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Hear and now

Jim Morin
© Jim Morin

As one person pointed out, a cut in taxes really helps when you’ve lost your job.

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H.W. Bush Floors Bill Clinton with Joke

This is especially funny considering that Bush senior and Bubba are good friends.

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The Republican Party is Doomed

At least they are going down in flames. Yesterday, despite overwhelming popular support for the economic stimulus package that Obama is pushing through Congress, not a single Republican congressman voted for it. So at the next election, what are they going to say when voters ask them what they did to help the economy? Is their answer going to be that they wanted more tax cuts for the wealthy?

Second, look who seems to be in charge of the Republican Party now. Despite Obama’s overwhelming popularity, Rush Limbaugh declared that he wants Obama to fail. That puts Limbaugh squarely in the same camp as Osama bin Laden, not to mention lingering racists who would cut off their own nose to spite his race.

But Limbaugh didn’t just attack Obama, he also made rude noises about the Republican leadership. So on Tuesday, Republican congressman Phil Gengrey offered a relatively mild rebuke:

I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach. I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.

It took less than 24 hours for Gengrey to tuck his tail between his legs for daring to attack the holy one. Gengrey’s office released the following statement:

Because of the high volume of phone calls and correspondence received by my office since the Politico article ran, I wanted to take a moment to speak directly to grassroots conservatives. Let me assure you, I am one of you… As long as I am in the Congress, I will continue to fight for and defend our sacred values. I have actively opposed every bailout, every rebate check, every so called “stimulus.” And on so many of these things, I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh. Regardless of what yesterday’s headline may have read, I never told Rush to back off. I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives — that was not my intent. I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments.

Now more than ever, we need to articulate a clear conservative message that distinguishes our values and our approach from those of liberal Democrats who are seeking to move our nation in the wrong direction. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience. Everyday, millions and millions of Americans — myself included — turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what they have to say, and we are inspired by their words and by their determination.

And Gengrey even called Limbaugh’s radio show to abjectly apologize:

I want to express to you and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made yesterday … I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth … I regret those stupid comments.

If the Republican Party is now being run by a racist drug addict who wants America to fail, they are clearly doomed.

From Electoral Vote.

UPDATE: See also conservative David Frum’s article on this whole mess.

UPDATE 2: James Carville has some hilarious and ironic commentary on this on CNN.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Cold outside right now. And I’m not a weatherman, but they say this frigid weather is coming off a cold front between New York Gov. David Paterson and Caroline Kennedy. That’s causing a frost.” -David Letterman

“Al Qaeda has unleashed a stream of verbal attacks against President Obama, calling him names and saying his policies will all end in failure. Well, who do these people think they are, Rush Limbaugh?” -Jay Leno

“President Barack Obama has given his first sit-down interview since he took the oath of office. He gave it to an Arabic television network, which seems kind of strange. I mean, if Barack Obama wanted to give interview to a network that’s not seen in the United States, why not go with NBC?” -Jay Leno

“Today, President Barack Obama’s first interview as president with an Arabic news network was aired. He told the mostly Muslim nations that America has changed and said if they ‘unclench their fist,’ we will shake their hand. But they’re hesitant because Bush told them the same thing and then got them with a joy buzzer.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Actually, a lot of Arabs are upset with the interview because it preempted their most popular TV show, a Palestinian sitcom called ’30 Rocks.'” -Jay Leno

“Well, it looks like that prison, that detention center, in Guantanamo Bay is being closed. And people say, ‘Well, what are you going to do with all those folks who are down there, all those suspected terrorists and thugs and goons and nasty, awful people?’ We’re going to bring them up here to the Ed Sullivan Theater and put them in the audience.” -David Letterman

“But listen to this. They’re closing Guantanamo. That’s how bad things are, ladies and gentlemen. That’s how bad the economy is. You know it’s tough, you know the economy is bad, when even the terrorists are being laid off.” -David Letterman

“President Barack Obama has also signed an executive order officially banning torture in the United States. There goes Dick Cheney’s retirement, huh? What is he supposed to do now?” -Jay Leno

“How about the Obama family in the White House? Have you seen them? The kids? The Obama girls love living in the White House. They think it’s fantastic. There was just one complaint that the girls had about living in the White House. They claim that there’s a portrait of Dick Cheney on the wall, and they claim the eyes in that portrait actually move.” -David Letterman

“But that’s not all. At midnight, the Obama girls hear creepy organ music coming from Cheney’s dungeon.” -David Letterman

