This is strangely funny–Will Ferrell, who did that genius impersonation of former President George W. Bush on “Saturday Night Live,” returns to Funny or Die to report from a Sizzler buffet bar about a gopher raid.

And, oh yes, that Osama bin Laden thing too.

Bush’s visit to Facebook was his only stop in Silicon Valley on his current autobiographical book tour, a coup for the six-year-old company. Zuckerberg had kind words for the former president, telling him he “always admired” him for sticking to his guns, despite criticism.

Bush–who said his technology tools of choice are a BlackBerry, an iPad and “the Facebook”–told Zuckerberg he chose to speak at Facebook, “cause you got a lot of people paying attention to us and I’m trying to sell books.”

Perhaps it also had something to do with a friend in common: Ted Ullyot, current VP and general counsel at Facebook and former deputy assistant to Bush, who helped facilitate the discussion, which was in front of an audience of employees in Palo Alto, Calif. and broadcast live on Facebook to an audience of about 6,500.

The conversation was jovial, with Bush making fun of Zuckerberg for his interest in education reform, despite the fact he hasn’t graduated from college. When Zuckerberg pressed Bush on his ideas about improving education, Bush suggested they should do a “joint venture.”

Recognizing their commonalities as widely criticized leaders, Bush offered Zuckerberg some management advice:

Don’t bow to criticism: “If you believe in what you’re doing, then the criticism means nothing. The worst thing you can do as a leader is change who you are.”

On team dynamics: “I believe in creative tension, but the key for a leader is to understand when it gets out of hand and make the tough call.”

More specifically, Bush said, “At the end of my first term, creative tension became creative destruction. I made the decision I couldn’t manage it any more and decided to change entire national security team.”

Keep your door open: “It’s important for a leader to give people access…It’s part of building a culture of mutual participation.”

It’s not about you: Bush said he was proud of creating “an environment where people weren’t serving me, but were serving the country first and foremost.”

Have a vision: “You can’t lead, by the way, unless you know where you’re going,” Bush said, telling the famously strong-willed Zuckerberg, “This really sounds like I’m pandering to you, doesn’t it?”

You can view the full interview here.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

The Internet likes to spoof on politicians who make digital faux pas, such as former Vice President Al “I invented the Internet” Gore and Internets-loving former President George W. Bush.

And former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was tragically killed in a small airplane accident Monday, was no exception, never able to shake a speech in which he called the Web a “series of tubes.”

Said Stevens at a hearing in Congress in 2006:

“The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.”

The death of the hard-charging 86-year-old Republican pol, of course, revived the many online videos of him related to this non-geek malapropism, and “series of tubes” made it as a trending topic on Twitter.

Here is one of the more famous videos from Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” and another rap based on Stevens’ speech:

The new whitehouse.gov site promises more interactivity than that of the Bush administration, with a presidential blog as well as a briefing room, where President Obama will give a weekly video address. A “citizen’s briefing book” will allow users to add suggestions to posted proposals so that heads of agencies and the president will see them, and another feature called Your Seat at the Table lets users follow the proceedings of government meetings and add their commentary.

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Besides getting, well, the whole country to run today, President Barack Obama is now taking a geek-tastic new ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to his new home, which should more than satisfy his clearly gadget-loving persona.

Obama, who has an ongoing obsessive relationship with his BlackBerry, much as the rest of us do, just got a spanking new presidential limo (pictured above), which the Secret Service is calling the “Beast.”

The last time General Motors (GM) improved on the car was at outgoing President George W. Bush’s 2005 inauguration, which means the struggling automaker is faster at upgrading than Microsoft (MSFT) is with Windows!

But, let us just say, it’s not very Prius-like, despite Obama’s speech today about focusing on the environment.

Indeed, the Cadillac limo has heavy armor five inches thick, run-flat tires, bullet-proof glass, an interior that seals, in case of a chemical attack, and other stuff that is too top secret to apparently reveal.

BoomTown is thinking, um, working Wi-Fi?

Refrigerated cup holders (and more of them, please!)?

A food machine that makes pizza from thin air like on “Star Trek”?

Or, miracle of miracles, that giant Apple (AAPL) iPod embedded in the steering wheel?

Post your suggestions as to what gadgets should be in the President’s new ride below.

Of course, the recent shoe attack on President George W. Bush in Iraq created the perfect storm for online video.

As you might know (although Bush clearly did not from this video), the showing of the sole of a shoe is the ultimate insult in Arab countries. And throwing a shoe? Well, worse.

In this country, making a video about shoe-throwing is.

Here are some results, plus one of my favorite hit online videos about shoes, called, of course, “Shoes”:

RE-MIX

SLO-MO

BOOGIE SHOES

CRISPIN GLOVER IS ODD

THESE SHOES RULE, THESE SHOES SUCK

That was fast.

The recent resurgence of "Saturday Night Live," spurred by Republican VP candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin and her comic doppelgänger, Tina Fey, may already be over.

How do I know? Well, there's the gut check--I watched most of Saturday's show, which didn't feature Palin or Fey, and it was a snoozer (the absence of new mom Amy Poehler probably didn't help either).

But we can also gauge the reaction of Internet users, thanks to the good folks at TubeMogul, a small start-up that specializes in tracking Web video views.

While SNL's sketches this season have become watercooler hits in both legal form (NBC.com, Hulu) and not-so legal form (YouTube), this weekend's show isn't making an impact, at least so far: TubeMogul says YouTube users are only trying to post SNL clips at the rate of about one per hour, since the show aired Saturday night.

That's down from an average of about six per hour for the other shows SNL has aired this season.

Could it be that NBC--owned by GE (GE)--is just doing an extra-zealous job of keeping illegal copies of its clips off of a video site owned by Google (GOOG)? Mmmmmmaybe.

But probably not: Last Thursday's SNL special, which featured not only Tina Fey, but also show veteran Will Ferrell as President George W. Bush, was a huge YouTube hit, generating 9.5 videos per hour and 1.85 million views in 24 hours.

Meanwhile NBC.com's own data confirm that this weekend's show fell flat: The site says the two political clips posted below have generated a mere 460,000 views since Saturday.

Compare that to Thursday's showstopper, currently at 1.5 million and counting.

I'd bet the remainder of our 401(k) that SNL's staff and cast are going to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama next month.

But the bean counters behind the show are obviously rooting for the ticket of Sen. John McCain and Palin.

Once again, it is likely to be more popular online than on television, as it has been for all of the sketches, a striking trend for the long-running comedy show.