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Open Thread
by John Cole| 75 Comments
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!
I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.
New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.
Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.
Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.
Let there be snark.
You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.
Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.
Only Democrats have agency, apparently.
You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.
Good lord, these people are nuts.
The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.
The revolution will be supervised.
We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.
Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?
Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.
Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.
Republicans in disarray!
If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.
I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.
Dennis - SGMM
From Think Progress:
There are no words.
Punchy
Watch the lefty blogosphere go into full hysterics as Obama’s lead evaporates and McCane grabs a 3-4 point lead. I put the over/under on Kerry comparisons at about 100.
Media Browski
I may have to turn off the news until after the Dems have devastated the GOP. Then I fully expect the media to go through a self-diagnostic and determine that they’ve covered McCain’s awful, stupid, racist campaign as though he were Rainbow Bright running for Princess of Care Bear Land rather than just another truthless, racist GOP campaign for the POTUS.
OK, I’m never watching the news again. Did Dana Milbank get picked up by FOX for that Obama misquote that he refuses to admit to?
DannyNoonan
Time took a look at the tire-guage idiocy:
What’s more puzzling is the decision to even attack on this issue; seems it was decided by an effete, polo wearing conservative Ivy Leaguer who has never worked on a car. Meanwhile, if anyone sees the stupidity here it’s NASCAR fan – meaning the Republicans base – who gets the importance of proper upkeep and the immediate benefits that has on performance.
cleek
ain’t nobody gonna tell me what i have to do with the tires on my own damn car! i’ll drive it on the fucking rims, if i want to!
/republican id
furrythug
It’s Jerry Week on Sirius 32.
Zifnab
Well, that’s all cool and all, but my story has John McCain, motorcycles, and topless women.
So top that.
No, seriously, remind me again why we’re supposed to take McCain as a genuine threat to the Presidency? ANY other Presidential Candidate in any other year should be receiving literally bucket loads of flak from every women’s lib and hyper-religious group in the country for showing up at a place like this.
If Obama pulled up to this convention, they’d be singing his swan song by the end of the night. The media in this election has been just absolutely incredible in its massive amounts of fail.
And they gave Clinton shit for womanizing…
Dan
Think McCain will pick Cantor? He’s a prick and a douchebag and a neocon cocksucker, so he has to be pretty high on the list.
Punchy
After you read this, then consider Joe Taxpayer has to bail this fucker out, you’d better be pissed.
Basically, the head of Freddie Mooch purposely ignored myriad warnings from 2004 on. Exacerbated the problem, actually. And now wants a government handout.
He should be in jail.
DannyNoonan
Romney can be all that and more.
gbear
It’s the Gallagherization of politics. A watermelon on it’s own is a perfectly fine and natural thing, like Obama’s comment about tire pressure. Gallagher discovered that by smashing the watermelon, he could get people’s atttention, make bucketloads of dough, and even the people being splattered with the crap flying off stage would love it. The republicans have given it all over to the notion that stupid sells. They got nuthin else.
chopper
well, several heavy hitters in the democratic party are not exactly stepping up to back obama. clinton, despite stating that she would do everything she could to get him elected, has been MIA since her concession speech. the clintons are still a potent force in the democratic party and speak to a lot of dems and independents, yet they can’t get off their ass to do what it takes to get a democrat elected.
Face
A solider running over a dog? NEVER! BEAUCHAMP IS A LIAR! Nobody runs over anything in Iraq….
Well, maybe not
Unbelievable. Listen to all of them laughing at the end. And doing it twice. Bet this’ll bring the flowers and candy.
Krista
It always intrigues me when you say that. It gives me the impression of John standing in a giant arena, raising a flag, and all of we commenters rush towards each other for a giant, no-holds-barred brawl.
zoe from pittsburgh
ARGH. The asshole Jerome Corsi that is connected to the Swiftboaters has written a book, “Obama Nation,” and is now being interviewed on MSNBC.
At least the interviewer (Contessa something-or-other) is challenging his credibility head on– she said that people are finding TONS of factual errors and actually said “does that mean you don’t have any credibility?” She said the first 200 pages of the 100 page book aren’t about policy, they’re about attacking Obama’s life. She also asked him if he’s so “nonpartisan” if he’s going to write a book about Mccain. Obvious answer– no.
