Late Night Political Zingers. The best of Leno, Letterman, Fallon, Maher et al for those of us who don't have the time to watch. e.g. "New Rule: Stop asking Miss USA contestants if they believe in evolution. It's not their field. It's like asking Stephen Hawking if he believes in hair scrunchies. Here's what they know about: spray tans, fake boobs and baton twirling. Here's what they don't know about: everything else. If I cared about the uninformed opinions of some ditsy beauty queen, I'd join the Tea Party." –Bill Maher
[more inside]
posted by storybored
on Jun 28, 2011 -
43 comments
Thomas Lessman presents a selection of political
maps of Europe, Asia and Africa throughout ancient and mediaeval history. Watch the changes on the map through the
fall of Rome, peruse the patchwork of kingdoms in Southeast Asia at the heyday of the
Srivijaya Empire, or check out just
how much land Attila ruled at the height of his power. Some of his references have some good stuff as well, including more detailed maps of
Europe for the last two millennia, as well as the staggeringly comprehensive Friesian history website
previously linked on the blue.
posted by Dim Siawns
on Sep 2, 2010 -
14 comments
Alan Grayson (D - FL) has introduced
a bill to tax corporate political campaign donations at 500% (
via). The bill is called the "Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act."
posted by lohmannn
on Jan 25, 2010 -
93 comments
"We don't vote for them, we don't even know their names and we're not quite sure what they do. But they wield enormous influence.
They are the power behind the power. They are The Hollowmen." You can watch the Australian Broadcasting Company's new political satire
The Hollowmen [warning: sound] on the web. Or you can find it via Bittorrent. (Or if you live down under I suppose you could watch it on ABC 1 Wednesdays at 9pm or ABC 2 Thursdays at 8:30pm.) It's worth a look because it may be the funniest new satire on any English-language network.
[more inside]
posted by sdodd
on Sep 12, 2008 -
18 comments
A year from yesterday, George W. Bush will no longer be President. So here's
yet another online quiz to help you
"Test your party preference". But the policy questions in contention in this quiz may seem surprising to many Americans.
posted by orthogonality
on Jan 21, 2008 -
75 comments
The Philosophy Research Base features thousands of annotated links and text resources for philosophy research on the Internet. Categorized by history, subject and author, this meta-index serves as both a study guide and a platform for a wide variety of community services for students and teachers in philosophy and related subjects.
posted by netbros
on Aug 26, 2007 -
5 comments
Create political cartoons for your own enjoyment or to share with others. Quickcomic allows you to easily create, rate, and post your own insane scenarios using the characters of US and world politics. Hours of blog fodder await!
posted by PreteFunkEra
on Apr 7, 2007 -
18 comments
Human Rights Watch, Watched "Who will guard the guardians?" asked Roman satirist Juvenal. Now we must ask, who is watching Human Rights Watch, one of the world's best-financed and most influential human rights organizations? It turns out that they cook the books about facts, cheat on interviews, and put out pre-determined conclusions that are driven more by their ideology than by evidence.
These are serious accusations, and they are demonstrably true.
posted by Postroad
on Aug 21, 2006 -
62 comments
Boehner Gets Huge Overnight The Congressman with the unfortunately spelled last name was elected House Majority Leader last week--it was only a matter of time....(embedded movie).
posted by P-Soque
on Feb 7, 2006 -
47 comments
Last week, a woman was forced off a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing a t-shirt. The shirt in question bore the phrase "Meet the F*ckers" and an image of US President Bush, VP Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. The passenger, Lorrie Heasley, refused to remove it after other passengers complained. Apparently "Southwest rules filed with the FAA say they can remove a passenger that is offensive, abusive, disorderly or violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive," but the airline says the curse (not the political message) led to her being asked to leave. Ms. Heasley is now speaking with the ACLU to see if she can initiate a lawsuit, but the NYTimes checked with experts in constitutional law and they
don't think she has a case.
