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00:01April 23rd, 2013, on Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, this is The
00:09Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
00:21Everybody welcome to The Daily Show, my name is Jon Stewart.
00:25My guest tonight, Mr. Salman Rushdie is going to be joining us.
00:28But I'm going to begin tonight by talking about perks, little job benefits, maybe the benefits
00:34of your job that make it worthwhile, the ability to work from home perhaps, a perk, a machine
00:38that dispenses the free coffee, a perk, immunity from murder charges, a perk.
00:47But as 60 Minutes taught us a year and a half ago, there may be no better perk than the
00:51one
00:52members of Congress receive.
00:54Congressional lawmakers have no corporate responsibilities, and have long been considered exempt from insider
01:00trading laws, even though they have daily access to nonpublic information and plenty of opportunities
01:07to trade on it.
01:08If you're on the Senate Banking Committee, you can trade bank stock as much as you want,
01:12and that regularly goes on in all of these committees.
01:16Interesting.
01:17Ladies and gentlemen, if you will, my impression of the Senate Banking Committee meeting following
01:26some crucial decisions on financial regulation.
01:29Okay.
01:33Hey, can we take a five?
01:34I got to run real quick and call my broker to make a load of money based on what just
01:37happened
01:37in here.
01:40I mean, P. I have to go P. A load of money.
01:50So apparently the law of the land was, it is absolutely forbidden for anyone in America
01:58to insider trade, unless you happen to be accessing the best possible, purest form of inside information.
02:07It's like saying nobody's allowed to use recreational drugs, unless it's that medical grade 100% pure
02:11cocaine, and then...
02:15And amazingly though, last April, that 60 Minutes piece yielded results.
02:20President Obama signing the so-called Stock Act today.
02:24Now government officials are subject to the same insider trading rules as everybody else.
02:28What do you got there, an acronym?
02:29Was that an acronym?
02:30Stock Act.
02:31The Stock Act, or Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.
02:40It was passed, I guess, because the fiscal use of congressional knowledge is expressly restricted
02:46act.
02:47It's too on the nose.
02:51Anyway, the Stock Act, is there nothing I cannot turn into vulgarity?
03:01I'm the Midas of profanity.
03:05The Stock Act was designed to do three things.
03:07One, bring a little transparency to this insider information cash grab machine.
03:13Two, stop lawmakers and their staffs from using said cash grab machine.
03:19And three, stop well-connected investors from gaining access to the inside information cash
03:24grab machine once the congressional staffs were done using it.
03:29Well-connected investors got the last part struck down before it ever got to Obama's
03:33desk, I assume purely by persuasive and rational argument.
03:42Something like, hey, what do you think you're going with that money machine?
03:45Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
03:49But still, it was a good day.
03:52I'm very proud to sign this bill into law.
03:55I should say that our work isn't done.
03:59There's obviously more that we can do to close the deficit of trust and limit the corrosive
04:03influence of money in politics.
04:05I love that.
04:06Limit the corrosive influence of money in politics.
04:09Yeah.
04:09Hey, let's face it, people.
04:10There's got to be some corrosive influence of money in politics.
04:13Yeah.
04:13We're weak people.
04:14We're going to try to limit it to acceptable amount.
04:15You know, like the FDA does with your favorite breakfast cereals, levels of rat poop and maggot
04:19residue.
04:19It's going to be in there.
04:21I mean, there's nothing you can do to keep that rat out of your cereal.
04:24I'm just saying.
04:25You keep it down to the point where you eat it and you're like, nah, I'm getting mostly
04:28cereal here.
04:30This is very delicious.
04:32I'm just getting that Souson of rat poop and just a hint of the maggots.
04:42But you know what?
04:42Fine.
04:43Two out of three is not bad, huh?
04:45Congress has killed a mandate that congressional staffers and executive branch employees post
04:50their financial disclosure forms online.
04:53Well, one out of three is not bad.
04:5733 percent.
04:58It's still a gentleman's F minus.
05:02For Congress to go back and kill the transparency feature of this stock act for staffers must
05:09not have been an easy decision.
05:10I want to hear every word of the loud and passionate Senate floor debate that they had
05:15there.
05:16Play the entire thing.
05:16And while you do that, I'm going to enjoy this big boy portion of my favorite Benjamin
05:21and Jerome's frozen treat.
05:24I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times and passed, and the motion to
05:28reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
05:31Without objection.
05:41Wait, that debate happened so quickly, I actually have more ice cream than when I started.
05:52Good thing I'm lactose intolerant.
06:01Well, look, Congress can do whatever it wants.
06:04That repeal of that transparency provision can't go through unless the president signs
06:09it, but he's not going to sign it.