Now she’s talking to a DNC representative about the book– and she asked her “how are you going to respond to this? this guy helped bring down Kerry with attacks like these, don’t you have to respond?” All the DNC talking head keeps saying is that we’re going to focus on issues and not respond to such “silliness.”
Ugh. If this guy actually gets to go around the MSM channels and talk about this shit the Dems BETTER expose him as the anti-Dem LYING propagandaist that he is.
nightjar
And then there’s this;
zoe from pittsburgh
Oops– should have been “the first 200 pages of the 300 page book” up above.
Bob In Pacifica
In Jean Duley’s July 24th restraining order against Dr. Ivins she says that he was about to be indicted for five murders (the anthrax deaths). Problem is, that wasn’t common knowledge until the night of July 31-August 1.
So the “theripist” (she misspells her own job title in the restraining order) is also a clairvoyant. Or somebody in the FBI helped her with her restraining order. Which leads one to ask if you’ve got a patient who admits to trying to kill three people, says he bought a gun and bullet-proof vest and plans to go out in a blaze of glory, why pussyfoot around with a restraining order? Why not have him committed?
And if the FBI is leaking information to Duley, wouldn’t she tell them that he is suicidal? And wouldn’t they want to arrest him before he commits suicide? Or do they want him to die?
4tehlulz
Tanta at Calculated Risk takes the Times article apart rather nicely.
PK
Am I the only one who thinks Bush Co was somehow behind the anthrax attacks? They blamed Iraq and used it to scare the shit out of people. Then it turns out to be a govt scientst, who conveniently commits suicide. They are going all out to paint him as lone nut job and that will be the end of it. A few yrs ago I laughed at conspiracy theories.
Now I am starting to look at the 9/11 conspiracy theorists with a hint of respect.
Eric
Mr. Celebrity
John McCain is attacking Barack Obama for being a celebrity. But take a look at 2005’s Wedding Crashers. It stars Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams and yes John McCain!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myu9USHP61o
http://archive.newsmax.com/arc…..0255.shtml
jeffreyw
*waves at leinie*
I’ve got nothin.
Zifnab
After all the ratfuckery, it’s really hard to distinguish between evil and stupid in this administration. They’ve done such a good job in both categories.
Matt
I wonder if Glenzilla is going to have something to say about the Suskind book.
Anyone enjoying Generation Kill on HBO as much as I am?
Lastly, where can you buy Belgian beers in Morgantown, John?
Eural Joiner
I’m still trying to figure out the McCain angle on that anti-Obama Moses ad. How is comparing your opponent to one of the most revered and iconic figures in the Bible an attack? Especially since it includes footage of one of the Republican parties greatest icons, Charlton Heston in one of his most iconic roles? Seriously, until the closing text graphics you would think its an Obama campaign ad going way to far with its adulation.
Am I missing something here?
Xenos
Anybody out there watching the MSM to see if the Anthrax story has any legs? Since the media were considered the target of a terrorist attack, you would think that all the news organizations would be calling up Ross at ABC and demanding to know who his sources were. You would think they might give a damn, or something, since their own skin was on the line.
jeffreyw
Now this is a good an exploration of how rethuglicans manage to win elections as i have ever seen.
Discuss
cleek
McCain has been on the Daily Show 13 times. he is their most-frequent guest.
but not a celebrity.
Jake
Right, except Kerry would not have beaten Hillary.
Close national polls help Obama. Let McCain take a lead, and watch Obama rake in the funds. Watch the voter turnout break all kinds of records.
I’ll be concerned if the state-by-state electoral projections begin to look like a big McCain win, say in October. Until then, not so much.
Glocksman
It’s dirty, underhanded and yet it surprisingly works with a lot of people.
I’m talking about the ‘viral forwarded e-mail’, of course.
Even people who I thought knew better than to believe bullshit from something like that believe the shit and forward it on to me.
Of course I debunk it at Snopes, hit ‘Reply All’ and hope I’ve undone some of the damage.
But maybe it’s time we started doing the same thing.
Though this time with *true* information, like the shitty way McCain treated his first wife, his comments on Social Security, his gambling habits, Keating Five, etc., and weave it all into one devastating hit piece that’s so simple even a total idiot would get the point.
