Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts thought it would be a good — again, that's good — idea yesterday to ramble for 10+ minutes yesterday on the Senate floor about his fantasy game of basketball with President Obama, during which they would discuss policy. This is the only way to get the president's attention, he larfed. Hehe, yesiree. What?
Much like Jon Stewart earlier this evening, Stephen Colbert took aim at President Obama's primetime address on the debt crisis on tonight's Report. After telling viewers that he expects America will default next Tuesday, he pointed out that the disastrous scenario has a silver lining: America has an entire week to finish off its bucket list! Video of the segment is above.
One day after lambasting Congress for letting partisan interests get in the way of solving the debate over raising the nation's debt ceiling, Jon Stewart opened tonight's Daily Show with an equally critical take on President Obama's address to the nation yesterday. Video of the segment, during which Stewart took particular issue with Obama's suggestion that the American people take matters into their own hands to solve the crisis, is above.
At the end of last night's fluffy-duffy speech to the public about the debt ceiling, President Obama urged everyone to call their representatives to request his "balanced" approach to deficit reduction, which apparently means $3 trillion dollars in spending cuts along with zero dollars in new tax revenue. What the hell was he talking about? Who cares! Because people too his cue, and are now breaking the phone system.
The stalemate between congressional Republicans and Democrats over raising the nation's debt ceiling has gotten so bad that President Obama addressed the nation tonight in an attempt to publicly shame them into reaching a deal. And on tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart angrily piled on Obama's message with an anti-Congress rant of his own. Video of the segment is above.
Word has been trickling in from a variety of sources all day about the basic outline of a deficit-reduction deal that President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are nearing. While both sides are denying it in their preferred arenas — the White House through its spokesperson at a press conference, John Boehner with a telephone call to Rush Limbaugh — it still seems like we've got our hands on the latest trial balloon! Summary: It sucks for Democrats.
White House press secretary Jay Carney broke a bit of news in today's briefing: President Obama publicly supports the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal all three sections of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Not really shocking, since he's been against DOMA since his earliest days on the campaign trail, but this endorsement of the actual repeal bill will help draw attention to the Senate hearing on it that's scheduled for tomorrow.
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart spent all the time he didn't use interviewing Daniel Radcliffe talking about the never-ending debt ceiling negotiations between President Obama and Republican Congressional leaders. So what's the holdup? As Stewart explains in the above video, it's because Republicans hate Obama—but not because he's black. They hate him because he's a tax-hiking crazy person!
The deadline for raising the debt ceiling—after which the U.S. is likely to default—is August 2. President Obama's birthday is August 4. Coincidence? Not according to America's stupidest congressman, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R - Texas)!
Poor President Obama just can't catch a break. Earlier today, the president entered the White House Rose Garden to announce that he'd tapped Richard Cordray to head the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But then he told a bad joke about Cordray's past as a Jeopardy! contestant. And nobody laughed. And it was sad.
So, campaign finance! Perhaps in need of some constitutional reform, hmm? But for now, the rules of the game for presidential campaigns are that you call all of your rich friends and have them bundle donations from their rich friends, "sometimes" in exchange for access or favors for everyone in this elaborate network of rich friends. So who's on the just-released Obama bundler list?
Negotiations between President Obama and Republican congressional leaders over the nation's debt ceiling hit a roadblock yesterday with reports of Obama storming out of a meeting and telling House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, "Don't call my bluff." And while many praised Obama for standing up to the Republicans, Jon Stewart had a more critical opinion of the president's actions on tonight's Daily Show.
Remember when Fox News whined that the White House tried to ice them out of an interview with a Treasury Department official that everyone else got to talk to? And the White House denied it? Well, Judicial Watch used the Freedom of Information Act to get emails of White House staffers planning the event, and it turns out they were totally lying! They hate Fox News and think Brett Baier is a "lunatic," which he absolutely is, because he works for Fox News.
President Obama will become a Man, finally, when he turns 50 on August 4 — the same day our first post-debt ceiling deadline interest payment is due! Yikes, let's forget about that. Because Obama will have some other priorities on this day of days: raking in as much money as possible for his campaign. You can't turn him down on his birthday, either; it would be against the Geneva Conventions, maybe.
Years ago, Michele Bachmann's openly gay stepsister Helen LaFave protested at one of Michele's anti-gay rallies. Since then, Helen has kept a low profile, but she continues to support liberal politics: Salon's Natasha Lennard recently uncovered a video of Helen and long-term partner Nia Wronski attending Obama's 2009 presidential inauguration. The duo got their tickets "through one of the congresspeople" and drove for two days "with six family members."
President Obama, who deservedly hates his life right now, extended congressional leaders an invitation to his swanky mountain retreat at Camp David as a way to finish debt ceiling negotiations in private. But maybe also as a way to get drunk and party in the mountains? We're just trying to figure out a compelling reason to allow so many assholes into your vacation home. But no one wants to go, anyway. Ouch!
