I love how hard-hitting Jon was with Rumsfeld, although I'm sure it would have been a lot more satisfying to punch him in his smarmy, smug lying face.

Not that I feel strongly about it or anything.

Man, I still remember it. Sept 11th happened and two weeks later I was on a plane from the East Coast to move to San Francisco. It was a frightful plane ride but once I got here I exhaled deeply. Little did I know that the next seven or eight years would be like the dark ages for America (not in San Francisco though -heh, heh, heh).

The media were the Bush Administration's little lap dogs for nearly the entire time. I remember all the huge protests that happened around the world in the build up to the War in Iraq and how the media treated them. They either did not report on them or made them all seem like a bunch of window smashing anarchists like the ones seen during the WTO protests in Seattle. I remember the day we dropped bombs in Iraq on March 21st 2002. I remember being let out of classes at college to help shut San Francisco down. Some group called ANSWER had organized an event a long time and coming that if we went to war in Iraq, San Francisco would not be "Business as Usual".

I was arrested with several hundred people, thousands had been illegally "detained" - we filed a Class Action Lawsuit with the International Lawyer's Guild against the SFPD and won our case to have charges of "inciting a riot" withdrawn. We won in the court aftermath but the cops still won; they took people out of it one by one and successfully defused the situation - we were peaceful protesters, no one had any sort of revolt on their mind, except for the anarchist kids and they definitely were there, they were a massive thorn for the entire situation.

We shut it down for five days with the help of thousands upon thousands of people and thousands of riot cops. Major media did not report on it. Maybe, it was cliche of San Francisco residents to force the city out of commission for several days but it was newsworthy.

This is a good interview. I appreciate how Rumsfeld is able to steer blame and corruption even in front of Stewart. He's truly a wicked and greedy man.

>> ^shagen454:

Man, I still remember it. Sept 11th happened and two weeks later I was on a plane from the East Coast to move to San Francisco. It was a frightful plane ride but once I got here I exhaled deeply. Little did I know that the next seven or eight years would be like the dark ages for America (not in San Francisco though -heh, heh, heh).
The media were the Bush Administrations little lap dogs for nearly the entire time. I remember all the huge protests that happened around the world in the build up to the War in Iraq and how the media treated them. They either did not report on them or made them all seem like a bunch of window smashing anarchists like the ones seem during the WTO protests in Seattle. I remember the day we dropped bombs in Iraq on March 21st 2002. I remember being let out of classes at college to help shut San Francisco down.
We shut it down for five days. Media did not report on it.


I was in San Francisco for that protest.

I thought that Rumsfeld's portrayal of an innocent old man was Oscar-worthy. He kept in character for almost the whole interview. I think his witty comeback "why'd you say 'at least' twice" flattered his own ego too much and he broke character for 4-5 seconds. Watch his body language,(12.45-12.50, last clip). That's Donald Rumsfeld. Then he slipped back into 'sweet old man', with a sweet little laugh.

Kudos to Rumsfeld for going on such a show. Not very compelling viewing though.

I like when Rumsfeld says that Bush gave Saddam and his family an opportunity to leave. I remember this. He gave a 48 hour window for Saddam to leave and this happened.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/20/newsid_3495000/3495453.stm

All is fair in love and pre-war.

^Perhaps he should have been given a 48 hour window to leave the CIA 40 years ago.

Great interview. Well played by both Jon Stewart and Donald Rumsfeld, in service to both of their views.