And we write it in such a way to appeal to the fundie Republican base (subject line could be: ‘McCain’s moral turpitude’ or something like that) and thus undermine his chances where that support is crucial.
Personally I’m tired of taking on the chin and want to fight back.
Ed Drone
Concerning “viral forwarded email” — forward this to all your friends (I got this from one of my regularly-visited blogs, perhaps this one; but it’s ‘viral,’ so I can’t be blamed for repeating it):
Dispelling Rumors About John McCain’s Money
I’ve been concerned that there are too many rumors going around about John McCain and I wanted to help set the facts straight. Please forward this email to everyone you know.
THE LIE: Combined, the McCain family has a credit card balance that is more than $750,000 and their interest rate is 24.49%.
THE TRUTH: The McCains pay off their credit card bills on a monthly basis. The $750,000 figure is also wrong, though it is true that between January 2007 and May 2008, one of the credit cards did reach $500,000 and another reached $250,000. Also, with a combined net worth over $100 million, most of the credit cards did not have any interest payments at all. Only their Visa, MasterCard, and Saks Fifth Avenue cards (monthly balances ranging between $15,000 and $50,000) charged interest.
THE LIE: McCain purchased two separate $4.7 million dollar condos in San Diego for their own enjoyment.
THE TRUTH: The combined cost of the two condos was $4.7 million, and one of them was for the kids.
THE LIE: The McCains spent over $500,000 in 2007 on household staff, such as maids and butlers.
THE TRUTH: They increased their household staffing budget from $184,000 in 2006 to only $273,000 in 2007.
THE LIE: The McCains spent $11 million between the summer of 2004 and February 2008 on 13 different residences.
THE TRUTH: They spent the $11 million acquiring only five residences.
THE LIE: The McCains inherited a business worth $1,000,000,000 from relatives.
THE TRUTH: The McCains inherited assets worth more than $100,000,000 from relatives, but those assets are unlikely to be worth $1,000,000,000.
THE LIE: John McCain gambles away hundreds of thousands of dollars at the craps tables in Las Vegas.
THE TRUTH: While John McCain does frequently play craps in Las Vegas in continuous 14-hour sessions, it is unlikely that he has ever gambled away $100,000 in a single session.
THE LIE: John McCain spends $50,000 each year on shoes that he imports from Italy, South Africa, and Argentina.
THE TRUTH: Since John McCain’s shoes cost $520 a pair, it is highly unlikely that he spends even $10,000 each year on shoes. In addition, there are no reports that he has imported shoes from either South Africa or Argentina.
Glocksman
Along the same lines, I’m going to write a ‘Quotable McCain’ piece for my local union’s newsletter.
I’d appreciate any help in locating damning quotes, but they have to have a reputable source and be in context.
rob!
i give Olbermann mad props for showing Milbank the door, after he turned down his chance to explain his hit-job on Obama.
good move, Milbank, dumping yourself from the #1 rated show on the network.
more room for Maddow!
john b
hillary clinton is doing an event (with obama?) in NV for the obama campaign in the next day or two.
montysano
I usually look forward to the Summer Olympics; this year, not so much. Somehow the prospect of the games occuring in a heavily locked-down Communist dictatorship, with 300,000 surveilance cameras, and surface-to-air missiles at the stadium, dampens my enthusiasm. All of this occurs in one of the world’s most polluted cities, which doesn’t help.
Ah well……. I guess it’s a small price to pay for cheap TVs and salad shooters.
Notorious P.A.T.
Hehe. I forgot about that. Wholesome movie full of family values, too.
The Grand Panjandrum
Unlike the right blogosphere–which is still trying to figure out how their permanent majority evaporated so quickly–the Left isn’t a bunch of drooling imbeciles nodding in agreement with every stupid thing our candidate says.
I look forward to the evening of November 4th when they roll McCain’s rotting, fetid carcass onto the stage to concede to the Magical Unity Pony. If train my dog to fetch beer from the refrigerator by then I can die a happy man after that.
lilysmom
The loony tunes fundies are holding prayer services asking God for heavy rain to start two minutes before Obama gives his outdoor speech at the Democratic convention.
I kid you not.
chopper
bout fucking time.
cleek
the MUP had better kick it up a couple of notches, soon. McCain is gaining, quickly.
