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High Tech Warfare — It’s Legal!

Ruben Bolling
© Ruben Bolling

Yes, Ruben Bolling got the memo that this was the week for everyone to attack Obama over the drone strikes. But I liked this one.

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Late Night Political Humor

“People are still trying to figure out why the power went out Sunday at the Super Bowl. Today they found out the reason. Turns out China cut off the electricity for nonpayment of our bill.” – Jay Leno

“The power went out for 35 minutes in the Superdome. It was the most highly viewed power outage since Obama’s first debate with Romney.” – David Letterman

“Pakistan is opening an amusement park and a zoo in the same town where the raid on Osama Bin Laden took place. The zoo is pretty cool, but I’ve heard you won’t be able to see the seals until it’s too late.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A Justice Department memo claims that President Obama has the right to order the assassination of an American anywhere in the world. Isn’t that crazy? In a related story, Donald Trump has gone into hiding.” – Conan O’Brien

“The White House is warning North Korea that it will face significant consequences if it moves forward with a new round of nuclear tests. Not only that — it’s also warning South Korea that it will face serious consequences if Psy makes another ad for pistachios.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Scientists have found the remains of England’s King Richard III under a parking lot. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find his ticket. So he’ll be charged the day rate.” – Conan O’Brien

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Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag?

Support for the Tea Party has fallen from 24% of voters to an abysmal 8% – and those numbers are from a Republican pollster.

Things are so bad that the South Florida Tea Party – one of the largest Tea Party groups – has changed their name to the National Liberty Federation.

The Tea Party, even as co-opted by Fox News and corporate interests, pushed the Republican party so far to the right that the Democratic party was able to take over all the reasonable positions in the middle. This was bad news for progressives, since the Dems no longer needed to pay as much attention to their progressive base now that they owned the moderates. This wouldn’t have been so bad, except that the national discourse had been shifted so far to the right, that even Reagan would have been considered a liberal.

It is a relief to see the Tea Party’s cookie crumble, and to see Obama take advantage of this by moving leftward toward the moderate center during his second term.

Unfortunately, the cynical part of me realizes that the increasing irrelevance of the Tea Party is not just about the country moving back to the center after decades of disastrous radical right-wing policies. I think it has more to do with the growing realization among the corporate wing of the Republican party that feeding the Tea Party was no longer in their best business interests.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Two prostitutes from the Dominican Republic say that New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez paid them for sex. And Menendez is in big trouble because as you know it is a felony to impersonate a Secret Service agent.” – Jay Leno

“Hispanics and Republicans go together like beans and very very white rice that is highly suspicious of the beans.” – Stephen Colbert (on Republican claims that the Hispanic vote should belong to the GOP)

“A new study just came out and it reveals that straight men who watch porn are more likely to support same-sex marriage. The study also found that straight men who don’t watch porn are lying.” – Conan O’Brien

“Last night was one of the highest rated Super Bowls ever, with 108 million people watching. This year’s game added $430 million to the New Orleans economy — apparently none of which was used to pay the electric bill.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A power outage during a Super Bowl in Louisiana — but don’t worry. FEMA said they will be there no later than Thursday.” – David Letterman

“The lights in the Superdome went out for 33 minutes at the beginning of the third quarter. The 49ers were just standing around on the field, not knowing what to do — and then the blackout happened.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The lights went out in the third quarter, which is weird because normally I don’t experience a blackout until after a Super Bowl party.” – Jimmy Fallon

“U.S. employers just added 157,000 jobs to the economy. Of course, most of those were for backup dancers for Beyoncé.” – Conan O’Brien

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would like to become the first Iranian to go into space. And today Israel said, ‘Flight’s on us! No problem. We’ve got everything covered.'” – Jay Leno

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Droning on About Constitutional Law

TMW2013-02-13color
© Tom Tomorrow

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all happy with all the drone attacks being done in our name. But I think the left is barking up the wrong tree calling this a violation of the constitution. The constitution specifically gives the president the power to conduct wars, and whether we like it or not people do get killed during wars. Mostly without any due process or constitutional rights whatsoever. And (more or less) innocent bystanders also get killed. War sucks.

But it is up to Congress to both declare these wars and to fund them. So I think this issue boils down to whether you think the war on terror is an actual war or not. Unfortunately, Congress and a lot of Americans certainly think it is a war and want the president to kill the terrorists. So much so that they got us into an absolutely stupid war in Iraq. Did we learn anything from that? If anything, we learned that instead of sending our sons (and now daughters) to war, that we would be way happier to have unmanned drones doing the killing. And we told the president to do just that.

