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The Reverend Al Sharpton

A very enjoyable conversation between Jon Stewart and Al Sharpton about the Wall Street protestors, national discourse, the media, Obama, Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, and irony. In two parts:

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The Death of Gaddafi

I don’t want to celebrate the death of Muammar Gaddafi even though he was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, one of the worst acts of terrorism (other than 9/11).

But I do want to point out something hypocritical.

When Obama decided to help out the Libyan rebels who were fighting Gaddafi, he was repeatedly criticized by the Republican presidential candidates. Mitt Romney said “It is apparent that our military is engaged in much more than enforcing a no-fly zone. What we are watching in real time is another example of mission creep and mission muddle.” Michele Bachmann said “President Obama’s policy of leading from behind is an outrage and people should be outraged at the foolishness of the President’s decision.” Herman Cain wrote “I’ve said many times before that US intervention in Libya is inappropriate and wrong. The US does not belong in this war.”

But somehow Obama managed to help the rebels bring down a repressive dictatorship and advance the fight against terrorism, without getting us into a protracted war (like Bush did in both Afghanistan and Iraq). In fact, we didn’t even send in any of our troops to Libya. Likewise, Obama managed to get Osama bin Laden, the perpetrator of 9/11, something that Dubya totally failed at.

So now that Obama has managed to strike back against two of the worst terrorists in our history, do you think the Republicans will give him some credit? And do you think the people claiming that Obama hasn’t accomplished anything will change their tune?

UPDATE:

© Nick Anderson

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What happens when you get rid of illegal immigrants?

Well, we don’t have to guess any longer. In June, Alabama passed a tough immigration law and it was immediately challenged by the Obama administration, as has been done in other states. But unlike other states, a federal judge declined to block the Alabama law, leaving Alabama with the toughest law against illegal immigration in the nation.

The result is not too difficult to guess. Alabama farmers have had so much trouble finding farm laborers (even in a state that has higher unemployment than the national average) that they have had to downsize or even let crops die on the vine. According to one farmer “I’ve had people calling me wanting to work. I haven’t turned any of them down, but they’re not any good. It’s hard work, they just don’t work like the Hispanics with experience.” Another tried to use the government’s visa program to hire foreign workers, but it was too difficult. “You can’t find legal workers. Basically they last a day or two, literally.” Another says “People in Alabama are not going to do this. They’d work one day and then just wouldn’t show up again.”

In order to fight this problem, the state governor started a new program to help farmers and other businesses find new sources of legal labor, but a state spokeswoman admits that they don’t know of anyone who has been hired because of the program.

Part of the problem is that most farm jobs are in remote rural areas, while most of the unemployed live in cities.

Another problem is that farm work is largely paid by results, not by hour. For example, field workers are paid $2 for every 25 pound box of tomatoes they pick. A skilled worker can make as much as $300 a day, but when a farmer recently hired a crew of 25 legal Americans for the job, they were only able to pick enough to get paid $24 each for the day, which is less than minimum wage and even less than unemployment benefits. The irony is that the skilled workers are all illegal immigrants.

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Republicans may love America, but they hate most Americans

Jon Stewart doesn’t have to tell us about the hypocrisy of Republicans condemning the Wall Street protests, he lets them tell us themselves using their own words:

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Honest Lunacy


© Ed Stein

I’ve forced myself to watch the last three Republican debates. It’s one of those unfortunate sacrifices one must make to do this job. It’s getting harder each time to stomach the pandering, the self-aggrandizement, the bromides, banalities, platitudes and inanities, not to mention the mis-statements, half-truths and outright lies this collection of know-nothings, wannabes, also-rans and nonentities spout. Mitt Romney alone seems to have something that passes for a brain, but the contortions into which he twists himself in order to appear as nuts as the rest of the field (evidently a requirement for the Republican nomination these days) make him even less appealing than the honest lunacy of the rest of this bunch. No wonder so many rank-and-file Republicans keep asking for another candidate to step forward.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Yesterday the CEO of Citigroup said that he can understand why all these Occupy Wall Street protesters are so frustrated. In fact, he felt so bad for them, he gave himself a $10 million sympathy bonus.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Occupy Wall Street protests continued in New York City. Today the protests have been going on for four weeks now. That’s longer than most NBC sitcoms last.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The Republicans had yet another debate the other night. This is their seventh one. They’re apparently going to keep having these debates until Rick Perry can get one right.” – Jay Leno

“Herman Cain is surging in the polls. Many polls have him ahead of Mitt Romney. He hasn’t said who he would choose as his running mate yet, but according to a report, he’s had several meetings with Papa John.” – Jay Leno

