Jon Stewart Skewers Obama & Holder For Not Attending Paris Rally

Liberal Jon Stewart of Comedy Central skewered Barack Obama and Eric Holder for not joining around 50 world leaders at the Paris rally of unity against terrorism that took place days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in the city.

He takes time to poke fun at the French, but then  relevant comments start at the 4:30 mark.

Video on YouTube.

Jon Stewart Gets It Wrong On Gaza

Jon Stewart launched a verbal attack against Israel during his July 14 show regarding the Israel/Gaza conflict. He lambastes Israel for notifying the Gazans about an imminent air strike by exploding a small mortar on the roof of some building, while they use a high tech smartphone alert system. Stewart makes it sound as if this is the only warning that Israelis give Gazan citizens about an impending attack. But that's a blatant lie, or willful ignorance.  Israelis do warn the Palestinians- with leaflets, phone calls and text messages. In fact, Israel just warned the Gazans to evacuate, and Hamas told them to ignore the IDF's warning, even encouraging them to act as human shields, which is something they have a penchant for. The small roof attack is simply a last resort when the other warning systems are ignored.

Then Stewart snarkily asks where are the Gazans supposed to evacuate to, talking about Gaza as if it's a few square blocks, and a shithole.  Let's see how terrible Gaza really is.  This video was filmed by a Palestinian (so you don't think it's Israeli propaganda), titled My Beautiful City- Gaza Palestine. Doesn't look too shabby to me- lots of fresh food and goods in bustling outdoor markets, horseback riding, swimming in the ocean, it even shows one young horseback rider with a fancy Canon DSLR camera. Oh, and they used to have a water park with luxury restaurants, until Hamas burned it down. And here's Gaza's shopping mall.  There are plenty of places to evacuate to Jon. If you would just do some research before you open your mouth.

MidEastTruth has compiled a video rebuttal to Stewart's misinformation, including snippets of an interview back in 2009 with British Commander Richard Kemp who led troops in Afghanistan in 2003 and who claims that in the history of warfare there is no army "that has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties, and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza."  The video then shows a compilation of photos showing the bright, prosperous side of Gaza living. Then there are snippets of an interview with the Palestinian envoy to the UNHRC, who talks about the indiscriminate bombing of Israel by Hamas as a "crime against humanity" because those rockets are targeting civilians, unlike the IDF's retaliatory attacks that are specifically aimed at Hamas targets. And unlike the IDF, there are no warnings from Hamas.

Watch it here.

Jon Stewart Blasts Obama's U.S. Ambassador Choices

There was a time when the bulk of U.S. ambassadors were career diplomats. Yes, there were some political appointees, but most were culled from the State Department's diplomatic corps. At least that's how it was when my dad was in the Foreign Service. However, it seems that more and more are now being appointed by the man living in the White House.  Called 'political appointees' these people are given leadership of an embassy in a foreign land often without any qualifications. According to NPR, Barack Obama had said he wanted to rely on career diplomats for ambassadorships, but that isn't quite how things turned out.  The State Department's American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) claims that Obama has named more political appointees in his second term than any prior president, including soap opera producer Colleen Bell who was recently assigned to Hungary. Bell apparently had no clue what the U.S. "strategic interests" are in Hungary, but was a big-time donor to Obama's presidential campaign. In response to that question by Sen. John McCain, Bell responded:

"Well, we have our strategic interests, in terms of what are our key priorities in Hungary, I think our key priorities are to improve upon, as I mentioned, the security relationship and also the law enforcement and to promote business opportunities, increase trade ..." 

In response to gaffes like the above, the AFSA is writing up a list of qualifications for non-career ambassadors: including knowledge of what our strategic interests are.

Or what about having traveled to the country where they are about to be assigned?  Not the case with several recent Obama appointees. Businessman George Tsunis has never been to Norway, Noah Bryson Mamet has never been to Argentina,  Robert Barber has never been to Iceland.  However, they all raised beaucoup bucks for Obama:  Tsunis raised $850,000, Mamet $500,000 and Barber $1.6 million. Watch Jon Stewart poke fun at this corruption.

Not all political appointees are unqualified, however.

Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, doesn't have anything against political appointees: His father was one.

However, unlike some of the campaign "bundlers" — wealthy fund-raisers who bundle contributions from a variety of donors — getting nominations in the Obama administration, Neumann's father was a professor of international relations, who had traveled and written extensively about the Middle East before serving as ambassador to Afghanistan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

"He was an enormously competent appointee who served four presidents, three embassies and two parties, which is kind of unusual," Neumann says of his father. The two men used to joke that they "came into the foreign service together" — his father at the top and Neumann at the bottom.

Neumann believes all ambassadors need to be vetted.

"There is a law, which both parties ignore, about ambassadors needing to be qualified: the Foreign Service Act of 1980,"  "People still get through even if they are manifestly not qualified."

Obviously no-one pays much attention to that law.

Jon Stewart Skewers Obama For Pleading Ignorance On All The Recent Scandals

Jon Stewart skewers Barack Obama for always claiming he learned about all the recent scandals the same time we did. In the news.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Class Division In Occupy Wall Street- Jon Stewart's The Daily Show

As will happen in any society, the Occupy Wall Street movement (#OWS) in New York's Zucotti Park automatically divided into separate classes.
Samantha Bee on Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show' investigates that class division. Some funny stuff.

There is no socio-political system that can eliminate the 'have's and the have-nots', that's just the way it is.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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