One of our spies snuck into a meeting of the evil right-wing group HAARM (Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine) last week and uncovered a nasty plot to undermine efforts toward healthcare reform. Prepare to be shocked, disgusted and amused:
If this all sounds a bit unlikely to you, you're half-right: the video is the first in a series that Laughing Liberally, our national comedy tour at Living Liberally, has been working on with SEIU. The video is (we hope!) funny, but the situation it depicts couldn't be more serious - there are real efforts by moneyed interests, meeting as we speak, to make universal healthcare sound like a bad thing.
A few weeks back, the FixCNBC Campaign was launched by the PCCC, attempting to get 20,000+ signatories to their letter to CNBC pressuring them to practice responsible journalism. Well, the goal has been reached, and when it was time to send the letter to CNBC Headquarters, the PCCC reached out to several progressive New York comedians, including Laughing Liberally favorites Negin Farsad, Lee Camp, Katie Halper and Baratunde Thurston - and in the three days since it's been posted to YouTube, it's already cracked the 20,000-view mark. Watch the magic, and consider helping to support further work like this:
Every battle needs a good villain. Not sure if that's a line out of a comic book, or the advice Matt Stoller has often offered on these pages, but it's true.
There's some healthy debate about whether Rush is the right villain or the wrong target. Brave New Films has done a great job their War on Greed to make the likes of Henry Kravis into a known nemesis. And in New York, the proponents for Fair Share Tax Reform just realized: why create a villain, if the entertainment industry's already done it for them.
Enter Monty Burns from the Simpsons, a no-goodnik we love to hate, and the new face of the plutocrats looking to sink New York's working class.
In anticipation of a major rally on Thursday, the Working Families Party -- leaders of the Fair Share push -- have turned to satire. They've circulated a letter from Homer's boss to his fellow fatcats. Who wants to be on the side of Mr. Burns? Well, except for Smithers, of course.
Each Laughing Liberally show mixes stand-up with musical numbers and political discussion, plus other entertainments. This weekend, the free event includes appearances by comics Rick Perlstein, James Fritz and Carrie Callahan
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Rick, is the march of right-wing institution-building that realigned our country really that funny?
We're regularly reminded by The Daily Show that comedians can make better journalists than newscasters.
This morning's clip on ABC, in which Laughing Liberally's Baratunde Thurston spent 5 minutes discussing the President's address, demonstrated that comedians can offer more serious commentary than most pundits as well.
Since President Obama took office, I've worked hard to pass two forward-thinking pieces of legislation through the House. The first was an amendment to the stimulus package, which added $3 billion for new public transportation projects. The second bill which I co-sponsored and helped to write was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which was the first bill that President Obama signed into law.
As Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on the House Judiciary Committee, I will continue to hold hearings about abuses of executive privilege in the Bush administration. And, on that score, I recently introduced two important bills -- the Midnight Rule Act and the State Secret Protection Act -- in order to roll back some of the more odious elements of Bush's disastrous legacy. In the Judiciary Committee, we've again subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify and finally answer some questions on the flagrant politicization of the Justice Department under Bush. Hopefully Rove saw me on Countdown with Keith Olbermann recently making it clear that he will be held in contempt and arrested if he continues to ignore the law.
My questions to you now is: what else do YOU think I should be doing in the House for you? And what are progressive activists who gave Obama his historic victory doing to keep the administration accountable to progressives and making real change? How can our efforts intertwine to make a real impact? How do we convince the new administration to go forward with bold legislation as well as look back at the Bush years and hold those who disregarded our Constitution accountable?
We hope you can be there for this conversation on February 18th. But even if you can't, we want to hear what questions and issues you think should be covered in this dialogue about progressive activism both inside and outside government right now.
Please put your questions in the comments for me and my special guests in the comments.
Again, I hope you can join me on February 18th from 6pm-9pm at Tribeca Cinemas at 54 Varick St. in NYC. For more information/buy tickets for 2/18: http://www.jerrynadler.com/2.1...
You're not really my type [sorry, I forgot to ask if you were sitting down. You're married anyway, and she loves you enough to convert for you, so you'll get over it.] But when you rock your debonair, very non-nebbishy je ne sais quois (lo yodaya ma) thing, it really works. And when you are in a sea of moribund politicians, you really shine. Yesterday, though, you spent the Inauguration playing the cute card and making cute faces. And while you're certainly handsome, you're not really cute-- endearing bug eyes aside. And when you are trying to be cute while standing next to Sasha and Malia Obama, YOU WILL FAIL! See below.
