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Backpedaling at the Wheel

Sunday, November 6, 2011


© Kevin Siers


© Lee Judge

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Late Night Political Humor

Sunday, November 6, 2011

“Two women have accused Herman Cain of sexually suggestive behavior in the ’90s. He said no. He was just explaining to them his 69-9-9 plan.” – Jay Leno

“Herman Cain is having to respond to charges he once sexually harassed women. One German woman kept saying, ‘Nein! Nein! Nein!'” – Conan O’Brien

“A Fox reporter asked Herman Cain if he’d ever had to pay anyone money to settle a sexual harassment claim. Herman Cain: ‘Outside of the Restaurant Association, absolutely not.'” – Jon Stewart

“President Obama invited trick-or-treaters to the White House Saturday night and they had a very scary party. They sat in a circle, turned off all the lights and the kids read the president his poll numbers.” – Jay Leno

“Trick-or-treaters came to the White House for about an hour on Saturday. Conservatives are already accusing the president of seriously depleting our country’s Tootsie Roll reserve.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“More than 3 million people from Maine to Maryland lost power because of the snowstorms over the weekend. In New York, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are thinking of changing the name to ‘I’m freezing my beard off.'” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Earlier tonight, a bunch of rich kids came to my door, took all my candy and the other 99 percent of the kids in the neighborhood are now occupying my lawn.” – Jay Leno

“One kid wanted me to pay him $5 to give him candy. I asked who he was supposed to be. He said, ‘Bank of America.'” – Jay Leno

“I had trouble deciding on a costume today. I just thought I’d throw together whatever I had in my closet. Luckily for me, everything I had looked like something worn by Moammar Gadhafi..” – Craig Ferguson

“The U.S. is sending a surveillance blimp to Afghanistan. We just have to hope the Taliban doesn’t have that new anti-surveillance technology: Eyes.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The economy is still hurting. Thirty percent of Americans are so disillusioned, they are thinking of moving back to Mexico.” – Jay Leno

“The planet’s seven-billionth person was born today. Of the 7 billion people in the world, no one is surprised that Kim Kardashian is getting divorced.” – Craig Ferguson

“British scientists say they have developed a super broccoli that can help fight heart disease. You know, if you want to fight heart disease, why don’t you come up with a food people will actually eat? Like a super glazed doughnut.” – Jay Leno

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Occupy Reality – expectation, disappointment and redemption

Saturday, November 5, 2011

After much anticipation, Friday was my first day at Occupy Boston. First impression – disappointment.

Yes, I expected it to be a bit messy but the clash between reality and dream can be harsh. Despite the impressive number of tents, perhaps a couple hundred, only a few dozen people showed up for the morning General Assembly. Meeting within any organization dedicated to consensus is always difficult but the presence of several persons consumed by their own psychotic demons is a challenge that I had not imagined. Much time was spent allowing individuals, both sane and less so, to vent their frustrations. I had hoped to hear of dreams and aspirations.

Yet as time passed, my attitude slowly changed. I began to notice the efforts of individuals quietly and discreetly working to focus the group. Whenever a particularly disturbed individual began to disrupt, one or two young people would move over to him and quietly talk him down and draw his attention away from the larger group then listen to him. It takes real bravery and dedication to stand toe to toe with a large, angry, spitting psychotic and calmly talk.

I began to see some of the informal understandings and structures that had developed to facilitate cohesion within the group. And as time passed more people showed up and group coherence improved as the proportion of disturbed individuals was diminished. The assembly eventually became large enough that the human microphone became necessary. If someone could not hear, they would shout, “MIC CHECK” and the crowd would respond in unison, “MIC CHECK”, and after that every phrase uttered by the speaker would be repeated by the front of the assembly so those in back could hear. This simple solution had a remarkable unifying effect. It reminded me of the “call and response” at the Southern Baptist church of my youth. We shared a communion of thought as we spoke the same words of the speaker. Can there be a better way to truly listen than to repeat the words spoken by another?

In the afternoon, I was delighted to hear Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz speak on the history of social movements. After 50 years of activism, she is still a dynamo. She has seen wave after wave of progressive movements come in and retreat but she believes that the tide is ever rising and she welcomes each wave with enthusiasm. She spoke to the moment when she pointed out that reality is not always what we want or pretty but seeing and speaking truth is such an important step that she has come to believe that “truth and reality are always upbeat.” At that moment I was glad that I had come to Occupy Boston in the early gritty hours. All of Occupy Wherever is not pretty but despite the distractions the truth and reality of Occupy Boston are definitely upbeat.