“Herman Cain has moved ahead of Mitt Romney. Can you believe that? Political analysts say this is because Americans don’t understand Mormonism but they do understand pizza.” – Conan O’Brien

“Big Ben is leaning to one side, but they think that it might be able to somehow correct itself. And I thought well, yeah, look at Mitt Romney. He used to lean to the left, now he leans to the right.” – David Letterman

“This morning on the ‘Today’ show, Jenna Bush interviewed Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy was so confused and inarticulate that Jenna accidentally called him ‘dad’.” – Conan O’Brien

“White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley announced he’ll be leaving the White House after the election. I get the feeling a lot of people are going to be leaving the White House after the election.” – Jay Leno

“Hulk Hogan says he no longer supports President Obama. Yeah. But the president’s not worried because he has the support of the Iron Sheik and Triple H.” – Conan O’Brien

“The White House is apparently pushing to create more Latino-themed landmarks. Now that’s in addition to our current Latino-themed landmark, California.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Saudi government is upset about this plot to assassinate their ambassador. As you know, Saudi Arabia condemns all acts of terrorism unless, of course, they’re sponsoring them.” – Jay Leno

“The new iPhone 4S comes out tomorrow. If you are not already standing outside in line, it’s too late. The line for the iPhone 5 starts up Monday. … You watch TV and they say our economy is on life support. If we can afford $400 for a phone whose main difference appears to be that there’s a letter ‘S’ on it, how bad could things be?” – Jimmy Kimmel

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The 98%

There’s a serious point in here — we need to get off our asses.

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Raising Cain

Now that Herman Cain is leading in the Republican primary race, he is getting a lot more attention.


© Kevin Siers

And the attention is not just focused on Cain himself. Politico recently held a blind taste test of pizza from five chains, and Godfather’s Pizza (where Cain was formerly the CEO) was unanimously rated the worst.


© Nick Anderson

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A Majority of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana

For the first time since Gallup started asking Americans if marijuana should be legal, 50% say yes, while 46% say no. In addition, support for legalizing marijuana is directly and inversely proportional to age. Among 18 to 29 year olds, the percent who want it to be legal is 62%. For those 30 to 49 years old, the percentage is 56%. But among people 65 years or older, only 31% think it should be legal.

Note that we aren’t talking about decriminalizing marijuana — keeping it illegal but removing most penalties — this is full legalization. And 70% of Americans think it should be legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana to reduce pain and suffering.

We’ve spent over a trillion dollars on the (failed) war on drugs. Every 30 seconds, an American is arrested for violating a marijuana law, making it the fourth most common cause for arrest in the US. Wouldn’t we save a lot of money if we legalized marijuana?

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Heterosexuality is a Choice?


© Ruben Bolling

I guess if conservatives believe that homosexuality is a choice, then it must also be true that heterosexuality is a choice. So any man who is attracted to women must also be attracted to men. If he is heterosexual, he just chooses to seek out only women, and if he is homosexual, he chooses to seek out only men. Seems logical to me!

Personally, I’ve always been a bit annoyed that I am heterosexual, and not bisexual. So many attractive people out there, but I’m somehow limited to only half of them!

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Money isn’t Speech, it’s Votes!

Wanna predict who is likely to win any federal election? Just look up how much money they spent on their campaign. It’s amazing.

In 2006, the biggest spenders running for the House won their race 94% of the time. In 2008 the number was 93%, and in 2010 it was 85%. The numbers for the Senate were slightly lower; in 2006 it was 73%, in 2008 86%, and in 2010 83%.

So what’s the quality most important for a politician? The ability to raise money. Nothing else matters nearly as much.

Not only that, but I would guess that the only reason the percentages went down in 2010 was because of the increasing use of SuperPACs, which spend money on behalf of a candidate, but don’t count as money spent by the candidate.

Here’s one way to get big money out of our politics.

