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Romney Rewrites History

In an interview in Ohio, Mitt Romney tried to take credit for the recovery of the auto industry:

I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy. And finally, when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet.

So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.

Of course, Romney argued strongly for no government bailout of the auto industry, and even published an op-ed piece in the NY Times “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”. In that article, Romney argued that if there was a bailout of the auto industry, then “its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”

Instead, Obama pushed through a bailout, and this year GM posted record profits. Chrysler posted its first profits last year since 2005. In addition, more than half the bailout loan has been paid back.

But reality doesn’t seem to matter to Romney. Watch him take credit:

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Unintended Consequences

When Republicans say that we need to shrink the size of government, that sounds pretty good on paper, but they fail to mention that shrinking the government means that the government will employ fewer people.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal calculated that if government were the same size it was back in December 2008 (before Obama took office), then unemployment would be 7.1% (instead of the official 8.1% — a full percentage point lower).

What’s ironic about this is that of course now Mitt Romney is complaining that Obama is not creating enough jobs, and that the unemployment rate is too high.

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan yesterday. It wasn’t as big a surprise as last year’s Navy SEALs trip to Pakistan, but it was big.” – Jay Leno

“Vice President Joe Biden stayed behind. He did not go on this trip. Well, thank God for that. What if there had been an emergency here at home and Americans needed somebody to come up and say exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time?” – Jay Leno

“Senator Joe Biden and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg played a round of golf together last week. Biden shot an 89 while Bloomberg shot the person who arranged a round of golf with Joe Biden.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Not such a great day for President Obama. Today he admitted he ‘made up’ a girlfriend in his autobiography. It’s a good thing Oprah’s off the air because this would have gotten him kicked out of the book club.” – Craig Ferguson

“President Obama has come up with a new campaign slogan — ‘Forward’ — that’s the slogan. And believe me, if unemployment doesn’t improve by November, it’ll be ‘Forward my mail.'” – Jay Leno

“Mitt Romney is fighting back at charges by President Obama and Vice President Biden that if Romney were president, Osama bin Laden would still be alive. Romney said if he were president, bin Laden would have died a slow and painful death. He wouldn’t have ordered a hit. He would’ve canceled his healthcare.” – Jay Leno

“Another parent of the year nominee, Levi Johnston, will become a father again — with another girlfriend. They have already settled on a name, and that name is Breeze Beretta. I’m surprised by this. Levi usually makes sound decisions.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Beretta is the name of a gun manufacturer. How bittersweet for Sarah Palin.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Levi Johnston and his girlfriend revealed that they will name their child Breeze Beretta. I can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl or a Jamba Juice.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A new report found that prostitutes are using Twitter as a free way to advertise. They are getting a lot of retweets from one user — @secret service.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A new survey found that a third of Americans would not be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test. It’s true. That’s a real insult to our founding fathers — Denzel Washington and George Jefferson.” – Jimmy Fallon

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hacked again

This site got hacked again. Of course, it always happens when I’m out of town. I got it back up again (by completely reinstalling WordPress), but I haven’t finished restoring it completely to the way it was before. Bear with me for a few days.

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GOP in your Vagina

This is definitely NSFW, but too funny to not watch anyway:

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Judy Greer, Andrea Savage, and Funny or Die.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Today Mitt Romney visited a firehouse here in New York City. Of course, he was disappointed when he learned that the firehouse is not where you get to fire people.” – Jimmy Fallon

“You know who’s in town today? Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney has not been in New York City since he used to anchor the Channel 7 news.” – David Letterman

“Occupy Wall Street is back. There were protests everywhere today. They marched all the way to the White House. It’s not easy to get all the way to the White House. Just ask Newt Gingrich.” – Craig Ferguson

“Occupy Wall Street is in L.A. as well. They were expecting thousands of protesters, but it didn’t happen. A lot of people stayed home because there was something very frightening going on in L.A. today — a light rain.” – Craig Ferguson

“German authorities report they have discovered digital files hidden in a porn movie that outline Al Qaeda’s plans for more terrorist attacks. I believe this is the first time that a porn film has ever contained a plot.” – Jay Leno

“Today is Osama bin Laden day. One year ago they got a hold of Osama bin Laden. Don’t we usually celebrate on a Monday?” – David Letterman

“The SEAL Team 6 broke into his compound and Osama bin Laden never knew what hit him. It’s like a Kardashian husband.” – David Letterman

“Since Osama bin Laden was killed, they say the brand name of Al Qaeda has been damaged. Osama bin Laden’s death has damaged the brand — that and poor customer service.” – David Letterman

“The Secret Service announced that agents will now be assigned chaperones on certain trips. What is that? I thought the Secret Service WAS the chaperone.” – Jay Leno

“Did you see who President Obama brought along with him to keep an eye on the Secret Service on his latest trip? Tim Tebow.” – Jay Leno

“Rupert Murdoch got some bad news today. British lawmakers said Murdoch is unfit to run a company. Is that news? He’s 160 years old. Of course he’s unfit to run a company. But perfect to run a Hollywood studio, or Congress.” – Craig Ferguson

“The report from British lawmakers was officially issued today. Murdoch knew about it months ago — because he hacked into their phones.” – Craig Ferguson

“On Saturday night I was speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. I roasted the president, some politicians, and the news media. Barbara Walters was there and was upset about a joke I made about her. I don’t want to turn it into a feud because I know Barbara will pull my heart out and have it roasted by her servants.” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Fair and Balanced


© Mike Thompson

Ironically, I can see both sides of this! I think tightening up rules on speculation could significantly lower gas prices, so Obama could do something about gas prices. But the chance of Congress doing something like that is pretty much zero.

