Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The willow is too close to the house.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I really should read my own blog.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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Reader Interactions

51Comments

  4. 4.

    Jake

    Can we talk about this?

    I’m sure most of us are not too psyched about our home addresses being quite so easy to obtain.

  5. 5.

    L. Ron Obama

    Yes, I’m not particularly happy that searching my last name immediately brings up campaign contribution data on the first page of search results.

    Not much you can do about it though, other than to get a lot of high-profile sites to mention you and shove those contribution results off the front page. ;)

  7. 7.

    Jake

    Abrams leads his show with the recent JonBenet “story”. What the heck happened to that guy? The fascination with this is just piles and piles of stupid.

  8. 8.

    Delia

    Abrams is onto Jesse Jackson’s latest stupid now.

    BTW, I think Rachel Maddow’s been doing great on Countdown. She’s actually better at analysis than Keith is.

  9. 9.

    Jake

    I can’t get enough of Rachel Maddow. MSNBC can replace KO (or, even better, Abrams) with her anytime they want so far as I’m concerned.

  11. 11.

    Dug Jay

    Re the concern that L Ron Obama notes above, you can legally use your attorney’s mailing address, or that of a business manager if you use one, for purposes of the FEC reporting requirements. That’s what I’ve been doing for years.

  12. 12.

    Don

    Shit, we’re about the paint the white house black. What do you have to apologize for? Drive on in to DC, brother, The real Clinton is gonna be at the 930 club on the 19th.

  13. 13.

    PaulW

    My parents – I’d mentioned them before – are not too enthusiastic about the election this year. They grumbled over one dinner gathering that it looks like the Democrats are gonna win this November. And they are not huge fans of Democrats. And they tend to overlook the foibles of Republicans. And even they know, it’s gonna suck this year to be a Republican.

    At the 4th of July gathering in Clearwater this past weekend, I spotted three people in Obama t-shirts. Just to let you know the t-shirt demographics: White. Elderly (60 plus). And while I admit just having 3 people out of oh 700 or so isn’t too big a deal… well… I did not see a single McCain t-shirt. Clearwater/North Pinellas County is reasonably a safe GOP voting area. You’d think there’d be at least ONE person able to spend the $20 to buy a McCain shirt.

    At the place where I work – the library – we have voter registration cards. People can use them to change their voter info. I’ve had two people in the last two days come in asking for the forms. And both guys openly announced, without encouragement, they were changing their voter status and quitting the Republicans. The second guy today said “Never again.” This is Gus Bilirakis district, and it was his dad’s district before him. It’s been solidly Republican since even before Reagan. And these guys are openly disparaging the party. Nobody’s forcing them to, they just are.

    I’m just saying, at my level of the world, things are looking bad for the GOP.

  14. 14.

    L. Ron Obama

    Too late now for me (not that I have an attorney on staff anyway) but that may be valuable information for others. Thanks.

  16. 16.

    TheFountainHead

    I could not find myself in that database. Makes me feel kinda left out, to be honest.

  17. 17.

    L. Ron Obama

    You have to contribute a certain amount and it takes a while to show up as well.

  18. 18.

    Jake

    I could not find myself in that database. Makes me feel kinda left out, to be honest.

    But are you aware of all internet traditions?

  19. 19.

    Delia

    Here’s a little thing that pissed me off yesterday. I was in Target and among other things I bought some cough syrup because I’ve had a bad cold — the Target generic for the plain Robitussin without any of the additives for decongestants or stuff. Anyhow, the clerk, who’s a nice elderly gentleman, says they have to check ID on cough syrup purchases now. He’s pretty apologetic, and I make some joke about it’s been a lot of years since I’ve been carded, but I’m really feeling too shitty to make a fuss. But not only does he look at my driver’s license, he scans it into the Target database. And I didn’t really think about it until later, because like I said, I was really feeling pretty crummy, and wouldn’t have gone out unless I had to. But today I started thinking, “What the hell? They’re putting people into a database for buying cough syrup.” I mean, I already have to buy Sudafed online because it’s not even for sale in Oregon, so I’m sure I’m in some sort of hot drug database for that. But cough syrup. I do think the war on drugs has gotten just a tad out of hand.

  20. 20.

    Joe Max

    Evil Triangulating Democratic Machine Uberdominatrix Hillary Clinton’s votes on FISA:

    On telecom immunity: NO

    On cloture: NO

    On passage: NO

    In other news, the Great Orange Satan wept.

