Unbelievable!

As a software tester, it's unfathomable to me that a mistake like AMERCIA could make it out of Romney's team. And yet... it did. And it doesn't get any better than this. :-)

My favorite #AMERCIA tweet of the day:

Some poor app designer is getting strapped in a cage on the top of a car and driven across country tonight. #amercia

Danger, Will Robinson!

Romney now has the physics community worried:

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Joke of the day

Today at CPAC, Rick Santorum's sugar daddy, Foster Friess, shared this joke:

A liberal, a moderate and conservative walking into a bar.

The bartender says "Hi, Mitt."

:-)

Brilliant

Courtesy of a co-worker:

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Humor for political junkies

Here are the speeches given at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night by President Obama and Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live.

Obama enjoyed making fun of the "birther" sideshow, and both he and Meyers had a bunch of zingers for Donald Trump who was in attendance (his sense of humor didn't appear to be). Meyers' best joke of the night: "Donald Trump said recently he has a great relationship with the blacks, though unless The Blacks are a family of white people, I bet he's mistaken." (It's at the 13:45 mark in his speech.)

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Priceless

Okay, this B.C. strip is spot on (especially considering my "Venus" post yesterday :-)

This just makes me want to get cable

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Gotta hand it to Obama on one count...

He's a funny guy:

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ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE, at the 13:45 mark, President Obama also reiterated part of the message from his commencement address earlier in the day at the University of Michigan:

Now, the second way to keep our democracy healthy is to maintain a basic level of civility in our public debate. (Applause.) These arguments we’re having over government and health care and war and taxes — these are serious arguments. They should arouse people’s passions, and it’s important for everybody to join in the debate, with all the vigor that the maintenance of a free people requires.

But we can’t expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down. (Applause.) You can disagree with a certain policy without demonizing the person who espouses it. You can question somebody’s views and their judgment without questioning their motives or their patriotism. (Applause.) Throwing around phrases like “socialists” and “Soviet-style takeover” and “fascist” and “right-wing nut” — (laughter) — that may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, our political opponents, to authoritarian, even murderous regimes.

Now, we’ve seen this kind of politics in the past. It’s been practiced by both fringes of the ideological spectrum, by the left and the right, since our nation’s birth. But it’s starting to creep into the center of our discourse. And the problem with it is not the hurt feelings or the bruised egos of the public officials who are criticized. Remember, they signed up for it. Michelle always reminds me of that. (Laughter.) The problem is that this kind of vilification and over-the-top rhetoric closes the door to the possibility of compromise. It undermines democratic deliberation. It prevents learning –- since, after all, why should we listen to a “fascist,” or a “socialist,” or a “right-wing nut,” or a left-wing nut”? (Laughter.)

It makes it nearly impossible for people who have legitimate but bridgeable differences to sit down at the same table and hash things out. It robs us of a rational and serious debate, the one we need to have about the very real and very big challenges facing this nation. It coarsens our culture, and at its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response.

So what do we do? As I found out after a year in the White House, changing this type of politics is not easy. And part of what civility requires is that we recall the simple lesson most of us learned from our parents: Treat others as you would like to be treated, with courtesy and respect. (Applause.) But civility in this age also requires something more than just asking if we can’t just all get along.

Today’s 24/7 echo-chamber amplifies the most inflammatory soundbites louder and faster than ever before. And it’s also, however, given us unprecedented choice. Whereas most Americans used to get their news from the same three networks over dinner, or a few influential papers on Sunday morning, we now have the option to get our information from any number of blogs or websites or cable news shows. And this can have both a good and bad development for democracy. For if we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we become more polarized, more set in our ways. That will only reinforce and even deepen the political divides in this country.

But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and our beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from.

Now, this requires us to agree on a certain set of facts to debate from. That’s why we need a vibrant and thriving news business that is separate from opinion makers and talking heads. (Applause.) That’s why we need an educated citizenry that values hard evidence and not just assertion. (Applause.) As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously once said, “Everybody is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” (Laughter.)

Still, if you’re somebody who only reads the editorial page of The New York Times, try glancing at the page of The Wall Street Journal once in a while. If you’re a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website. It may make your blood boil; your mind may not be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship. (Applause.) It is essential for our democracy. (Applause.)

