Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

T R E 4 5 O N

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

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130Comments

  1. 1.

    SGEW

    Frank Rich’s column is nice snark, and all, but it feels kind of transparently partisan, and not at all surprising (Rich is, after all, stereotypically liberal – so much so that Colbert has made fun of him for it).

    I much preferred Fareed Zakaria’s take on Palin, from the latest Newsweek:

    Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. (“We mustn’t blink.”) But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.

    . . .

    Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She . . . has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start.

    . . .

    In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.

    (emphasis mine)

    From a guy who’s quite often given George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt, this is pretty brutal.

  2. 2.

    SGEW

    And speaking of Gov. Palin, it appears that she directly contradicted McCain’s position on cross-border military excursions into Pakistan while she was ordering cheesesteaks in Philly yesterday.

    Sarah Palin told a customer at a Philadelphia restaurant on Saturday that the United States should “absolutely” launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the event that it becomes necessary to “stop the terrorists from coming any further in,” a comment similar to the one John McCain condemned Barack Obama for making during last night’s presidential debate.

    (h/t C&L)

    She is unstoppable. She is the Juggernaut of fail.

  3. 3.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Second SGEW’s recommendation of the Fareed Zakaria piece.

    McCain’s various stunts have convinced me that he’d rather have his country die for him.

  5. 5.

    SGEW

    Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.

    Well, that’s a new one.

    . . .

    It’s as if WordPress had somehow determined my reading preferences, and unilaterally decided that Balloon-Juice is not to my tastes.

    What does WordPress know that I don’t?!?

  6. 6.

    Comrade General Stuck

    “It’s as if WordPress had somehow determined my reading preferences, and unilaterally decided that Balloon-Juice is not to my tastes.”

    It has become self aware and doesn’t like you. :-)

  7. 7.

    Comrade Incertus

    From a guy who’s quite often given George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt, this is pretty brutal.

    I think Zakaria jumped ship about six months ago, which was about 3 years too late for anyone with sense, but hey, the more the merrier.

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    Matt Taibbi at the Smirking Chimp is even better than the Frank Rich column:

    Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

    Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV -and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.

    […]

    But watching Palin’s speech, I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a sleepwalker – and immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be the innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. It was a virtuoso performance. She appeared to be completely without shame and utterly full of shit, awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sickly sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who, “five children later” is “still my guy.” It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag.

    Read the whole thing here.

    .

  12. 12.

    gbear

    Frank Rich’s column is nice snark, and all, but it feels kind of transparently partisan, and not at all surprising (Rich is, after all, stereotypically liberal

    You know, sometimes you need a good partisan liberal rant on a sunday morning. I’m all for it.

    I’m taking the dog to the lake.

    Are you going to sit by a fire?

    Questions about the new format: Has the shortcuts box that allows us to blockquote and link to sites in one step disappeared? Is it coming back? Are we going to get to use avatars or are we all going to remain equal in our grey-silhouetteness? Thanks for upgrading.

  14. 14.

    SGEW

    The day after the debate, while McCain was loungin’ around, hidden in Arlington (coming down off of his medications from the night before, presumably) and Palin was gaffin’ in Philly (which they have no chance of carrying in November – why the hell is she there?), Obama and Biden were stumpin’ in purple Virginia, getting good local press coverage (h/t Jed).

    This is why Obama will become president (now a 78.5% probability and rising, according to 538). Stick to the plan, check off the days until Nov. 4th, hit the swing states, work the ground game, and make everyone comfortable with the idea of this guy being president for the next four (or eight) years.

    McCain keeps trying to “get into his loop” (that whole OODA fetish), but has so far failed to do anything more than put speed bumps on Obama’s road to electoral victory . . . because Obama doesn’t play like that. He won’t re-orient his campaign to match McCain’s antics – he just sticks to his playbook. While McCain flails about with a new OODA loop every day, thinking that he’s disrupting Obama’s loop, without realizing that Obama is basically ignoring him and keeping his nose in Axelrod’s Magic Three Ring Binder of Glorious Victory.

    All hail Three Ring Binder of Mastery! All hail!

  15. 15.

    JGabriel

    Fuck, now this site is screwing up para breaks in blockquotes? I’ve seen the same problem at FDL. And yes, I absolutele formatted it correctly the first time.

    Let me try it again.

    Matt Taibbi at the Smirking Chimp:

    Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

    Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV -and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.

    […]

    But watching Palin’s speech, I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a sleepwalker – and immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be the innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. It was a virtuoso performance. She appeared to be completely without shame and utterly full of shit, awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sickly sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who, “five children later” is “still my guy.” It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag.

