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Late Night Political Humor

“Mitt Romney, whose father was born in Mexico, is now talking up his Mexican heritage. Not to be outdone today, Newt Gingrich said he once cheated on one of his wives with a woman named Juanita.” – Jay Leno

“And so it was that on Martin Luther King Day, Newt Gingrich shared his vision of an America where people will be judged not by the color of their skin but by him, Newt Gingrich. And he finds them lazy.” – Jon Stewart (after showing Newt Gingrich’s debate comments that he would help poor African Americans get and keep a job instead of receive food stamps.)

“At the last Republican debate, Mitt Romney talked about his love of hunting. In fact, Romney said on his last hunting trip, he shot three deer and fired two elk.” – Conan O’Brien

“At the first Republican debate, they were standing behind podiums, then they had them at a round table, and then one night they had them in bunk beds.” – David Letterman

“Newt Gingrich has released a new ad attacking Mitt Romney because he knows how to speak French. Well Mitt Romney is not the only one. Jon Huntsman speaks Chinese and Rick Perry speaks gibberish.” – Jay Leno

“Jon Huntsman has dropped out of the race for president to return to his former job as the guy in the picture that comes with the frame.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The South Carolina GOP primary campaign is in full swing. Candidates are shaking hands, kissing babies and strategically ignoring Confederate flags.” – Stephen Colbert

“South Carolina is at war with this federal government and with this administration.” – Rick Perry from Monday’s debate.
“War against the government led by South Carolina! That always has good ending, right?” – Jon Stewart

“If we coordinate (with a super PAC) in any way whatsoever, we go to the big house.” – Mitt Romney
“Which one of your big houses do you go to: the beach house or the ski chalet?” – Jon Stewart

“(It’s) basically a money placenta. I give him nothing and Jon nourishes me in a warm embryonic bath of strategy and cash until I slide out all wet and electable.” – Stephen Colbert on his relationship with Jon Stewart, who now runs his super PAC

“President Obama is visiting Disney World on Thursday to promote a new plan to boost tourism. Of course, it’s going to be awkward when he walks into the ‘Hall of Presidents’ and sees them making room for Mitt Romney.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama will be going to Disney World where he’ll unveil his new plan to create jobs. And what better place for the president to talk about his jobs plan than Fantasyland?” – Jay Leno

“Obama doesn’t pay admission to Disney World. He just charges it to the China section of Epcot.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Sen. John McCain told Sean Hannity that choosing Sarah Palin was still the best decision he ever made. Well, today the Arizona DMV took away his driver’s license.” – Jay Leno

“A cardiologist now says that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards’ trial has to be delayed because Edwards has a life-threatening condition. Hey, don’t all husbands who cheat have a life-threatening condition?” – Jay Leno

“This SOPA bill is aimed at going after Internet pirates. Not old-school pirates, but the modern pirates, who use hard drives.” – Craig Ferguson

“On one hand, this bill threatens free speech, the bedrock on which this country is founded. On the other hand, it’s supported by Viacom, which owns CBS.” – Craig Ferguson

“The bill was cooked up by big studios who want larger fines for websites connected to piracy. People wonder why Hollywood makes such crappy movies and TV shows. It’s because they spend all their time preventing people from stealing the crap they’ve already made.” – Craig Ferguson

“Because of a protest, starting at midnight, Wikipedia is going to shut down for 24 hours. In fact, it’s 11:05, so you have less than one hour to get most of your facts wrong.” – Conan O’Brien

“Wikipedia is going dark to protest a bill that’s before Congress. I know what you’re thinking: ‘If Wikipedia is dark, who’ll supply America with bogus facts?'” – Craig Ferguson

“King Jung Nam, the brother of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, said that as a leader his younger brother will fail. When he heard this, Kim Jung Un was so upset at his older brother, he yelled, ‘I’m telling Kim Jung Mom.'” – Conan O’Brien

“The State Department issued a new travel warning yesterday, urging U.S. citizens to avoid Syria. Yeah, it was part of a new set of warnings called, ‘Things you were probably doing already.'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Kill Hollywood

The battle between old media and new media is becoming interesting. Y Combinator, the famous firm that invests in early stage companies, has issued an RFS (Request for Startup) that they are looking to fund companies that can help (in their words) kill Hollywood:

Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise.

