Jon then right into the news with President Bush’s trip to Latin America, trying to improve trade, and promote CAFTA, a free trade agreement in Central America.

Staying oversees, Jon takes us to France, which has hundreds, perhaps thousands of young Muslim men rioting and setting homes and cars on fire. Why fight angry Muslims in Iraq, when you can fight them in your own country? For more on this, Jon is joined by Correspondent, Rob Corddry, live in Paris, France. Rob wonders just how long until the French surrender.

Back from commercial, Jon’s back with a story about how President Bush has ordered everyone with a security clearance to attend a refresher course on ethics. Jon proceeds to show some examples of the questions from the final exam.

Back from commercial, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest, Senator Barack Obama, live in Washington, DC.

The interview was one of the best in a very long time. There was a lot of laughter, especially with the Senator’s jab at Jon.

The Daily Show – 110705 – Sen. Barack Obama
Original Air Date: November 07, 2005

Rating: 9.1

For more on the Bird Flu Pandemic, Jon turns it over to Rob Corddry for his “Health Scare” segment, which explores the problem and where it began. Rob suggests that if you get the Bird Flu, give it back to a bird by making out with one.

Back from a commercial, Jon introduces a segment on gay marriage, specifically in Massachusetts. Despite one man’s claims, Ed isn’t able to actually find any problems gay marriage has caused. He even brought out his gaydar, “Homometer 2000″ to find anything gay in the city, but Ed thinks it’s broken.

Returning from commercial, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest, former independent council, Robert Ray, who offers his opinion on the current Valerie Plame CIA Leak investigation.

Rob’s “Health Scare” segment was hilarious, as was Ed’s piece on gay marriage. It was a pretty good episode, but I walked away, sort of feeling that I needed more from that interview.

The Daily Show – 110305 – Robert Ray
Original Air Date: November 03, 2005

Rating: 8.5

To find out what’s going on now, Jon turns to Senior Congressional Correspondent, Ed Helms, live in Washington, DC. He doesn’t seem to be able to get in because the Democrats and Republicans are having make-up sex.

Jon then shows some clips from the news media where Senator Frist is complaining about what the Democrats are doing; it’s just a stunt. Jon then had clips of the Democrats showing on one screen, and Republicans on the other, complaining about one another.

Back from a commercial, Jon turns it over to Rob Corddry for a segment on oil and gasoline prices. Rob sets out for his first interview in his Hummer limo, but doesn’t get much more than 10 feet and he’s out of gas already.

Back from commercial break, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest, Mike Wallace. Their discussion was wide-ranging, from everything to Jon’s book to Mike’s book to Mike’s interviews.

I enjoyed the interview the most. Mike Wallace has a number of great stories from his long career of journalism, and he shared some of that with the viewers tonight.

The Daily Show – 110205 – Mike Wallace
Original Air Date: November 02, 2005

Rating: 8.6

Jon then went right into Judge Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Jon compared Alito and Miers with a handy little checklist. John proceeded to see what everyone is saying about Alito, with everyone saying the same thing, depending on their party. After this, Jon showed some clips of Judge Alito and Sen. Schumer trying to get some play with Rosa Park’s death.

Jon then decides to look into Judge Alito’s past and see if he’ll be confirmed. Jon determines that he’ll end up being Judge Dredd.

After a commercial break, Jon introduces a piece from Nate Corddry about the poor. When Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area, there was a lot of attention to poverty. Nate went on to show several video clips from old news reels and recent tv shows.

Back from commercial, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest, Senator Barbara Boxer. Their discussion was about today’s events in the Senate, the WMD investigation, etc.

As always, a good episode, but it wasn’t my favorite episode of late.

The Daily Show – 110105 – Sen. Barbara Boxer
Original Air Date: November 01, 2005

Rating: 8.2

Jon starts off the news with showing some clips from Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame CIA Leak case. Jon proceeds to nearly fall asleep when Fitzgerald used baseball analogies while trying to explain the investigation. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was indicted in the case, for possibly lying during the investigation.

