And the Doughy Pantload comes through with the most awesomest spin of the campaign so far. I will paraphrase:
“John McCain does not use a computer because he was a POW.”
Right now you probably think I am kidding. Take it away, Jonah:
Does anyone know why McCain doesn’t use a computer or email? As a couple readers suggested to me, it might be because his injuries prevent it. I mean he can’t lift his arms much higher than his chest and it looks like he has all sorts of other mobility problems with them. Maybe he can’t type or use something like a blackberry. I don’t know. But I hope the Obama campaign found out before they played the granpa Simpson card on McCain. I’d hate for Obama to be mocking a veteran’s disability to score cheap points.
Umm, Jonah?
This is officially the stupidest fucking election ever.
*** Update ***
Jonah is deadly serious in peddling this piffle:
The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):
McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain’s encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He’s an avid fan – Ted Williams is his hero – but he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.
Behold the next wingnut fauxtrage. Kinda cool watching these morons work in real time.
Someone tell the morons to read this story:
There’s no telling if he’s going to buy a tape from the Video Professor, or just have his son-in-law sit down with him for a few days, but John McCain has decided to learn how to use the internet.
“I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself,” McCain told the New York Times in an interview that appeared Sunday. “I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.”
Even so, McCain bluntly admits, “I don’t e-mail. I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail.”
Or this one:
Q: What websites if any do you look at regularly?
Mr. McCain: Brooke and Mark show me Drudge, obviously, everybody watches, for better or for worse, Drudge. Sometimes I look at Politico. Sometimes RealPolitics, sometimes.
(Mrs. McCain and Ms. Buchanan both interject: “Meagan’s blog!”)
Mr. McCain: Excuse me, Meagan’s blog. And we also look at the blogs from Michael and from you that may not be in the newspaper, that are just part of your blog.
Q: But do you go on line for yourself?
Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need – including going to my daughter’s blog first, before anything else.
Q: Do you use a blackberry or email?
Mr. McCain: No
Mark Salter: He uses a BlackBerry, just ours.
It should come as no great surprise that these are the same folks who think Sarah Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia. Clown shoes, I tell you. Clown shoes.
*** Update #2 ***
It then shows a picture of McCain and George Bush and says, “After one president who was out of touch, we just can’t afford more of the same.”
Hitting an opponent on economic issues is standard political strategy. But going after a candidate for his skill with computers and e-mail …
…is a new, 21st century line of attack.
The McCain campaign charged that it’s untrue.
“John McCain travels with a laptop,” said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. “This is a senseless tactic from Obama’s campaign because they’re struggling with the realization that the American people understand he is not equipped to deliver change because his record has no bipartisanship or significant legislative accomplishment in it.”
That was the McCain campaign, today. Is there anyone dumber than right wing bloggers?
BTW- These loons are desperately hoping they can push this meme into the MSM, but are forgetting one thing. While they are blogging from where ever their fact-free zone is, high on cheeto dust, actual reporters have spent the last 20 years covering McCain, riding on the Straight Talk Express, riding on his campaign plane, watching him, and have seen him repeatedly use a blackberry and a phone and a computer and drive his car and god knows what else (including fly a plane AFTER returning from Viet Nam and throw out the first pitch in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series).
The morons pushing this nonsense really are in a fantasy land of their own creation.
bago
Noun Verb POW!
Dan
McCain doesn’t KNOW HOW to use a computer. Stephen fucking Hawking can use a computer. Cause he KNOWS HOW. Cause computers have been a part of daily life for 20 fucking years now.
BFR
Uhh Jonah – I’m not sure about this but I think McCain flew combat jets (A-7’s I think) after he returned from Vietnam.
I’m guessing if he could hack that, he could probably manage to use a computer.
james
His arms work… he’s been carrying Bush’s water for eight goddamn years!
Suicidal Zebra
I’ve still got a nasty feeling that the American Public at large is going to buy the bullshit they’re peddling.
Keith
Shouldn’t he be an expert in computers just by being able to look across his desk at one?
John S.
Pantload PWNED.
McCain PWNED.
This is shaping up to be a thread full of win.
Bas-O-Matic
Yeah, sure, Jonah.
I’m pretty sure that Stephen J. Hawking uses that computer that he uses to talk to tell an assistant what he needs done with a computer.
Since he can’t use a computer.
double-plus-ungood
This is SO going to be the McCain camp’s spin on this.
Bas-O-Matic
Damn, beaten to the punch.
Dreggas
If only Barack Obama had joined me for those townhalls perhaps he could have taught me how to use a computer…. -John McCain.
t jasper parnell
Perhaps Jonah is right; after all the fact is that all those folks with disabilities who do use computers and computer assisted dealies to deal with their disabilities, like Stephan Hawkings, are really only taking advantage of the Federal give aways associated with the commie pinko liberal I hate America Americans with Disabilities Act. While John McCain, the right honorable Senator from the great state of POW and the party of Maverick, simply refuses to accept Federal handouts and earmarks, except when it involves the various lobbyists who do but somehow don’t work for his campaign and his running mate who did but somehow didn’t ask for or accept hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars of the same through the offices of lobbyists she did but somehow didn’t hire cause, like, when she did she was just being a reforming Governor who won’t do it anymore and even moreso who now understands that she shouldn’t have event if it was perfectly okay that she did. Plus and also, you uppity elitist hater of women, POWs, and townhall meetings, where do you come off expecting a POW or a Hockey Mom to be bounded by the truth, huh? POW!! Hockey Mom!! USA!!! USA !!!
In closing if you had ever looked at the Russian, formerly Soviet Union’s, formerly formerly Russian Empire’s, coastline you too would understand the importance of not blinking. And pitbulls with lipstick. And, er, um, the rest of the stuff. So there.
BFR
S,N!’s got a new ad up that’s pretty solid:
Link
Elroy's Lunch
I’m sure he could learn to use a computer but he would only use three keys.
P, O and W…
4tehlulz
SEXIS…
wait.
AGEISM
t jasper parnell
See, McCain’s lobbyist weren’t so much corrupt as they were maverick lobbyist, so there.
BFR
Also This
McCain is pro sex-offender. Good stuff.
Dreggas
Ebert gives Palin a thumbs down
frogspawn
I guess that’s why he can’t pull his necktie back down, either.
Cause it’s, um, been blown higher than his chest, or something.
Incertus
CREW’s latest list is out–Florida’s got numbers 1 and 4, California has the largest number on the list, but Sarah Palin’s Alaska has 2/3 of its total congressional delegation on the list. Fuck Yeah!
t jasper parnell
Plus and also Matlock never needed those high faluten computer things and all the crooks went to jail therefore when McCain is allowed to be McCain after that horrid Obama (D-Babyeater) stops forcing McCain to not be McCain he too will send the evil doers to the gates of hell and, whatismore, Palin will be able to be Palin ’cause she can then unleash the power of the USA USA on her ex-brother in law. So there.
calipygian
Doughy Pantload wrote those words, the most assinine sentence ever composed in English.
Stupid and shameless is no way to go through life, Spawn of
SatanLucianne.Brian J
I wonder how Jonah felt when the assclowns at the Republican convention in 2004 had purple band aids on their faces mocking John Kerry’s Purple Hearts. I’m curious, what else can it be classified as other than mocking a veteran to score cheap political points?
Jeff
They are still saying it’s because he was a POW and they should have googled it. The irony is… well there is no irony, they are just morans.
calipygian
Its a trick because in their insane world, John Kerry shot himself to earn those Purple Hearts to boost his chances at the Presidency 30 years later. Its true, just ask Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage!
Therefore, mocking Kerry was a-okay!
Dennis - SGMM
McCain can’t use a computer because Obama wouldn’t do 417 town hall meetings with him.
Jeff
oh yeah, Jonah also through in 9/11. I guess the new theme is Noun Verb 9/11 POW.
mark
Via Digg, a Maine TV reporter owns McCain on Palin. Maybe he’s a little PO’d because Maine has two respected women Republican senators?
Just Some Fuckhead
McCain can’t be expected to have that much lipstick.
Not My Fault
I dunno. Will it move swing voters? There’s no point preaching to the choir at this point.
I’m not sure what an undecided voter looks like, but I could see this ad alienating as many as it bring in. Pansy-ass Dems can’t deal with life in the wild and all.
r€nato
That question answers itself, if you stop assuming that Jonah has any sense of shame.
Laura W
I have to really concentrate when I read your posts, and read them more than once, and sometimes even mute the tee vee.
But they are always worth the effort. POW BAST PIG MOM BLINK!
Doughy Pantload is very funny, too.
I learn SO much on this site.
(Since MSNBC is insisting upon keeping a minute-by-minute vigil, for the next 720 minutes, on the Ikester, I’m channel surfing and refreshing. I hope they don’t make Rachel do fucking storm watch.)
Brian J
That reminds of the “Seinfeld” episode where George finds out Marisa Tomei has a thing for guys that fit his description:
Why not throw 9/11 in there? Why not throw the blowjobs Clinton got, Batman & Robin (with George Clooney), most television spinoffs, Tonya Harding’s goons attacking Nancy Kerrigan, and the Civil War in there, too?
t jasper parnell
Brilliant.
John O
Everyone here, almost, gets it, but will the Corporate Media? They’re showing some positive signs lately, but Beware The Man, a.k.a. the “journalists” who are ultimately beholden to their Corporate Masters.
I am fully prepared now for a McCain win. You add the staunch Republican vote, those who’d vote for a barbed-tailed, horned candidate if he said he was a Republican to the racist, homophobic, ill-informed morons, and you may just have yourself a McCain victory.
And what a day it would be.
Two choices in that event: Start marching, peacefully and responsibly, start blowing stuff up (not recommended), or check out and get yours while you can.
There are only two positive outcomes I can think of w/r/t McCain winning: One, he could turn around to be all Mr. Mavericky, fire the VP, appoint someone who has a clue to replace her, and move towards a cooperative middle with an almost assuredly Democratic Congress.
Two? He could stick to the guns he’s chosen, and ruin the GOP brand for a long, long time.
I’m betting on two, since that is the one that will fuck me the most. I don’t have enough time left on the planet to see the recovery from four more years of war, plutocracy, theocracy, world-disrespect, and division.
Hopefully, I’ll at least hang in there to watch it all unfold, a McCain POTUS, but you can bet I’ll be a little less emotionally involved and a little more full of scorn for the country I will never stop loving, despite (in this scenario) a near-complete loss of respect for it.
Batten down the hatches.
Brian J
I wonder what someone like David Broder thinks. He’s seven years older than McCain, but because he teaches a class at College Park and writes columns for The Washington Post, I’m betting he knows how to use a computer.
Graeme
As someone who 1. used to vote for the GOP and 2. used to subscribe to National Review, I can only laugh while I cry.
I can’t believe what I’ve been reading from the Right. I can’t believe Glenn Reynolds was pimping Liberal Fascism. I can’t believe how low these people are willing to sink.
It’s stunning to me. If I ever meet Jonah, I’m going to punch him in the fucking mouth.
Because, you know, I’m an elitist.
dmsilev
Per Wikipedia,
Since that’s not generally the position one uses for typing, I suspect Senator McCain would be OK.
-dms
Graeme
An elitist who CAN’T STAND WHAT HACKS THESE PEOPLE have exposed themselves to be!
John O
We had better be careful with this internet-disabled meme, though.
McCain will come out in a debate and whip up an internet link on his blackberry mid-debate, and half of America will think he’s a fucking technical support savant.
Brian J
Meanwhile, this can’t be good news. Should I have decided against opening that online savings account with WAMU yesterday? Is JP Morgan going to own every bank in America by this time next year?
Laura W
He can haz the chair on MTP now, pleeze?
Nylund
I’m intrigued. Does Jonah have to lift his arms above his head to use his computer? Have I been using my keyboard wrong all these years?
jactitating masticater
Sometimes I wish that Christianity had 72 virgins in Heaven so that when I encountered stupidity like Jonah’s and killed myself at least there would be something to look forward to.
Not My Fault
Yeah, well that was my hope in 2004. I sort of wanted Bush to win so that the entire world would be forced to acknowledge that the neo-cons were the actual axis of evil…
… and in 2008 we have McCain running (and doing quite well) on Bush’s platform of change.
I was a fool to think that anything was stronger than stupid.
Lit3Bolt
Via Sully:
Pass it on.
calipygian
Between stuffing Cheetos into his greedy maw and jerking off to Palin Porn, Jonah is the master of one handed typing. He only has to lift one arm high enough to type.
Laura W
Should I have decided against opening that balance transfer account with them last month? (4 cards transferred at 0% for a year. And then 9.99%. Hahahahaha?) No wonder they badgered me to death with 987 solications before I finally decided, WTF?
WWSOD?
(Suze Orman, of course.)
Jallenrule
No doubt.
cain
No, that’s what he does right before he sits to write some trash column. He usually passes gas when he does that as well. He’s a fucking tool.
cain
GSD
I tell ya. Pasty McWarmonger has done the unimagineable. In short order he’s replaced George W. Bush in my pantheon of most loathed politicians.
-GSD
t jasper parnell
Thanks very much but muting the TV is uppity and elitist. John McCain spent five and half years without a tv to mute. So where do you come off doing something that he couldn’t do several thousand years ago and, if Jonah is right, I bet he cannot even use a remote control and when you do it is a slap in his face and uppity and elitist. Plus, Sarah Palin never asked for an earmark to mute her tv and if she did its okay ’cause now she realizes that she shouldn’t have and, not to put to fine a point on it, she knows more about energy than anybody in the universe ’cause her state has a bunch of oil, which if you think about, like you elitist tend to do, makes no sense but if you don’t think about it, it does. So unmute that tv stop thinking about it and revel in the Maverick and the Hockey Mom, who can be favorably compared to rabid god (spelled backward) but not to anything else unless it is a maverick, which was originally a cow but it’s okay ’cause McCain so loves women that he married two. So there.
Brian J
She’s one of the reasons I did it, of course. It took less than ten minutes, and for someone who is already familiar with online banking, it’s easy to transfer the money back and forth. A 3.75 percent interest rate with a minimum balance of $300 to avoid the fee? That’s a pretty good deal, probably the best you are going to find outside of a CD that lasts for at least a year.
As for Suze, did you see the episode she had with Judge Judy a week or so ago? It was like watching a bunch of 60-year-old mothers that had one too many gimlets talk about what a bunch of idiots their children were. I loved it.
Anyway, I’m curious, does this mean WaMu is going way of IndyMac, or does it simply mean that it’s being bought out almost like any company would be?
zuzu's petals
Even though this slightly undercuts the “McCain is computer illiterate” story, it totally undercuts Pantload’s utterly stupid and dishonest “it’s because he was POW” meme:
McCain Says He’s Learning How to Use the Internet
By the way, that took me about 30 seconds to find on the Internet.
Graeme
Instapundit is now running with Golberg’s BS!
I guess he didn’t have much success with ‘lipstick on a pig’ so he’s going with this.
Reynolds has really turned into a douche. I understand why he’s running down the media as a myopic echo chamber: He’s got to promote his own Pajamas Media myopic echo chamber. However, he continues to pander to the GOP fantasists. I know that’s his target audience, but you’d think he’d at least try to be honest.
