April 30, 2006

Mr. Colbert Speaks Truth to Power

Doctor X send this through an anonymous re-mailer in Mozambique:

Here is the text of Colbert's speech to the President and the Washington Press Corps, which for some reason is not being widely reported. I suspect it will be in history books, however. Some choice excerpts:
  • "We go straight from the gut, right sir? That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. I know some of you are going to say I did look it up, and that's not true. That's because you looked it up in a book. Next time look it up in your gut."
  • "Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, W.M.D. intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew."
  • "Because really, what incentive do these people have to answer your questions, after all? I mean, nothing satisfies you. Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg."
  • "It's like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is."
  • "And I just like the guy. He's a good joe. Obviously loves his wife, calls her his better half. And polls show America agrees. She's a true lady and a wonderful woman. But I just have one beef, ma'am. I'm sorry, but this reading initiative. I've never been a fan of books. I don't trust them. They're all fact, no heart. I mean, they're elitist telling us what is or isn't true, what did or didn't happen. What's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was built in 1914. If I want to say it was built in 1941, that's my right as an American. I'm with the president, let history decide what did or did not happen."
It's all on youtube, of course. More color here.

2 Comments:

Blogger Undersecretary to the Deputy Commissariat said...

I loved it, but....

The audience warmed up toward the end, but most of the time he was dying out there.

May 1, 2006 at 12:52 AM  
Blogger JAB said...

He was speaking truth to power - you don't get applause.

Colbert was on 60 minutes last night; I have a rule of thumb in politics: the side having the most fun is winning.

May 1, 2006 at 10:20 AM  

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