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Ingrateful Bastards

One hopes that this segment by Jon Stewart was the reason AIG decided to not sue the US Government for $25 billion:

Well, I guess unbridled greed does have at least one limit — public embarrassment.

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The Limits of Government

Matt Bors
© Matt Bors

How is it that the people who say they want to “starve the beast” are the same people who want to let the government spy on everyone, insist that we increase military spending, and also want to invade Iran?

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Late Night Political Humor

“No one’s talking about taking away ALL the guns. But now I get it, now I see what’s happening. So this is what it is. Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can’t even begin to address 30,000 gun deaths that are actually, in reality, happening in this country every year because a few of us must remain vigilant against the rise of Imaginary Hitler.” – Jon Stewart

“What happened to the fiscal cliff? Are we on it or off it? Forget it. The debt ceiling is the brand new crisis. The fiscal cliff was just the warm-up, just for beginners, like a student film.” – David Letterman

“We’re $20 trillion in debt so somebody at the Treasury Department says that what we’ll do is print a coin for a trillion dollars. I’ve seen a prototype. It has a beautiful profile of Regis Philbin.” – David Letterman

“You can use the trillion-dollar coin to pay off the national debt, or it will help you get a Kardashian.” – David Letterman

“According to a new poll, Congress is now less popular than head lice, Nickelback, and Donald Trump. In a related story, head lice is insulted that it’s being lumped in with Donald Trump and Nickelback.” – Conan O’Brien

“A political opponent is accusing Governor Chris Christie of praying for Hurricane Sandy. In response, Christie said the only weather-related thing he’s ever prayed for is a Dairy Queen Blizzard.” – Conan O’Brien

“To celebrate his birthday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent two pounds of candy to every child in the country. Which explains why Honey Boo Boo has applied for dual citizenship.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Why it is so wonderful to have a nerd for president…

It is well-known that the White House has a website for submitting petitions. Any petition that gets enough signatures gets an official response.

Someone submitted a petition that called for the government to “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” But they probably didn’t expect this awesome nerd response:

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

  • The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it
  • The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
  • Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

There’s a lot more to the response that is worth reading.

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Late Night Political Humor

“What do you put on a trillion dollar coin? On the tail side obviously a bald eagle breathing fire while making love to the American flag. What is on the heads? Obama? Boehner? I’ll tell what you it should be, those Charmin bears – because when you pull an idea like this out of your ass, you’re going to need something soft.” – Stephen Colbert

“Today Democrats said they want another trillion dollars in taxes. Didn’t we just give them $620 billion last Wednesday? Is that gone already? Who is running this, ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’?” – Jay Leno

“Tickets to President Obama’s inauguration have sold out. At least that’s what the president is telling Joe Biden.” – Conan O’Brien

“Joe Biden and his wife left D.C. this weekend for a five-day vacation in the Caribbean. Of course, most of that time will be spent telling him that Margaritaville isn’t a real place.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Chuck Hagel is the new secretary of defense nominee. They are saying that he may be reluctant to send troops into a war zone needlessly. What kind of a nut job is this guy?” – David Letterman

“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton returned to work today and as a joke, her staff gave her a helmet. This is the second time a Clinton in government has been asked to wear protection.” – Conan O’Brien

“If you guys can’t vote for this, then we’re f*cked for the next few years. And I’m not saying you’re responsible for all the problems facing our country, but you sure are making them a lot harder to fix.” – Jon Stewart (to congressional Republicans who voted against Hurricane Sandy aid)

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Going Platinum

Ruben Bolling
© Ruben Bolling

I’m not totally sure if the originators of the idea of the US minting a trillion dollar coin were serious, but a former head of the US mint claims that the idea would work and would be totally legal.

Then for an added twist of irony, Fox News once again shows that reality has nothing to do with their thinking. They miss the whole point, which is that it would be minted as a trillion dollar coin, and instead fixate on the red herring that it is made of platinum. And they further somehow think that the coin would have to contain a trillion dollars worth of platinum, as if any US coin contains its weight in precious metals.

Fox News Fail

Personally, as long as we are trying hail-mary runarounds to the whole fiscal cliff silliness, I think a better strategy would be to just declare the (stupid) law that created our (stupid) debt limit unconstitutional, since it pretty clearly violates the 14th Amendment to our constitution. And Bloomberg has a list of even crazier ideas to avoid another debt crisis.

But instead, I’ll just let Jon Stewart have the last word on the trillion dollar coin, and wonder when our Congress, who have become less popular than cockroaches, colonoscopies, and root canals, is going to stop screwing around and actually do something useful:

UPDATE: The Administration now says they will not mint a trillion dollar coin, nor would the Federal Reserve accept it even if they did. It is ironic that the author of the part of the bill that made this whole platinum coin deal possible in 1997 is a Republican.

UPDATE 2: Matthew Yglesias at Slate has a nice little postscript on this whole thing:

I’m glad we had this conversation. Direct discussion of the platinum coin was a good reminder that many people, including influential media figures, appear to have no idea what money is or how the monetary system works. Apart from the shockingly widespread view that the value of coins is determined by their metallic content, there was a lot of insistence that creating money was somehow an act of “magic.” In fact, the way all legal currency is created is that a government agency creates the money. Typically that’s the Federal Reserve accommodating bank demand for base money. But all kinds of things can happen. Forget “Quantitative Easing.” When the Fed does the thing that reporters call “raising interest rates” it doesn’t pull an interest rate lever. It sells bonds on the open market in exchange for money. And when that money enters the Fed, it vanishes. When they “lower interest rates” they buy bonds on the open market in exchange for money. Where do they get the money? From nowhere. They just make it. That’s money. Whether the electronic process of attributing more or less money to an account is accompanied by a little piece of platinum or not is wholly irrelevant.

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Late Night Political Humor

“This week Congress approved some version of the fiscal tax bill, which raises taxes on rich Americans. President Obama was determined to do this right away – while there are still some rich Americans left.” – Jay Leno

“While working on a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, members of Congress spent New Year’s Eve at the Capitol. Yeah, even the guy watching the Twilight Zone marathon with his parents was like, ‘Talk about a lame New Year’s’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Congress has approved some version of this fiscal cliff bill thing. Well, taxes are going up, and now, they’re looking to make cuts just about everywhere. In fact, oil companies today had to lay off 15 senators.” – Jay Leno

“Americans from all sides of the political spectrum seem to be upset about this fiscal cliff deal. Imagine how the Chinese must feel. It’s their money.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama signed the new fiscal cliff tax increase into law while vacationing in Hawaii today. He used an autopen, an electronic way of signing your name when you’re not even there. Politicians can now raise your taxes while they’re on vacation in Hawaii. This is a Democrat’s dream come true.” – Jay Leno

“The National Journal says Joe Biden maybe the most influential vice president in history. Is that really a compliment? Isn’t that like being the tallest hobbit?” – Jay Leno

“The National Journal says that Joe Biden may be the most influential vice president in history. Joe Biden got this exciting news while he was walking President Obama’s dog, Bo.” – Jay Leno

“Today, members of the 113th Congress were sworn in at the Capitol. After which, they were like, ‘Well, that’s enough work for the year.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“John Boehner was re-elected speaker of the house, which is pretty amazing – a Republican winning anything these days.” – Jay Leno

“Today the Senate swore in a record 20 female senators. Yep, the women said they’re very excited, and look forward to proving they can accomplish just as little as male senators.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Chris Christie also lashed out at Congress for doing nothing for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. But in their defense Congress says, ‘Hey, we don’t do anything for anybody.'” – Jay Leno

“Has anyone seen Al Gore’s Current TV? I don’t mean by mistake. I mean, who’s actually watched it? Well, Al-Jazeera has purchased Al Gore’s old TV network, Current TV. So it’s now owned by Al-Jazeera. And listen to this: $500 million. This is a little something Al Gore has come up with called ‘global fleecing’.” – David Letterman

“Al Gore’s Current TV has been sold to Al-Jazeera for a reported $500 million. Experts believe that Al-Jazeera overpaid for Current TV by approximately $500 million.” – Jay Leno

“Al Gore, Al-Jazeera; Al-Jazeera, Al Gore.” – David Letterman

“Al-Jazeera has some fabulous programming lined up. They’ve got a new show called ‘Storage Jihad’. They have ‘Project Burka’. And a show called ‘Real Virgins of Fallujah’.” – David Letterman

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Crazy Reaction

Lee Judge
© Lee Judge

Every time a terrorist does something crazy, but not with a gun, we overreact and prohibit it. Not just shoe bombs, but liquids, knives, even knitting needles. But every time a terrorist does something crazy with a gun, we do nothing. I don’t get it. Why would it matter whether there is an airplane involved?

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Late Night Political Irony

“Well folks, it is December 21, or as the Mayans call it, April Fools Day.” – Jay Leno

“It’s late Friday night, which means the world did not end after all! So the good news is, we’re still here. The bad news, I got A LOT of Christmas shopping to do.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Mayan calendar didn’t go past Dec. 21, 2012. There is one problem with the Mayan prophesy. It is crap. Every serious Mayan scholar says close reading of Mayan texts reveals they believed the world would go for thousands of years past the end of the calendar. But let’s listen to the wacko locked in the basement with 500 pounds of spam because he knows what is going to happen!” – Craig Ferguson

“Personally, I think people who are panicking about what the Mayans believed says more about our society than it does the Mayans. I don’t know really where I’m going with that, but it sounded good, didn’t it? It sounded like I was really smart. I’ve got something to say.” – Craig Ferguson

“You know what I really am feeling awkward about? If this is really the end of the world, I’m going to my doom wearing this tie. I’m going off to the hereafter with a tie with a little snowman on it.” – Craig Ferguson

“I’ve got to admit, I love the show ‘Doomsday Preppers.’ It’s about people making bunkers to survive catastrophes they know will happen. A nuclear war, viral epidemic, Fox canceling ‘Glee’. It’s all going to happen.” – Craig Ferguson

“Well, we got a lot to worry about. In nine days, fiscal cliff. I woke up this morning thinking, Wait a minute. Five days until the fiscal cliff? Where is Superman?” – Jay Leno

“But you shouldn’t be worried. You should have faith in our representatives in Congress and the Senate.” – Jay Leno

“Today, President Obama announced that he’s giving all federal employees Christmas Eve off. And when Joe Biden heard that he was like, ‘But not Santa, right?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Here’s what happened in Washington today. The Republicans and the Democrats got together. They rolled up their sleeves and then they took a break.” – Jay Leno

“Ireland is coming out with its own version of the show ‘Cheers’. Yeah, a sitcom about people who sit around drinking at a bar all day — or as they call that in Ireland, ‘Reality TV’.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Jon Stewart, Pissed Off!

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Jon Stewart this angry.

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Late Night Political Humor

“As you know, the Mayans said the world will end tomorrow, and like everybody else, they blame Bush.” – Jay Leno

“According to the Mayan calendar, Friday is the end of the world. You know what? There is a sign of the apocalypse. The New York Knicks are in first place.” – David Letterman

“Even with the apocalypse there is always something good. There’s always a silver lining. For example, The Mayan apocalypse will put an end to those commercials where a crazy lady talks to strangers about her colon.” – David Letterman

“After three years and six seasons, the final episode of ‘Jersey Shore’ aired tonight. Or as the Mayans put it, ‘So we were off by one day.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“There’s a photo going around with President Obama playing with a staffer’s son who’s dressed as Spider-Man. Obama was like, ‘Shouldn’t you be fighting the Green Goblin?’ And the kid was like, ‘shouldn’t you be working on the fiscal cliff?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“The kid was really excited to meet the president, while Joe Biden was real excited to meet Spider-Man.” – Jimmy Fallon

“I went to see ‘Lincoln,’ and I think it’s a precise historical document. I was flabbergasted to realize that President Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, wore pantsuits.” – David Letterman

“I’m sure the new movies are good, but I’m upset there are no real Christmas movies. Like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ where Jimmy Stewart finds himself in a world where no one can see him. It’s like nobody’s aware of his existence. I know that feeling.” – Craig Ferguson

“‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is the one where the angel earns his wings. Because remember, kids, an angel without wings is like Tom Selleck without a moustache, or like ‘Two and a Half Men’ without a cast member going crazy.” – Craig Ferguson

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Absolute Rights

Ruben Bolling
© Ruben Bolling

Just because something is a right, doesn’t mean that it can’t be regulated at all.

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Corporate Pool

A man in California has been driving in carpool lanes by himself on purpose, hoping to get a ticket. Why? He had with him the incorporation papers for his company and wants to try a novel defense in court: because California motor vehicle law recognizes corporations as people, he claims that he did indeed have enough “people” in the car to qualify as a carpool.

But what makes this ironic is that he actually wants to lose. His real goal is to get the judge to rule that corporations are not people.

Personally, I don’t think it will work. After all, I wouldn’t qualify as a carpool if I carried around the birth certificate for a second person. But still, you gotta hand it to him for an unprecedented defense.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, his defense didn’t work and he was found guilty. Not a big surprise, but a small part of me hoped.

