• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

This really is a full service blog.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Come on, man.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

People are weird.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

The willow is too close to the house.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  March 23, 20079:15 am| 36 Comments

This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance

FacebookTweetEmail

The weather is crappy out, and I feel like death because of it. For some reason, anytime it is overcast and muggy and raining, I now get sinus headaches.

Wunderbar. I want to be 12 again.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Edwards
Next Post: Spectering Like It’s 1999 2005 »

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Andrew

    March 23, 2007 at 9:37 am

    I feel your pain. I was illness free all winter. Now, pollen is kicking my ass.

    I’m thinking about calling in a defoliant strike on my neighborhood.

    On the other hand, the weather is perfect.

  2. 2.

    Daniel DiRito

    March 23, 2007 at 9:40 am

    On Thursday Alberto Gonzales told us he is working tirelessly to be sure he has every American’s back covered…especially our children. Should the firing of six top performers make us feel better?

    I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve always been suspicious of the guy that seems to go out of his way to tell you he’s “got your back covered”.

    See a sarcastic visual that demonstrates how many Americans feel when the Attorney General reassures us that he’s got our backs covered…here:

    http://www.thoughttheater.com

  3. 3.

    p.lukasiak

    March 23, 2007 at 9:40 am

    For some reason, anytime it is overcast and muggy and raining, I now get sinus headaches.

    it probably has something to do with changes in barometric pressure (although your headaches would be atypical — headaches are generally associated with higher pressure, while the weather associated with your headaches are generally found in low pressure situations.)

  4. 4.

    Jake

    March 23, 2007 at 10:08 am

    Time for your Friday Morning WTF? Alert.

    Brought to you by Iran.

  5. 5.

    28 Percent

    March 23, 2007 at 10:11 am

    If you do not feel good have you thought that maybe a guilty conscience is to blame? So ask yourself what have I done to make GOD angry, Lord? If you open your heart and start loving not hating and supporting treason you will find the truth that supporting abortion is WRONG and you will feel better with Jesus.

    Also, Vicks makes both a spray and an inhaler that looks like a miniature vibrator that clears you up without making you pass out.

  6. 6.

    RSA

    March 23, 2007 at 10:17 am

    The weather is crappy out,

    80 degrees and sunny here in NC. I’m sometimes surprised at how much difference a couple of hundred miles makes.

  7. 7.

    Zifnab

    March 23, 2007 at 10:19 am

    On Thursday Alberto Gonzales told us he is working tirelessly to be sure he has every American’s back covered…especially our children.

    Isn’t that what Mark Foley said?

  8. 8.

    Pb

    March 23, 2007 at 10:45 am

    Jake,

    “The IranianAmerican people are good, honest, decent people and they’ve got a government that is belligerent, loud, noisy, threatening — a government which is in defiance of the rest of the world and says, ‘We want a nuclear weaponwar.'”

    Fixed.

  9. 9.

    Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop

    March 23, 2007 at 10:57 am

    Channeling Paddy on the latest Gallup and Iraqi polls:

    Bush Approval in USA: 33%
    Democrats in Congress Approval in USA: 33%
    Al-Maliki Government Approval in Baghdad: 34%

    You’re doing a heckuva job, Washington — the Iraqi government is beating both US parties in popularity in a city that gets regular car bombs . Al-Miliki’s Iraq-wide numbers blow our guys away (54%). Perhaps Iraq can become an example to others, after all.

  10. 10.

    ThymeZone

    March 23, 2007 at 11:16 am

    Perhaps Iraq can become an example to others, after all.

    Or, maybe not ….

    March 24, 2007

    IRAQI Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubayi was wounded last night in a suicide bombing, only hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon escaped a rocket attack.
    Mr Zubayi was rushed to a US military hospital in Baghdad after three people were killed and 10 others wounded in a double suicide and car bomb attack near the Deputy Prime Minister’s home, office and mosque close to the highly fortified Green Zone in the centre of the Iraq capital.
    Earlier, an insurgent rocket narrowly missed the Baghdad building where Mr Ban and Mr Maliki were holding a press conference to announce that the security situation in Iraq was improving.

