Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So many bastards, so little time.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

… gradually, and then suddenly.

“In the name of Zandar, I will fight the Stupid!”

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

That pie keeps getting more and more forks, reducing anyone’s chance of even a Perot.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

T R E 4 5 O N

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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Time For Another Fundraiser

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Maybe when the brain trust at Red State finish raising their eleventy bilion dollars to revamp their website, they can hold another fundraiser for the Department of Justice. Check out this pathetic excuse given to TPM for why they (TPM) were removed from the email list that sends our press releases and can not be added back:

Mr. Berger,

I appreciated your desire to be in tune with DOJ press releases, however, unfortunately I am not able to add you to our distribution list. As you may realize we have a lot of requests to be put on our media lists and we simply are not able to put everyone on the list. We do however have all our press releases on our website and update them the minute they are released so I would suggest looking there. You can also always call us with press inquiries. Thanks again for your interest.

Sincerely,

Jamie Hais
Press Assistant
Office of Public Affairs
Department of Justice

They seriously claimed there is not room on the email list. It has nothing to do with the negative coverage TPM has had of the corrupt DOJ.

At what point will it become acceptable to start marching on Washington and start rioting?

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  1. 1.

    Ed

    Really there’s only one good explanation why people have not started “marching on Washington”: they’re scared. Scared of being arrested. Scared of losing their jobs. Scared of being labeled a traitor or terrorist; Scared to fight. We are one whipped country. Could the founding fathers have ever fathomed us, or our craven servitude to this gang of thugs?

  2. 2.

    gypsy howell

    Gee I dunno. I tried that in early 2003 and all I got was being called a traitor and a nice UFPJ teeshirt.

    Too late. The conservatives won.

  4. 4.

    Ted

    At what point will it become acceptable to start marching on Washington and start rioting?

    Jan. 20, 2009. When the next one is sworn in, and George is locked in the presidential bathroom, refusing to come out. After removal of the overgrown child, claw marks will still be left on the carpet.

  5. 5.

    Incertus (Brian)

    At what point will it become acceptable to start marching on Washington and start rioting?

    Just over 7 years ago, when the Supreme Court gave Bush the only electoral win he needed.

  6. 6.

    Jake

    That is nothing more or less than a giant assed lie. If the DoJ server that handles dist-lists is that bitched up the fucking terrists have won.

  7. 7.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    Really there’s only one good explanation why people have not started “marching on Washington”: they’re scared. Scared of being arrested. Scared of losing their jobs. Scared of being labeled a traitor or terrorist; Scared to fight. We are one whipped country. Could the founding fathers have ever fathomed us, or our craven servitude to this gang of thugs?

    It’s not even just that. 50% of this country can’t name the Veep. There’s not even enough manpower for a riot, to begin with.

    I still like the idea, though, of having a peaceful sit-in surrounding the WH, not letting a single guy in or out, until 2009.

    One problem: that tricky Marine One.

  9. 9.

    stephen

    But seriously. The thing that has surprised me the most about the Bush administration is ability to keep surprising me. Every time you think that there’s no way they could be worse, sure enough, worse they get. So while I’d like to think that it’s crazy to think it possible that they try to hang on to power a year from now, you know… fool me once/fool me 10,000 times and all that.

  11. 11.

    Ted

    If the DoJ server that handles dist-lists is that bitched up the fucking terrists have won.

    Shortly after 9/11 (praise be to Rudy, may he schlub in peace), I recall hearing in the news about the PC situation at the FBI. Apparently, in 2002, it was discovered that the FBI was still using machines going back to 486’s, and internal email was only available to certain employees.

    So, hilarious as it may be, the DOJ story is within the realm of possibility.

  12. 12.

    annagranfors

    At what point will it become acceptable to start marching on Washington and start rioting?

    the very second that someone figures out how to mobilize us in our millions, and can keep the focus narrow. (ie, “storm the Bastille”, not “Free Mumia”.)

  14. 14.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    So, hilarious as it may be, the DOJ story is within the realm of possibility.

    Easily fixed. Give me access to the list, I’ll put it up on a Google Mail account and forward to everyone necessarily, even if it might be 5 minutes late.

    Federal administrative stupidity aside, every IT guy they have could fix this in 5 minutes, with or without hardware.

    To be fair, TPM doesn’t need this. They’re big enough to put up their own solution, as well. This is pretty simple stuff.

  15. 15.

    gypsy howell

    stephen, have you ever read Milton Meyer’s “They Thought They Were Free”?