    It looks good in preview. Let’s see if posts correctly.

    .

  21. 21.

    Dennis - SGMM

    The new look is nice. My posts are appearing immediately. Cool!

    Are we going to get to use avatars or are we all going to remain equal in our grey-silhouetteness?

    What’s wrong with equal, Comrade? I denounce this unsocialist wavering!

  23. 23.

    boonagain

    Is it just me or is Palin (and Fey’s impression of her) gradually morphing into Edith Prickley from SCTV?

  24. 24.

    jrg

    Someone needs to ask McCain if his planned spending freeze on everything but national defense and veterans’ care includes the SEC and the FDA. I’d like to know if I should sell the holdings in my 401(k), and buy a couple hundred pounds of beef jerky.

    Seriously… does McCain want to fire the head of the SEC for “not doing his job”, then de-fund the entire SEC?

    Someone also needs to remind McCain (the master of tactics and strategy) that running down the clock only works when you’re ahead.

  25. 25.

    Comrade General Stuck

    Are we going to get to use avatars or are we all going to remain equal in our grey-silhouetteness?

    Some grey-silhouetteness is more equal than other grey-silhouetteness. It’s in the Central Committee Handbook, Comrade.

  27. 27.

    JGabriel

    SGEW:

    And speaking of Gov. Palin, it appears that she directly contradicted McCain’s position on cross-border military excursions into Pakistan while she was ordering cheesesteaks in Philly yesterday.

    I just read the article you linked to, SGEW, and I’m very disappointed with it. Why didn’t the reporter tell us what kind of cheese Palin ordered?

    As a former Pennsyltuckian, I wanna know ordered that nasty ass Cheez-Whiz shit we give to the fucking tourists, or if she knew enough to ask for provolone, which is what all Pennsylvanians know is the proper cheese to use on a cheesesteak – though swiss, jack, or cheddar are also acceptable.

    Cheez-whiz is for fat midwestern tourists with stupored palates. I’m always shocked and infuriated by how wrong the press gets that.

    .

  28. 28.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    Well, the avis just went down the memory hole. That’s fine. Server still freakin’ snappy.

    Table test!

    MUP
    Walnuts

    Obama
    McCain

    You can add a border attribute to the table tag, but on preview, cellpadding and cellspacing don’t seem to work perfectly. Hell, I’ll throw them in anyway.

  29. 29.

    SGEW

    Why didn’t the reporter tell us what kind of cheese Palin ordered?

    When the waiter asked her what kind of cheese she wanted, Palin probably said “there are different kinds?”

  32. 32.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    Sometimes you all make me want to kick you in the teeth. We are working on it.

    After repeatedly bitching at us for screwing up blockquotes and href tags, you got no ground to stand on, dude.

    Besides, we actually are trying to be helpful. It’s not as if we know which problems you’re already aware of and which ones you aren’t.

    .

  33. 33.

    Annette

    Currently, the WP settings will hold for moderation any comments that exceed three embedded links.

    Avatars have been disabled. Should see no “we are all equal” images when this posts…

  34. 34.

    JGabriel

    SGEW:

    When the waiter asked her what kind of cheese she wanted, Palin probably said “there are different kinds?”

    Cheez-whiz it is, then!

    .

  35. 35.

    John

    they have no chance of carrying [Pennsylvania] in November – why the hell is she there?

    If they have no chance in Pennsylvania, they’re in serious trouble over all. Of the Bush 2004 states, McCain is clearly not going to win Iowa or New Mexico. If he can hold Colorado and the other Bush states, he still wins, but Colorado is looking iffy. He needs some kind of insurance for if he loses Colorado, and Pennsylvania is looking like the best bet at the moment – it’s now looking better for him than Michigan, notably.

    That being said, I’d agree that they’re in trouble overall.

  36. 36.

    SGEW

    Matt Taibbi at the Smirking Chimp

    That was brilliant. Just brilliant.

    Matt Taibbi is the new Hunter S. Thompson without the random violence, neurological disorders, or crippling chemical dependencies (a net minus, you might think, but I digress).

    Here’s what Sarah Palin represents: being a fat fucking pig who pins “Country First” buttons on his man titties and chants “U-S-A! U-S-A!” at the top of his lungs while his kids live off credit cards and Saudis buy up all the mortgages in Kansas.

    Palin makes me weep for my nation, but at least we get Matt Taibbi out of it.

  37. 37.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    Right. OK, back to basics.

    PHONING IT IN…. Lindsey Graham has no idea what he’s talking about.

