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Negative campaigns will get worse as long as they keep working


© Lee Judge

If we keep voting for people whose only policy proposal is to attack their opponents, then we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

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Late Night Political Humor

“I finally read former President Bush’s memoir, and I’ve got to say, the book was way better than the presidency.” – Jimmy Fallon

“George W. Bush says he is glad to be out of the Oval Office because he doesn’t have to think all the time. And I’m thinking wait a minute, that was him thinking all the time? Really?” – David Letterman

“George W. Bush was signing copies of his new memoir ‘Decision Points’ at a Borders Bookstore yesterday. Did you hear about that? Yeah, when he saw the bookstore, he was like, ‘I heard about these places, but I never believed they were real.’ I’m not even wearing special glasses. This is great.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“JetBlue is appointing retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal to its board of directors. That’s who I want looking for my missing luggage — the guy who’s been trying to find bin Laden for 10 years.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Twenty-thousand Indonesians protested President Obama’s visit to Indonesia. Apparently, 3 out of 4 Indonesians believe he’s an American.” – Conan O’Brien

“President Obama is still out of the country but he’s keeping in contact with Vice President Joe Biden to find out when it’s safe to come back home.” – Jay Leno

“The Pentagon says it doesn’t know who is responsible for launching a missile off the California coast on Monday. Meanwhile, Sasha and Malia can’t believe the awesome new video game they just found in the White House.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Nancy Pelosi is throwing a party to celebrate her time as speaker of the House. If you would like to get her a gift, she’s registered at Bed, Bath and Don’t Blame Me.” – Jay Leno

“I’m not sure what kind of a party it will be, but I think we can rule out a tea party.” –Jay Leno

“I don’t know if you guys saw this, but Bristol Palin made it to the semifinals of “Dancing with the Stars” last night. I’m not saying Bristol is going to win, but if there’s one thing she’s known for, it’s going all the way. So I would put my money, put it all on Bristol Palin.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Money and Ethics in Politics


© Matt Bors

And just this week, a Congressional leader told the head of a foreign government that he would side with the foreign country against the US president. Where are the screams of treason at this unprecedented undermining of US policy?

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Bottom Line?

Bloomberg implicitly asks the obvious question: Investors say that president Obama is bad for the bottom line; if so, then why are US corporations on track for the biggest earnings growth in 22 years, and the stock market is going like gangbusters again?

68% of US investors say that Obama’s policies are detrimental to the US investment climate, and they aren’t even willing to give Obama credit to turning around the economic collapse. And 67% of them want to see a Republican win the 2012 presidential election.

As Bill Maher put it, are they upset “because President Chocolate Jesus did not make it rain twenties in two years”?

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Obama went to India, South Korea, then Japan. He’s going to keep traveling until he finds his birth certificate.” – David Letterman

“President Obama was in India yesterday visiting our jobs. Tomorrow he goes to China to visit our money.” – Jay Leno

“A company in China is selling a President Obama blow-up sex doll. Don’t get too excited. It turns out most of its positions are very unpopular.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama is in Indonesia. I guess he won a trip on ‘Wheel of Fortune.'” – Jimmy Kimmel

“President Obama was in Indonesia today, and he spent a lot of his childhood there. It was like Dick Cheney going back to visit the Death Star.” – Craig Ferguson

“Obama actually spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. He was known as Barry Obama then. They’ve been digging up childhood friends. One said he was chubby and ran like a duck. Which proves he’s not Kenyan, because that’s as American as it gets.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“President Barack Obama used to be known as ‘Barry.’ Barry doesn’t sound like a president, it sounds like a guy that gets drunk and throws up in the fish tank.” –Craig Ferguson

“Republicans were complaining about the cost of Obama’s trip, and that he was staying at the Taj Mahal. It turns out he was actually staying at the Taj Mahal Express, by the airport.” – Jay Leno

“Obama says India is one of our most important trading partners. We give them our jobs and they give us . . . Wait, what do we get?” – Jay Leno

“The president’s trip was cut short due to volcanic ash. That’s the second time his plans have been disrupted by ash. The last time was when the Democrats went down in flames.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama said he spends a lot of time thinking about bringing back the eight million jobs we lost. And in his new book, George Bush says he spends a lot of time thinking about bringing back the show ‘Wings.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“‘Decision Points’ by George W. Bush has dropped, and it’s like ‘War & Peace’ without the peace. Here’s the very first page: ‘In the last year of my presidency I began to seriously consider writing my memoirs.’ Right away he’s got you hooked. Did he write them or didn’t he? You won’t know until you read the book. Maybe the rest of the pages are blank. If there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that we can’t believe something is there just because Bush says it is.” – Stephen Colbert