Well, the makers of the t-shirt have responded:
"If any T-Shirt Hell customer is kicked off of any commercial airline flight simply for wearing one of our shirts, we will provide you with alternate transportation to get you to your original destination. This transportation includes, but is not limited to, the T-Shirt Hell corporate jet."
posted by zarq
on Oct 11, 2005 -
221 comments
So BoingBoing recently linked to this fantastic comic book serial from the 60s entitled "This Godless Communism," a surprisingly in-depth (and hilariously slanted) history of the rise of the USSR, its leaders, and their philosophies. It's great, but it is far from the only thing on the site, the
Authentic History Center. Just looking at the other comics and cartoons they have, there is a huge amount of
ancient political cartoons, fantastic
WWII-military-themed comic strips(surprisingly good!), and
generally awesome period-relevant comic book covers, some of which link to full comics (
Donald Duck's Atom Bomb?!). There is a collection of embarassing
shows of race-sploitation in comics in the 70s, and the
racist toys and artifacts section would make Archie Bunker blush (
Chop Suey Specs!). Guaranteed to make you wince and chin-stroke simultaneously.
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Jul 11, 2005 -
43 comments
Want to know what the difference is between real life and the internet? The funny folk at
Red vs. Blue would be happy to demonstate.
(Warning: 22.125MB Quicktime .mov file but worth the wait, I thought. The Red vs. Blue site also offers a DivX download.) Metafilterians may enjoy the Political Section, where they do political discussions as badly as we do. One naughty word may make the audio NSFW in some locations. Seen at
Bifurcated Rivets.
posted by Lynsey
on Aug 18, 2004 -
12 comments
Hating Dick Cheney - Our vice president is so widely hated as being an
evil puppeteer, but this seems to be far from the truth. He's really "a frazzled, heart attack survivor who's barely hanging on—to life, his job, his position, his sense of self-esteem."
posted by MrAnonymous
on Aug 13, 2004 -
52 comments
The Apartheid Wall continues. Haaretz reports that Israel will soon begin construction of the wall around the illegal settlement of
Ariel , deep inside the West Bank, stealing thousands of acres of Palestinian farmland in the process.
posted by Ty Webb
on Jun 14, 2004 -
65 comments
open debates is a nonprofit that's working to reform the
presidential debate process for the american election. they have some pretty big names on their board from across the political spectrum, including
john b. anderson,
angela "bay" buchanan, and
randall robinson.
From the website:
Currently, the presidential debates are secretly controlled by the major parties, through the private bipartisan corporation called the Commission on Presidential Debates, resulting in the stultification of format, the exclusion of popular candidates, and the avoidance of pressing national issues.
The major party candidates never pay a political price for their antidemocratic practices; posing as an independent sponsor, the Commission on Presidential Debates shields the major party candidates from public criticism and public accountability.
posted by christy
on May 26, 2004 -
9 comments
Political ads fail their mission. In an
Advertising Age poll, 92% of respondants said the ads had not swayed them to change their prospective votes. More than half said the ads didn't influence them, and nearly a quarter found Bush's ads "not at all persuasive." Before you liberals get cocky, consider this: 29% thought Kerry's ads were totally unpersuasive.
posted by me3dia
on May 25, 2004 -
19 comments
The Campaign Desk If you are a political news junkie, try this: Critique and analysis of 2004 campaign coverage from Columbia Journalism Review
It is good. It is solid.It is intelligent.
posted by Postroad
on Jan 31, 2004 -
8 comments
Former Davenetics publisher and CSPAN fanatic Dave Pell is now blogging at
Electablog. After a couple years of earnest "soapbox 'n rants" style of political blogging, it's nice to see political-themed sites with a sense of humor and humility popping up (like
wonkette as well, mentioned
last week).
posted by mathowie
on Jan 30, 2004 -
3 comments
Rebellion brewing in Saudi city The tiny city of Sakaka in the remote al-Jouf province that borders Iraq may seem an unlikely setting for the beginning of a revolution against the ruling al-Saud family.
But one does not have to spend too long here to realise that this is what is happening.
posted by Postroad
on Jan 28, 2004 -
44 comments
