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Why They Hate Us (again)

The CIA has for the first time publicly admitted that it and the British MI6 were behind the 1953 coup that overthrew the democratically elected prime minister of Iran and installed the hated Shah of Iran, who ruled as dictator for 26 years until overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Why did we do it? Because the Iranian prime minister had nationalized Iran’s oil, which angered British Petroleum (BP).

Yes, that’s right. The CIA and MI6 with full knowledge and approval of their respective governments, carried out an act of war in the name of corporate interests, which destroyed a democracy and replaced it with a dictatorship, which eventually contributed to the rise of Islamic nationalism in Iran. Clearly, this blowback has cost us financially far more than the original cost of the nationalized oil.

Why did the people of the US and UK stand for this? Because of a misinformation campaign carried out on their own citizens, which falsely claimed that communists were taking over Iran.

Greed. Pure, simple, and stupid.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Last week Americans viewed 12 times as many stories about Miley Cyrus as they did about Syria. Which is why last night President Obama gave his speech on Syria while rubbing up against Robin Thicke.” – Conan O’Brien

“If Obama really wanted to sell us on Syria, he should have taken a page from the people selling us Siri. Pushing an iPhone and a war are a lot alike. You just say that the new one is smaller, cheaper and faster and people will buy it. Even though they’ve already got one and they’re still paying off the previous model.” – Stephen Colbert

“You know whose birthday it is? Evil Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, 48 years old today. It would be nice if he had a surprise birthday party from SEAL Team 6.” – David Letterman

“Last night President Obama spoke to the nation about Syria. Hopefully, Americans who were confused about the president’s plan feel better now, knowing that he’s confused too.” – Jay Leno

“Well, it was confusing, wasn’t it? First, President Obama laid out his reasoning for a strike against Syria. And then he gave the rebuttal.” – Jay Leno

“John Kerry has insisted that any military strike on Syria will be ‘unbelievably small’. But not as small as the SUPPORT for a strike on Syria.” – Jay Leno

“The United States is going to make a deal with Russia and Syria. What could possibly go wrong? Here’s the deal: Syria will turn over their stockpiled chemicals and we send them Alex Rodriguez.” – David Letterman

“Crisis averted. Now Congress suspends its vote on a military strike, the U.N. secures Assad’s chemical stockpile, and the Syrian people can go back to being killed with conventional methods. Everybody wins.” – Stephen Colbert

“The White House has a new slogan: ‘Hope and let the Russians fix it.'” – Jay Leno

“In New York, former Congressman Anthony Weiner became the first candidate to concede in his bid to become the Democratic candidate for mayor. Weiner got less than 5 percent of the vote and came in fifth. There’s got to be something else he can run for. I have 3,000 more Anthony Weiner jokes.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“I’m a little bummed out because it looks like the Anthony Weiner madness is finally over. It was so good for talk show hosts, one of the best things that ever happened. As he drove away from reporters, he gave them the finger. So at least he went out with dignity. That’s the important thing.” – Conan O’Brien

“When it was all over and Anthony Weiner was driving away, apparently he gave reporters the middle finger. A class act all the way through, that guy. Of course, when he flipped off a bunch of strangers, Ne York was like, ‘Hey maybe he is the right guy for me!’ I like that guy!” – Jimmy Fallon

“On his way to his concession speech last night, Anthony Weiner avoided the media by ducking into a McDonalds. Then he created a scene there by saying, ‘Who wants to see a quarter-pounder with two McNuggets?'” – Conan O’Brien

“You know, while losing the election was bad news for Anthony Weiner, it was great news for Carlos Danger. Carlos just opened four new dating accounts.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Since marijuana is now legal in Colorado they have to tax it like anything else, and this got people upset. This week, activists in Colorado were handing out free marijuana to protest the high taxes. Then later the pot activists were like, ‘We did WHAT?'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Not the Onion!

Headline in the NY Times:

Pope Says Church Is ‘Obsessed’ With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control

Six months into his papacy, Pope Francis sent shock waves through the Roman Catholic church on Thursday with the publication of his remarks that the church had grown “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he had chosen not to talk about those issues despite recriminations from critics.

I’m really starting to like Pope Francis!

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Obamacare’s Blossoming Turd

How fractured has the Republican Party become? Yesterday, Republicans announced that they are giving in to their anarchist fringe, and will shut down the government if Democrats don’t agree to defund Obamacare. Today, the Turd Blossom of George W Bush’s presidency, Karl Rove, has published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that calls this strategy “Self Defeating”.