  21. 21.

    Studly Pantload

    Maddow has definitely improved since her first stint subbing for the GOS (hey, we’re a big tent, we got room for two of ’em). (Those of you familiar with Olbermannwatch.com will get the ref.) Her first time out had her too jittery (and, frankly, KO has so molded the show to his personality I can understand feeling daunted sitting at the desk).

    And, yes, her analysis is excellent. KO’s a political showman, but she’s a wonk’s wonk. And how someone so seemingly decent as her became a rising star in an industry filled with egos so huge their owners need to grease the doorframes to get them through would keep me up at nights if I let it.

  22. 22.

    The Bearded Blogger

    Re: Ingrid Betancourt

    Betancourt’s liberation will probably mean four more years of Uribe, who is a sort of Bush mini-me (and has a mini-me of his own, with that very nickname, the agriculture minister); things are getting a bit fascist around here- for example, Uribe has been bashing the Supreme Court and attacking the separation of powers. However, with regards to Betancourt herself, as well as the other persons that were liberated, one cannot help but tear up at their stories, and feel a deep sympathy for their inmense suffering and perseverance. I believe Betancourt will be an influence for good in this crazy ass country.

    On a lighter note, one of the freed americans looks exactly like the white-haired character from “small soldiers”

  23. 23.

    montysano

    From Wikipedia:

    A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, Maddow later obtained a degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. She then received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1995 and used it to obtain a D.Phil. in political science from Lincoln College, Oxford University

    Damn….

    And yeah, she’s been a breath of fresh air. I like KO, but he’s been laying it on a bit thick lately. Rachel really seems to like facts, and research, and all that stuff that news shows used to do.

  24. 24.

    Delia

    And yeah, she’s been a breath of fresh air. I like KO, but he’s been laying it on a bit thick lately. Rachel really seems to like facts, and research, and all that stuff that news shows used to do.

    She’s even more impressive than I realized. It’s understandable she was nervous her first couple of times hosting the show, but she’s really coming into her own this week. KO’s a good polemicist, but I think everyone agrees he’s had tendency to go over the top recently. And Rachel can just pull facts, figures, and interviewees together to make a really impressive story.

  25. 25.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    Delia Says:
    Here’s a little thing that pissed me off yesterday. I was in Target and among other things I bought some cough syrup because I’ve had a bad cold—the Target generic for the plain Robitussin without any of the additives for decongestants or stuff. Anyhow, the clerk, who’s a nice elderly gentleman, says they have to check ID on cough syrup purchases now. He’s pretty apologetic, and I make some joke about it’s been a lot of years since I’ve been carded, but I’m really feeling too shitty to make a fuss. But not only does he look at my driver’s license, he scans it into the Target database. And I didn’t really think about it until later, because like I said, I was really feeling pretty crummy, and wouldn’t have gone out unless I had to. But today I started thinking, “What the hell? They’re putting people into a database for buying cough syrup.” I mean, I already have to buy Sudafed online because it’s not even for sale in Oregon, so I’m sure I’m in some sort of hot drug database for that. But cough syrup. I do think the war on drugs has gotten just a tad out of hand.

    You know what pisses me off? People speaking mexican in Bank of America! That really riles my butter.
    http://www.eurekareporter.com/article/080701-entry-level-jobs-scarce-because-of-illegal-aliens

    ps-
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=KszD_MfB798

  26. 26.

    The Bearded Blogger

    Thomas Edward:

    I didn’t realize mexican was a language. I have to wonder wether you’d be as pissed if the language in question was, for example, Swiss-ese

  27. 27.

    AnotherBruce

    Aaaah P-Funk.

    I thought that one of the best puns that no one else ever got besides me was when a later version of Big Audio Dynamite released an album called F-Punk. The first song, called “I turned out a Punk” had the lyrics “I didn’t like jazz, I didn’t like funk.” That jokester Mick Jones.

  28. 28.

    BethanyAnne

    Dunno if this will get noticed, but I was thinking about the software that powers balloon juice. Is there a compelling reason to not run Slashcode? I don’t know if there’s enough traffic for the moderation mojo to work, but just for the base functionality of serving pages, it seems like a good option. I’ve wondered why more blogs don’t go with it.

