Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans don’t trust women.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

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30Comments

  3. 3.

    Tim F.

    Is this thread gay, straight, or bi?

    Don’t know about that, but this blogger is unapologetically centipede-phobic. Any centipedes or centipede-lovers who want to grant centipedes the size of your f-cking thumb the right to live behind my toilet will be harshly repudiated.

  4. 4.

    The Other Steve

    BTW… I wouldn’t be surprised if Blackwell hasn’t been purging the voter registration lists in Ohio.

    Here in Minnesota(and I think also Wisconsin), we have same day voter registration. We also do not need to register by party affiliation.

    Frankly, I think more states need to adopt that. We end up with the highest voter turnout in the country time and time again, in 2004 it was around 70%.

  6. 6.

    demimondian

    Any centipedes or centipede-lovers who want to grant centipedes the size of your f-cking thumb the right to live behind my toilet will be harshly repudiated.

    It sounds to me like you must have had a truly horrific experience with a c****p*** in your youth.

  8. 8.

    Frankblack

    Open Thread
    By: Tim F. October 19, 2006 at 9:59 am

    This is all the blogging that you will get out of me today. Discuss my lameness in the space provided.

    Emo?

  9. 9.

    BarneyG2000

    If collusion is illegal in business (baseball, price fixing, market manipulation..) than why do we allow quid pro quo agreements within Congress? No more of those “I’ll vote for your pork if you vote for mine” deals.

  10. 10.

    Krista

    Well Tim, considering the amount of work you did on the previous thread, I think you get a pass. (Not a gay pass — I’m female so any passes at you would be strictly hetero.)

  14. 14.

    Robbie

    I’m not sure Mr. Cole reads comments, but I did want to bring up a point now that I’ve caught up on a few of his posts.

    One thing mentioned in the outing fiasco is how Andrew Sullivan is treated by right-wing bloggers. Sure, his homosexuality is mocked, jeered, insulted, used as political fodder. There is little denying that.

    However, one thing I’m not sure you’re aware of is that Sullivan has been vilified and targeted by the Gay Left throughout most of his career. It was not Republicans but liberal gays who went digging through Sullivan’s sexual trash, publicizing details, making sure everyone knew had every juicy morsel of his every bedroom technique.

    As a gay man, I’m very familiar with the behavior of radical gays, and it is plain and simple McCarthyism. Activists like Mike Rogers have a long tradition of invading the private lives of *any* homosexual who opposes their political agenda. It’s on the same level as calling Condi Rice a house negro or Uncle Tom (for gay people, it’s an Aunt Patti). Except it’s far more invasive, far more vicious, and wrapped in far more righteousness to the point of dangerous, obsessive fanatacism.

    Yes, the Republicans and Karl Rove are incredibly wrong for using gays as their political cannon fodder. They deserve our disdain. However, if anyone wants to do the gay community a huge favor, it would be the unequivocal denunciation of Rogers and his ilk.

    This, “Sure outing is wrong, but Republicans . . .” does us no favors. You may think you’re helping. You’re really not. You’re encouraging it by providing justification – no matter how tenuous. “Outing’s wrong, but now that it’s done, let’s make a lot of useful political points with it.”

    That sort of thing encourages sexual persecution and emboldens the gay radicals. I respectfully wish you wouldn’t.

  16. 16.

    SeesThroughIt

    Speaking of lame, the Steelers are playing in Oakland (where I live) on my birthday, and the best tickets I can find are practically at the top of the stadium. Having been to this stadium before, I know from experience that there’s really not much of a point in going if you sit all the way up at the top–can’t see a damn thing from there. Fuckin’ lame, man.

    By the way: We’re here! We’re queer! We don’t want any more bears!

  17. 17.

    The Other Steve

    That sort of thing encourages sexual persecution and emboldens the gay radicals. I respectfully wish you wouldn’t.

    I think you’re thinking defensively rather than offensively. I’ve been kind of watching this from the sidelines over the years, and I honestly don’t care about the issue. I’m just observing here.

    It seems to me over the years that what we have had is a handful of radicals who have been pushing for an anti-gay agenda, and then a huge group of people in the middle who are apathetic. Because they have nothing at stake in this, by and large they’ve just let the anti-gay radicals have their way.

    But these outings ahve upped the stakes a bit. They’ve basically warned the Republicans “Ok, you have a choice. Do you denounce this guy like you’ve been denouncing all of us. Or do you change your tune?”

    The answer thus far has been changing their tune.

    As Edmund Burke noted, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” That is what has been happening with the gay issue, good men have sat by doing nothing because they don’t think it matters to them.

    So to the point. Does it embolden the radicals? Yes.

    Does it empower them? No. Rather the opposite, because it reveals the evil of their thinking. Radicalism cannot stand on it’s own, it can only survive because good men do nothing. By highlighting the hypocrisy, and emboldening the radicals, it empowers the good men to back away.

  19. 19.

    Perry Como

    Latest scare mongering about illegals.

    Arizona Seizes wire transfers

    I’m not a big ‘black helicopter’ guy.

    but….HOLY SHIT! this is a bit scary.

    Ok. That’s fucking stupid.

  20. 20.

    Pb

    It was not Republicans but liberal gays who went digging through Sullivan’s sexual trash, publicizing details, making sure everyone knew had every juicy morsel of his every bedroom technique.

    Yes, and maybe they had a point in doing so:

    Last week, Michelangelo Signorile wrote about a story that had sparked widespread Internet discussion over previous weeks but had been avoided by the mainstream press: the revelation that gay writer Andrew Sullivan, who has often criticized “lunatic AIDS activists” and “reckless” sexual practices among gay men, “had an assumed screen name on America Online with a profile that advertised for ‘bareback’ sex and which linked to two Web pages where he posted headless photos and his sexual tastes, one of which was on BarebackCity.com.” Signorile’s essay covers many questions raised by this story, including the question of whether Sullivan’s private sexuality warrants public debate (which Signorile obviously concluded in the affirmative). Other news sources picked up the story after Signorile opened the floodgates. Andrew Sullivan responded to the stories on his personal site, accusing his critics of “Sexual McCarthyism.”