Any strategy to repeal, delay or replace the law must have a credible chance of succeeding or affecting broad public opinion positively. The defunding strategy doesn’t. Going down that road would strengthen the president while alienating independents. It is an ill-conceived tactic, and Republicans should reject it.

According to polling done by Rove’s American Crossroads PAC, independent voters side with Obama in this fight 59% to 35%. Even in congressional districts that lean Republican, voters strongly say they will blame the Republicans if the government gets shut down.

But of course Rove slips in a large dose of Rovian sneaky politics. He says:

On the other hand, independents support by 51% to 42% delaying ObamaCare’s mandate that individuals buy coverage or pay a fine.

While delaying the individual mandate might sound appealing to independents, it is the only thing that makes universal coverage universal, which is the whole point of Obamacare. Even worse, if the individual mandate is delayed it will make the cost of health insurance skyrocket. Obamacare requires that insurance companies accept people with pre-existing conditions, so without the individual mandate people would be able to not buy health insurance until they absolutely need it. Or even not buy insurance and just continue to get free treatment at expensive emergency rooms. It would be a disaster.

The reason we need health care reform is that we have too many people who do not have health insurance, so they do not get preventative care or treatment for health issues until they become emergencies. They also don’t go to the doctor when they are sick, so they spread illnesses to others. These freeloaders affect everyone, and cost you and me money.

When Republicans claim to be the party of personal responsibility, they are lying. Rove is cynically trying to sound reasonable, when he is actually proposing to sabotage Obamacare.

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It isn’t Pork when I benefit

Sadly and predictably, the entire contingent of House Republicans from Colorado asked (practically begged) the federal government for emergency funding in the wake of massive flooding in Colorado, but they all voted against emergency relief for Superstorm Sandy victims on the East Coast just a few months ago.

The same Republicans also signed a letter asking for federal aid for the Colorado wildfires earlier this summer.

And of course, all four of them are deniers of climate science.

Freeloaders.

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Negotiating with Terrorists?

House Republicans say “This is the line in the sand.” House Speaker John Boehner has given in to the radical fringe of his party who say they will shut down the government unless Democrats agree to repeal healthcare reform.

So here is the choice they are demanding: If Obamacare is repealed, people will die. If the government shuts down, people will die. You choose.

In fact, just threatening to shut down the government is already damaging our economy. Even the conservative US Chamber of Commerce warned that it was “not in the best interest of the U.S. business community or the American people to risk even a brief government shutdown.”

This is why you don’t negotiate with terrorists. You give into them, and they just keep upping their demands. This time it is repealing a law they themselves passed, and which they don’t have the votes to repeal. But the House leadership has already announced plans to make additional demands, including approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline and changing the tax code to further favor big corporations and the rich.

We do need a line in the sand. The Republican fringe who “came to Washington with the radical agenda of ending as many government programs as they could, practically welcome the prospect of a shutdown or even a default.” We need to say no to the party of no.

The Reprimand Project
© The Reprimand Project

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Late Night Political Humor

“Fox opposes a Syria peace plan because its modus operandi is to foment dissent in the form of a relentless and irrational contrarianism to Barack Obama and all things Democratic, to advance its ultimate objective of creating a deliberately misinformed body politic whose fear, anger, mistrust, and discontent is the manna upon which it sustains its parasitic succubus-like existence.” – Jon Stewart

“Today Syria agreed to a tentative plan to send all of its chemical weapons to Russia. Vladimir Putin said those weapons better not be gay.” – Conan O’Brien

“A new survey found Americans clicked on Miley Cyrus stories 12 times more often than stories about Syria and President Assad. Well, that makes sense. Wouldn’t you rather watch a twerk than a jerk?” – Jay Leno

“Syria is now saying they will agree to give up their chemical weapons if Miley Cyrus agrees to give up whatever it is she is doing.” – David Letterman

“You can tell that fall is coming. The leaves are changing faster than the White House position on Syria.” – Jay Leno

“John Kerry has given Syria one week to hand over its chemical weapons. And if they don’t … he’ll give them another week.” – Jay Leno

“The U.N. list of the happiest places on earth does not include Disneyland. Goofy is peeved. He’s like, ‘I’m going to bomb Syria. Well, maybe. Let’s see what Putin says’.” – Craig Ferguson

