Jon Stuart on Bill O'Reilly

On February 5 the entire, unedited version of Jon Stewart's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor was posted on the Fox Web site. I didn't know the interview was happening in the first place, so I actually gasped out loud when I read BoingBoing's posting of the news.

I proceeded to watch the entire thing. I was hooked. This is like, a rhetorical clash of the titans. People with such opposing view points, who so openly despise each other are very rarely in the same room together, let alone in the same room with a video camera! I'm glad O'Reilly thinks highly enough of his ability to control and manipulate interviews to invite Stewart on and I'm glad Stewart has the confidence in his own intelligence and character to accept the offer.

Here's the clip in in full, I hope it brings you as much satisfaction as it brought me:

Democracy for Sale

By now, we've all heard about the Supreme Court decision to overturn centuries-old restrictions on corporate involvement in campaign financing. Basically this means corporations are not limited by what they can contribute to a political campaign, so huge companies like Exxon Mobil can pad the pockets of whatever political pawn they please, and their opponents will have little or nothing to do about it since they won't have the funds to fight back. Hooray progress!

But it's not just me who finds this disturbing. Murray Hill Inc., a public relations firm out of Maryland, announced on Thursday that it will be running for public office. In its press release, Murray Hill explains it will be the first "'corporate person' to exercise its constitutional right to run for office."

This company is using their talents to take a stand on a serious issue they disagree with. I can respect that. It may be peanuts compared to a Supreme Court ruling, but hey, this is still a democracy...right?

See below to watch Murray Hill's first campaign ad: