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Suspended


© Adam Zyglis

I’m a huge fan of roadrunner cartoons, and love that moment when Wile E. Coyote realizes that he is not standing on anything and plummets back to earth.

Isn’t that exactly the situation the GOP is facing now? Everyone is talking about the fiscal cliff that is coming up. But they don’t often mention that the reason we face a fiscal cliff is because Republicans are holding our government hostage, refusing to even consider allowing Bush’s tax cuts on the rich to expire. They claim that raising taxes on the rich would slow down the economy and hurt job creation. However, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says that allowing the Bush tax cuts on the rich to expire would increase GDP by 1.3% and create 1.6 million jobs, and would also lower the deficit. In fact, holding the government budget hostage is what is damaging to our economy, so it is clear that the GOP is not actually concerned about that, and in fact may be purposely trying to damage the economy in order to blame it on Obama. Making this even more ironic is that exit polls during the election say that only one-third of voters think that taxes should not be raised. And if the government is forced to shut down, voters say they are more likely to blame it on the Republicans.

So you have a situation where the GOP is willing to do something that hurts our country, will cost them votes, and is based on blatant lies, just to give huge financial gifts to the rich. Are they really that beholden to the 1%? Now that they were repudiated in the election, you would think that they had learned their lesson. We’ll see how this plays out.

It also doesn’t help when the media uses false equivalency to make it sound like both sides are unwilling to compromise, as if there are actually two sides to this issue. Even dumb jokes, like Jay Leno saying “the Democrats are driving us over a cliff” (in the previous post) are extremely annoying to me.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Florida has finally finished counting the votes. What is wrong with Florida? Why is it so hard for the people down there to count votes? We’re talking about a state where half the population can play 10 bingo cards at the same time.” – Jay Leno

“The presidential election officially ended this weekend, four days after the polls closed. The votes from Florida finally came in. So now Florida can get back to doing what it does best, which is eating early and driving slowly.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Get this. After all the confusion at the polls in Florida last week, Governor Rick Scott said he will review ways to improve his state’s voting procedures. It’ll be the biggest thing Scott’s done since he won that raffle to become governor.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The CIA director, David Petraeus, resigned. The FBI caught him having an affair with his biographer. Hey general, you work for the CIA, not the TSA.” – Craig Ferguson

“This weekend, it was announced that Justin Bieber and his girlfriend, Selena Gomez, have broken up. Bieber said, ‘Just tell me one thing – is it General Petraeus?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“There’s a double standard here. The head of the CIA gets caught having sex and has to resign. Meanwhile, a British special agent, James Bond, has sex with tons of women and makes $90 million at the box office. Where’s the justice?” – Craig Ferguson

“The James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ came in No. 1 this weekend with $88 million. It’s about a spy who fights terrorists and sleeps with a lot of women. Critics are calling it ‘well-made’, while David Petraeus is calling it ‘relatable’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The truth is, many women are attracted to men in power. And powerful men are attracted to women who – well, women. So to recap, men are pigs but some of them have cool jobs.” – Craig Ferguson

“No one knows what David Petraeus will do next. All I know is he’s in for one awkward Thanksgiving.” – Craig Ferguson

“James Bond beat Abraham Lincoln at the box office. Boy, it’s really been a lousy week for Republicans, hasn’t it?” – David Letterman

“Mitt Romney has a supporter in Indiana who thought it was a good idea to have the Romney/Ryan logo tattooed on his face. He’ll feel stupid when he finds out about campaign buttons. ” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Even Mike Tyson was like, ‘That’s a ridiculous tattoo’.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“I wonder if laser tattoo removal is covered under Obamacare. That would be ironic, wouldn’t it?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Republicans still will not admit that they underestimated the power of the Hispanic vote. As a matter of fact, Latinos are calling this Cinco Denio.” – David Letterman

“Both parties in Washington now agree that our country is headed toward a ‘fiscal cliff.’ The bad news: We just elected a guy whose campaign slogan was ‘Forward.'” – Jay Leno

