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Natalie Portman and Rashida Jones solve the financial crisis

See more Natalie Portman videos at Funny or Die
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Understanding Real America in Palin’s home town

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Hypocrisy Hullabaloo

I think I see a pattern of hypocrisy emerging. First a conservative radio show accuses Obama of giving a speech in front of an “Obama Flag”, which looks like an American flag but has a big “O” on it for Obama. Then he goes off, ranting about what that means:

These things are symptomatic of a person who would like to be a potentate, a dictator. And I really see this in this man. … And I tell you this. I tell you this quite seriously. I am alarmed at the prospect of his election.

Of course, that happens to be the state flag of Ohio. But I guess you have to forgive him for the mistake, since these things are symptomatic of delusional paranoia.

Second, the New York Post does a story about how Michelle Obama had lobster and caviar delivered to her room at the Waldorf-Astoria. Only problem? She didn’t even stay at the Waldorf. I guess it was too much trouble for them to call the hotel to verify the story before running with a lie.

If you haven’t had enough, here’s the third one. The McCain campaign has discovered a big problem in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, namely that it treats copyright violators as “guilty, until you can prove yourself innocent”. The McCain campaign is upset that some of its political ads — which utilize brief snippets from news broadcasts and other copyrighted material — have been pulled from YouTube because of copyright complaints. The DMCA requires sites like YouTube to pull materials immediately if there are any copyright complaints, and the poster of the material must appeal the complaint and prove that there are no copyright violations before the material is put back up.

But what is hypocritical about this last one is the McCain campaign’s solution to the problem. Rather than trying to fix the law in question, they want YouTube to make an exception for them. Their solution is to have videos uploaded by a political campaign to be reviewed manually by a human YouTube employee before they are removed. Anyone else would still have their videos immediately removed, by a computer program.

Thankfully, YouTube (which is owned by Google) refused. But they did say that they would be happy to work with McCain (whether as president or senator) to fix the DMCA. After all, the only way we will get bad laws changed is if lawmakers have to suffer under the same laws the rest of us do.

UPDATE: In an unintentionally hilarious post on the National Review website, proof is offered of actual voter fraud based on someone named “Duran Duran” voting in the New Mexico primary. They have to backpedal furiously when it is discovered that there really is someone named Duran Duran, and they are even listed in the Albuquereque phone book. When will they admit that the only fraud being committed here is against the voters who are being purged from the registration rolls just because someone doesn’t like their name.

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We need a new political party – the Small Party

Robert Reich (blogger, former Secretary of Labor, current UC Berkeley professor, and author of the book Supercapitalism) has a must-read blog entry today, pointing out that if these companies the government is bailing out are “too big to fail” then maybe they are just too big, period.

But the biggest irony, as he points out, is that at the same time government is bailing out these companies who are too big to fail, the same government policy-makers are creating even larger companies. If they are too big, shouldn’t we be making them smaller? But instead Bank of America took over Merrill-Lynch and Countrywide, JP Morgan acquired Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns, and now General Motors is being encouraged to absorb Chrysler. What happens when you take multiple companies that are each too big to fail (but failing anyway) and combine them into a larger company? Won’t that make things even worse?

Reich points out that “we seem to have forgotten that the original purpose of antitrust law was also to prevent companies from becoming too powerful.” We used to understand that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even the framers of the Constitution added the tenth amendment to limit the power of the federal government.

I have always found it ironic that conservatives rail against big government and big labor unions, and liberals rail against big corporations and megachurches. Maybe both of them are right. Maybe the problem is really just bigness itself. Too many of our elections have been a choice between big government or big business — a lose-lose situation.

For example, the US is the only industrialized country that doesn’t have universal health insurance, largely because we don’t want government controlling our health care. But having huge insurance corporations controlling our health care is even worse, since they only care about maximizing their profits and their size makes them just as uncaring about actual patient needs.

