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Is WikiLeaks Responsible for the Current Arab Pro-Democracy Movement?

A democratic revolution in Tunisia. Pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt. Foreign Policy magazine says “In one fell swoop, the candor of the cables released by WikiLeaks did more for Arab democracy than decades of backstage U.S. diplomacy.”

How? They helped the Tunisian people realize that it was obvious to the rest of the world what they thought only they knew — that their government was corrupt, repressive, and downright rotten to the core. It also showed them that the US would not back the Tunisian leader, giving them hope that change was possible.

Now the same thing is starting in Egypt and there are stirrings in other countries with repressive governments. Maybe we should stop persecuting Julian Assange, and instead award him the Nobel Peace Prize.

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The Supreme Party


© Rex Babin

Monday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia appeared at an event organized by the House Tea Party caucus and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, but he didn’t attend the State of the Union address the following night. This has caused some people to claim that conservative justices don’t even feel the need to appear to be impartial. Supreme Court justices are supposed to be non-partisan.

In addition, Justice Clarence Thomas has been criticized because his wife organized a Tea Party event herself, which urged conservatives to fight for the repeal of Obama’s health care reform bill. Conservatives are trying to get the bill declared unconstitutional, and it is widely assumed that this issue will eventually come up before the Supreme Court, so it looks pretty bad to have the wife of a justice actively fighting against the bill.

Coincidentally, on Monday Thomas amended his financial disclosure form after Common Cause pointed out that on his then current form, Thomas had marked that his wife had no previous income, when in fact she had worked 11 years for the conservative Heritage Foundation, among other jobs totaling $686,589. All Federal judges are required by law to disclose income earned by their spouses. Thomas claimed that it was a simple mistake, but lying on disclosure forms can be prosecuted as a felony. I’m waiting for Thomas to claim that he was ignorant of the law.

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Fox News sinks to new low

This has got to be one of the most juvenile things ever done by Fox News. They took Obama’s State of the Union address and specifically edited it and inserted their own soundtrack of — literally — crickets chirping after Obama makes two slightly humorous comments. Then they make fun of Obama because his jokes didn’t elicit more laughter. Watch it:

Well, we couldn’t hear any laughter because you so crudely edited it out. If you listen to the actual video of his speech (at 34 and 48 minutes), he got both laughter and applause for these jokes.

How unfair and unbalanced can you get?

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Utah to adopt official state gun?

Most states have an official state flower, or bird. But a bill introduced in Utah wants to create an official state firearm. And their weapon of choice? The Browning M1911 semi-automatic pistol.

Not every politician in Utah supports the measure, questioning whether they should honor semi-automatic pistols — the choice weapon for those who are committing massacre, including the recent shootings in Arizona. And Virginia Tech. And Fort Hood.

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Fox Calling the Kettle Black

My question is, does Megyn Kelly actually believe the lies she tells, or does she simply not know the difference between reality and fantasy?

ROUND TWO: Bill O’Reilly goes to the defense of Megyn Kelly and shows that he has an equally weak grasp of reality:

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Sex in the Military


© Ted Rall

I’m not entirely sure the point that Rall is trying to make, but this comic is hilarious nonetheless.

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Government for and by the Corporations

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am a strong Obama supporter. But that doesn’t mean I give him a pass when he makes a mistake, even one as stupid as this one.

Obama announced Monday that he is appointing Donald Verrilli to be solicitor general, the government’s top lawyer and the position vacated by Elena Kagan when she was appointed to the Supreme Court. Before joining the government in 2009, Verrilli was involved in a number of prominent cases for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). He represented the companies that shut down Grokster, he led a team of lawyers that sued Google for $1 billion on behalf of Viacom, arguing that Google owned site YouTube was responsible for massive copyright violations, and he won a $220,000 judgement against a Minnesota woman for file sharing 24 songs.

I believe the modern excessive expansion of copyright law has had a stifling effect on innovation and even on the economy of this country. I am not against copyrights, but as the founding fathers knew, they must be balanced against the public interest. I guess throwing the entertainment industry a bone is more important politically.

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Congressional Hearing


© Jim Morin

Are they purposely ignoring us, or do they have a hearing problem?

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Late Night Chinese Political Humor

“Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting us. When a country owes you a billion dollars they have a problem. When they owe you a trillion dollars, YOU have a problem. We’re too big to fail!” – Jon Stewart

“The White House held a state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. There were 200 people, a six-course dinner, and champagne. It was so expensive that we had to borrow money from China for the dinner.” – David Letterman

“Chinese President Hu Jintao had dinner at the White House with President Obama and first lady Michelle. They were going to exchange gifts from the two countries, but unfortunately everything in our country is now made in their country, so they couldn’t do any exchanging.” – Jay Leno

“At the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, they served lobster. Which meant that for once, Joe Biden wasn’t the only one wearing a bib.” – Jimmy Fallon

“At the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Hu opened a fortune cookie that said, ‘You will lend us another trillion dollars.'” – Conan O’Brien

“The cellist Yo-Yo Ma was there. It’s the first yoyo we’ve had in the White House since George W. Bush.” – David Letterman

“Barbra Streisand was also at the White House dinner. Apparently, Hu wanted to meet a Focker.” – David Letterman

“There was one really awkward moment when Hu found out that Obama was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and, out of force of habit, tried to have him arrested.” – Jay Leno

“Chinese President Hu Jintao visited President Obama at the White House yesterday. There was one very awkward moment when the Chinese President met the Obama daughters and asked, ‘So, which factory do you work at?'” – Jay Leno

“Hu told President Obama’s 9-year-old daughter, Sasha, that she’s a pretty little girl and asked her how many iPods she could make in an hour.” – Conan O’Brien

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State of the Hate


© Steve Sack

Even worse, the Republican members of the Supreme Court will likely boycott the state of the union address, because last year Obama criticized the court’s “Citizens United” decision.