“We’re in great shape. The Republicans drove us into a ditch and the Democrats are driving us over a cliff.” –Jay Leno

“But the good news: President Obama says we will run out of gas long before we get to the cliff. So don’t worry about it.” – Jay Leno

“Gas rationing. Welcome to 1974! Here’s the only good thing. We don’t have enough gas now to drive over the fiscal cliff.” – David Letterman

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Cutting the Cord


© Clay Bennett

If it ever actually was a real grass-roots movement, the Tea Party was co-opted almost immediately by special interest groups with lots of money. They had their moment with the 2010 midterm elections, but now seem to have lost their mojo with the voters. It’s about time.

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Late Night Political Humor

“According to poll data, President Obama’s victory on Tuesday was due largely to his popularity with both college students and the unemployed. So basically Obama became President the same way Budweiser became the King of Beers.” – Seth Meyers

“After this week’s election 19 women will now hold seats in the Senate, which is the highest number ever. And no one is happier about it than the pantsuit industry.” – Seth Meyers

“CIA director General David Petraeus resigned Friday after it was revealed he was having an affair with the woman who wrote his biography, ‘All In’. Of course when they first started working on the book, it was called, ‘Just The Tip’.” – Seth Meyers

“Navy officials said Thursday that seven members of SEAL Team 6, the elite unit that killed Osama Bin Laden, were given career-ending reprimands after they disclosed operational secrets to the makers of the videogame “Medal of Honor”. Now everyone knows Bin Laden was killed by A, B, A, B, up, down, right trigger, left trigger.” – Seth Meyers

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Buying Votes

Republicans are claiming that the reason why they were defeated in the election was because Obama and the Democrats gave out “extraordinary financial gifts” like free healthcare and green cards to Blacks, Hispanics, young people, and other members of their base and then mounted an aggressive turn-out-the-vote effort to get them to the polls. You can hear loser-in-chief Romney and other Republicans say exactly that in this segment from the Daily Show:


(the second half of this segment is definitely worth watching as well)

Well, we’ve already seen how the Republicans tried to mount an even bigger get-out-the-vote effort for the election than the Democrats (deploying 34,000 operatives in key precincts and boasting on PBS “The Obama campaign likes to brag about their ground operation, but it’s nothing compared to this.”), but failed miserably.

As for the “extraordinary financial gifts” Obama was supposedly giving out, Ezra Klein points out that this was another classic example of Republican projection, because it is the GOP who are handing out gifts like candy. For example, one of Romney’s biggest and most advertised campaign promises was that the Republicans would restore the $716 billion that Obama had cut from Medicare. Ignoring the fact that these supposed cuts were false, and that Paul Ryan had proposed the same cost savings, even though Republicans say we have to dramatically reduce the budget they are simultaneously and hypocritically promising seniors that they will increase their Medicare spending. Sounds like a financial gift to me! Romney also promised to increase our already bloated military spending, a financial gift to the military-industrial complex.

But the biggest financial gifts that the Republicans keep giving are huge tax cuts to the rich, and financial deregulation. These financially dwarf what Obama is supposedly giving to his base. You couldn’t ask for a more obvious gift to the rich than cutting their taxes and eliminating laws and regulations that keep their companies from destroying the environment or cheating consumers. And these aren’t just promises, they are things the GOP has been actually doing, since before Reagan was elected.

The only difference to the GOP is that Romney’s gifts benefit Republican voters (and especially donors), and Obama’s gifts benefit Democratic voters:

That’s Romney’s political cosmology: The Democrats bribe the moochers with health care and green cards. The Republicans try to free the makers through tax cuts and deregulation. Politics isn’t a conflict between two reasonable perspectives on how to best encourage growth and high-living standards. It’s a kind of reverse-Marxist clash between those who produce and those who take, and the easiest way to tell one from the other is to see who they vote for.

