Political Irony

Early voting is allowed in 32 states and has started in most of them. My wife and I already voted a couple of days ago, and it is nice to have that out of the way. At least one-third of all ballots this election will be cast before election day.

Once you have voted early at home, you will never want to go back to the lines, parking problems, cranky voting machines, and other annoyances of going to a polling place. And a big advantage of early voting, to me, is that when faced with some obscure position and you can’t remember for whom you want to vote, you can just look it up on the web and see what your options are. No rush, no fuss, and you can vote when you want to. If you live west of the Mississippi River, then your state has early voting, and quite a few states in the east do so as well.

Where I live we only have early voting, which we call “vote by mail”. I love it. My only nod to the old days is that I don’t like mailing in my ballot, so I always drop it off. Luckily, the drop-off point is only a half mile from where I live.

“There is a big difference between a disappointing friend and a deadly enemy. Of course the Democrats are disappointing. That’s what makes them Democrats. If they were any more frustrating they’d be your relatives. But in this country they are all that stands between you and darkest night. You know why their symbol is the letter ‘D’? Because it’s a grade that means good enough, but just barely. You know why the Republican symbol is ‘R’? Because it’s the noise a pirate makes when he robs you and feeds you to a shark.” – Bill Maher

“The Obama administration had quite a day today annihilating the people who might vote for them. They appealed the ruling striking down Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, even though they are supposed to be for striking it down. And then they said even if California legalized pot, the feds would still come in and bust people. But in fairness to Obama, it is an election year and Democrats can’t afford to be seen being for freedom or equality.” – Bill Maher

“A very joyous week. A week where the whole world was watching a bunch of men trying to climb out of a hole they dug for themselves — but enough about the Democrats. Lets talk about those Chilean miners.” – Bill Maher

“Americans love Chilean miners. I haven’t seen so much hoopla about an endless procession emerging from a scary hole since the Octomom.” – Bill Maher

“One guy had four women waiting for him; there was the wife he never divorced, then there was the woman he lives with, then there was his current girlfriend and then the baby mama. He is now known as the Tiger Woods of mining.” – Bill Maher

“TLC just released a promo for Sarah Palin’s new reality show. Haven’t the last two years been her reality show?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“They asked [O’Donnell] to name a Supreme Court case that she disagreed with; she said Kramer vs. Kramer.” – Bill Maher

“Vice President Joe Biden told The New York Times that President Obama has asked him to run again in 2012. The bad news? Nobody is asking Obama yet.” – Jay Leno

“New Rule: Jerry Brown must stop apologizing for being in the same room when someone called Meg Whitman a whore. If you want to see a woman really get mad, compare a whore to Meg Whitman.” – Bill Maher

“‘Jackass 3D’ just opened. It’s the life story of New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino.” – David Letterman

By the way, you know that big bank bailout that the pundits and Tea Party are still screaming about as an example of government waste and increasing the debt?

It turns out that the Troubled Asset Relief Program has actually made money for the government — $25.2 billion actually. That’s a 8.2% return over two years (more than what US Treasury bonds pay, although that comparison is a bit dicey since the TARP investment was presumably a bit more risky than US bonds).

And in the name of fairness, I want to point out that many of the people who were complaining about the TARP program blamed it on Obama, when the program was established in October 2008, before Obama was even elected. It is ironic that now that the program is considered to be a success, their efforts might mean that Obama will get the credit for it.

Naw… That will never happen. I’m sure they will now hypocritically trumpet TARP as something the Republicans did right.

© Tom Tomorrow

Why is it that the people who complain the loudest about big government are the first ones to turn to it when they have a problem?

UPDATE: Even the Wall Street Journal notes that there have been many problems with foreclosures, despite banks’ claims to the contrary. The problems prompted a strong warning from the Obama administration.

On October 20th, just a few days away, 60 year old brothers Laird and Robin Monahan end their 3000 mile walk across the US to support a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood.

This is the defining issue of our time. A time when we, as a nation, revisit the tyranny that sparked the first American Revolution. We are not done. We are not even at the end of the beginning. It is our job now to wake up the rest of our nation to the peril our Democracy is in. We stand in the shoes of Paul Revere. “…and I have miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost.

As the brothers put it, when the Supreme Court decided in Citizens United that corporations were people and money was free speech, they legalized political bribery.