The other things that can be done to lower energy prices, like increasing CAFE standards and promoting alternative energy, are being done by Obama. So we should give him some credit.

I think the main reason prices are rising now is because when the economy collapsed that depressed gas prices, and now that the economy is recovering they are naturally going back up. That and the Arab Spring, which destabilized several oil producing nations.

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The Republican Small-Tent Mind

Arnold Schwarzenegger has published an interesting opinion piece, where he stands up for Republican values (free enterprise and small government), while decrying the small-mindedness of the current GOP orthodoxy.

in the current climate, the extreme right wing of the party is targeting anyone who doesn’t meet its strict criteria. Its new and narrow litmus test for party membership doesn’t allow compromise.

He says that many previous Republicans, including Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Nixon, and even Reagan would not pass this test.

Then he points out the irony of the current Republican party:

Republicans love the free market, so it should seem like a no-brainer that the more views we have at the table, the better our final product will be.

I agree. Why is it that the party that claims to be for individualism and competition, acts more like a totalitarian regime bent on total thought control of its members?

I know this won’t make me popular with either liberals or conservatives, but I still like Schwarzenegger. I think he made an honest effort to be a good governor of California, and I wish there were more moderates like him.

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The First One’s Free!


© Ruben Bolling

I just don’t get it. Medical marijuana should be a no brainer. We have plenty of prescription drugs that are far more dangerous than marijuana, yet routinely prescribed by doctors to alleviate pain. Why is marijuana different?

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Late Night Political Humor

“I hosted the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night. The entertainment was me and President Obama. He was very funny, and made jokes about the fact that he ate a dog. Some people thought it was undignified for the president to joke about that. Personally, I feel like once you eat a dog, dignity is pretty much out the window. Get what you can out of it.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“I was making jokes about the Secret Service while they were 10 feet away from me with machine guns in their hands. President Obama made jokes about them and he didn’t get much of a reaction either. They’re probably laughing on the inside.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“After the prostitution scandal in Colombia, Secret Service agents are banned from bringing guests back to their hotel room. The new policy is raising lots of questions like, ‘So, your place then?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Strange development in the Secret Service prostitution saga. They issued new rules of conduct on Friday, and on some trips they will send chaperones to make sure the rules are enforced. Am I nuts, or is this weird? We have to give the Secret Service chaperones to make sure they don’t get drunk and have sex?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“We should make the agents travel with their moms. They would be highly trained themselves and will be ready to throw their bodies on any agent who is about to throw his body on a prostitute.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The Secret Service has withdrawn its protection of Newt Gingrich in advance of him formally announcing the suspension of his campaign. His Secret Service protection was costing us $44,000 a day. I guess they figured it wasn’t worth it anymore to protect Newt from all the people trying to ignore him.” – Jay Leno

“A year ago Osama bin Laden was killed. He was executed in Pakistan. They say that Osama bin Laden would be alive today if his bodyguards hadn’t been screwing around with hookers.” – David Letterman

“Osama bin Laden was watching TV when the SEAL Team 6 busted in while he was in there with three wives. Just before the SEAL Team 6 came busting in he turned to his wives and said ‘Hey girls, let’s see who is on ‘Leno.’ That was the last thing he said.” – David Letterman

[on Republican hypocrisy over accusing Obama of politicizing the death of Osama bin Laden] “So let me get this straight. Republicans, you’re annoyed by the arrogance and braggadocio of a wartime President’s political ad. You think he’s divisively and unfairly belittling his opponents, I see. I have a question: ARE YOU ON CRACK??? Were you alive, lo, these past ten years? It seems unseemly for the President to spike the football. Bush landed on a fucking aircraft carrier with a football-stuffed codpiece; he spiked the football before the game had even started!” – Jon Stewart

“President Obama has revealed his new re-election slogan – ‘Forward.’ That’s a good message for Obama. He’s telling voters, ‘Whatever you do, don’t look back at all those campaign promises I made.'” – Jay Leno

“During a speech on Friday, Mitt Romney told students that if they want to go to college or start a business, they should just borrow money from their parents. That should work fine as long as your parents are Mitt and Ann Romney.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Here’s a little bit of history. On this day in 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States after just narrowly beating out Ron Paul.” – Jay Leno

“According to the New York Post, John Edwards has gone from $500 haircuts to $12.95 haircuts at Supercuts. The next haircut he’s going to get in prison will be free.” – Jay Leno

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Why Doesn’t Romney Talk About Being Governor?

Paul Begala has a good article in Newsweek that asks the sensible question: Romney talks about his family, and his business success, but he never talks about his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. Why is he ignoring “the only time he has ever held public office.”