Personally, I think we as a country completely overreacted to 9/11. We essentially gave the terrorists a huge victory, doing more damage to ourselves than the terrorists could ever have done themselves. Sadly, it was a brilliant ploy and we fell for it.

Will we ever have a reasoned discussion about what we should do about terrorists? I doubt it. But getting mad at Obama for doing exactly what we told him to do is pathetic. And complaining that it is unconstitutional seems to be completely oblivious to the realities of war.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Fox News has their lowest ratings in 10 years. But Fox says it’s not a case of them losing credibility. They say it’s not because they’re now widely seen as a clearing house for discredited ideas. They say it’s mostly because of old people misplacing the clicker.” – Bill Maher

“Con men like Rush and Beck are one reason the Republicans are in such dire straits today. Because they don’t care about winning elections. They care about separating rubes from their money. They’ve discovered there’s a fortune to be made by keeping a small portion of America under the illusion that they are always under attack. From Mexicans, or ACORN, or Planned Parenthood, or gays, or takers, global warming hoaxers; it doesn’t matter. They don’t want a majority. They want a mailing list, a list of the kind of gullible Honey Boo Boos out there who think that there’s a War on Christmas, and that the socialist policies of our Kenyan President have been so disastrous that the end of the world is coming.” – Bill Maher

“The Dow hit 14,000. It hasn’t been that high since 2007, heading toward an all-time high. Just think of how big it would be if Obama wasn’t such a socialist.” – Bill Maher

“Here’s some news out of Washington. Today, President Obama honored more than 20 researchers for their contributions to science and technology. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the football game – or as those researchers put it, ‘Man, high school never ends, does it?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“In an interview last week, Obama said he loves to shoot skeet up at Camp David. Republicans said if he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of it? Why have we not seen photos of it? Yes, because nothing would ease the Republican mind more than a photo of the black president with a gun.” – Bill Maher

“This is the first day of Black History Month; or as Republicans call it, February.” – Bill Maher

“Immigration is the big issue they’re working on in Washington. They want to create a ‘path to citizenship’. You have to pass a background check, you have to pay a fine, you have to pay back taxes, you have to learn English and you have to get that statue of the Virgin Mary off your front yard. Oh, and also the cable channels between 17 and 23 – gone.” – Bill Maher

“I would urge the Republicans who are still not behind this to consider the alternative; picking our own damn strawberries.” – Bill Maher

“Senator Bob Menendez was caught in a little scandal. Apparently he’s been going down to Puerto Rico and getting underage prostitutes. He denies it. But he says the path to citizenship passes through his pants.” – Bill Maher

“The Daily Caller website found two women in Puerto Rico, who claim that he promised them $500 for their services and only paid them $100. This is my kind of Senator – socially liberal and fiscally conservative.” – Bill Maher

“The director of Jewish outreach for the White House announced that he is stepping down. He says it’s time to move on, while his mother says he’s still a real catch and other presidents would be lucky to have him.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Beyoncé finally admitted that she did lip sync the national anthem during the inauguration. Now Donald Trump is claiming that since she did lip sync, President Obama is not legally president. He said it invalidated the whole thing.” – Jay Leno

“I love this story; the state of Washington is now looking for a marijuana consultant now that marijuana is legal up there. I think this is one of those green jobs President Obama is always talking about.” – Jay Leno

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Late Night Political Humor

“There’s a petition going around asking President Obama to make the day after the Super Bowl a national holiday. That’s a good idea. After a long, exhausting day of sitting on the couch watching TV, I need a day off.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“I have a lot of eating planned for Sunday. Hot wings. Nachos. Sausages. The inside of my stomach is going to look like a Michelle Obama nightmare.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“In his farewell speech to the Senate this week, John Kerry spoke for 51 minutes about Washington being gridlocked. The cause of the gridlock? Senators giving 51-minute speeches.” – Jay Leno

“A bipartisan group of senators has unveiled a plan that would create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Or as immigrants call that, ‘a tunnel’.” –Jimmy Fallon

“A new poll found 78% of respondents believed the planet had warmed over the past 100 years. The other 22% burst into flames.” – Stephen Colbert

“Oh, the People Who Hate You!” – a poem recited by Jon Stewart:
“They do not like you Barack Obama,
Whether on a train a, plane, or llama.
They do not like you shooting skeet,
They do not like you eating meat.
They do not like you drinking beer,
or even if you roped a steer.
They won’t like you with the monster trucks,
because, young man, they do not give a fuck.
They do not like you when you pray,
They did not like you anti-gay.
They do not like you cutting tax,
They could not stand when you wore your mommy slacks.
You cannot reach across the aisle,
‘Cause everything you do is vile.
They complained when you killed Osama!
So on a train, a plane, or a llama,
Rolling a 44 at Bowl-O-Rama,
Despite your nice white Kansas mama,
comma,
they do not like you, Barack Obama.”