I guess, like McCain, he’s decided to double down on the base instead of expand his product’s appeal.
Ted
Doughy Pantload.
DoughBob Loadpants.
Just needed to get those in there again for the Google.
Krista
Like hell he’d hate it. The very thought is turning that no-talent, concern trolling ass-clown into Stiffy Pantload.
The Moar You Know
In hell you get 72 virgins. In heaven you get 72 sluts.
t jasper parnell
Yeah well haters, did you know that Doughy Pantload’s Palin name is Dust Chinstrap Palin. Take that.
via
Mike S
So they found an article claiming that he can’t use a keyboard. It’s a crock of shit. I typed this comment with three fingers.
Craig
Next they will say he can’t dial numbers on a phone. No one is asking him to type a novel. I am sure he can type with just his index fingers and use a mouse. That is how most older people type anyhow. This is just more made up B.S.
Tattoosydney
.
That’s funny.
Does Governor Palin go on to have a successful second career in reality television slaughtering moose?
PeterJ
In that insane world, did McCain fly his plane into a missile and then surrender to the North Vietnamese just so that he could use the POW card 40 years later to become president?
Just asking.
—
On a more serious note. McCain was shot down and captured on the 26th October. If you want to see the McCain campaign plaster the media with the fact that he was a POW, then check that date in your calendars.
It will be POW-tastic.
Just Some Fuckhead
If John McCain had a computer he’d be screaming at us to get off his LAN.
Brian J
Has anyone ever answered the question of how McCain can use a Blackberry but not a computer? I have an iPhone. Before that, in the same year, I had an AT&T Tilt and the 8525. I also know many people with Blackberries and have played around with them in the past. The formats aren’t exactly the same, of course, but there’s no major difference.
RAM
I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.
Which means, up until now, he has not had the information he needs? Which sounds about right to me.
Mike S
BTW They are claiming that Palin’s answers tonight were the perfect answers. Hard to believe that getting exposed for her lies on TBTNW and earmarks qualifies as perfect.
Brian J
On a somewhat related note, I think we need to prepare ourselves for the probable endless images of Palin on an oil rig. I imagine they’ll wait another week or two, but I’d be shocked if they didn’t do it.
Laura W
I do not believe I did. (I don’t swear to anything lately because, well, you know…) I have very conflicted feelings about Suze’s show…sometimes I can deal with it and her, sometimes not.
I can hardly watch her now without thinking she is the woman from SNL playing her. Suze talks waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to slowly for my tastes, and she talks as if her entire audience rides the special bus and has Pantloads o’ Dough. (I just love that term!)
Crank Widow Palin
Krista
I swear to the FSM, between your election, our election and our house construction, the next two months are going to be about as much fun as a kidney stone.
I’m almost hoping that I don’t get pregnant just yet (we’re trying), because really…this is no time to have to give up booze.
gil mann
I like to make fun of Jonah Goldberg as much as the next guy (okay, statistically speaking, the next guy has no idea who we’re talking about—oh how I envy you, next guy) but we should maybe consider the possibility that Goldberg being a jagoff about something doesn’t necessarily make that something a good something.
By which I mean that commercial is limp, lame, and wack as fuck. Makes me want to vote for McCain just to teach ad copy writers a lesson. It should’ve ended with “I’m Barack Obama, and you’ve gotta be kidding me with this shit.”
Dulcie
Doesn’t anyone remember back four or so weeks ago when McCain’s campaign aides took away his Blackberry because he was spending too much time calling and texting other people for advice and not listening to his aides?
Jonah is friggin moron.
jake
Damn. Teh Stoopid gushed out of my monitor with such force it washed the cats down the stairs.
JWW
Hey John and Michael,
What is you are looking for in a president? It is most likely along the same lines as most everyday Americans. As it stands right now, none of them are what we really want or hoped to have had. Now you must simply choose the lesser of the “both being inept”. John you whine to bring readers and responders, Michael you are just a fool way out of your league. You both will choose a name in the voting booth, why not give it an attempt to discuss your disagreements with a candidate yet assist in supporting the one you will vote for.
Stuck in the Fun House
I like your system better. The PM just fires the legislature (in effect) and declares an election. I doubt that would work in our nutty country though. There’d be an election called every 15 minutes.
jake
Also, Clown Shoes needs to be a tag.
Laura W
I have been meaning to ask this foreveh…
How did McLyin’ get Jacquelyn Smith to do the voice overs in his commercials?
She’s pretty busy over on BRAVO right now, isn’t she?
Kos on KO
Brian J
She does have a strange way of speaking, but I can get over that. And while it does seem like she talks down to some guests, at times, the questions are so stupid and the answers so obvious that it must get to her. What else are you supposed to do but scoff angrily at the nanny who asks, “Can I afford a 2008 Hummer with no savings, no retirement, and a $1600 monthly income? Are you supposed to do to a person who says they can’t save anything but $200 a month besides point out the obvious to a person, which is that that equals $2400 a year, and that’s not bad? I just like the fact that her advice is usually pretty simple but also worth repeating over and over. She also asks people to examine why they make the choices they do.
myiq2xu
It’s been the stupidest fucking election ever since Obama decided to accuse half his own party of racism (including a popular, two-term former Democratic President)
When you run a scorched-earth primary campaign, half the bodies you leave on the field will be wearing your uniform.
And y’all called Hillary divisive.
jakester
So wait – he uses a BlackBerry, but doesn’t even realize it? One of his campaign team has to tell the interviewer that he uses one? Jiminy H. Christmas!
t jasper parnell
This is requires and equally thoughtful answer:
I mean pleas indeed. Has Obama attacked the issue of loose nukes? Has Obama understood the dangerous stupidity oif invading Iraq. Sure. But has he been to Tijuana? No he has. John McCain has. And not just for hookers and booze either, he got last with his second wife and the first on shore leave, nope he went to do something or another. Plus and also don’t you dare question his knowledge of economics and economic policy. Cause his answer will totally deal with specifics and will not expose him as a moron or moran.
Lie baby, lie!
Well dumb me down, it’s the land o the stu-pid. It’s all so entertaining, but scary at the same time. Who let these people out of the asylum?
slip
That picture…
Why does McCain have his shirt tucked in behind his underwear?
( I know, I know, for 5 and half years he didn’t blah, blah, blah )
Laura W
Well, that’s probably my whole problem with her then.
Hic.
Stuck in the Fun House
There’s no arguing with you dead ender nut bags. Nor point out that after South Carolina, it was the Clinton campaign that purposefully changed there tactics to scorched earth against Obama, Why. Because they were fucking losing, and no other reason. Does all the ratfucking you receive hurt much. Maybe we’ll send some Vasoliiine over to Corrente.
t jasper parnell
God damned right. Why hard drinking Tuzla fighting Hillary shoulda won, with her whatsit and whatnot, and that damned Obama with his arguments and facts shoulda lost. Thanks god for the deadenders of both parties who will not let the facts, like Bill and Hillary’s endorsement or Obama’s position on various issues, get in the way. if only there were a voice of sanity out there in the wilderness to make false claims about the primary and the general election that would distract us from the multifarious problems and future catastrophes confronting the Republic, Obama would be exposed as the competent centrist he is. Damn the MSM to hell with their constant focus on facts and positions papers and thank god this election hasn’t become a thunderdome of lies and misrepesentations.
gil mann
Wouldn’t they all be? I mean, since it’s a primary?
Dear Obama campaign: please step it the fuck up. There’ll be no living with certain online commenters with dickish pseudonyms if you lose.
Brian J
I wonder how the folks at Powerline are going to react to this. I don’t see how she can possibly keep this up. Her answers don’t make the slightest bit of sense. Not all of the people in that community wanted the bridge? She was for a link between communities? I am just…I give up.
Brian J
I don’t get it. Why is that bad? There’s no point in trying to help someone get out of debt if they are going to get right back into it.
M Sylvester
It’s also interesting that Goldberg uses the rhetorical device “As a couple readers suggested to me…” to imply that he’s just passing on an observation that should be considered if for no other reason than “a couple readers” seem to have reached it independently. It serves to both validate the spin and immunize Goldberg from damage if it turns out to be (surprise) moronic.
frogspawn
McCain sounds like the decapitated android head in the original “Alien” movie in this clip.
moeman
Computerism.
Tattoosydney
Stuck in the Fun House
They will do what they’ve been doing the last few years (actually longer). They will focus on the only thing left of their party and movement. And that would a single minded pursuit to defeat democrats. Damn the country, damn the Constitution and damn the truth. It’s the shaky pudding that holds them together, and whether or not Sarah Palin is a lying lunatic doesn’t matter. They would rather shit there own pants and win with a lying lunatic and an old, pathologically ambitious, and self absorbed dickhead they can’t stand, than lose to democrats.
Fun house rant of the day.
Dennis - SGMM
McCain: “She probably knows more about energy than anyone else in the United States of America.”
Take that, T. Boone Pickens. McCain’s infirmities don’t seem to keep him from jumping the shark almost daily.
tBone
If we can get Obama to personally apologize for pouring sand in your vagina (oops! sexism!), will you shut the fuck up already?
Laura W
Brian, I am KIDDING.
I am being sarcastic and ironic and light and flip and drinking Ketel One.
I am making fun of myself in that post.
I am saying that I do NOT want to examine WHY I make the choices I do in life, therefore, I can not stand Suze for bringing this to my attention.
Jasper, can you say this better for me, please? I fear I do not have your succinct way with the written language.
Tattoosydney
Win.
Eural Joiner
Here’s my take on things from the heart of wingnuttia – South Carolina – and working with numerous “educated” conservatives.
Everyday there’s a new McCain/Palin gaffe or scandel and I’m like, “well, that certainly is pretty bad so I guess you’ve got to be really questioning the ticket,” and they’re like, “LIBERAL MEDIA/FAMILY VALUES/POW/STFU!” and that’s the conversation until the next workday.
And these are the locals with multiple academic degrees.
I’m serious, our country is really going to elect these jokes. God help us all.
Eural Joiner
Here’s my take on things from the heart of wingnuttia – South Carolina – and working with numerous “educated” conservatives.
Everyday there’s a new McCain/Palin gaffe or scandal and I’m like, “well, that certainly is pretty bad so I guess you’ve got to be really questioning the ticket,” and they’re like, “LIBERAL MEDIA/FAMILY VALUES/POW/STFU!” and that’s the conversation until the next workday.
And these are the locals with multiple academic degrees.
I’m serious, our country is really going to elect these jokes. God help us all.
JWW
Tattoosydney,
You like to hold a grudge, I might have expected otherwise. You are a pissant, you can not vote, that is unless you are a liar. So why don’t don’t you worry about your local cane crop.
I just suggested that we only have two options and you may disagee with both candidates, but most have decided on which one. Start supporting the which one.
Don’t continue to feed the likes of yourself just to gain comments and retorts.
Eural Joiner
I did not mean to do that three times. Although it does bear repeating.
Sorry :(
plainbrown1
There is a much more substantive issue here… the issue isn’t whether McCain is physically able to use a computer, or even that he doesn’t know how. The issue is how is a person who has not yet managed to master one of the most fundamental technological tools of the last century, think he can lead us into a future where technological tools are going to become even more prolific and intense.
How can a guy who is still trying to learn how to program his VCR going to lead us to the mastery of green technology and bio-technology, a new generation of smart weapons, or hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. How will he understand the potential of Mag-lift trains, or new communications technology?
If he can’t use a computer… can he steer our course to the future?
Brian J
Maybe they are in the minority. I turned on MSNBC a few minutes before Rachel Maddow was set to begin. She was talking with Olbermann about the Palin interview by Gibson. KO mentioned that his conservative friend who was on the fence called him and said he couldn’t vote for that ticket… [phone call from college friend now over]…His friend didn’t say he would definitely vote for Obama, but he made it clear he couldn’t support the McCain-Palin ticket. KO said his friend told him she shouldn’t be in Washington, let alone the White House. I know some people are still going to root for her, but you have to think that this may be the point where the novelty starts to wear off.
kth
I thought the “McCain can’t use a computer” talking point was lame anyway, so perhaps there’s poetic justice in it’s being put to bed by someone like Jonah Goldberg, who fouls the political discourse with every word he writes. And put to bed it most likely is, because the payoff is too small to justify giving McCain another opportunity to show off his stigmata.
plainbrown1
There is a much more substantive issue here… the issue isn’t whether McCain is physically able to use a computer, or even that he doesn’t know how. The issue is how is a person who has not yet managed to master one of the most fundamental technological tools of the last century, think he can lead us into a future where technological tools are going to become even more prolific and intense.
How can a guy who is still trying to learn how to program his VCR going to lead us to the mastery of green technology and bio-technology, a new generation of smart weapons, or hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. How will he understand the potential of Mag-lift trains, or new communications technology?
If he can’t use a computer… can he steer our course to the future?
Jorie
It also seems that he cannot dress himself… he must have a valet or someting.
BTW: If gets elected what does he do if he has to throw the first pitch at a baseball game….
Tsulagi
I knew when I saw this one the Professional Outrage Queens of RedState would be all over it like Foley on a page. Mock them if you must, but they never disappoint. Fighting back tears, the resolute Moe: Senator Barack Obama, I know that you want me to hate you.
You know, if McCain’s POW injuries really do cause some difficulty using a keyboard, and his finances are tight, he could apply to Project Valour-IT. With their help, plenty of other veterans have overcome physical limitations resulting from their injuries to use a computer, go online, and send email. They didn’t let their injuries stop them, nor likely most of them daily spending time telling and reminding the world they were a WIA. Surely we could hope for the same level of resolve and humility from a president.
Phoenix Woman
Eural Joiner:
Point them in the direction of http://www.ObamaTaxCut.com. If that site doesn’t convert them, they’re racist dipwads, FOX-and-Rush-addled morons, or both.
ronin
Someone should tell Jonah that he shouldn’t diagnose McCain’s disabilities by remote- he’s not a doctor, like Frist.
Oh, and I’m sure McCain gets teared up when he votes down veterans’ benefits.
Peter Johnson
The guy has advisors, you know. Why should he waste his time on google when an intern can do it for him?
And I do think five and a half years in tiger cage might make you not want to spend the next fifty in front of computer screen. Let’s not let our potlicial differences with McCain rob us of basic human empathy.
NonWonderDog
Rachel Maddow looks really tired tonight, and she even made a “welcome to the Rachel Maddow Show on Air America Radio” slip. Weird.
Notorious P.A.T.
Jonah Goldberg is the second fucking dumbest guy on the planet.
Joshua Norton
McCain doesn’t use a computer because he’s from the old school of macho men who thinks only someone in a skirt should ever touch a keyboard.
War injury my ass….
pansypoo
well, he just needs a mac.
Kali's Little Sister
Why on earth would Obama, as Jonah suggests, be “be mocking a veteran’s (McCain’s) disability to score cheap points.”
This confuses me. I have never, ever, ever noticed any disability on McCain’s part to score cheap points.
The very idea is unfair to McCain; not only is he perfectly able to score cheap points, he consistently demonstrates that ability to a greater degree than I have ever witnessed before.
In this sense, McCain is a man of unparalleled ability and action. Let’s give credit where credit is due!
