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Quotes from Jon Stewart

“I view America like this: 70 to 80 percent [are] pretty reasonable people that truthfully, if they sat down, even on contentious issues, would get along. And the other 20 percent of the country run it.”

“I’m not going to censor myself to comfort your ignorance.”

“Religion. It’s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion. If America leads a blessed life, then why did God put all of our oil under people who hate us?”

“I’ll tell you this: Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have, for religion — we protect religion. And talk about a lifestyle choice — that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don’t choose to be gay. At what age did you choose not to be gay?”

“The [Christmas] season wouldn’t feel the same without people going out of their way to be offended by nothing.”

“Yes, the long war on Christianity. I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely! In broad daylight! Openly wearing the symbols of their religion… perhaps around their necks? And maybe — dare I dream it? — maybe one day there can be an openly Christian President. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively.”

“They always throw around this term ‘the liberal elite’. And I kept thinking to myself about the Christian right. What’s more elite than believing that only you will go to heaven?”

“Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, was nominated by President Bush in 2003 and plans to start the job any day now. … Prior to heading FEMA, Brown spent the 90’s as a commissioner — this is true — of the International Arabian Horse Association. I guess he stands out because most Bush appointees are beholden to Arabian people.”

“Fox opposes a Syria peace plan because its modus operandi is to foment dissent in the form of a relentless and irrational contrarianism to Barack Obama and all things Democratic, to advance its ultimate objective of creating a deliberately misinformed body politic whose fear, anger, mistrust, and discontent is the manna upon which it sustains its parasitic succubus-like existence.”

“Democrats do have an historic race going. Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. Normally, when you see a black man or a woman president an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty.”

“Mitt Romney calling the President ‘detached and out of touch’ is like a multimillionaire who owns two mansions, six cars, and who thinks ‘corporations are people, my friend’ calling someone ‘detached and out of touch’.”

“Must be nice to be a Republican senator sometimes, because you get the fun of breaking shit and the joy of complaining the shit you just broke doesn’t work.”

“President Obama’s new slogan is: ‘I Thought We Could, but It Turns Out the Other Guys Are Assholes.”

“Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting us. When a country owes you a billion dollars they have a problem. When they owe you a trillion dollars, YOU have a problem. We’re too big to fail!”

“What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.” (to Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, dooming their program “Crossfire”)

“They said I wasn’t being funny. And I said to them, ‘I know that, but tomorrow I will go back to being funny, and your show will still blow.” (responding to their criticism)

“You know if I had nickel for every time Bush has mentioned 9/11, I could raise enough reward money to go after Bin Laden.”

“Why is it that if you take advantage of a tax break and you’re a corporation, you’re a smart businessman, but if you take advantage of something you need to not be hungry, you’re a moocher?”

“He’s not George Bush on steroids. Rick Perry is what happens if Lex Luther distilled down George Bush essence in a laboratory and crossed it with gun powder and semen from the finest thoroughbred in Lubbock, and then strapped that concoction onto a nuclear missile and shot it into the fucking sun! And then, waited, waited, waited, until one day, on the anniversarry of the Alamo, a solar flare, yada yada yada, Rick Perry!”

“Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, once two of the most powerful men in this country, are now suffering from Balzheimer’s disease. Why didn’t I see it before? Balzheimer’s is a terrible illness that attacks the memory and gives its victims the balls to attack others for things they themselves made a career of. There is no known cure.”

“Rick [Santorum], I’m sorry that hearing that JFK speech on religion makes you throw up. But if it makes you feel any better, if JFK were alive today, knowing you were running for President would make him shit his pants.”

“Condoleezza Rice was confirmed by a vote of 85 to 13, despite a contentious but futile protest vote by Democrats. By the way, for a fun second term drinking game, chug a beer every time you hear the phrase ‘contentious but futile protest vote by democrats.’ By the time Jeb Bush is elected, you’ll be so wasted you won’t even notice the war in Syria.”

“I know the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, but what I didn’t realize is that those people are assholes.”

“Corporations are the only reason the tax code is so complicated in the first place. Those off-shore loopholes didn’t get carved out by poor people.”

