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Playing Hairball

Steve Benson
© Steve Benson

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Bush appointees having trouble finding jobs

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the roughly 3,000 political appointees of the Bush administration are having trouble finding jobs. How much trouble?  Roughly twice as much difficulty as similar appointees from the administrations of Bush I, Reagan, or even Clinton.

This is ironic for so many reasons. Why does nobody want to hire them? Are they having trouble finding jobs because of the bad economy, for which they at least partly responsible? Are they difficult to employ because they are tainted by the association with Dubya? Or did the Bush administration routinely appoint substandard C-average people? Or is this just karma?

Inquiring minds want to know!

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Latest Messiah Sighting

Are we toast?

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Late Night Political Humor

“Yesterday, President Obama signed the stimulus bill in Denver, Colorado. He picked Denver because our debt is now a mile high.” -Jay Leno

“Hey, the market went up three points today, so the stimulus package is working. Yeah! It’s a miracle!” -Jay Leno

“America’s auto makers have asked the government — remember when America’s auto makers flew into Washington in their private jets and said, ‘We’re busted. We’d like several hundred billion dollars.’ Well, they’re coming back again. They’re asking for $22 billion in additional taxpayer money. I mean, these guys are like the world’s most expensive brother-in-law, you know?” -David Letterman

“President Obama was in Arizona today, talking about his plan to help ease the home mortgage crisis. It seemed like a strange place to announce his plan, since most of the homes in Arizona are owned by John McCain.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“President Obama, today, outlined his plan to deal with the mortgage mess and the housing crisis. The good news — he thinks he’s found a solution. The bad news — it involves arson.” -Jay Leno

“Obama has now addressed two of the three major issues that he said would have to be addressed in order to avert a financial disaster. The first was getting the stimulus package passed. The second was addressing the housing crisis and the third is to get all of us to eat our pets. And I’ve got a cage full of hamsters that are starting to look absolutely delicious.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“And the idea of nationalizing banks is becoming more popular with some lawmakers and economists. They say they’re leaning towards the Swedish model for banks. You know, I’ve got a better idea. How about opening banks with all Swedish models.” -Jay Leno

“As you may have heard, the state of California is broke. So you’re looking at massive state layoffs now because the legislature hasn’t been able to come up with a budget. The state is $42 billion in the hole. You know, I’m no financial expert, but if you have no money and no prospects of making money and you owe $42 billion, you’re way beyond putting yourself on a budget, O.K.? I think you’re looking at faking your own death at this point.” -Jay Leno

“A lot of individual states are having budget problems right now. California in particular is a mess. Governor Schwarzenegger can’t get fellow Republicans to vote for his compromise plan because it includes a big tax increase. And he’s already done everything he can possibly do to convince them. He told them he’ll ‘be back,’ he said, ‘Hasta la vista, baby.’ He even threatened to terminate them, several times, to no avail.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Critics say the problem is people don’t understand what is in the budget. Well, of course, we don’t understand. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is explaining this to us. ‘Yeah, da budget is here with da money. You see, with da hydrogen and da green people, sometime you take it from here, and you put here, with da solar power!'” -Jay Leno

“As part of a plan to close his state’s budget deficit, New York Governor David Paterson is proposing a tax on Internet pornography. You see, this is why we can’t have blind governors. I mean, no offense, but of course he’s going to tax pornography. If he can’t enjoy it, nobody can. What’s next, a tax on rainbows?” –Jimmy Kimmel

“Well, here’s the latest on the bailout. Democrats may have to bail Senator Roland Burris out of jail.” -Jay Leno

“More bad news for Senator Burris. Now, the Chicago Sun-Times is calling for his resignation. Remember, he was appointed by Governor Blagojevich. Now he could be in trouble for perjury and for giving conflicting statements in his testimony about campaign contributions. See, that’s the trouble with politicians. They think the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth are three different things.” -Jay Leno

“The New York Times is reporting that, in his last days in office, Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly went to President Bush to try to get him to pardon Scooter Libby, and he was furious that Bush wouldn’t do it. They say Cheney is now bitter. Yeah, as opposed to the happy go lucky zippity-do-da Cheney.” -Jay Leno

“In a new ranking of U.S. presidents by 65 historians, President Bush came in fifth from the bottom. And here’s the bad part — the margin of error was five.” -Jay Leno

“Good news and bad news for Sarah Palin. The bad news is that the IRS says she owes thousands of dollars in back taxes. The good news is that she now qualifies to be in Obama’s Cabinet.” -Craig Ferguson

