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Late Night Political Humor

“The Republican presidential field is an embarrassment of riches. In fact, the first two words that come to mind are ’embarrassment’ and ‘rich’.” – Stephen Colbert

“The Republican presidential candidates held a debate on Twitter. It combined the excitement of C-SPAN with the suspense of typing.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Michele Bachmann suffers from crippling migraine headaches. That’s what happens when you don’t get a little pornography every now and then.” – David Letterman

“Newt’s been struggling in the polls, he lost most of his staff, then he lost the rest of his staff. And to top it off, he lost the startup disc for his wife.” – Stephen Colbert

“Sarah Palin’s son Track and his wife are having a baby. They haven’t picked a name yet, but they do know it will be a verb.” – Conan O’Brien

“Rupert Murdoch said yesterday at the House of Commons that he was shocked, appalled, and ashamed. So apparently he watches Fox News, too.” – Jay Leno

“A Harvard University ethics student was caught hacking into MIT’s computer network. When he heard about it, Rupert Murdoch said, ‘Hire that kid on the spot.'” – Jay Leno

“Rupert Murdoch is 80, his wife is 42. 80 and 42, that’s like halftime at a Cleveland Cavaliers game, isn’t it? Please.” – Jay Leno

“The city of London has fined President Obama for the traffic he caused while visiting back in May. Which raises the question, ‘Are there any countries we don’t owe money to?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama’s 50th birthday is coming up in a couple weeks. If you’re thinking of getting him something, he could use $14 trillion.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama and I have a lot in common. No one laughs at our jokes and we were both born in foreign countries.” – Craig Ferguson

“I don’t remember much of the moon landing. I was only 7 years old at the time, and was busy with school work. And by ‘school work,’ I mean I was drunk.” – Craig Ferguson

“The crew of Atlantis brought an iPhone into space to track their experiments. I think that by ‘track their experiments,’ they mean ‘play Angry Birds.'” – Craig Ferguson

“Here is your federal government at work – the FAA has ordered a helicopter pilot who runs his own one-pilot charter company. It’s his company, he’s the only pilot. They’ve ordered him to give himself random surprise drug tests. He has to surprise himself with a drug test. They only way you can do that is if you are on drugs.” – Jay Leno

“Gay marriage will now be legal in New York. Paul and I are very happy.” – David Letterman

“A new edition of al-Qaida magazine claims that bin Laden fought a ‘vicious battle’ before he died. You know, if they keep writing that kind of nonsense, I might have to cancel my subscription to al-Qaida magazine.'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Mad House


© Ben Sargent

Or is it more like watching a train wreck in slow motion?

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Fox News Victim Hypocrisy

Fox News plays the victim card regarding calling the Norwegian terrorist a Christian, when (not surprisingly) they have repeatedly done the same thing they are accusing others of doing. Confused? Jon Stewart explains it all:

But playing the victim card by Fox News is not limited to the terrorist incident in Norway. Fox News has become a 24 hour pity party:

Jon Stewart is brilliant. As RawStory puts it, this may be the most impressive take down of Fox News ever.

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Late Night Political Humor

“The Murdochs testified before parliament and did something that not many powerful people would have the courage to do: They blamed others.” – Craig Ferguson

“Rupert Murdoch testified today before the House of Commons. He said he was not responsible for the phone hacking scandal. Did you hear his defense? He said he’s got AT&T so he can barely listen to anybody.” – Jay Leno

“While testifying in parliament, Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a man who threw a pie and yelled insulting names. Murdoch immediately gave the man a show on Fox News.” – Conan O’Brien

“Is it any surprise that the British law enforcement can’t stop the high-tech phone hackers? They can’t even stop a guy walking into Parliament with a pie.” – Craig Ferguson

“Rupert Murdoch was testifying in his phone hacking case today, and a man attacked him with a pie. Fortunately, Murdoch knew to move out of the way, because he heard about the plan on the guy’s voicemail.” – Jimmy Fallon

“I think it’s cowardly to attack an 80–year–old man with a pie. If the attacker had any courage, he’d go after Murdoch like I do: in the middle of the night from 5,000 miles away.” – Craig Ferguson

“Man, what a heat wave we are having right now, especially in the Midwest. People are sweating like Rupert Murdoch trying to explain his phone bill.” – Jay Leno

“I don’t think Rupert Murdoch was personally involved in the phone hacking. He’s 80 years old. Old people don’t know how to hack a cell phone. Old people don’t know how to use a cell phone. That’s why you see them shuffling down the street talking into an old slipper. ‘This call smells like feet!'” – Craig Ferguson

“Rupert Murdoch said that he was embarrassed and that testifying before parliament was the most humbling day in his life. That’s mostly because he spends every other day swimming in a bathtub full of money like Scrooge McDuck.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“I don’t think Rupert Murdoch’s guilty of phone hacking. He paid $580 million for Myspace. Obviously he knows nothing about technology.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Texas governor Rick Perry said God is calling on him to run for President. But Michele Bachmann said that god is calling on her to run for President. You know, if God is that indecisive, he’s probably for Mitt Romney.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama had a private meeting with the Dalai Lama. The President asked about the political situation in Tiber, and the Dalai Lama asked if it was too soon to bang Jennifer Lopez.” – Conan O’Brien

