Friday, October 25, 2013

Time Out for Comic Relief

As Halloween approaches, clowns are making news all over.

A GOP precinct chairman loses his job after being cajoled into bigot talk by the Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi. While defending North Carolina’s new law to restrict minority voting, he cites "lazy black people that wants the government to give them everything," adding, “I’ve been called a bigot before. Let me tell you something, you don't look like me but I think I've treated you the same as anybody else. As a matter of fact, one of my best friends is black."

Sarah Palin is back to comment on the woman behind the President who became light-headed during his Obamacare speech:

"With the Obama White House’s total lack of transparency, it’s no wonder that some will ask whether they staged even a fainting lady in the Rose Garden. What was once a major leap in logic has become a single step because President Obama has lied so often and so blatantly.”

Even Rick Santorum is getting into the act by promoting his new movie to counter Satan’s control of Hollywood. “This is a tough business, this is something that we’re stepping out,” Santorum tells evangelists, “and the Devil for a long, long time has had these screens for his playground and he isn’t going to give it up easily.”

 On CNN to trash Obamacare as making the government “a peeping Tom” on everybody’s medical information, GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn is cornered into blabbing incoherently about the wrong privacy law that applies only to health-care providers.

But perhaps the most unintentional comedy is provided by the chairman of the Republican National Committee hiring a 23-year-old as its first youth director to build “a grassroots infrastructure with the under-30 community.” He promises to “get them more involved in the political process and to help them direct that eagerness to make a change into something tangible.”

Can’t wait to hear how he’s going to do that when he’s interviewed on the Daily Show.

1 comment:

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Good morning Mr. Stein. Here are a few quick thoughts:

#1 – Although there is no empirical evidence to support the Supply-Side hypothesis, the only known person in human history to benefit is Sarah Palin who spent half her adult life trickling down on pregnancy test strips;

#2 – One benefit of increasing the top income tax rate is to shift the cost burdens of civilization from the under-towed middle class to the white caps at the top of their wave;

#3 - New algae blooms in the Federal treasury will help balance the books and fund new reef building projects;

#4 – The key to changing tax policy is political will (where appearances matter more than content).

Now pay attention to your intrepid cephalopod because humanoids need a hammed up clam to help you frame this porpoise for public consumption: Offer a turn-back-the-clock approach, where you simply reset the tax tables to a point in history yielding improved economic performance. Actual numbers don’t matter – whether the top tax rate is 39%, 50%, 80% or Avogadro’s Number.

Offer a choice of packages, each wrapped in ribbons and bows with a cheerful gift card inside: The Clinton package, the Reagan package, The Kennedy package, the Truman Package. All solid and revered former Leviathans of history, no one will accuse you of being a “Marxist-commie-collectivist-Jihadi-Barracuda” for raising taxes on sharks. See my point?

Conservatives and liberals alike are more likely to choose the Reagan package as the “easier sell.” The way I see it, Reagan was a former Democrat. He didn’t leave the party; the party left him. Since all ocean currents now flow in reverse, mainstream Republicans are leaving the GOP. Thus, it makes sense for disgruntled citizens of all stars and stripes to meet in Middle Earth and take the Reagan package. Actual marginal tax rates are immaterial; what matters more is appearance. After all, if Reagan did it, it can’t be all bad.