“George W. Bush’s memoir is out today. And the guy is apparently quite candid, quite honest in the memoir. It’s a big, big book. The problem is because of his economic policies nobody can afford to buy the book.” – David Letterman

“Former president George Bush has a new book out called ‘Decision Points.’ He’s quite candid in this book. He talked about how he and Dick Cheney often clashed because of their different style. For example, Bush liked to shoot from the hip, whereas Cheney liked to shoot people in the face. Two different ways of coming at things.” – Jay Leno

“In the book Bush says that he lost respect for John McCain when he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. This guy whose running mate shot a buddy in the face.” – David Letterman

“George W. Bush was interviewed by Matt Lauer who asked him if he would still invade Iraq if he knew then what he knows now. It’s an unfair question. For one thing I don’t know if Bush does know what he knows now.” –Jimmy Kimmel

“Former President Bush was on ‘Oprah.’ It was Oprah’s annual ‘Least Favorite Things’ episode.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Former President George W. Bush was on ‘Oprah.’ When asked about being the leader of the free world, Oprah said, ‘It’s not bad.'” – Conan O’Brien

“But the guy, the president, he is still quick. Still very athletic. You know, he’s a former cheerleader. I believe he is our only president who was a cheerleader. He proved today at a book signing that he can still duck a shoe.” – David Letterman

“Republicans fresh off their victory on Election Day say their first priority will be to dismantle the new health care law. And believe me, there’s nothing people without a job love more than less health care.” – Jay Leno

“Oh, and did you know this is fraud awareness week? Fraud awareness week comes the week after the election when people realize the person they elected is a huge fraud.” – Jay Leno

“We’ll start with the shocking events on ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ Once again, Bristol Palin, despite the fact again she had the lowest score, lives to dance another week and instead quarterback Kurt Warner becomes the latest moose to find himself in the Palin cross hairs. Who knew Bristol Palin was the most popular person on television.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“What if Bristol Palin wins ‘Dancing with the Stars?’ How afraid can America be of her mother? She can’t dance. She’s not a star. The only part of the show that applies to her is the ‘with the.’ I wouldn’t have believed that a dancing competition could make me question whether I really live in a democracy or not.” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Rememorizing


© Mr. Fish

Apparently, a significant number of Bush’s “original” recollections found in his new memoir were plagiarized — often word for word — from other people’s books and articles.

UPDATE: I also feel this way about seeing Bush on TV again.

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Security Theater

In The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg has an excellent article from 2008 about how surprisingly easy it is to circumvent airport security. Or as he puts it “Airport security in America is a sham — “security theater” designed to make travelers feel better.”

Just to see if it could be done, he carried on various dangerous items, including pocketknives, pocket tools, lengths of rope, cigarette lighters, and (of course) box cutters. To show how easy it is to carry liquids onto a flight, he used a “beer belly” — a bladder on a sling with a drinking tube sold to enable people sneak alcohol into football games — to smuggle two cans’ worth of Bud Light onto a flight. And just for fun, he also carried on a three-by-four-foot Hezbollah flag (featuring an upraised fist holding an AK-47), matches from hotels in Beirut and Peshawar, an “Osama Bin Laden, Hero of Islam” T-shirt, and even an inflatable Yasir Arafat doll. Goldberg discusses how easy it is to print fake boarding passes and use them to fly, even if you are on the TSA no-fly list. He also deliberately tried to act suspicious, in order to test the TSA’s program that is supposed to spot terrorists from their behavior.

The article reminded me of my own experiences with airport security. Like the time I thought I had lost my pocket knife, but it turns out that it was in an outside pocket of my carry-on bag and it (unknown to me) accompanied me through airport security on several domestic and international flights before anyone noticed it. But my favorite time was when I walked off a flight from Havana Cuba to Miami (yes, I was in Cuba legally) and because there was less than an hour before my next flight, the airline had me carry on my normally checked bag, which contained, in addition to my pocket knife, some tools, various liquids, and (of course) a bunch of illegal cigars. I was even subjected to a hand search of my bag at the gate, and they didn’t notice a thing. Remember that I had just left a country that is on the “Axis of Evil” list.

Bottom line? post 9/11 airport security is a stunning waste of time and (lots of) money. The TSA has never stopped an actual terrorist from boarding a flight. The airport security measures that make flying such a pain are pretty much there just for show.

