ThePoliticsReport.com

When people think of political films, their thoughts usually turn to stories of dense intrigue and skullduggery like “The Manchurian Candidate,” or morally uplifting fare like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

And yet, Hollywood has long known that politics was a sphere ripe for satirical appropriation. Running alongside the hoary tradition of the political drama is the rich vein of political comedies, treating Washington, or its local equivalents, as ripe for mockery and abuse.

Viewing presidents, senators, generals, and political operatives with a barbed sense of good humor, these films treat politics with the appropriate amount of respect–which is to say, not very much at all.

Here, then, are 10 of the greatest political comedy films ever made. In our era of deflated political discourse, their good humor and cynicism makes the ideal tonic. When the political sphere is dominated by the likes of Sarah Palin, what else is there to do but laugh? Read the rest

How about this for a tax plan: cut most people’s taxes by half, eliminate the need to file returns, and provide the Treasury with a better way to reduce the deficit. Sound impossible? It’s not. Here’s how to get it done.

Most Americans spend dozens, if not hundreds, of hours attempting, not always successfully, to do their tax returns. We spend almost $30 billion paying accountants to fill out the complicated forms, and by some estimates we devote $110 billion of our own labor just keeping track of all the necessary records and paperwork. Americans pay about 85 percent of the taxes they owe, better than in most countries, but the shortfall is still a drain on the Treasury (and the rich seem to find a way to avoid taxes legally). Is this costly, demoralizing struggle between the IRS and the rest of us really necessary?

The short answer is no. There is a way to relieve almost all Americans of the annual April 15 nightmare. What’s more, it’s a necessary first step toward a plan to cut the looming federal deficit. The time is right for thoroughgoing tax reform—a true clean slate—that will bring in more revenue while giving the public a greater sense of fairness. The reforms we propose will even allow most people to take home more pay than they do now. Read the rest

Goldman Sachs is wasting no time doing exactly what Obama complained about in his SOTU last week: handing out enormous bonuses. The Times of London reports that Goldman is planning to pay CEO Lloyd Blankfein a record $100 million bonus.

Obama has been very publicly waging his popular War on Bank Bonuses (Remember that time Obama called bank bonuses “obscene” and everyone flipped out? And then he bashed huge bonuses as “the height of irresponsibility”.

And said bad things about bonuses last week in his SOTU.) And it seems to have worked, at least superficially. Investment banks are cutting back on bonuses—including Goldman, who are giving sweet mortgages to their employees in lieu of bonuses.

But now: Blankfein’s looking to net a cool $100 million for riding his vampire squid to record profits last year—way more than his previous record take of $67 million in 2007. And this after he snubbed Obama back in December due to dubious “inclement weather.”

Goldman’s strategy must be to give Blankfein enough money to build a subterranean Obama-proof bomb shelter, stock it with provisions and plasma screens, lock the big doors and emerge only when the world is again made safe for investment bankers (~2014).

The Teabuggers, those pesky kids charged with a federal felony for getting into Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s office under false pretences, see themselves as avant-garde Republican activist/humorists. So why aren’t they, or any other right-wingers really, funny?

On the surface it makes no sense. Why should political ideology affect humor when it doesn’t affect earnings potential or charity-giving or most anything else?

But there is no good right-slanted Onion, or Daily Show or Bill Maher and no right-wing satirist who can nail liberals like Stephen Colbert nails conservatives.

In 2007 Fox tried to launch a show to take on Comedy Central (despite Jon Stewart, in particular, sniping across political lines). The 1/2 Hour News Hour, marked by canned laughter, was described as “so heavy handed that it seems almost like self-parody,” and was quickly cancelled.

If the Teabuggers, whose idea of hilarity is at the ‘dress up funny’ level of high-school skits, are the cutting edge, the new generation, then prospects are not looking good for the future either. Read the rest

President Obama engaged Friday in a rare face-to-face debate with GOP House members, sparring with them over which party is most responsible for the partisanship that grips Washington.

The president said that Republicans are eroding cooperation by telling constituents he is “doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.”