Delia
Hey, I’ve been to Tijuana, too. I’ve even been to Nogales. I got a case of Montezuma’s Revenge there, so I figure I’m qualified on Health and Human Services as well as foreign policy, which is more than Sarah is. McLiar could have picked me except I’m not a wingnut.
Martin
Am I the only one who operates his keyboard at lap level? I tried balancing it on top of my head and typing, but it’d always fall off when I reached for the beer. I’m not a freak, am I?
Cognitive dissonance isn’t a permanent affliction in most people. Most people have a limit, so I think they’ll only bleed support from here. Thursday of the GOP convention was the apogee. I think The View sped up the descent quite a lot today.
pamela
What is this I see ?
A story in the LA Times FROM TODAY where Tucker Bounds says McCain uses a laptop.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/09/obama-slams-mcc.html
I don’t expect anything smart from Golberg but one would think he would, I don’t know, read this morning’s paper if he wants to be commenting on the news.
Peter Johnson
I think The View sped up the descent quite a lot today.
Yeah, those old hags carry a lot of weight with the voting population.
AkaDad
I can type with my tongue.
Just sayin…
Tattoosydney
I apologise. It’s early in the morning here and I have a hangover, and I was rude. (My apology does not extend to myiq2xu, who deserves mockery.)
I agree with you. Most people have decided which side they support.
I think that Obama is the best candidate because he has ideas to make things better – some of which I agree with, others that I don’t, some of which may work, and others of which may fail, but be worth trying nonetheless.
I think that McCain and Palin are wrapping up intolerance and fear and lies and using them to cover for the fact that they have no new ideas worth trying – and that they want power for its own sake.
I hope that the people that have genuinely not decided (and if you look at the competing convention bounces, there are a lot of them out there) are able to decide to listen to a genuine offer to work together to make things work, over another 4 years of division.
And yes, people need to start supporting their candidate, and making the argument for them. If people are able to hear (over the lipstick/bridge/bush doctrine hubbub), I am confident that is an argument Obama’s ideas can win.
Notorious P.A.T.
Until the next one.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Jonah typed by pounding his forehead against the keys. Or if he yelled what he wanted to write at his keyboard until mumsy came over to type it for him.
cs
Drudge now has the story up with this “headline:”
Boston Globe, 2000: War ‘injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes’…
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Captain Misogyny strikes again!
Conservatively Liberal
McCain actually tried to learn about using computers but he gave up in frustration after fifteen minutes. Seems that he wore the letters off of the P, O and W keys and couldn’t remember which was which.
Peter Johnson
It’s been the stupidest fucking election ever since Obama decided to accuse half his own party of racism (including a popular, two-term former Democratic President)
Hillary would be wining in a landslide. And Obama might not be down double digits right now if he hadn’t run such a sleazy campaign against her. Not even vetting her…what a slap in the face. And no one likes a man who hits a woman.
Rob Gib
John McCain was last in his class at the military academy. The only reason he’s gotten anywhere in this life is due to his connections. Son of the man in charge of the navy in Vietnam, husband to a wealthy alcohol baroness. If he grew up under the same circumstances as Barack Obama, he would have died of cancer years ago without a single accomplishment to his name. I’m still not sure he’s accomplished anything important, despite all the opportunities he’s been granted. Fuck John McCain, fuck Sarah Palin, fuck the republican spin machine that convinces half of the population that they are appropriate leaders for this union. Fuck them.
Tattoosydney
This is a great post from Hilzoy
Notorious P.A.T.
Exactly which party do you want to win?
Stuck in the Fun House
Although total bullshit, this isn’t the worst concern trolling ever done, even if it’s the spoofy kind. Apply to liberal’s bleeding heart, that should be a winner. Trouble is Mccain/Bush/Cheney/Palidan have robbed your average liberal of about every single drop of empathy they might have had for republicans. There just isn’t any more blood left to bleed.
Norquist
Oh good lord. Jed Clampett’s back.
Dennis - SGMM
Yep, any man who sings little ditties about bombing Iran is demonstrably a paragon of basic human empathy. His running mate’s cavalier attitude toward a war with Russia only reinforces his good judgment and humanity.
Peter Johnson
Captain Misogyny strikes again!
Yeah, and all those pantsuit jokes the Obama supporters made weren’t misogynist.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
He’s Ratfucker2xu for a reason.
Just Some Fuckhead
Seems redundant to act like a dick when yer name is Peter Johnson.
Heh, me throwing stones, right?
John S.
Those harridans over at The View carry no weight with the voting public at all.
That’s why McCain took time off campaigning to spend his morning there.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
We didn’t just drop ‘old hag’, Tiny. 0 Spoof Points.
Notorious P.A.T.
That would apply if his injuries actually were the cause of not knowing how to use a computer.
Just Some Fuckhead
Other than the analog one in all his airplanes?
Conservatively Liberal
Fine tuned for accuracy. ;)
jake
I think it safe to say no one wants to visit south of McPOW’s border.
Oh, he meant places like Mexico and Argentina and its neighbor Belize and all of those other places Senator McGoiter can’t be bothered to remember. Yeah. I guess being near a country counts for more experience than actually going to them or you know … living in one.
Delia
Oh, of course. Because if Hillary were running McCain would never stoop to misogynistic tactics, noble warrior that he is. And while I would certainly be voting for her, she did have very high negatives amongst certain parts of the population. So please stop making shit up. Well, I shouldn’t ask you to stop, really. I know you’re a Republican and you can’t help yourself. It’s liking asking a cat to stop licking its bottom. But there you are.
LiberalTarian
And, like cats, they think sticking their ass in your face is a good thing.
Brown crease wrinkled cat butt. Say, kinda looks like McCain!
Brian J
I’m sorry I was being so dense.
Brian J
I’m surprised this hasn’t disqualified him from office on the grounds of making absolutely no sense. She understands what, exactly, Sen. McCain? What the hell does she understand about Russia from living next door? Its economic and political history? Its geological and chemical importance? Its cultural history? Why Maria Sharapova is just so awesome? Or does she just understand that Russia and Alaska are next to each other, even if there’s some water in between them? Please, do tell.
I’ve given a lot of advice about the path that Obama, et al should take in going after these guys. I think this might just be the one to top all others. There is no legitimate response to this statement, other than, “We’re making shit up. Sorry!” If she had some sort of background in dealing with Russia, we’d know, because someone would have mentioned it. If they hammer these guys on this, they might just be exposed for the frauds they are.
Kali's Little Sister
WTF? Pantsuit jokes are misogynist? Hillary makes them. I make them (and wear them dammit).
Who are you Peter Johnson of the double phallic name, brave self-appointed defender of womankind?
Message to PJ: thanks, but no thanks.
a1
Late to the party, and the analogy isn’t 100% apt but here goes:
Look, if Jonah Goldberg can get over his disability at BEING A FUCKING MORON to get a cushy columnist job at the LA Times, then McCain can definitely get over his disabilities to use a computer.
Seriously though, W-T-F’n-F!?! Jonah argument is stupid in no less than FOUR GODDAMN WAYS:
1) plenty of people with less use of their arms use computers
2) the issue raised isn’t that McCain can’t physically send email – it’s that HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT “EMAIL” IS. There all sorts of ways (like “books” and “other people”) McCain could use to learn about email, but he just hasn’t.
3) There’s evidence of McCain using a computer. Uh, er, ooops!
4) Finally, after McCain has been yelling out “POW!” “POW!” “POW!” for weeks as an excuse for everything from home overownership to liking ABBA, Goldberg thinks THIS is going to get some traction? Really? Really?!?!
and Goldberg’s Updates manage even MORE stupidity:
in response to a poster saying “there are tons of people with far worse injuries than McCain that use a computer.”, he says:
That’s absolutely true, I’m sure. But they need to use computers to get through life. McCain doesn’t.
Oh, you’re sure about that? Look asshole, YOU made the point that it’s oh-so-unfair to expect McCain to send email because of his injuries. If YOU ACKNOWLEDGE McCain can send email, but to paraphrase, “just doesn’t hafta!”, how in the hell is Obama’s claim even slightly out of bounds?!
ARGH! And to top it off, in Update II:
….it sounds like he knows how to surf with a mouse….
McCain knows how to surf with a mouse? Amazing! And he doesn’t flee in terror when an animated screen saver pops up? Is this guy ready for cyberspace or what?!
Sorry about the extended rant – but I’m stunned such a bloated sack of concentrated idiocy has a prominent voice in this country. It just sickens me.
Notorious P.A.T.
We called Hillary “Nixon in a pantsuit” and you object to the “pantsuit” part?
Brian J
I only caught a few minutes of her show, but she did look tired, and that background wasn’t doing her any favors. The background on Olbermann’s show is just perfect. It makes things seem expansive, like an ocean view, but also serious…or something like that.
Ted
Yeah, we know: as you’ve said before, we know you’re voting for the ticket with the woman on it. So please kindly shut your fucking keyboard up and go pout somewhere else.
ninerdave
Yes.
Anyone that’s considering voting for McCain
Peter Johnson
We called Hillary “Nixon in a pantsuit” and you object to the “pantsuit” part?
There’s some deeply dehumanzing about the pantsuits part there. You’re turning into some kind of centaur, some kind of man-woman hybrid, an XXY, as it were. It’s sick and it’s why I’ll never vote for Barack Hussein.
Ed Marshall
nd while I would certainly be voting for her, she did have very high negatives amongst certain parts of the population. So please stop making shit up. Well, I shouldn’t ask you to stop, really. I know you’re a Republican and you can’t help yourself. It’s liking asking a cat to stop licking its bottom. But there you are.
The fucked up thing is he probably isn’t a republican, he’s a party hack, Clintonista. There aren’t enough of them to matter but he wants Obama to lose so you have to listen to him again.
If you play warcraft and you are unfortunate enough to have to PUG, once in awhile you are going to encounter someone who has a different way of taking down a boss. When you explain what his job is he tells you “You are doing it wrong.” He’s so pissy about it, he stands there with his thumb up his ass making sure you lose so that you have to do it his way. If these idiots made up 1/5 of the party like they do in a PUG 5 man this works. They don’t, so you can ignore them.
Ravi J
Is that McCain on phone or listening to his walkman?
Just Some Fuckhead
Yawn.
Kali's Little Sister
Dear Peter Johnson,
My, you are a sensitive lassie. Perhaps you’d bettah have a pinch of smellin salts and a lay down on your fainting couch. Whew!
Yes, yes, I get your pathetically compensating double dick-joke name. Terrific fun.
Brian J
With that sort of crackerjack response, your family could be working for the McCain campaign. I’m wondering what sort of stuff I’d be hearing from my conservative family members. The only thing I’m pretty sure of is one aunt liking that Palin is so anti-abortion. She usually votes for Republicans, unless she knows they are going to win, and then she votes for the Pro-Life party.
I meant to say this before, but the site wasn’t working, and then I went out. Anyway, Maddow and Olbermann were talking at the beginning of her show about the rest of Palin’s interview. KO said that a conservative friend of his called him last night and said he couldn’t vote for that ticket. This guy told KO that he wasn’t sure if he’d vote for Obama, but he was sure that not only should Palin not be in the White House, she shouldn’t even be in Washington. There will certainly be some who respond positively to her, but you have to wonder how many will not. If it’s a substantial number, perhaps this will be a watershed moment where the novelty wears off. And maybe, just maybe, this was Obama’s plan all along: let this flame out a little before he really pounces.
Martin
Obama never did. Some of his supporters did, though.
See, if most people can’t tell the difference between a candidate and their supporters, then we’d all think that Hillary blows goats, and nobody here thinks that. So, really, it’s just you.
Notorious P.A.T.
Alright, vote for McCain. After all, he has the deep and abiding respect for women that we Democrats lack. We know this from the way he cheated on his first wife after a car accident made her less physically exciting, and from the way he voted against a bill to make employers pay women the same as men. We know this because he chose as his running mate someone who, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, forced rape victims to pay for the investigation into their assault. And we know he cares about women because he wants to overturn Roe vs Wade and set women back half a century. And let’s now forget his hilarious joke about how ugly Chelsea Clinton is.
Oh, but a Democrat used the term “pantsuit” while excoriating Hillary Clinton’s campaign or policy proposals. Tsk tsk tsk.
Setz
Peter, in case you haven’t been paying attention every since John became a democrat he’s been steadly attracting the kos screamers who have no respect for McCain’s sacrifice. The comments drip with derision. Just read this thread. No interest in discussing issues, just insulting and deriding an American Hero.
Peter Johnson
Peter, in case you haven’t been paying attention every since John became a democrat he’s been steadly attracting the kos screamers who have no respect for McCain’s sacrifice. The comments drip with derision. Just read this thread. No interest in discussing issues, just insulting and deriding an American Hero.
That pretty much sums it up. If the Kossacks knew how much this turns off the rest of the country when they read a comments section like this, you’d think they’d turn it off, just out of interest of getting their guy (Barack Hussein) elected. But what’s the old story about teaching an old dog new tricks? Can’t be done.
jake
That’s an unforgivable insult to cats’ asses, you assist.
Rome Again
What part of the name “Balloon Juice” do you not understand?
This is a snark blog, always was a snark blog, always will be a snark blog. Get over it.
Brian J
Ha! Nobody is deriding his service. In fact, some of us Democrats would like Obama to stop mentioning McCain’s bravery, as much as we admire it. We just think it’s ridiculous to insist that this gives him some sort of competence in foreign affairs and government that only people in his position can match. We also find it absurd that he’s turning his service into a non-sequitur by mentioning it any time he’s talking about something he doesn’t like, no matter how tenuously related. Every single person respects his service, but it seems the big difference between the conservative and the liberals is that the conservatives think his time as a POW gives him a pass on everything while the liberals don’t.
LiberalTarian
Say, d’ya have any of those nifty bandages with the purple heart on it y’all passed out in the 2004 RNC in New York? Cuz, you know, John Kerry warn’t no hero! I have a little scratch, and y’know, I mighta self inflicted it!!
Glad we can count on GOoPers to stay true–they can dish it out, but they can’t take it. John McCain ain’t been much of a hero lately, but by gawd, every 15 seconds we get to hear about what happened to him 40 years ago.
Blow it out your wrinkly brown crease cat butt face.
Setz
How long have you been reading Cole? Since he was at Red State? Since he started this blog? no. you haven’t. This used to be a place for rational conversation. As John’s moved left it’s become a liberal hate. snark is funny. Hate is not.
Ed Marshall
Peter, in case you haven’t been paying attention every since John became a democrat he’s been steadly attracting the kos screamers
Hah, you have no idea how hemmed in are. When this race is over and you are doing the autospy with your pals, try and square reality with how you lost to Kos diarists.
John Cole
Who the hell is making fun of McCain?
I am making fun of the retards claiming he can not use the internet because of war injuries. McCain has never made any such claim, and in fact claims quite the opposite. He seems, by everything I have seen, interested in actually TRYING TO LEARN IT. In fact, his campaign has repeatedly claimed he is learning it.
The only people being made fun of here are moron bloggers and Jonah Goldberg.
Peter Johnson
snark is funny. Hate is not.
Amen.
