Remember “muffingate”? You know, the story of how a U.S. Department of Justice meeting in 2009 was alleged to have spent $16 per muffin, which was a perfect example of wasteful government spending brought to national attention by Bill O’Reilly? Of course you do! Stephen Colbert also remembers the muffins, and last night he reported on a government investigation on the price paid for said muffins (it wasn’t $16!) and other wasteful spending by revealing a thorough 151-page government report on…wasteful spending.

Earlier this week Rush Limbaugh criticized President Obama for alleging that the White House was “targeting Christians” by invading Uganda and going after the LRA, aka the “Lord’s Resistance Army.” Turns out that the LRA are responsible for a number of horrible acts, none of which would be concerned with model Christian behavior. Stephen Colbert noticed that Limbaugh added, after making the killing Christians claim, that they ” just found out about this today, and we’re going to do our due diligence research on it.” Huh.

During Tuesday’s CNN hosted GOP debate, moderator Anderson Cooper challenged front-runner Herman Cain on his previous “if you’re not rich, blame yourself!” statement. Cain’s doubling down was cited, then “celebrated,” last night, by Stephen Colbert, who brilliantly re-constructed various blame-game rhetoric that made a mockery of the whole ordeal.

Fans of Stephen Colbert know that he is a big fan of Apple; his constant begging for and then showing off of the latest Apple products has been a recurring bit on his show. So when news broke on Wednesday that Apple founder Steve Jobs had died, some probably wondered how the fake news man would report the news. Last night this question was answered, when Colbert showed a highlight-reel of past bits that were both funny and a fitting homage to the Apple products he loved.

On Tuesday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert spoke with former John McCain campaign manager Rick Davis to get his take on the 2012 race. “What happened to Perry?” Colbert asked incredulously. “I was so excited about that guy! He was a proven job maker in Texas. He had the evangelical vote. Why did he crap out so hard?”

“Well, politics is tough business,” Davis answered.

On Monday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert stuck up for Rick Perry over his West Texas hunting camp’s racially charged name. He called the scandal “much ado about nothing” as “many presidents have vacationed at questionably named resorts.”

An oft heard refrain around GOP election headquarters around the nation these days is “broaden the tax base,” as a rejoinder to President Obama‘s repeated desire for the super-wealthy to “pay their fair share” with a higher tax rate. Stephen Colbert illustrated this particular narrative through a series of news clips before focusing on the idea that nearly 50% of all Americans don’t pay any taxes (turns out they make less than $20,000 a year.)

One of the lasting stories to have come from Monday night’s CNN/Tea Party debate between GOP presidential candidates is the mandatory HPV vaccination in Texas and whether or not it exemplifies Gov. Rick Perry‘s cronyism. In a post debate TV appearance, Michele Bachmann‘s suggested that the HPV vaccination causes mental retardation, at least according to her research of what some woman told her. As such, Stephen Colbert proposed last night that, just like climate change and evolution, both sides of this science controversy should now be taught in schools.

In the past two GOP presidential primary of debates, the specter of death has cast an eerie shadow over the proceedings. But while most mortals live in fear of the “angel of death,” that wasn’t the case with recent GOP debate proceedings that saw enthusiastic and spontaneous applause for record executions and (hypothetically) letting an uninsured coma patient die. Stephen Colbert bravely stated what a lot of us were already thinking: regardless of who wins the primary, the next GOP running mate should be The Grim Reaper.

79% of The Daily Show‘s guests in 2010 were men and only 21% were women, according to a recent art installation featured at New York City’s Winkleman Gallery. In addition, The Colbert Report‘s 2010 guest line-up was even more homogeneous, featuring 82.5% male guests.

Shortly after coming in third place in the Iowa straw poll last month, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty bowed out of the GOP primary. Last night he appeared on The Colbert Report and explained that serious policy approach to a struggling economy and record lacked the “entertainment component” that voters were looking for in a candidate. When asked by Stephen Colbert if he considered learning to juggle, Pawlenty shot back “I thought about shooting sparks up my butt.”

During a Wednesday night segment of “The Ridiculist,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper covered the strange report of an alleged intoxicated actor Gerard Depardieu urinating on an airliner’s carpeted aisle. Cooper used various bathroom puns in a harmless, light and funny bit, but became completely lost in an uncontrollable fit of giggles rarely seen on a live news broadcast. Last night Stephen Colbert used this as an opening in the so-called bitter rivalry between the two television anchors, and came up with his own “celebrity poop puns” of his own.

During a recent town hall meeting set in a pastoral lake side setting, President Obama took a question about the reform of medical marijuana and strangely segued into the term ‘Obamacare.’ We suggested that he was simply “reclaiming the word‘ — which has been used repeatedly as a derisive hot-button term for the president’s detractors. But last night, Stephen Colbert broke down the true etymology of the term, and its not “Obama” and “Care” as the president suggested.