    This morning on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) praised Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for returning to Washington to help the bailout negotiations, saying his presence was vital to the negotiations:

    “John didn’t phone this one in…. You can’t phone something like this in. Thank God John came back.”

    I can appreciate Graham’s sycophantic support for McCain. I can even appreciate Graham’s willingness to try to make it seem as if McCain has been some kind of “savior” in this bailout process.

    But his remarks are completely detached from reality. “You can’t phone something like this in”? McCain spent yesterday in his campaign office, literally phoning it in.

    For that matter, when McCain did show up on Thursday, it was a debacle, and any progress that had been made as part of the ongoing negotiations quickly evaporated after McCain got involved. It’s worth noting, of course, that McCain didn’t even have anything productive to add to the discussions anyway, remained silent at the White House discussion, and was largely unfamiliar with the competing proposals while attempting to “help.”

    And last night, while policy makers were trying to work out the final details, the McCains and the Liebermans had a pleasant night out at a swanky D.C. restaurant.

    “Thank God John came back”? There’s partisan hackery and then there’s this kind of partisan hackery.

  38. 38.

    SGEW

    If they have no chance in Pennsylvania, they’re in serious trouble over all.

    Mind you, I was specifically talking about Philadelphia, not Pennsyltucky overall (Philly on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, Kentucky in between, if you’re unfamiliar with the term). But, yeah. They’re in serious trouble.

  41. 41.

    JGabriel

    John:

    If he can hold Colorado and the other Bush states, he still wins, but Colorado is looking iffy. He needs some kind of insurance for if he loses Colorado…

    McCain has to hold not just Colorado, but Ohio, Virginia, and Nevada as well. If Obama gets Gore + NH, which he’s expected to do, then any one of those state will put him over the top – except for NV, which would tie it up.

    So, McCain has to win all four of them.

    It’s not looking for Johnny Drama and Bible Spice.

    .

  44. 44.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Oh My god. I can’t believe someone here knows about Edith!

    SCTV was on for a while here in the States and I still miss it. Andrea Martin as Edith Prickley was great.

  45. 45.

    JGabriel

    SGEW:

    Mind you, I was specifically talking about Philadelphia, not Pennsyltucky overall (Philly on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, Kentucky in between, if you’re unfamiliar with the term).

    Don’t forget Erie in the NW, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the NE – both are pretty much Democratic strongholds. And add Reading and Allentown to the D stronghold, along with Philly, in the SE.

    That’s why PA has gone D in the past four elections. It doesn’t have any R center (like Cincinnati in OH) of dense population – all the Pennsyltucky counties are sparsely to moderately populated. It’s what makes PA so much harder to flip, despite the seeming closeness in the polls.

    .

  46. 46.

    The Moar You Know

    Sometimes you all make me want to kick you in the teeth. We are working on it.

    Just because we demand perfection, immediately, for free, is no reason to get all pissy on us :)

    I’m impressed. It may not be perfect, but it is up and running with little/no downtime and that’s not easy to do. Maximum kudos.

    Oh boy, let’s see if this works:

  48. 48.

    Libby

    If you’ll please forgive a drive-by blogwhore I have video of Palin at the bar in Philly.

    Great link on the Taibbi piece by the way. Love it. Oh, and has anyone seen I’mJohnGalt? I haven’t had time to hang out in the comment sections but I’m dying to hear how he like Falling Water.

  49. 49.

    JGabriel

    The Moar You Know:

    I’m impressed. It may not be perfect, but it is up and running with little/no downtime and that’s not easy to do.

    Seconded. And the site is much more snappy in it’s response time.

    Kudos.

    (But please bring back the comment borders, if it’s at all possible w/o killing the response time.)

    .

  51. 51.

    Dennis - SGMM

    I’m impressed. It may not be perfect, but it is up and running with little/no downtime and that’s not easy to do.

    Thirded. Great job! If there was any down time I didn’t notice it.

  52. 52.

    SGEW

    BTW, re: SNL clip.

    Watch the actual Palin clip (her train wreck of an answer begins at 0:19), and then watch Tina Fey’s characterization (I’m sorry, I mean “mocking”) in the SNL clip, above (Tina’s answer starts at -2:51 (the SNL clip’s timecode runs backwards)).

    If anything, the SNL satire went far too easy on Palin.

    Also: how obvious is it that Palin’s checking notes in her lap in the Couric interview?

  53. 53.

    Dr. Squid

    Taking a look at the Obama-McCain debate skit, it wasn’t that funny. Nothing about their actual behavior during the debate – just making fun of McCain’s stupid campaign stunts. Skit must have been prewritten and they can’t change anything on the fly.

    Lame.

  54. 54.