“But Dick Cheney, you’ve got to give him credit. He’s enjoying his first week as a private citizen. In fact, today, he was out hunting human prey.” -David Letterman

“Actually, Cheney is relaxing at his ranch, the Triple Bypass.” -David Letterman

“And listen to this. It’s an amazing thing, but after eight years in office, former President George W. Bush is now in retirement. But how can you tell? Honestly. How can you tell?” -David Letterman

“Happy birthday to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. There was an awkward moment at the big party they had in Roberts’ office today when he screwed up the words to ‘Happy Birthday.'” -David Letterman

“President Obama said today when it comes to passing a stimulus package, ‘We can’t afford distractions’ or ‘delays.’ And, of course, you know who took offense to this in Congress? The head of the Senate Distractions and Delays Committee. He was furious.” -Jay Leno

“Last night, we talked about how Citigroup took $50 million of the bailout money we gave them and bought a corporate jet. Well, Citigroup now says they were not going to take possession of the jet. They said they’re going to lose money on it because they put a huge deposit on it, but they now realize it was a mistake. They said this is the most overpriced jet since Brett Favre.” -Jay Leno

“Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is everywhere on television. Yesterday, he was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera. They billed it as ‘an interview with the most hated man in America and Rod Blagojevich.'” -Conan O’Brien

“It’s a great day for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is continuing on that media tour he’s doing. Yesterday, he was on ‘The View,’ the ‘Today’ show, and ‘Good Morning America.’ Today, his hair was on ‘Animal Planet’ and ‘Unsolved Mysteries.'” -Craig Ferguson

“Out in the Midwest, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was so cold he was trying to sell a Senate seat warmer.” -David Letterman

“And on ‘Good Morning America,’ Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he considered offering the vacant Senate seat to Oprah Winfrey, but changed his mind when she wouldn’t give him a car.” -Jay Leno

“Scary moment for Gov. Blagojevich earlier today. Several geese were sucked into his hair.” -David Letterman

“Gov. Blagojevich is being criticized because he recently compared his experience to that of Nelson Mandela. That may be a stretch, but at least he got the prison part right.” -Conan O’Brien

“Sen. John McCain has confirmed that as rumored, his wife Cindy was approached to compete on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ but they turned it down. I guess they figured the McCains have lost enough competitions already.” -Jimmy Kimmel

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Over-Stimulus Package

Ed Stein
© Ed Stein

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Bill O’Reilly claims he doesn’t report rumors

Live from last Thursday, it’s Bill O’Reilly on last night’s Colbert Report:

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Play: Barack / Paper / Scissors

Who knew you could play interactive games on YouTube?

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Bush is enjoying retirement in Crawford, Texas, maybe not as much as we are.” -David Letterman

“This news just came out. When President Bush flew home to Texas last week, they apparently showed a video of his greatest accomplishments during the flight. Yeah, word has it the video got them most of the way through take-off.” -Conan O’Brien

“Former President Bush is back at his place in Texas. It’s known as Rancho Inepto.” -David Letterman

“This is kind of an awkward time for President Bush. He’s too young to retire, yet still too old to destroy the moral and economic infrastructure of another country.” -Jay Leno

“Bush is not worrying about the country. No, it’s like he’s still president.” -David Letterman

“Aretha Franklin, who sang at the inaugural, says she’s not happy with her performance. She says the cold made it hard for her to sing. Yeah. Yeah, Aretha says she also got distracted when a weather satellite crashed into her hat.” -Conan O’Brien

“A lot of inauguration stuff is hitting the stores, including ‘The Cat and Aretha Franklin’s Hat’, a new children’s book that just came out today.” -Jay Leno

“It turns out the classical music played by Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman at the inauguration last week was not performed live. Well, a lot people were very upset when they heard about this, especially Ashlee Simpson. She said, ‘I could have done that gig.'” -Jay Leno

“Barack Obama said today that the reality of becoming president has set in. So it sounds like the mother-in-law has already moved in.” -Jay Leno

“But I got to say, so far so good for the Obamas. The family is settled in. There’s the President and his wife and the kids and the mother-in-law. And they’re settling nicely. The only problem, the only complaint — and they don’t want to make trouble — but the only complaint is they can still hear creepy organ music coming from Dick Cheney’s dungeon.” -David Letterman

“But moving out, Dick Cheney hurt his back. Did you hear about this? He was packing up his junk and moving out of his office, and he hurt himself. So apparently, the door did just hit him in the ass on the way out.” -David Letterman

