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The Stimulus Package

Laughter just may be the best medicine:

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Torture Works!

Tom Toles
© Tom Toles

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Reforming Health Insurance Reform

It is interesting watching the debate about health care reform, especially because it is hard to tell who is actually trying to reform the US health care system, and who is just looking out for their own interests:

  • One of the most ironic things is how the government and the media (even including those people who are leading the charge for health insurance reform) are conspiring to eliminate any mention of a single payer insurance system. This, despite the fact that a strong majority of Americans favor single payer, and it is the most common system in other first world nations. The main reason they give for this (when they are asked at all) is that it is just not “politically possible”. Which to me means “the insurance companies are just too powerful and won’t allow it”. Indeed, the insurance industry ranks second in money spent on lobbying (the number one spot is held by the pharmaceutical and health products industry). Two other health related industries — hospitals, and health professionals — are on the list of top twenty lobbyists. Together, those four health-related industries spent a combined $4.2 billion over the last ten years on lobbying alone.
  • Second, even though the Republican Party has been working overtime lately to take obstructionism to a new level, they have been curiously silent about health care reform, and sometimes even supportive. A new light was shed on this with the publication of a set of talking points from Republican consultant Frank Luntz on health reform, which seem to urge Republicans to co-opt the language of health reform in order to sabotage any actual or meaningful reform. In other words, Luntz says that Republicans should say they are for health reform, but qualify that by using feel-good phrases like “we need a uniquely American approach”.
  • Likewise, reading the writing on the wall, the health insurance industry is promising to reform itself. This is the same thing it did in 1977 to prevent Carter from imposing reforms on the industry. And they did it again as part of the defeat of health reform during the Clinton administration. Look how well those reforms worked. The industry hopes that it can kill any choice of public insurance, so they can retain their stranglehold.
  • But the most bizarre thing is that while the Republican Party itself has been relatively silent, other groups are springing up to fight health reform. For example, the group Conservatives for Patients’ Rights is launching a $20 million campaign to kill Obama’s efforts at health reform. Who are these people? Well, the group that is coordinating their campaign is PRC Public Relations — the same group that Swiftboated John Kerry back in 2004. And the leader of the Conservatives for Patients’ Rights is Rick Scott, the former CEO of the largest hospital chain in America, who was forced to resign after his company pled guilty to the largest health care fraud case in US history. Ironically, even though the Conservatives for Patients’ Rights are against any public insurance plan, Scott’s company made their money by falsifying their Medicare claims. Stunningly, Scott is using $5 million of his own money — dollars he earned by cheating Medicare, which is government insurance — to fight against government insurance.
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Cheney Kink

David Horsey
© David Horsey

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Late Night Political Humor

Maine became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage and the first gay couple to get married? I was surprised: L.L. Bean and the old Pepperidge Farm guy.” – Jay Leno

“Maine legalized gay marriage today. Maine became comfortable with the idea after years of touching Canada.” – Craig Ferguson

“Another state legalized same-sex marriage this week. Yesterday the governor of Maine signed a bill legalizing it, and you know what that means? Gay lobsters.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a group of fourth graders that the Bush Administration never used torture to interrogate terrorist suspects. Condoleezza spoke to the fourth graders using simple, uncomplicated words that they could easily understand. Same way she explained it to President Bush. Almost verbatim.” – Jay Leno

“Man, it was hot today. I was sweating like John Edwards waiting to watch his wife on ‘Oprah.'” – Jay Leno

“Well, tomorrow, John Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth Edwards, a great woman, is going to be on ‘Oprah.’ How many of you are going to watch that? How many of would you rather see her beat the crap out of her husband on ‘Jerry Springer?'” – Jay Leno

“John Edwards did not come off good in this thing. In fact, I understand he’s now looking for a third America to hide out in.” – Jay Leno

“Ooh, the big story, earlier today — I can’t wait to see the ratings on this — Elizabeth Edwards was discussing her marriage on ‘Oprah.’ And this weekend, John Edwards will discuss his marriage on ‘Cheaters.'” – Jay Leno

“There were signs that John Edwards was not the most faithful guy in the world, you know. Like, Elizabeth told Oprah that she asked John for one gift before their wedding, to be faithful. But after Elizabeth made this request, John stopped looking in the mirror and said, ‘Huh? I’m sorry. Did you say something?'” – Jay Leno

“Actually, The New York Daily News is reporting that John Edwards’ mistress is mad about all this publicity, and she is now demanding a paternity test. Well, good luck getting John Edwards to give up a strand of hair. Never happen.” – Jay Leno