    SGEW

    Don’t forget Erie in the NW, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the NE – both are pretty much Democratic strongholds.

    Don’t get me started on that pissant little hellhole they call “Scranton.” They nearly had a goddamned race riot there during the Dem primaries.

    I encountered more racists in that neck of PA then I ever did in the South.

  56. 56.

    jrg

    … And the timing will have consequences, says financier and onetime GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney: “Unfortunately, politicians have seized on the politics of envy” he told Fortune, “and they are stoking it this election year like I’ve never seen in my lifetime.”

    Yep, the people who have been bitching about lattes and the “coastal elites” for years are now blaming the Dems for class warfare, as corporations sodomize the taxpayers to the tune of a trillion dollars.

    Fuck the GOP. Don’t tell me that people who have a clue are “elitist” while Wall Street picks my pocket. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

  57. 57.

    SGEW

    Televise Bristol Palin’s [shotgun] wedding.

    Please, good sir. It is called a “2nd Amendment wedding” amongst polite company.

  58. 58.

    Annette

    (But please bring back the comment borders, if it’s at all possible w/o killing the response time.)

    Checking on this. It may be a byproduct of one of the comment-related plugin upgrades, or something in the templates that were created for the site that won’t work and play well with the new version tree.

  59. 59.

    Tony J

    You fixed the site? I’m happier than a pig in lipstick.

    Does ‘NOBR’ mean “No Brainer”? Have we got a tag for that now?

  60. 60.

    gbear

    I’m impressed. It may not be perfect, but it is up and running with little/no downtime and that’s not easy to do.

    Fouthed. I’m gbear and I approve this transition.

  61. 61.

    JGabriel

    SGEW:

    Don’t get me started on that pissant little hellhole they call “Scranton.” They nearly had a goddamned race riot there during the Dem primaries.

    No arguement there. It is a pissant little hellhole, with plenty of racists.

    But from what I’m hearing from family in the area, they expect the region to go for Obama in the general.

    .

  62. 62.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Checking on this. It may be a byproduct of one of the comment-related plugin upgrades, or something in the templates that were created for the site that won’t work and play well with the new version tree.

    Annette, nice work on the site! Thank you for taking time to respond to us even though you’re busy with code.

  63. 63.

    Comrade Napoleon

    That SNL Palin skit as well as Rich were great. Taibbi is the whole reason I get Rolling Stone.

    Is there somewhere to learn how all the buttons work?

  64. 64.

    JGabriel

    Jay C.:

    Televise Bristol Palin’s [shotgun] wedding. Seriously. Yep. You can’t make this shit up.

    Actually, the British press is infamous for making shit up.

    It might well be true, but I’d wait for a second source to confirm it before giving the London Times too much credence.

    .

  65. 65.

    gbear

    Please, good sir. It is called a “2nd Amendment wedding” amongst polite company.

    ‘Freedom Wedding’ is also appropriate. As long as they have all the media up there for the wedding, I think they should go ahead and induce labor too. Babies sell. It’ll be great for the party.

  66. 66.

    SGEW

    But from what I’m hearing from family in the area, they expect the region to go for Obama in the general.

    I sure hope so. I know that team Obama’s been working that area hard (I’m probably going to wind up volunteering there for the final stretch (shudder)), and it’s nice to hear some positive feedback from the ground.

  67. 67.

    JGabriel

    Annette:

    Checking on this [comment borders]. It may be a byproduct of one of the comment-related plugin upgrades, or something in the templates that were created for the site that won’t work and play well with the new version tree.

    Thanks, Annette! It’s good to know you’re looking into it.

    .

  69. 69.

    Dennis - SGMM

    As long as they have all the media up there for the wedding, I think they should go ahead and induce labor too. Babies sell. It’ll be great for the party.

    They’re still working with the NASA on the Star of Wasilla part and they have to outsource the Three Wise Men.

  70. 70.

    SGEW

    They’re still working with the NASA on the Star of Wasilla part and they have to outsource the Three Wise Men.

    Win. On Friday I was wondering what the ultimate shark-jumping October surprise was going to be, and I immediately thought: Trig Palin is Divinely Revealed as the New Baby Jesus! But having Bristol bear the messiah may be even better.

    Wish I’d thought of the “Star of Wasilla” part.

  72. 72.

    Tony J

    Actually, the British press is infamous for making shit up.

    It might well be true, but I’d wait for a second source to confirm it before giving the London Times too much credence.