When Romney thinks he’s behind closed doors and he’s just telling other people like him how politics really works, the picture he paints is so ugly as to be bordering on dystopic. It’s not just about class, but about worth, and legitimacy. His voters are worth something to the economy — they’re producers — and they respond to legitimate appeals about how to best manage the country. The Democrats’ voters are drags on the economy — moochers — and they respond to crass pay-offs.

This is the politics of division at its worst. To their credit, at least some Republicans have condemned Romney for his comments. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal said “We need to stop being a dumb party, and that means more than stop making dumb comments.” Mississippi governor Haley Barbour said it more colorfully as “We’ve got to give our political organization a very serious proctology exam. We need to look everywhere.”


© Jeff Danziger

Romney’s attempts to pass the blame may backfire. As Electoral Vote puts it:

At this point, Republicans want Romney to exit stage right and never be seen or heard from again. It is rare for a party to reject its own candidate so strongly and so quickly after a loss. John McCain and John Kerry certainly were not told to shut up and leave after their respective losses.

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Late Night Political Humor

“I know why you’re happy tonight. Your uterus is safe for another four years. How about that? Mormon has broken, and we are black in the saddle again.” – Bill Maher

“I heard an update from Con Edison, the electricity company. They said the Republicans now will be without power for the next four years.” – David Letterman

“No gloating. The Republicans are licking their wounds, which is ironically Mitt Romney’s health care plan.” – Bill Maher

“There’s also a rumor that Romney will write a tell-all book based on the diary he kept on the campaign trail. That’s in case you ever wondered what Ambien looks like in book form.” – Jimmy Fallon

“It’s got to hurt Mitt Romney. The better the voters knew him, the worse he did. He lost Michigan, one of his home states, in a landslide. Lost Massachusetts in a double landslide. And listen to this, he did worse with Mormons than Bush did. THAT is a legitimate rape, ladies and gentlemen.” – Bill Maher

“According to the real estate Web site Zillow, the White House is worth $283 million. When Mitt Romney heard that, he said, “You mean I could have just bought it?'” – Jay Leno

“Mitt Romney arrived at his victory celebration in a 15-car Secret Service caravan. Of course, when you lose, the Secret Service dumps you immediately. So he had to hitch a ride home with his son. So there he is arriving in the 15-car motorcade and then he goes home in the back seat – Tagg driving, Ann riding shotgun, dog on the roof.” – Bill Maher

“Mitt Romney’s family has been trying to console him since Tuesday’s loss. In fact, this morning they took him to Ikea just so he could feel what it’s like to put together a cabinet.” – Jay Leno

“Karl Rove said today that Obama was suppressing the vote. He was suppressing the vote with his nasty political ads. And Sarah Palin basically said the same thing on her Facebook page yesterday. She said Romney only lost because ads running in blue collar swing states defined Romney early on. Yeah, best money I ever spent.” – Bill Maher (referring to the $1 million he gave to a pro-Obama Super PAC)

“The Republicans are in full sour grapes mode. They lost because of Obama’s dirty tactics, the biased media, and non-whites, and the promise of giveaways to takers. You know, if you scrubbed every inch of your house and something still smells like shit, it’s time to take a shower.” – Bill Maher

“All of the Republican men who talked about lady parts during the campaign, they all lost, including two seats in the Senate, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, while Claire McCaskill and Elizabeth Warren won. And you know what? After all this stupid rape talk, it is refreshing to see women forcing their way into men’s seats.” – Bill Maher

“Obama won single women by 38 percent. I think the message to Republicans was clear: get off me.” – Bill Maher

“That just doesn’t happen in campaigns. You’d think his slogan was ‘have you lost weight?'” – Bill Maher

“Obama won. Twenty women in the Senate, six openly gay congressmen, a bisexual congressman. This was such a good night for progressives, Anthony Weiner is tweeting his dick again.” – Bill Maher

“This was a great week for gay potheads who love Obama. Or as I call it, ‘Hollywood’.” – Bill Maher