LiberalTarian
Well, I did call him cat-ass face. +3
Setz
And you can read up and down all the “he can’t raise his arm jokes in this thread”. Of course, it’s not hateful or disparaging, it’s just snark right rome?
John Cole
What would you like to rationally discuss? How everyone who disagrees with you on torture is a treasonous SOB? Or how we would prefer to lose a war to win an election? How anyone who disagrees with you on abortion gets his rocks off practicing infanticide? How we want to teach sex ed to kids who can not read? Fill me in, I am all ears.
I am treating Republicans the way they have treated the American public- with sheer contempt. The only difference is that the Republicans have earned it.
Jeff
Yet now Jonah says in his next post that McCain
without even acknowledging how idiotic and wrong he was. It was Obama’s fault.
These guys have no clue what personal responsibility means.
Setz
I wasn’t talking about you John, i’m talking about your commenters, might want to go re-read my first post. Come on I know you’ve made a sharp turn to the left, but don’t tell me that’s affected your reading comprehension. Or has it?
Rome Again
I didn’t realize voter eligibility was a prerequisite for voicing an opinion on a blog.
This is the second dumbest thing I’ve seen today.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
5 Spoof points for the new nom de plume, but that’s all I’m being charitable about.
PeterJ
You are correct about that, McCain is old and he won’t be able to learn anything new. Better to elect a younger dog, that will learn new things, like Obama.
Shygetz
The right-wing election strategy. Color me unimpressed (oooh, oooh, he said “color”! Race card, race card!!!)
Just Some Fuckhead
I ain’t a data point in your overwrought comment drama. Man up, you little pussy. Act like you imagine a real conservative might act.
Stuck in the Fun House
Man, the stench of desperation coming from wingnuts these days would make a skunk cry. It’s all you got to relentlessly gin up false outrages while your guy and party drop pile after pile of steamy manure into the national dialogue. Jesus, will it ever end, so I can get out of this goddamn Funhouse.
Rome Again
Three and a half years, I think that qualifies me for BJ citizenship.
Hate? Wow, did I see someone equating this site with hate? Check out Freeperworld, THAT is hate.
flavortext
American Hero my ass.
Peter Johnson
Come on I know you’ve made a sharp turn to the left, but don’t tell me that’s affected your reading comprehension. Or has it?
I think in this case it has. John used to be one of the sharpest out there back in his Red State days. Now, a lot of what he posts is the usual Olbermann-Soros-Moore drivel. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a cut above most of the Peloshi’ites, but he’s not what he once was.
And you’re right, the commenters are much, much worse.
Hate heart never won fair election. But we probably wont’ have one of those with the CBS-NBC-Obama threeway going on right now.
Setz
Oh yeah this thread is full of RATIONAL discussion. Plenty of it. You got me there.
How about we talking RATIONALLY about the Obama campaign’s serial sexism? His absolute lack of experience. his plans to tax the American public. Obama’s shameless attacks on McCain’s age.
Or would you like to discuss this:
Jeff
Shygetz that deserves its own thread!
mark
Just stumbled on this:
Montysano
Mrs. Monty, the kids and I just came from seeing “Burn After Reading”. If you’re a Coen bros. fan, you’ll want to see it. It’s dark, twisted, very funny, and as one critic noted, its view of humanity is even bleaker than “No Country For Old Men”. Frances McDormand is a delight, and Clooney and Malkovich are in top form. As to Brad Pitt: pretty amazing that the same person can pull off both the clueless Chad Feldheimer in this movie and Tyler Durden in “Fight Club”.
Rome Again
It looks to me like he raises his arms just fine. Of course, we aren’t the ones who said he can’t.
Setz
Yeah right as John started making his leftward tilt. Thanks for making my point.
freepers = kos in my opinion
Shygetz
And yet even with clues like this, people take seriously a man who chooses the moniker “Penis Penis”. I’ll never understand the troll-trollee co-dependent relationship.
LiberalTarian
Fair election? What country have you been living in the past 8 years? What did you think the AG firing scandal was about?? Those folks got fired mostly because they wouldn’t help Rove permanently rig the elections.
The difference between you and Cole is that he read and understood. You? You read but apparently you haven’t got any inclination to understand. But, I guess that is why the GOP sold their souls to the religious right. The fundies like being told what the words mean. One of the few demographics in the world that believe what they are told over their own lying eyes.
Montysano
“I’m supporting John McCain, because he too made a huge sacrifice promoting freedom”.
I’m fine with McCain’s sacrifice, but “promoting freedom”? Please. 1-2 million dead Vietnamese might think we have an odd way of promoting freedom.
And that Lee Greenwood song….. oy.
Setz
Seriously? one of your buddies pointed out the wikipedia article above:
Are you willfully ignorant? or just playing dumb.
Scaramouche
Just for the record: Who is tying his shoes?
Dougj
This is funny:
iluvsummr
Could we maybe someday before the election get a series of threads discussing:
Obama’s tax cuts versus McCain’s
Obama’s health plan versus McCain’s
Obama’s energy plan versus McCain’s
Obama’s education plan versus McCain’s
Obama’s foreign policy plan versus McCain’s
Obama’s VP pick versus McCain’s in the event that something happens that incapacitates the president
The rest of the world’s response to the two candidates, including whether or not it will make a difference for US foreign policy
We could have MyIQ, PeterPeter, jbarntt, and other McCain supporters state what’s wonderful/better about McCain’s plans and have Obama supporters state what’s great/better about his. I realize this is a lot more boring than lipstick and shooting wolves, but (a) it would help us all remember what’s at stake, and (b) it will do wonders in preventing the stroke I feel coming on if BJ becomes an-all McCain/Palin all-the-time blog. I’m just as guilty as the next person in talking about those two incessantly over the last week or so, but my brain can only take so much garbage.
Stuck in the Fun House
This is from Morrisey over at Malkin’s house for the insane. In his post Ed waxes on about why Mccain physically use a computer and how Obama is mocking disabled senior POW. then comes this update. It’s from a NYT’s interview in July.
iluvsummr
Interesting article:
Rome Again
What was your point? That John is not Redstate? Wow, that’s deep!
My point was that this is a snark blog, it has been a snark blog for as long as I’ve been coming here, including before John took his major left turn (which occurred long after he veered left, mind you). John’s transformation was a process, it happened over time, I watched it, and the only reason why it happened is because the shit the right-wingers wanted him to swallow was just too smelly.
If you like the shit sandwich, please, go find a place at your party’s picnic table.
Shygetz
iluvsummer, that would be nice, but my crystal ball tells me that the chucklehead ratf*ckers here would quickly degenerate it into some variation of “Barack HUSSEIN scary black Muslim OMG!!!” The whole Palin pick is because the last thing the Republicans want this election to be about is issues. The only way we could run such a thread is if we had heavy comment moderation to prevent off-topic meandering, and I’ve never known John to be the heavy-handed type.
Brian J
I went back and looked at the jokes you described. For one thing, most of them are about Jonah Goldberg, not McCain. Second, the ones that are about McCain don’t make fun of his service, unless you take the giant logical leap that anything describing this man used in any joke is offensive, since he was a POW.
Is this the next stage of the battle? We are going to have to hear about not just his time as a POW and fake scandals (i.e. “lipstick on a pig”) but fake scandals concerning jokes that were never made about his time as a POW? I might try to put myself into a coma if that’s the case.
Tattoosydney
Was Jonah the other one? It’s so hard to choose dumbest comment today.
Wini
‘s my birthday.
Wini +~8.
ninerdave
Which goes to a larger issue. Obama needs to take back the news cycle. Somehow. I of course have no ideas on how to do this and since I’m not paid by Obama I get to bitch with abandon.
All Palin all the time is preventing his message from getting out at a critical time, and yes, I know that’s what it’s meant to do. Palin should become a symbol of how shitty McCain’s judgement is not fodder for talk about lipstick and bridges to nowhere.
Montysano
With the exception of the VP pick, I had this homework done months ago. Now? It’s snark, ridicule, and cruelty for McCain’s cesspool of a campaign. Maybe others are tired of it. I’m not.
Rome Again
The question was whether he could raise his arms to his chest. Do you often type on a keyboard that is raised above your head?
Ed Marshall
His injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head
My thirteen year old son asked me if McCain was a fascist. I asked him why and he said because in Social Studies class they watched his RNC speech and he kept giving the Hitler salute.
I told him he was trying to raise his arm to the crowd like other candidates and that the Vietnamese had torn up his shoulders in captivity. Honestly, I’m not going to search the web to see what his range of mobility is. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the whole point of the post was to say that Goldberg is either an idiot or a liar pretending to be outraged that someone thought he couldn’t type. He can obviously type if he desires it.
LiberalTarian
Well, I’m all out of troll cookies.
You know, the GOP had younger people running for office. None of them particularly palatable, but they knew going into this thing the man is 72 years old, has a history of cancer and might be a little shaky. Then he puts Flailin Palin in as his #2. Now, color me unkind, but if the poles were reversed, we’d be hearing all about how our old guy is gonna die and leave Barbie in charge. And fer pete’s sake, we all know it.
Man. There is a rather major hurricane going on. My prayers are with Texas. I like Houston.
AkaDad
McCain admits Palin isn’t prepared.
H/T
zuzu's petals
If anyone has a chance to catch Bill Maher tonight (or in re-run), it is so totally worth it.
He and Jeaneane Garofolo (sp?) take down that smarmy-ass John Fund big time. When Fund started to blather about Palin actually “doing fine” in her interview, Maher actually pointed his finger at him and said he was the worst kind of cynic. Because he actually was smart enough to know better but knew he could help get something over on the people out there who didn’t know better. Maher didn’t let up, and neither did Garofolo.
People are starting to get really pissed.
Bart
Did you Dilberts notice how he is holding that “Blackberry”? Is that how you would hold one?
But, please don’t let me spoil your fun. You’ve already turned a 12 point advantage into a 5 point deficit. When the freight train hits you on November 4, maybe it will finally knock some sense into you.
NonyNony
Ah, when John was cracking wise against people you didn’t like you thought his place was great. When he started cracking wise against “your team” you now think his blog is full of “liberal hate”.
Meh. Whatever. I don’t expect partisan hacks to be able to see through their own blinders.
(And anyone who thinks John Cole is a liberal needs to have their political calibrations checked. Cole’s politics actually haven’t seemed to shift that much over the last 5 years that I’ve been lurking on this blog off and on – he’s just gotten more intellectually honest about what kind of shit he’s willing to defend. I find that refreshing – I wish the folks over at DKos would do some of the same soul searching.)
Jeff
There will be no election news cycle for at least 2 days because of Ike. Longer depending on the damage, clean up and Bush’s response.
Rome Again
No, actually it was the story of a man who has a house on the beach near Galveston and thought staying at home would be just fine. I’m thinking he’s either dead now or wishing he was.
Setz
I thought you lefties were all about freedom of speech. guess not it’s your kind all the time or nothing.
iluvsummr
Sigh. OK — just looking for a bit of a pick-me-up, and talking to people off-the-blogs who are falling for the distortions is frightening me. I guess I’ll go finish my Lindemans Cassis and sign up to go into Nevada to register voters.
Brian J
I was supposed to see it with a friend tonight, but he took a late train home from the city, so we decided to see it Sunday. I really should watch all of the other Coen Bros movies, particularly since McCain has selected Chief Marge Gunderson…err, Sarah Palin…to be his running mate.
phobos
You may want to consider the fact that most of the world now views the recent trends in American “conservatism” as somewhat retrograde and more than a little alarming.
To clarify: Snark is making fun of someone who is obviously using Hate for political gain.
John Cole
Actually, that is exactly how everyone I know holds their damned phone. Now you want to argue that we are physically not seeing what is right in front of us?
I give up.
John S.
John McCain is a:
A) War Hero
B) Liar
C) Maverick
D) Dishonorable Politician
E) All of the Above
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Correct Answer: E
Jeff
Setz you ignorant slut. Freedom of Speech is about government control of speech, not a private web site.
FAIL
Eric
McCain is turning into the Michelangelo of hypocricy.
Just Some Fuckhead
Setz, we ain’t data points in yer little comment drama. We’re just random psedonymous assholes from around the world. For all we know, every remark yer falling on the fainting couch over was written by you, so spare us the self-serving outrage. I can’t believe you think this whiny random-strangers-are-saying-mean-things approach is meaningful, rhetorically or otherwise. You need to man the fuck up and act like you imagine a real conservative might act.
Rome Again
I am, and there are places for you to go and do that.
I don’t comment on the Freepers site for the same reason. Sure, I read it, but I don’t have an account there. I just shake my head at their shit and move on. I stay on my own side. I give them room to have their own space, and after the crap your side has dealt to this country over the last several years, it really makes my blood pressure boil over, so if you don’t mind, I’d really like to have that kind of space too. Now kindly go fuck yourself.
Norquist
Ooo, oooo! Now do the fake “lipstick on a pig” outrage. That one’s a classic!
Shygetz
Since it’s an open thread…
When I sit down and think about it, this election season has made me very sad. I actively rooted for John McCain in 2000. He seemed like the Republican Party’s best chance to shake off the intolerant religious right and return itself to the party of crappy economic theories, overloaded defense budgets, and cut-backs in entitlements and social programs (which, to be fair, are sometimes necessary to limit out-of-control spenders). He said things that pissed off all the right people, and while I didn’t agree with his policies, I liked his political style.
But since the Rove/Bush machine brutalized him in the 2000 primaries, he seems to have developed some kind of political equivalent of Battered Spouse Syndrome. His ambition seems to have overtaken his sense of decency, and he has sold himself to the same Rovian machine that destroyed him eight years ago.
What really bothers me, though, is the fact that what I may be seeing now always has been the true John McCain, and the John McCain of the 2000 primary was a careful product developed for elections that just happened to not work out so well. Either way, I miss the McCain of the 2000 primaries…
Jeff
Setz please don’t go. With half my family evacuated from Houston, I need something to laugh at.
Montysano
Brian: I’ve got a little “thing” for Frances McDormand, so please don’t.
PeterJ
Well… Palin was a mayor for a not so short period of time AND a governor for a short period of time.
So it’s obvious that she’s qualified.
Also. SHUT UP, THAT’S WHY.
AkaDad
I love free speech. For instance, I could never even conceive the thought of banning books.
What I won’t tolerate is lies.
Delia
I’m all for freedom of speech. I just get bored with watching cats lick their butts and eventually make them go into another room.
Rome Again
John Cole didn’t leave the party, the party left him.
Thank you for reminding me of this. I stated above that John veered left, but really, that’s just a view from the ground. If you look at it from the air, his party kept shifting right. Thank you for correcting me.
Brian J
I have it recorded upstairs. I plan to go watch it in a few minutes. I don’t agree with everything that Maher says, but he’s very funny, particularly when he’s actually having a conservation with people. You can tell that he could do a serious, Charlie Rose-style show without any problems, like Jon Stewart. He’s also one of he few people who has the balls to ask why we should be so passive about electing a potential president who doesn’t believe in concepts like evolution. I can’t think of anyone in the mainstream media who would do that.