That’s one reason we want to fund startups that will compete with movies and TV, but not the main reason. The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they’re resorting to such tactics. If movies and TV were growing rapidly, that growth would take up all their attention. When a striker is fouled in the penalty area, he doesn’t stop as long as he still has control of the ball; it’s only when he’s beaten that he turns to appeal to the ref. SOPA shows Hollywood is beaten. And yet the audiences to be captured from movies and TV are still huge. There is a lot of potential energy to be liberated there.

Successful entrepreneur Marco Arment wrote a similar post on his blog, calling for people to fight back against Hollywood’s influence in Congress. As he puts it “the real problem [is] MPAA’s buying power in Congress. This is a campaign finance problem.” If Hollywood studios are swept away by some new thing, Arment won’t shed any tears:

The MPAA is a hate-sink, a front to protect its members from negative PR. … The MPAA studios hate us. They hate us with region locks and unskippable screens and encryption and criminalization of fair use. They see us as stupid eyeballs with wallets, and they are entitled to a constant stream of our money.

A few years back I was the CEO of a company that worked with the entertainment industry. If anything, saying “The people who run it are so mean” is a massive understatement. In addition to “mean” I would add “vindictive”, “spiteful”, “petty”, and for some of them “congenital liars”. I saw people do things that cost their own company millions of dollars just because it allowed them to bully some other company, and the other company was one that was helping them, not a competitor. I will never work with the entertainment industry again — it has become the opposite of free enterprise.

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Political Pipeline


© Adam Zyglis

In December, Congress tucked a provision into the bill extending payroll tax reductions that required Obama to make a decision within two months on the Keystone XL project — an oil pipeline from Canada all the way across the US to the Gulf of Mexico. But they weren’t actually expecting the Obama administration to make a decision that fast. After all, the State department has not even finished their review of the project. What they really wanted was a talking point for the upcoming election. And they got it.

The real problem is not the pipeline, but the politicization of decisions like this. Where is the calm and reasoned discussion of the merits and disadvantages of this pipeline? Or a comparison with alternatives? The fact that the pipeline has become a political football means we may never have that discussion.

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Late Night Political Humor

“When Mitt Romney heard a story about people getting pissed on, he launched into his defense of venture capitalism.” – Bill Maher (regarding the video of American soldiers urinating on Afghan bodies)

“During a campaign event on Saturday, Mitt Romney reached into his pocket and gave cash to a woman who said she was broke. Which got awkward, when she was like, ‘I’m also lonely!'” – Jimmy Fallon

“When Mitt Romney says ‘the buck stops here,’ he means literally, ‘I have your money. Fuck you.'” – Bill Maher

“Is Mitt Romney a serial killer? I don’t know, but that question’s out there now.” – Stephen Colbert (on his super PAC attack ad accusing Romney of being a serial killer)

“Rick Santorum told an audience in South Carolina Mitt Romney was just a ‘paler shade of what we have in the White House now.’ And the guy in the back of the room stood up and said, ‘I thought that was the whole point.” – Bill Maher

“I’m sensing Mitt Romney isn’t that popular with Republicans. On the New Hampshire ballot he was listed as ‘Mitt Romney, I guess.'” – Seth Meyers

“According to the exit polls, Mitt Romney won in every category of voter in New Hampshire, from rich to poor, from young to old, from white to really white. He won across the board.” – Jay Leno

“Beating Newt Gingrich in a popularity contest is like beating Stephen Hawking in ‘Dancing with the Stars.'” – Bill Maher