“Pot was legalized in Colorado and Washington. This calls, not just for a reexamination of the drug war, but an entire rerouting of my touring schedule. – Bill Maher

“Still no election results from Florida yet. Florida is the post office of states.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The election has been over for three days, but already there’s a new survey that says Hillary Clinton is favored to win the Iowa caucuses in 2016. You’d think they could have at least waited until we peeled the ‘I voted’ stickers off our jackets.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The survey showed Hillary Clinton with 58 percent of the vote, Vice President Biden with 17 percent, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at 6 percent, and Massachusetts Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren with 3 percent. A woman who has not yet expressed any interest in running is well ahead of some other people who aren’t running. Good study.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“There’s a video going around of President Obama getting choked up and crying while he thanked his campaign staff after the election. When Mitt Romney saw the video, he was like, ‘What is that clear liquid coming out of his eyes? Is he leaking?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“The head of the CIA and former General David Petraeus has resigned because of an extramarital affair. So guys, let that be a lesson for you. If the CIA director – who has access to phony passports, elaborate disguises, has safe houses all over the world – if he can’t keep an affair secret, you’re screwed. You don’t have a chance.” – Jay Leno

“The big story here in Los Angeles is the Lakers have fired their coach, Mike Brown. They are playing so bad that President Obama and Chris Christie toured the Staples Center today.” – Jay Leno

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Post Election Porn


© Keef Knight

As far as guilty pleasures go, it’s a pretty good one.

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Unbusinesslike

I had to think about this post for a while. Part of me wanted to post it because I work with computers for a living. Part of me wanted to post it because I’m friends with some of the people who wrote the original Obama campaign mobile application back in 2008 (which was very successful). So I’m definitely biased.

But the account of how the Romney campaign completely bungled their “get out the vote” app goes beyond technical issues. Was their app doomed to fail because it reflects a world-view that is becoming a dinosaur, not to mention rife with irony and hypocrisy?

And fail it did. Users were emailed 60-page PDF files to print out. Seriously. Users had not been given any training and were not allowed to use or learn the app before the election. On election day, the website was largely inaccessible because they only put it on a single server. Even users who could get to the app found that they had been given the wrong PIN codes and passwords. When that was cleared up, the servers started crashing. And especially ironic, with all the users trying frantically to access the servers, the campaign’s ISP (Comcast) shut down their network connection because they thought it was a “denial of service” attack. When volunteers couldn’t access the app they had no way to help get out the vote, so they had no choice but to give up and go home. There was no plan B.

One of the developers of the Romney app put it well:

The bitter irony of this entire endeavor was that a supposedly small government candidate gutted the local structure of [get out the vote] efforts in favor of a centralized, faceless organization in a far off place (in this case, their Boston headquarters). Wrap your head around that.

The Romney app’s world-view reflects the top-down, hierarchically regimented, centralized world view of the CEO, versus Obama’s decentralized, bottom-up, grassroots world view of the social networker or community organizer. It is central control versus local control. It is authoritarianism versus peer networking. It is automation versus human factors, homogeneity versus heterogeneity. In every way I can think of the latter is more powerful, more democratic, more capitalistic (in the real sense of the word), and reflects the things that have made the US the greatest country on earth.

It is also ironic that the businessman’s campaign miserably failed in one of their most business-centric tasks — marketing and sales. So even if you believe we need a more business-like approach in our government, maybe Romney just isn’t a very good businessman.

UPDATE: Interesting stories on how Obama won the election — using sophisticated data mining and analytics — and how this is making old-school pundits obsolete.

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The Unbelievably Crazy World of Super PACs

Stephen Colbert shuts down his Super PAC, but manages to surprise even people like me who already thought our election laws are completely screwed up. This is unbelievable.

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Animals in the Zoo

[Our favorite senior citizens Margaret and Helen had this post on their blog two days after the election.]

Margaret, I ventured into new territory today. I tuned into Fox News. It was kind of like going to the zoo… not so scary once you learn the animals can’t get out of their cages.