– Iron Filing

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Inevitable?

Saturday, November 5, 2011


© Clay Bennett

So what do people think? Is Mitt Romney the inevitable winner of the Republican primary, as each flavor-of-the-month candidate becomes a flash in the pan as they crash and burn?

Or is Romney just too unacceptable to Republican voters? Stay tuned!


© Gary Varvel

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Run on the Banks?

Saturday, November 5, 2011


© Jerry Holbert

In the month since Bank of America announced it would start charging a monthly $5 for using debit cards, an amazing 650,000 Americans joined credit unions. That’s more (in one month) than the number of people who signed up for credit unions in all of 2010.

According to the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), people who move to Credit Unions will save an average of $70 a year because of reduced fees, and better rates on loans and savings.

But it could get worse. Today is “Bank Transfer Day” — encouraging people to move their money out of the too-big-to-fail banks and into credit unions and community banks. They even have a handy website to help you find a local bank or credit union.

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Give Me That Old Time Religion!

Friday, November 4, 2011


© Matt Bors

Would Jesus Occupy Wall Street?

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Late Night Political Humor

Friday, November 4, 2011

“A company in Illinois is selling a collectible baby doll of President Obama. It’s really cute. The doll can even say a few words, as long as it has a teleprompter.” – Jimmy Fallon

“And just so Republicans don’t complain, it comes with a birth certificate.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama had dinner with a U.S. postal worker who won a contest to meet him. The mailman was like, ‘Wow, someone who takes longer to deliver than I do!'” – Jimmy Fallon

“It was a long meal. Every time Obama tried to pass the salt, it got rejected by Republicans.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Herman Cain told a group of Occupy Wall Street protestors to go home, get a job, and get a life. That’s the Republican version of hope and change, ladies and gentlemen.” – Jay Leno

David Letterman’s “Top Ten Signs Herman Cain’s Campaign Is In Trouble”
10. Can’t afford cigarettes for new campaign ads
9. It’s been fun, but there’s no way we’re actually electing a guy named ‘Herman’
8. While campaigning, kissed a photo of himself and signed a baby
7. New campaign slogan ‘Mayday!’
6. Even Michele O’Bachmann thinks his ideas are nuts
5. He trails Gadhafi’s corpse in the polls
4. Refuses to acknowledge the road to the White House goes through me, Dave
3. He’s acting less fun-crazy and more crazy-crazy
2. Just accepted million-dollar offer to pose nude in Playboy
1. There’s a 0-0-0 chance he’ll be president

“Remember Terry Jones, the pastor in Florida who burned the Koran? That’s right; he is now a presidential candidate. You know what his platform is? Deporting every undocumented worker in America and imprisoning women who have abortions. Finally, the Republican Party has a moderate in the race.” – Bill Maher

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Pushing the Media Envelope

Friday, November 4, 2011

Conan O’Brien (perhaps unintentionally) exposes the vacuous echo chamber that is the mainstream media:

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Seven Billion

Friday, November 4, 2011


© Jen Sorensen

According to estimates, the world’s population has passed 7 billion people, more or less. Hard to count the squirming mass of humanity with any accuracy.

At the rate we are growing, the population will hit 8 billion by 2025, and 9 billion around 2043.

World population is growing at around 1.1% per year. That doesn’t sound like much, but it means the world population will double in less than 64 years. Less than 64 years to add as many people as it took us all of human history to achieve. That’s 14 years less than the average life expectancy in the US, so an average person will see the world’s population more than double in their lifetime.


© Lalo Alcaraz

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Corporate Taxes?

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Many conservatives want to lower corporate taxes, claiming that our corporate tax rate is too high. But that’s just the statutory rate, before companies take advantage of various tax breaks.

In fact, a new study of 280 corporations in the Fortune 500 shows that the average tax rate they paid was 18.5%, just over half the statutory rate and more than the average middle class tax rate. 78 of those companies paid no taxes at all in at least one of the last three years. And 30 of them had a negative tax rate — the government gave them money — even though they had pre-tax profits of $160 billion.

