigrants?
 
Someone's flinging mud at Dems for bringing him in and in response GOP got tagged at bringing in Elmo to testify in the past.
 
FSM said:
Good point. Except the schtick has become more serious than the reality. Which of the congressmen on the committee has ever done even ONE day of work on a farm with immigrants?
Click to expand...

The hearing is with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. What insight does working one day on a farm with illegal immigrants provide to the issues at hand?
 
Now King seems to imply that Colbert was packing corn wrong? Colbert doesn't seem to mind, but Congress wants to make a national case out of it. So there's a general yield so that he and King can work that out. Colbert says he was a "corn-packer that day," but understands it is a term for a "gay Iowan, and meant no offense."


huffington live blog
 
Augustine said:
The hearing is with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. What insight does working one day on a farm with illegal immigrants provide to the issues at hand?
Click to expand...

Immigration

Citizenship

Refugees

Border Security

International Law

has absolutely nothing to do with the experiences of the conditions facing farm workers?

You believe that this perspective is irrelevant to decisions on those issues?

So Congress needs to make important decisions about immigration without understanding immigrants? About citizenship without understanding how much it would mean to these people to obtain citizenship in a country that they love and work so hard in? Without understanding what these people were running FROM when they came to the US, and HOW they actually got here?
 
FSM said:
Someone's flinging mud at Dems for bringing him in and in response GOP got tagged at bringing in Elmo to testify in the past.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Elmo was testifying before a House Appropriations Subcommittee on increased funding for music education for children, approximately $2 million. Given that the feds recently spent $800K of stimulus money on an African genitalia washing program, a puppet testifying for $2M almost seems appropriate.

I would hope that immigration reform was viewed as a more important topic.
 
FSM said:
Immigration

Citizenship

Refugees

Border Security

International Law

has absolutely nothing to do with the experiences of the conditions facing farm workers?

You believe that this perspective is irrelevant to decisions on those issues?

So Congress needs to make important decisions about immigration without understanding immigrants? About citizenship without understanding how much it would mean to these people to obtain citizenship in a country that they love and work so hard in? Without understanding what these people were running FROM when they came to the US, and HOW they actually got here?
Click to expand...

Let me ask again: What insight does working one day on a farm with illegal immigrants provide to the issues at hand?
 
"We ask them to come and work.

Then we ask them to leave again.

These people suffer.

They have no rights."


Insight from one day of farm work.
 
Maybe you define "insight" different than I do? Maybe you define the "issues at hand" different than I would?
 
I enjoy Colbert's schtick, but is anyone else unsettled by the fact that he's allowed to testify in front of Congress, in character? Doesn't that just seem a bit like a tiny step towards the eventual election of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho?
 
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