#SnarkWeek: Great Moments in U.S. Political Snark – Southern Chivalry

All this week, Indecision will be celebrating Michael Ian Black's new stand-up special and #SnarkWeek with a collection of the snarkiest moments in U.S. political history.

The year is 1856. Republican Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts is unleashing a torrent of invective snark, directed at absent colleague Democratic Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina, mocking him as having "a mistress, who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight. I mean, the harlot, Slavery."

Two days later, Butler’s nephew, Rep. Preston Brooks — also of South Carolina — approached Sumner while he was busying himself with paperwork at his desk on the Senate floor, and proceeded to beat the ever loving shit out of him with his gold-headed heavy wooden cane until it broke in two while fellow South Carolina congressperson held Sumner's would-be rescuers at bay with a pistol.

Sumner spent the next three years recovering, while the incident helped push the United States toward a Civil War, ultimately decimating the landscape and economy of Brooks' precious South.

Be sure to visit cc.com/standup for all your #SnarkWeek needs, and don't miss the premiere of Michael Ian Black: Very Famous Saturday August 6 at 11/10c.

Tags: Charles Sumner, Civil War, House of Representatives, Preston Brooks, Senate, Slavery, Snark Week

Tea Partiers, Republicans and Southerners More Likely to Sympathize with Confederacy

I find these numbers to be as depressing as I find them to be not-at-all surprising…

[Yesterday was] the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's beginning, when secessionists fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. According to a new poll from CNN, the Civil War’s legacy remains unresolved. The poll finds that Republicans and Tea Party supporters are more likely to support the Confederacy and confederate leaders than Democrats or Independents.

According to the poll, nearly one in four Americans sympathize with the Confederacy more than with the Union. That number grows to nearly four-in-ten among white Southerners. Among Tea Party members, 26 percent sympathize with the Confederacy more than the Union, and that number grows to 28 percent among Republicans.

In other news, Southern Tea Party Republicans are 54 percent more likely to support the Empire while watching the original Star Wars trilogy, 63 percent more likely to root for the sorting hat to place Harry Potter in the House of Slytherin, and 76 percent more likely cry a little bit when Leatherface cuts himself with his own chainsaw and then does that weird sad dance at the end of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Tags: Civil War, Harry Potter, Movies, Polls, Republicans, Star Wars, Tea Party

Happy Belated Martin Luther King/Robert E. Lee Day, Everybody!

Oh, man! I'm so mad at myself! Why did I have to take a day off yesterday? Why?! Not only did I not get to wish everybody a Happy Martin Luther King Day, but I didn't get to wish everybody in Arkansas a Happy Robert E. Lee Day!

As you can see from Secretary of State Mark Martin's official state holiday calendar, commanding general of the Confederate army Robert E. Lee's birthday was celebrated yesterday along with civil rights leader Martin Luther King's.

The two birthdays happen to be within a week of one another — King's on the 15th and Lee's on the 19th — but that seems like little more than serendipity. It's hard to imagine a more perfect pairing of celebrations.

I just feel bad for all the Arkansasians who must have been torn between attending a civil rights memorial service and human trafficking commemoration ceremony.

(via Reddit)

Tags: Arkansas, Civil War, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King Day

Jon Stewart's Extended and Uncensored Interview with Texas Governor Rick Perry

On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart sat down with Texas's firebrand Governor Rick Perry to talk about the role of the federal government and Perry's new book Fed Up. The interview went long, but you can now see the entire thing here. Though, I should warn you, I watched the whole thing and even the extended segment doesn't feature a single mention of Perry's time with Journey. Maybe next time.

The interview continues below.

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Civil War, Jon Stewart, Rick Perry, Texas, The Daily Show, Video

They Day They Planned to Burn Old Dixie Down, Assuming It Adheres to Municipal Fire Codes

Here's an interesting question: When is it acceptable to burn the Confederate Flag? Besides usually, I mean…

An anonymous liberal blogger in Washington state hopes that progressives across the country will show up to tea party rallies on September 12 and — if it's legal — light up a confederate flag so tea partiers can watch it burn.

"I think that it would start a great conversation about race and about how it's being used for political gain right now," the blogger, who preferred to be identified by his online handle, "General J.C. Christian," told me Monday. "I can imagine people showing up at the tea parties, which I'll do at my local one, and the tea party backers will start explaining why [the flag] is about state's rights, not slavery, and all that and basically hang themselves."

Hmmmm… I'm curious about this "great conversation about race" that this idea supposedly spark. Granted, I've only been living in this country for 37 years, but I would never say that I was under impression that its citizens were one flaming-Dixie away from having a "great conversation about race."

Maybe I'm wrong, though. I wonder what that conversation would go like if it did happen. I wonder…

Teabagger: Hey, stop burning that flag, you liberal pansy!

Flag burner: Why, does it offend your racist heritage?

Teabagger: [Punch]

Flag burner: [Bleed]

Seems about right.

Tags: 9/12, Civil War, Flags, Liberals, Protesters, Racism, Tea Party