“I read today President Obama has made very few changes to the Oval Office itself. He’s keeping nearly everything President Bush had in there. Same desk, same chair, same pens. Well, sure, the stuff’s like brand new. It was hardly ever used.” -Jay Leno

“And as you know, President Obama has signed an executive order closing Guantanamo Bay. Well, the big problem, how do you get these inmates back to their home countries? They’re all on the do-not-fly list.” -Jay Leno

“Well, I mean, what’ll they do with them? I mean, look, most politicians don’t want them in their state or their district. Other countries don’t want them. Although, today, New York City’s Yellow Cab Company said, ‘Hey, we’ll take them.'” -Jay Leno

“Looks like the Obamas have already helped the economy. J. Crew stock has gone up 10%, because First Lady Michelle Obama has been spotted wearing their clothes. Which begs the question, Mr. Obama, how would you feel about wearing a Buick?” -Conan O’Brien

“Citigroup just got $45 billion of our tax dollars. Did you see what they bought themselves? They spent $50 million on a brand new, French-made private jet for their executives. Has a bar, private entertainment center, seating for 12. You know, if there’s ever a reason to reopen Guantanamo Bay, this is it, okay. That’s our jet! We should be taking that. They should be on Southwest.” -Jay Leno

“Cold outside. Lousy cold. Here is how cold it was. It was so cold today that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts screwed up while ordering chowder. It was so cold, that thing on Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s head went into hibernation.” -David Letterman

“It’s a great day for America, everybody, but it is a bad day for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, whose impeachment began today. It turns out that Blagojevich said he had considered Oprah Winfrey for the Senate. That’s ridiculous! Oprah’s way too powerful to waste her time in the Senate, although she has enough money to buy the seat.” -Craig Ferguson

“By the way, today, Governor Blagojevich is being impeached. Of course, the state of Illinois is already searching for a new crooked politician to take his place.” -David Letterman

“And Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment trial got under way today. But he was not there. He didn’t go. He went on ‘The View’ instead, which is a pretty smart move, because it will help his case when he pleads insanity.” -Jay Leno

“Man, you could not watch television today without seeing Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is saying all these crazy things about himself. Blagojevich did all these interviews, and in one of them, he compared himself to Martin Luther King. Yeah, Blagojevich said, ‘I have a dream, and for 100 bucks, I’ll tell you about it.'” -Conan O’Brien

“The state of New York is now back up to full strength in terms of senators, because we have a brand new senator by the name of Kirsten Gillibrand. She is taking Hillary Clinton’s old Senate seat, but the appointment took so long and it got so stupid that the people up there in Albany were actually talking about bringing back Spitzer.” -David Letterman

“Hillary Clinton’s replacement in the Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, showed up to their joint press conference sporting a Hillary hairstyle and a nearly identical pantsuit, which explains why Bill Clinton was heard screaming, ‘Good Lord, there’s two of them!'” -Conan O’Brien

“But congratulations to Hillary Clinton, our new secretary of state, who was sworn in holding the Clinton family Bible. And it’s a special edition, because Bill had removed four Commandments.” -David Letterman

“Sam Adams, the openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon, is being investigated for having an affair with a teenage male intern. You know, let me ask you. What happened to the good old days in this country, when if a politician wanted gay sex, by golly, he just tapped his foot three times in the men’s room?” -Jay Leno

Did you know this? We have a brand-new Miss America, Katie Stam, from Indiana. They choose Miss America based on personality, how the young woman looks in a swimsuit, and how she looks in evening gowns. That is the competition. It’s the same way that John McCain chooses a running mate.” -David Letterman

“And I love this story. Former French President Jacques Chirac was rushed to the hospital after being mauled by his clinically depressed poodle. See that’s how you know that the French are not fighters, okay? When their leader is attacked by a maniacal poodle.” -Jay Leno

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The Devil Made Me Do It

I generally believe that people’s sex lives should be their own private business, as long as they don’t involve any quid-pro-quo (you know, sex with someone as a bribe to get a job or a contract). But who can ignore the hypocrisy of crusaders getting tripped up with their moral peccadillos down around their ankles?

Even so, the new allegations coming out about disgraced pastor Ted Haggard are truly stunning, and are made even more amazing by the fact that Haggard seems to be asking, if not begging, for them to come out.