Feel safer?

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I’ll tell you where you can put it…


© Bruce Beattie

Inspired by a campaign in Britain that saw Tony Blair’s autobiography show up in the crime, horror, and even fantasy sections of UK bookstores, US activists have launched a campaign to have people move George W. Bush’s new autobiography to its “rightful place” — the crime section — and then take a photo of the book after it has been “correctly reshelved”.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Former president George W. Bush released his new memoir. By the way, ‘memoir’ is just a fancy word for ‘a bunch of stuff that happened to me.'” – Craig Ferguson

“In his new book, George W. Bush says he’s happy to be out of Washington. Well, it’s unanimous.” – David Letterman

“Bush’s memoir is 512 pages. To be fair, 200 of those pages are just games and puzzles.” – Craig Ferguson

“In the middle of the book is an Iraq maze which is pretty much impossible to get out of.” – Craig Ferguson

“Well George W. Bush is on the big book tour this week. During an interview with USA Today, Bush said that he was, ‘blindsided by the financial crisis.’ Bush said he was also blindsided by the fact that he knew the word blindsided.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Former President George W. Bush has written his memoir. It’s called Decision Points. I’ve already decided not to read it. … He’ll be everywhere promoting the book. He’s on the ‘Today Show.’ Going to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and tomorrow he’ll be on the Rachael Ray Show, waterboarding the veal cutlets.” – David Letterman

“No sir, I’m not going to read it until he reads it.” – David Letterman

“President Bush told Matt Lauer the most embarrassing thing he ever did drunk was ask a friend of his parents what sex was like after 50. That’s nothing. John McCain asked Sarah Palin to be his running mate when he was sober.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama is in India. You know what they say — go where the jobs are.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama was in India today. The President is touring Asia making trade deals. He signed a $10 billion pack with India this afternoon. He brokered a deal to make India part of the UN security council. And he was able to get a $15 late fee reversed on his Visa card.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Obama’s in India for two days and Republicans are already accusing him of being a Hindu.” – Jay Leno

“Hillary Clinton says she will not run again for President. Your move, Brett Favre.” – David Letterman

“When Hillary says she’s not running, is she really not running? Or just pulling a Leno?” – David Letterman

“Nancy Pelosi, who lost her position as Speaker of the House says she will seek to become the House Minority Leader. And really who better qualified to be House Minority Leader than the person who led their party to become a minority in the first place.” – Jay Leno

“Isn’t fall in New York City great? The colors are brown, gold, and orange. And that’s just John Boehner’s face.” – David Letterman

“MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann will be back to work on Wednesday after being suspended without pay for giving campaign contributions to Democratic candidates, which is against the rules at MSNBC. See, if only he had done like Eliot Spitzer and given his money to hookers, he would have gotten his own prime time show on CNN.” – Jay Leno

“Hundreds of people in Washington, D.C. reported seeing a UFO today. Aliens, if you’re searching for intelligent life, you’ve got the wrong town.” – Craig Ferguson

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Pre-Existing Conditions


© Jack Ohman

Do the Republicans really think they can repeal the Health Care Reform bill?

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Late Night Political Humor

“I do not understand the electorate. This country is hurting in a way we haven’t since the Depression. People struggling all over this country, and they came out and voted for the party that says right up front they will suspend your unemployment benefits and repeal health care. To go against your self-interest more you’d have to literally go f*ck yourself.” – Bill Maher

“A special shout-out to the independent geniuses, who switched sides again because President Chocolate Jesus did not make it rain twenties in two years.” – Bill Maher

“You know what, you independents, if you can vote for Bush one year, and then the next election vote for Obama, and then go back to John Boehner, you’re not independents, you’re schizophrenic. You’re Norman Bates, sometimes you dress up as your mom and kill sluts in the shower, and sometimes you put on pants and mop up. Well, congratulations America, on Tuesday you put on the dress and killed again.” – Bill Maher

“How about those elections? Here’s how it breaks down now. We have a Republican House. We have a Democratic Senate. And we have a President with veto power. Smooth sailing, right? No problems there.” – David Letterman

“America put the crazy people who got us into this mess back in charge, and California won’t let us get high to get over it.” – Bill Maher

“This was the biggest landslide since the ’30s. The Republicans picked up 63 seats. I haven’t seen the Republicans so happy about taking seats since they made Rosa Parks stand up.” – Bill Maher

“Here’s how huge their victory was. They actually elected two black people on the Republican side in Congress, and seven gay Republicans. Of course, you won’t find out who they are until they get caught in a rest stop somewhere.” – Bill Maher

