Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I really should read my own blog.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

“But what about the lurkers?”

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This blog will pay for itself.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

This really is a full service blog.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

He really is that stupid.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

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29Comments

  1. 1.

    Jake

    This could be HUGE.

    BERLIN (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months.

    In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.

    “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.”

    -snip-

    “Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems.”

    In other words, John McCain can suck it.

  2. 2.

    E Stamm

    spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam
    LOVELY SPAM WONDERFUL SPAM!
    LOVELY SPAM WONDERFUL SPAM!
    spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam….

  4. 4.

    Cap and Gown

    Obama will probably win in November.

    Heath Ledger will definitely be nominated for an Oscar. Probably win too. Excellent performance!

  5. 5.

    ThymeZone

    A new record- 5300 comments in the spam filter.

    For a minute there, I thought maybe lukasiak was posting again.

    In other words, John McCain can suck it.

    Considering that the old nutcase is already (several years, IIRC) on record as saying that if the Iraqi government asks us to leave, we will have to leave …. yeah, he can suck it.

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    BERLIN (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months.

    Since this is a weekend news story, it will be interesting to see whether the Bush Administration ignores this entirely, scrambles to emphasize their own negotiations over this issue, or sends out hints that al-Maliki is unreliable.

    I also wonder whether the pundit shows this weekend will pick up on this, pretend it never happened, or find a way to insinuate that nothing that al-Maliki says is meaningful unless John McCain finds it acceptable.

    Interesting. I just heard a news report that Obama has arrived in Afghanistan.

    Let the news games begin.

    BTW, in regard to recent threads about global warming, the current issue of Skeptic Magazine has a great series of articles about the subject, fair and non-technical, but pretty thorough.

    Particularly interesting is a critique of the problems in using hydrogen as an energy alternative (incredibly expensive and incredibly inefficient). Information about this issue can be found here (How We Know Global Warming is Real)

  7. 7.

    John Cole

    Since this is a weekend news story, it will be interesting to see whether the Bush Administration ignores this entirely, scrambles to emphasize their own negotiations over this issue, or sends out hints that al-Maliki is unreliable.

    Wrong. This will be spun as a victory for Mccain, because if he did not have the courage to call for the surge and win this war, no one would be able to call for a withdrawal.

    Wanna bet? Watch.

    Now, as to what the fuck we actually won, well, I don’t know. but there you have it.

  8. 8.

    PeterJ

    For a minute there, I thought maybe lukasiak was posting again.

    No, but he’s posting over at TalkLeft.

    BTD had this to say about him:

    At this point, I can not take you seriously.

    Your personal animus towards Obama has clouded your generally good judgment.

    Where will P.Lunatic find someone that likes him?

  9. 9.

    TR

    This will be spun as a victory for Mccain, because if he did not have the courage to call for the surge and win this war, no one would be able to call for a withdrawal.

    Wanna bet? Watch.

    Sadly, that’ll likely be the case. The media has already started parroting the Republican argument that the surge has succeeded, even though the whole point was political progress that hasn’t happened, and we’re leaving in place more troops than we had when we began it.

    But never mind all that. John McCain has foreign policy cred, and his ribs are delicious!

  11. 11.

    Jake

    I caught Amos Lee on NPR this morning. He sounded really, really good. I’m thinking about picking up his new album.

  12. 12.

    AkaDad

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki doesn’t understand Iraq like McCain does.

    I decided to finish watching season 3 of BSG. It looks like the writers were frakin with my head. My rant last night was a case of premature aggravation.

  13. 13.

    ThymeZone

    The media has already started parroting the Republican argument that the surge has succeeded,

    Maybe, but if you watch the polls, you can see that the public is tuning this stuff out. McCain’s numbers are in steady decline in most states.

    The surge is working, my friends. It’s working.

    Not the one in Iraq, the one in Pennsylvania.

  14. 14.

    jake

    In other words, John McCain can suck it. teh terrists will rejoice if Obama wins!911.

    Fixed.

    What’s that you say? al-Maliki isn’t a terrorist? He will be if he keeps pushing for a date certain. The 911th Frightened Keyboardists are either convincing themselves Bush is a terrorist for discussing a pull out, or Bush’s plan to pull out is different from Obama’s plan to pull out because … um … Bush isn’t a secret Muslim.

  15. 15.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    Now, as to what the fuck we actually won, well, I don’t know.

    We won the right to stay in Iraq for 100 years.

    Considering that the old nutcase is already (several years, IIRC) on record as saying that if the Iraqi government asks us to leave, we will have to leave ….

    But only if they ask us in writing on the proper kind of paper.

  17. 17.

    maxbaer (not the original)

    Looks like Bush is going to have to throw al-Maliki under the bus. Do they have any buses in Iraq that haven’t been used for IEDs?

  18. 18.

    phoebes in santa fe

    “A new record- 5300 comments in the spam filter.”

    John, I’m just curious. Is that 5300 in a day, week, or month?

    And how does your spam filter work? On the basis of words or specific edresses?

    TIA

  19. 19.

    Mark Gisleson

    I had to shut down my original site, gisleson.com, when the server farm hosting my database got hit by 39,000 referral spam IN ONE DAY.

    Nearly half the traffic to my old blog, Norwegianity, was referral spam and other crap.

    Congress refuses to do anything meaningful about spam, yet the ONLY organization defending spam is the Direct Marketing Association who fought against even the anemic CanSpam crap.

  22. 22.

    protected static

    Are you using Askimet? Since finding and enabling the option to have Askimet automatically delete any spam left on posts that are over 30 days old, I almost never have to clean out the spam queue.

    Admittedly, my own blog’s traffic is next to nonexistent – but on Carnacki’s Mystery of the Haunted Vampire, we’ve also seen our spam queue shrink to almost nothing.

  23. 23.

    Michael D.

    On my old blog, I had a plug-in that used to disallow comments on posts more than 30 days old, unless I overrode it. But that was a MoveableType blog, so I don’t know if there is one for WP.

  24. 24.

    protected static

    There probably is such a plugin – it’s definitely not core WP behavior. But since most spam winds up targeting posts more than 30 days old, and since Askimet (so far, at least) has had such a low false-positive rate, turning that auto-delete on has allowed us to keep comments on old posts open.

    More often than not, old posts attract random hit-and-run comments – and usually borderline psychotic or illiterate ones at that – but every now and then, they generate a new discussion, provide an idea for a new post, or provide an interesting update on a old news item we’d blogged about.

  26. 26.

    Tim in SF

    A new record- 5300 comments in the spam filter.

    John, I put a captcha plugin on my WordPress blog. It worked like a charm. Not a single spam has gotten through since then, and users only have one extra step to post – solve the little image puzzle. Not to bad.

    Take a look at it in action: http://blog.hisnameistimmy.com/?p=12

  27. 27.

    Gary D

    Reminds me of my yahoo email account. 9000+ in that 30-day spam filter and almost 50 a day it doesn’t catch. Thank blog for gmail.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    JJC says –

    Does anyone really care what Lukasiak thinks?

    Well PeterJ must as he’s posted the exact same useless comment in at least two threads. That makes him almost as much of a loser as Conservatively Liberal. Wait a second, that’s unpossible! No one could combine the strengths of losertude and sheer stupidity the way CL does so consistently.

  29. 29.

    Conservatively Liberal

    Corner Stone Dumb as a Rock Says:

    p.hukstain is one of my goat blowing buddies, and these mean people are picking on him!

    Facts have a way of making people like you angry, eh? Go figure.

Comments are closed.