First (and to refresh your memory), in 2006 male escort Mike Jones went public about his long time cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard, who was not only pastor of the New Life (mega)church, but also president of the National Association of Evangelicals (a network of 45,000 churches). Jones went public mainly because he got fed up with Haggard’s completely hypocritical anti-gay crusades. We probably would never have heard anything about it if Haggard hadn’t felt the need to publically denounce the lifestyle he himself practiced (not to mention the lifestyle of his sex partner).

Did Haggard learn his lesson?

It turns out that Haggard was having at least one other inappropriate affair at the same time, with Grant Haas, a young male church volunteer and ex-seminary student. The church signed an agreement with Haas to pay him $179,000 dollars (for counseling and college tuition) as long as Haas did not speak publicly about it. Haas says that the church broke its word and stopped making the payments, but even so Haas did not go public.

Finally, this week he did, with local TV station KRDO-TV:

What’s special about this week? According to current New Life pastor Brady Boyd, Haas decided to go public because of the HBO special “The Trials of Ted Haggard”, which is being shown this Thursday. Advance reviews describe it as a self-pitying account of the fallen pastor’s post-scandal life. Not only that, but Haggard and his wife are appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show on Wednesday (the day before) and on Larry King Live on Thursday immediately following the movie.

I’ve heard of being a media whore, but this is just ridiculous.

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Political Stimulus Package

Obama made a trip to Congress to discuss his economic stimulus package. As an ironic side note, even though Republicans are generally opposing the economic bailout (touting their usual tax cuts instead), a Republican source told Time magazine:

Nearly as many House Republicans sought to get their photos taken with Obama as questioned him about the stimulus during their meeting.

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Dubya, the Urinal

First we had Bush the Christmas Pooper, now this:

Clark Sorensen

By Clark Sorensen. From the exhibition “Down the Drain – the Legacy of George W Bush”

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Armed and Extremely Machiavellian

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

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Late Night Political Humor

“I was thinking about the inauguration. It was pretty amazing. There were two million people crammed into that mall this week. Two million people. Not one arrest. Not one crime was committed in Washington. Of course, that will all change now that Congress is back.” -Jay Leno

“The official temperature at the inauguration was 18 degrees. John McCain said it was so cold his teeth were chattering, and they were in his pocket at the time.” -Jay Leno

“Hey, did you hear about this? Today it was revealed that the chamber music they played, you know Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma? It was recorded. It was pre-recorded, and they were just kind of lip-syncing. They said it was too important to mess up. You know, unlike the swearing-in ceremony.” -Jay Leno

“You all heard about that, how Justice John Roberts screwed up the oath of office. Then, the other night, Roberts went to the White House, and they did it over again, which is completely unprecedented. That’s never happened. Not messing up the oath, having someone in government actually go back and fix something.” -Jay Leno

“President Barack Obama has signed an executive order officially banning torture in the United States. You know what that means? ABC may be forced to cancel ‘The View.'” -Jay Leno

“After lots of discussion and intervention by the Secret Service, Barack Obama will be allowed to keep his BlackBerry, but his use of it will be limited. So I guess it’s gonna be on Verizon.” -Jay Leno

“Actually, it’s a special BlackBerry, built just for him. They’re calling it a ‘BarackBerry.’ This is true. It doesn’t even have a battery. Runs entirely on hope.” -Jay Leno

“And as you know, Barack Obama has become known as the first wired president, because of all his high-tech skills. And I think he showed that during the inaugural address, especially when he said, ‘By working together, we can turn our enemies into our BFFs.’ … Best friends forever.” -Jay Leno

“Here’s some interesting gossip. The New York Daily News says that Michelle Obama didn’t wear her wedding ring to the inaugural balls because it didn’t match her outfit. See, women can do that, huh? Imagine a guy trying to get away with that. A guy comes home, he’s not wearing his wedding ring. ‘Where’s your ring?’ ‘You know, it clashed with my shirt.’ Please, please.” -Jay Leno

“Caroline Kennedy withdrew her bid to fill New York’s vacant Senate seat. You heard about this? According to some reports, she dropped out because of marital problems. How bad is your marriage when it keeps you from replacing Hillary?” -Jay Leno

“Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, his impeachment trial is scheduled to begin on Monday. You know, so, it looks like Illinois is going to break even. They have one politician sitting in the White House, the other one sitting in the big house. It’s a wash, pretty much.” -Jay Leno

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New Math

Having trouble understanding the federal budget and the deficit? This should clear things up:

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Crash Landing

Joel Pett
© Joel Pett

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