    You’re certainly right in your initial comment, but I’d point out that, even though The Times is a right-wing rag, it’s also the central tentpole of Murdoch’s media domination of the UK, and has to affect at least a modicum of ‘seriousness’ so that he has cover for the insane xenophobia of his tabloids. Which means that, even though most of the Times’ output is Broderesque boilerplate insofar as U.S. politics is concerned, he also allows it to run with stories that remind the politicians he’s supporting that he can – and will – kick them in the nuts if it benefits his bottom line.

    Shorter version – if it were in the Daily Mail or the Daily Express, I’d be with you, but as it’s in The Times, I’m inclined to think there might be something to it.

  74. 74.

    cyntax

    … And the timing will have consequences, says financier and onetime GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney: “Unfortunately, politicians have seized on the politics of envy” he told Fortune, “and they are stoking it this election year like I’ve never seen in my lifetime.”

    <p

    Riiiiiiight, Mittens.

    Cause there no reason for us to feel outrage about things like the CEO for WaMu being on the job for six weeks, just in time for the biggest bank failure in US history, and then the CEO walks with $13 million. We should just shut-up and eat cake.

  75. 75.

    L. Ron Obamanov

    Ah, sweet redesign. A suggestion: reduce the minimum width of the middle column. I have to either have an extremely wide browser or decrease my font size a lot to get the whole width to display. Since the left/right columns are fixed-width, the middle should be as flexible as possible.

  76. 76.

    Robert Johnston

    Wow. Just WOW. The latest “fantastic” idea out of the McCain organization to garner media attention
    and revive their flagging campaign:

    Televise Bristol Palin’s [shotgun] wedding.

    I’ve always wondered when nationally televising your candidate engaged in child abuse would become a campaign strategy. I guess we’re about to find out.

  78. 78.

    JGabriel

    Comrade PeterJ:

    NOBR is obviously shorthand for NO BordeRs. Remove it and we should get our borders back.

    Well, let’s see if that tag does anything.

  80. 80.

    Comrade NonyNony

    Sometimes you all make me want to kick you in the teeth. We are working on it.

    We are a buncha whiny little fucks, aren’t we? I say get those borders closed and NO AMNESTY FOR BORDERLESS COMMENTS! All borderless comments must be put back across the border ASAP! They’re stealing jobs from good American comments!

    (Seriously though, – if using a template that keeps borders off the comments improves the site performance I’m all for it. It doesn’t seem that hard to read at all and it’s still better than HaloScan.)

    “Unfortunately, politicians have seized on the politics of envy” he told Fortune, “and they are stoking it this election year like I’ve never seen in my lifetime.”

    Shorter Mittens: “Waaaa! Hate-based politics is only fair when it’s used against Democrats! Stop being mean to billionaires! Waaaa!”

    Whatev. The GOP has been engaging in class warfare for decades and they always – ALWAYS – fall to the ground and whine and kick and scream whenever anyone calls them on it. Now they’re on the receiving end – and from the folks in their own party no less. They can cry me a river.

  81. 81.

    Tony J

    NOBR means “No beer”. I advise you not to touch it.

    Unless John has found a way to blockquote a whole post of +13 Bishop’s Finger fuelled mis-spellings and dodgy editing to transform it into that witty and well-argued post you were absolutely sure you’d written before you dispatched it through the Word Press Defence Grid.

    That would be +10 cool. I must try it.

    It might well be true, but I’d wait for a second source to confirm it before giving the London Times too much credence.

  82. 82.

    Tony J

    Aaarrgh!

    Meant to say that –

    It might well be true, but I’d wait for a second source to confirm it before giving the London Times too much credence.

    should have been boldquoted in #72, but apparently you now can’t put two different quoted paragraphs in the same boldquote, or, y’know, I just didn’t do it right the first time.

  83. 83.

    John

    I have to dispute the idea that Philly is irrelevant to Pennsylvania’s political fate. The reason Democrats have done so well in Pennsylvania recently is because the Philly suburbs, formerly Republican strongholds, have flipped to the Democrats. For the Republicans to win in Pennsylvania, they need a respectable showing in the Philly suburbs. Going to cheese steak places in Philadelphia makes a certain degree of sense in terms of courting the Philly suburban vote (and also, to a lesser extent, the South Philly/Northeast Philly vote, in which the Republicans also ought to be competitive).

    Unlike the electoral college, where you can just write off states where you know you won’t win, within a state there’s always a reason to try to get votes everywhere you can. Keeping the Philly suburbs relatively close would be an essential prerequisite for McCain to win the state, even if he loses them. There’s so many votes there that campaigning in the Philly area is probably at least as worthwhile as spending time in the lightly populated parts of the state. (I still don’t understand why they’d want to send her to a Center City bar, though – that was just terrible planning.)