I’ve always wanted a new political party, called the “Small Party“. The Small Party would limit power to the lowest levels and smallest size possible. Corporate size and power (both of which are completely out of control right now) would be strictly limited. Most of our new jobs and economic growth come from small companies, so they would be encouraged. How? Easy! For starters, make corporate taxes progressive (just like individual income taxes) so that large companies pay a larger share. Today, 67% of large corporations don’t pay any taxes at all. Large multinational corporations are even worse — 72% of them pay no taxes. The Small Party would change that.

Likewise, the size and power of large unions would be limited, but small unions would be encouraged. Tax exemptions for megachurches would be limited. Limits on media control would be reestablished. And government power would be likewise limited, by pushing as much federal power as possible to the state level, and state power to even lower levels. The term “states rights” has a bad reputation among progressives because it has been used to tip the balance toward other powerful interests, but if all power is limited, then states rights would once again become a good thing.

Even the small party itself would be run at the state and local level, with minimal power at the national level. As Steve Martin says, let’s get small!

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Imaginary Voter Fraud


© Steve Sack

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Digging his own grave


© Jimmy Margulies

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Palin Jazz Improv

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Late Night Political Humor

Joe the Plumber

“Some new developments today regarding Joe the Plumber. That’s the guy from Ohio who asked Barack Obama why he wanted to raise taxes on the plumbing business he wants to buy. But now it turns out that Joe is not a licensed plumber, he had to admit that he’s ‘not even close’ to buying the plumbing business, the business does not bring in $250,000 to $280,000 like he said, and his name isn’t even Joe — it’s Sam. Turns out the only true thing about ‘Joe the Plumber’ is ‘the.'” He’s the Sarah Palin of plumbing, is what he is.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Well, actually, Joe the plumber, not his real name. Actually, his full name, Joe Hussein the plumber.” -Jay Leno

“The only thing we actually do really know about this Joe the plumber is that he’s opinionated, he’s extremely conservative, and we’re not so sure about the plumbing. Oh my God, he’s Ann Coulter!” -Bill Maher

“You know why I think Republicans are so obsessed with this Joe the plumber? I think they’re relieved to be able to talk about a guy who gets down on his knees in front of a toilet and it’s not Senator Larry Craig.” -Jay Leno

“Are you buying this whole Joe the plumber thing? McCain said he’s worried about Joe the plumber’s income. His income? Anybody here ever gotten a bill from a plumber and go, ‘Well, this is way too low. Put a few more zeros. Put something down there for yourself.'” -Jay Leno

“And, of course, all this media attention is going to his head. In fact, today, he now wants to be known as ‘the plumber formerly known as Joe.'” -Jay Leno

The Debate

“Maybe you saw the debate on Wednesday night, and McCain unveiled his new personality. He’s got a new personality. The new personality is fighting underdog. And if that doesn’t work, the next one is going to be tyrannical sea captain. … And if that doesn’t work, fun-loving gaucho. And if that doesn’t work, expatriate saloon owner.” -David Letterman

“But he did have one big moment when he said, ‘Senator Obama, I am not President Bush.’ My running mate is.” -Bill Maher

“No, I’m not saying that McCain looks like he’s finished, but today they introduced him as the next Viagra spokesman.” -Bill Maher

“Senator John McCain was on the program last night. And I don’t know about this. He kept referring to me as ‘That One.'” –David Letterman

“John McCain got some good news today. The Charleston Daily Mail endorsed McCain, saying since he’ll only be a one-term president, he can do the right things to make tough decisions. When they told McCain they were only giving him four years, he said, ‘That’s great. My doctor only gave me two!'” -Jay Leno

The Economy

“And this week, President Bush announced a $250 billion — everything’s billions now, millions don’t even count, have you noticed that? Millions is like chump change — plan for the government, to directly buy shares of the nation’s leading banks, to make sure they’re run properly. They’re going to make sure they’re run properly, yeah. Because one thing we know is the people who gave us a a $9 trillion debt, they know how to handle money” -Jay Leno

“Despite enormous fluctuations in the Dow Jones average this week, billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced Friday that he will continue to invest in the stock market during the current financial crisis. So remember, everyone, this is no time to panic, as long as you’re the richest man on earth.” -Amy Poehler