As for his politics, Maher has said that he’s a libertarian in the past, and while you could say that he has some liberal leanings, he’s no partisan Democrat. He just seems fed up with Bush and the clown shown that the Republican party has turned into. So many people describe him as angry, but they seem to miss the point: he’s angry, or rather frustrated, because nobody else seems to be paying attention.
Ed Marshall
Did you Dilberts notice how he is holding that “Blackberry”? Is that how you would hold one?
Maybe I’m sort of immune to all this, but my dad was a USMC crew chief on a slick in Vietnam. When he came home he got his job back as a tool and die apprentice but now the solvents would literally eat the flesh from his hands. That’s “allergic contact dermatitis” for the medical folks. It’s also a total coincidence, there is no agent orange disorder. Ask John McCain. My father will die younger than he should and it won’t have anything to do with agent orange.
What do you think is special about McCain? He got shot down, he talked, made the propaganda films. Like a normal human, they had to bully him into it, but he got bullied and he did it. Kerry was braver than him. He served and came back and bitched. McCain surrendered, threw out the code of conduct, did whatever they wanted and got salvation later.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Spoof of Fail.
Brian J
How beautiful was she in “Wonder Boys”?
Rome Again
Exactly.
Martin
Since his ability to raise his arms was the excuse issued by the wingnuts over whehter McCain could type or not, I would have to say that, yes, Republicans are both willfully ignorant and dumb.
Nobody here challenged whether McCain could or couldn’t raise his arms over his head. We challenged whether he could raise his arms to his lap, where normal people keep their keyboard. Since you agree that McCain can reach his lap and therefore his keyboard, he really has no physical excuse why he can’t use a computer, right? So, since you agree, kindly tell us how you think Jonah is a fucking jackass and well, how we were all correct in that assessment.
Or is it your turn to play dumb now?
Rome Again
He’s got enough of a Republican bent to have a thing for Ann Coulter, go figure.
Brian J
I want to ask people about this stuff when they describe him as being his own man and willing to go against his party whenever he wants, like people who support him said to me after his acceptance speech. Do they really think he’s going to be able to break away from all of the deals he’s signed with the base of the party that was skeptical of him? Do they think these people will just go away, forgetting all of the support they seem likely to give him now he’s given them Palin? The mob seems to be more reasonable than the base of the Republican party these days.
ThymeZone
The most reliable tell for a spoof or troll is the intentional spelling or grammatical error.
Please try to be a little less obvious.
Montysano
I dunno; I’ll add it to my queue.
In “Somethings Gotta Give”, the boys are battling over Diane Keaton and Amanda Peet, and all I could think was “Yeah…. but what about Frances?”
Martin
I do as well. And I don’t believe that this is the true John McCain, but as my dad reminded me recently, age does some funny things to you. I don’t think McCain is senile or anything like that, but this is a man who clearly wants to be President, not out of a sense that the country needs him, but rather that he wants the position. (For the record, I don’t think that’s terribly different from anyone else running for President, including Obama.) But when you want the position, and they’re already hinting at you being too old, and those hints will turn into a chorus in 4 years or 8 years, a certain urgency can develop. And I think that’s the difference now. McCain wants this and 2012 won’t work. It’ll work for Obama, so he can lose this and still have a shot at the office, but not McCain. This is it. This is the big bet. There’s no cost to losing big – he’s rich and has had a long Senate career and won’t be considered in the future. So every bet is an all-in bet for McCain. And that’s what’s different from 2000 McCain. He’s got nothing to lose. Nothing at all.
Regardless, as Republicans would remind us for everyone else, you need to be responsible for your own decisions and so McCain is responsible for everything that his campaign does that he does not make amends for. I don’t care if he told the staff to ‘do what it takes’, it’s his campaign and his decision.
Setz
waaaahhhh…someone says something i disagree with waaahhhh
Rome Again
Go to your room!
Ed Marshall
I’ll get a bit more nasty. There was a sign on the Danang Air Strip that said don’t go to the Hanoi Hilton, we will not rescue you. Do not cross the parallel. I don’t know if they didn’t bother hanging that up on McCain’s carrier but what he did there was beyond stupid.
In his own words he tanked a multi-million dollar bird to hit a power plant and it was obvious that was what was going to happen. He didn’t kill it trying to save lives, he was just foolish and stubborn and forgot half his mission (getting home). Then when it all went to hell he got pragmatic. Screw him.
Ted
And thank the FSM for that whole Terri Schiavo hysteria and deeply disconcerting federal government interference for being the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Joe Max
I can’t believe what I’m seeing on Memeorandum over this. The wingers are having themselves a full-blown ragegasm, with Doughy in the top lead. I don’t even see Balloon Juice appearing in the “Related” links, it’s all right-wing outrage, outrage I tell you!
I guess it’s just the Friday news cycle.
How can McCain run with this? Does he confirm the claim he can’t type on a computer due to war injuries? After his own campaign says he has a laptop, his own family says he uses a Blackberry? There’s pictures ferfugssake. By Monday it’ll be another piece of stupid in the news from the Republican side.
Look, this stuff isn’t aimed at swing voters and moderates, or the right wing base either. The winger base is already in their pockets, so stirring them up further is pointless and unnecessary. They know the stupid story will be debunked in one news cycle. Instead, it’s all actually aimed at the progressive base, at educated moderates and even those conservatives with functioning brains, like John Cole. The unspoken (or spoken?) mission of the right-wing blogs these days is to intimidate the progressives and the media by spreading despair, implanting the fear of losing the election, hoping to turn it into self-fulfilling prophecy.
It’s psyops, people. If all the registered Dems show up in swing states and vote, McCain goes down. Do the math. The only way to foil this is to drive up despair among non-wingnuts.
Remember: High turnout = Democrats win. Low turnout = Republicans win. Depressing us is their only hope.
Don’t believe the hype.
Brian J
I completely agree with the notion of urgency in McCain’s decisions. It’s now or never. (I think some of this was reflected in Hillary Clinton’s behavior, too.)
Now, while I agree that there’s a certain desire for the position based on simply wanting to be in control and wanting to be in the history books, I’ve gotten the sense that this is greater for McCain. Maybe my partisanship is clouding my judgment here, but I remember some faux controversy drummed up by McCain, which prompted a response from Olbermann that quoted a passage from McCain’s book that talked about his ambition to be president. I can’t remember exactly what it said, but I remember thinking at the time that it sounded like he wanted to be president just to be president. I don’t doubt that he loves his country and believes he could be a good leader, but Obama seems to be more interested in shaping the direction of the country and leaving a legacy as far as policy, whereas it seems like McCain considers this the ultimate Rolex-style retirement present, his last moment to shine before he hits the golf course in retirement.
Dougj
shit sandwich
You can’t print that.
Brian J
As a 23-year-old, all I can say is, if my wife looks as good naked as Diane Keaton did at 57 in that movie, I’ll be one happy man.
Kevin
Jonah has to rais his arms above his head to find his own ass.
blogreeder
I found the first Post about Palin here.
So the rational was that it was stupid because nobody knew who she was. You never thought about her being conservative would excite the base? Or being an NRA member? Or pro-life?
You guys constantly underestimate how republicans work.
So next post by John was that it was a joke. Now with McCain beating you guys in the polls. We can answer this.
Left wing blogs.
Ted
Ahh, that standard wingnut response. “You criticized me and told me to go comment somewhere else! You’re suppressing my speech!!”
Hey, wingnut? The 1st amendment only prevents the GOVERNMENT from suppressing your speech. If every-day people tell you to STFU, you’re SOL. But you’re still free to keep yakking.
matt
Balloon Juice had 51,540 visits yesterday! Is that a record?
Brian J
We seem to have your act down pretty good, whether it’s something simple like the blatantly hypocrisy or something more complex like the false victimization of your candidates versus the media. You guys aren’t an enigma wrapped in a riddle; you guys are about as easy to read as my dog’s face when I’m sitting my couch, eating a snack, and she’s drooling on the floor.
Gus
Hasn’t anyone learned not to feed the trolls? I know they’re kind of cute in a really fucking stupid way, but don’t give them the attention they crave.
Conservatively Liberal
Go to RedState or most other wingnut blogs and disagree with anyone there to see how long it takes for the wimps to cry to Moe or whoever about needing a “cleanup on aisle …” or for them to “blam” a “Moby”. They are so afraid of opposing opinions that they break out in hives and call for Homeland Security if anyone dares to enter their hallowed halls to do so.
I welcome the wingnuts here but I am only thinking of the fun we get to have shooting holes in their logical fallacies. Every time I see a wingnut post here I swear I can hear the crunching of Cheetos and the sound of their masturbating (fwop fwop fwop fwop fwop fwop fwop…) while waiting to see if anyone will take the bait.
The focus was supposed to be about Obama and anything negative that the right could generate against him and instead the focus has been on Failin’ Palin and what a poor decision Johnny McPOW made in selecting her. Obama may not be getting a ton of positive press right now but he is getting some positive contrasting against the disaster unfolding on the right. I am sure that Obama is quite happy to let the press hound the right for a bit while he quietly finalizes his battle plans for the fall.
This is far from over, and I am sure that we have not seen the best ammo Obama has reserved. Obama has been notching it up a bit every day since the convention, but he is more than happy to let McCain step in a pile first and then politely point out the shit on McCain’s shoes.
Rope-a-dope baby!
Martin
No, we totally understand how you work. She had the big (R) next to her name, so we knew y’all would slobber over her as soon as she was announced (which you did). But as for the independents, well, they still don’t know who the fuck she is because we’ve heard all of an hour of her speaking extemporaneously.
See, as you admit, she’s pro-life, and an NRA member, neither one of which means a goddamn thing to actually running the country given that it’s Congress and the states that affect gun laws and Congress and the states that affect abortion laws. So, yeah, she like guns, I can see how she’s ready to deal with Iran and the housing crisis.
You guys are totally predictable. You want to win. You don’t give a fuck about running the country.
bvac
“Senator Obama has never taken on his party on a single issue.”
Uhh, that’s because his party wasn’t the one that fucked up this country.
Rome Again
Really? I was reading about Palin on Free Republic for more than a week before she was announced.
Now, would you like to go back to bed and try to get out on a side that allows you to speak coherently, because the rest of what you wrote was just senseless gibberish?
Delia
It’s almost pathetic how the trolls and spoofs are being repressed.
Good night.
LiberalTarian
Of course, folks who read TPM Muckraker heard about her long before cuz they have been covering Troopergate for a couple months. Guess McCain’s crew should read it too, eh? And, it isn’t as if they only go for the GOP. They cover Democrats too–isn’t our fault the GOP are more crooked.
Besides, where else can you keep up with the likes of Dusty Foggo?
Rome Again
John, I have a theory as to why you’re being troll-baited tonight.
I just heard that Fox news is actually acting reasonable tonight. As we all saw, the media is starting to actually do it’s job (finally) recently, and the nutcases are outraged that the media is actually starting to resemble reality.
Since you were a type of Moses, being one of the first to start walking the sane members of the Republican party away from the edge, I think they’re here to give you a comeuppance.
They are outraged that their Wurlitzer of oldies but goodies is broken. Awwww, isn’t that special?
Take it in stride, this is a good thing. ;)
ThymeZone
That was just one guy, trying to make a post!
Conservatively Liberal
The BJ Mod Gawd snagged my prior post. Help! :)
Now on with the fun:
And if McPOW was behind in the polls, you wingnuts would just say that polls are bullshit. We have seen this sideshow already and it is old and shitty.
Like your candidate.
/yawn
Rome Again
Actually I think that was me.
blogreeder
I guess that means you guys want to lose.
I still don’t understand this obsession with Palin foreign policy knowledge. When they win there will be plenty of time for that. Even if doughy poopypants kicks the bucket on the first day. Almost three months between election and inaugeration. Presidents usually surround themselves with advisers, don’t they? The more important thing is to have integrity and character. What good will foreign policy be if there’s a wishy willow behind it? Palin stood up to corrupted Republicans so I know she will be able to do that against Putin. Obama folded under pressure against his minister. 20 years of loyalty goes poof!
The Other Steve
I still find it interesting that the latest tactic from John McCain is to again pretend he’s a Democrat.
That’s the same stunt Bush pulled back in 2000, and even again in 2004.
How does this continue to work?
Joe Max
I thought you righties were all about small government, fiscal discipline, personal liberty and upholding the Constitution. John thought so too, until reality smacked him upside the head.
I don’t notice you being banned or deleted by John. So speak yourself silly. But others have the freedom of speech to tell you to go stuff it up your ass. You are free to follow the advice or not.
The remark was about going to a right-winger site if you want to see a shit-sandwich of hatred, not stopping you from posting here. So screw your fake indignation.
blogreeder
You misread that. I found the first post of Palin that was written on this blog. I knew about the possibility months ago.
This blog has it’s head firmly up you know who’s behind so they didn’t see it coming.
ThymeZone
That beats your record of 5683 tries in one day.
Kevin
You left something out of your quoting:
I’m sure you didn’t want to give a false impression about the person you were quoting. Perhaps it was an unfortunate oversight.
blogreeder
What kind of crap is that? I have to ADMIT she’s pro-life? Like it was a secret? That’s the problem with you guys, you think everyone is as clueless as you are.
Joe Max
[forehead smacks on keyboard]
You know, that line of reasoning reminds me of someone… some other politician running for president… about eight years ago… help me out here…
Oh, right! George W. Fucking Bush! Yeah, that one.
That really worked out great, you know, what with his really smart advisers and all. It worked out so well those advisers are all invited back for another run. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Why would we possibly want to have a President who might actually have a brain and a fucking clue how to use it?
Excuse me while I go commit hari-kari with a spork. The stupid has reached critical mass.
Kevin
You seem to have a problem, where you cut people off before the context comes. I’m sure you’re not doing it on purpose; hey, we’re pals, and I figured I’d help you out on that before you embarass yourself.
Rome Again
No, we want to win, but only if we do so with dignity.
We choose not to lower ourselves your Republican standards of bullshit tactics.
So, what you’re saying is that it’s okay if Palin isn’t qualified as long as her underlings are? Are you really serious? Let me guess, you just want to have a beer with her?
Hard to tell from your candidate’s campaign. Yeah, accusing someone of being a pedophile is normal campaign fodder, right?
Wrong, she did not stand up to corrupted Republicans, she supported them until it become politically expedient not to.
Obama tried to save a friendship. When the other person involved in that friendship couldn’t honor that friendship, Obama came out publicly against him. Try again.
Kevin
What the fuck is an “inaugeration”?
Kevin
Ugh, embarrass.
Conservatively Liberal
Borgreefer approaches the edge of the platform, pauses and then jumps, executes a half-twist and OH MY GAWD!
Someone forgot to fill the pool. Ouch.
Next?
cain
Yeah, see if we don’t get trolls and wing nuts we start to eat our own. So it’s good to have some of them come by. When they do it turns into a blood sport! Way better than deleting or censoring trolls it’s to mock them till they can’t take it anymore!
In any case, I was seeing some disturbing polls for Obama in the northwest. Obama and McCain are tied in Washington and obama is up by 4 points.
4 points? That makes no sense, I have not yet met a McCain supporter. I have met conservatives but all of them spend most of their time being anti Obama not pro-McCain they can’t really seem to suppor their candidate very well so they just attack Obama.
