Stephen Colbert explains the deep thinking that lay behind Herman Cain’s recent weird ad, explaining all the subtleties and nuances that Cain was seeking to convey in what might seem to the hoi polloi like a brutal peticide. Colbert also produces his own ad in a similar vein. [Read more…]

Yesterday was the premiere of the HBO film Game Change about the disastrous 2008 McCain-Palin campaign. Here’s the trailer. [Read more…]

Some newspapers are going to pull the Doonesbury comic strips for next week because it deals with the transvaginal ultrasound issue and the whole Republican assault on women’s access to health services. Strip creator Garry Trudeau is no stranger to controversy over his strip but says that to not address the issue would have constituted ‘comedy malpractice’. [Read more…]

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart thinks that the bellicose language about war with Iran is the result of politicians pandering to their own constituencies, and tries to lower the intensity of the war rhetoric.

(This clip appeared on March 6, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)

Jon Stewart reinforces the points that I made here and here, about how the debate over Iran is limited due to the pandering that American politicians indulge in when it comes to the Israel lobby. [Read more…]

Humorist Andy Borowitz reports that there is a much better indicator of how the economy is doing than the standard ones used by economists.

I think he’s on to something.

Herman Cain is still around, unfortunately, putting out weird ads in the service of, what exactly is not clear. You never know with Cain, a truly original thinker. After all, who else would think that an obnoxious child killing a pet fish in some kind of post-nuclear landscape would be a winner?

Who were the brains behind the idea of creating a Newt Gingrich support coalition with the name “Women with Newt”?