The daily show's 9/11 first responders episode

This was on air on thursday but you can check it out at the official website (Canucks have to go to comedy network.) I had to wait a few days to truly let it sink in and I just gotta say wow. You could actually feel the anger and frustration oozing off of Jon throughout the episode. Here's hoping that Huckabee rallies some of his fellow republicans and they pass the damn bill.

edited 18th Dec '10 6:55:00 PM by thatguythere47

Could you explain what the episode is about, for those who don't want to go out of their way to watch some video some dude on the Internet told them to?

edited 18th Dec '10 7:23:31 PM by Sporkaganza

^

Agreed. My internet sucks here, can't be arsed to load the whole video.

Okay, I just watched it so I guess I can summarize it.

There's a bill being passed that would provide extra healthcare for 9/11 first responders, who are apparently suffering lung cancer and such from inhaling all the shit in the air around Ground Zero for a prolonged period of time. The extra money would come from closing a corporate tax loophole. This bill, which is guaranteed to pass based on the number of people who support it, is being filibustered by about 2 senators who happen to be Republican. The senate is also scheduled to take a holiday break and will not get around to this bill for quite a while. Cue moral outrage.

The show itself is structured around finding apparently hypocritical claims being made (there's another tax cut bill that's being rushed through to get it out before the holidays, cuing a Death and Taxes joke) and showing them to a number of 9/11 first responder guests who are suffering from health problems and being denied insurance claims because they can't prove its work related. They also showed some clips of the filibuster itself, which involved a guy giving a long speech about how another Senator is retiring. A classic appeal to emotions.

The final segment has Mike Huckabee come onto the show and Jon tries to guilt-trip him about being in the same party. And for working for Fox News, which apparently has somehow failed to start a 9/11 based moral outrage despite that being their specialty. Mike is very apologetic about the whole thing but wants to emphasize that this is not Fox's or the Republican party's fault.

That's about it.

edited 19th Dec '10 1:46:35 AM by Clarste

Another reason for me not to vote for Huckabee, at least in a primary.

edited 19th Dec '10 2:33:14 AM by Tsukubus

dp

edited 19th Dec '10 2:33:18 AM by Tsukubus

The final segment has Mike Huckabee come onto the show and Jon tries to guilt-trip him about being in the same party. And for working for Fox News, which apparently has somehow failed to start a 9/11 based moral outrage despite that being their specialty. Mike is very apologetic about the whole thing but wants to emphasize that this is not Fox's or the Republican party's fault.

I'm a huge fan of Huckabee. I really admire that he's one of the only Republicans to stand up and go "What the fuck are you guys doing?!" What we need is for this quality to become even more commonplace among politics, it's probably not going to happen, but in great enough numbers this could lead to the Republican Party actually reigning itself in and becoming -gasp- responsible.

I guess he just echoes my thoughts as someone who would like to be a Republican, and since my biggest issue with the party is the fact that if you aren't a Christian, you don't belong, I really like that although he's deeply religious and involved in his church, he doesn't try to push it on others or use it as his main political motivation.

edited 19th Dec '10 7:17:24 AM by Barkey

Huh? What are you talking about? Yes he does. That was a huge portion of his platform in 2008: He thought that America was a Christian nation. The difference is that in his mind, instead of just ignoring the constitution where it says "Yeah don't do that" that he thought that the constitution should be changed to read what "the majority of Americans believe."

I mean, I love the guy in terms of the way he handles politics. He's the most sincere person out there right now. I just happen to also completely disagree with him on almost every political issue.

Well, I guess the main thing is that, he wants us to be a Christian nation, but he's totally non-vitriolic about it. Which deserves some kudos.

edited 19th Dec '10 12:16:21 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

This bill, which is guaranteed to pass based on the number of people who support it, is being filibustered by about 2 senators who happen to be Republican.

And the cloture vote split along party lines, with all Republican senators voting no. You left that out.

It'll probably pass now. The GOP blocked a vote because they wanted to vote on the tax extension package first. The tax extension package that the President has just signed into law. The only way this bill will fail is if Pelosi adjourns the House on time instead of having a little extension and passing the bill in the House, but I don't think that's likely.

I didn't really like the episode. I know the bill is important, but I don't watch The Daily Show to listen to someone complain about it for a half hour. It's not the right forum to discuss it. That was always the point of Jon using his title of comedian as a shield, that his opinions on current events shouldn't be taken too seriously, which is what he was inviting with that panel.

Exception that proves the rule I guess. He was that angry.

Meh. I mean, I agree with Jon's politics so it's hard for me to say "He shouldn't be acting in a politically active fashion," but I guess I can't really disagree with that. This episode was certainly more about promoting a message than comedy.

But hey-he got Mike Huckabee to agree that they needed to pass the bill, so I guess it's at least a relatively uncontroversial item, eh?

Mullon, I kind of agree with you. I found it a bit uncomfortable. But this isn't the first time he's been more pundit than comedian. But it's been a while since he could legitimately use the 'I'm just a comedian!' defense.

(I've been watching the news for it and it *looks* like the bill will pass *crosses fingers*)