BTW best way to argue with these bozos is to use their own talking points. FOr instance, that website that has McCain and Obama’s tax plans. I told them I put in my salary and I pay less taxes under Obama than McCain. Win. Not much they can say to that. The other argument about shit like social programs is that, if you didn’t have them you’d just be spending taxes to get rid of the undesirables on cops and crime. Either way, you’re going to be paying money to the government. Personally, I’m not interested in an expanded police force so I can get more speeding tickets.
:)
cain
ThymeZone
Apparently, McCain’s strategy for reducing lobbyis influence in Washington has been revealed:
He is hiring all of them to work on his campaign.
I’m also fascinated by two McCain shrieks we are hearaing these days. One is that we wouldn’t have such a negative campaign if Barack Obama would just agree to McCain’s town hall meetings.
The other is that McCain knows how to capture Osama Bin Laden, but it’s a secret unless we elect him.
When did the “country first” guy turn into a schoolyard thug who only stops being a jerk when you meet his demands?
The old geezer is about a week away from being booed by his own base on the campaign trail.
LiberalTarian
I just don’t read some people. Like, say, snorgbloofer. Life is too short.
Rome Again
Actually, I think it was only 5477, but you were close. ;)
Rome Again
No, I read just fine.
Your writing could be improved though.
blogreeder
It’s a form of snarky. You guys use it all the time. But getting to your point, in this particular case it was the wrong word to use; using the term “admit” for a comment I made about Palin’s positions. Nobody was hiding anything. It’s like someone saying “Ha! you admit it! You killed Mr. Mustard!”.
blogreeder
My proof reading needs improving. :)
I don’t know about you, but my sentences evolve. I usually re-write a sentence a few times so I can leave these pearls of wisdom for you guys to digest.
Rome Again
The fact is they don’t really want him for president, they are hoping he dies soon after he attains office so the rightful heiress, Sarah Palin can take her God-appointed station. Very few Republicans had a hard-on for McCain before he added Palin to the ticket. If she were to become ineligible, say due to some legal situation, they would go back to not wanting to support the ticket.
Rome Again
Sorry to inform you, but your ignorance on the subjects you choose to discuss leaves me grabbing for the Pepto Bismol. I had not realized you actually spent so much time working on those gems of ignorance. Perhaps a lobotomy is in order?
blogreeder
Now you see why he added her? I still say, it was brilliant campaigning.
How right you are.
blogreeder
My opinions are different from yours. Don’t you believe in diversity? You’re progressive, aren’t you?
Wisdom, not ignorance. I usually find I’m on the correct side of any issue you guys bring up.
Rome Again
No, I saw it all along. It is not just now that I’m seeing this.
I know. Your agreement doesn’t give me any more credit than I already deserved.
Rome Again
Truth does not have two complete and polar opposites. Diversity is fine, but let’s not diversify the truth, agreed?
SixStringFanatic
Awww, y’all missed the best part of Doughy’s faceplant. To wit:
“The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country.”
Umm, the Viet Cong operated in South Vietnam. Old Man Crashy was imprisoned in NORTH Vietnam. By the North Vietnamese Army.
Jonah Goldberg: Fucking Moron.
blogreeder
Aren’t you one of John’s echoes in this echo Chamber? Wasn’t he saying that it was a stupid choice and he hopes McCain gets a real candidate?
ninerdave
Completely OT and apropos of nothing, I happened to walk by the TV that the wife had fell asleep in front of and Jay Leno was on. He’s interviewing Hugh Laurie. I know Hugh was British, but have never seen him outside of House (which I totally love). I was sort of taken aback by his normal accent. He sounds like an American doing a bad job at a British accent.
Rome Again
Sure, if you think the only thing that is important is putting a pretty lady by his side to get him elected into office. You admit many Republicans don’t like McCain, but they’re going to put him in office because of the pretty woman he decided to stand next to. What will you do when he relegates her to a basement office to work on an unsolvable domestic problem because he doesn’t want to share power with a woman? You are being duped. He has no intention of doing anything but using her to attain office himself.
Rome Again
I said I saw why he added her to the ticket, I didn’t say I agreed with it.
She is unfit to lead if McCain dies. I will not say otherwise.
Setz
and Obama is? They have the same amount of experience from what i can tell.
blogreeder
It could. Look at the Bush tax cuts.
One truth is that the Rich got the biggest tax cuts.
Another truth is that the Rich pay the most so obviously they would get the biggest cut. However they were paying more even with the tax cuts. Isn’t that two truths?
Rome Again
There are plenty of places to research Obama’s record. He has authored or co-authored over 800 pieces of legislation in both the Illinois Legislature and the U.S. Senate combined. Please show me Sarah Palin’s 800 pieces of legislation.
Setz
blogreeder don’t waste your time, rome already said upthread:
he’s a brick wall. Don’t talk to me unless i agree with you….fingers in ears….lalalalalalala. Rome is what’s wrong with America. Obama talks about reaching across the isle but with supporters like rome hamstringing him i don’t see that happening.
Rome Again
No, the truth is that the people who don’t make enough to survive have to pay a bigger chunk of their paycheck.
If you cannot understand the need to allow everyone a chance to survive, there is no point in debating you.
Take your “suffer the rich man” argument somewhere else, I’m not playing that game.
blogreeder
Remember, McCain’s a maverick. Some people don’t like that. I really think she’s more than that because of her achievements in Alaska. Sure, not everything is perfect. But you can at least look at a record which is more than you can say of Obama.
He may fool you, he might let her loose at reform.
Ted
Hi! Go back to Ace O. Spades now, you adorable retarded wingnut, you!
blogreeder
But the rich pay the most taxes. They start the businesses. If there were no rich, we’d all be poor. Like they were in the Soviet Union. When you try to make everyone equal, they will be equally poor. You need a balance. You have to keep the Rich around to pay for your programs.
Rome Again
I would reach across the aisle with reasonable people. You are not a reasonable person. You, like blogreeder, believe a rich man is a victim. I could never find anything in common with someone who thinks the need to enrich the rich even more is the most important problem we’re facing.
Awww, I’m so sorry that you feel the need to find a way to get your party back into power because they fucked this country up so badly and now you have to come here to find converts. I’m not voting for your guy, so don’t even try to convert me, you’re only wasting your time.
Anyone who thinks the victims are the rich is what’s wrong with America. I hope that five million of yours is invested well.
Setz
I wish more people would understand that. taxing like Robin hood “steal from the rich to give to the poor” is just like the story, a fairy tale. taxing people who start buisinesses is dumb and detrimental to the economy. Yes, the economy is in a doldrums, but more taxes isn’t going to get us out of it. It’s going to make it worse. history shows us this.
blogreeder
Well, at least Rome doesn’t get as vulgar like others around here. I just don’t understand the immaturity around here sometimes.
Rome Again
Trickle down economics does NOT work. The rich take their money and either spend it on pleasure (like seven vacation homes) or invest it in big business (fatcats), not productivity. The middle class, trying to attain a better life, are the ones who invest money in productivity.
A rich man doesn’t need productivity, he only needs a good investment broker. He invests in the rich, it’s in his best interests to do so.
The people need infrastructure, are you saying we should put out more money even if we can’t afford to keep a roof over our heads or food in our bellies so that a rich man doesn’t have to pay more?
If I were rich, I’d be happy to pay more tax. I learned this by watching my family, a rich family full of ruthless Republicans who would cry about how poor they were, while they lived in luxury, drove expensive cars and talked down to anyone who wasn’t in their tax bracket. You will not find any sympathy for the rich man from me.
Rome Again
Yeah, we all know that stealing money out of the mouths of poor who can’t afford to even own a business is so much better.
blogreeder
There are two types of Rich that I could exemplify by using Paris Hilton and Warren Buffet as examples. I think when you think of Rich you’re thinking of the socialite. People who are irresponsible. I think of Rich people like Warren Buffet who work hard and provide a living for a vast amount of people. They’re also immensely charitable.
I never said they were the most important issue.
Setz
Where did i say that the “rich man was a victim”? Go ahead find me anywhere i said that. No? didn’t think so. Be honorable and don’t put words in my mouth.
One, I’m not trying to convert you, where did i say that rome: vote for McCain? again go upthread…use google. where? thanks! NOWHERE.
Two I’ve started and failed more businesses than you ever have. I’ve employed more people than you ever will. my current buisness is looking good and i’m employing 20 people and looking to hire 2 more. I’ve lived on food stamps, I’ve lived rich. what have you done for this country? What have you done? Have you employeed people? Helped America’s economy? No? didn’t think so. don’t be a typical liberal whiner about things you don’t know about.
Setz
blogreeder: agreed.
Rome Again
And who are the people that your side has been depending on to invest in America of recent years? The CEO’s of big businesses (like Ken Lay) who only want to enrich themselves. Look at our current economic implosion, this is the fault of placing money in the hands of those who don’t care about trickle down economics. Money doesn’t trickle down, it vomits up.
Warren Buffet is a great example of a man who is doing something. It’s too bad there are so few who are following in his footsteps.
blogreeder
I’m curious about your definition of productivity that doesn’t involve capital. Didn’t McCain, besides having 7 houses give 26% of his income to charity?
Setz
but he typifies the liberal lack of understanding of the world for sure. Vulgarity I can tolerate, stupidity no.
Blue Raven
I guess that’s troll-speak for “hardened cud balls.”
Setz
I’m thinking there is a lefty economic policy in there somewhere….
Rome Again
I certainly don’t hear you decrying the people who can’t afford groceries or gas, who can’t even bring in a decent wage. Where is your concern for them? That you are so silent on the issue speaks volumes as to where your sympathies lie.
You and I are different, and always will be, I think.
Jeff
Uh….
Buffett feels the tax system should force him to pay more.
John D
They start the businesses.
Bullshit.
Most business are started by entrepeneurs. The rich don’t START businesses, they CONTINUE businesses. Small businesses have an astounding failure rate, yet continue to be started in droves every day, because people see a better/faster/cheaper/novel way to do something. New markets are created this way. New products are patented this way.
The next generation is rich off of the profits of these small businesses as they grow and evolve, but they aren’t the ones starting the business. That honor belongs almost solely to the middle class.
blogreeder
That’s an interesting image. :)
I think a lot of people have the notion that Wealth is like a pizza. If I take a piece there will be less for everyone else. It doesn’t work that way. Wealth can be created. How can we have a growing GDP if that wasn’t possible?
Setz
Ok, let’s try again…where is my lack of concern? I’ve employeed people and am looking to employ more. Me and my buisness can’t solve America’s economic problems, but I can help locally. where have I said that i don’t care about people who can’t afford gas and groceries?
tell me rome, what have you done?
Rome Again
Yeah, it’s called caring for people who have less than you. It’s not widely practiced by those who have money.
Money and power produce corruption more often than not. Trickle down economics assumes people are like Buffet and the fact is, most people, when they get a hold of money, only consider their own needs. Buffet is an exception to that rule. He truly does care. Pity that others can’t do the same.
I grew up in a rich family. I am now damned near penniless. I did not inherit (my mother got 6 million and drank it/pissed it away). If I were to win a lottery tomorrow, I would give 40% of it to charity. So few who end up in those circumstances would do the same.
Greed is the problem you guys have to get over before you can sell your plan to the world. Too many of your rich Republicans are greedy. Take away the greed, and many of us would find common ground. But, you cannot take away the greed, it is embedded in your bootstraps philosophy. Such a pity.
zuzu's petals
I’ve found that using ice water gives me an especially flaky pie crust.
blogreeder
Unless they are rich entrepreneurs.
Right. But how would they feel about starting a business if Rome here is ready to tax it all away?
That’s Paris Hilton again.
Rome Again
I can’t do a lot, but when I have been able, I have done what I can. I’ve personally made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and taken them to children who were panhandling with their parents on the street. I’ve taken in homeless. I’ve tried to help people find jobs.
If I ever have the chance, I’d like to work with the homeless.
I am poor myself. I understand what poor people deal with.
Jeff
Fine than tax those who earn in the top 1% (>600k) but give tax incentives to businesses that invest in the US in terms of capital and job growth. The businesses grow creating wealth that is not taxed until a business is sold; yet, you ensure the wealthy are “trickling” it down. Oh wait, that’s Obama’s plan.
Rome Again
Small businesses are small, they should be taxed small. Large businesses should not be given huge tax cuts. They are large, they can afford larger taxes.
The philosophy that says someone’s money is all their own and they don’t owe a debt to society is the problem.
The more you earn in this society, the more you should pay. It’s only fair. The people who earn less should not have to pay the vast majority of taxes when others are earning so much more and getting to do so much more with it. Look, I’m not saying we’ll solve poverty, I’m not stupid enough to believe that’s true; but, it would balance out the situation more and make more people be able to live a better life. That this society rewards those who are stinking rich with tax cuts while asking those who are struggling to pay for the infrastructure stinks, and if you agree with that philosophy then your sense humanity is in need of a tune-up.
Setz
That is awesome, and while this is a snark blog…that’s not meant as snark that’s my honest feeling. You do realize there are government programs to help you start charities, programs and buisinesses. you should look into this. Or you can just keep bitching and hope someone will do it for you.
Darkrose
Watching the wingnut trolls tonight is making me nostalgic for The Sims. Nothing like having your sims get in the pool and then taking away the ladders and watching them swim laps until they die.
Rome Again
:)
Thanks Jeff! I enjoyed that.
blogreeder
I disagree. I think most rich people are involved in one charity or another. Totally their choice.
That’s true. That’s why you have to spread it around to many rich people. Look, the rich baker down the street who’s corrupted won’t bother me as much as a politician who’s corrupted.
That’s very noble. What if you wanted to give more? Let’s say you invest that 40% and in 10 years it triples. Wouldn’t that be better? Ah, here’s the rub. You would be seen as being uncharitable for 10 years. Nobody would know you’re squirreling it away. So, when you look at a rich person, isn’t it just possible they may have future plans to give more away?
Rome Again
Yes, the problem is I’m in no position to be able to do these things right now. I will wait until I am able to be in that position.
You see, I am one of those who have never done anything but paycheck to paycheck since I left the home of my rich parents. I have never received food stamps, I have never collected unemployment, I try not to use up the resources that others need. I don’t have savings, I don’t have the ability to just go out and start up a charity operation. When I am in the position to do so, I will consider it. Until then, I have to make sure I can survive.
blogreeder
Great plan. You will make a country where no business are sold. What a great loop hole.
Jeff
You keep going back to the well that there are two types of rich people and we shouldn’t judge all by the actions of the corrupt. Yet, you refuse to acknowledge that there are means to encourage behavior in terms of where to invest by using the tax system. Why are you against making the corrupt rich pay more while giving incentives for them to help the US economy and its citizens?
Rome Again
Let me tell you about rich people and charity.
I lived in a rich family, as I stated above. My family bought condominiums right and left. They invested in stocks. They decided to sponsor one child through an organization (I think it was Christian Children’s Fund) – and they only did it for the tax advantage. They never wrote the child, they never talked about the child, they never cared about the child, they cared about the tax cut.
When they realized it wasn’t getting them the tax advantage they wanted, they dropped the child, with no thought as to what the loss of that aid might do to that child. They never cared about the child.