“The United Nations unveiled their list of the happiest places on earth. Doesn’t the United Nations have stuff to do? Aren’t things a little bit tense right now?” – Craig Ferguson

“According to the new U.N. world happiness report, the United States is the 17th happiest country in the world. The report says the happiest country is Denmark, followed by Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Sweden. Way to go, super white people, I guess.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“You’d be happy too if everyone you knew looked like Thor and Famke Janssen.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Today was the primary for mayor of New York City. The city had to use old, lever voting machines from the 1960s because the electronic machines were too hard to program. Of course, it was awkward when Anthony Weiner said, ‘That’s not a lever’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Today was the primary election for New York City mayor, and the new and improved iPhone came out. So kind of a bad news, good news day for Anthony Weiner.” – Conan O’Brien

“If Christine Quinn wins the New York City mayoral race, she’ll be the city’s first lesbian mayor. Which is why her campaign slogan is, ‘Christine Quinn: as far away from Weiner as you can get.'” – Conan O’Brien

“The newer voting machines weren’t properly programmed – or as Florida put it, ‘Never stopped us’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“It got weird when officials checked the results and said, ‘The winner is … Richard Nixon?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Last month 312,000 Americans stopped looking for work, causing the unemployment rate to fall to 7.3 percent. Today President Obama called it a step in the right direction and encouraged more Americans to stop looking for work.” – Jay Leno

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We’re Number One!

Conan pulls no punches, Comrade!

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All In The Family

Barry Deutsch
© Barry Deutsch

I’ve often commented about the idiocy of comparing the federal budget to a typical family budget. But I had to post this comic because of the last panel. Indeed, some politicians are proposing exactly that — to steal our elders’ Social Security insurance money.

Who would ever suggest such a thing?

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Pundit Punishment

Matt Bors
© Matt Bors

Sometimes I think the pundits are trying to make up for the fact that 10 years ago they were pressing their lips against the neo-cons’ asses so hard they couldn’t see what a disaster Iraq was going to be.

This time around, they are critical of everything. Like, OMG, we found a diplomatic solution that will save lives. But the pundits can’t stop talking about how that will make us look weak. And how it makes Putin look good. So what!

A few days ago, hardly anyone wanted to go to war. And now we have a potential solution that will almost certainly achieve far more than any amount of bombing of Syria (with or without boots on the ground). And if this fails, so what? We would be no worse off than we were a few days ago. This is the closest we get to a win-win in this stinking quagmire of Middle-East politics.

I would think everyone (including the Republicans) would be dancing in the streets.

UPDATE: the UN releases its report and concludes that Assad was responsible for the chemical attack on his people. To me, this answers the question of why Assad and the Russians were suddenly willing to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, but it doesn’t change my opinion of this diplomatic settlement. Yes, Assad will remain in power and will of course still be free to use conventional weapons against the rebels. But unless we are willing to send in troops and remove Assad by force, and then take responsibility for the country and somehow manage to avoid having Islamic radicals take over, this is the best solution we could hope for.

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Obama is going to address the nation on Syria tomorrow night, which means here on NBC ‘America’s Got Talent’ will be delayed by ‘America’s Got Problems’.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama did six TV interviews today to explain his decision to strike Syria. Yeah, six. Even Ryan Seacrest was like, ‘That guy’s on too many shows’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama is talking tough. He said he will not rest until Syrian President Assad’s power has been reduced to the point where he’s on ‘Dancing With the Stars’.” – Jay Leno

“John Kerry says any attack on Syria will be ‘unbelievably small’. Well, that should put the fear of God into them. ‘If we get approval, we will attack you so tiny, you won’t even know what happened.'” – Jay Leno

“Dennis Rodman left for North Korea last week. Unfortunately, he came back.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“While in North Korea, Dennis Rodman claims to have met Kim Jong-Un’s secret baby. Apparently nobody had the heart to tell Rodman that the secret baby he met is actually Kim Jong-Un.” – Conan O’Brien

“Rodman went to North Korea for a second time to meet with his friend Kim Jong-Un. Is it possible that Kim Jong-Un thinks that Rodman is President Obama?” – Jimmy Kimmel