Sarah Palin

“Sarah Palin is going on ‘Saturday Night Live’ tomorrow. She said she’s a little nervous, she’s never acted before. And they told her, please, you’ll be fine. It’s a lot like lying.” -Bill Maher

“Former Vice President Dan Quayle has advised vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin to ‘just be yourself.’ Unfortunately, he spelled ‘yourself’ with three ‘l’s’ and a ‘6.’” -Amy Poehler

“Oh, I kid Sarah Palin. I have a special affection for the insufferable. Today, she was campaigning in North Carolina, and she said she only really wanted to campaign in the ‘pro-America’ parts of the country. And so does her husband, who unfortunately couldn’t be there because he’s a secessionist.” -Bill Maher

“Let me quote you what she said today, and I hope you’re insulted. She said, ‘We believe that the best of America is in the small towns. The little pockets of what I call the real America. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans.’ … Well, you know what, in a couple of weeks, she’s going to find out that the big cities have one thing that the small towns don’t: a lot of voters.” -Bill Maher

“Sarah Palin remains very popular. … Many people in the country are very excited about her. In fact, this week in Tennessee, a man named his newborn baby after Sarah Palin. Can you believe that? … Yeah, the man named his baby Sarah Palin after he asked it to name three countries, and it just stared blankly into space” -Conan O’Brien

“They say Sarah Palin’s going to appear on ‘Saturday Night Live’ tomorrow night, which will be interesting. She’s been the butt of a lot of jokes and, of course, the subject of a lot of criticism. In fact, she said at a rally in North Carolina yesterday that to avoid getting depressed, her staff now limits her access exclusively to the mainstream media. That’s a good idea. Just what she needs — to read less.” -Jimmy Kimmel

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What will humor sites do without Palin?

The political comedy website 23/6 just endorsed Palin-McCain for President, because Palin is the best thing that ever happened to their web traffic. So while Palin might be a disaster for the US economy, she has already been a blessing for the 23/6 economy.

I’ve seen the same thing here — Palin is a never ending source of irony. The two weeks after the announcement of Palin as VP produced some of Political Irony’s biggest traffic numbers ever. (Never mind that both national conventions happened during those two weeks.)

And this is a bipartisan phenomenon. On the right, the Drudge Report more than doubled their traffic in the month A.S. (After Sarah), but on the left, the Huffington Post nearly tripled theirs.

And we can’t ignore the benefits to late night TV hosts. In my posts, I’ve even started sorting their jokes into categories, so that people who love Palin jokes can go straight to them (or readers who are burned out on Palin can ignore them). She provides the lion’s share of levity to many humor websites.

If Palin loses, I may have to just pack up and stop doing the site. Poor me.

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The nature of sarcasm

Scientists have discovered why Neocons don’t like Political Irony.

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Play the “Palin as President” game

This interactive game is fun, and the (unnamed) creators promise to add new features each day until the election.

Can you:

  • summon Joe the Plumber?
  • torture Katie Couric?
  • uncover the nuclear codes?
  • set off nuclear armageddon?
  • get Palin to say “something-stan” and “cactus-stan”?
  • find all five people Palin calls mavericks?
  • shred Roe v. Wade?

UPDATE: Some things are quite hidden. For example, try turning the lights out, and then (with the lights still out) click on the red telephone to see a special Star Wars treat. If you discover other hidden things, please tell us about them in a comment here.

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Andrew Lahde says goodbye to Wall Street

Andrew Lahde, of Lahde Capital Management, writes a goodbye letter. He is shutting down his $300 million hedge fund, not because he didn’t make lots of money, but because he did. In this interesting letter, he talks about the idiots who helped make him rich, the meaninglessness of money, how the US Government is broken, and marijuana.

It is short and worth a read.

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Bachmann now denies saying what the video shows her saying


From Daily Kos.

I don’t know what’s worse — what she originally said, or her ability to lie about what she said.

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Obama leads McCain in the only poll that counts

On Amazon.com, Obama Hallowe’en masks are outselling McCain Hallowe’en masks by 6 points (53% to 47%).

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Mario the Plumber


From Republican Elephant

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