My parents knew other people who treated charity giving in exactly the same way. It was about how it enriched their own selves.
Now, I realize this is only anecdotal, but, I’ve seen this with my own eyes. This is not uncommon. Giving to a charity does not always equal caring for the cause.
Jeff
Yeah, because there is no upside to getting cash out of your business even though you will be taxed. Tell that to Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Jerry Yang, Paul Allen and small business owners who want to retire.
blogreeder
While noble, that’s bad planning on your part. If you want to really give to charity, you need to make money so you can give more away. My plan makes 1 rich person, 1 poor. Your plan makes 2 poor people.
Poor planning unless your goal is to be poor. How can you help others when you’re poor yourself?
In order to get in that position, you have to plan. Hoping on the lottery won’t cut it.
Conservatively Liberal
I don’t know why we are getting this influx of wingnuts but I have to admit that it sure is fun watching them trying to convince someone here to agree with them. Why they are wasting their time like this is beyond me, but letting them thrash away is entertaining in a twisted way.
It’s like watching a murderer making his last statement before the hangman pulls the lever but the condemned is talking nonstop gibberish in the hope of staying the hangman’s task.
Not gonna work. When midnight comes (Election day), we are going to collectively pull that lever and watch them drop.
Jeff
By the way, that is how it works now. You are not taxed on the value you can sell your business for, you are taxed on the profit and assets of your business.
Do you actually run a business or do you just play monopoly and think it is the same thing.
John D
Right. But how would they feel about starting a business if Rome here is ready to tax it all away?
Where did she advocate that?
She was talking about the Bush tax cut helping the rich the most — which it demonstrably DID. Not only that, he massively increased spending even as the tax revenues dropped, hence our deficit BALLOONED.
Due to our tax code, in general the rich pay about half the rate I do on income, because of where their income is generated. The great majority of Americans pay the bulk of their income tax on their wages represented on their W-2. The great majority of the rich pay their income tax on capital gains. The tax cuts enacted were designed to reduce those taxes at the top further, AKA ‘trickle-down economics”
Trickle-down economics is a thoroughly discredited theory. Multiple Nobel prize winners in Economics (Jospeh Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, hell, even Robert Mundell — the author of supply-side economic theory under Reagan finally admitted he was incorrect) have decried it as a failed theory.
IT DOES NOT WORK.
Got that?
Reagonomics did not follow the predicted Laffer curve. The tax revenues for Social Security went up due to planned increases. The tax revenue from income tax went DOWN. It is a failed theory.
No matter how much you love it, no matter how much you adore it, trickle-down economics is bunk. Coupled with massive spending increases, it is a recipe for disaster.
You have a choice — bump the tax rates on the wealthy upwards, cut spending, or some combination thereof. That’s it. That’s the entire solution set. Anyone who tries to tell you different is fucking well lying to you.
blogreeder
I don’t think that really works. People try to avoid taxes. Rome said:
See? Tax incentive changes but no character changes. One of the things you don’t realize is that someone making money, even if that is all they are interested in, is still helping people. Rome parents bought condos. They had to buy it from someone. Where did they put the money they earned? If they bought stock, the company may use it to expand the business and create more jobs. If they kept it in the bank, it was used to make loans.
Rome Again
Wrong. The rich are more often corrupted than those who aren’t. If you put the money into the hands of the people who have more understanding of this, the middle class who can open up businesses and job opportunities, you have a much better chance of money not ending up in the bank accounts of the corrupt rich.
Well, that might make sense if we weren’t dealing with a housing bubble created by speculators who are trying to get rich. If this money exists, why didn’t people use it to pay off those mortgages they couldn’t afford? Because keeping it in the their investment account to grow so they can give it to the poor is more important? NOT!
The rich are not holding off savings to help the poor in the future on a large scale. Personally, my philosphy is that 10,000 today would help those who are starving now, intead of 40,000 in ten years helping those who are currently doing okay and will need help later. I would rather save a human from starvation today than allow that person to die to help someone who doesn’t need help yet.
Where is your humanity? Did you lose it somewhere? Who made you believe life was so unimportant?
Your political party states they are pro-life, but the fact is, they’re really not when it really counts. Apparently they believe watching a living breathing human starve is okay; while watching a embryo with limited ability to feel pain get sucked into a vacuum is hideous.
zuzu's petals
Rome Again
The condos for the most part were brand new and went to REITs. The stocks my parents bought were in big companies: Ford, DuPont, etc… They did not do a lot for helping people who were in lesser circumstances than they were in themselves.
Jeff
I’m sorry, buying/selling condos and stocks are not business ventures, they are means of investments and moving money. Building condos is a business venture. That is why capital gains taxes should not be eliminated, instead investment in capital goods bought and used in the US and R&D investment should be encouraged through incentives.
I’ll concede one tax. Sales taxes on capital equipment is idiotic. Your basically charging an employer money to create jobs in your state.
blogreeder
You’re talking about the government. Business don’t work that way. A Successful business grows generating tax revenues. Employing people. You can’t grow businesses with oppressive taxes. That’s the laffer curve. The more you tax the less you’d get.
I don’t think you know what you are talking about. Wealth creation is trickle down. Confiscation doesn’t create wealth.
zuzu's petals
Wow, check out this NY Times editorial:
If only every paper in the country did this.
Jeff
Wealth creation is only trickle down depending on the type of wealth created. If I invest in a stock and it goes up 10 points, wealth was created, but it trickles down to no one. However, if I create a business that employs others and my business grows in value, I am creating wealth for myself and others through their jobs. That is why one method of wealth creation should be encouraged over others.
PS It’s late and I’ve been feeding the trolls too long. Good night.
Rome Again
Not exactly. A man who comes into money and buys himself several homes and furnishes them with lots of fun toys does little to create wealth for others. You are assuming that these people are indeed putting their money in places where those beneath them will indeed benefit from it. Buying products from well established companies does not really change the economic circumstances of those who worked to build those products. They still get paid the same hourly rate whether that one man bought those products or not. Granted, it keeps some working, but it does little to truly “trickle” down. The rich do not really put money in places where it benefits others for the most part, they buy their fun toys and establish themselves as kings of their domains.
blogreeder
Look, if everybody followed your example we would ALL be poor.
Sure, you helped a few people but a rich person can help a lot more. Rich doesn’t just happen, it has to be planned. You have to save and scrimp and work.
blogreeder
zzzzzzzzzzzz
zuzu's petals
Rome Again
Zuzu, I’ve noticed several papers doing such recently. I think you’re going to start seeing more. I think television media is going to take a lot more time to figure it out though.
Setz
yet you seem to be able to refresh this thread and respond every two seconds. you couldn’t spend that time filling out SBA loans or grant requests?
The thing that pisses me off about liberals is the lack of responsibility. No one, no government should give you shit, the options are out there its up to you…YOU to take it.
Setz
blogreeder the lack of understanding of basic economics is obvious around here. it’s group think. One person says x and the the rest pile on.
Rome Again
It has been my experience, and I’ve been in places to actually witness this, that a rich man helps himself.
I never want to be so rich that I turn my back on others. I would rather be poor.
As I stated earlier, if you take away the greed, we could find common ground. You don’t want to take away the greed, so, therefore, end of discussion. I’m done with this conversation. You would rather give tax cuts to people who don’t need them and allow the tax burden to be put on those who can’t afford it. Your humanity is lost. Live with it.
zuzu's petals
Maybe they’re beginning to realize it’s their job. One can only hope.
Setz
Greed has fueled the US to become the greatest nation on earth and has fueled the greatest humanitarians and philanthropists. you yourself praised Buffet upthread. You can’t have one without the other. Freemarkets create rich who give to the poor. Legistlating that is what Karl Marx essentially was for and we know how that turned out.
Socialism/Communism works when you ignore the fact that it’s human nature to be greedy. When you understand and work with that…the people who have none…get some.
Setz
why am i suddenly in moderation? john’s never modded a comment out side of a few people before. Don’t tell me john you are becoming a censor.
Setz
ok that one made it through.
my reply to rome that for some reason went to mod was:
i thought for a sec there john hated me!!
Setz
Hmmmm…for some reason i’m getting modded for this post **insert snark here, come on give it to me***
I think it’s an important point, so I’ll try a third time…
rome says:
I tried to say:
Setz
Hmmmm…for some reason i’m getting modded for this post **insert snark here, come on give it to me***
I think it’s an important point, so I’ll try a third time…
rome says:
I tried to say:
Greed has fueled the US to become the greatest nation on earth and has fueled the greatest humanitarians and philanthropists. you yourself praised Buffet upthread. You can’t have one without the other. Freemarkets create rich who give to the poor. Legistlating that is what Karl Marx essentially was for and we know how that turned out.
Setz
Hmmmm…for some reason i’m getting modded for this post **insert snark here, come on give it to me***
I think it’s an important point, so I’ll try a third time…
rome says:
I tried to say:
phobos
From my experience, “trickle down” usually translated into the financial equivalent of vast numbers of Jackalope Ranch investments, overseen by the idiot scions of a once no-nonsense investment class.
The reality was more like “trickle sideways”, yet this bullshit theory persists. Mainly because the GOP would implode otherwise.
TenguPhule
This is also known as the Mugger’s Guide to Economics.
It only ends when the biggest gun is stuck to your head.
Rome Again
I said I was going to end this discussion, but, since you feel it’s okay to take potshots after I said I was done, I’ll leave you with one last thing:
Yeah? How is that working out for you?
Setz
ya. and Warren Buffet, Bill Gates all had guns tho their heads and were told employee people and donate or die.
TenguPhule
Trickle down, doesn’t.
We’ve seen it tried before.
Reagan and Bush both proved that it only makes the rich richer and everyone else poorer.
It is not so much the accumulation as it is the motion of money that is important.
Poor & middle class people spend more of their income. It flows through the economy, creating jobs and gain.
Rich people (i.e. CEOs) find new and interesting ways to shit it away. They are economic blackholes that pocket gains and socialize the risk back on everyone else.
And let’s face it, better the top 5% who own 80% of the wealth get taxed on 45% of it then the other way around.
Setz
rome again…sticking words in my mouth…
where did I ever defend the insanity of the mortgage market, or the idiocy of derivative traders?
I didn’t. so don’t be a douche bag. Don’t infect on me your issues with Bush. Have I done this with you? No, so if you are all about a respectful debate as you claim, spare me your generalities.
Setz
yeah and donations to charity has been up 80% yoy since Bush took office. that’s HORRIBLE!!
Conservatively Liberal
Epic fail. Lack of responsibility?! And this is coming from a backer of the poster children for no responsibility, the Republican party. How rich. Compared to you Republicans, the Democrats are the party of personal responsibility. Your party is loaded with closet bound gay hating righties, bathroom stall tap-dancing righties, male congressional page lovin’ righties, prostitute lovin’ righties, bribe loving righties and just plain criminal righties. Your party sucks and all you can do is hug it closer to yourself.
The wingnut is strong in this one indeed.
One question: Why is the intelligence of a wingnut inversely proportional to how tight they are wound? Maybe the clamping force is cutting off the oxygen to their reptilian brain?
Either way it is interesting to note, in a Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom kind of way.
Rome Again
That’s your free market (deregulated) in action. If you don’t like it, don’t blame me.
Rome Again
Source?
Rome Again
Hey CL, be kind to animals. ;)
Most of them don’t take more than they need (squirrels would be an exception), and they quite often share with others. What you are attacking is a different kind of beast altogether.
liberal
blogreeder wrote,
The problem is that not all wealth is created; much of it is stolen. I doubt you know of or understand the concept of Ricardian rent, however, so this is probably all over your head.
Most so-called libertarians don’t understand this—which isn’t surprising, because they’re freedom- and liberty-despising feudalists.
Some libertarians, “geolibertarians,” do understand this. (Cites: “Are you a Real Libertarian, or a ROYAL Libertarian?”, A Geolibertarian FAQ)
liberal
Setz wrote,
Source? Are you controlling for (1) inflation, (2) 9-11, (3) Katrina?
Mike M
We don’t have to ‘buy’ anything! One of your most liberal newspapers, THE BOSTON GLOBE wrote THIS on March 4, 2000 (see link):
“McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain’s encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He’s an avid fan – Ted Williams is his hero – but he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.”
Are BHO’s staff really THAT stupid to have walked straight into this outrageous blunder and how does that reflect on BHO’s ability to pick intelligent people? We’re going to BURY you leftists on this one – COUNT ON IT!
Mike M
Oops, my bad, I’m late as usual! Drudge already linked the National Review article that references the 2000 Globe article. Here are a couple ideas, (no charge!), for your next BHO ads. One could show McCain being woken at 3:00AM, getting out of bed and then tripping trying to put his slippers on! Or how about Cindy combing his hair and straightening his tie so you can say he hasn’t learned to do those things yet? Those would just be sooooo funny wouldn’t they?
Rome Again
Don’t forget the churches being put under the aegis of governmentally accepted charitable activity.
liberal
Rome Again wrote,
Yes, though that hasn’t changed under Bush, right?
Rome Again
You mean Bush would never do that?
dslak
I usually try to skip blogreeder’s “comments,” but this caught my eye:
The competition is stiff, but I’m willing to wager that this is the stupidest comment in this entire thread.
David
Wow. Brilliant refutation! You show a photograph of McCain’s hand higher than his shoulder. It’s his upper arms that can’t go above his shoulders, morons. And have other limitations, making it very difficult for him to TYPE.
The other articles put the lie to Obama’s puerile ad. McCain can use the Internet, with assistance from others to do the typing.
The argument of the ad is idiotic too. But hey: If a guy can’t drive, like New York’s governor, he clearly can’t understand the importance of transportation policy or make decisions about roads. What? He can’t drive because he’s blind? What difference does it make why he can’t? It doesn’t have any impact on the fact that he doesn’t have to be able to use a car to make policy or comprehend the importance of transportation.
What a moronic ad. What a moronic defense. What a moronic attack on McCain. You think you’ve refuted it? You’ve just dug in on the stupidity.
The Grand Panjandrum
I just got my new intertron connection here in NE. Oh yeah! Sorry if I am pointing out something already mentioned above but I don’t have time to read all comments (right now @ 381), but John McCain was NOT beaten by the fucking VC. He was shot down over North Vietnam. The NORTH Vietnamese crippled him. Jesus Fucking Christ is Jonah doing his best Kristol imitation or is he just to lazy to fact check a little? It is a big deal to someone like me who was shot at by the VC and NVA. These flag waving sissies really piss me off.
Fucking Panting-wearing Doughy Pantload indeed.
(Nice! How’s my outrage doing?)
MarkC
The Other Steve Says:
I still find it interesting that the latest tactic from John McCain is to again pretend he’s a Democrat.
Exactly. Imagine if John Kerry had started to speak slowly and slur his words, say “nook-yoo-lur” and prattle aimlessly about freedom, 9/11, and “hard work.” It would not be entirely believable, would it? I can only assume that the dissonance caused by McCain’s/Palin’s hard work in defining themselves as being “against the Republicans” will eventually resolve and people will realize they’re campaigning against themselves.
BH-Buck
BJ is starting to look more and more like Think Progress every day, what with the trolls taking over the board and derailing the message and all.