Just like when I go to a regular zoo, I didn’t know the names of all the animals at Fox, but I quickly learned the ones with opposable thumbs and the ability to reason were token Democrats who had, at some point, worked in the Clinton administration. The ones who liked to rattle their cages and screech at the visitors were the angry Republican hacks who seemed to be, for the first time, discovering the wonders of math.

I was surprised to see so many animals that I thought were long ago extinct. There was angry, old Lou Dobbs plodding around mumbling something about voter fraud and immigrants and Mike Huckabee being all folksy and jolly. And there was Oliver North, Liz Cheney, Haley Barbour and even Geraldo Rivera who now just goes by Geraldo like Madonna, Cher and Cavuto.

Over in a corner in a cage all by himself was the red-assed Karl Rove. Now that one scares me. When they called Ohio for Obama I heard he started flinging pooh and screaming about recounts and faulty polls.

I got a chance to spot the elusive big-footed Ann Coulter which was thrilling. Since her visit to The View, she only makes appearances when no other women are in the room. She seemed pretty at ease in the zoo. I guess that comes from all the time she spent collaborating with monkeys on those personal therapy projects she calls books. Ann seemed remarkably calm considering not only the election results but also the colossal failure that was her last book. Usually she’s shrill and fidgety but sitting there in the cage with Sean Hannity she seemed almost human.

There was a lovely exhibit of irrelevant talking parrots including Shepard Smith, Greg Gutfeld, Tucker Carlson and Mr.[sic] Van Susteren. I can’t keep all of their names straight but one of them suggested that the majority of voters are like abused housewives who voted to stay with their abuser. Most of them were squawking about Hurricane Sandy and that America was about to go over a cliff. As expected, they blamed the liberal media for handing the election to Obama while simultaneously chirping that Fox is the most watched news broadcast in the nation. I know. I know. It doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense but it’s Fox News. It doesn’t have to. While I don’t think they understand the difference between Mexican-Americans and Cuban-Americans, they seem to think that any Republican politician with a name ending in O or Z will need to be on the bottom half of the ticket in 2016 if Republicans are to take the White House back.

Every zoo has its specialty and Fox is no exception. They have the largest collection of blonde, bulemic middle school girls posing as reporters with names like Megyn, Gretchen, Cheryl and Dana… many of them openly wept as the election results came in causing a river of mascara that got all over everything.

But the real treat came when I ran across that rare but ever-lovable snow beast, Sarah Palin. She’s a bit older but still very capable of smacking her lips while rattling off those non-sensical run-on sentences like “this election if it continues the way it is going will be a catastrophic setback to our economy and to any opportunity that we would have for Supreme Court justices to be appointed who would be strict adherents to the traditional interpretation of what our Constitution says which is a blueprint towards a more perfect union.” Isn’t she precious? Honestly, I was surprised to see that she had actually survived the end-of-days calamity known as the 2008 election.

Now Margaret, I don’t suggest that you visit the Fox Zoo. The lighting is bad, the air is thin, and reality is in short supply. They haven’t cleaned the cages in years so the bullshit is everywhere. Instead let me visit occasionally and send back reports. Trust me. It’s better that way.

Unlike the zoo, trips to Fox News should probably be few and far between. I mean it. Really.

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Gerrymandering

The popularity of statisticians and other wonk during the election means that people are noticing — and reporting on — interesting facts. Everyone knows that the Democrats held the presidency and the Senate, but still are a minority in the House. But the numbers tell an interesting story: Democratic candidates for the House received slightly more votes than Republicans, and yet the Republicans managed to elect around 40 more Congresscritters than the Democrats. How did this happen?

The answer is unequivocally “gerrymandering“, that quaint practice of state governments redrawing congressional districts to favor one party over the other. Believe it or not, the image to the right is a single Congressional district (with two parts connected by a narrow strip along a freeway). Both parties do it, of course. But the 2010 elections gave the Republicans a big advantage in redistricting, which happened soon after the election. It only happens in the House, because the Senate and the Presidency are voted on state-wide (except in Nebraska and Maine, which vote on the President by district, but neither of them were battleground states this time around).

