To say "quietly" is perhaps a stretch. There are very few things that the reigning comic diva of neo-liberal outrage does sotto voce. In her third concert film, however, one does detect a new level of calm about her that suggests Cho is growing more secure in her bones or is simply getting older. Or both.

Despite a palpable easing up on the delivery pedal in "Margaret Cho: The Assassin Tour," Cho goes after her usual red-state suspects with a characteristic disregard for decorum that is music to the ears of her gay/lesbian/vegan/Asian/ all-purpose-fringe audience.

Cho's latest is recent enough (it was taped in May) so that the media circuses that accompanied the demises of Terri Schiavo and Pope John Paul II still feel fresh. A therapist could have a field day dissecting the comic's death preoccupation - her mother recently survived a heart attack - a subject that also embraces President Ronald Reagan's peripatetic funeral path (which she describes as "Weekend at Bernie's").

George W. Bush gets his, Dick Cheney gets his, Rush Limbaugh gets his. Cho's most passionate remarks, not surprisingly, are reserved for the homophobes of the religious right. The crowd goes berserk as the pan- sexual comic lays into the anti-gay-marriage hawks who go nuts for "Will & Grace," declaring, "You are not allowed to pick and choose what you like from our culture and leave behind the burden of inequality."

Before Cho is through, any lingering doubts as to why she was disinvited from the Democratic National Convention are thoroughly put to rest.