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Late Night Political Humor

“It looks like President Obama is going to pick John Kerry to be our next secretary of state. This is a very strategic move when it comes to foreign policy. Obama plans to use Kerry to bore our enemies to death.” – Jay Leno

“Yesterday, President Obama and John Boehner talked about the fiscal cliff for 45 minutes, but the White House will not release a transcript of their conversation. However, they did offer to have Joe Biden re-enact it with puppets.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Wait, we’re facing one of the biggest threats to our economy and they only met for 45 minutes? That’s not even the opening credits of ‘The Hobbit’!” – Jimmy Fallon

“A 2009 Ford F-150 pickup truck, once owned by President George W. Bush, is going up for auction in a couple of weeks. All the proceeds will go to military families. President Obama should buy this truck because when something goes wrong he can blame it on Bush.” – Jay Leno

“It’s been a tough decade for Lindsay Lohan. She’s either in prison or she’s in rehab. She’s been in rehab so many times that the rehab cafeteria has a sandwich named after her.” – David Letterman

“Now Lindsay Lohan is apparently broke. To raise money — say your son’s having a bar mitzvah — Lindsay will appear at your son’s bar mitzvah. She’s also available for end-of-the-world parties.” – David Letterman

“And now The Mayan Channel forecast. Thursday: cloudy, chance of showers, high 39. Friday: volcanos, asteroid strikes, apocalypse.” – David Letterman

“Christmas is on Tuesday, provided that the world doesn’t end on Friday, which is the end of the Mayan calendar. Some believe there will be massive earthquakes and floods. Others think a planet will collide with the earth. I believe the end of the world will come about in a much stupider way, like Joe Biden spilling a Mountain Dew on the nuclear launch panel.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“And as silly as this all may seem, a worldwide survey shows that one in 10 people believe the world is going to end on Friday. A Chinese man even designed a survival pod. The inventor says they can hold 14 people comfortably, or roughly three American people comfortably.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“If you buy one of these pods, you might survive the end of the world. But since it is made in China, you will also die of lead poisoning.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The world’s oldest woman passed away at 116. They keep dying. I think that title may be cursed.” – David Letterman

“NBC’s foreign news correspondent Richard Engel has been freed after being kidnapped and held at gunpoint for five days in Syria by rebels. Even though he was psychologically tortured, he said he was still treated better there than he was here by Comcast.” – Jay Leno

“Sources told ABC News today that Defense Department official Michael Vickers gave sensitive inside information about the capture of Osama bin Laden to the producers of the movie ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ It’s also being reported that John McCain gave firsthand inside information to the film ‘Lincoln’.” – Jay Leno

“I was thinking about Santa Claus. When you really think about it, this has to be the biggest, most elaborate prank in the history of the world. It’s like we’re all in on a huge joke we’re playing on kids. And eventually they figure it out and they start lying to their kids, too.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“New Jersey became a state on this day in 1787. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie celebrated with a giant cake and a bucket of ice cream. Then he remembered today was New Jersey’s birthday.” – Craig Ferguson

“Last week a group of chefs baked the world’s largest pizza, which is gluten-free and contains 9,000 pounds of cheese. Or as Americans put it, ‘You had me at ‘world’s largest pizza’ — you LOST me at ‘gluten-free’ — then you won me back with ‘9,000 pounds of cheese.”” – Jimmy Fallon

“There’s talk that Jackie Chan may join the cast of ‘The Expendables 3,’ along with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Chan — which explains the movie’s next title: ‘The Can’t-Understandables.'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Late Night Political Humor

“In what’s being called a stunning literary find, a Danish historian has discovered the last remaining, unpublished fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen. It’s called ‘Congress Solves the Fiscal Cliff’.” – Jay Leno

“It’s rumored that John Boehner and President Obama are considering a partial deal to avoid the fiscal cliff at the end of the year. Yeah, it’s RUMORED that a PARTIAL deal is being CONSIDERED — or to put that in layman’s terms: We’re going off this cliff.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton passed out, hit her head, and suffered a minor concussion. Well, we found out today why she passed out. Apparently, she heard the Lakers won two games in a row.” – Jay Leno

“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton collapsed, passed out, banged her head, got a concussion. She is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Ravens.” – David Letterman

“For the next six weeks Hillary will be in an orthopedic pants suit.” – David Letterman

“This weekend I finished my packing for the apocalypse coming up on December 21. What do you take? What do you leave behind?” – David Letterman

“If you think traffic is bad now, wait until the 21st with people trying to get out of town for the end of the world.” – David Letterman

“Police are now looking for a man who robbed a bank wearing a Mitt Romney mask. He robbed the bank, fled the area, and then stashed the money somewhere in the Cayman Islands.” – Jay Leno

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