“We have got to pay those bailed out firm CEOs top dollar. Otherwise those companies could end up being run by a couple of jackasses who fuck things up so royally, it torpedoes the entire global economy.”

“You have to remember one thing about the will of the people: it wasn’t that long ago that we were swept away by the Macarena.”

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Beating a Dead Horse

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), in a craven attempt to burnish his ultra-conservative credentials (probably for the upcoming Republican presidential primary), has introduced a bill that would strip federal benefits from same-sex couples and leave it up to the states to restrict marriage as the union of one man and one woman. On his website, Cruz states:

Even though the Supreme Court made clear in United States v. Windsor that the federal government should defer to state ‘choices about who may be married,’ the Obama Administration has disregarded state marriage laws enacted by democratically-elected legislatures to uphold traditional marriage. I support traditional marriage and we should reject attempts by the Obama Administration to force same-sex marriage on all 50 states. The State Marriage Defense Act helps safeguard the ability of states to preserve traditional marriage for their citizens.

There are several ironies about this. First, of course, is that it has absolutely no chance of becoming law. A reasonable number of Republicans would vote against it, and even if Congress passed it, it would be vetoed by Obama.

Second, even if it became law, it would have no long-term effect. The courts have been overturning laws discriminating against same-sex couples in state after state (37 now, last week including Alabama of all places!). Once a state allows gay marriage, the law would have no meaning there.

Third, Cruz seems to be blaming Obama for destroying “traditional marriage” and attempting to “force” it on all 50 states. Other than refusing to enforce DOMA because it was unconstitutional (with the Supreme Court agreeing that it was unconstitutional soon after), Obama has done very little to champion gay marriage. Most legal scholars expect the Supreme Court to strike down laws against gay marriage in June.

Cruz claims that he will be “introducing a constitutional amendment to further protect marriage and to prevent judicial activism.” My guess is that is a promise he won’t keep. Republicans have been promising to do this for a long time. And Cruz is purposely vague about what this means, instead using terms like “judicial activism” to fire people up.

Indeed, once upon a time gay marriage was a red meat hot button topic for social conservatives, but even they seem to have given up on it. Nobody cares any more, which is how it should be. Gays are getting married and nothing bad happened. Despite dire predictions from religious conservatives, God hasn’t started smiting gays.

Cruz seems to be willing to say anything to get elected. But in this case I think he is just beating a dead horse.

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Late Night Political Humor

“The CDC announced that there are currently 102 measles cases in the U.S. Some say it’s because people aren’t vaccinating their children. You can tell things are getting bad. Today Disneyland opened a new ride called ‘It’s a Smallpox World’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Health officials are saying the number of measles cases that originated in Disneyland continues to grow. Which is why this year after the game the Super Bowl MVP shouted, ‘No way am I going to Disneyland!'” – Conan O’Brien

“Hillary Clinton is weighing in on the measles outbreak. She tweeted: ‘The Earth is round, the sky is blue, and vaccines work.’ She didn’t stop there. She also tweeted, ‘Fire is hot, ice is cold, and the Seahawks should have handed the ball off to Marshawn Lynch.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Tom Brady says he wants to give the truck he was given as the Super Bowl MVP to the guy who won the Super Bowl for the Patriots. So Brady’s giving his truck to Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.” – Conan O’Brien

“The city of Boston today held its Super Bowl victory parade. Meanwhile, the city of Seattle held Seahawks coach Pete Carroll out a window by his ankles.” – Seth Meyers

“Remember that dancing shark from Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show? A guy in Colorado actually got a tattoo of the shark. That story again: Weed is still legal in Colorado.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Mitt Romney is not going to be running for president. So you know what that means. We are getting closer and closer to ‘President Trump’.” – David Letterman

“I like Mitt Romney. He looks like the guy who comes with the picture frame.” – David Letterman

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Good-bye

Jon Stewart announced tonight he will be leaving The Daily Show sometime later this year. He has been host for 16 years!

Tonight’s episode also talked about another news anchor who is departing. NBC News suspended Brian Williams for six months without pay.

Between these two announcements plus Stephen Colbert, how are we going to manage to survive the 2016 presidential election?

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Bipartisan Science!

Matt Bors
© Matt Bors

In a strange, ironic way, it is comforting to know that it isn’t just conservatives who are anti-science. That way we can work together to address the problem.