    “What no one seemed to notice,” said a colleague of mine, a philologist, “was the ever widening gap, after1933,between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. …

    What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.
    …
    “To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it – please try to believe me – unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, “regretted,” that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these “little measures” that no “patriotic German” could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.
    ….
    “You see,” my colleague went on, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don’t want to “go out of your way to make trouble.” Why not? – Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

    …”And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic.

    ..
    “But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked – if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in “43” had come immediately after the “German Firm” stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in “33”. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

    That’s why we’re not marching.

  18. 18.

    myiq2xu

    At what point will it become acceptable to start marching on Washington and start rioting?

    One of the lessons from the Watts Riots was that the area had been a powderkeg for years. An otherwise routine traffic stop by the California Highway Patrol was the spark.

    My feeling is that people are just gritting their teeth and waiting out G-Dub. But if there is any attempt to steal or cancel the next election . . . well, you may see what democracy in action looks like.

  19. 19.

    r€nato

    You’re all assuming their excuse is technical. Remember, we’re dealing with a bunch of word-parsing bastards who make Bill Clinton look like a straight-shooter when it comes to the subject of what the meaning of the word ‘is’, is.

    unfortunately I am not able to add you to our distribution list. As you may realize we have a lot of requests to be put on our media lists and we simply are not able to put everyone on the list.

    Note the duplicate use of the word, ‘able’. Now, this could mean a number of things:

    1) “We don’t know how to do it; we’re not able.” This, of course, is what they were assuming you’d assume when reading this.

    2) “We can’t do this because we were told not to; we’re not able to because we don’t have permission to add you.”

    3) “We’re not able to because TPM is on our Enemies List, and we don’t put our enemies on our distribution list.”

  20. 20.

    PQuincy

    Don’t be distracted by the zany technical claims: focus instead on the truly revealing feature of the letter from the DoJ! It contains an egregious, laughably incompetent run-on sentence. How many times do we say, “you cannot stitch two sentences together using ‘however’ and a comma…” It’s all for nothing, hopeless. The illiterates have taken the Department of Justice, the bastion of the law, which depends on language! Give up all hope and abandon ship…

  21. 21.

    r€nato

    But if there is any attempt to steal or cancel the next election . . . well, you may see what democracy in action looks like.

    I doubt it. Very wishful thinking. Take away people’s TV, cheap gas and beer… then you’ll see riots.

    Steal a presidential election, shit on the Constitution… not so much.

  22. 22.

    Snark Based Reality

    OMG OPEN THREAD! OPEN THREAD!!!!

    *smacks his metal cup against the bars in protest*

  23. 23.

    LiberalTarian

    gypsy howell is describing what Jared Diamond calls “creeping normalcy.” We don’t notice what sneaks up on us incrementally. For a better expository description, see Diamond’s “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.”

  24. 24.

    r€nato

    “Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don’t want to “go out of your way to make trouble.”
    …
    “But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes.”

    Exactly right. This is why we will never see ‘democracy in action’, aka the torch-bearing, pitchfork-wielding mobs descending on Washington to take back our government.

  27. 27.

    LiberalTarian

    Lol. Re Mittens: I saw that. Now the GOP primary stuff can stay interesting for a while longer. Since they don’t nominate until September, it could be good for a lot of giggles.

    By the way, Huckabee wants our constitution to conform with the living God. BWAHAHAHA.

  28. 28.

    gypsy howell

    And, in the interest of dignity and decorum, let us not go over to Hugh Hewitt’s site at the moment. (fap fap fap fap fap fap fap). Let’s just let him finish up first.

    As for K-Lo —
    no… I don’t even want to imagine what’s going on over there right now.

  31. 31.

    Jake

    As for K-Lo—no… I don’t even want to imagine what’s going on over there right now.

    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

  32. 32.

    Innocent Bystander

    Frankly, I’m surprised that they didn’t say their e-mail server was missing…probably lost with the 10 million WH e-mails that disappeared.

    When this criminal administration leaves, there will be no paper trail. It will be like they never existed. What a monumental waste of 8 years.

  34. 34.

    Randolph Fritz

    Really there’s only one good explanation why people have not started “marching on Washington”: they’re scared.

    Or perhaps realize that a big enough riot will be all the excuse needed to declare martial law. Gandhi had the right of it: go, demonstrate, obstruct, be prepared to be mistreated. No target, no satisfying victory even possible. Only sacrifice and patience.

  35. 35.

    stephen

    I wonder if it would be easier for Bush to mobilize his 28%’s than it would be for the rest of us to get together to oppose them.