“Newt Gingrich says that on Thursday he will be releasing his tax returns. You can feel the excitement, right?” – David Letterman

“Newt got an important endorsement this week – Todd Palin. I’m not kidding. Sarah Palin’s formerly mute husband, Todd, endorsed Newt Gingrich. We don’t know why, but today Todd received a beautiful pair of Tiffany earrings.” – Bill Maher

“The third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year. Especially, if you’re a Broncos fan supporting Jon Huntsman.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Jon Huntsman has officially dropped out of the 2012 presidential race. Wow, not having Jon Huntsman on the campaign trail is going to be like … Well, it’s going be like HAVING Jon Huntsman on the campaign trail. It’s going to have no effect really.” – Jimmy Fallon

“It’s been a tough week for Jon Huntsman. In addition to dropping out of the race, earlier this week he found out he was not really a Kardashian.” – David Letterman

‎”The mere possibility that I might run for president blew Jon Huntsman all the way back to the ‘Land’s End’ catalog he came from.” – Stephen Colbert

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Obama Girl Returns

Now it’s the Obama Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

This is pretty silly, but who can resist:

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Happy Accident


© Drew Sheneman

I can’t blame politicians and corporations for having the desire to control the internet. If they succeed in sneaking these laws past us, we have only ourselves to blame.

Interestingly enough, it seems like support for SOPA and PIPA — at least prior to Wednesday — was one of the few things congresscritters from both parties could agree on. Ah lobbyists!

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Obama met with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the Oval Office yesterday. And after they left, Obama checked the White House to make sure Sasha and Malia were still there.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt visited the White House. There was an odd moment when they tried to adopt President Obama.” – Conan O’Brien

“Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt talked adoption with Obama at the White House. Obama said, ‘Could I interest you in a Biden?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Mitt Romney told a crowd that he is half Mexican. Which means that half of him will not be voting for Mitt Romney.” – Conan O’Brien

“Experts say Mitt Romney needs Latino support in elections. Romney says, I’ll never pander to any group or mi nombre no es Mitt Romney.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A new tell-all book about Mitt Romney is coming out next week called ‘The Real Romney.’ You can tell the book is based on Romney. After 300 pages, the last line is, “Actually I just changed my mind about all of that.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Rick Perry’s presidential campaign is in trouble. So, they’re now selling his merchandise two for one. You get a foam finger, a key chain and I forget the third thing.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Researchers found a frog in new guinea that is so tiny, they believe it’s the smallest vertebrate on the planet. It has the tiniest backbone of any living creature, except members of Congress.” – Jay Leno

“Yoga-related injuries are on the rise. People sit in chairs all day at work, then they twist into pretzels and expect it to be easy. It’s like being a brainless action star all your life, then going out and trying to govern the state of California.” – Craig Ferguson

“Mayor Bloomberg wants to outlaw alcohol in New York City. How about outlawing rats in the subway?” – David Letterman

“The State Department issued a new travel warning yesterday, urging U.S. citizens to avoid Syria. Yeah, it was part of a new set of warnings called, ‘Things you were probably doing already.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“In North Korea, they announced they’re going to embalm Kim Jong Il’s body and put it on display just like Russia did with Lenin and America did with Larry King.” – Craig Ferguson

“A report from the Department of Homeland Security says they regularly monitor social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. So that’s who is looking at MySpace, I guess.” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Rickrolled

The mainstream media loves a good horse race, and they are sure getting one in the Republican primaries. Just a couple of days ago, Romney had won two races and was on his way to a double-digit knockout in South Carolina. But it looks like he might get Rickrolled.

Today Iowa finally announced their official totals, and Romney’s 8-vote unofficial win there flipped (how apropos) to a 34 vote win for Rick Santorum.

The other Rick, governor Perry, announced today that he is leaving the race and throwing his support to Newt Gingrich.