“And as if he doesn’t have enough problems already, John Edwards is now being investigated on whether or not he used campaign funds to pay his mistress hush money. Here’s my question. Why can’t we find hush money to keep Joe Biden quiet? Where is that hush money?” – Jay Leno

“President Obama announced today plans to either trim or eliminate 121 programs. The programs he wants to eliminate — Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly.” – Jay Leno

“General Motors has reported a $6 billion loss. But once they get through bankruptcy they hope to go back making cars that nobody wants. So that will be nice.” – David Letterman

“Six billion dollar loss. You know what that means? Somebody is in line for a pretty good looking bonus.” – David Letterman

“Here is something that’s causing a huge controversy here in California. Our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says it’s time to start the debate on legalizing marijuana. Yeah. He says he ‘wants some pot in every pot.'” – Jay Leno

“Of course, people in Los Angeles are split on this. Half want it legalized, the other half think it’s already legal.” – Jay Leno

“Actually, the University of California says they may start a marijuana research center. Really? I thought the University of California was a marijuana research center.” – Jay Leno

“And a Georgia man is recovering in Pittsburgh after becoming the first U.S. recipient of a double hand transplant. Got two hands transplanted from another guy. He used them for the first time today to grab his heart when he saw the bill.” – Jay Leno

“Everybody is excited about the economy getting better and you kind of feel it everywhere you go. People have a smile on their face and a spring in their step. Here’s how you know the economy is actually starting to turn around a little bit. I saw Donald trump earlier today, and that thing on his head was wagging.” – David Letterman

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Drink Up

Lee Judge
© Lee Judge

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GOP Listening Tour

Jim Morin
© Jim Morin

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It’s All Obama’s Fault

The New York Times reports that Congressman Pete Sessions, the head of the House Republican campaign committee, claims that the Obama administration is purposely working to increase unemployment and diminish stock prices. Why? So they can “divide and conquer” the American people and consolidate power.

Sessions conveniently ignores the fact that unless the economy starts to revive, unemployment gets under control, and the stock market stabilizes, then Obama is unlikely to have any power at all, because the Democrats would get pounded in the mid-term elections in 2010 and Obama himself would probably not win a second term. In fact, it is pretty obvious that it was the economic collapse during the last year of the Bush administration that cost the Republicans in the 2008 elections. But this would not be the first time that Republicans have argued that the Obama administration was responsible for something that happened before they even won the election, let alone took office.

But never mind all that. Sessions claims that Mr. Obama’s evil secret agenda is “to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it.” Oh my! Doesn’t this remind you of the conspiracy nuts who claimed that the Bush administration engineered 9/11 themselves so they could consolidate power? Of course, the media immediately dismissed those people as tin-foil-hat wearing crazies, while Session’s unsupported claims are official Republican campaign positions.

Jeff Danziger
© Jeff Danziger

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Someone to speak for Cheney

Well, if I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh, I think. I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.

Dick Cheney, on whether Colin Powell or Rush Limbaugh is a better spokesperson for the Republican Party. Cheney claimed that Powell wasn’t a Republican because he had endorsed Obama, ignoring the fact that a significant number of Republicans did the same thing.

But what makes this ironic is that tonight, the Democratic National Committee pointed out that Powell’s approval rating, at 80%, is almost twice than that of Cheney (18%) and Limbaugh (26%) combined.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Today, President Barack Obama promised to ‘detect and pursue’ American tax evaders, as opposed to his first 100 days, in which he detected and nominated American tax evaders.” – Jay Leno

“Are you aware of the fact that President Obama’s mother-in-law is living in the White House? And the woman has really taken to it. She says she loves living in the White House. But there was some trouble today when she took Air Force One on another flight over New York.” – David Letterman

“The White House says they will not be releasing the photos that the Air Force One plane recently took of the landmarks of New York City. I don’t know what they were doing. They were putting together a brochure, but the White House now says they won’t release the photos. Is it just me or is Obama bushing it up a little bit on this one?” – David Letterman

“And President Obama said that the country needs to remember that it is cool to be smart. Today, former President George W. Bush gave the rebuttal.” – Jay Leno

“And Obama, so far, nobody can lay a glove on this guy because he’s working so hard and doing a great job. But recently, he accidentally referred to Cinco de Mayo as Cinco de Cuatro. He apologized and said he only knows about 15 words of Spanish. Big deal. George W. Bush only knew about 15 words of English.” – David Letterman

