Fantasy Colbert League Weekly: January 12-15

Welcome to No Fact Zone’s weekly roundup of ‘Colbert Report’ guests, created in the spirit of the oft-enjoyed Fantasy Colbert League. While we can’t start up the online version of the game again, we can make it so that you can get the information you need about the guests before they come on the show.

Just like you, we want to be it-getters before the interviews start. So we’ve compiled brief bios, issues or events that Stephen might bring up during the interview, and a fun Fract (Freedom Fact) to impress your fellow viewers during the commercial breaks. Read, enjoy, and see if you can anticipate how Stephen might nail each of the following guests!

Note: As always, guests are subject to change.

Monday, 1/12: Anthony Romero

Attorney Anthony Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Under Romero’s direction, the ACLU has won ‘court victories on the Patriot Act, filed litigation on the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, and filed the first successful legal challenge to the Bush administration’s illegal NSA spying program.’ In 2007, he co-authored ‘In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror,’ scrutinizing civil liberties in the United States during a time of upheaval over constitutional freedoms. The first openly gay man and the first Hispanic director of the ACLU, Romero has more than doubled the organization’s budget and overseen the most successful membership drive in the organization’s 87-year history.

• Fract: Romero was named director of the ACLU just four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Tuesday, 1/13: Niall Ferguson

Scottish historian Niall Ferguson, has been spending his time recently promoting his book ‘The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World,’ an explanation of finance as the foundation of human progress. The Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School was originally scheduled to visit the Report last December, but has rescheduled and let’s hope he’s ready to match wits with Stephen now. Ferguson splits his time between the United States and the United Kingdom, publishing articles and providing political and economic commentary to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic.

• Fract: Ferguson was named one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2004.

Wednesday, 1/14: Alan Khazei

Alan Khazei is the founder and CEO of Be the Change, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes the importance of citizens working together to improve public policies. Khazei believes change will come through active citizenship; people participating in the discussions and elections that create policy. Be the Change spearheads ServiceNation, a national coalition of over 100 organizations reaching 100 million Americans across the country, to gather citizens, leaders, and the U.S. administration to jumpstart an era of voluntary service. Harvard man Khazei was chosen by US News and World Report as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders in 2006.

• Fract: President-Elect Obama is calling on Americans to volunteer this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19, and ServiceNation is co-sponsoring a pre-Inaugural Ball that evening at Washington D.C.’s recently opened Newseum.

Thursday, 1/15: David Gregory

MSNBC journalist David Gregory was named host of NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ in December 2008 successor to the late Tim Russert. He covered George W. Bush’s presidency as Chief White House Correspondent and has been a notably tough questioner of the president and the presidential press secretaries. Gregory also participates in NBC coverage of major news and special events, and has reported during the past three presidential elections. In 2005, Gregory and his colleagues won an Emmy for their coverage of President Ronald Reagan’s death and funeral in the summer of 2004. At the 2007 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Gregory participated in a now-infamous skit with “MC” Karl Rove.

• Fract: President Bush nicknamed Gregory ‘Stretch’ because of his height, 6’5″.