“China’s mad at President Obama for meeting with the Dalai Lama, but come on. Obama doesn’t owe them anything — except like $14 trillion.” – Jimmy Fallon

“NASA is considering replacing the space shuttle with a space taxi. It can do everything the shuttle can do, except pick you up if you’re black.” – Conan O’Brien

“A panel of medical experts has recommended that health insurance companies provide free birth control to their customers. The recommendation has been hailed as ‘historic’ by women’s’ groups, and as ’10 years too late’ by Maria Shriver.” – Conan O’Brien

“There’s talk of splitting California into two different states. Apparently, this divorce between Arnold and Maria is bigger than we thought.” – Jay Leno

“Borders bookstores announced that it will liquidate its stock and close all of its stores nationwide. I don’t think this is what the Republicans meant by ‘closing our borders.'” – Jimmy Kimmel

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The Tax Logic of Grover Norquist

Much of our current stalemate in Congress is due to the anti-tax pledge created by Grover Norquist, who believes that even closing crazy tax loopholes for large corporations is a tax increase.


© August Pollak

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Republican Civil War

Civil war is breaking out between the more moderate, responsible Republicans and the “Tea Party” Republicans over the debt ceiling debate.

Today, John McCain stood up on the Senate floor and accused conservatives of “deceiving” (i.e., lying) to their constituents and called their position “bizarro”.

Even worse, House Republicans today called for the firing of Republican Study Committee (RSC) staffers after they were caught sending emails to conservative groups urging them to pressure GOP lawmakers to vote against Speaker John Boehner’s debt proposal. At the closed-door meeting of Republicans, members started chanting “Fire him, fire him!” to the face of the executive director of the RSC.

One GOP insider said “It was an unbelievable moment. I’ve never seen anything like it.”


© Pat Oliphant

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Onward Christian Soldiers

On his show, Bill O’Reilly takes strong exception to calling Anders Behring-Breivik, the man who has admitted to mass murder in Norway, a Christian (even though Breivik calls himself a Christian). According to O’Reilly “Breivik is not a Christian. That’s impossible. No one beliving in Jesus commits mass murder.”

I just have one thing to say to O’Reilly: The Crusades.

O’Reilly continues to rant, claiming “the primary threat to the world comes from Islamic terrorism” and “Muslim suicide bombers blow innocent people up almost every day.” O’Reilly totally ignores the fact that according to the FBI, 94% of all terrorist attacks in the US are not related to Islam at all. A similar report from Europol says that 99.6% of European terrorist attacks are unrelated to Islam.

I’m not trying to pick on Christianity, but when O’Reilly claims that Christians cannot be terrorists or commit mass murder, he blithely ignores places like Northern Ireland, where Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians (both of whom believe in Jesus) for decades cheerfully murdered each other.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has an excellent column on how we have defined the word “terrorism” so that it only applies to Muslims.

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How can both sides cave on debt, but we still don’t have an agreement?

I didn’t think the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations could get any more bizarre. The Democrats now are to the right of the Republicans, but they must have missed each other in passing because they still can’t agree. Unbelievable.

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Late Night Political Humor

“An audio recording from five years ago has been released of Michele Bachmann predicting the end of the world. Her exact words were, ‘I’m going to run for president in 2012.'” – Conan O’Brien

“It was so hot presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was fanning herself with pornography. So hot Charlie Sheen was snorting actual snow.” – David Letterman

“It’s so hot that I saw Rupert Murdoch trying to hack his way into a Cold Stone Creamery.” – Craig Ferguson

“It was so hot in Washington that Congress had to install a fan on the debt ceiling.” – Craig Ferguson

‎”If the conversation continues this way, we could very well hit the national bullshit ceiling.” – Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones

“Former News Corp Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of illegal wire tapping and bribing police officers for information. I don’t think she gets it. She asked the arresting officer, ‘How much is it going to take to make this go away?'” – Jay Leno

“Ironically while she was in jail she was surrounded by less criminals than when she was working for News Corp. That’s the amazing thing.” – Jay Leno

“MSNBC suspended one of their commentators for calling President Obama a bad name. Meanwhile, Fox News suspended one of their commentators for not calling President Obama a bad name.” – Conan O’Brien

“Last week in an interview with ABC News President Obama said he will turn 50 this week, but the truth is he turns 50 on August 4th. Do you know what that means? Apparently even he hasn’t seen his real birth certificate.” – Jay Leno

“The President met with the Dalai Lama over the weekend. The Dalai Lama told Obama about the difficulty of being under China’s thumb. To which Obama said, ‘Tell me about it.'” – Jay Leno

“The United States’ soccer team lost to Japan, which means we’re now losing to Japan in math, science, and penalty kicks.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“This weekend, the final ‘Harry Potter’ movie made a record-breaking $476 million worldwide. Yeah, ‘Harry Potter’ made so much money this weekend, President Obama just asked him for a loan.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Republicans are no longer allowed to say that people are rich. You have to refer to them as ‘job creator’. You can’t even use the word ‘rich’. You have to say, ‘This chocolate cake is so moist and job creator.'” – Jon Stewart