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The State of the Election

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Herman Cain and Rick Perry run into trouble:

The host of the speech given by Perry claims the Texas governor was not drinking and that his speech was very well received.

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Late Night Political Humor

Thursday, November 3, 2011

“A new poll released today by Fox News has former godfather’s pizza CEO Herman Cain leading the Republican candidates for president. And he’s the funniest candidate by about 40 points.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“There’s a guy that wants to be Superman so much that he spent a million dollars on plastic surgery so to look like him. I’m telling you, Rick Perry is really getting desperate.” – David Letterman

“President Obama just announced a new student loan plan that will forgive debt after 20 years. Yeah, Obama said that forgiving debt is the most honorable thing someone can do. And then he repeated that in Chinese.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A company in Illinois is selling a collectible baby doll of President Obama. It’s really cute. The doll can even say a few words, as long as it has a teleprompter.” – Jimmy Fallon

“And just so Republicans don’t complain, it comes with a birth certificate.” – Jimmy Fallon

“According to USA Today, 74 percent of Americans plan to hand out candy this Halloween. Although President Obama thinks it should be just the top 1 percent.” – Jay Leno

“The Occupy Wall Street protesters are going into their second month, but they’ve been orderly and well behaved. Well that doesn’t sound like any fun.” – David Letterman

“The United States has been using Twitter to help fight the Taliban. The theory is the Taliban will surrender if they read enough tweets from Kanye West.” – Conan O’Brien

“‘Seinfeld’ star Jason Alexander is in the Middle East to promote peace. In a related story, ‘Friends’ star Matt LeBlanc is in Europe trying to prop up the troubled euro.” – Conan O’Brien

“A team of British lawyers has now concluded that the Declaration of Independence was illegal, and the American colonies had no right to secede from England. Well, you thought our court system was backed up.” – Jay Leno

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International Man of Irony

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

This post will stay at the top for a while. Look below it for newer posts.

Political Irony is going to have someone else posting stories for a month.

Why? Because I’m leaving the country on a trip. I’m going to go see what’s up in the Middle East, including visiting Egypt, Israel, and other countries. I should have Internet access from time to time so you will see some posts filed by me, but mostly you will see posts from my good friend “Iron Filing”. So if you disagree with anything you see in here, it was definitely posted by my substitute!

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How the Flat Tax Works

Wednesday, November 2, 2011


© Ed Stein

Commentary by Ed Stein:

The Republican candidates for president are suddenly all hot to propose flat taxes. First Herman Cain, the pizza czar, came out with his loopy 999 plan. Now Rick Perry, humbled by his lack of debating skills and challenged to present something more serious than shooting coyotes while jogging, has come out with his own flat tax, which, if anything, is even more ludicrous than Cain’s. Pressed on the issue, the ever malleable Mitt Romney is backtracking on his previous disdain for the flat tax, pending how his tentative new position fares in the polls. Flat taxes sound appealing until someone does the math, which invariable shows that, no matter which version we’re talking about, a major part of the tax burden shifts from the rich to the middle class. We have a long-standing tradition of progressive taxation in this country, in which those with the most pay a higher percentage than those with less, on the theory that the rich don’t need as much of their income for necessities and can afford to part with a slightly higher portion of their wealth. The rich, as you might suspect, would prefer a different structure. The counter-argument that they and their congressional serfs dish up is that the rich need every dime so they can create jobs for the rest of us. This hasn’t happened while the wealthiest Americans have accrued more and more of the nation’s riches, but this inconvenient fact never stops the fiction from being repeated by the politicians who derive their campaign funding from the people who stand to gain the most from having their taxes paid by someone else.

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Pizza Geography

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Herman Cain shares his views on China:

I do view China as a potential military threat to the United States … we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they’re a military threat. They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat.

Why that’s scary news, that China is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Especially since they tested their first nuclear weapon back in 1964 and are currently estimated to have around 400 nuclear weapons.

And on China’s economy:

China has a $6 trillion economy and they’re growing at approximately 10 percent. We have a $14 trillion economy — much bigger — but we’re growing at an anemic 1.5, 1.6 percent. When we get our economy growing back at the rate of 5 or 6 percent that it has the ability to do, we will outgrow China.

I’d like to know how growing at 6 percent will outgrow a country growing at 10 percent.

And no, I didn’t make up the “Pizza Geography” headline. Cain himself compared US foreign policy to making pizza.

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