  37. 37.

    r€nato

    When this criminal administration leaves, there will be no paper trail. It will be like they never existed.

    Oh, I wouldn’t say that. They will have left us a lovely parting gift: Iraq.

    And, in the interest of dignity and decorum, let us not go over to Hugh Hewitt’s site at the moment. (fap fap fap fap fap fap fap). Let’s just let him finish up first.

    Yes, let’s let Hugh finish with his Mittsterbation until he’s done having a satisfying Mittgasm.

  38. 38.

    PaulW

    At what point will it become acceptable to start marching on Washington and start rioting?

    It was acceptable 3 years ago when the Abu Grabitandshoveit torture photos came out. Sadly, most everyone including myself are too distracted or too chickensh-t to actually do it.

  39. 39.

    conumbdrum

    when the brain trust at Red State finish raising their eleventy bilion dollars to revamp their website

    Ah, yes… and how’s that little blogathon for the feeble-minded going? Dear me, only 14% on the way to the goal with a whopping TWENTY-SEVEN donors? Tsk. Maybe Dennis Miller would be willing to drop by and go into a Jerry Lewis “sincerity” riff on their behalf.

    Fourteen percent. Pardon me while I laugh myself silly.

  40. 40.

    The Other Steve

    Mittens wins!

    Apparently the Great Orange Satan’s campaign for Democrats to vote Mitt succeeded!

  42. 42.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    Apparently the Great Orange Satan’s campaign for Democrats to vote Mitt succeeded!

    McCain won the Democrats 41-33 over Romney.

    They should outsource their email list handling to some suitable organization.

    I’m thinking Microsoft any group of reasonably bright 13 year olds could do them very well indeed.

    Fixed.

  43. 43.

    The Other Steve

    I might be wrong. McCain might not win this thing. I figured the GOP base would just line up and take it like a man.

    But look at that exit polling… Some 45% of those who voted in the GOP primary hate Bush.

    Although what is bizarre, is those who hated Bush voted for McCain, the candidate who has been annointed by Bush to succeed. LOL!

  44. 44.

    The Other Steve

    McCain won the Democrats 41-33 over Romney.

    That might be your reality.

    But I’m TOS, and I create my own reality. It’s your job to study my reality after I’ve created my reality, and decide whether or not to make it your own reality.

  45. 45.

    The Other Steve

    Did you see how the stock market fell today on news that Romney was ahead in the last round of polls in Michigan?

    Further evidence that the stock market doesn’t want Romney as President!

  46. 46.

    Cain

    Threadjack! So it looks like South Carolina the dirty tricks are flying according to this Essentially, there is a flier out there that alleges that McCain turned his back on his fellow prisoners of war. Goddam, nothing is sacred.

    I’m simply offended that there are people out there that would think that is some kind of legitimate attack. (I also notice that these kind of attacks always seem to target southern people, eg the last time it was a black baby)

    Lame.

    cain

  47. 47.

    Cain

    You know it’s kind of sad watching Sully having what looks like a mental breakdown while live blogging the nevada democratic debate. Jeez.. I imagine him with a glass of scotch shouting at the tv whilst pounding away at the laptop.

    cain

  51. 51.

    r€nato

    I’m simply offended that there are people out there that would think that is some kind of legitimate attack.

    oh, those folks have been around for a while, they were around back in 2000 as well.

    I can’t bear to watch any GOP debates, so I am curious: does Giuliani still get invited to them? Does Ron Paul get invited as well? Because, once again, Ron Paul’s vote total – this time in Michigan – crushed Giuliani’s total. If anyone should be excluded from the debates due to lack of support, it’s Giuliani.

  52. 52.

    r€nato

    Fourteen percent. Pardon me while I laugh myself silly.

    Clearly, it’s the fault of us intolerant liberals who don’t support free speech. My, we’re crafty, aren’t we?

  53. 53.

    Pb

    Yeah, of course it’s technically possible. The DOJ is run by political hacks, and political hacks know how to run email lists because they know how to run political campaigns. In fact, it seems that a lot of that infrastructure is the same on the Republican side of things, hence, all those subpoenas they’re busily ignoring…

  54. 54.

    Jake

    Essentially, there is a flier out there that alleges that McCain turned his back on his fellow prisoners of war.

    Yep, the Purple Heart Band-Aid genie will not go back in the bottle.

  55. 55.

    edmund dantes

    r€nato Says:

    I doubt it. Very wishful thinking. Take away people’s TV, cheap gas and beer… then you’ll see riots.