Incertus
Okay. McCain says his wife ought to compete in the Miss Buffalo Chip contest. Did she bring her makeup?
gbear
If that happens, we’ll wind up with footage of thousands of deleriously happy wet people celebrating Obama’s nomination. The rain won’t matter to anyone who’s there.
gbear
I live a mile from the location of the republican convention, and I am praying for snow that week.
Poopyman
I know the Obama campaign won’t touch it, but how accurate and verifiable is this? I’ve been hearing references to it for a while, so is there more corroborated proof out there?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
A brain?
jake
I had to take a cab this morning and heard the Family, Chastity & Civilization destroying song “I kissed a girl.”
Are people 100% certain that’s a female singing? Sounded like a young male meets heavy-handed producer to me.
The Moar You Know
I don’t know what to believe, but I sure as fuck don’t buy the “official story”. If you wrote such a contrived ending for a fourth-rate TV mystery you’d be fired on the spot.
God hates fundies. My prediction: 75 and sunny.
Punchy
I plan to bet about $50 on McCane at about 3-1 odds on my internet thing (just kidding, FBI!). Figger if Obama wins, I’m happy, and if McCane pulls it off, well, I’ll have enough $$ to buy several cases of beer.
montysano
As I’ve often commented, my dislike of Hannity and Limbaugh and Ingraham and the whole Two Minutes Hate crowd is intense.
Some days, though, I just pity them. What a miserable way to live: always ratfucking, always poisoning the well, always against everything and never actually for anything. Bleh…… glad it’s not me.
4tehlulz
You know, they tend to be true, more often than not.
Eural Joiner
WTF?
I asked a simple, honest question and that’s your response? I’ve watched the video of the ad with several other people and we discussed that fact that it fails in any way to actually attack Obama (until the very end) and actually employs imagery and icons that are very pro-republican oriented. Its a legitimate question to ask why it was aired. What was the thinking behind the campaign?
Hey, JAFRSS you are an asshole. Thanks for your enlightening discussion of the topic.
TCG
Question: If someone was to say Evan Bayh looks like he came from central casting to play the part of President and Barack Obama does not, does that mean that this person was playing the RACE CARD?
Answer: Only if the person who said it is black and in this case he should be condemned, condemned, condemned.
jake
Rain is it? There was some huge weekend-long fundy event downtown a few years ago and it poured non-stop. Many of the faithful were strangely reluctant to stand on the Mall in a thunderstorm. Of course they prayed for the rain to stop and the rain did not stop and the quotes from dissapointed, puzzled TalEvangicals in the Post’s story were hilarious.
Oh well. Imagine the looks on their faces if it did start to rain but one second before Obama was to start his speech, the sun came out and a fricking rainbow appeared.
cain
That’s because you don’t see the dog whistle. It’s essentially the fact that they are accusing Obama of elevating himself to the height of Moses which of course nobody but Jesus can do. Black guy putting on airs, thinks he’s like Moses with all his talk. A lot of fundies would react quite negatively to that.
cain
cain
It could happen! He’s the MUP!
cain
Zifnab
According to what trend lines? Clinton was singing this same song around Super Tuesday, and she at least had the respectability of being ahead in the polls by some accounts.
Jon H
“Tanta at Calculated Risk takes the Times article apart rather nicely”
Tanta’s in the business of making mortgage loans, I believe.
Just keep that in mind when she opines about this stuff.
libarbarian
Well, they’ve gone and called Obama the P-word – the all-purpose word that sums up everything scary to conservatives and decent Americans:
‘Post-Modernist’
Argh.
D. Mason
LOL. What do you expect? they sure as hell can’t rely on their candidate to rain on Obamas parade.
Punchy
Yeah, but so what? These guys are gunna vote anyways, and surely not for Teh Scary Negro.
Doesn’t McCane have to sew up the Indy vote in order to win? Last time I checked, registered Dems and Reps were about 45% and 32%, respectively. If McCane continues to make ads this bizarre, I don’t see him getting the Indy vote.
He will win, however, on the back of the most favorable, one-sided media coverage ever witnessed. That $9 billion of “lost” money in Iraq must be greasing a shitload of hands.