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Strange Bedfellows go Postal

They say politics makes strange bedfellows, and there are few examples more hypocritical than what’s going on with the US postal service.

Jim Morin
© Jim Morin

Conservative Republicans pretend to be strict constitutionalists on issues like freedom of religion and the right to bear arms. Yet they completely ignore the fact that the Post Office is written directly into the constitution. Instead, they want to kill it, constitution be damned. Republican dogma hates the Post Office, a quasi-governmental operation full of unionized employees that competes with private sector companies like FedEx and UPS.

Conservative dogma says that government can’t do anything as well as the private sector (“government is not the solution, government is the problem”), and by golly, they are going to prove that any way they can.

Conservative Republicans say they want government to be run more like a business, but in 2006 the GOP-controlled congress passed a law requiring the post office to fully fund future health benefits for retirees for the next 75 years. No private business would (or perhaps even could) do that — it would bankrupt them! Indeed, it certainly appears that the Republicans were purposely trying to bankrupt the Post Office.

Furthermore, even though the Post Office gets no funding from the US government at all, it cannot set its own prices. Just changing the cost of a stamp requires a proverbial act of Congress. Private companies don’t deliver on Saturday or they charge extra for that service, but the Post Office is required to do it for free.

But one of the most ironic things is that while Conservative Republicans often sing the praises of rural America, it is rural America that is most hurt by efforts to kill the post office. The private companies that Republicans are defending against the Postal Service primarily serve urban customers. If Republicans succeeded in killing the Post Office, it would hurt rural country folk the most. No private business would ever deliver mail to rural areas, because it is far too expensive.

And finally Republicans claim to be all about jobs, but they don’t seem to care about the quarter of a million middle-class Americans who earn their living delivering the mail, even though the government doesn’t pay their salary so it does not increase the deficit nor cost taxpayers one penny.

I’ve lived in plenty of other countries, and I have to say that our Postal Service is actually pretty darn good. Relatively fast, cheap, and reliable. Why do Republicans hate it so much?

Joe Heller
© Joe Heller

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Late Night Political Humor

“The Senate has overwhelmingly approved John Kerry as the next Secretary of State. In his farewell speech today to the Senate, Kerry spoke for 51 minutes. So, apparently he does believe in torture.” – Jay Leno

“We have a new secretary of state, John Kerry, former senator from Massachusetts. For four years Hillary Clinton served as the secretary of state, and in a moving ceremony today Hillary official turned over the pants suit.” – David Letterman

“John Kerry is the first white male to hold that job since 1997. So finally middle-aged white guys with gray hair are breaking through the glass ceiling.” – Jay Leno

“Yesterday President Obama went to Las Vegas and spoke about his new immigration plan. Afterwards he was harshly criticized by the locals for speaking in English.” – Jay Leno

“Zimbabwe’s finance minister revealed yesterday that his country has only $217 left in the government Treasury. Today President Obama said, ‘Stop bragging!'” – Jay Leno

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Long Hours, Low Pay

Teachers Pay and Hours
[from Tim Smith]

It is almost as if someone was purposely overworking teachers and paying them very little. But only in the good old USA.

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Late Night Political Humor

“According to a new poll, 50 percent of Americans think the country is divided. The other 50 percent think it isn’t.” – Jay Leno

“’60 Minutes’ anchor Steve Kroft is defending Sunday’s interview with President Obama and Hillary Clinton, saying that he didn’t have enough time to ask hard-hitting questions. That would be easier to believe if the name of his show wasn’t the amount of time he had.” – Jimmy Fallon

“According to reports from a journal called Psychological Science, people eat more junk food and gain weight during tough economic times. How ironic is that? The biggest obstacle to Michele Obama’s war on obesity is President Obama’s economic policy.” – Jay Leno

“The president just announced that same-sex couples will be included in his immigration reform bill. When they heard, same-sex couples were like, ‘You know we’re already citizens, right?'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Creative Immigration Solutions

Brian McFadden
© Brian McFadden

The part of this comic that hit me the most was the very first panel. How did we somehow change from a country largely made up of immigrants, that used to be so welcoming to immigrants that we have a huge statue to welcome them, to a country that treats immigrants like crap? I’m not saying we should totally open up our borders, but we have to stop politicizing immigration, and start working together on a reasonable solution. Surely a country of immigrants can solve an immigration problem.

