question: (CNN) -- If George Orwell and Lucille Ball had a love child, his name would be Stephen Colbert.

In the last century, the great critics of corrupt political language were British authors who wrote dystopian novels. In "1984," Orwell described a totalitarian society in which meaningless political language, dubbed Newspeak, veiled horrible truths.

Earlier, In "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley described toddlers conditioned in laboratories to be afraid of books. And in "A Clockwork Orange," Anthony Burgess imagined a world in which ultraviolent teens rampaged in a distinctive English-Russian patois that defined their alienation from society and authority.

Now in the 21st century, there is Colbert's "truthiness" -- political half-truths, quarter-truths and what the website Politifact describes as "Pants-on-Fire" prevarications.

On his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report," he introduced "The Word," a regular deconstruction of language contortion designed, in Orwell's notion, to defend the indefensible. (One example: "A Perfect World," as in, journalists should demand to investigate torture, but it's not a perfect world.)

It's sharp political humor and a canny critique of American culture, language and iconography. And it's helped the comic emerge as this nation's court jester, licensed by the youthful cable TV audience to speak truth to power.

Such is Colbert's power and influence that he has been invited to testify before Congress today on the issue of illegal immigration -- and to testify in character. It's as if the Congress of the Eisenhower years invited Harpo Marx to offer testimony by beeping his bicycle horn.

Colbert has long been on to something important about the nature of our political discourse at the beginning of a new postmodern millennium: that ideology has become the lens through which Americans found their particular truth, let the evidence be damned.
1. Who has a show?
****
answer: 1. Colbert.

question: (CNN) -- A former campaign staffer for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner became the second woman to publicly accuse him of sexual harassment, saying Tuesday that the then-congressman patted her "posterior" while at a fundraising event.

Laura Fink, who now runs a political consulting firm, told KPBS-TV that it happened in 2005 when she was working as Filner's deputy campaign manager.

Fink said she didn't go public with the incident at the time because she was trying to build her political career. But she said she now feels emboldened to tell her story after Filner's former spokeswoman, Irene McCormack Jackson, sued him for sexual harassment Monday.

Jackson said Filner subjected her and other women to "crude and disgusting" comments and inappropriate touching. She said she resigned as Filner's communications director in June after deciding the mayor would not change his behavior.

"I had to work and do my job in an atmosphere where women were viewed by Mayor Filner as sexual objects or stupid idiots," Jackson said. She said Filner asked her to work without underwear and made repeated sexual advances toward her.

"He is not fit to be mayor of our great city. He is not fit to hold any public office. A man who lacks character makes a mockery of his ideas," she said.

Fink told KPBS on Tuesday that the incident happened as she was escorting Filner from table to table at a fundraising dinner. At one point, she said, someone at the event told Filner that Fink had "worked her ass off" for him.
1. Who was harassed?
2. by whom?
****
answer: 1. Laura Fink.
2. Bob Filner

question: William was sitting in his room working on his homework. It was something he did since he went to kindergarten. William could see outside from where he was sitting. He had a view of a beautiful sunset this time of year. It was late spring, and he sometimes found his mind wandering as he looked outside, and hated losing time like that. The sooner he finished his homework, the sooner he could go to his friend Jacob's house, where he was spending the night. William loved sleepovers with Jacob. They would do fun stuff like tell jokes, watch TV, play board games, and eat lots of junk food. Jacob also had a cool RC car that William liked to play with. But William's parents wouldn't allow him to go to Jacob's house until he finished his homework first.
1. Where was William?
2. Doing what?
3. Did he do it often?
4. since when?
5. What did he see outside?
6. What time of year was it?
7. What happened when he looked outside?
8. did he like that?
9. why?
****
answer:
1. His room.
2. Working on his homework.
3. Yes.
4. Kindergarten.
5. A beautiful sunset.
6. Late spring.
7. He sometimes found his mind wandering.
8. No.
9. Because the sooner he finished his homework, the sooner he could go to his friend Jacob's house.