Eural Joiner
Granted that’s the basic idea for the ad but the way it plays out it simply repeats the idea over and over that Obama is just like Moses/Heston until the last few seconds. There is no narration or text within the body of the ad to make a disparaging contrast between the two. So anyone who doesn’t see it all or just remembers only the main images is going to miss the nuance involved (aka the dog whistle). It just seems like a very poorly constructed and wildly off beat ad.
The McCain campaign seems to be overflowing with this kind of ineptitude and I’m just wondering what the thinking is behind it all.
BTW, thanks cain for actually replying to my question instead of launching a personal attack. Much appreciated.
dslak
I tried reading that, and noticed that nothing Obama has said had anything to do with critical theory. Then I noticed the author.
‘Postmodern’ is an epithet, like ‘liberal,’ that is thrown around without any regard for its actual referents. That Jonah Goldberg conflates an epistemic claim (sin, is, for Obama ‘Being out of alignment with my values) with a metaphysical one (Obama’s values supposedly coming from God) is central to his point!
D. Mason
I will give my opinion to this. I think McCain made the ad with the hopes that people would be halfway paying attention and think it’s an Obama ad. Enforcing their messiah complex meme.
cain
That’s the nature of the dog whistle. It uses the watcher’s own bias to make the connection. A lot of people are looking for any reason not to like Obama especially people fretting on the fence.
cain
Halteclere
There is a certain mindset that uncritically passes along attack chain e-mails. And based on my many years of being aware of all internet traditions, I cannot recall any single attack e-mail that had a liberal bias.
Basically, “daddy conservatives” love to pass along anything that attacks the “other” by firing the brain cells that ask “Does this reinforce my beliefs, especially if it is supposedly started by someone in a position of authority” instead of firing the brain cells that ask “Does this make sense?”
Your factual attack e-mail would have to attack McCain in a manner that it reinforces an even more conservative ideology so to not die a quick death once released from your Outbox.
Halteclere
I’m an educated kind of guy, and I have no clue what “postmodern” really means. I can only figure out that it is a scary word that most don’t know what it means, only that it sounds scary (in an intellectual and snobby sort of way).
From Wikipedia
Say butt?
John Cole
In my grad classes, whenever postmodernism was mentioned it meant “Oh, I have one of those professors,” and I invariably was in for a semester of dense and incomprehensible prose masquerading as deconstructionism, critical analysis, or po-mo bullshit.
One of the absolute worst books ever written anywhere was this 1000+ page text on curriculum theory that I was forced to read (and then, invariably, discuss in class with 20 other people who only pretended to read it). It was the closest I have ever been to suicide.
A close second was the Public International Law text I had to read as an undergrad that was… translated from the original German. Fucking brutal.
jake
911th fRightened Keyboardist! Set Bladders on Gully Washer!
PK
Oh! So thats what it means. Now I understand everything.
lethargytartare
ahhh, a reminder that JC used to be a republican.
I’ve always been baffled by the outright anger PM seems to engender in people. It’s not like, say, the foundations of Western Philosophy are particularly transparent, easy reads, but you hardly ever hear people saying, “In my grad classes, whenever Western Philosophy was mentioned it meant “Oh, I have one of those professors,” and I invariably was in for a semester of dense and incomprehensible prose masquerading as science, literary theory, or Peripatetic bullshit.”
John Cole
Dude. This has nothing to do with political philosophy or Republican v. Democrat. there is some incomprehensible nonsense out there.
Hell, I still have the book. I can scan a few pages if you would like and are a glutton for punishment.
John Cole
Besides, if it were a Republican v. Democrat thing, all I would need to do to show my street cred is trash Dewey.
Blue Raven
Ain’t that the truth. I lost my taste for postmodernist thought based on some of those yahoos.
lethargytartare
agreed – but that’s hardly unique to PM philosophy. The blanket dismissal of an entire philosophical/critical movement simply because it’s textually dense and open to facile mischaracterization is what I found republicanish. My comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek – I just happen to enjoy PM thought, and think it gets a raw deal, especially on the web.
That’s okay, I have a copy of The Pleasure of the Text in my backpack at all times. It may be bullshit, but it’s gotta be more interesting than curriculum theory. ;)
YellowJournalism
This whole PM discussion just keeps reminding me of the Simpsons episode where Mo converts his bar into a hipster joint:
“It’s PoMo! Post-modern! Yeah, all right, weird for the sake of weird.”