06:11Is he?
06:12Carney?
06:13On Friday, Congress quietly passed changes to the stock act and government transparency
06:18groups say the changes basically gut the law.
06:21They're urging the president to veto it.
06:23Does he plan to sign it into law or veto it and why?
06:26Uh, the, I think the president was scheduled to sign the legislation today.
06:32The, uh, let me get my language here.
06:36No, let me help you out there.
06:39Let me help you out there.
06:40I think the language you might be looking for is this.
06:43NBC North Dakota news, your news leader in high definition.
06:47Gay.
06:50I think that's, is that the language you were looking for?
07:03By the way, that guy forgot to add punters.
07:12By the way, if punters is not in development right now on Comedy Central, something is really
07:20wrong with this world.
07:24Obama signed the transparency repeal because of concerns from the National Academy of Public
07:29Administration over personal security and law enforcement issues, which the Columbia
07:32Journalism Review passed for cyber security experts who declared such concerns.
07:36And I'm quoting now.
07:38Mmm.
07:39Bullshit.
07:42Hey, you know what?
07:44That gives me an idea for a movie.
07:57Welcome back.
07:58So last week, as we were watching on the show, last week we learned that while our United
08:03States Senate was unable to pass even the most basic gun control measures, Australia has
08:08had a successful gun control scheme for almost two decades.
08:10John Oliver visited our cousins from across a couple of ponds to find out more in part two
08:15of our three-part series.
08:16In 1996, following a massacre, Australia's conservative government enforced a national buyback of semi-automatic
08:23weapons while also heavily regulating the purchase and storage of other firearms.
08:29The result was dramatically reduced levels of gun violence.
08:32So why can't we do that here?
08:35To find out, I sat down with long-time aide to Harry Reid, Jim Manley.
08:39The NRA is still a very powerful force in this country.
08:43They have four million members who are very, very determined to get their way.
08:47And how can a nation of 300 million compete with that?
08:51It's difficult to understand sometimes, isn't it?
08:54But the fact of the matter is that you've got to think long and hard before you support
08:58gun control legislation, because taking on the NRA can be political suicide.
09:03And the Democratic Party is working tirelessly to reduce the rate of political suicide among
09:09its members.
09:10Surely, Australian politicians weren't stupid enough to end their political lives for gun
09:16control.
09:17Well, I did.
09:18What?
09:20I did.
09:21You did what?
09:22I took the stand.
09:24I was prepared to face the political consequences, and we delivered gun control.
09:30Meet Rob Borbidge, former Premier of Queensland, Australia's most conservative state.
09:36In 1996, he was instrumental in enacting gun control, knowing it would cost him his political
09:42career in the next election.
09:44We paid a high political price, but we did the right thing.
09:48Look, there are Australians alive today, because we took that action.
09:54I mean, how much is a life worth?
09:55But Jim Manley knows that a true public servant has more important concerns.
10:01What makes a politician successful?
10:03Getting re-elected by his or her constituents.
10:07Right.
10:08Yep.
10:09That's how you judge success.
10:12Okay.
10:13That's...
10:14Well, getting legislation done.
10:18Right.
10:18Is second.
10:19Is second.
10:20Yes.
10:21That is second.
10:23Holy ****.
10:24That is second.
10:26Uh...
10:26If I could rewind this tape, I'd say getting legislation done and getting re-elected by your constituents.
10:33But as soon as we can't rewind the tape, let's just go with the answer you gave on instinct.
10:37If you don't get re-elected, you know, you're just roadkill in the political process, and
10:43you're just another loser.
10:46Tragically, not everyone understands this.
10:49What makes a politician successful?
10:52Go.
10:52Making society a better place.
10:54No.
10:56No.
10:57No.
10:58No, Rob.
10:58No.
10:59Look.
10:59We can, um...
11:00We can actually rewind the tape.
11:03Are we rolling?
11:05What makes a politician successful?
11:08Well, it's your responsibility to govern in the best interests of the people that you serve.
11:17Rob, I...
11:18I mean, I'm going out on a limb here.
11:20I've already told someone else that I can't do this when I can.
11:23I hope you've got a lot of tape.
11:24True success is a lifelong politician like Harry Reid, whose watered-down gun legislation was
11:30carefully designed to protect those who needed it most.
11:34He has a responsibility as the Democratic leader to protect the caucus.
11:39Right, the caucus needs to be protected.
11:41The caucus does.
11:43They need to be protected politically.
11:45How many political careers have been tragically ended by gun control?
11:50We've lost some good folks over the years because of their view.
11:53Right, you have a perfectly healthy political career and then bang.
11:57Just like that.