“Well, it looks like John Boehner will be the new Speaker of the House. He is the son of a bartender, one of 12 children. He grew up in a two room home with just one bathroom, worked his way through school, became the first person in his family to graduate from college. And, sadly, fell in with the wrong crowd and wound up in Congress.” – Jay Leno

“Did you see the new speaker of the House John Boeher cry? He cries a lot. Mr. Boehner you’ve got to stop crying. For one, your tan is going to run. And what’s he going to do if he loses next time? Put on a Bjork record and cut himself?” – Bill Maher

“You know who Boehner is, right? He’s that orange looking guy. See, for Republicans that counts as diversity.” – Jay Leno

“And Boehner, very serious about cutting back on spending. I saw him day, touching up his tan with an orange sharpie.” – Jay Leno

“Just in time for the Republican sweep, George Bush has a new memoir that just came out. He was on the Today Show plugging it. He said his lowest moment of the whole presidency was when Kanye West said he didn’t care about black people. Well, I got news for you. Black people don’t care about you either. Mr. Bush.” – Bill Maher

“Levi Johnston said in an interview that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be President. And, believe me, if there’s anyone who knows about not being qualified for something it is Levi Johnston.” – Jay Leno

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Why Bush waited until after the election to release his memoirs?

What could be worse than the revelation that Bush personally approved waterboarding, which we ourselves called torture when the Japanese used it in WWII. Bush justified using torture because he claims it saved lives by producing actionable intelligence. However, the former chairman of British intelligence disputes this, saying that waterboarding, which is definitely torture, did not produce any information that prevented any terrorist attacks, and that Bush was simply trying to “justify what he did to the world.”

Interestingly, even though Obama refuses to investigate Bush for torture, at least one of the new Republican congressmen says he would have “no hesitation whatsoever” in holding hearings about Bush’s use of torture.

But if that weren’t bad enough, Bush’s newly published memoirs reveal the hypocrisy of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Back in 2006, McConnell asked for a private meeting with Bush where he asked the president to reduce the number of troops in Iraq in order to improve the Republican party’s chances in the upcoming midterm election.

It is a surprise to virtually nobody that the Republicans played politics with the Iraq war, so why is this news? Well, the very same month that McConnell was privately asking the president to make troop reductions for political gain, he issued a blistering statement attacking the Democrats for … calling for troop reductions in Iraq.

The Democrat leadership finally agrees on something — unfortunately it’s retreat. Whether they call it ‘redeployment’ or ‘phased withdrawal,’ the effect is the same: We would leave Americans more vulnerable and Iraqis at the mercy of al-Qaeda, a terrorist group whose aim — toward Iraqis and Americans — is clear.

In other words, McConnell is admitting that he is willing to put American lives at risk in exchange for political gain.

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Bush told Brits he would have endorsed Obama

According to the Financial Times, in 2008, during the height of the presidential campaign and after Bush had publicly endorsed John McCain, George W Bush told a group of British dignitaries including the British Prime Minister that he didn’t like McCain.

I probably won’t even vote for the guy. I had to endorse him. But I’d have endorsed Obama if they’d asked me.

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The Current War


© Ed Stein

[I love the commentaries that Ed Stein provides to go with his excellent comics:]

I wonder if the sour, off-key comments by House Speaker-to-be John Boehner and still Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the election might have given the voters who placed renewed confidence in the Republican Party buyer’s remorse. Boehner gave no indication whatsoever that he was willing to work with Democrats, and McConnell repeated his claim that his agenda for the next two years is to defeat Obama. Wait. I thought solving America’s problems -– like creating jobs and ending this prolonged slump -– might be closer to the top of the list.

I can’t help thinking back to a time when American political leaders had big dreams, and audacious plans. No, we didn’t eliminate poverty or drugs or cancer or terrorism, but we had presidents who tried, who created Medicare and Social Security, who built the interstate highway system, cleaned up our air and water, and we had Congresses that worked with them to make this country the wonder of the world. Now we have permanent campaigns waged by politicos who dream only of taking power. The party of “No” won this round, and its agenda for America’s future? Consolidate power. By continuing to prevent any progress on any front that a Democratic president might be able to claim credit for.

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Does Obama have a messaging problem, or does the right-wing media have a lying problem?

I’m getting tired of the media noting things like that the majority of Americans think Obama raised their taxes (instead of what he really did, which was cut them) and then concluding that it is Obama’s fault because he hasn’t been very good at messaging. Isn’t it the media’s job to report news like this?