Jon then showed a sped-up clip of President Bush, mentioning the resignation of Libby, which Jon found very funny.

On the news networks, all of the Republicans seemed to be saying the exact same thing about Libby, as though they’re reading it from a script. They all were shown saying this isn’t Watergate, all from the same script apparently.

Back from commercial, Jon mentioned the news about President Bush’s nomination of Judge Alito, to the Supreme Court. For more on this, Jon turns to Senior White House Correspondent, Rob Corddry, live in Washington, DC. Jon wonders if the nomination announcement was an attempt by the Bush administration to take focus off of “Scooter” Libby. Rob, who seems to be distracted by a shiny tin foil ball and bubbles, thinks that the “newness” of this news trumps any importance of any news made prior to this one.

Back from commercial, Jon welcomed tonight’s guest, D.L. Hughley. Their discussion included Halloween, his show, and the Valerie Plame CIA Leak case.

I really enjoyed Rob’s segment. The interview wasn’t too bad, somewhat funny since D.L. is a comedian afterall.

The Daily Show – 103105 – D.L. Hughley
Original Air Date: October 31, 2005

Rating: 8.6

And for more on this, we turn to Senior White House Correspondent, Ed Helms, live in Washington, D.C. Ed suggested that Miers’ withdrawal is the highpoint of the Bush Administration, after five years of partisan bickering, Democrats and Republicans all came together to denounce Harriet Miers.

After Ed Helms, Jon went on to show more clips from CNN and FOX News. Trent Lott is then shown making a few slips of the tongue, and then making a horrendous gaff when it came to comparing men, women, and minorities.

Back from commercial, Jon introduces a segment about a new crusader, trying to change the world. What’s this man trying to do? Sell tofu which resembles human flesh, all in an attempt to get Americans to experience cannibalism. Samantha Bee turns to Mark Levit to try to come up with some slogans for Hufu, but he has a little bit of difficulty.

Back from commercial, Jon welcomes Janis Karpinski, who had control of the prisons in Iraq when the scandal of Abu Gharib broke out. She’s got a new book out about it, and all of her experiences as a woman in the military. The discussion was solely about Abu Gharib.

The interview wasn’t all that interesting and really brought down the show. Jon didn’t introduce a whole lot of humor to the interview, perhaps because of the nature of the discussion. The rest of the show was very good. Samantha Bee’s segment was pretty silly.

The Daily Show – 102705 – Janis Karpinski
Original Air Date: October 27, 2005

Rating: 8.0

Jon then had another “The Less You Know” segment, which was about the nomination of Harriet Miers. After a clip of President Bush saying people can go to the White House and make a suggestion, Jon gets into a plane to offer advice to the President, but security escorted him off of the White House lawn.

For more on “executive privilege”, Jon welcomes Political Analyst, Ed Helms. Ed suggested that “executive privilege” is a good thing, as while we know a lot of the ideas President Bush is bad, we probably don’t want to know the really, really bad advice.

Back from commercial, there’s “Breaking News” from Senior White House Correspondent, Dan Bakkedahl, who has no news to report. There’s now a new segment, “The Less You Knew”, which centered on Lawrence Wilkerson, who two years too late, said in a speech that Rumsfeld and Cheney didn’t really didn’t get along while he was there. He went on to name more names and criticise them.

Back from commercial, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals”. The interview was all about President Lincoln, who is the subject of her new book.

I was really looking forward to this episode, as I find Doris Kearns Goodwin a very intelligent author, who you can find on NBC Nightly News, offering a historical point of view, and in this interview, you got to see her great sense of humor.