But it sure increases the comment count, huh!
dslak
There’s some sweet irony in the guy pushing “trickle-down” economics saying that others are ignorant of basic economics.
Since you don’t seem to know anything about Marxism, you’d do better to simply avoid talking about it.
harlana pepper
On principle, I feel sort of sympathetic to old codgers who don’t know how to use computers, since my dad is one of those and just a bit of a Luddite. Of course, he’s not running for President, so he gets a pass. McCain’s answers to those questions, well they just make me feel sorry for him, struggling so hard with the concept. You can tell he has no clue what they are talking about.
But hell, the man knows how to use a Blackberry! Points for McCain on that one. (Can you see how hard I’m trying?)
dslak
As with cats, you don’t use a Blackberry; it uses you!
Rome Again
Going back through the comments, I realized I wanted to comment on this:
My father was a rich man. He didn’t scrimp and save, instead he found a great opportunity to work under interesting circumstances that he could capitalize on, with an awesome salary, and then he got rich. The person who had his position before him didn’t capitalize on those circumstances and thus didn’t have the kind of income my father had.
Lots of people who got rich didn’t scrimp and save, they found ways to make opportunity. The lie that is being pushed here, that if you continue to trod along, eventually you’ll hit this magic plateau of financial independence where you’ll get to keep these tax cuts, is wrong. The kind of people who get to keep those tax cuts, for the most part, didn’t make their money in this way at all.
The major influx of wealth in recent years was due to speculative real estate investments (a year and a half ago I lived in an area where a lot of these investments were the major driving force of the area where I lived – and now one of the major builders in that area has imploded – look up WCI Communities). Unfortunately, those recent rich are going to find themselves back on the larger tax burden rolls soon.
Tim F.
There are two types of people in the world, blogreeder: those who think that there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t. But let’s grant your inane bins for a minute and look at prime examples. Warren Buffet and George Soros are both Type I rich people. Buffet and Soros consider people like you who want to support the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor to be about as credible as streetcorner schizophrenics.
Paris Hilton, however, recognizes another entitled child of privilege and supports the President just fine. Also look up the touching rags-to-riches story of Richard Mellon Scaife, without whose cash so many rightwing ventures would have to compete fairly in the free market. Type II loves the GOP just fine, and they should, because the creation of a permanent nobility is at the center of the Republican platform. Note: you could falsify my statement by finding that mythical family farm killed by the Estate Tax. As I understand it the Party is still looking for that.
You also misunderstand how entrepreneurship works. Successful businesses usually are not started by wealthy people. As with Microsoft they are started by middle class people who take a big chance with their lives. Bankruptcy plays a big part in an entrepreneur’s life because most successful entrepreneurs fail a few times before they succeed. Correction: it did until the GOP and some moronic Democrats changed personal bankruptcy into a form of indentured servitude.
Health care is another problem for entrepreneurs. Unless they are one of the blessed few who has never needed more than an aspirin and has zero chance of ever needing medical care, most entrepreneurs are priced out of the individual market today, and god help those with “pre-existing conditions” (for example, like me, early-onset arthritis) who cannot get a policy at any price.
People who need medicine cannot start their own business because they’re shut out of the market, and people who don’t need it live in constant fear that they might be ruined (refer to the bankruptcy law above) if they ever do. The GOP platform shunts America’s entrepreneur class into shitty office jobs because it’s no longer possible to strike out on their own.
Don’t worry, the GOP still has a few policies that might, assuming that they someday find competent managers to promote them, serve the country’s best interests. Entrepreneurship isn’t one of them.
Laura W
Jesus Christ, you folks go on all night and into the morning, don’t you?
Impressive. I bail out after 10est and clearly miss all the post-last call brawling.
jjcomet
Jonah’s latest “clarification” is hilarious. In it, he states that McCain himself doesn’t use his injuries as an excuse for not learning to use a computer. Somehow that didn’t stop Jonah from making the claim for him. What a tool..
charlotte
Jonah is dumb as a rock and half as heavy. How do these asses get these gigs?
The New Yorker profile of Cindy McCain (15 September issue) is a real eye-opener.
Seems pretty clear that McCain likes him some she-flesh to bang up against but has no real use for the rest of us. Not remembering ditzy Meghan’s so-called blog kind of telling too.
And Cindy’s treatment of her half-sisters, as documented in the article, is enough to make you feel queasy. But she learned how to fly an airplane, without telling John, sob, so I guess she’s not really a cold-blooded monster. The picture that emerges is something out of “Giant,” minus the love and affection.
That being said, I do feel a certain begrudging admiration for McCain when I read about how he’s not mainlining the Internets. I’ve spent the last two weeks glued to my damn computer and fear for my health. And my sanity.
charlotte
And, oh yeah — Screw all this talk about rich people and what it means and how to get there and my sainted pa this & the other fellow over there who was too dumb to “capitalize” and blah blah blah. Let’s get back to being smart, shall we? And then those good old American riches will stink a whole lot less. Maybe.
ThymeZone
Only the poster of an item in moderation knows that he is being moderated. The blog readers never see it. So how do you know that? Obviously you are somebody posting under a new handle, which says spoof.
Person of Choler
The number of comments to a Balloon-Juice posting is correlated to the seriousness of the Obamagaffe interpreted and defended therein.
Judging by the number and acerbity in the comments, the computer / POW advertising fiasco is one of the worst so far.
I’m enjoying this.
DonnaInMichigan
“John McCain travels with a laptop,” said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.
My reply:
I travel on an airplane
Doesn’t mean I know how to fly one.
cain
Trickle down doesn’t work because if I wanted to maximize the money I had I would invest in markets where my return would be fairly good. That means I would invest in emerging markets like China, India, Vietnam whatever. I would not invest here because the american market is expensive. It’s a great place to sell my stuff since americans have a unique attitude as opposed to other countries tospend on stuff. (well maybe Japan is better, dunno :-)
cain
castanea
To the monkey who posted upthread: It’s easy to give 26 percent of your income to charity when your wife is a multi-millionaire. If the roles were reversed and the Democratic candidate were married to a multi-millionaire, the rightwing would complain that he didn’t give all his money to charity.
Face it, rightwingers, all you do is spit venom because you can’t talk issues, and you can’t brag on Bush’s record in office. Record deficits, record bailouts, billions spent on a pointless war, and thousands of American servicemen and women killed or maimed. That’s the Bush legacy, and you want to give American four more years of it.
Try thinking rationally about what you post before you post it next time.
ThymeZone
To which any right-winger must reply: Why?
Look, if you believe that the earth is 6000 years old, and that the Rapture is coming, why bother with rational thinking?
What matters is the ability to not blink in the face of adversity or conflict. Palin-style. To stay focussed on the faith, the belief system, and reject thoughts that challenge them.
Asking a righty to be logical is like asking a fish to consider living in the Sahara Desert. Interesting concept, but …… why?
nitpicker
Um, John McCain was cleared to fly after he returned from Vietnam and he can drive a car, so he obviously can’t be too broken to type.
August J. Pollak
Jesus Christ. Is it really hard to understand the difference between being able to do something and actually knowing how it’s done because of its relevance?
As a male of the species, Jonah is physically incapable of giving birth to a child. Maybe that explains why he doesn’t know how to impregnate a woman.
Bigby
Maybe we shouldn’t allow the McClueless anywhere near The Football being as it’s not, as Bush was surprised to find out, an actual pigskin football with a red button on it that says “MEGAKILL” but rather a fucking COMPUTER. AND a cellphone. Not enough ‘experience’ to be President, right GOP? If he can’t work a Blackberry, how can he compu-nuke Putin? The world is too dangerous for him to Learn On The Job.
Mark
People, you are all morons. EVERYTHING in the universe is now on YouTube. That includes McCain telling us that a) he doesn’t know sh*t about the economy and b) he doesn’t know how to use a computer.
HE SAID THOSE THINGS HIMSELF. I realized his campaign is made up of Opposite Day experts, but the man has told us that he is computer illiterate.
Christina
Nobody has said he’s totally incapable of using a computer because of the torture injuries. They’re saying that the torture injuries make it painfully difficult, so McCain just chooses other ways to meet his information and communication needs rather than sitting down and tapping at a keyboard.
Detractors call it “laziness”, but there are only so many hours in the day and you have to decide how you’re going to use them. You can use those hours manipulating your computer via adaptive technology, or you can do other things with your time and delegate the computer stuff to somebody who can type readily.
I used to work with people with severe disabilities. Many of them never learned to sign their names, although this isn’t all that tricky if you hold the pen in your teeth. They just made the choice that signing their names wasn’t a huge priority for them. They were just as comfortable directing somebody to sign for them. I’d never diss any of them as lazy or self-pitying just because they didn’t choose to develop a particular non-vital skill.
TenguPhule
They also get the most returns. And as a PORTION of their income, they get taxed LEAST.
As Buffett likes to point out, he pays LESS in taxes then his own employees.
Bullshit.
A lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie.
Businesses are started from the bottom and the middle.
Corporations are outnumbered by single owners and partnerships.
Hamranhansenhansen
OMG there are people who can’t move any part of their body below the shoulders who use computers. In fact, people with disabilities often benefit even more from computer use than the rest of us because for example if you can’t manipulate paper, envelope, stamp then the “Send Email” button is a kind of equalizer.
The challenge for disabled people using computers is to afford any customizations that they might require. For example, a special kind of pointing device, or a special kind of keyboard, or custom software. However McCain is now and has for a long time been SUPER-RICH. He can easily afford the very best. He could even afford to hire a personal assistant whose only job would be to run the keyboard and mouse while he looks at the display and talks!
He also ran for President of the United States in 2000, which at that time was 5 full years after the Internet went mainstream. It’s irresponsible of him not to get basic Internet skills at that time, but he has had 8 years since. You can’t get a basic office job if you don’t know how to do Web and email these days. But even worse, it’s a huge blind spot for a potential President … already you have seen it because John McCain should know better than to lie at this point but he doesn’t understand that half of the audience watching him on the view fact-checked his ass before the episode was even over and found him very wanting. He doesn’t get it.
JWW
To Tim F,
First of all comparing(in any sense of the word “compare,compared,comparison,comparing”) Warren Buffet and George Soros as being as you state Type I. Dollars amassed have nothing do with the individual who posseses it. Yes they both earned it, but one supports America and the other subverts it.
Paris inherited her wealth and has not yet gained any respect for it. To continue on with such, we have a whole world of atheletes, actors and acctresses who have obtained vast wealth but most have no skill in making this country a better place.
You used a very stupid and idiotic choice for an entrepreneurship, that being medicine and health care. It is fools like you and the people you vote for that has put this catagory out of range because of lawsuits. Hell you can buy an office in NYC for less than your insurance payments would be.
You may want to explain why any estate tax ever existed.
True and competent entrepreneurs, focus on the wants and needs for a specific area, they supply that and then venture to expand.
Becky Rubio
As a working member of the disabled community who types with a stick in her mouth, I believe you can run a computer with one hand. All this requires is a brain, curiosity and a little extra help. Speech technology software is available for running computers for both the abled and disabled communities wishing to join the 21st century. I can understand someone lacking financial means not making use of this technology but I don’t believe this is a McCain problem.
I believe computers are a very important part of today’s world and I don’t want a leader who isn’t curious enough to learn a computer. We presently have one leader who lacks curiosity who chooses to lead with his gut… I don’t want another. In today’s business world it’s almost impossible to acquire a job without computer skills. There are also senior citizens McCain’s age who have made the effort to learn this exciting wonderful technology. I want somebody to lead this country who can think outside the box and I believe running software and computers have assisted me in broardening my troubleshooting skills.
JWW
TenguPhule,
You should drop the Phule(fool), you are apparently one.
You speak out of ignorance, if you have in your businees 200,000 plus worker bee employees or those who support, they do in total pay more taxes.
You really shoud just change your name to TenjewFool.
Oh, did I offend you, Mr Menial worker dude.
Jesse
ince a majority of people aged 18 to 30 seem to be in the Obama fold, I would like some youg “under 30” reporter to ask some social/cultural questions…like what do you think Apple vs PC, what do you think of X box…are you ready to draft me for the next war or long term presence in Iraq…Where are the young questioners? This election is about them and there is no cable or MSM reporter who is asking questions that that this age group needs to get answered.
The Oracle
I wonder what Jonah’s excuse is?
He can hardly use the one of “I was a POW forty years ago,” since that is apparently a registered (TM) of the McCain campaign.
Oh, and I just remembered where I’ve seen Sarah Palin before.
Monica Goodling.
Yep, Sarah Palin looks in a mirror and sees Monica Goodling staring back at her.
But would anyone even contemplate having Monica Goodling running for vice-president, a heartbeat away from being president?
The Monica Goodling who broke law after law after law at the U.S. Justice Department, who abused the public trust by using her position at the Justice Department for personal and religious vendettas against other U.S. citizens, who then lied about what she had been doing?
Sarah Palin IS Monica Goodling.
I will definitely vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
JWW
Can Anyone,
Give me a solid reason why I should vote for a top party candidate? I would really like to hear from both sides and why.
JWW
To (Oral Cal)
You like to compare, well maybe you should start your comparisons with “logical” thought. Your comparison is like saying that Ben Franklin and Joseph Stalin were twin brothers and looked towards the same goal.
You should seek another source of information. Maybe a basic 101 or no maybe US History 101 for Dummies.
C'mon
Those pictures of McCain holding a cell phone really blow the theory that it’s physically painful for him to type out of the water. Because holding something, and typing are the exact same thing.
The only people who think speech recognition software really works are people who don’t use it. It’s immensely frustrating. If I didn’t have to use it, I wouldn’t.
ronhohn
He supposedly can’t raise his arms to shoulder level, so will someone get the keyboard off the top shelf for him?
Mark
Okay, just so I understand … McCain’s ability to use a technological marvel like a Blackberry (beyond just a phone, apparently, which I assume means he uses the Blackberry for email), proves McCain is a technical illiterate.
Talk about cognitive dissonance of the left.
By the way, did you Joe Trippi, the man behind Howard Dean’s Internet campaign, credit’s John McCain’s 2000 Republican primary campaign as the first national campaign to use the Internet?
[Joe] Trippi Praised McCain’s “First Bold Attempt To Harness The Power Of The Internet”
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/13/trippi-praised-mccains-first-bold-attempt-to-harness-the-power-of-the-internet.php
Did you know, that paragon of the left, Slate Magazine, did an article covering McCain’s 2000 Internet campaign?
McCain’s Web Explosion
http://www.slate.com/id/74812/
Did you know, also during the 2000 campaign, Forbes Magazine referred to McCain as “a natural Web candidate”, “the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist”, and “an inveterate devotee of email”?
http://www.forbes.com/bestoftheweb/asap/2000/0529/053_3.html
Oh, but why should you Stalinists let the facts get in the way of a story? After all, you took a bloggers joke and got Matt Damon and SNL to repeat it.
Thank God (or FSM, if you prefer) for that right-winger Anderson Cooper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaZn1_ZrDPI
and of course, Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/newsquotes.asp
John Cole
So which is it, jackass? Is he technological guru, or can he not use computers because of his war injuries?