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Do as I say, not as I do

Obama has a mixed result on his promises to make government more transparent. Over at PolitiFact, of the 35 promises that Obama made relating to government transparency, they rate only five completely kept, three more kept but with some compromises, and 15 in the works, while six of them are rated as broken, and six more as stalled.

Republicans took advantage of this in their “Pledge to America”, bashing Democrats for limiting openness and debate” during the legislative process, and promising to “ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square”. The Pledge also promises that the GOP “will fight to ensure transparency and accountability in Congress and throughout government”. When John Boehner recently took the helm of the House, he said “Above all else, we will welcome the battle of ideas, encourage it, and engage in it—openly, honestly, and respectfully.”

So should we be surprised when last week, Eric Cantor, the Republican Whip, announced plans to eliminate the Presidential Election Fund (you know, where on your income tax form you can donate three dollars to the presidential election). This fund was introduced after the Watergate scandal (because Nixon was caught receiving illegal campaign funds from big corporations), and has been highly successful — every presidential candidate from the two major parties since then has opted into the public financing system, with the exception of Obama.

There is widespread agreement among both parties that the public financing system needs updating, and there have been several bills — sponsored by Congressmen in both parties — to reform it, but scrapping it would only give big corporations even more power in presidential elections by making them the overwhelming source of money in our increasingly expensive elections.

But the real hypocrisy is that the GOP is trying to pass this bill with no transparency at all. No hearings have been held, nor has a single committee in Congress even discussed the bill. So after pledging “openness and debate” and promising that bills will be “debated and discussed in the public square”, just a few days after taking power in the House they are going back on this promise entirely and instead are doing a secretive end run.

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WWJD

[Thanks to the fine people at Prose Before Hos for this photo.]

Think about this the next time the right tries to verbally crucify Obama.

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Late Night Political Humor

“The President of China is in Washington. It’s a bit like when you’re into your bookie for more than you can afford, and he stops by the house to say hello.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“China’s President Hu is visiting the United States. If he likes what he sees, he may put down a deposit.” – David Letterman

“President Hu’s advance team came a week earlier to make sure that wherever he’s staying has no Chinese drywall.” – Jay Leno

“A woman fainted during a welcoming ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao. President Obama said, ‘Who knows CPR?’ President Hu said, ‘No, I don’t.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama held a state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. The world leader with the funny name, who grew up in Asia, said he enjoyed meeting President Hu.” – Conan O’Brien

“The White House held a state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. President Obama wore a traditional Chinese-made garment: a pair of Nikes.” – Jay Leno

“There was a big dinner for President Hu. General Tso brought his famous chicken.” – David Letterman

“The state dinner went really well, until the after dinner speeches were hosted by Ricky Gervais.” – Jay Leno

“New Speaker of the House John Boehner chose not to attend the dinner for Chinese President Hu. In China, they’re calling him an orange chicken.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Senate majority leader Harry Reid refused to attend the state dinner for Chinese President because he considers Hu Jintao a dictator. In response Jintao said, ‘You’re coming. You’ll have the fish, and you’ll like it.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Obama and Hu had a private dinner the night before. When Obama tried to pick up the check, Hu said, ‘Your money is no good here.’ Obama laughed, and Hu said, ‘No, really, your money is no good.'” – Jay Leno

“The Republican-controlled House voted to repeal the healthcare bill. If that goes well, they’ll see what they can do about this whole ‘women voting’ thing.” – Conan O’Brien

“Republicans voted today to repeal health reform. Democrats warned this could make it harder for older Americans to get health care. Hugh Hefner’s new fiance said, ‘Good!'” – Jay Leno

“Dick Cheney says he may need a heart transplant. The doctors discovered the problem during Cheney’s annual autopsy.” – David Letterman

“On the other hand, George W. Bush is still waiting on his brain transplant.” – David Letterman

“Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s considering doing a movie in which he would play a Nazi. He says that after being governor of California, he’s looking for a job that will make people hate him less.” – Conan O’Brien

“President Obama says he’ll go to the Super Bowl if the Chicago Bears are playing in it. Sarah Palin says she’ll go to the Super Bowl if actual bears are playing in it.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Symbolic Job Creation


© Mike Luckovich

The new Republican-controlled House voted to repeal Obama’s Health Care Reform act. But they didn’t propose anything to replace it, and even some conservative Republicans think the effort is more about posturing than about actually doing something.

So what’s next? While most Americans want some action on the economy, the Republicans have indicated that their top priority — after symbolically destroying health care — is (can you guess it?) abortion (of course).

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Starve the Beast?


© Tony Auth

Ah the fickleness of the American public. Just two months after voters swept tea party candidates into Congress, Americans now disapprove of “the political movement known as the Tea Party” by a 52% to 35% margin. That’s their worst ever unfavorable ratings, up from 45% disapproval ratings last September, before the elections, and even more from last March, when more people approved of the Tea Party than disapproved.

The same poll found that Obama’s approval rating increased by 5%, to 54% (with 43% disapproving of his performance).

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