Alex Rigopulos

It's Groundhog Day and so of course Stephen mentioned the Puppy Bowl. It's what we all are waiting to watch this Sunday. And then he mentioned Candlemas which really got him going on and on. (Both Groundhog Day and Candlemas come around each year on February 2.)

One thing that is really dear to Stephen is his Super PAC. He has raised about a million dollars! There were 31,595 donors. There were 1600 people who gave $1 - wow! And there was one person, Alex Rigopulos, who donated $9600 ! ! ! He was the biggest donor. I'm glad I didn't try for that distinction. I couldn't even come close to that amount. Ham Rove made a very brief appearance and then Stephen talked about how popular his Super PAC was in Google and about how much more popular he wants it to be.

I should have written this down. He wants his Super PAC to show up in Google as a mixture of campaign funding ... that is ... politics. That's basically what he said. Plans for the Super PAC now are for cat breading.

Newt, Newt, Newt. What will you come up with next? Apparently Newt Gingrich, author (or co-author) of many copyrighted books, is being sued for using the song "Eye of the Tiger" for some years now. It is a copyrighted song. He has been asked to stop it. Time will tell, but for now, for tonight, we got to listen to Dave Bickler putting one of Newt's books to music and singing it for our enjoyment. Well, now, the shoe's on the other foot, isn't it?

Tonight's guest was Christiane Amanpour and the interview was as different from last night's interview (with Ameena Matthews) as an interview could be. Much of the time Stephen and Christiane were talking at the same time. On the one hand, that does save time and make for a shorter interview, but on the other hand, it makes it hard to understand what either of them was saying. They did talk about Iran and eventually got around to this:

Amanapour: "Some people are actually talking about potentially using nuclear weapons."

Colbert: "I just did (talk about that), --- now."

Amanpour: "But serious people."

Audience: "Gasp! GASP!"

Colbert: Utter silence. Wide eyes. Sad look on face.

And then when Stephen came back from commercial to say, "Good Night," he also added , "We are off for the next week."

Off next week? Is it because of Valentine's Day? Or were his feelings hurt by not being considered a serious person with actual opinions and thoughts?

I feel so bad for Stephen. I just hope lots of people will vote for New Colbertland in the poll (upper right had corner) before he gets back to the show. It would make him feel better to have yet something else named after him. Let's see, an eagle, a mascot, an ice cream flavor, a turtle, an aeroplane, a spider, and a treadmill. So, yep, that future state up on the Moon should be named after him. Cast your vote soon.

GOP, BFF, and Credible Messenger

First off, the Republican primaries are moving right along. Stephen was prepared to call the Florida election and he called it for Mitt Romney. It helped a lot that all the votes were in and counted. Newt Gingrich came in second, but it was not a close second, so Mitt did really well. But there does seem to be a little bit of conflict or animosity. Some would even dare to call it negativity or nastiness. Mitt Romney has an answer to all of that. While some say this will hurt the party, he says that "a competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us."

As a fellow conservative, Stephen is ready to help. He set up a new Twitter account, #preparethem, and sent these on his show even as we watched.

"Newt's only hope for your vote is if you've been in a coma for 20 years and if you have he probably divorced you. newt2012"

"Mitt Romney is not a vulture capitalist. Vultures only eat things that are dead. romney2012"

Everyone should help prepare these two candidates.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly, Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Snack Ice Cream seems to be selling better than Stephen's Americone Dream. This is very disturbing to Stephen, partly because the two of them used to be Best Friends Forever (for 6 months). Luckily, now Stephen's will be sold in a "Superpack". Not only that, but it is collectable. You know this because, 1) Stephen said so and 2) it says right on the pack "2012 Collectable Election Year Package." Stephen suggests that we buy this valuable container. Don't open it because then it would not retain its collectable value. Put it in your safe deposit box along with your most valuable papers and documents.

Valentines Special - Stephen did say that there will be free Americone Dream at participating Ben & Jerry's. I don't have details, but if you live close to a Scoop Shop, check it out on February 14 and see if you are one of the lucky ice cream lovers.

Interesting tidbit. If you go to Ben & Jerry's Fun page at their website, you can play the game To The Moon. I don't think this has anything with Newt's plan to go To The Moon, but it would help prepare all of us for eventually going into space to colonize the Moon.

Be sure to vote for your favorite name for the Moon state in the right hand column at the top of the page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stephen's guest tonight was Ameena Matthews. She is a CeaseFire Violence Interrupter working to end gang violence. She is featured in the documentary, "The Interrupters" to be shown on Frontline on pbs on February 14 at 9 p.m. (check local listings).

It's always interesting to see who will be the guest each night. Sometimes it is someone who is a performer, such as Björk last night. Sometimes it is a politician. Sometimes a journalist. But always interesting. Occasionally funny even. Tonight, Stephen was in finer form that usual. He had many great questions, and (dare I say it? sure why not...) not so many interruptions (ironic) and not so many one-liners as usual. We really did get to hear quite a bit of what Ameena Matthews had to say.

He did show a short video clip of her talking to a group of young men, all of whom were listening intently. "Why are those young men listening to you?" was Stephen's question.

"Because I'm considered a credible messenger." She said that she is not lecturing to them, she is having a conversation. She is finely tuned in to what is happening. She considers violence a disease.

The fact that she could hold Stephen's attention, and that he kept asking questions and listening to her answers, speaks to her talent and skill to use her voice in a very powerful way.