What have you got for an opening act this time? A Chinese gorilla dancing ballet?

When the great photographer Ansel Adams interviewed Ronald Reagan during the halycon of the future President's days as a spokesman for G.E. the photographer referred to Reagan as "opaque." No light penetrates. A condition prevalent to most of those of Reagan's political persuasion I might add.

This open letter to Jon Stewart demonstrates once again how those on the political Right live a life of irony-deficiency. They're simply incapable of noticing the absurdity in advocating two (or more) counter positions at the same time.

In this case Justin Hartfield of the Prometheus Institute (Objectivists?) is simultaneously saying that he admired Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire in which he berated host Tucker Carlson while taking up Tucker's biggest charge during that program that Stewart wasn't serious enough in his interviews and demeanor.

I understand your show is in the business of entertainment and its focus is on humor, but isn’t it at least a small bit reckless to criticize so fervently yet offer no viable solutions yourself?

Stewart's response when Tucker tried the same line was that the show leading into his was "puppets making prank calls."

I was going to post the entire Crossfire segment which is available at You Tube but came across this speech by Stewart which he made on the first episode of the Daily Show following the 9/11 attacks. I think Stewart does a far better job of defending his program and talking about why his job as the heckler is so important in a free society than anything he said on Crossfire.

As for Hartfields complaint that Stewart needs to attack targets from all sides of the political spectrum and not just Republicans I think it's pretty clear to anyone that watches the show that they don't pull any punches when it comes to Democrats. It's just that when you're the kid in the back of the class shooting spitballs, as Stewart talked about in the post-9/11 show opener, you shoot those spitballs at the teacher.

Forgive me for being forward, but I'm a liberated pig.

Listening to the Majority Report last night a conservative caller talked about his disillusionment with Bush and company and his reluctance to support Democrats because, in contrast to Republicans, they fail to provide "ideas." Republicans provide ideas/ solutions and Democrats simply harp.

Sam and Janeanne gave the boilerplate progressive response: Democrats have plenty of ideas but they can't get them heard and policy proposals sit on shelves collecting dust because Republican majorities refuse to let them be considered. Pretty standard stuff.

But what typically drives me nuts in these exchanges is the part of the construct that goes unanswered: that Republicans have ideas. Why this argument that's so obviously false on it's face is taken as rote by progressives is beyond me. Conservative "ideas" aren't policies they've come up with after reviewing the problems facing us and looking for solutions. Conservative "ideas" are really the continuation of fights they lost against true progressive ideas 40, 50 and as much as 60 years ago. They just found a new way to paint the pig.

Conservatives tried for years to kill Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society and failed horribly time after time. In the court of public opinion most Americans saw the necessity of programs built to deal with poverty, hunger and health care for the weakest in our society. Conservatives eventually realized the impossibility of convincing Americans that it would be okay to sacrifice the elderly and poor on the alter of the free market. About the time of the Reagan Revolution they decided it was time to redress their arguments.

After consulting their Mary Kay Representative the conservatives took a look at their porcine philosophy and realized major work was in order if they were ever going to convince someone to buy it. So they went to work. A little blush on the cheeks and Welfare Reform was born. Some lipstick and we have Social Security Privitization. A little eyeshadow and we get the abolishment of the Death Tax.

Voila! New ideas.