    Also – while the city of Reading may be Democratic, Berks County is heavily Republican. Of other populous counties, Lancaster County is also strongly Republican, and Chester County (the furthest out of the Philly suburban counties) still tends to go slightly Republican. Republicans also do well in the wealthier Pittsburgh suburbs, and to some extent in the more blue collar ones

    Also – CNN article on the cheese steak business suggests that Palin ordered her cheese steak with cheese whiz (at Tony Luke’s). As noted before, what’s irritating about the whiz thing is that there’s some assumption among tourists that whiz is the genuine Philly cheese steak cheese, which is nonsense. Get whiz if you want it, but if you think it’s one of the most disgusting products ever conceived by food science, provolone or American are perfectly acceptable alternatives (American cheese is also a disgusting synthetic product, but what can you do?) Anyway, provolone all the way.

  84. 84.

    4jkb4ia

    Pitt-South Florida, 6:30 pm, October 2! HELP!

    Maybe the game will be effectively over before the debate starts.

  86. 86.

    Jimmm

    Y’know what, I used to love reading Matt Taibbi, until got through The Great Derangement. He’s really kind of a condescending asshole whose shtick consists mainly of belittling anybody who holds out hope that the party that most closely ascribes to their political philosophy can make a difference. Yes, Washington is curdled. The choice, however, isn’t to simply give up on it or be a chump, as Taibbi seems to suggest.

    That cynical, a-pox-on-both-of-them posture gets pretty old pretty fast.

  87. 87.

    Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)

    Is it just me or is Palin (and Fey’s impression of her) gradually morphing into Edith Prickley from SCTV?

    Patently unfair. Prickley knew how run a fictional TV network (and speak in coherent sentences).

    I’d say Palin’s more like Lola Heatherton: “I want to bear all your children! HA HA!”

  89. 89.

    Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)

    Holy crap! Props to New WordPress. That took a fraction of the time to post (ignoring the moderation part). Although the lack of borders makes my head swimmy.

  90. 90.

    JGabriel

    John:

    I have to dispute the idea that Philly is irrelevant to Pennsylvania’s political fate.

    Umm, I could be wrong on this, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to dispute something no one said.

    Philly is absolutely essential for Dems to win Pennsylvania.

    Also – while the city of Reading may be Democratic, Berks County is heavily Republican.

    Actually, Lancaster is the heavily Republican county (Bush by over 65% in 2004, compared to Bush by less than 55% in Berks and Chester), though that whole triangle of Berks, Chester, Lancaster, and York usually goes R. In a state without half-a-dozen other D leaning cities, they could balance out Philly and make the state more competitive.

    As for Pittsburgh, the only suburban county with a large (>100,000) voting base is Westmoreland at about a quarter the voting population – so Pittsbugh pretty much dominates it.

    Which was my point: D cities dominate the state, making it very difficult for R’s to win PA unless there’s a bad economy under a D president, or a good economy under an R. With a bad economy under a Republican president, McCain doesn’t really stand a chance. The O +2-3 polls we’re seeing now, in comparison to the O +5-6 results we were getting before the R convention, are a response to the Palin pick and represent Obama’s floor.

    Once knowledge of Palin’s right-wing extremism and ineptitude becomes more widespread, Obama’s lead in PA will go back up to +4-5, at least. I expect it to happen over the next two weeks.

    FYI, you can get state and county results for the 2000 and 2004 elections at the DKos Scorecard.

    .

  91. 91.

    ppcli

    Good points made above concerning the cheesesteak cheese question, and the fact that it is just for Midwestern tourists. I can’t recall the specific details now, but one of the most disheartening moments (among the millions of disheartening moments) in the last election was when journalists made fun of Kerry for asking for Swiss cheese on his cheesesteak. (Or perhaps it was Gorgonzola or Camembert, or Gouda (pronounced “hauda”)…) Goddamn Eurofag. On the other hand, 100% American George W. Chimpy loves Cheez Whiz (aka Liberty Processed Cheese Food) on his cheesesteaks as all 100% Americans do. Or so his campaign assured us.

    The kicker, of course, was that the Chimpy campaign was lying about Chimpy’s favorite brand of cheesesteak.

    So this is what we need to learn: Is Palin really such a Rove-caliber (“calibre” to you Kerry voters) pathological liar that she would even lie about something as trivial as her preferred kind of cheesesteak cheese? I’m betting that she is, but I want to get the facts before I leap to an opinion about something that – our “liberal” media assures me – is of the greatest importance for choosing Presidents.