Does it work? Barack Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 5%, and yet Democrats only won five of the state’s 18 congressional seats.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Several states, including California, have a non-partisan commission determine the congressional districts, but you won’t see the political party in power ever pass a law to do this. In California it took a voter referendum. Why? Because gerrymandering doesn’t just give an advantage to the majority party, it gives a huge advantage to incumbents (i.e., the politicians in power who do not want to lose their jobs).

There are also computer algorithms that can do the job of redistricting fairly and efficiently. But humans can do a reasonable job if they aren’t motivated by politics to do an unfair job.

If we could convince every state to do redistricting fairly and evenly, then it is likely that we would now have a Democratic House of Representatives, and wouldn’t have to play brinkmanship with the upcoming fiscal cliff and further damage our economy.

UPDATE: The Washington Post does the numbers and says that even without the redistricting advantage, Democrats probably didn’t have enough votes to win a majority in the House. The problem is that Democratic votes tend to be concentrated together in urban areas, while Republican votes are more spread out across rural and suburban areas. This is essentially a demographic-based form of gerrymandering that is inherent in our winner-take-all system.

For example, consider a state that has three congressional districts, but one of those districts is around a large city that is 80% Democratic, while the remaining two districts are rural and are 60% Republican. Since each district has roughly the same number of voters, there are more Democratic voters overall but the Republicans will win two of the three districts.

So I take back my claim that without deliberate gerrymandering we would “likely” have a Democratic House of Representatives. We probably wouldn’t. But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that we need to pass laws that eliminate deliberate gerrymandering.

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These People Vote

Interviews with Romney supporters at a rally in Defiance, Ohio:

Because these people live in Ohio, their votes were expected to be some of the most important in deciding the election. Scary.

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Late Night Political Humor

“I knew Obama was going to win. I knew this little secret. Use it next time there is an election and see if it doesn’t work out. The guy who wins the presidential election is usually the guy who kills bin Laden.” – David Letterman

“NBC News was the first to call the election for President Obama. ABC News was the first to call a cab for Diane Sawyer.” – Jay Leno

“The rumor is that Diane Sawyer allegedly had been drinking on election night. In fact, today Mitt Romney called and said, ‘You got any left?'” – Jay Leno

“Karl Rove was running the Republican deal. He spent $400 million to try to get his party in power. They don’t know what happened. The Republicans are confused and scratching their heads. They won’t know what happened until they find the black box.” – David Letterman

“I have political insiders who tell me that Mitt Romney — and he seems like an upbeat guy — is depressed. He just sits in a darkened room watching video tape of that first debate over and over and over.” – David Letterman

“A lot of people are still coming to grips with Mitt Romney’s loss. It was reported that the morning after the election, Mitt Romney’s family gathered to share a gallon of chocolate milk. In other words, they took it much harder than we thought.” – Conan O’Brien

“Mitt Romney, the morning after defeat, was in his Boston hotel room surrounded by his children and grandchildren. There was a gallon of chocolate milk on the table. Looks like someone’s on a serious bender. It starts with the Nestle Quick, the next thing you know you’re snorting Jolly Ranchers.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“I’m checking for updates on the campaign’s ‘I’m with Mitt’ app. It still works, and it lets you take photos with little messages that show your support for Mitt Romney. I tweeted this one today – ‘I’m With Mitt.’ Then later, ‘I’m Standing With Mitt.’ And eventually, ‘I’m In The Fetal Position With Mitt.'” – Stephen Colbert

“I always wonder what the day after the election is like for the candidate who loses. You get so close to becoming the most powerful person in the world and just like that, you wake up hoping to get a call from ‘Dancing With the Stars’.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“It’s tough losing an election. You know what Romney is doing right now? He’s rehearsing for Dancing with the Stars. And I tell you, he ain’t gonna win that one either.” – Jay Leno