“In an interview with Fox News, Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter, 18-year-old Bristol Palin — remember Bristol Palin, who had the baby? Well, she talked in the interview. She said, ‘A year ago, I never would have thought I would become a mom or that my mom was going to be chosen to be a vice presidential candidate.’ Oddly enough, both things happened because some guy failed to take the proper precautions.” -Jay Leno

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Banks of the Living Dead

Dan Wasserman
© Dan Wasserman

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Republican First Aid

Brian McFadden
© Brian McFadden

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Sailing Upstream

Steve Sack
© Steve Sack

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Late Night Political Humor

“You got to admit, President Obama gives great speeches. Like, today, instead of just saying, ‘Oh, from North to South,’ he said, ‘From the windy plains of the Dakotas to the sunny skies of Arizona.’ That sounds so much better than, ‘From the sleaze ball criminal element of Wall Street to the broke-a** beaches of California.'” -Jay Leno

“Meanwhile, while Obama’s signing the stimulus package bill in Denver, John McCain was busy at Denny’s, sectioning his grapefruit.” -David Letterman

“You remember Hillary Clinton? She has been married to Bubba for quite a while. Well, she is now the secretary of state, and she is on her first big round the world tour. She is on her big Asian tour. She wants to normalize relations with North Korea. No word yet about normalizing relations with Bill.” -David Letterman

“They were talking to Hillary about what Bill gave her for Valentine’s Day, and I thought this was surprising: sexy lingerie. Well, he had to after she found it in his glove compartment.” -David Letterman

“And in Venezuela, a referendum passed that will allow Hugo Chavez to keep running for president indefinitely. So down there, it will be kind of like what Ralph Nader does here.” -Jay Leno

“We have four shows left, including tonight. It’s weird, I was thinking about it today. When we went on the air in 1993, I had no way of knowing that 16 years later we’d have an African-American president. Then again, Barack Obama had no way of knowing that an albino would be taking over ‘The Tonight Show.'” -Conan O’Brien

The Economy

“I’m very worried about the economy. Hopefully, our problems will be over soon. And I think they will be because today, President Obama finally signed the stimulus bill, which is supposed to create 3.5 million jobs. It’ll fund new roads and new bridges. They’ve even put aside $8 billion for new trains. I smell Vice President Joe Biden. He loves trains.” -Craig Ferguson

“Yesterday, of course, Presidents Day. And Congress commemorated George Washington’s throwing a dollar across the Potomac by tossing $787 billion down a rat hole.” -Jay Leno

“No, they said the stimulus package will give people an extra $13 in their paychecks. So, next time the bank starts closing in, you go, ‘Hey, hey, hey! I got 13 smackaroonies coming in.'” -Jay Leno

“Only three Republicans voted for the stimulus bill. The rest are withholding their votes so that they can blame Obama if it doesn’t work, which is perfectly acceptable. This is what politicians do. But I saw an article last week that said, ‘Is Obama’s Presidency already a failure?’ What I think has happened to Obama is this. It is kind of like George W. Bush was in the restroom before him and then came out and went away. And Obama’s gone in and he’s found something awful there.” -Craig Ferguson

“President Obama today signed his trillion dollar economic stimulus bill into law. The spending package passed through Congress with almost no Republican support, but Obama says he’s still focused on bringing real bipartisanship to government. He even went so far as to send every Republican in Congress today a jar of peanuts, which I thought was nice.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Well, here’s something I learned on the Discovery Channel. Researchers say that animals actually plan for the future. And I think it’s true. For example, do you know that most animals sold all their stocks at the end of 2006?” -Jay Leno

“A new study says that the bad economy can lower testosterone levels in men. Scientists say at this rate, by the end of the decade, Ann Coulter could be a woman!” -Craig Ferguson

“And one of the hardest hit businesses in this failing economy is plastic surgery. Fewer and fewer people are getting plastic surgery. How ironic is that? The one time you really need a smile on your face, you can’t even afford to get it.” -Jay Leno

“According to the ‘Financial Times,’ Barack Obama, they’re saying, is moving towards Swedish models of banking. A president moving towards Swedish models? That hasn’t happened since the Clinton Administration.” -Craig Ferguson

“I tell you, the economy’s in bad shape. It is in such bad shape that today, three stock brokers tried to kill themselves by eating peanuts.” -Jay Leno

“I think everybody should just calm down. Give Obama four years. See what he can do. Then if he’s a miserable failure, we’ll do what we did with George W. Bush and elect him to a second term.” -Craig Ferguson

