Helping the USO wash all the Kid Rock off of its reputation alone is reason to stand up and cheer...

There was a time when I thought Stephen Colbert's show wouldn't work. Too much of a high-wire act, too one-note, too focused on one personality. Boy, was I a chump. "The Colbert Report" has become one of the best written, most consistently surprising things in pop culture. Colbert is fearless and such a fascinating blend of character and vamp. And in case you've not heard because you were on an ice flow or buried under a pile of real life concerns, this week he's doing a series of USO shows in Baghdad that they're taping for broadcast during his standard slot. Last night was the first example of what they're doing. It's just plain stunningly good work. Colbert's poked the zeitgeist directly in the middle of the forehead in joking repeatedly how Iraq has so fully fallen off the radar that idiots might think it was all over over there. Far from it. Even if you don't watch the show, you need to. And if you're looking to donate charitably in a new direction, I fully admire his link with DonorsChoose.org. Well worth a few sheckles, if you can manage.

Hope your own overseas shows are also recorded in a palace today. Rock on.

Mush!

Crater? To quote Paul on Letterman - "I didn't even know her." If you've got money in anything other than your mattress, the news of market collapses worldwide is pretty frickin' scary. I've got my own spin. But I think we all need something else right now. Aside from a hug. So here's a few suggestions.

Oliver Stone appeared on "The Colbert Report" last night. I was stunned by "Platoon" and "Salvador" didn't suck. Still, he's been an incoherent boob for years. Almost everyone wants his new movie "W." to be interesting. Or terrible. Like everyone aside from your third cousin Morrie who works in LA, I haven't seen it yet. But his interview was hilarious.

Lance Mackey is the two-time defending Champ of the Iditarod sled dog marathon. He went to high school with Sarah Palin. Seriously. And he has a new reality show on the Discovery Channel that premieres next week. Who cares. Who cares? Ironically, me. He was on Conan O'Brien last night and his honest sweetness and dorky forthrightness utterly slayed me. That dog can do more than hunt.

Hope your own atonement was enough to make you realize that Gordon Gecko was so, so obscenely ahead of his time that someone should send Michael Douglas a CookieGram made out of dog poo today. Rock on.