Cognoscor Ergo Sum

Stephen Colbert comments on Twitter, Blippy (see pic below, shoot me now), and every other new social networking tool for proclaiming, "We exist!" :-)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Cognoscor Ergo Sum
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

(Video link)

And here's an example of the riveting ticker over at Blippy, the "fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying":

Sorority Girls from Hell

Bette just forwarded me a link to an early 90s classic, a video that we often watched in our Midnight Sun days in San Francisco.

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It was also the inspiration for one of one of our RSVP Cruise costume contest entries. :-)

Re-grouping after the Brown-Coakley debacle

Nate Silver has some strategic and tactical advice for the Democrats which I'd boil down as: pass healthcare reform "as is," take advantage of what you now know to play a more effective game than you've been playing, and don't crawl into a bunker.

Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, is feeling gloomy about the staying power of the red-blue divide in America and the teabagger's nihilism. He does, however, encourage Obama to call the GOP's bluff and not count on passing real fiscal reform with any help from Washington Democrats. Instead, Sullivan suggests Obama should chart a bold course of his own that may, in fact, fail (which would still be a preferable outcome to continuing to work with the current corrupt political system (you know, the one that may have killed healthcare reform even after a massive victory for the party in 2008)).

Ezra Klein thinks that 24 hours after the Brown victory--and despite a dizzying day of Democratic despair--the chances of healthcare reform passing this year are stabilizing.

Personally I think that the results in Massachusetts were more due to how the Democrats are governing than concern about the party's goals. People in Massachusetts believe in universal healthcare... they have it! But they're disgusted by the deals that were cut with the senators like Lieberman (hiss) and Nelson in order to secure their votes. President Obama didn't follow through on a fully transparent process for negotiating healthcare reform as he promised during the campaign. And rather than make effective use of a 60-40 margin in the Senate, Democrats dithered for months and met endlessly with Republicans who were never going to support a reform bill anyway. Perhaps most of all the voters were fed up with the fact that despite all of the hope and optimism that accompanied Obama's inauguration last year, the tenor in Washington has only gotten worse as Republicans have simply been against everything.

Whatever your political leaning, if you sincerely believe that there are no problems for which government can provide a solution, then I wish an angel would show up and show you how miserable your life would be if the federal government had never existed.

Thank dog-spelled-backwards that Gail Collins can find humor in anything.

Song of the day

"Under the Ivy" by Kate Bush, a song I first heard in Portland in 2002. And in further checking out Kate a few days later, I resolved a mystery from my junior high years: who was the woman who appeared one night on Saturday Night Live and sung a song that mesmerized me and had all the boys talking in the locker room the next day. It was Kate; she sang "Them Heavy People" on December 9, 1978. Turns out this was her only appearance on American television. Serendipity...

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That episode also included Dan Akroyd's classic Julia Child skit. :-)

Funniest protest sign of 2009

My favorite from this list of the funniest protest signs of 2009:

More entertaining lists here.

Andrew Sullivan on The Colbert Nation

Here's my favorite member of the bear intelligentsia talking with Stephen Colbert about Obama, one year later. While Andrew comes across as fully supportive of President Obama on the program, he's a bit more circumspect on The Daily Dish.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Andrew Sullivan
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

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Happy Halloween!!!

One of my favorite halloween pics... :-)

How we think

A couple of interesting posts on how we make sense of the world around us:

• Ezra Klein sums up an article on how we evaluate the opinions of novices and experts differently
• Andrew Sullivan quotes from a blog post about how our expectations color our opinions (and illustrates the point with a hilarious Absolutely Fabulous winetasting video... :-)

The second link is worth it just for Patsy and Eddie!

Quote for the day

Janeane Garofalo on Sarah Palin: "I think she's an intellectually incurious person with charisma."

LOL!

UPDATE: The GOP base isn't entirely swayed by the Palin charisma judging from this recent Rasmussen poll.

Quote for the day

On being asked when she knew Homer was the one, Marge Simpson told Playboy:

Well, when the doctor said I was pregnant, I heard a voice saying "That’s the man you’re going to marry." The voice was my mother’s.

Jon Stewart: where was the Fox crew on Sunday?

Jon Stewart notices that Fox News didn't even send a film crew to Sunday's March on Washington... and devoted more than twice as much airtime to a story about a small anti-Obama protest in New Jersey sparked by kids singing a song about the president!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

As seen over at the Daily Dish... check it out.

The night that might have been...

Given my Terminator conspiracy theory... how in the world did I miss this video???

Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

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