The other irony of vaccinations is that their effectiveness has led people to not appreciate them. I’m old enough to remember when childhood diseases were rampant, and vaccinations were a life saving miracle. They were so successful that they virtually wiped out many diseases. Which led to people not worrying about those diseases any more. Which led to an opening for those diseases to come back.

And if we aren’t careful, they will come back with a vengeance. Because they are now so uncommon there is little if any natural resistance to them any more.

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Late Night Political Humor

“During an interview last weekend, President Obama was talking about the next race for president and refused to choose between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, saying quote, ‘Love ’em both’. Which was nice until he said he’d support the nominee, regardless of who she is.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama unveiled a $4 trillion budget for 2016 that would increase taxes on the wealthy and spend more money on education. He also made a snowball and put it in the oven, just to see which would last longer, his budget or the snowball.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Yesterday Obama presented a $4 trillion budget that he says would help the middle class. Then the middle class said, ‘You know what? How about you just give us the $4 trillion? We’ll figure out what to do with it.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Mitt Romney is not going to run for president. Mitt said it’s time for fresh faces. So that’s good news for Bruce Jenner.” – David Letterman

“Jeb Bush admitted that he smoked a notable amount of pot in school. He said, ‘You would too if your parents had named you ‘Jeb’.” – Conan O’Brien

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Naomi Wolf on Fake News Stories

So, could you believe that the Boston Terrorist Bombing was possibly a false flag operation?

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Beyond Bipartisanship

Following my recent post about bipartisanship, there is an interesting piece in The Guardian by Gary Younge:

As a means, bipartisanship is, of course, an admirable goal: the more politicians are able to work together, put the interests of their constituents first and get things done, the better. The grandstanding, bickering and procedural one-upmanship that characterises so much of what passes for politics is one of the things that makes electorates cynical and drives down voter turnout.

But as an end in itself, bipartisanship is at best shallow and at worst corrosive. For it entirely depends what parties are joining together to do. This is particularly true in America, where constituencies are openly gerrymandered, both parties are funded by big money, and legislation is often written by corporate lobbyists.

Bipartisan efforts over the past couple of decades have produced the Iraq war, the deregulation of the financial industry, the bank bailout made necessary by that deregulation, the slashing of welfare to the poor, and an exponential increase in incarceration. As the hapless Steve Martin says to his hopeless travel companion, John Candy, in Planes, Trains and Automobiles: “You know, I was thinking, when we put our heads together … we’ve really gotten nowhere.”

The main point of the article is that in order to have true bipartisan cooperation, you have to have something worth cooperating with. But the real problem is that Republicans still reject reality.

Half of Republicans still believe the US did find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, over half believe climate change is a hoax, and almost half do not believe in evolution. There is a limit to how much agreement you can reach with people with whom you disagree on fundamental matters of fact, let alone principle.

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Late Night Political Humor

“In the last 48 hours King Abdullah from Saudi Arabia passed away. I have a moral dilemma. The king passed away three or four days ago. Is it too soon to hit on Queen Latifah?” – David Letterman

“Today President Obama is in the Middle East. He met the new king of Saudi Arabia. Obama also met Saudi Arabia’s first lady, the second lady, third lady, and fourth lady.” – Conan O’Brien

“In a speech today, President Obama said that Michelle Obama is very strong and talented and she frequently tells him that he is wrong. As a result, Michelle Obama is now the Republican front-runner for 2016.” – Conan O’Brien

“President Obama said the small drone that flew over the White House fence yesterday could be bought at any RadioShack. After hearing this, the RadioShack CEO said, ‘I’m shocked to find out we still sell something people want.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Mitt Romney announced that he is no longer considering running for president in 2016. As opposed to those other guys who forgot about running — the Seattle Seahawks.” – Jimmy Fallon

“An amazing Super Bowl last evening. The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks both defeated the Seattle Seahawks.” – Seth Meyers

“It really was an incredible game. And even though the Patriots won, you really have to hand it to Marshawn Lynch. Don’t think about it. Just hand it to Marshawn Lynch.” – Seth Meyers

“In addition to being the winning Super Bowl quarterback, Tom Brady now has a brand-new pickup truck. I guess we’ll have to sit through the whole thing about whether his tires are properly inflated.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Tom Brady was named Super Bowl MVP and was given a new Chevy truck. Brady says the truck handles great, especially after he let some air out of the tires.” – Seth Meyers

“The Northeast is being hit with a major snowstorm. Forecasters said they’ve haven’t seen a whiteout like this since last week’s Oscar nominations.” – Conan O’Brien

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Bipartisanship Begone!