    Steal a presidential election, shit on the Constitution… not so much.

    No beer and No TV make Homer go something something…

    Go Crazy?

    Don’t mind if I do…

  56. 56.

    Napoleon

    Instead of Washington lets hold the riot at Diebold headquarters.

    I use to live about a mile away from it, so it anyone wants directions!

  57. 57.

    Punchy

    As for K-Lo—no… I don’t even want to imagine what’s going on over there right now.

    Buy some stock in Duracell. Trust me.

  58. 58.

    Punchy

    You’d think the DOJ would have learned not to piss of Marshall. The guy’s got more crack reporters than most major newspapers. He’ll dig into this so hard that 10 more Bush peeps will be forced out.

    they just pissed off the wrong guy. their arrogance and stupidity knows no bounds.

  59. 59.

    jrg

    “we simply are not able to put everyone on the list”? What a bunch of B.S. It’s faster and easier to add someone to a distribution list than it is to type an email.

    I’m starting to see a pattern here – the GOP and their enablers are increasingly dependent ignorance of technology to get their talking points across.

    It does not matter if it’s Bill O’reilly making a stink about a post on Kos (as if internet discussion boards are edited like the newspaper opinion page), or if it’s the Bush DOJ pretending that distribution list subscriptions cannot exceed a certain small number (as someone on the TPM thread pointed out, spammers maintain distribution lists with millions of recipients).

    To believe anything the GOP says these days, you’ve got to be completely ignorant of science, technology, civics, current events, and common courtesy. November can’t get here fast enough.

  60. 60.

    Zifnab

    “we simply are not able to put everyone on the list”? What a bunch of B.S. It’s faster and easier to add someone to a distribution list than it is to type an email.

    I get about two dozen “PENIS BIGGER!” emails a day in any one of my email accounts. If all the nigerian bankers in the world can fit my email in among the rest, I have full confidence that the DOJ can find room for TPM.

    Of course, it is still almost a toss up. Perhaps the DOJ really is too incompetent to run an email list correctly. I wouldn’t put shenanigans past them, but I wouldn’t put pure reckless incompetence past them either. So I’ll just chalk it up to both, as you’d have to be retarded to even make that claim unless you were truly IT ignorant.

  61. 61.

    Peter Johnson

    First off, isn’t it more than little suspicious that Sandy Burglar is working for TPM? Does that not seem like a tiny bit of conflict of interest?

    Also, I doubt that, say, the Hillary campaign would allow, say, Red State to get its press releases either.

  62. 62.

    jrg

    Also, I doubt that, say, the Hillary campaign would allow, say, Red State to get its press releases either.

    The DOJ is not a intended to be political organization, you ignorant hick.

  63. 63.

    grandpa john

    Peter. do us a favor if yuu are going to continue to grace these pages with your contributions, please go back and take Trolling 101 so that your attempts will at least be decipherable

  64. 64.

    Svensker

    Peter Johnson Says:

    First off, isn’t it more than little suspicious that Sandy Burglar is working for TPM? Does that not seem like a tiny bit of conflict of interest?

    Uuuuhhh, that would be Andrew Berger. But why bother with facts when it’s so much more fun to create your own reality?

  65. 65.

    EL

    Dear me, only 14% on the way to the goal with a whopping TWENTY-SEVEN donors? Tsk.

    Does that twenty-seven count the Kossacks who donated $1.01, or $.01? There were several posters there urging small donations ending in .01 to show they came from the left. Hilarious if that makes up a fair percentage of their donors.

  67. 67.

    tigrismus

    “we simply are not able to put everyone on the list”? What a bunch of B.S. It’s faster and easier to add someone to a distribution list than it is to type an email.

    And it’s easier still to not remove someone from a list that they’re already on.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. […] From Balloon Juice: Mr. Berger, I appreciated your desire to be in tune with DOJ press releases, however, unfortunately I am not able to add you to our distribution list. As you may realize we have a lot of requests to be put on our media lists and we simply are not able to put everyone on the list. We do however have all our press releases on our website and update them the minute they are released so I would suggest looking there. You can also always call us with press inquiries. Thanks again for your interest. […]

  2. […] From Balloon Juice: Mr. Berger, I appreciated your desire to be in tune with DOJ press releases, however, unfortunately I am not able to add you to our distribution list. As you may realize we have a lot of requests to be put on our media lists and we simply are not able to put everyone on the list. We do however have all our press releases on our website and update them the minute they are released so I would suggest looking there. You can also always call us with press inquiries. Thanks again for your interest. […]