“President Obama attended an early Cinco de Mayo event at the White House yesterday, but he mistakenly greeted guests with the phrase, Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro, which means five of four. Maybe it’s the White House itself that makes people dumb.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Happy Cinco de Mayo to uno and all. Cinco de Mayo is actually a bigger holiday here in the United States than it is in Mexico because we have more Mexicans here than they do there.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“But it’s nice to have someone like President Obama and his wife. Did you know this? They still take time out once a week to have a date night. I used to have a date night but marriage put an end to that.” – David Letterman

“And 69-year-old Supreme Court Justice David Souter said he’s going to retire next month. Why’s he retiring? I mean, he’s a senior citizen. What’s he going to do? He’s going to sit around the house all day in his robe being judgmental, right? He might as well just stay on the job.” – Jay Leno

“Souter is stepping down because he said he wants to spend more time judging his family.” – David Letterman

“President Obama may choose a Supreme Court nominee by the end of the week. That’s fast. Nothing against the President, but doesn’t it worry you that it took him 10 times longer to decide on a dog?” – Craig Ferguson

“Actually, listen to this. Here is some good gossip. I got this off the hotline from Washington. As a replacement for Judge Souter, they say President Obama is looking for a woman, and the rumor is Hillary Clinton is on the short list. Yeah. That’s got to be Bill’s worst nightmare, huh? A woman who can rule on the death penalty.” – Jay Leno

“Barack Obama may choose Hillary Clinton as Souter’s replacement. So the big question now is, well, can she make the transition from pantsuits to robes.” – David Letterman

“Well, as you know, Supreme Court judge is a job for life. There’s only one other job in Washington that’s a job for life. That’s on the Joe Biden Clarification and Apology Unit. And that’s 24/7. That’s very hectic.” – Jay Leno

“The White House announced today that Vice President Joe Biden has laryngitis. Yeah. They said that he has a rare strain they hope lasts until 2012.” – Jay Leno

“In fact, just a day after saying he wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places like an aircraft or a subway because of the swine flu, Vice President Biden rode a train from Washington to Delaware. You know what that means? Not even Joe Biden listens to Joe Biden.” – Jay Leno

“The number two movie in the country is the romantic comedy, ‘The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,’ or as John Edwards calls it, ‘a horror film.'” – Jay Leno

“Well, former presidential candidate John Edwards is now admitting that Federal investigators are looking into his presidential campaign finances and the fact that he paid over $100,000 to his mistress. Of course, Edwards is denying any impropriety. He said his mistress earned every penny.” – Jay Leno

“No, this is true. A criminal grand jury is now probing whether or not Edwards illegally gave $114,000 from his political action committee to his mistress. Edwards said it was proper use of action committee money because he said, hey, he was getting plenty of action.” – Jay Leno

“Federal authorities are now investigating how John Edwards spent his campaign money. Well, we know what he didn’t spend it on — condoms!” – Jay Leno

“The economy is in bad shape. In fact, the economy is so bad, John Edwards is giving his mistress IOUs.” – Jay Leno

“Oh, the economy is in bad shape. The economy is so bad China is now making toys out of synthetic lead.” – Jay Leno

“Miss California went to a gay wedding just for the free food. That’s how bad’ the economy is.” – Jay Leno

“Here’s an unusual story. Only in Louisiana! I love Louisiana politics. This is my favorite. A porn star named Stormy Daniels is now embarking on a listening tour of the state of Louisiana. She’s considering running for the Senate. A porn star running for the Senate. Porn to politics. That’s kind of a lateral move, isn’t it?” – Jay Leno

“This weekend, Time magazine released its list of the world’s most influential people. And my good friend Tina Fey is on the list, but so is Sarah Palin. It’s weird, isn’t it, how those two people are forever connected in a way, right? Two people who are so different yet they look so much alike. It’s like me and George Clooney.” – Jimmy Fallon

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The Ends Justify the Means?

Andy Singer
© Andy Singer

Wanda Sykes used the same joke at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, along with many other funny ones.

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Obama Joke

Not so very long ago we were all told that a black man would be President when pigs fly.
Who knew?! On the 100th day of Barack Obama’s Presidency… Swine Flu!

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The Politics of Star Trek

I went to see the new Star Trek movie today (and really enjoyed it!). When I came home, I discovered a rash of websites that talk about Star Trek and politics.

Barack SpockMost obviously, there are the articles that declare that President Obama is Mr. Spock — both exotic half-breeds with their trademark calm and logical mien. Not to mention funny ears. Personally, I prefer to think of Obama as Jean Luc Picard, but either way it does seem like Obama has given us a cabinet that looks like the Enterprise bridge crew. No Klingons yet, but that didn’t happen until The Next Generation on Star Trek either (maybe in Obama’s second administration?). As even Leonard Nimoy points out “The Enterprise crew was a professional team of people solving problems together.”