    So is that “Sexual McCarthyism”, or exposing hypocrisy? I did read Sullivan’s blog for a while, but it was way after that fiasco, once he had distanced himself somewhat from the pro-torture side of the GOP. Of course, some people who read Sully earlier than that are still steaming from essentially being called traitors:

    The conservative pundit first wrote that “[t]he decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead – and may well mount what amounts to a fifth column” (part one, part two). Then, he wrote this: “[W]e might as well be aware of the enemy within the West itself – a paralyzing, pseudo-clever, morally nihilist fifth column that will surely ramp up its hatred in the days and months ahead.”

    That looks more like *actual* McCarthyism to me…

  21. 21.

    Robbie

    Pb – Hypocrisy is the argument of the political child. “I can’t actually refute the arguments you’re making, so let’s have a dig through your personal life.” Hypocrisy justification always comes with a double standard. Republicans point to an almost eternal array of hypocritical Democratic behaviors and vice-versa. At the end of the day, we’re all hypocrites to an amazing degree. It’s a dodge, a hustle, a changing of subject. Because we’re not bright enough to rest on our ideas.

    At the end of the day, either you believe in privacy, or you do not. You’re either a decent person, or you’re a prick who sifts through people’s trash. It doesn’t matter who’s engaging in it, be it Kenneth Starr or Mike Rogers.

    This idea that there’s some noble cause (“Exposing hypocrisy!”) is bs, and everyone knows it. If people were interested in that sort of thing on a principled level – especially with sexual matters – they’d be willing to engage in it with their political allies as well. Which, of course, they are not.

    Outing is wrong. The people who do it should be shunned. Furthermore, as impossible as this sounds, people can be gay, vote for various “anti-gay” legislation, and not be hypocrites. Being gay does not mean we have to have a pre-set, pre-approved, pre-mandated political belief system which, if violated, means we ought to subjugated to mass violations of personal privacy.

    It’s similar to the idea that all black people must vote Democrat or else they’re traitors to their race and must be viciously assaulted. That’s not just McCarthyism – it’s borderline racial fascism.

    Only radicals believe that. Only radicals attempt to justify it. I’m really getting sick of it.

  22. 22.

    Punchy

    Frankly, I think more states need to adopt that. We end up with the highest voter turnout in the country time and time again, in 2004 it was around 70%.

    New Mex has a genius idea–all voters are eligible to win a a cool mill if they actually cast a ballot. Like entering a free lottery. Of course, being it a mildly red state, I’m guessin only R’s really have a chance at the scratch…

  23. 23.

    Perry Como

    What’s the difference between Kim Jong Il and a Republican congressman?
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Kim Jong Il doesn’t choke his mistress.

  25. 25.

    Steve

    It’s similar to the idea that all black people must vote Democrat or else they’re traitors to their race and must be viciously assaulted. That’s not just McCarthyism – it’s borderline racial fascism.

    Um, no, it would be more like a black person voting for segregation. If a gay person wants to join the GOP because they love tax cuts, more power to them, but I’d sure hope they wouldn’t support anti-gay legislation while they’re there.

  26. 26.

    Perry Como

    If a gay person wants to join the GOP because they love tax cuts, more power to them, but I’d sure hope they wouldn’t support anti-gay legislation while they’re there.

    More sexual McCarthyism from the angry left. Although I’m torn on the issue. On one side Anne Coulter has said McCarthy was a good man that did good things, ergo sexual McCarthyism would be a good thing. On the other Glenn Reynolds has said that sexual McCarthyism is bad. Which wingnut should I believe?

  27. 27.

    Perry Como

    btw, I have to admire the courage and conviction of Congressman Ney. He has been found guilty in a court of law, yet he is staying the course in collecting congressional pay. We should all tip our hats (and give our tax dollars) to this worthy Congressman.

  28. 28.

    Tim F.

    While I think that outing is lame, I think that it matters that the gay community has faced nonstop, harsh attacks from Republicans who look at gay-baiting and see votes. The anti-gay constitutional amendment does such a great job motivating the fundies that it has become standard practice for the majority of state-level Republican parties.

    Frankly, if the GOP spent as much energy attacking Jews as it does attacking gays then I would have an awfully hard time not ‘outing’ a Republican who was secretly Jewish. If they want to make my personal life into a political football then why should I not return the favor?

  29. 29.

    Pb

    Robbie,

    “I can’t actually refute the arguments you’re making, so let’s have a dig through your personal life.”

    That’s not hypocrisy, though–hypocrisy is when the personal life in question runs counter to the argument being made. That is to say, when the argument being made is “do as I say, don’t do as I do”. And there’s an easy way to stop these attacks–don’t be a hypocrite, don’t say one thing and do the opposite.

    It is possible to use one’s personal experiences as an example to others, to say “don’t be like me, I did this and it was a mistake”. It might take some courage, but I think it’s often worth doing, and it’s certainly better than the alternative–falsely taking the moral high road by lying about one’s own conduct whilst demonizing everybody else.

  30. 30.

    Paul L.

    More on a Man’s right to choice.
    The Morning Vent

    if a man can have no opinion on the subject of abortion; if, because he has no ovaries; if he is prohibited from even pondering the question of whether taking a human life in the womb is right or wrong, why the heck should he feel any obligation to a child after it’s born? After all, he doesn’t have ovaries. The child was a choice and you made it. He had no say at all. Why does the child become his obligation once you need child support?

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