Bad leadership in Washington made retired four-star General Wesley Clark write a book called A Time To Lead: For Duty, Honor And Country and though he claims it’s not a candidate’s memoir, it sounds like it sure reads like one. Stephen Colbert recently had Clark on to discuss the book, hence the video clip above. Unfortunately, Clark doesn’t get a lot of time to talk about the book, but at least he’s got a good sense of humor. Many more in-depth interviews about the book and Clark’s ideas are available online at Clark’s Web site, SecuringAmerica.com.

Well, maybe not you, but Daniel Smith’s father. He heard voices. Nothing quite so dramatic as say, Joan of Arc, just simple things. “Move that cup,” for instance. Smith says he led a normal life as an attorney, but for many years felt deeply ashamed by these voices, so much so that he never told anyone outside the family about them.

It was his father that led Smith to write Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination. The author sat down with Stephen Colbert, during which time he said “over the past 100 years, hearing voices has been traditionally associated with mental illness…a symptom of schizophrenia.” But it hasn’t always been like that. “Hearing voices certainly has not always been easy, but also not always thought of in terms of mental illness…[but instead] in terms of poetry, or religion.” Smith noted some famous figures throughout history that have heard voices, the most famous being Moses and his burning bush, and the most amusing being Socrates, who heard a voice warning him that the street he was traveling on was full of muddy pigs, and that he should seek out a different route.

Watch the full interview, in which Smith points out two-thirds of Americans admit to hearing voices. Colbert counters with the fact that his fans hear his voice even when the TV is off.

In his book, Are We Rome: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, Vanity Fair Editor Cullen Murphy asks, well, are we Rome?

The comparison of the U.S. and the fallen empire is a popular one in modern times, especially since the onset of the Iraq war, when the country began to experience many of the issues that Rome did during its demise. In an interview with Colbert, who was channeling Russel Crowe, Murphy pointed to “the hollowing out” of government, the imminent corruption that makes citizens lose faith in their central institution. He also discussed our military problems, which echo Rome’s in that our forces are too small to do the jobs we need done, but still too large for us to adequately maintain, which will inevitably lead to a break down abroad. And like Rome, the U.S. has exacerbated the issue, Murphy says, by inviting in outsiders, “barbarians,” to do our dirty work, the most well known of these being Halliburton.

The similarities go on, but Murphy ends the interview on a good note saying he feels it will be largely impossible for Bush to get himself elected Emperor.

Colbert: “So he’s totally going to get stabbed, huh?”

Watch the interview.

As reported last week, journalist Carl Bernstein—who with Bob Woodward won the Pulitzer prize for exposing Nixon’s Watergate Scandal—has recently published a biography of Hillary Clinton entitled Woman in Charge. Bernstein sat down with Colbert two nights ago and admitted that she is a very controlling woman and that the farther Bernstein got with the book, the more and more she wanted to control who she spoke to and what was written about. Colbert had a field day with that.

Also discussed was the fact that Clinton is no longer an inevitable win in the democratic primary. Bernstein thinks that it’s unlikely Obama will “evict” her, but not out of the question.

Watch the whole interview (with the Shrek reference) here.

Jessica Valenti realized a while back that Feminism just isn’t cool anymore and certainly does not appeal or speak to new generations of young women—most of whom have no idea who Betty Friedan was. To remedy this, she created Feministing.com, a smart-alecky Web site that encourages feminism in the younger set. Now she has a book with many of the same goals.

Full Frontal Feminism brings the movement from the 60s into the present day. And because I can’t write anything nearly so good as this, here’s the interview description from Comedy Central’s Web site: “Jessica Valenti, author of Full Frontal Feminism, thinks “feminism” shouldn’t be a dirty word. Stephen will do her one better and say it shouldn’t be a word.” Watch the interview.