Category: Humor

Hal Sparks ready to fire up Seattle with “Sexy Liberal” tour

Like Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the rollout of Obamacare may be “full of glitches, but I can’t wait to get it,” says comedian, voice-over artist and progressive political pundit Hal Sparks. Sparks will be appearing with Stephanie Miller, John Fugelsang, and “guest panelist” Seattle’s own lampooner laureate Dan Savage, Saturday, December 14, at 8:00pm in the Paramount Theatre. Hal Sparks: actor, comedian, pundit to appear in "Sexy Liberal" tour Seattle stop, December 14.

For those who whine about the debut of the Affordable Healthcare Act’s national website, Sparks likes to point out that private industry didn’t do much better with those two video game blockbusters.

That’s the overall problem with Republican blathering about deregulation and the “free market” system, according to Sparks. People like Sen. Rand Paul keep insisting that the “free market” would make everything better. “But how,” Sparks wonders, “Why would they bother (cleaning up the environment) if they weren’t told to?” Short-term profit and long-term public good are incompatible, according to the core mission of a corporation, which is to make as much money as possible in the shortest possible time for their shareholders. Folks like Rand Paul basically “want corporations to be able to poison us and get away with it!”

Which is why Sparks sees Rand Paul as “stunningly, overtly, and powerfully full of (well, excrement).”

Hal holds roughly the same opinion of other right-wing Republicans like former vice presidential candidate and big-government opponent Paul Ryan. “Paul Ryan went to school on government funds,” notes Sparks, “and then got a government job.” Such blatant hypocrisy runs rampant in the Republican Party.

Conservatives seem to revere two books, Atlas Shrugged and the Bible. One raises selfishness to a high art form, while the other preaches a gospel of love and compassion. Likewise, conservatives seem to worship two gods, Ayn Rand and Jesus of Nazareth. One referred to religious thinking as “mentally retarded,” the other urged his followers to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

“Atlas Shrugged and the Bible are mutually exclusive,” suggests Sparks, “unless you’re a sociopath.” Not to mention that before she died Ayn Rand relied on Social Security payments from the very government she so despised.

Sparks, himself a self-made man of many voices, holds entrepreneurship in high regard. “Self-reliance is great,” he says, “but you don’t need to choke off the poor and kick people when they’re down.”

What does Hal Sparks see in America’s political future? That’s coming up next in the Seattle Liberal blog. Stay tuned.

And don’t forget to catch the outrageously irreverent “Sexy Liberal” show, December 14!

Stephanie Miller in Seattle, Dec. 14

I don’t get to hear Steph and the Mooks as often now, with no smart phone for my commute time; however I learned from our “Bring Back Progressive Talk to the Northwest” Facebook page that Steph is coming to Seattle! Hope to see a full house of progressives! We have not had a chance to gather as a full group for quite a while! See you there!

Stephanie Miller in Seattle, Dec. 14!

STG Presents

Stephanie Miller’s “Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour” with John Fugelsang and Hal Sparks

The Paramount Theatre in Seattle on December 14, 2013.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Doors at 7:00 pm, Show at 8:00 PM

Prior to going nationwide, Stephanie pulled #1 ratings at KABC and KFI in Los Angeles and other radio stations in New York and Chicago.

You know her from tons of exposure on TV, and on comedy’s prime stages: host of CNBC’s Equal Time, Oxygen TV’s I’ve Got a Secret, and many others. Stephanie has also appeared on CNN’s Joy Behar, Larry King Live, Reliable Sources, as well as MSNBC’s The Ed Show, Hannity and Colmes and Neal Cavuto on Fox News, the Today Show, the Tonight Show, Good Morning America, among many others.

Stephanie comes to the left, from the right. She’s the daughter of William Miller, Barry Goldwater’s 1964 Republican presidential running mate.

Her humor and snappy political wit draws listeners from all sides and makes her the perfect antidote to cantankerous conservatives.

Show at 8:00 pm
THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE
911 Pine Street
Seattle, WA 98101

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?pid=7608978

The Anacortes Washington State Tea Party and its off-color, misogynist joke

The facebook page of the Washington State Tea Party posted the following crude, anti-woman joke. The joke was apparently posted by Andy Stevens.

A woman from Los Angeles, who was a tree hugger, a liberal Democrat, and an anti-hunter, purchased a piece of timberland near Colville, WA. There was a large tree on one of the highest points in the tract. She wanted a good view of the natural splendor of her land so she started to climb the big tree. As she neared the top she encountered a spotted owl that attacked her.

In her haste to escape, the woman slid down the tree to the ground and got many splinters in her crotch. In considerable pain, she hurried to a local ER to see a doctor. She told him she was an environmentalist, a democrat, and an anti-hunter and how she came to get all the splinters. The doctor listened to her story with great patience and then told her to go wait in the examining room and he would see if he could help her.

She sat and waited three hours before the doctor reappeared. The angry woman demanded, “What took you so long?” He smiled and then told her, “Well, I had to get permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management before I could remove old-growth timber from a “recreational area” so close to a waste treatment facility. I’m sorry, but due to Obama-Care…they turned you down.”

The facebook page says, “While this website represents the Anacortes Washington State Tea Party it has no official affiliation with the Tea Party other than mutual shared interests.”  It lists the following links: http://www.go-patriots.com, http://www.teaparty-patriots.com.

In an article at the Washington Journalism Center, Hannah Cummings called Stevens “one of the most uneducated” members of the Tea Party group. She wrote of him:

Washington State Tea Party guy

Andy Stevens

Andy Stevens, 68, a video producer and a founder of the Tea Party Patriots in Anacortes, Wash., said he described Obama’s race and and religion as “somewhat important” to members of his group because they remain troubled by what they see as the president’s un-American and un-Christian behaviors.

In Stevens’s view, those include Obama’s “socialist” policies and intentional failure to mention “the creator” when talking about inalienable rights.

“There are questions that don’t get answered, like citizenship and his birth certificate,” Stevens said. “I don’t know why questions keep popping up all the time. If something is irrefutable, the questions wouldn’t keep popping up.”


The page http://www.go-patriots.com/ has a link to a celebration of the Glenn Beck Homecoming.

The following image appeared, with the caption “To those who serve… From all of us to all of you with love and respect!.”

Corner group 02

But the page also has a message “Support our troops — bring’em home!”

The webpages and this slideshow of people holding signs oppose the bailouts and “socialist government.”  Many of the messages are critical of Obama and of “Obamacare.”  One sign says “Hitler, Lenin, Socialism Failed! Obama.”   Many signs say “Taxed Enough Already” (though taxes are historically low, on rich people and corporations) and “Don’t Tread on Me.” Everyone seems white. Most are elderly.  “More Liberty, Less Government.”  “Freedom before you loose [sic] it.”

The page also includes the following image, which could just as well appear on the page of progressives:
Bush: miss me yet?

I plan to watch the videos and read the articles accessible from the Tea Party pages to try to better understand what motivates these people.