Ted Rall
© Ted Rall

What if Washington grid lock was the best thing that ever happened to us? What if it was the only thing keeping the rich and powerful from taking over, privatizing pretty much everything, and completely looting the government? Which would you rather have: Political paralysis or corporate big brother completely controlling everything?

It may be that when the founders of this country talked about “checks and balances” their intent was to slow everything down to a crawl. That’s why we have two houses in Congress, both of which have to approve in order to pass anything (and one of them by a super-majority). And if they do, the president has a veto. And after that the Supreme Court can still throw it out, even years later.

The Republicans may be the Party of No, opposing everything that Obama proposes. But the only reason they get away with it is because we are the Country of No. Maybe, just maybe, that is a good thing.

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Thom Tillis v. Typhoid Mary

The most ironic part is that Senator Tillis doesn’t seem to understand what a regulation is.

Does he expect food establishments to just honestly tell you when things aren’t clean in their kitchens out of the kindness of their hearts? Seriously? Because if not, he just wants to replace one regulation with another regulation that will actually cost the business more than the existing one.

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Obama said that if he could have any superpower, he’d want the ability to speak any language. That’s so everyone in the world could tell him he picked one of the lamest possible superpowers.” – Jimmy Fallon

“One of the most Googled questions during this week’s State of the Union address was, ‘How much does the president make?’ When he saw it was $400,000 a year, Mitt Romney said, ‘I’m out!'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Vice President Joe Biden said he has privately met with 17 Republican senators at his home to try and connect on issues like tax reform. Biden asked what he can do to speed up negotiations, while Democrats asked, ‘Does this door lock from the outside?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“According to a new report, there are still five people alive today who were born in the 1800s. Even crazier, every one of them was re-elected this November.” – Seth Meyers

“Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was summoned to answer questions about the footballs that were mysteriously deflated in their game against the Colts. This was covered live on all the sports networks and also live on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and a bunch of local channels. You would think Tom Brady had killed the president’s dog.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Deflate-gate isn’t the only thing in Boston now. Boston is the city chosen to vie for the Summer Olympics in 2024. Mayor Walsh is prohibiting city employees from making negative comments about the games or the process. That seems unnecessary. If people from Boston are known for anything, it’s for keeping their opinions to themselves, right?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“CNN is developing a game show to be hosted by Anderson Cooper. It will be just like the other CNN shows except the contestants will make wild guesses instead of the news anchors.” – Seth Meyers

“California officials want to contain a measles outbreak that originated in Disneyland last month. They are in luck because everyone who is exposed to it is still in line at Space Mountain.” – Conan O’Brien

“As gas prices continue to drop, 28 states are now selling regular gasoline for less than $2 a gallon. It’s getting cheaper to pump two gallons of gas outside the station than it is to pump two squirts of nacho cheese inside.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Jamaican government is considering a bill to decriminalize marijuana. But first they have to get over the shock of finding out it was illegal in the first place.” – Seth Meyers

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We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Regulations!

Ever wonder what would happen if we didn’t have government regulations? You don’t have to wonder any more, because we have a class of products that has enjoyed virtually no regulation: dietary supplements like ginkgo bilboa, echinacea, and ginseng.

For a long time there were no regulations on dietary supplements. Companies could manufacture almost anything, call it a dietary supplement, and make any claims they wanted about it – including curing diseases or helping you lose weight.

Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, things got only cosmetically better. The law made it illegal to make unsubstantiated or misleading claims about dietary supplements, but left it largely up to the manufacturers to police themselves. Unfortunately, proof of effectiveness or safety is still not required. The FDA can take action against dietary supplements only after they have been proven to be unsafe. And while manufacturers are not supposed to claim to cure diseases, they can make “structure or function” claims (e.g., that it gives you more energy, makes you feel younger, or gives other vague health benefits). Unfortunately, the government has almost no power to enforce even those minimal regulations.