    Mr Maliki opened the meeting by announcing that Iraq had “made huge strides on the road toward stability”, while Mr Ban, on his first trip to Iraq, was full of enthusiasm.

    “The situation in Iraq has improved,” he said, adding that he was considering increasing the UN presence in the country.

    As he was speaking, an explosion rocked the Prime Minister’s office, deep in the Green Zone.

  11. 11.

    Dreggas

    March 23, 2007 at 11:19 am

    I saw Idiocracy last night and laughed my ass off. Once I recovered I thought about it and wanted to cry…

  12. 12.

    jg

    March 23, 2007 at 11:22 am

    For some reason, anytime it is overcast and muggy and raining, I now get sinus headaches

    I get that too. I think its because I took a few shots to the jaw while playing high school hockey.

  13. 13.

    Tsulagi

    March 23, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon escaped a rocket attack.
    Mr Zubayi was rushed to a US military hospital in Baghdad after three people were killed and 10 others wounded in a double suicide and car bomb attack

    It’s just the rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air joyously signaling the triumphant Republican brand of democracy in Iraq is still there.

  14. 14.

    Tsulagi

    March 23, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Once I recovered I thought about it and wanted to cry…

    You need more electrolytes.

  15. 15.

    Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop

    March 23, 2007 at 11:42 am

    IRAQI Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubayi was wounded last night in a suicide bombing, only hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon escaped a rocket attack.

    Damn 66%ers, ruining it for the 34%ers.

  16. 16.

    Dreggas

    March 23, 2007 at 11:43 am

    Tsulagi Says:

    You need more electrolytes

    Ugh. I hate sports drinks anyway LOL.

  17. 17.

    Pb

    March 23, 2007 at 11:54 am

    Newsweek had Bush’s approval numbers at 30% nationally, but I’m sure his numbers in Washington, D.C. are far, far lower–he got 9.34% of the vote there in 2004, down from 9.47% in 2000, so his current approval in D.C. is almost certainly in the single digits.

  18. 18.

    Dug Jay

    March 23, 2007 at 12:01 pm

    As p.lukasiak points out above, your headaches are almost certainly related to changes in barometric pressure. However, the condition that you describe in terms of current weather strongly suggests that perhaps you should consult your doctor; sinus-related headaches would normally occur with the inverse pressures associated with weather.

  19. 19.

    The Other Steve

    March 23, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    Democrats in Congress Approval in USA: 33%

    Which is double approval for Republicans.

    You’re doing a heckuva job, Washington—the Iraqi government is beating both US parties in popularity in a city that gets regular car bombs . Al-Miliki’s Iraq-wide numbers blow our guys away (54%). Perhaps Iraq can become an example to others, after all.

    Gotta give him credit. He didn’t even flinch when that mortar round landed.

  20. 20.

    The Other Steve

    March 23, 2007 at 12:50 pm

    John,

    We need a rant about rat poison in cat food.

  21. 21.

    Jake

    March 23, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    he got 9.34% of the vote there in 2004, down from 9.47% in 2000

    Just because he lives here doesn’t mean we have to like our pResident.

  22. 22.

    Punchy

    March 23, 2007 at 1:06 pm

    Time for your Friday Morning WTF? Alert.

    Wow. Read the headline and immediately thought “epilepsy”. What’s my problem?

  23. 23.

    Punchy

    March 23, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    For some reason, anytime it is overcast and muggy and raining, I now get sinus headaches

    Maybe you’re a sally? I’ll put out the A.P.B. for John’s sack. It appears to be missing.

  24. 24.

    chopper

    March 23, 2007 at 1:23 pm

    I want to be 12 again

    waddya mean, “again”?

  25. 25.

    Richard 23

    March 23, 2007 at 2:46 pm

    It’s raining here. And it’s unusually cold. Darn you global warming!

