Category: People I Do Not Want to Piss Off

Rachael Maddow Eviscerates Anti-Immigration Group

1 Comment

I saw this last night, and now the video is out.

I am a hardliner on immigration. I think that the immigration laws should be aggressively enforced, that border controls should be strengthened, and that oft-abused visa programs (H1b, L1) should be fixed.

I also believe that the focus should be on the employers, because if the cost of employing illegals exceeds that of legal hiring, then it will stop. (My proposals are here.)

Unfortunately, most of the political groups out there, aside from labor unions, that want a hard line taken, are populated by racist nativists.

Case in point is Ms. Maddow’s masterful take-down of the crypto-racists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). She runs down its history, and then interviews its president, Dan Stein.

He is left an oily smudge on the floor.

Just watch it, it is 19 minutes and 33 seconds well spent.

Jon Stewart:12 – Steve Jobs:0

2 Comments
Brutal!

The interesting thing here is that it’s actually pretty clear that Jon Stewart is a big fan huge fanboi of Apple® Computer and its products, and his take-down of Apple’s actions in the Gismodo iPhone prototype case is even more brutal because of it:

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one. But now you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto, while commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes. What the f**k is going on? It is all mixed up. I don’t know which end is up anymore. Black is white. Cats are dogs.

His point is that a large part of the appeal of products from Apple® is that it is, in some manner, sticking it to the man, and that now they are the man.

He also notes that in its corporate paranoia, Apple® ignores the real threats to its products:

I mean, if you wanna break down someone’s door, why don’t you start with AT&T, for God sakes? They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone! I mean, seriously! How do you drop four calls in a one-mile stretch of the West Side Highway! There’re no buildings around! What, does the open space confuse AT&T’s signal?!

Brutal, particularly when he invokes Apple®‘s iconic 1984 ad.

The Meth Lab of Democracy

No Comments

You know, maybe legislators should engage in a mental exorcise known as a Jon Stewart test

Arizona, of course, Stewart makes the comment about 1 minute in.

As Wyatt Cenac notes, the authorities are just looking for suspicious behavior, like, “Gardening or burping white people’s babies.”

I so want one of his writers as a speech writer if I ever run for office.

Stephen Colbert Answers the Question

1 Comment

The W0rd is: Straight to Video

You see, the teabaggers are accusing of Lindsey Graham of making nice with the Democrats because he is being blackmailed because he’s gay.

Colbert’s solution, Lindsey Graham needs to release a heterosexual sex tape.

It’s a reasonable suggestion, but I’m not sure that making such a tape is even remotely possible.

Jim Cramer Must Hate Jon Stewart

No Comments

These F@#king Guys!

Admittedly, the full 7:47 isn’t about Jim Cramer, just the first 2:28, but anything that finishes with:

You get the sense that if Jim Cramer was around in 1912 he would have said ‘you’re not going to hear this from anyone else, but my sources tell me the Titanic has the best buffet on the high seas. And by the way if you want to get there faster, try the Hindenburg.

Stewart then goes on to the talking heads on the financial networks are describing the case in terms indicative of a, “Traumatic brain injury,” and then he proceeds to describe everything in terms that we can all understand.

And then he gets to Goldman Sachs, and the fact that the fraud division will be getting billions in bonuses, because, I guess, their job is to create fraud, not stop it.

At the end, as a bonus, he describes the Republican mindset on governance.

Jon Stewart Goes After Jon McCain

No Comments
Ouch!

John McCain, in a tough primary fight with a man whose political corruption John McCain covered up is now denying that he was ever a maverick.

Considering the fact that it was every 3rd or 4th word out of his mouth in the campaign, this merits some comment, of a particularly scathing nature.

Well, luckily, Jon Stewart writes a lot better than I do, so I will just leave you with his comedic flaying of the “straight talking maverick” from Arizona:

But even with all that, you never felt like the guy was selling his soul. You just felt like he was maybe shaving little slivers of his soul …off …for money. But you still always felt like he maintained a controlling interest in his soul. Fifty-one percent of his soul. The majority shares of his soul. Until now.

And then he goes say that McCain is making “soul default swaps on the back end,” in a masterful juxtaposition of corruption and our opaque financial system.

Really, I cannot do justice to what he does in just 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

He shows the hypocrisy and political cowardice of the the man that the Beltway pundits, and the Sunday talk show hosts, love beyond measure.

Of course the aforementioned Beltway pundits Sunday talk show hosts will never acknowledge that their guy is basically a selfish and petulant politician, but I think that the rest of America is starting to realize this.

Alan Grayson Remains on My List of People that you Do Not Want to Piss Off

2 Comments

Once Again, Alan Grayson shows why he is on this list, with his response via press release to Sarah Palin.

It’s a PR, so I can quote it in full, and it’s brilliant so I will quote it in full:

On Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Orlando, and attacked Rep. Alan Grayson. This is what she said:

“I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson — what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won’t say anything about Alan Grayson that can’t be said around children. [Good one, Sarah!] But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That’s what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson. Please fight hard, and do this for the rest of the country. Fight hard, and send a conservative to Washington, DC.”

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.

In response to Palin’s attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson’s entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin’s imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

When asked to comment about what effect Palin’s criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, “As the Knave’s horse says in Alice in Wonderland, ‘dogs will believe anything.'” Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, “I’m sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park,” which is part of Grayson’s district.

Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. “I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them,” Grayson added, alluding to Politifact’s “liar, liar, pants on fire” evaluation of much of what Palin has said .
Scientists are studying Sarah Palin’s travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat.

Let’s be clear here: I don’t think that every Democratic office holder or candidate talk this way, but I think that it is essential for some Democratic office holders or candidates to talk this way.

Remind Me, Once Again

No Comments

As I have said many times, if you live by one rule, it should be never piss off Jon Stewart.

Here he takes on Liz Cheney:

Ms. Cheney is pathetic really: She has no accomplishments of her own, and she knows that if her Daddy gets close to anything even vaguely resembling a fair and full accounting, the gravy train which gets her gigs of Fox News ends.

Ms. Cheney, you are an even more pathetic excuse for a human being than you father is; at least he did something himself to be where he is, while you, much like your fellow nepotism affirmative action baby and Keep America Safe stalwart William Kristol, have done nothing but make currency of your family name.