The Daily Show – 102605 – Doris Kearns Goodwin
Original Air Date: October 26, 2005

Rating: 8.8

We begin tonight in Washington, where we focus on FEMA, and the problems with the response to Hurricane Katrina. More news has come out recently that Michael Brown was more interested in eating his own dinner than helping the response. Jon then transitioned to the Highway Bill, and then to Tom DeLay, who was interviewed by Rita Cosby. Jon went on to criticize Rita Cosby for her poor interviewing techniques.

For more info on this, Jon turns to Sugar Land Bureau Chief, Jason Jones, who is live in Sugar Land, Texas. There isn’t any criminalization of politics, just politicising of crime.

Returning from commercial, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest, Al Franken, author of “The Truth (with Jokes)”. Their discussion was somewhat short, and focused on some of Al’s ideas for the future, and commented on the Democratic Party, which has done a poor job in getting people to vote for them.

Back from commercial, Jon introduced another segment of “Great Moments in Punditry”. Tonight’s segment was from Hannity & Colmes, which featured a discussion in which Ann Coulter brought up the topic of Senator Kennedy’s involvement with a woman’s death on Chappaquiddick.

The “Great Moments in Punditry” segments need to be removed, as I’ve said before. They get some pretty terrible material, and the kids still don’t seem to be able to make it all that funny. Jason Jones’ segment was pretty funny, and the interview wasn’t bad. In fact, I would have rather seen another five minutes of Al Franken instead of the “Great Moments in Punditry” segment. I think their discussion was actually going somewhere, and there could have been more to it.

The Daily Show – 102505 – Al Franken
Original Air Date: October 25, 2005

Rating: 8.1

Jon then goes right into the news with showing clips of various segments from all the news channels, with people standing around in their parkas, blowing around.

For more on this, Jon turns to Senior Weatherman Reporter, Ed Helms. Ed went on to suggest that the weathermen are very important, even comparing them to mythological figures, but after Jon pressed him, Ed revealed that there’s really no good reason for them to be out there.

After the commercial, it was time for Lewis Black and his “Back in Black” segment. Lewis ranted and raved about MSNBC bringing in a handwriting expert to study the signatures of Harriet Myers and Sandra Day O’Connor. Lewis then complained about a woman who received a letter nearly 30 years after it was mailed. Next up on Lewis’ radar was Martha Stewart, who writes the Apprentice candidates letters, as they are let go.

Returning from a commercial, Jon welcomes tonight’s guest, Bill Kristol. The discussion centered on the Plame CIA leak, the war in Iraq, the economy, etc. The two of them really never agreed on much during the interview.

The majority of the episode was pretty good. Ed Helms was hilarious as usual, but the interview was of little interest to me. Although he doesn’t work for the Bush Administration, he tows the administration line on just about everything, so he really didn’t have anything important or interesting to say, just to plug his book.

The Daily Show – 102405 – Bill Kristol
Original Air Date: October 24, 2005

Rating: 8.3

Jon kicks off the news with a recap of the Supreme Court nominations by President Bush. Jon showed clips of the President speaking about Roberts and Myers, as well as clips of people who are criticising the nomination of Myers. The first ten minutes was nothing but a recap of Harriet Myers’ nomination and confirmation process, and she’s not even been confirmed yet.

Returning from commercial, Jon introduces a segment called “Could It Happen Here”, which posed the question, could a woman be President in the U.S.? Jason interviewed Geraldine Ferraro, who was a VP candidate several years ago. She believes it’s entirely possible. Jason looked to the new Commander In Chief TV series as a source for the question.

Back from commercial, welcomed tonight’s guest, The Rock, who is starring in Doom. The Rock even brought out the BFG used in the film, which was made famous in the video game. The discussion revolved around the movie and the video game, as well as Jon’s hard-on.

Jason Jones’ segment was absolutely hilarious. It was well written, and well acted throughout. I was surprised to see Jason’s wife, Samantha Bee make an appearance… in the restroom. The interview never got serious, it was very light and funny.

The Daily Show – 102005 – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Original Air Date: October 20, 2005

Rating: 9.3