    Thanks,
    Bethany

  29. 29.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    The Bearded Blogger Says:
    Thomas Edward:

    I didn’t realize mexican was a language. I have to wonder wether you’d be as pissed if the language in question was, for example, Swiss-ese

    Wouldn’t expect you to know this, bearded one, but i am of pure Swiss extraction, and i can’t stand Switzerland. Beautiful country, and train service is good, and we all have rifles in our closets, but the food, dear god, turnips and sausages breakfast lunch and dinner? And the music, well I’d link to “Swiss Rock” video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNbXfF7ZtPg) but then I’d feel all evil creepy white supremist and i’d rather not do that so lets funk-
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=H5aVhLjT7UE

  30. 30.

    cain

    We should be talking about when that new website that was John Cole promised us is coming? This is the fucking fisa thing all over again isn’t it? Mr. John Cole, tear down this website!

    BTW slashcode in it’s current carnation sucks. I would have prefered slashcode from say two years ago or something without all those stupid moderation enhancements. /. is fairly unreadable these days IMHO.

    cain

  31. 31.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    The Bearded Blogger Says:
    Thomas Edward:

    I didn’t realize mexican was a language. I have to wonder wether you’d be as pissed if the language in question was, for example, Swiss-ese

    I see my earlier post with links is held up in moderation.Possibly because of “slashcode”, whatever that is. Maybe when John gets around to including my awesome post, you will understand me better.
    Until then, enjoy-
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMpHHSLSlc

  32. 32.

    cain

    I (brokenly) speak a foreign language and I like to speak it say at Bank of America especially when I want to talk about some dork in line whose holding it up because he’s mad cuz someone is speaking mexican.

    For giggles, I have online friends in central america and I kept referring to them as “mexicans” until they quite irritatedly told me that they weren’t mexican that they were peruvian (or chilean or whatever). I told them I was an American and everything south of texans I refer to as “Mexico”. Boy, did I get an earful from them. I think I’m going to do it again.. later.
    cain

  33. 33.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    Jake Says:
    Can we talk about this?

    I’m sure most of us are not too psyched about our home addresses being quite so easy to obtain.

    I sometimes forget which nym I’m using online, but I am rather disturbed that no-one nymed Theadore is contributing.

  34. 34.

    Martin

    Is there a compelling reason to not run Slashcode?

    But this is where I go for my daily database connection errors. You want to change that?

    (Drupal would be my rec, but blog software is like underwear – it’s hard to pick for other people)

  35. 35.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    cain Says:
    I (brokenly) speak a foreign language and I like to speak it say at Bank of America especially when I want to talk about some dork in line whose holding it up because he’s mad cuz someone is speaking mexican.

    For giggles, I have online friends in central america and I kept referring to them as “mexicans” until they quite irritatedly told me that they weren’t mexican that they were peruvian (or chilean or whatever). I told them I was an American and everything south of texans I refer to as “Mexico”. Boy, did I get an earful from them. I think I’m going to do it again.. later.
    cain

    No shit, nothing funnier than calling your Peruvian friends “mexican”. They get all pissy about that, eh?
    I always just tell them I love mexico-
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=F-3brRCRsA8

  36. 36.

    BethanyAnne

    I moved from coding to design about 8 years ago, so I’m really not that good of a judge of code anymore. I do like the moderation at /. It makes it easy for me to read the comment threads without dealing with the trolls. I do read at -1 and mod when my number comes up, but other than that, it’s +3. And I tend to only get to mod once a year or so.

    Was your comment about the code itself or about the site with the mod stuff enabled, Cain?

    B

  37. 37.

    OriGuy

    Rachel Maddow Fan Club, for sure.

    Oh, and the police in Flint, MI have apparently licked that violent crime problem, They have time to worry about sagging pants.

  38. 38.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    BethanyAnne Says:
    I moved from coding to design about 8 years ago, so I’m really not that good of a judge of code anymore. I do like the moderation at /. It makes it easy for me to read the comment threads without dealing with the trolls. I do read at -1 and mod when my number comes up, but other than that, it’s +3. And I tend to only get to mod once a year or so.

    Was your comment about the code itself or about the site with the mod stuff enabled, Cain?

    What i am really looking forward to is the time usenet and blogs finally collide. Who wouldn’t rather have a killfile for these crap blog comments?

    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=MhpZnLoBmWo

    B

  39. 39.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    OriGuy Says:
    Rachel Maddow Fan Club, for sure.

    Oh, and the police in Flint, MI have apparently licked that violent crime problem, They have time to worry about sagging pants.