    Since I am in full rant mode, I might as well keep going: this episode exemplifies, to me, the complete contempt that journalists and politicos and campaign nabobs together hold for what they lovingly call “ordinary” people. Before moving to the States I grew up in a bunch of tiny, isolated mining and lumber towns in the frozen tundra that make Wasilla look like a city. So I am on a first name basis with Cheez Whiz. For twelve years, my school lunches contained Cheez on celery as a companion to the Wonder Bread and baloney sandwiches and twinkie-like packaged confections we called “Lune moons”. I actually liked the stuff. I would eat Cheez on celery as a snack even when there was perfectly good leftover moose sausage in the fridge. But eventually you reach a point where you simply cannot eat that sludge ever again. Never. Just like I will never again eat puffed wheat for breakfast, or cut my Nescafe instant coffee with condensed milk or eat canned asparagus. I will never again be able to view any of these things with anything but revulsion. [Well, except for the condensed milk – now what’s mighty tasty.]

    Any adult who would actually pretend that they prefer Cheez Whiz to any other form of dairy product reveals themselves to be a member of that select elite who eats it at most once every four years, during that moment in the election cycle when they, or the candidate they work with, happen to pass through Philadelphia with TV cameras running. Under those circumstances, they may even be able to enjoy the experience of a Cheez Whiz cheesesteak, in the way that one might find eating saffron covered ants or goat testicles to be a precious, world-broadening experience in the right travel context. But please – to all you Maureen Dowds and Chimpy-handlers – spare us the drivel about how ordering a Cheez whiz cheesesteak makes one a man of the people. One might as well say that being able to smilingly finish off a pickled herring without retching makes you a Viking. I’m sure that most of the actual Vikings detested that crap, and couldn’t wait until they pillaged some decent pâté de foie gras on their next cruise down the Seine.

  92. 92.

    JGabriel

    Jimmm:

    Y’know what, I used to love reading Matt Taibbi, until got through The Great Derangement. … That cynical, a-pox-on-both-of-them posture gets pretty old pretty fast.

    I agree, but that essay on Palin is still pretty damn good, precisely because it doesn’t engage in the “pox on both their houses” rhetoric.

    .

  93. 93.

    Jess

    And speaking of Gov. Palin, it appears that she directly contradicted McCain’s position on cross-border military excursions into Pakistan while she was ordering cheesesteaks in Philly yesterday.

    Maybe McCain can claim that it was actually Tina Fey? Or better yet, maybe he can replace Palin with Fey and hope no one will notice the reason behind his running mate’s new-found coherence and wit.

  94. 94.

    Dickie Moe

    Obams: “duh, uh, um, teleprompter, duh, uh, can’t hear myself, buh, fuh, duh”.
    Imagine if someone asked him a question, you know, like, say, an interview-type thingy, like they have on the TV sometimes with actual humans.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHUsRTYFAU

    Now I know one reason people don’t make fun of BO – it’s like picking on a cripple. That’s not funny.

  95. 95.

    comrade chopper

    Obams: “duh, uh, um, teleprompter, duh, uh, can’t hear myself, buh, fuh, duh”.

    by that logic old man mccain should have absolutely mopped the floor with obama. guess the whole ’empty suit who can read a teleprompter good’ theme is a fail, eh?

  96. 96.

    камрад комисaр Xenos

    Any chance of staging an intervention to rescue Levi Johnston? He is obviously a jerky kid, but nobody deserves what he is headed for in life. In six months he will be our nation’s next Joey Buttafuoco, mark my words. Except it is going to Bristol and her mom going after him with a deer hunting rifle, not the the 15 year old Levi will be fooling around with going after Bristol.

    Hey! Preview is back! Must be some elves hard at work here.

  97. 97.

    JGabriel

    Dickie Moe:

    Obams: “duh, uh, um, teleprompter, duh, uh, can’t hear myself, buh, fuh, duh”.

    And once again, Dickie, we remind you that you’re candidate, Sarah Palin, told the world that:

    Reducing taxes… has gotta be a part of tax reductions

    That’s never gonna get old, Dickie.

    .

  98. 98.

    Dickie Moe

    No, dear comrade. BO stunk up the place – using his brilliant tactic, (or is it a strategy?) of telling one lie then calling himself a liar in the next sentence.

    The classic for me was this though:
    “Uh, I have a bracelet too, me too, it’s from whatshisname again, oh, I can read it off the bracelet, yeah, that guy’s mother gave me a bracelet, see?”

    Tell me, has Obams started wearing the same lipstick as Sarah Palin, or is that new shade something he developed on his own as senator? Nah, let’s face it, the only thing he did while senator was steal from poor people: the theme of his life.

  99. 99.