Not only are the media blaming Obama for something that is their own fault, but they are choosing to ignore the fact that Obama has been the subject of a relentless and well funded right-wing propaganda campaign to discredit everything he does.

Conservative Andrew Sullivan has an excellent example of just one of the “Big Lie” propaganda campaigns being waged against our president. In Sullivan’s example, Jonah Goldberg takes one sentence from a statement by Obama out of context, reverses its meaning, and claims that Obama does not believe in American exceptionalism. Even though if you read the full quote, he clearly believes in American exceptionalism and actively defends and promotes it.

Never mind that your average Tea Party member probably can’t even tell you what American exceptionalism is, but I guess if Obama doesn’t believe in it then he must be anti-American.

Then the National Review picks it up and broadcasts the lie.

Forbes magazine then publishes an unabashed hit piece on Obama, and in it they repeat the lie, claiming that Obama himself said he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism. Forbes then takes an interesting step, and doubles down on the lie in a separate article, stating “Obama may be the first U.S. president to lack faith in our special history, our special spirit and our special mission in the world.”

Then The Washington Times repeats the same lie, taking it one step further by (unfavorably) comparing Obama to (the sainted) Reagan.

The list grows longer, all taking the same exact sentence out of context. The National Review repeats the lie again. The Washington Examiner repeats the lie verbatim. Then conservative Charles Krauthammer “Blasts Obama for Rejecting American Exceptionalism“.

As Sullivan sums it up:

What’s especially remarkable about this hackery – and there are numerous other examples – is that these conservative authors don’t just egregiously misrepresent the president’s actual position. It’s that all of them actually cite, as evidence, an out of context line from the very speech that proves their analysis is wrong.

How can you fight an intense propaganda campaign like this? You can’t. If you try to deny the lie, it just keeps it in the public mind and makes even more people believe it. And besides, if that smear doesn’t work, then they will just come up with another smear and repeat it, and another one, ad nauseum …

For example, take conservatives who scream about out-of-control government spending on social programs like Medicare. But if you actually pass reform that attempts to cut Medicare costs, then they scream about “death panels”. It doesn’t matter if there are no death panels; if you repeat propaganda often enough some people will believe it. They are still talking about death panels, even though PolitiFact rated it their “Lie of the Year“.

Here’s an even simpler and more graphic example of how this works. On Monday, Rush Limbaugh spent his entire show talking about the “Twinkie diet” where a nutrition professor, as an experiment, lost 27 pounds while still eating junk food (including Twinkies). Even in a simple case like this, Limbaugh can’t keep to reality. He says “A nutrition professor lost 27 pounds eating nothing but Twinkies.” and “All he did was eat Twinkies. When he got tired of Twinkies he went and got some Little Debbie stuff and then some other Hostess Cakes. He ate nothing but desert essentially and lost 27 pounds”.

However, if you actually read the article, the professor says that in addition to junk food, he took a multi-vitamin pill, drank a protein shake, avoided meat, drank diet sodas, and ate vegetables every day. Hardly “nothing but Twinkies”. What he was trying to demonstrate is that the kind of calories you consume is less important than the simple math of consuming less calories than you burn though physical activity.

But not only does Limbaugh get the story wrong, but he turns it into an attack on liberals and Michelle Obama:

What have I told you about diet and exercise? Exercise is irrelevant. … “How do you know all this?” One of the reasons I know what I know is that I know liberals, and I know liberals lie, and if Michelle Obama’s gonna be out there ripping into “food desserts” and saying, “This is why people are fat,” I know it’s not true. “Rush, do you really believe that? It’s that simple to you, liberals lie?” Yes, it is, folks. Once you learn that, once you come to grips with that, once you accept that, the rest is easy. Very, very simple.

Limbaugh lies about the facts, jumps to unrelated conclusions (“exercise is irrelevant”), and then attacks the first lady and tries to use his lie to prove that liberals lie.

If you still don’t believe that there are concerted efforts to influence public opinion, I have one last example. A former head of communications for a major health insurance company is releasing a book today that explains in detail “how the insurance industry relied on professional public relations firms and a wide network of news outlets and conservative think tanks to move public opinion against progressive reforms like the public option and ensure that the health law did not interfere with its profits.”

If you have enough money it is easy to buy public opinion and the media. But somehow, not getting the truth out is Obama’s fault because he has a “messaging problem”. There is no messaging problem — you are hearing exactly the message that the corporate-owned media wants you to hear.

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