For their part, the Republicans pressed Obama on a series of issues ranging from the economy to health care, saying he and congressional Democrats had ignored their ideas.

Obama said he would listen seriously to some of the Republican proposals and insisted that others had, in fact, been incorporated into Democratic measures. But, he also pushed back on other GOP proposals, citing his reasons for opposing them.

Obama used the health care debate — which he described as “bitter and contentious” — to underline the difficulties in changing the “tone” of the debate in Washington. Read the rest

President Barack Obama, interviewed in Moscow today, said that his vice president’s assertion that Israel is a sovereign nation and cannot be told what to do, or not to do, about Iran’s nuclear program is “absolutely not” a green light for a preemptive attack against Tehran’s nuke plants.

“Absolutely not,” Obama told CNN’s Ed Henry. “And I think it’s very important that I’m as clear as I can be, and our administration is as consistent as we can be on this issue.

“Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact which is we can’t dictate to other countries what their security interests are,” Obama said of Joe Biden’s remarks in an interview with ABC News in Baghdad over the weekend. Read the rest

A lot of Americans aren’t ready to let go of the resigning governor, stepping down later this month with 18 months left in her term, citing the “insane” business of dealing with consuming ethics complaints back home in the aftermath of her brief stint on a national stage as the Republican 2008 vice presidential nominee. Palin says that she cannot say what the next few years will bring – no more than what the next fish run holds.

But four in 10 Americans surveyed say they could vote for the Alaskan for president – with just 19 percent saying they would be “very likely” to vote for her should she run, and another 24 percent saying they’d be somewhat likely to do so.

The Gallup Poll’s Jeffrey Jones suggests that this offers Palin ” a decent reservoir of potential support to build upon. ”

At the same time, 41 percent of those surveyed this week in the wake of Palin’s surprise Fourth of July weekend resignation say they would be not at all likely to vote for her. And 13 percent say they’d be “not too likely” to vote for her. Read the rest

President Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States, founded with the slavery of Africans and perpetuating legalized racial discrimination well into the 20th Century, addressed the parliament of Ghana today in his first journey to Africa as president.

Obama called this time “a new moment of promise.”

He told an intimately personal tale of his own family, and how the history of colonialism should not blur the aspirations of modern nations, pointing to Ghana as one that embraced democracy early.

“I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world,” said, whose mother came from Kansas, his father from Kenya. “I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story. ”

He spoke of his grandfather, a cook for the British in Kenya called “boy” by his employers. He spoke of his father herding goats in a tiny village, and he spoke of the problems that have persisted across the African continent. Read the rest

President Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan and travelling through Ghana today, was asked what Africa means to him – “Is it half of you?”

“Well, no, I don’t think it would be fair to say it was half,” the president told an interviewer for Sky News. “You know, I never lived here. I didn’t visit until I was in my mid-twenties. But I think that it is a source of inspiration, it’s also a place that, because of my familial connection you know, I think I feel very personally when I think about children who aren’t getting opportunities, when I think about the problems of HIV/AIDS, or issues of corruption. These are things that people I know, family members of mine, have experienced. It’s not something I see in abstract terms.”

Obama also was asked by the British interviewer, Adam Boulton, if the first African-American president represents a “post-racial America.”

“I don’t use that term,” Obama replied. “Just because it somehow implies that the door is closed to any issues related to race. And I just don’t think that’s true. But I do think there is no doubt that my election signifies extraordinary progress, progress that my grandparents or Michelle’s grandparents could have never have imagined.” Read the rest

President Barack Obama, presiding over “the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression,” has returned to the United States from the most recent of many international journeys with a message: Confidence that the U.S. “will weather this storm.”

In an Op-ed essay appearing in newspapers today, the president says this of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan enacted in February: “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was not expected to restore the economy to full health on its own but to provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall.

“So far, it has done that. It was, from the start, a two-year program, and it will steadily save and create jobs as it ramps up over this summer and fall. We must let it work the way it’s supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.”

Yet something is missing in this piece, the most recent of a series of Op-ed articles that Obama has signed since his inauguration, the way the Senate minority leader’s office sees it: Read the rest