    I see that there’s an ad for RINO Rudy in the sidebar. Fruity Giuliani? No thanks.

    GO RINOs! /sarc

    You’re doing a heckuva job, Washington—the Iraqi government is beating both US parties in popularity in a city that gets regular car bombs .

    Yeah, whatever. It’s no worse in Iraq than Detroit or Chicago.

    During an interview Monday with WILS-AM, Rep. Tim Walberg said the returning troops he has talked with “indicate to me that 80 to 85 percent, in a conservative fashion, of the country is reasonably under control, at least as well as Detroit or Chicago or any of our other big cities. That’s an encouraging sign.”

    Take that, Paddy wannabe!

  26. 26.

    Richard 23

    March 23, 2007 at 2:53 pm

    Newsweek had Bush’s approval numbers at 30% nationally

    The Democrat controlled congress must be doing much better than Chimpy McHitler then, right? Huh?

    27.5%? Wow, they’re really kicking ass! President Bush is on the run!

  27. 27.

    The Other Steve

    March 23, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    The weather is crappy out, and I feel like death because of it. For some reason, anytime it is overcast and muggy and raining, I now get sinus headaches.

    I get sinus headaches daily.

    Claritin-D is what you need.

  28. 28.

    Bubblegum Tate

    March 23, 2007 at 7:15 pm

    You need more electrolytes.

    Or perhaps an EXTRA BIG-ASS TACO.

  29. 29.

    Krista

    March 23, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    For some reason, anytime it is overcast and muggy and raining, I now get sinus headaches.

    I get those every time I have to drive over the mountains. Change in altitude just gives me the type of sinus headache where I feel like my teeth are going to fall out of my head. I now keep a jumbo jar of Advil Liqui-Gels in the glove compartment. They’re a godsend.

  30. 30.

    Shabbazz

    March 24, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    Torture works

  31. 31.

    Paul L.

    March 26, 2007 at 5:42 am

    Were the captured by Gitmo in uniform Shabbazz? Did they hide in civilian populations?
    Via Instapundit
    Name, Rank and Serial Number

    As currently interpreted the Geneva Conventions only apply to individuals bent on destroying America. Individuals who blow up elementary schools, kidnap children, attack churches and mosques, kill invalids in wheelchairs, plan attacks on skyscrapers in New York, behead journalists, detonate car bombs with children to camouflage their crime, or board jetliners with explosive shoes — all while wearing mufti or even women’s clothing — these are all considered “freedom fighters” of the most principled kind. They and they alone enjoy the protections of the Geneva Convention. As to Americans like Tucker and Menchaca or Israeli Gilad Shalit — or these fifteen British sailors for that matter, it is a case of “what Geneva Convention?”

  32. 32.

    Otto Man

    March 26, 2007 at 7:35 am

    I get this too, and it’s brutal. You can really relieve the pressure by rubbing your thumbs in three lines across your face — from the bridge of your nose out along the eyebrows, from the same spot underneath your eyes, and then finally from the same spot down the side of your nose. Trust me.

  33. 33.

    Shabbazz

    March 26, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    Were the captured by Gitmo in uniform Shabbazz? Did they hide in civilian populations?

    And you still don’t get it. When we set the precedent of interpreting the Geneva Convention as we see fit, we open the doors for everyone-else and their brother to do the same when our guys are captured.

    Which one of these holds more water:

    “We hope that Nation XYZ treats our captured troops just as humanely as we have treated all of our prisoners of war. The United States has a long history of maintaining the human rights of every citizen of planet Earth, even our enemies, and we expect other nations to do the same.”

    –or–

    “We hope that Nation XYZ treats our captured troops just as humanely as we treat everyone captured on the battlefield in uniform who fits into category B of the Tortured Logic clause which prohibits ‘severe interrogation methods’ on Sundays and Wednesdays depending on the amount of information they may or may not be able to provide to the interrogators who may or may not be properly trained to deal with such a situation”

  34. 34.

    Paul L.