Barack SpockAnd it is no secret that Obama is a Star Trek fan — when Nimoy went to a political event in 2008, Obama greeted him with the Vulcan hand signal. And when talking about NASA at a campaign event in Wyoming, Obama said “I grew up on Star Trek. I believe in the final frontier.” And some Red Staters have their uniforms tied up in knots because Obama requested a private showing of the new Trek movie.

In a way, Star Trek is somewhat responsible for Obama’s rise in politics! When Obama was running for the Illinois Senate in 2004, his opponent was Republican Jack Ryan, whose campaign collapsed because of a sex scandal revealed during his divorce from Jeri Ryan, who was best known for her sexy role as Seven of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. If you don’t believe me, then just remember that resistance is futile.

But the article that really made me laugh is this one: When and Why did the Federation Turn Socialist? – A Question I Hope Will be Answered in the New Star Trek Movie, which argues that the United Federation of Planets is (gasp!) socialist. After all, there doesn’t seem to be any money in use, and just where did all the large multinational corporations go? They then get all upset because the Federation seems to be a nice place, when everybody knows that “There has never been a society that combined full-blown socialism with prosperity or extensive ‘noneconomic’ liberties for the population. And there has never been a transition to socialism without large-scale repression and mass murder.”

Sheesh!

One final thought — if Obama is Spock, then this article claims that Dubya is Kirk. Not just because both of them have a down-on-the-farm (or ranch) folksy persona, but also because of their gutsy, shoot-from-the-hip style of decision-making. Or maybe, as Newsweek claims, Dubya is Darth Vader.
Bush Trek

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Late Night Political Humor – Swine Flu Edition

“I’m glad you’re all in a good mood, but I’m a little bummed out because I made a big mistake. It was so stupid. I took all of my money out of the stock market and put it in a chain of HoneyBaked Ham stores in Mexico.” – Jay Leno

“Well, listen to this. The New York Times is now reporting it’s possible to catch swine flu from money. They say the virus can live on a $20 bill for more than 10 days. So, not only is the virus contagious, it’s also very frugal.” – Jay Leno

“In the latest swine flu update, the Mexican government has told its citizens to stay home, to which Lou Dobbs said, ‘I’ve been telling them that for years!'” – Jay Leno

“And up in Canada, Canadian officials are saying that a herd of pigs caught the swine flu from a human. They said the human involved is a pig farmer who recently visited Mexico. Well, good job by the Canadian customs officials catching that one. ‘And where did you visit?’ ‘Mexico.’ ‘And what is your profession?’ ‘Pig farmer.’ ‘I see no problem. Come right in.'” – Jay Leno

“Health officials have confirmed the first case of the virus being transmitted from a person to a pig. A farmer has transmitted the virus back to a pig. Scientists say they have not been able to come up with a good explanation on how this happened and neither has the farmer.” – Jay Leno

“It’s crazy. First we had mad cow, then we had bird flu, and now we have swine flu. Do we have to check the Chinese horoscope to see what flu is coming next?” – Jay Leno

“President Obama spoke on the phone this weekend for 20 minutes with Mexican President Calderon on how to cooperate on fighting this swine flu thing. Afterwards, he said the people of America and Mexico have found common ground. I believe it’s called Los Angeles.” – Jay Leno

“Well, this flu epidemic thing has become international. Mexico has filed a formal complaint against the country of China for seizing 70 of its citizens and quarantining them. China seized 70 people from Mexico, and Mexico said it was shocked. And, of course, the U.S. was stunned. Seventy? That’s more than we’ve seized all year. Come on!” – Jay Leno

“Good news, ladies and gentlemen. It seems as though we have the old swine flu on the run. The people down there at the CDC, Centers for Disease Control, say that it is now mild. They consider the swine flu to be mild. But they did say because today is Cinco de Mayo, today and today only, it will be spicy.” – David Letterman

“They say that swine flu is not as potent as they originally thought. You know, like the Yankee pitching staff.” – David Letterman

“Mexico’s finance secretary says the swine flu outbreak is costing the Mexican economy $2.2 billion. Yeah. The good news? That’s in pesos, so it works out to, like, $1.80.” – Jay Leno

“The government is now recommending that schools stay open even if they have a confirmed case of swine flu. I love it. In one week, the swine flu has gone from the end of the world to not as bad as snow.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset

Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner:

Part 2:

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