“I want to tell you something. You think it’s tough in New York City, California is bankrupt. Yeah, things are so – here’s how bad things are California. They’ve canceled the next three mudslides.” -David Letterman

“And California? that’s no day at the beach either. Oh, California, I tell you. Today, I saw Governor Schwarzenegger dyeing his hair with an orange Sharpie. ‘You godda get da color back in dere.'” -Jay Leno

“And there are a lot of new taxes coming. California state legislators want to solve our state’s giant deficit by taxing marijuana. Meanwhile, Oregon wants to increase a tax on beer, while New York wants to tax Internet porn. You know what this means? By the end of spring break, this whole thing could be paid for.” -Jay Leno

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Obama Whiplash Syndrome

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

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If politicians wore NASCAR uniforms

On Wednesday, I posted a quote from Zing: “Members of Congress should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors.” Well, someone actually proposed what this might look like (click on the image to see a much larger version):

Good Magazine
From Good Magazine
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Girly Man

David Horsey © David Horsey

UPDATE: In case you are wondering what this cartoon is about, it is interesting that even though Obama’s stimulus bill received virtually no Republican votes in Congress (absolutely none in the House), that Republican governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Charlie Crist of Florida, and others, actually have states to run and have been a bit more pragmatic.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Happy Presidents’ Day, everybody. As you know, the banks were all closed today. I understand a few are expected to open tomorrow.” -Jay Leno

“Today, of course, a very solemn day in America. We celebrate presidents past by getting a good deal on mattresses and big-screen TVs.” -Craig Ferguson

“Presidents’ Day, of course, the day we honor presidents Washington and Lincoln. And Saturday was, of course, Valentine’s Day, the day we celebrate President Clinton.” -Jay Leno

“Marvel Comics has come out with a special edition comic book where Spider-Man and Captain America go back in time to watch Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address. It’s true. Yeah, so this story finally answers the question, what would happen if Michael Phelps ran Marvel Comics?” -Conan O’Brien

“Congress passed the biggest spending bill in US history: $787 billion. The newspapers said today not one politician in Washington has read the bill, to which President Bush said, ‘See, nobody reads that stuff! Who says I have no legacy?'” -Jay Leno

“Hey, you see this? In a new ranking of US presidents by 65 historians, President Bush came in fifth from the bottom. Of course, Bush was thrilled. That’s better than he did in high school.” -Jay Leno

“A new poll of historians just came out. And the poll has named former President George W. Bush one of the ten worst presidents of all time. But on the bright side, Bush was selected second best president named George Bush.” -Conan O’Brien

“After withdrawing his name for commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg said he hoped he was just embarrassing himself and not President Obama, to which Joe Biden said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I do it all the time.'” -Jay Leno

“Well, more problems with the Democrats. Republicans are now calling for the new Illinois Sen. Roland Burris to resign after he apparently lied to investigators about talking to Rod Blagojevich’s brother about campaign money. Rod Blagojevich has a brother? How bad is his hair? Geez!” -Jay Leno

“Everybody has got Fashion Week fever in New York City, where they had a big 50th anniversary tribute to Barbie. Can you believe that Barbie has been around 50 years? During that time, they have had Preppie Barbie, Wedding Barbie, and Republican Running Mate Barbie.” -David Letterman

“Last week, an American satellite collided with a Russian satellite over Siberia. And Sarah Palin said she could see the collision from her house.” -Jay Leno

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Nation Building

R.J. Matson
© R.J. Matson

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Random Quotes

“Members of Congress should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors.” –Zing

If I had done the things I’ve been accused of, I’d be too embarrassed to stand up here.” – Senator Roland Burris

“Spending $800 billion to save or create 4 million jobs works out to $200,000 per job. That is not stimulus. That is insanity!” –Zing

“God wants me to serve.” –Norm Coleman

“Bush didn’t get as much criticism for digging the hole we’re in as Obama is getting trying to get us out. Liberal media proving their impartiality?” –Zing

“I have to say even I am a little taken aback by the force of the Republican assault. Even in a downturn as swift and alarming as this one, even after an election that clearly favored one approach over another, even after the most conciliatory efforts by an incoming president in memory, these people have gone to war against the president. The president should stay cool. The rest of us should realize what motivates the GOP: the opportunism of selective ideology.” –Andrew Sullivan

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The Incredible Shrinking Party

Republican Elephant
© Republican-Elephant.com

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