11:58Which means former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has blood on his hands.
12:03Do you ever think about the innocent victims of your gun control?
12:08There were no innocent victims of mine.
12:10There were no victims at all.
12:13Yeah, that's a photograph of Rob Borbidge.
12:15He was incredibly courageous politically in supporting our laws.
12:19But politically, he's dead.
12:21Bang.
12:21Just like that.
12:22Well, he lost an election that we all do at some point.
12:25But Howard is not alone.
12:27His Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fisher,
12:29also refuses to accept responsibility for these career massacres.
12:34So, you don't look at these faces and feel guilt?
12:38Well, they're alive and...
12:41They're dead. They're politically dead.
12:42I hope that those who totally veto any move
12:49to bring sensible semi-automatic and automatic weapon control
12:53to the suburbs of America are also politically dead but physically alive.
12:57Not if I could help it.
13:00Never again will a political career end in a senseless act of meaningful legislation.
13:08It's just, uh, all of these, um, all of them are dead politically.
13:14Okay.
13:15Not physically. Physically, they're probably safer than they've ever been before.
13:18Well, it's a very dicey thingy.
13:20I mean, again, just to reiterate, physically, they're absolutely fine.
13:24It really makes you think.
13:25Sure does.
13:26Yeah.
13:26Unfortunately, what spending time with politically dead Australian politicians
13:30made me think about was how horribly wrong we have it in America.
13:35Thanks for speaking with me, Rob.
13:36Pleasure.
13:37You are a great human being.
13:38It's just, by all American standards, you are a f***ing politician.
13:42And the fact that that is true is why I am now going to walk into the f***ing ocean.
13:47In America, we're told gun control is not possible.
13:52But in Australia, they've shown it is.
13:54Providing a fantastic lesson for America to ignore.
14:03John Oliver, we'll be right back.
14:13Hey!
14:14Welcome back in tonight!
14:15A claimed author who wrote the screenplay for the new movie Midnight's Children
14:18based on his best-selling novel.
14:48And then you expect us to be like them.
14:53Listen, Dr. Saab.
14:55Husband or no husband.
14:58I'm not the moving type.
15:00Yeah, we all been there.
15:02Please welcome back to the program, Tom and Rushy!
15:19I'll tell you what, my friend, congratulations.
15:20This is an ambitious, ambitious film.
15:23You wrote Midnight's Children, an incredible novel.
15:28When you wrote it, did you think to yourself,
15:31oh, this would be a nice movie?
15:32No, you know what?
15:33Back then, I was just a kid.
15:35Nobody knew who I was.
15:36I was just grateful to get published,
15:38and for a few people who were not related to me,
15:40to buy copies of it.
15:43I mean, the idea that it would turn into this huge thing,
15:46you know, big best-seller, et cetera, et cetera,
15:49winning prizes, and eventually...
15:50It took 30 years to make the film.
15:53That sounds about right, Hollywood.
15:54Hollywood years, that's about right.
15:55That's right.
15:5630 years.
15:57Now, you went...
15:58When they came to you to say,
16:00did someone come to you and say,
16:02we would like to take this film,
16:04and we would...
16:05And for those of you who don't know the story,
16:06it's a boy in a boat with a tiger.
16:11Do I have this right?
16:13That's another one.
16:14That's a different one.
16:15Anyway, he wins the game show worth a million dollars.
16:19And, uh...
16:20That's also not right.
16:22You know, I'm afraid I'm going to have to look at my notes.
16:24Would you like me to help you out?
16:26Please.
16:26Help us out.
16:27It's a beautiful story, though,
16:28about the reflection of sort of the birth of India.
16:30Yeah, I mean, it's about India doing something
16:33which America did a little earlier,
16:35which is kicking the British out.
16:36Sure.
16:37We all get there at some point.
16:38We all get there.
16:39Except Canada.
16:40But for the most part...
16:41Yes.
16:42So it's like the Indian remake...
16:44Yes.
16:44...of American independence.
16:45Yes.
16:45But it's about these boys born at that moment.
16:48And it's about that generation, you know?
16:50And these boys get swapped at birth by a, um...
16:53You know, a sort of misleading, misled midwife.
16:56Right.
16:57And they get...
16:57They sort of have each other's life.
16:59The rich one has the poor life,
17:00and the poor one has the rich life.
17:02And then they oddly sort of confront each other at the end, so...
17:05It's so much, too, because you're...
17:07They symbolize not just the birth of India,
17:10but also its painful partition.
17:13Yeah.
17:13The wars that are fought.
17:14There's an awful lot of historical context to it.
17:18Well, fortunately, you know...
17:19I mean, yeah, but I didn't want to...