Some of the greatest talents in the country are undiscovered. But did you know that some of the greatest talents are in the GOP and/or Bush administration? Help us discover these unsung heroes and shatter the myth that liberals are the only creative ones. We would be remiss if we didn't take the time to honor the unsung artistic heroes of the outgoing Bush administration and outgoing GOP. And because the GOP is all about counting (certain) votes, Republican Idol counts on your civic participation. You get to vote for the nominees. (All ties will be brought to a supreme artistic council made up of impartial judges like Kid Rock, Kelsey Grammar, Drew Carey, Victoria Jackson, Patricia Heaton, and Hick Hop idol Cowboy Troy.)
At a book signing this week, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee once again spoke truth to power and rejected two lies spread by the gay liberal media: 1) that the gay movement is a civil rights movement and 2) that violence against "homosexuals" is a big deal. Huckabee then shed light on the issue that nobody else will touch with a 10-foot pole: the gay violence perpetrated against Christians. It turns out that far from being the victims of hate crimes, the gays are the real haters and the true criminals.
Hucakabee explained, "there is a difference between the civil rights movement of African-Americans who were essentially hosed down in the streets by Bull Connor in Birmingham and beaten with their skulls crashed in on the bridges of Selma for being black, not for their behavior, not for anything other than their race."
Duh! Good point. Are gays really that persecuted? Show me a gay who had his skull cracked. Name one! 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was robbed, pistol-whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote area, and left to die, which he did. He had brain damage and a fractured skull, but it wasn't cracked. Besides, Shepard was in Wyoming, and nowhere near Selma, so it's so not comparable. And Shepard, like the other homosexuals he represents, aren't attacked for their race, they are attacked for their behavior. So, if they don't want to get attacked, they can just choose to be straight.
Before we speak any further, watch this video - it will (probably) make your afternoon. (And if my saying so doesn't convince you, it features crowd-pleasers Neil Patrick Harris, Allison Janney and John C. Reilly.)
Laughing Liberally To Keep From Crying
by Katie Halper On Thanksgiving, The Dallas Cowboys beat the Seattle Seahawks 34 to 9. And the day before, when Bush spared two innocent lives, he achieved his own victory of 16 to 1. When Bush pardoned Pumpkin AND Pecan, who were about to meet the same fate as the turkeys televised behind Sarah Palin, he could boast of having 16 presidential poultry pardons under his belt. But Bush has also compassionately conserved human life, once. During his six-year governorship and eight-year presidency, Bush has pardoned one death row inmate, denied clemency over 50 times, and signed death warrants for 155 people, many of whom were innocent, mentally retarded, juveniles, recipients of unfair trials, and/or represented by incompetent and often narcoleptic lawyers.
Because Republican ideals seem to suddenly be up in the air, Fox News has had some trouble figuring out how to package their propaganda. They finally admitted their confusion on their Website.
Long-time Open-Lefter James Adomian, who posted his first Bush-vlog on OL's first week, has come full-circle, giving us a look at Bush's exit interview, as directed by Bob Odenkirk - another video after the jump.
Following a day in which Bush expressed regret over "Mission Accomplished" and "Dead or Alive," it seemed plausible that Condi Rice was trying to protect her legacy too.
A prank...except that wasn't really tricking anybody (we generally knew the war wasn't over, universal healthcare hadn't yet happened and Bush wasn't standing trial for war crimes).
A satire...except it wasn't really funny. The reactions on the subway weren't laughter.
Okay team, don't forget to dispose of this memo when you're done reading it. Anyway, clearly we need a late-October surprise. Here are the possibilities I've come up with. Some may sound outlandish, but I'm willing to do anything and spend any amount to win this bullshit election.
So most of my posts are fake/parody/satire/pretend/bullsh*t--whatever you wanna call 'em. And because of that, whenever I write something real or genuine, people assume it's fake. It's kinda like when Bush tries to tell the truth. But I mean it honestly this time--this post is real.
A national radio show had me on this morning as a "political comedian." And the way radio shows usually work is that they have you on hold on the phone while you wait to be introduced. While you're on hold, you can hear everything that's going on on the show. As I was sitting on hold at 7:45 AM this morning, I started to realize this radio show was definitely not part of the "Liberal Media Elite," as they say. You know, those crazy left-wing nutbags like Lou "stab-the-brown-people" Dobbs and Glenn "how-do-I-know-all-3.5-billion-Muslims-aren't-terrorists" Beck.
