Stephen Colbert slams Ron Wyden

Stephen_colbert_and_ron_wydenYears ago, the F-14 Tomcat was America's most fearsome fighter plane. Last year, the Pentagon finally retired the plane. But tens of thousands of spare F-14 parts were finding their way onto the international arms market. And the #1 customer? Iran.

Senator Ron Wyden has introduced the "Stop Arming Iran Act".

And Stephen Colbert isn't happy. Colbert thinks America should keep looking the other way, and keep raking in the cash -- even if the parts end up in Iran.

Here's the video.

Discuss.

  • Animal Luver (unverified)
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    Uh, it's called satire....

  • lin qiao (unverified)
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    I am shocked, shocked. The doofus pronounced it OreGONE.

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    The next Oregon congresscritter that gets on his show needs to hammer him over that pronunciation. Making him practice it a bunch of times before answering questions should be amusing.

    I like to ask people who are skeptical if they had a little red wa-gone when they were a kid.

  • Sponge (unverified)
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    "I like to ask people who are skeptical if they had a little red wa-gone when they were a kid."

    And a chemist may ask you for the local pronunciation of the gas Argon.

  • BlueNote (unverified)
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    I don't know if a serious observation is allowed on an obviously light-hearted and enjoyable post, but what is Wyden doing by introducing a bill that appears to give bipartisan cover for the Bush administration's preparations for war with Iran? At breakfast this morning one of my partners suggested this may be a way for Ron to show support (aka kiss up to) to Israel, which I suppose might explain it, but I am very uncomfortable with Wyden's action.

    The US is directly and indirectly selling weapons and spare parts to a a whole bunch of questionable and bad folks around the world. Why Wyden would pick to target Iran at the same moment that Bush and Cheney are trying to stir up support for a military invasion of Iran is troubling to this Democrat.

    If one of you well connected Dems could explain things to me, I would appreciate it.

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    And a chemist may ask you for the local pronunciation of the gas Argon.

    I know it's a stretch but try to wrap your brain around a little logic, Sponge. It's a given that there are things ending in g-o-n that are pronounced the other way. The position of the skeptics is that nothing ending in g-o-n can possibly be pronounced the way we pronounce Oregon. Wagon provides an example. There are others, of course--"jargon", "dragon" and "flagon" come to mind.

    Argon is irrelevant--not to mention a weak example in the first place (chemists?) given the more common ones available: "paragon", "polygon", and all the X-sided-figure "gons": "pentagon", "octagon", etc.

  • TL (unverified)
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    Nice try, Doretta, but I have yet to hear anyone say "Washing-Tahn".

    During my time Back East I reminded people who used the oft-mispronunciation of "Or-a-gone" (many who didn't realize there was any state between WA and CA on the west coast) to just pronounce Oregon with the same ending as Washington.

  • well_lit (unverified)
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    Perhaps Colbert is a Steely Dan fan.

  • hntuna (unverified)
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    It will do no good to try to get Colbert to correctly pronounce Oregon, a place he has referred to in the past as "California's Canada".

  • Glen in Orygun (unverified)
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    What is Sen. Wyden's motivation to stop the US from selling more arms to Iran? My guess is he is fearful that if Bush does send troops or ships there, Iran won't have many or any operational F-14s to attack us. And even if we don't attack Iran, we here in Oregon don't want to prop up the military hardware of such a nation. Hey here's an idea, why not contact your Senators and Reps and tell them you don't want the US selling arms to ANYBODY! If you didn't already know, arms sales are the largest US export. Spreading democracy and lethal hardware wherever we go, that's the American way.

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    During my time Back East I reminded people who used the oft-mispronunciation of "Or-a-gone" (many who didn't realize there was any state between WA and CA on the west coast) to just pronounce Oregon with the same ending as Washington.

    You want them to pronounce it Ory-ton? Weird.

    It will do no good to try to get Colbert to correctly pronounce Oregon, a place he has referred to in the past as "California's Canada".

    He also refers to Oregon as Washington's Mexico.

    What? Oh, I somehow got the impression that the point of this thread was to post as many non sequiturs as possible.

  • JAF (unverified)
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    Shutup. Who cares how people pronounce the name of your pathetic, backwards state. I would be willing to bet that at least half of the people bitching about the way its pronounced can't properly pronounce Illinois or Missouri. Miss-er-ree? NO.....wrong jackass. Miss-er-rah. See.....you didn't know that, and nor does anyone know or care how to pronounce your pathetic state. Now shutup.

  • Zoe (unverified)
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    Just in case we haven't had enough references to Colbert's constant mocking of our glorious state--we've also been reffered to as "Idaho's Portugal."

    It's definitely a favorite.

    <h2>As for the concern about selling materials to Iran? I'm with Stephen--I don't stand on either side when it comes to F-14 parts, I'm worried about the toilets. The concept of an "atomic swirly" sounds utterly terrifying.</h2>
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