The Funny Papers

John Cole, Bill Day, Andy Marlene, Clay Bennett, David Horsey, Steve Benson

Sunday Funnies

The GOP Can't Handle The Truth

After the Mid-term elections, when the GOP was given control of Congress, they spent a good chunk of time talking about how “America has spoken” when anybody with half a brain — which excludes most Republicans — knows that the GOP won, not because people voted, but because people did not vote.

Sidenote: to those of you who didn’t vote, shut up and don’t complain, you’re part of the problem, and, as my Comedy Icon, Joan Rivers, would say, “Pick a finger.”

But anyway, then we had Obama, the Lame Duck President, as it’s called, give his State of the Union speech — and I’m still giggling over “I know, because I won both of them,” comment — and the GOP has come out again, calling him, arrogant and out-of-touch.

And they set about trying to discredit nearly everything Obama said — except for that part where he said he whipped their asses twice — and spent most of their time in the following days investigating whether or not what Obama said during his speech was, in fact, fact; at least according to the good folks at the “Truth-O-Meter” over at Politifact.

As when he said that America is number one in wind power; that was dubbed “Mostly True” with the only caveat being that China technically has the capacity to produce more wind power, but America converts more of it into electricity.

And when Obama said that more jobs had been created during his presidency than at any other time since 1999 — when another Democrat was in office — that was fact-checked and called “100% True.”

When he talked about the unemployment rate now falling below where it was before the financial crisis hit our economy—you know, before ­he took office—that was rated “Mostly True” because Politifact claims they need clarification based upon how many people have simply stopped looking for work—a statistic that’s nearly impossible to measure, but Obama’s statement is still factually accurate based on the same measure we’ve used for decades.

And we all remember the Rightwingnuts rhetoric about Obama making the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil, which would then weaken our national security and possibly threaten to send gas prices over $5 per gallon, right? Well, during his speech Obama claimed that America is the number one producer of oil and gas, and that is “100% True.”

So, not only has Obama pushed the country to convert more wind energy to electricity than any other nation on Earth, but we also produce more oil and gas than anybody else on Earth. George W couldn’t do that in eight years while Obama did it in six.

He also said that the US is the only developed country in the world without a paid maternity leave; that was called “Mostly True.” Mostly because there are three states — California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island — that do mandate it.

Other facts about how we are doing since Obama took office? Thought you’d never ask:

The US auto industry has created 500,000 new jobs in the last five years.

More factories are opening their doors today than two decades ago.

We’ve doubled our production of clean energy since 2009.

Since negotiating with Iran, we’ve seen the first year and a half that they haven’t made advancements in their nuclear program.

Snap.

So, when you hear a Republican, or anyone for that matter, say that we are worse off because of Obama, just point out the facts that, under his presidency, the US has boosted clean energy, moved closer to energy independence, saw half a million new jobs created in just one sector of industry, reduced the deficit left by a Republican president, used diplomacy to make strides in the international community instead of going to war; and given us, and US, the best period of job growth since the last time a Democrat lived in the White House.

And don’t forget that he ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden — the man George W. Bush once called the Most Wanted Man in the world, and then just a year later said didn’t matter — and that we’ve seen stocks hit numerous record highs. And, I for one, will never forget that he was the first sitting President to come out for marriage equality, to talk about me and my community in speeches, and was the first President in history to mention the transgender community in a speech.

Just give ‘em the facts, ma’am and sir, and watch their tiny heads implode.

via Forward Progressives

MY SOTU Thoughts

I get it, I do. The State of the Union address is generally kind of a pep rally for one party or another; the chance to crow about what you’ve done, and what you want to do. And I get that it’s almost always partisan, with the side that doesn’t have the White House sitting there stone-faced while the President speaks.

Both sides do it, I get that.

But what I don’t get is how, while Obama was speaking last night and talking about how far we’ve come in the last six years — the economy, jobs, healthcare, the War Based On Lies In Iraq — is why the GOP sat on their hands. I mean, they couldn’t even be bothered to clap for the fact that the economy is better than it was, that the jobs outlook is better than it was, that millions of people who’ve never been insured before now have healthcare.

They couldn’t even be bothered to applaud for America, for Americans, because the guy in charge while all this was going on is a Democrat and, yes I’ll say it, a Black Democrat at that.

It sickened me to see Orange Is The Old Boehner sitting their smug and disinterested when the President talked about rebounding from a recession; sure there’s work to be done, but we are better off than we were in 2008 after the Bush Regime, and yet Boehner cannot even be happy with that.

It sickened me to see Paul Ryan not even bother to show a modicum of respect for the President because he’s a member of the ‘other’ party. Why not cheer that things in America are improving? Why not cheer all that your party has done to make things better for—

Oh, yeah, maybe Ryan and Boehner and Paul and the rest of those Republicans couldn’t cheer for the successes of the Obama president y because they tried to thwart him at every turn.

Or maybe they couldn’t cheer because he schooled them …

 “I have no more campaigns to run …”

And there was a smattering of GOP applause because, they know, if he did have the option to run again, he’d wipe up the floor with them, again, and then he said:

“I know, because I won both of them.”

The GOP was served in that moment, and it was priceless.

And it was priceless that he made mention of marriage equality, after being the first sitting president to advocate for same-sex marriage; it was priceless that he became the first president to mention of transgender and bisexual, brothers and sisters during a State of the Union address.

It’s priceless, because his approval numbers are up, and will probably continue to go up, and things will continue to change and we will see marriage equality across the country, and we will see LGBT rights expanded and we will see the GOP sitting on their hands, doing nothing, offering nothing, complaining about everything.

Obama isn’t going to sit this one out, these last couple of years; he’s going to continue working for us …

Unlike the other guy.