This Rodman friendship is beyond the imagination. Not since Hitler and Sea Biscuit has there been a more unconventional athlete-dictator relationship.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Rodman claims that he was asked to train the North Korean basketball team. He said the team is ‘hungry. Not for players, for food’.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“New York City is replacing electronic voting booths with 50-year-old lever machines. When reached for comment, Anthony Weiner said, ‘I was already planning on going into the booth and pulling a 50-year old lever’.” – Conan O’Brien

“Serena Williams won her 17th Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open. I haven’t seen that many Grand Slams since Chris Christie went out to Denny’s with me the other night.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Officials in Iowa are facing criticism over a new law that lets blind people own guns. The law has actually received support from two major groups: the NRA and deer.” – Jimmy Fallon

“We conservatives have an uncanny ability to know what Ronald Reagan would do at any given time. Syria conflict? Invade. Obamacare? Repeal. Soup or salad? Jelly beans.” – Stephen Colbert

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Bill Maher on Syria

Special extra bonus — Maher invents a brilliant new word:

dY5NG8G

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Back to the Future

Tony Auth
© Tony Auth

You heard it here first, folks. The Republicans will never kill Obamacare. In fact, if they were even the least bit serious about getting rid of it, they would have proposed and promoted some kind of alternative. But they have not, because they realize that there is no point. The only point they still care about is scoring cheap political points with their rabid anti-Obama base (and getting campaign contributions from the health insurance and pharma industries). Their calls to repeal Obamacare are now nothing more than a hypocritical, cynical sham.

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Late Night Political Humor

“The president cancelled a fundraising trip to California next week because of the Syria situation. That’s when you know this is serious.” – Jay Leno

“On Tuesday President Obama is planning to address the nation. Instead of calling his plan to attack Syria ‘a war’, he is calling it a ‘limited military intervention’ — which sounds better than ‘potential endless quagmire’.” – Jay Leno

“Secretary of State John Kerry said that Arab countries have offered to pay the entire cost of unseating Syria’s president if we take the lead militarily. They will pay for the whole thing. See, this is how global politics works. We invade Syria to get money from Saudi Arabia that they got from us for putting their oil in our Japanese cars so we can pay back China all the money we owe them.” – Jay Leno

“John Kerry said during the Senate hearing that we are not the world’s policemen. Really, then how come we eat most of the world’s doughnuts?” – Jay Leno

“President Obama is in Russia. You know what he’s doing there? I think he’s seeking asylum.” – Jay Leno

“The NFL season kicked off last night. Football is for people who can’t stand politics but still enjoy watching millionaires destroy each other.” – Craig Ferguson

“Anthony Weiner did the weather forecast on Fox’s local morning show, ‘Good Day New York’. Which was fine until he started pointing out parts of the country without using his hands.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Late Night Political Humor

“All eyes are on Obama because of Syria. He wants to use military strikes. Even his allies don’t agree with him. Britain wants to use economic embargoes. France wants to use sarcasm.” – Craig Ferguson

“If President Obama really wants to hurt the Syrian government, don’t send cruise missiles. He should end over some of his economic advisers.” – Jay Leno

“Will Congress approve taking action in Syria? First they have to approve taking action in Congress.” – Stephen Colbert

“Republican leaders have agreed to support President Obama’s plan to attack Syria. See, that’s what I love about our country. The only time Republicans and Democrats can agree on something is when it’s time to bomb somebody.” – Jay Leno

“While I was overseas, I couldn’t really get much out of the news. From what I could make out, President Obama wanted to drop Miley Cyrus on Damascus.” – Stephen Colbert

“All the big-time world leaders are at the G-20 summit. Vladimir Putin is there representing Russia. Barack Obama is there representing Kenya.” – Craig Ferguson

“Did you see Vladimir Putin and President Obama shake hands today? They said something to each other. Of course, we don’t know what they said, nobody does — except the NSA, the KGB, and Edward Snowden.” – Jay Leno

“The G-20 summit is being held in St. Petersburg, which used to be the Russian capital. But Lenin and the Bolsheviks felt it was too vulnerable, so they moved the capital to Moscow. Lenin and the Bolsheviks is also my favorite Russian skiffle band.” – Craig Ferguson

“Former President Bill Clinton is traveling the country holding town hall meetings where he explains Obamacare. After that he will explain twerking.” – David Letterman

“Happy Rosh Hashanah. In honor of the Jewish new year, Mayor Bloomberg has banned the 16-ounce brisket.” – David Letterman

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