Plus Mitt seems to be doing himself no favors with his non-answer on releasing his income tax information.

As the media says, stay tuned.


© Joel Pett

UPDATE: The South Carolina primary is happening today, and several pundits say Gingrich will probably win it. But Romney is still ahead in Florida and will still likely take the nomination.

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The Real Piracy


© Jerry Holbert

I’d like this comic even better if the money bags sitting behind the Congress character was the money thrown at Congresscritters by lobbyists (like all the money they get from the MPAA, the Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations pushing the SOPA and PIPA bills). To their credit, most Internet companies have been reluctant to do a lot of lobbying, preferring instead to let their products and job creation record speak for themselves.

I also think the old media companies (represented by the MPAA and RIAA) were caught off-guard by the new media companies (who are just figuring out how to turn their huge ability to rapidly marshall grass roots support into political power).

UPDATE: Stephen Colbert hilariously claims that the internet has too much control over what’s on the web:

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Late Night Political Humor

“Congratulations to Mitt Romney. He won the New Hampshire primary last night. See, this is proof that even the multi-millionaire son of a multi-millionaire can beat the odds and run for president of the United States.” – Jay Leno

“The thing I don’t like about Romney is that he’s not funny. For a while, the field was looking promising for late night comedians.” – Craig Ferguson

“I’m having trouble warming up to Mitt Romney. He looks like the guy in the restaurant that comes to your table to make sure everything’s all right.” – David Letterman

“Seventy-six percent of people polled thought that Mitt was short for mittens. I’d vote for him if his name was Mittens Romney. Other nations would fear us for being so adorable.” – Craig Ferguson

“Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary. Romney’s win in New Hampshire means that he received seven delegates and a wagon full of maple syrup.” – Craig Ferguson

“Nation, unless you live in a cave, I’m sure you’ve heard that yesterday’s New Hampshire primary was won by Mitt Romney. And if you do live in a cave, I’m guessing you voted for Ron Paul.” – Stephen Colbert

“Ron Paul finished second. … Paul says if he can sustain those kind of numbers … and if his message continues to resonate … and if Mitt Romney gets hit with a dump truck, he could still win this thing.” –Jimmy Kimmel

“Ron Paul said he’s ‘nibbling at Mitt Romney’s heels.’ At 76 years old, I hope somebody’s cutting Romney’s heels into bite-sized pieces for him.” – Craig Ferguson

“In a speech, Ron Paul described himself to the crowd as ‘dangerous.’ Yeah, then one of his handlers fed him some warm milk through an eye dropper and he fell asleep in a shoebox.” – Conan O’Brien

“Jon Huntsman finished third … and he said he’s happy with the momentum he gained this week. You know it’s got to be fun being a politician. You can spin everything. … Your plane is crashing and you’re saying, ‘We’re happy to be landing ahead of schedule.'” – Jay Leno

“Rick Perry was philosophical about it. He said, ‘Last week was Iowa. Yesterday was New Hampshire. ‘ He said at least it’s giving him a chance to learn the names of all the states.” – Jay Leno

“After Iowa and New Hampshire, Mitt Romney’s campaign is now two for two. After his performance last night, Rick Perry’s campaign merchandise is now two for one.” – Jimmy Fallon

“This GOP race is heating up with the intensity of an Easy-Bake Oven.” –Jimmy Kimmel

“Fidel Castro posted a blog entry this week titled ‘The Best President.’ Castro thinks a robot would do a better job than President Obama. And if Mitt Romney wins, that could happen.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“With all due respect, Castro, we tried the robot thing here in California. And it didn’t work out.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Yesterday Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt stopped by the White House. There was an awkward moment when they tried to adopt President Obama.” –Conan O’Brien

“According to the tabloids, John Edwards is going to marry his mistress, Rielle Hunter. Which means, of course, now he has to find a new mistress, and the whole thing starts again.” – Jay Leno

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Definitely Not Coordinating!