17:21You know, I don't think anybody needs to study,
17:24you know, before they see the film.
17:26No.
17:26Because, I mean, it really, it's about...
17:27By the way, that's a smart pitch to this audience.
17:29Yeah.
17:31I'm just saying...
17:32No, no, no.
17:32It's okay.
17:33We tell you what you need to know.
17:35It's all right.
17:36Seriously, just tell them it's a tiger in a boat.
17:38They'll go.
17:38They'll go.
17:40Yeah.
17:41Yeah.
17:41But they saw that one already.
17:42They did see that one already.
17:43That's where you're probably right.
17:45But...
17:46So...
17:47Typically, when they do that, they will...
17:48They will come to you and say,
17:49we would like to buy this story.
17:50Yeah.
17:51And remove it from your control.
17:52Yeah.
17:53Your response to that was...
17:55Well, that didn't...
17:55That isn't what happened.
17:56I mean, as it happens,
17:57the film director, Deepa Mehta, and I had known each other.
18:00And she lives in Toronto.
18:02We...
18:02I was there on book tour.
18:03We had dinner one night.
18:04Mm-hmm.
18:05And in the middle of it, just apropos of nothing,
18:07she said, who has the rights to midnight children?
18:09And I said, as it happens, I do.
18:11And she said, well, can I make a movie of it?
18:14And I said, okay.
18:15And that was the deal.
18:16Really?
18:17That was it.
18:17Just in the middle of like, wow, this is a delicious risotto, by the way.
18:21Yeah.
18:21Exactly.
18:22And just threw it out there.
18:23And then, yeah.
18:23And then we had a fierce negotiation and I sold her the option for $1.
18:29Less agents commission.
18:30I'm going to tell you something now.
18:31I don't know how long you've been in this business, but I know some good Jewish agents.
18:35Yes.
18:36You feel...
18:37You feel that a dollar was not enough?
18:39I feel that a dollar...
18:41I believe in the business we refer to that as bupkis.
18:43Oh, yeah.
18:44Well...
18:44Well, they did have the right to renew the option for a further dollar.
18:49So you really drove that one home, did you?
18:52Yeah.
18:53That's after you liquored her up and thought, all right, I'm going to really nail this.
18:56Yeah.
18:56But you have to take the agents commission off that.
18:58You have to take taxes off that.
18:59Here's what I love about this.
19:01What it allowed you to do was retain creative control.
19:06Absolutely.
19:06Which is everything.
19:08Which is everything.
19:08Yes, everything.
19:09And that was the point, really.
19:10And it ended up Deepa, who directed it, David Hamilton, who produced it, and me.
19:14Three of us, we had to agree, that was it.
19:18So this did go the indie route.
19:20This is, you guys got the money, you guys went to do this.
19:23Yes, we went out and begged, borrowed, and stole the money, because we didn't...
19:26Well, with the emphasis on stole.
19:28Yes, no, I agree.
19:29Fine.
19:31I've been involved in the movie business before.
19:33Yeah, exactly.
19:34And we eventually put together, I mean, just about enough money.
19:38You know, we had...
19:38Right.
19:38It was the most demanding shoot.
19:40We had 65 different locations in 70 shooting days.
19:45That's incredible.
19:46I mean, so everybody...
19:46You know, it meant that we were really lucky that we had a cast and crew that really pitched
19:51in.
19:51You know, nobody was...
19:52Where did you film?
19:53Were we able to film?
19:53We filmed in a mixture of India and Sri Lanka.
19:55Right.
19:56I mean, the thing, too, is the film infrastructure in India is so sophisticated and so well-developed
20:01that they can do something like that, a project of that magnitude and experience.
20:06I mean, I've always thought it was unfair on the Bombay film industry to call it Bollywood.
20:11Yes.
20:12Because it's actually bigger than Hollywood.
20:13Yes.
20:14You know, Hollywood should be called, like, Hombe.
20:20Yeah, they're going to go for that.
20:22Hombe, they're going to go for it.
20:24Well, the result is phenomenal, and I urge people to go see Midnight's Children.
20:30It opens in select cities on Friday, and it's an incredible work.
20:34Congratulations.
20:34Thank you, very much.
20:35Young man.
20:35Salmon Rush, everybody.
20:44What's the show goes tomorrow night, 11?
20:46Basim Yosef is going to be here.
20:48Here it is, your moment is in.
20:50Ten seconds later, the second explosion goes off, according to the FBI, at the location
20:55where he dropped his...
20:56Please don't do that.
20:57Where he dropped his knapsack.
20:59Shepard?
21:00Eric Schmidt talks about his book
21:02The New Digital Age
21:03New Colbert next
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