    March 27, 2007 at 9:16 am

    When we set the precedent of interpreting the Geneva Convention as we see fit, we open the doors for everyone-else and their brother to do the same when our guys are captured.

    Tell it to the Vietman/First Gulf war POWs.
    You just want to give Geneva Convention/US Constitutional protections to everybody. So a terrorist can completely disreguard the them and still enjoy the benefits of them.

    This comment by Dale Franks says it all about the Geneva Conventions and Terrorists.

    “As for the Geneva Conventions, it seems to me like Hamdan consituted a direct disagreement with your point of view. ”

    And Congress just overturned that decision, and told the Court to but[t] out. One of the reasons why…well, You quoted this bit, but apparently, didn’t catch it:

    They shall furthermore be bound by the Convention in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the provisions thereof.

    If the party does NOT accept and apply the conventions, the other parties are not bound by them. Convention protections are reciprocal.

    So much for that argument.”

  35. 35.

    Paul L.

    March 27, 2007 at 3:44 pm

    World Sympathy and $1.98 Will Buy You a Venti Coffee

    A reader responds to an earlier reader :

    [The earlier reader writes:] “If country X doesn’t torture people and its people are captured by country Y which tortures them, country X will have more sympathy from the world, and consequently there will be more pressure on country Y, than if country X does torture people.”

    Let’s say Country X is the United States, and Country Y is North Korea or North Vietnam. What EXACTLY was the practical benefit to the United States
    during the Korean and Vietnam wars of this “sympathy from the world” when North Korea and North Vietnam tortured our prisoners? ZERO! In fact, liberals around the world denied that our guys were being tortured, or said our guys had it coming. And what EXACTLY did we gain from this supposed “pressure” from the world on North Korea and North Vietnam? NOTHING! This “pressure” did not shorten either war by one day, move us any closer to our goals, or even significantly ease the plight of our prisoners.

    In real life, as we have seen many times, things will turn out precisely the opposite from what this writer argues. The actual “world sympathy” will be for poor little Country Y, and the actual pressure will be against Country X to stop its genocidal, unprovoked imperialist aggression against innocent Country Y.

  36. 36.

    Shabbazz

    March 27, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    Tell it to the Vietman/First Gulf war POWs.
    You just want to give Geneva Convention/US Constitutional protections to everybody. So a terrorist can completely disreguard the them and still enjoy the benefits of them.

    And you still don’t get it. That’s why they are our enemy. They are our enemies because they torture people and have no regard for human life. They kill kids, use human shields and every other deplorable method of destruction. That’s why they are our enemies.

    They are our enemies. Our polar opposite — because we are the good guys. They cut people’s heads off — we do not! They target civilians — we do not! They torture their prisoners — we…well? Once upon a time, any conservative worth his salt would argue that we respect human rights across the board — because we’re the good guys.

    The fact that terrorists\insurgents\whoever are a legal loophole in the Geneva Convention is not a reason to classify them as less than human. It is an opportunity to show the rest of the world that all that rhetoric about Truth and Justice isn’t just a bag of hot air. To lead by example rather than taking cues from our enemies.

    But, these days, all I can do is shake my head when I see my fellow countryman arguing that we must become our enemy in order to defeat them.

    Seriously — which side are you on, here?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road -  ?BillinGlendaleCA - Gold! 1
Image by BillinGlendaleCA (5/14/25)

Recent Comments

  • lowtechcyclist on Wednesday Night Open Thread (May 15, 2025 @ 5:32am)
  • Central Planning on Late Night Open Thread: Made Men (May 15, 2025 @ 5:29am)
  • MagdaInBlack on On The Road – frosty – 2024 National Park Road Trip – Canada (2/3) Lake Louise and Moraine Lake (May 15, 2025 @ 5:22am)
  • JoyceH on Late Night Open Thread: Made Men (May 15, 2025 @ 5:22am)
  • Baud on Late Night Open Thread: Made Men (May 15, 2025 @ 5:02am)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!