“I say, if the founding fathers didn’t want money in politics, why did they put their faces on our money?” – Stephen Colbert

“Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka gave birth to a baby girl. The baby’s name is ‘Trump Granddaughter and Casino.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Donald Trump has a new grandchild. Today, he demanded to see its birth certificate.” – David Letterman

“A woman in Colorado was arrested for groping a TSA agent last week. On the bright side, today she was offered a job with the TSA.” – Jimmy Fallon

“So what happened to Carmageddon? What was that? The L.A. freeways had less traffic this weekend than Newt Gingrich’s campaign website. Nothing.” – Jay Leno

“A group of rare snow leopards has been discovered in a remote corner of Afghanistan. So I guess traveling through Afghanistan isn’t as safe as you thought.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Freedom in the Bedroom?


© Lee Judge

I guess the only freedom that matters to some people is the freedom to consume.

UPDATE: And no, the government did not ban incandescent light bulbs.

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Political Gridlock – There’s an App for That

Two articles give potential solutions to some of our political problems. Both attempt to limit, or at least modify, the power of our currently gridlocked political parties.

In the New York Times is an article “Make Way for the Radical Center” that talks about a new startup called “Americans Elect” that is attempting to use the Internet to create a new third party. Their goal is to get a presidential candidate on all 50 state ballots for the 2012 election. As they put it:

Americans Elect is the first-ever open nominating process. We’re using the Internet to give every single voter — Democrat, Republican or independent — the power to nominate a presidential ticket in 2012. The people will choose the issues. The people will choose the candidates. And in a secure, online convention next June, the people will make history by putting their choice on the ballot in every state.

Just like internet companies have increased competition in the marketplace, Americans Elect aims to the same thing to the two-party system that dominates our politics, to remove the barriers to real competition.

In The Atlantic is an article “How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans” on reforming Congress to remove some of the more partisan problems written by former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards. He has some very good ideas, like taking away Congressional redistricting from the political parties, open primaries, and decreasing the partisan influence on committees and amendments. The idea is to make Congress more interested in solving our country’s problems than on advancing a partisan agenda. In an era where Nancy Pelosi said her most important goal was to elect more Democrats, and Mitch McConnell said his primary job was to make Obama a one-term president, this is could be a refreshing change.


© Joel Pett

UPDATE: Speaking of Apps, here’s one that almost all of us will welcome. It is a plugin for the Firefox browser that warns you when you visit a website that is owned by Rupert Murdoch or a member of his family (including, of course, Fox News). You can even set it to block those sites if you want. There is a similar plug-in for Google’s Chrome browser as well.

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Fiscal Conservative Magic


© Ruben Bolling

I think Bush Sr. had it right when he called it “Voodoo Economics”. But he too fell sway to the dark side.

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This is how fucked over we are by big corporations

I get annoyed any time some pundit trots out the statistic that the corporate tax rate in the US is higher than most countries. The actual tax rate is not very meaningful when there are plenty of ways to shelter corporate income from taxes. Indeed, the US has one of the lowest effective tax rates in the world for corporations.

But just to add insult to injury, Matt Taibbi has another mind-blowing article about how corporations aren’t happy with just getting a free lunch on the taxpayer. Believe it or not, even though we are facing a huge deficit brought on in part by allowing corporations to avoid taxes by sheltering profits in other countries, Congress is thinking about giving these same corporations a tax holiday to allow them to move these profits back into the US (if the past is any indicator, so they can give even bigger bonuses to their executives). As Taibbi puts it:

For those who don’t know about it, tax repatriation is one of the all-time long cons and also one of the most supremely evil achievements of the Washington lobbying community, which has perhaps told more shameless lies about this one topic than about any other in modern history.

To make it worse, after companies were allowed to repatriate their profits without tax back in 2004, they started systematically moving their profits overseas even more aggressively in anticipation of being given another tax holiday in the future. They were planning on this, as if they had already arranged it with their bought-and-paid-for politicians.

Imagine the uproar if Congress passed a law that allowed immigrants to this country to shield their income from taxes, as long as they sent that income back to their home countries?

But here we are, with the Republicans simultaneously screaming about the deficit and planning on giving a tax holiday to the same corporations that are enjoying massive profits, excessive bonuses, while not keeping their promises to create jobs. And this tax holiday is to reward them for systematically avoiding taxes for the last seven years.

As Taibbi concludes “Have we all lost our minds?”

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Elephantine Conflict of Interest


© Mike Stanfill

Deficits Don’t Matter? Shouldn’t Republicans recuse themselves from the deficit negotiations? After all, they created most of the problem in the first place, and stand to gain from making things worse.

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The Power of Pre-emptive Compromise


© Tom Tomorrow

According to Tom Tomorrow, a reader of his says that this cartoon was reported as “offensive content” and blocked on Facebook.

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