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Late Night Political Humor

“In a big meeting of the Republican National Committee, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told the GOP to ‘stop being the stupid party’. Then Texas Governor Rick Perry gave the rebuttal.” – Jay Leno

“The U.S. Postal Service raised the price of a stamp yesterday. Stamps are something that the pilgrims used before we had the Internet.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The price of a stamp goes up a penny today, to 46 cents. To make sure everyone received the news promptly, the U.S. Postal Service announced it by email.” – Craig Ferguson

“It will now cost you 46 cents to mail a letter. Some people are complaining about the price even though it’s a penny more than the old price. You’re not allowed to spend $4 on a cup of coffee and complain about a cent.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Last week Iran launched a monkey into space, and it actually returned to Earth alive. It was great news for the space program and terrible news for the monkey who thought he’d finally gotten out of Iran.” – Jimmy Fallon

“In Iran last week, the government successfully launched a live monkey into space. I like that they specified it was a live monkey as if there was a chance they would send a dead monkey into space.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Iran has successfully sent a monkey into space. Iran is calling it a huge advancement in not letting women drive.” – Conan O’Brien

“Last night President Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared on ’60 Minutes’ for their first joint interview. It was a little awkward when they both showed up wearing the same suit.” – Jimmy Fallon

“If I seem a little woozy, it’s because I’m wearing a pair of those Hillary Clinton double-vision glasses.” – David Letterman

“Women serving in the United States military will now be serving in combat. Finally there will be somebody in the tank who will stop and ask for directions.” – David Letterman

“A Secret Service dog died during a fundraiser where Vice President Joe Biden was giving a speech. The dog is being described as ‘lucky’.” – Conan O’Brien

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The US Gang Problem

Business Journals seem to be publishing articles that are downright liberal recently. One interesting example is this article — “The four business gangs that run the US

No, two of them are not the Democratic and Republican parties. We’re talking about the gangs with real power. Here they are:

  • Military-industrial complex – Fifty years ago Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us about this one, but did we listen?
  • Wall Street-Washington complex – That’s right, the “too big to fail” Wall Street gang. We cry out that we are out of money and that we have to fight deficits, but no check is too big to write to these masters of our universe.
  • Big Oil-transport-military complex – the folks that brought you two stupid wars (at least) in the middle east, suppressed most public transport and non-oil energy sources, got us to ignore climate change, filled our world with plastics that never degrade, invented planned obsolescence, and got the government to build one of the most socialistic things they’ve ever done: the federal highway system.
  • Healthcare industry – the people who swallow up an enormous 17% of our GDP and in return give us some of the worst health results in the developed world, and still somehow manage to convince a large number of Americans that this is a good thing.
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Late Night Political Humor

“Already the Obama administration has been rocked by scandal. Beyonce lip-syncing; or at least we think she was lip-synching. Manti Te’o said it sounded very real to him.” – Bill Maher

“Lip-synching – let that be a lesson; if you are in Washington DC and you open your mouth and another voice comes out, it better be the NRA, an oil company, or a bank.” – Bill Maher

“President Obama delivered his inaugural address, which set a more liberal tone for his second term, especially the part where he showered the crowd with birth control pills.” – Seth Meyers

“New Rule: The media must give President Obama a few more days before they start covering the 2016 presidential race. They’re already speculating about Biden and Hillary. Come on, even Taylor Swift gives a guy a little more time than that. And why is she America’s sweetheart? She’s 17 and she’s gone out with more men than Joan Crawford.” – Bill Maher

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s historic ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. As well as the 1 year anniversary of my girlfriend’s ‘I had the weirdest dream’ speech. Guess which one was longer.” – Seth Meyers

“The Pentagon lifted the ban this week on women being able to serve. Yes, women can now serve in front line combat positions, proving that women will follow gay men anywhere.” – Bill Maher

“Tom Tancredo, who was a congressman from Colorado and ran for president, made a bet that his state would not legalize marijuana. And of course, he lost that bet. And you know what he has to do because he lost that bet? Yes, he’s got a suck on a joint. I just hope in the next few years he loses a bet on gay marriage.” – Bill Maher

“New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is getting big-time financial support for his re-election campaign, a fundraiser hosted by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That means the creator of the world’s largest social network is raising money for the world’s largest governor.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Why does Mark Zuckerberg need to raise a fundraiser worth $12 billion. Write a check and be done with the whole thing.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Did you know when you poke Chris Christie on Facebook, your computer giggles like the Pillsbury Doughboy?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said ‘we must stop being the stupid party’. Good luck with that. When Sarah Palin heard that, she demanded an apology. She said, ‘How dare he insult hard-working, patriotic, idiotic Americans like me’.” – Bill Maher

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