The Twit Hit the Fan

Horror of horrors. I turn away for just a day or two and the The Colbert Report is in danger of being canceled. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The show started off last night with the awning being taken down from the studio, with the staff removing their desk belongings in cardboard boxes and leaving the studio, and scenes of despair. (By the way, for those of you who are of the Playdate Plaza generation, that Native American with the tear, well, he was from a famous ad campaign to stop people from littering.)

Luckily, it was just a nightmare Stephen was experiencing due to stressful events in his life.

In "Who's Attacking Me Now?" Stephen exposed that some have called for his show to be canceled after he aired information about his Foundation that he started. #CancelColbert was trending all weekend long. The misunderstanding arose because of a character on the show that is not Stephen Colbert. And it is strange, explained Stephen, that communicating via 140 characters, could cause misunderstanding.

Now, there have been misunderstandings and innuendo and excuses and news reports and calls for the The Colbert Report to be canceled and claims of racism. Any of you out there who need clarification should do what Stephen did to learn about tolerance, read Michelle Malkin's book, "In Defense of Internment - The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror."

Stephen pointed out that all of this happened over the weekend when the show does not air and so in essence he was canceled for three days. Who else was canceled for three days? Jesus.

Stephen shut down his Foundation and pledged that the money would be donated to Dan Snyder's "The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation." Stephen also fired JaMes, or James as he likes to be called. He immediately offered JaMes an new intern opportunity.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, was Stephen's guest and admitted that at one time he said about hashtags that it was the nerdiest thing he's ever heard and that no one would do that. Biz and Stephen obliterated @ColbertReport. Twitter fans should now go to @StephenAtHome.

Biz Stone came back for yet more interview. They talked about Jelly which is wonderful on a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. They also talked about Biz Stones new book, "Things a Little Bird Told Me - Confessions of the Creative Mind."

@PrezBillyJeff or @PresBilly Jeff? ----- "Z" or "S"?

Of course if you get two of the most famous people together with a huge audience and it's televised, that is bound to make the news. And of course there is always the possibility that some mistakes will be made when reporting on such a momentous occasion. So it's not surprising to realize that what some of the news outlets are reporting about President Bill Clinton's Twitter account will have some people confused. I mean, the word is spelled president. But you should ignore the "s".

Stephen Colbert set up the Twitter account as @PrezBillyJeff. He has 68,000 followers so far. I expect more people will start following President Clinton as the word gets out. So in answer to my question in the title of this post, it is Prez. Use a "z" not an "s".

@PrezBillyJeff

Ann Coulter - Offensive Tweet - Huh?

I stumbled upon this article by Dylan Stableford over at Yahoo! News. I couldn't believe my ears, or eyes, or whatever. Ann Coulter is a paid Provo Caterer? I did not know that.

Anyway, she tweeted something offensive. How'd that slip past her personal standards for civility in the twitter world?

Here's the link if you want to read about it.

Every day I listen to the news on the TV machine and read all the newspapers that have been put in front of me. I try to analyze them and predict which stories Stephen will report about on his news segments on The Colbert Report. I'm usually wrong, sadly. Let's see if he covers this story tonight. He is, after all, one of the best tweeters in world.

Mom-in-Chief

Down in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Democratic National Convention is still in full swing. Stephen objected to the constant noise in the background that seems to have no explanation. What is really strange about this noise is that it seems to be loudest at the same time as all those convention signs are waving back and forth, signs such as "Michelle," "Forward," and "Stephen Colbert." har har har. I made up that last one.

We did get an explanation when Stephen played a video clip of Brit Hume. He said, and I assume he has his facts all checked out on this, that the Democrats had the sound turned way up and so that's why the roar of the greasepaint, oops, roar of the crowd was so loud.

By the way, did you know that you can read the transcript of Michelle Obama's Convention Speech over at NPR? Well you can. And you can also listen to Michelle Obama's Convention Speech at the same link. It's 25 minutes and 6 seconds long, so you can read it or listen to it while waiting for your pizza to be delivered.

Everyone agreed the speech was great and when she said that her most important job was Mom-in-Chief, it brought out the crocodile tears in Stephen. I can understand why it would bring Stephen to tears. Even Charles Krauthammer thought the speech was brilliant.

 We also got to see Tammy Duckworth, Congressional candidate, giving a speech about her background, her family, her military service, and the heroism of her crew in Iraq. And yes, I found the text of her speech also. You can read that over at Huffington Post.

What seems to be grabbing attention with some of the media is the number of Twitter Tweets going on during the Conventions. Michelle Obama seems to be winning. What does it all mean? Stephen explains. He used the Internet Numbo-Tron 3000 to help explain  numbers, e.g., 5, 9, 14, and 3. He can't explain what any of the numbers mean, but he feels compelled to report on these numbers to his audience. Tonight's big number? It was 11,394.5. Holy Cow! That's a decimal. Stephen will keep us updated on this especially if he has time to fill. Of course, Stephen was making a point, but then he couldn't explain the point, so it was sort of pointless.

During the Sport Report, Stephen told us that the football referees are in a labor dispute with owners. One problem is over benefits such as vision coverage. Stephen offered to share his eyeglasses with the professional referees. This should settle the problem.

The guest was Michael Grunwald talking about his latest book, "The New New Deal, The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era." The book is a New York Times Bestseller, so that, plus the fact that he is on The Colbert Report, probably means that you may want to read this book.It was a very lively discussion. I could hardly keep up and neither could Michael Grunwald. I'm not one to tell tales, but Stephen barely let the guy talk. Where's a referee when you need one?

Colbert Nation on Twitter

If you need a good laugh right now, and who doesn't nowadays, go to Colbert Nation and follow Stephen at Home as he Tweets. It's down there at the bottom of the page, on the right hand side.

The Dilemma

The Dilemma:

Stephen Colbert is famous and has won many awards, most of which are because of his Truthiness. For example, he recently was awarded the coveted and first ever "Golden Tweet" which was bestowed upon him by Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.

"In honor of oil-soaked birds, 'tweets' are now 'gurgles'."

He has won Emmys.

He has won the "Gutsiest Move" award.

He ran for president. He has appeared in Spider-Man comics.

He has been in movies (with almost top billing but not quite which I guess translates into bottom billing).

He has been on TV shows.

He has held a Rally with Jon Stewart to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

All of these involved facts.

Here's where The Dilemma starts coming into play.

I have in past posts, (not to be confused with pissed pests past posts which will be a future post) compared or contrasted Stephen Colbert with Brad Rodu. Rodu has a blog about Tobacco Truth which of course, of course ... right?... involve facts. You remember Dr. Brad Rodu - University of Louisville, Endowed Chair of Tobacco Harm Reduction research, recommends that people stop using tobacco by starting to use tobacco in a different form such as cigarette substitutes, snus, chew, smokeless tobacco, vapor cigarettes, etc.

Now some might wonder if he is biased because his endowed chair is paid for by Tobacco companies. But he says he is not biased, so you know he isn't because he uses Truth in the title of his blog and he says that he has "no conflict of interest" due to Tobacco paying him. You can read about him at any number of his blogs and websites. He has them all linked together, like some sort of web. (Yikes... Brad Rodu - web. Stephen Colbert - Spider-Man! What a connection these two men have!)

Anyway, here's my point.
Dr. Brad Rodu, Endowed Chair has had his "smokers only" website since 2005. On it he says lots of stuff.

Dr. Stephen Colbert has had his nightly show since 2005.
Every night he tells the audience many things.
And, IMHO, Stephen Colbert is Endowed.
With many fine qualities.

Only one of them can win my Truthiness Award. Which one will it be?

The Dilemma continues.