So how is that working out for us?

A new investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office tested dietary supplements from four respected national retailers: GNC, Target, Walgreens, and Wal-Mart. The investigation used sophisticated DNA testing to figure out the ingredients in these supplements. The supplements carried the brand of the store, so there was no way to blame some third-party manufacturer. They tested 24 products covering seven different types of herb: echinacea, garlic, gingko bilboa, ginseng, saw plametto, St. John’s wort, and valerian root.

According to their tests only five of the 24 products tested actually contained any of the herb they claimed to be. Let me repeat that. 80% of the products were fraudulent and worthless. The worst offender was Wal-Mart. None of their six tested products contained the herb they advertised on the label.

Adding potential injury to insult, seven of the products contained ingredients known to cause allergic reactions in people, without identifying them in the ingredients. For example, celiacs can have severe reactions (or even die) if they ingest wheat, but five of the products contained wheat without any warning at all. So some of these products are more likely to harm consumers than to help them.

A professor at Harvard Medical School said “if this data is accurate, then it is an unbelievably devastating indictment of the industry”.

The New York investigation was prompted by a 2013 article in the NY Times, which referred to research at a Canadian university that found that a third of herbal supplements do not contain the plants listed on their labels, and instead contain only cheap fillers.

The 1994 federal law was written and sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a strong and steadfast supporter of dietary supplements. He has repeatedly quashed efforts in Congress to regulate dietary supplements. In return, Hatch has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the industry.

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Fat and Happy

Now that Michele Bachmann has retired from Congress, it looks like Ted Cruz is stepping up to fill the void. Even though Cruz is much smarter (and thus far more dangerous) than Bachmann, he seems to be using her playbook.

Case in point. You know how Republicans have fought tooth and nail for tax cuts for the rich while cutting unemployment insurance, social security, and any other program that helps the poor and middle class?

So it takes some chutzpah for Cruz to respond to Obama’s State of the Union address by blaming Obama for the widening gap between our rich and poor. After Obama’s speech, Cruz went on Fox News and said he was disappointed that Obama was proposing to increase taxes on the rich in order to pay for education and to reduce the deficit. Cruz claimed that Obama’s proposals would hurt hardworking Americans.

The rhetoric of trickle-down economics still lives! But with a new twist.

According to Cruz, the country’s rich and powerful “have gotten fat and happy” on Obama’s watch, saying “Today the top one percent earn a higher share of our national income than any year since 1928.”

Seriously. Ted Cruz, is married to a managing director of Goldman Sachs, the company that played a large role in the economic meltdown that almost destroyed our economy. He’s a graduate of the elite schools Princeton and Harvard law school. He mounted a one-man filibuster to shut down our government if Obama wouldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act, doubly screwing almost every middle class person in the process. Indeed, the top political contributors to Cruz are fat cat bankers, making Cruz himself one of those “fat and happy” rich and powerful people.

But Cruz tries to style himself as the protector of the downtrodden middle class. How stupid are we?

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Hit Bottom Yet?

I’ve repeatedly reported on the great Conservative Utopia experiment going on in Kansas (headquarters of the conservative Koch browsers). Naturally, every time they get bad news, the conservatives just double down on cutting even more taxes and destroying even more of the social safety net, claiming that they just have to keep doing the same thing until it works.

Well, except that it keeps making things worse. Much worse.

How bad is it? Well, it is pretty bad when even Fox Business News throws conservatives under the bus. Fox reports that state revenue, which conservatives promised would go up when they cut taxes and regulations, keeps going down. In fact, their deficit is another $47 million more than their last revised projections. Kansas is facing at least a $279 million budget shortfall and the state is in danger of defaulting.

So what are the Republicans, who completely control the state, doing? They are proposing even more drastic spending cuts.

And next year looks even worse, with a projected $436 million budget shortfall. As one of the remaining Democrats in the legislature put it, “How much worse does it have to get before Gov. Brownback admits his failed economic experiment is leading to a meltdown of every public service upon which Kansans depend?”

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