“His wife Ann said, ‘Mitt you got to cheer up. You know what will make you feel better. Go spend some time with your money.'” – David Letterman

“There is one silver lining about Mitt Romney losing the election. At least now he doesn’t have to move into a smaller house.” – Jay Leno

“Here’s what they’re saying was Mitt’s problem. He lived in his own bubble, his own little air-tight capsule, surrounded by sycophants who told him only what he wanted to hear. Wait a minute, I’m sorry, that’s me.” – David Letterman

“On Tuesday night, Mitt Romney’s staff briefly published his victory website by mistake. Republicans called it an embarrassing error, while Big Bird called it ‘the scariest two minutes of my life.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“I went out to vote. I was in line for four hours. And then it turned out later that it was a gas line.” – David Letterman

“Here in New York City and the tri-state area we need another snowstorm event like the Republicans need another old white guy.” – David Letterman

“What is going on in Florida? They still haven’t finished counting the votes there yet. You know, at this point, Florida shouldn’t even be allowed to vote for ‘American Idol’.” –Jay Leno

“It has been two days, and Florida still hasn’t finished counting all the votes from Tuesday night’s election. Of course, it’s gonna be weird when they’re finally done and they’re like, ‘The winner is – Al Gore?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“No one is exactly sure why it’s taking Florida so long. I’m sure they’ll have it all sorted out by Christmas.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“They are still counting votes in Florida. They’re still counting votes even though the election is no longer in doubt and the people who cast them are no longer living.” – Conan O’Brien

“Four counties in Florida were still counting votes today. It’s important that they get all of the votes counted because the numbers could drastically affect the outcome of this election in no way whatsoever.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Two-term presidents is a pretty small club in the history of the United States. The only club smaller is Latinos for Romney. And then the only club smaller than that is Latino women for Romney.” – David Letterman

“There are now a record number of Latinos in Congress, which has a lot more Americans talking about immigration reform. Americans seem to be in favor of it, while immigrants are still on the fence.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama easily won his home state of Illinois. In fact, in Chicago Obama got 120 percent of the vote.” – Jay Leno

“Here is an interesting fact about Tuesday’s election. It seems 41 percent of Rommney voters were named either Osmond or Romney.” – Jay Leno

“Everybody is talking about the fiscal cliff. And I’d be talking about the fiscal cliff too if I knew what the hell it was.” – David Letterman

“If Congress does nothing, the U.S. could go off a so-called fiscal cliff that could cause another worldwide financial collapse like the one in 2008. Congress had a lot of questions about this scenario, like, ‘What do you mean if we do nothing?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Republicans are talking about being open to compromise when it comes to the fiscal cliff. And I’m saying, ‘What the hell have you done with the real Republicans? Where are the real Republicans? That’s not the Republicans I know.” – David Letterman

“Taco Bell is going to start selling nachos and chicken nuggets wrapped in a tortilla. In other words, thank God we’re going to keep Obamacare.” – Conan O’Brien

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The Emotions of Politics

Obama gets emotional while thanking his campaign staff:

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Being Republican Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Florida’s Republican Secretary of State Rick Detzner cut the number of early voting days from 14 to 8, in a fairly blatant attempt to reduce turnout for Democrats. Former Republican governor Charlie Crist said “the only thing that makes any sense as to why this is happening and being done is voter suppression.” Even former Republican governor Jeb Bush extended early voting hours to accommodate large turnouts, but current Republican governor Rick Scott refused.

But it backfired. People took this as a challenge and turned out just to show that they wouldn’t let someone take their voice away.

The result? Many people stood in line to vote for up to six hours. Others tried to vote early twice, but had to abandon both attempts due to long lines, only to wait in line another three hours on election day. People persisted, despite what could be a significant hardship for them.

So when CNN asked Detzner if he regretted doing that, how did he respond? He said “Frankly, I think the turnout is a good representation of the fact that people liked the voting hours.”

What a jerk.


© Jim Morin

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