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert continue to not coordinate the activities of their super PAC. And make fun of our totally bizarre and corrupt election laws:

The Christian Science Monitor says it is all completely legal.

In addition, Colbert’s super PAC is running a new ad in South Carolina, encouraging voters to vote for Herman Cain in the primary. Colbert was far too late to get on the South Carolina ballot, however, Cain is still on the ballot even though he dropped out of the race in December. To his credit, Cain responded “I find it very clever and humorous, as it should be. Anyone who finds what Mr. Colbert is doing offensive should simply lighten up.”

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The Long Game

I won’t be posting any articles on Wednesday, in support of the Internet strike against PIPA and SOPA.

Meanwhile, go read this article by Andrew Sullivan “How Obama’s Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics”. It is brilliant.

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The Day the Internet Died

On Wednesday, several major internet sites are going on strike. So if you try to access Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, The Oatmeal, Boing Boing, Mozilla, MoveOn, or hundreds of other sites, you may be out of luck. Some sites, including Google, ArsTechnica, TechCrunch, WordPress, and Wired, have a notice on their main page, but will allow users to click through to the real site.

What has the internet up in arms? Two bills in Congress — PIPA and SOPA — claim they are about protecting intellectual property rights, but they threaten to impose draconian censorship and legal requirements on web sites. Many people believe that if either of these bills become law, they could cause many legitimate websites to close because of the burdens involved. Indeed, I am not sure I could continue running this website if either of these bills pass.

Not only that, but the bills are so poorly written that they don’t even accomplish the goal of protecting intellectual property.

We’ve seen this kind of thing in the past. Remember when the television industry tried to outlaw video recorders because they could be used to record copyrighted material? [By the way, the link in that last sentence goes to an article on Wikipedia, which will be blacked out on Wednesday. Sorry.]

But this post is not here to convince you that these two bills could destroy the internet as we know it. I just want to point out some irony.

The first is that the Congressman who wrote SOPA was found to be infringing copyright on his own website, making him guilty of violating his own (poorly written) law.

It is also interesting that the mainstream media (whose corporate owners are largely in favor of these two bills) was almost completely silent on these bills until the internet got up in arms. The goal was apparently to get them passed without anyone noticing. It didn’t work.


© Rob Tornoe

UPDATE: Book publisher Tim O’Reilly, who is one of the people bills like SOPA and PIPA are supposed to protect, has a good article on why he is against them.

UPDATE 2: The protest seems to be working — at least three Congresscritters who were co-sponsors of the bills have withdrawn their support. And here’s an article listing the sites that have gone dark in protest.

UPDATE 3: One more irony — I keep hearing people say that copyright violations are theft. Just today, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said “Stealing content is theft, plain and simple.” Actually, it is neither stealing nor theft, according to the Supreme Court.

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Classy Warfare

Legislator co-sponsoring a bill requiring drug testing for welfare recipients — Normal Republican tactics.

Same legislator getting arrested for DUI — Normal Republican hypocrisy.

When arrested, the legislator was driving his gold four-door Jaguar XJ8 — Priceless.

What makes this even more ironic is that when the Republican bill to require welfare recipients to be tested for drug use was introduced, a Democratic legislator filed a similar bill to require that all state legislators submit to similar testing.

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The Romdroid Twins


© Tom Tomorrow

This would explain a lot.

Even in the best of times, politicians (like diplomats) have an uncomfortable relationship with the truth. There is a certain tension between a politician’s need to follow the wishes of their electorate, and the need to actually, you know, lead. But Mitt Romney seems to be especially willing to act like a well-oiled wind vane in order to get elected.

Are Romney’s words and actions really at odds with his religious faith?

I guess the thing that worries me the most about Romney, however, is not something I’ve seen mentioned much. Do we really need another president who grew up in the shadow of his successful father, and seems willing to do almost anything to prove himself and measure up?

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