Perhaps it is because when he was campaigning for the governorship, he touted his business acumen and promised to get the state economy going again. Romney sold himself to the voters as a turnaround artist — a CEO who could lure jobs to the Bay State. He pledged to use his business skills to “encourage businesses to come grow and thrive in the most robust portion of the economy, Massachusetts.” Instead Mass went from 37th out of 50 to 47th in job creation in the US.

Perhaps that’s why Romney doesn’t dwell on his record as governor. His state really was 47th in job creation, behind only Ohio and Michigan, both of which were being ravaged in the manufacturing meltdown, and Louisiana, which had been devastated by Katrina. Romney even trailed Mississippi and Alabama in job growth, breaking the iron law that Mississippi and Alabama have to be last in pretty much everything except cockfights and kissin’ cousins. While the country as a whole enjoyed 5 percent growth, Romney’s Massachusetts grew at 0.9 percent.

Massachusetts was the guinea pig for Romney economics. The results weren’t pretty. In addition to almost zero job growth, the state saw a modest decline in real median income, meaning that the folks who had jobs were bringing home less.

The Romney recipe of cutting education and job training, forcing higher fees on the middle class, and protecting the rich from tax hikes didn’t work in Massachusetts. But his approach to health care did. Paradoxically, the best thing Romney did as governor—and it was a great thing—is the one thing he dares not talk about as a presidential candidate. Too bad, because a solid 62 percent of the folks who actually live under Romneycare—and its dreaded individual mandate—say they like it.

Romney promises to institute the same economic policies that failed him as governor, and failed us when Dubya was president.

What else does Romney promise to do? According to Andrew Tobias, Romney is “promising to keep us safe from our most serious enemy — Russia. (Huh?) And to snatch health insurance from people with preexisting conditions. And to back a Constitutional amendment enshrining discrimination against gays and lesbians.” He is also in favor of “cutting taxes for billionaires — to zero, in the case of the estate tax — and in slashing regulation. (Because what could possibly go wrong when banks or mortgage lenders or oil drillers or coal miners or food producers are unregulated?)”

UPDATE: More data on Romney’s economic record in Massachusetts, which makes him look even worse.

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Kill The Messenger

Arizona has had more than a few problems since turning over a dozen of its prisons to private corporations. Security problems increased, most famously allowing two convicted killers to escape from a private prison in 2010 and wreak murder and havoc.

Even worse, the annual review of the private prisons shows that in many cases, they cost more than the publicly operated prisons they replaced.

So what is the solution? Arizona is going to defund the previously required annual quality and cost review of private prison contracts.

I guess that will keep those big campaign contributions from the prison industry pouring in.

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Giving Themselves a Hot Foot

The main thing that gives me hope for this country is that modern (so-called) conservatives are so ideologically driven that they cannot seem to avoid shooting themselves in the foot. Repeatedly. This explains why — despite having way more money than the 99% of us, most of the power, control of the mainstream media, a clear mission based on greed, and the certainty and single voice that comes from believing that you are on a mission from God — that progressives manage to win at least a few elections and even get a few reasonable laws passed.

The latest example of foot shooting comes from the Heartland Institute, one of the main funders and promoters of climate-change denialism. The last time we heard from Heartland, it was because a bunch of embarrassing internal documents were leaked, which revealed their strategy of sowing false doubt about climate change, including “dissuading teachers from teaching science“.

Heartland was one of the main organizations publicizing the manufactured controversy known as “Climategate”, based on internal emails and other documents. Now the tables are turned, and it is Heartland’s internal documents that have been revealed, and they are far worse.

But that was just a warmup. The Heartland Institute just put up a series of billboards that caused even their supporters to cringe.

Besides the Unabomber, the billboards also featured Charles Manson, Fidel Castro, and they announced they were planning on putting up more, including some with Osama bin Laden.

That is until they received universal condemnation, even from their supporters. Within a few hours, Heartland announced they were pulling the billboards.

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The Facts Didn’t Send Us a Press Release


© Brian McFadden

I’m posting this mainly for the line about false equivalences. But I also like the warning at the end.

Of course, the whole problem with this is that the political parties often do hope that you will get bored with the election and tune out, since then the results will be defined by party stalwarts (“the base”). Ironically, this means that this comic is part of the problem, not the solution.

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Responding to Lies

What can be done to respond to the lies that are inevitably spread during political campaigns? If the candidate being attacked denies them, they often just help spread the lies more. But if they don’t respond to them, then people will think they are true.

So it is very interesting to see how the Obama campaign is responding to a $6.1 million attack ad launched by the Koch brothers. Here’s the attack ad:

The claims in this ad were all debunked by all three major fact checking organizations: PolitiFact, Factcheck.org, and The Fact Checker. And yet here they are again, being repeated “without any shame“.

So what can Obama do? I am reminded of Ronald Reagan’s famous response of “There you go again” to an attack from Jimmy Carter during a 1980 presidential debate. I think you can respond, but the response has to be a counter-attack.

I think the Obama campaign did a reasonably good job with the response:

What do you think? Will this response make any difference? I guess at the very least we got to see Stephanie Cutter say “BS”.

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