As predicted by many political pundits, Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Straw Poll this weekend by a relatively wide margin. How did she pull it off? According to Stephen Colbert, the Bachmann campaign may have paid for the win by purchasing tickets to the event and enticing attendees with beef brisket, air conditioning and chairs! He supported this claim with clips of various political analysts making such a claim, before suggesting how this strategy will help her win the general election come November 2012.

During a pre-debate soap box appearance yesterday at the Iowa State Fair, GOP front runner Mitt Romney was hectored by some aggressive individuals who insisted, among other things, that the corporate tax rate gets raised to save social security in lieu of middle income taxes. Romney’s now famous response of “corporations are people, my friend” caused quite a stir across the political media landscape, but only Stephen Colbert was willing to recognize, and yes salute, Romney’s brave position on corporate personhood.

With President Obama declining in the recent approval polls and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney looking more and more likely as an eventual GOP presidential candidate, its not to early to consider theoretical campaign strategies between the to campaigns. As we recently pointed out, a recent report suggested that the Obama campaign will try to make Romney out to be “weird,” which some have thought was code word for his Mormon faith. Last night Stephen Colbert addressed this, saying “I am really starting to respect that urban rhythmic socialist Kenyan secret Muslim!”

Lost in the recent news of the debt crisis, credit downgrade and market volatility is a much bigger story that has effected the entire nation: it’s been very hot this summer. Fortunately, there are a number of brave media personalities who are taking a comprehensive approach to their reporting on the heat, including the liberal media efforts to brainwash kids by sneaking global warming propaganda into their cartoons. Last night Stephen Colbert lauded Fox and Friends for bravely going after cartoon character Spongebob and his inexplicable square shaped pants.

Stephen Colbert shares America’s outrage with S&P’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, but has a very different reason to criticize the ratings company: they ignored America’s most valued asset, Jesus! Or in his words, “but when Standard & Poors did their math they forgot to carry the Christ.” Which is why he loved the response by Texas Governor Rick Perry, who led a completely not-political prayer event Saturday in Houston’s Reliant Stadium to ask God to fix America.

Here’s a hypothetical; Lets say you write for a comedy show that tackles current events and you find a story that seems so odd and disturbing that you really don’t have to write any jokes. Your host can just describe it and it will be funny. Are you a) happy because it makes your job easy, or b) unhappy because seriously this is a pretty f-ed up story!

The Department of Health and Human Services really established that America’s private insurance companies must allow access to preventive health care needs to women. Free H.I.V. screenings, free counseling, even free breast pumps are covered under the plan which could start as soon as next August. Stephen Colbert is predictably outraged over this, declaring last [...]

President Obama yesterday signed into law the controversial debt bill that not only raised the debt ceiling, but also seemed to have done political damage to both the White House and Democrats who appeared to have done less compromising, and more capitulating to an obstinate Tea Party-lead congressional GOP caucus. How bad was the final deal? Well even fake newsman Stephen Colbert has piled on to the liberal side of the aisle, and not in the amplified absurd of hyperbole of his “character” but in a way that seems to reveal that he really thinks the Dems got screwed…at both ends.

CNN’s Don Lemon recently becomes a sweetheart of visitors to social news website Reddit after appearing in a segment on The Colbert Report and being profiled on the Daily Show. In the latter segment, Jon Stewart pays homage to Lemon’s disdain for the sort of newsy pablum networks sometimes use to flesh out an hour.

Now that both sides in the recent debt crisis debate have come to agreement on raising the debt ceiling, both the political and chattering class have rushed out to assess winners and losers in this compromised deal. And simply judging by the confident rhetoric espoused by many on the right, it appears that the GOP seems happier than the Democrats with the final result. Last night, Stephen Colbert noted that the GOP may have won small victory before adding “but this could have been so much more victoryer!” Colbert then explained the debt negotiations and budget deal with a Billy Goats Gruff that even kids could understand.

One of the stranger components to the past week’s narrative surrounding the the debt crisis has been the insertion of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Lord of the Rings. John McCain got the ball rolling with his now notorious senate floor speech that dirisively compared Tea Party candidates to Hobbits. This sparked a rather absurd but fun back and forth by politicans twisting the metaphor to their own gains, but none compared to Stephen Colbert‘s comparison last night.

When suburban Philadelphia resident Patrick Rodgers discovered that his bank had charged him for mortgage payments not agreed upon, he turned the tables, and “foreclosed on the foreclosers.” Since it’s the perfect cable news interest story, this story received a decent amount of national attention, though as Stephen Colbert pointed out last night, cable news hosts — in particular, Don Lemon — missed the story: Rodgers is a vampire!