    Propaganda. Look, everyone loves baggy ass jeans, its how we know who to avoid. The cops and me appreciate the criminals wearing baggy jeans, it self-darwinising.
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMdklbWDGw

  40. 40.

    Conservatively Liberal

    John has already said that he is not for a mojo/points type of blog, and to that I say rAmen! I left Kos, in part, because of that stupid system they use. I am a big boy now, and I don’t need any purity police to decide what I can and can not read.

    I prefer open dialog, warts and all. For some reason, some people like to ‘hide’ what others have to say. On the right, they just delete you and ban you. On the left, they just rate you into oblivion. Both ideas suck eggs, and I find it interesting that progressives have no problem stifling speech that they object to.

    Kinda like the right likes to do. Interesting, eh? ;)

  41. 41.

    cain

    Was your comment about the code itself or about the site with the mod stuff enabled, Cain?

    Just the mod stuff. I’m an old slashdot user.. really old.. (eg I started of reading Rob’s original site) So I’ve seen it evolve over time. I like to read at 1.. but for some reason I can’t seem to do that with my current set up. I have no idea why. It’s just got too much “stuff” in it, blogs, and what not.

    I’m with CL, I’d rather just have something that is straight forward with a filter for blog spam. But really the situation right now is just intolerable. We can do better.

    cain

  42. 42.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    cain Says: But really the situation right now is just intolerable. We can do better.

    Oh please. Don’t be such a crybaby. Jeebus, you are “really old” slashdotter? Turn your frikkin computer off if it offends.
    Here watch this-
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlaqa7PBP68

  44. 44.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    cain Says:
    Yeah, great link. Thanks.

    You like that? heh.
    I would really like to see usenet and blogs combine. Instead of rating slashdotwise, I’d rather read this blog on a news client, then I could easily manage my killfile and threads could remain open for weeks, we could have conversation.
    Slashdot always blew in comparison to usenet imo.

    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAWqwLjN70

  45. 45.

    BethanyAnne

    Yeps, I can appreciate the sentiment about modding stuff. I don’t think this site needs it. I have too much fun watching the kerthumpin when a troll shows up – here I’d surf at -1 if the whole /code was used. I was mostly just thinking that the codebase was prolly very stable, and might be easy to tinker with. I would, however, really like to see The Atlantic and HuffPo switch to it just for the mod features. /code was written to deal with communities that are prone to troll infestations. They qualify. //understatement//

    B

  46. 46.

    Thomas Edward Theadore

    BethanyAnne Says:
    Yeps, I can appreciate the sentiment about modding stuff. I don’t think this site needs it. I have too much fun watching the kerthumpin when a troll shows up – here I’d surf at -1 if the whole /code was used. I was mostly just thinking that the codebase was prolly very stable, and might be easy to tinker with. I would, however, really like to see The Atlantic and HuffPo switch to it just for the mod features. /code was written to deal with communities that are prone to troll infestations. They qualify. //understatement//

    While I agree with your dreams (who wouldn’t want to control what others read?) I doubt it will happen. They will probably just delete posts that don’t fit the model. Its all about the advertizing dollar, right? A different set of dreams.

  47. 47.

    bago

    Yeah, I’m a crapper. An interesting form of moderation. Namely none. Trolls either give up, become hilariously entertaining, or just subside into the usual sarcastic vibe of things. There’s no ignore, moderation or deletion, and the stubborn assholian nature of those who survive keeps the site going. It’s really quite amusing.

  51. 51.

    Tax Analyst

    Delia Says:

    Here’s a little thing that pissed me off yesterday. I was in Target and among other things I bought some cough syrup because I’ve had a bad cold—the Target generic for the plain Robitussin without any of the additives for decongestants or stuff. Anyhow, the clerk, who’s a nice elderly gentleman, says they have to check ID on cough syrup purchases now. He’s pretty apologetic, and I make some joke about it’s been a lot of years since I’ve been carded, but I’m really feeling too shitty to make a fuss. But not only does he look at my driver’s license, he scans it into the Target database. And I didn’t really think about it until later, because like I said, I was really feeling pretty crummy, and wouldn’t have gone out unless I had to. But today I started thinking, “What the hell? They’re putting people into a database for buying cough syrup.” I mean, I already have to buy Sudafed online because it’s not even for sale in Oregon, so I’m sure I’m in some sort of hot drug database for that. But cough syrup. I do think the war on drugs has gotten just a tad out of hand.

    But how do we know you weren’t going to take that cough syrup home and use it to bake up a batch of meth?

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