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Late Night Political Humor

“You know who’s also joining the Wall Street protesters? Kanye West. That’s a real good idea — a guy with diamonds in his teeth protesting greed.” – David Letterman

“Police were using pepper spray on the Wall Street protesters. That’s scary. What if they’re spraying them with condiments so the rich people can enjoy eating them?” – Craig Ferguson

“The protesters stood outside the homes of five rich dudes. Michael Moore was actually able to stand outside all five homes at the same time.” – Craig Ferguson

“The protests are getting pretty rowdy. This morning, they overturned Donald Trump’s hair and set it on fire.” – Craig Ferguson

“If I was in New York, I’d probably participate in this. Well, first I’d see ‘Jersey Boys.'” – Craig Ferguson

“President Obama had beer with four unemployed construction workers. And Obama asked the guys what was it like to lose their jobs, and they were like, ‘Oh, you’ll see.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“When the check came, Obama was like, ‘Do you guys want to split this five ways?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“They’re saying President Obama doesn’t have any friends. The problem is that he can’t get Congress to approve one.” –David Letterman

“At the last Republican debate, the candidates were seated according to how they’ve been doing in the polls. So Jon Huntsman was seated next to Tim Pawlenty at a Denny’s across the street.” – Conan O’Brien

“The candidates at the last Republican debate got to ask each other questions. Jon Huntsman asked, ‘Who am I?'” – David Letterman

“Rick Perry’s advisers said he prepared for the last debate by getting a lot more sleep. Apparently, he did it during the debate.” – Jay Leno

“Rick Perry looks like a guy who crawled out from under a painted rock. Perry’s exhausted. He’s having trouble sleeping. Calling Dr. Conrad Murray!” – David Letterman

“Rick Perry said America’s revolutionary war was fought in the 16th century. When told it was actually the 18th century, Perry apologized and said, ‘I never said I was a geology major.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Rick Perry had to leave the debate early. He was late for an execution.” – David Letterman

“At one point, Rick Santorum was interrupted by a gay heckler. But then Michele Bachmann told her husband, ‘Just shut up and sit down.'” – Jay Leno

“During the Republican debate last night, Michele Bachmann said she has 28 children, five of her own and 23 foster kids. It’s all part of her new strategy: Adopting a majority of voters.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Chris Christie has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Christie said President Obama is ‘shrinking the American pie.’ And believe me, if there’s one thing Christie hates, it’s a small pie.” – Jay Leno

“President Bill Clinton is on the show tonight, and we had trouble with security. The bomb-sniffing dogs found the cue cards.” – David Letterman

“Brian Williams said if he ever left his wife for a man, that man would be Bruce Springsteen. Which is a really weird way to begin the nightly news.” – Conan O’Brien

“One of the guys accused of organizing the Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador is a used car salesman from Texas. Just when you thought terrorists couldn’t get any lower.” – Jay Leno

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Bankers have feelings, too!


© Tom Tomorrow

Sometimes I think the only thing that keeps the greedy ones from completely taking over is that they eventually start believing their own PR and screw up.

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Texas Showdown – The Scientists are Revolting

State officials of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) commissioned a scientific report on Galveston Bay, and hired three scientists to write it, including John Anderson, an oceanographer at Rice University. The scientists knew there might be problems; after all, the head of TCEQ is a Rick Perry appointee who frequently claims scientific arguments that human activities are changing the climate are a hoax. Perry himself says that such science is inconclusive. So the scientists were careful to only use research that had appeared in peer-reviewed journals, and that science says that Texas it at high risk from climate change from things including increasing numbers of hurricanes along its long coastline and this summer’s wildfires and drought.

But before the TCEQ published the report, they decided to remove every single mention of human-induced climate change and rising sea levels. According to report author John Anderson, “They just simply went through and summarily struck out any reference to climate change, any reference to sea level rise, any reference to human influence – it was edited or eliminated. … we live in a state of denial in the state of Texas.” For example, they deleted a reference to the sea level in the bay rising five times faster than the historical average, which is simply a scientific fact. So the three scientists who worked on the report have asked that their names be removed from it.

You can see the changes to the report here.

But what takes this situation from the realm of irony into hypocrisy is that the TCEQ officials are defending their censorship. When the Houston Chronicle asked TCEQ why they censored the report, a spokeswoman gave no reasons but just said that the agency disagreed with information in it. She further claimed that “It would be irresponsible to take whatever is sent to us and publish it.” So when will they decide that they don’t like gravity and repeal it?

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Whose Job is He Worried About?


© Rob Rogers

Despite promising to fight for jobs, the Republicans did not even allow a vote on Obama’s jobs bill. Even more telling is their alternative “Jobs Through Growth Act” bill. It doesn’t contain a single item in Obama’s jobs bill (even though Republicans supported many of Obama’s proposals before Obama proposed them), but it does contain a repeal of health care reform, repeal of the recent financial overhaul measure, a disgusting provision that will allow multinational corporations to bring home $1.4 billion in profits without paying any tax on them, and a moratorium on any new regulations (including any on Wall Street). In other words, a total giveaway to banks, health insurance companies and other large corporations that doesn’t create any jobs at all. Haven’t we figured out yet that trickle down economics didn’t work?

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