    SGEW

    Wait, is Dickie Moe an actual troll, or not? It’s been so long since we had a live one I can’t tell.

    Maybe it’s a new feature that comes with the upgrade? Auto-troll?

    Engage: y/n?

  100. 100.

    JGabriel

    It’s kind interesting, Dickie, that you have to make up quotes to support your “argument”, whereas we can just cut and paste directly from Palin’s interviews:

    Couric: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

    Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada.

    And again, because I love it so much:

    Reducing taxes… has gotta be a part of any tax reductions

    That’s some grade-A idiocy there, Dickie. Palin redefines “fuckwittery”.

    .

  102. 102.

    JGabriel

    SGEW:

    Wait, is Dickie Moe an actual troll, or not? It’s been so long since we had a live one I can’t tell.

    I can’t tell for sure either, but I think he’s a live one.

    If not, he’s doing a flawless impersonation.

    He’s got that “true believer in face of a contradicting reality” schtick down pat.

    .

  103. 103.

    comrade chopper

    No, dear comrade. BO stunk up the place – using his brilliant tactic, (or is it a strategy?) of telling one lie then calling himself a liar in the next sentence.

    so black dudes smell? shit, dickie, that’s quite a broad assertion.

  104. 104.

    ppcli

    From Dickie Moe:

    Obams: “duh, uh, um, teleprompter, duh, uh, can’t hear myself, buh, fuh, duh”.
    …
    Imagine if someone asked him a question, you know, like, say, an interview-type thingy, like they have on the TV sometimes with actual humans.

    Oh, goodie! The trolls are back. I was worried that McCain’s ongoing campaign suspension meant that they would stop paying their 101st Chairborne brigade. And this is clearly one of the elite trolls: he managed to sort through the thousands of hours of footage of Obama speaking to crowds, and managed to find a few seconds where Obama, after apparently not sleeping for 48 hours, still sounds more intelligent than Palin does every single time she opens her mouth.

  105. 105.

    JGabriel

    Chopper:

    so black dudes smell?

    Yep, Dickie’s calling Obama a smelly, lying, thief.

    But Dickie’s not a racist, because we all know racists never say shit like that about black men.

    .

  106. 106.

    Dickie Moe

    I wonder what Katie (1 Couric) would ask BO to clarify his claim of visiting 57 states, all except Alaska and Hawaii. Wow! The 59 states of the good old USA. Way to go! Real men of genius, we salute you.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws&feature=related

    Sure, Obamy is qualified to run against Palin (almmost) but for president? A guy that can’t even remember how many states there are in his own country?

    Only an empty-headed sexists would support him in a race against Palin. And, let’s face it – he can’t hope to run against McCain, so his whole campaign (goonsquads and all) focus on her.

  107. 107.

    камрад комисaр Xenos

    Eh, Michelle has criticized Barack’s smelly feet, so maybe this is not such a clearly racist line. I read it as a 3rd-grade level pun on the man’s initials. Lame, not racist.

    The lying claim is standard reichtard projection. Not only lame, but boring. This troll needs to be ignored until he upgrades the quality of his shtick.

  108. 108.

    камрад комисaр Xenos

    An

    d, let’s face it – he can’t hope to run against McCain, so his whole campaign (goonsquads and all) focus on her.

    Case in point: presumes facts not in evidence, conclusion is facially contradicted by reality, logical steps from presumption to conclusion is completely absent. I would give it a D+.

    Just another lazy white man, stinking up the place.

  109. 109.

    JGabriel

    Dickie Moe:

    I wonder what Katie (1 Couric) would ask BO to clarify his claim of visiting 57 states … A guy that can’t even remember how many states there are in his own country?

    Still isn’t as stupid as a guy who can’t recognize an obvious joke that plays on the “Heinz 57 varieties” motif. Really, Dickie, it’s amazing you can operate a keyboard.

    Dickie Moe:

    And, let’s face it – Obama can’t hope to run against McCain…

    It’s so odd you say that. Even RCP, the most Republican leaning of the polling aglommeration sites, shows Obama leading over McCain by 4.8 points.

    .

  110. 110.

    ppcli

    Just another lazy white man,…

    I wouldn’t assume that. It may be that the McCain campaign has outsourced their trolling to Bangalore or Taiwan. They’re running short of cash, and they’ve never been reluctant to send American jobs overseas. This would also help explain Dickie Moe’s constant grammatical and spelling errors.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    Dennis – SGMM Says:

    McCain’s various stunts have convinced me that he’d rather have his country die for him.

    Scary, but entirely plausible. McCain seems to think that it is our duty to elect him president, and it doesn’t matter whether he or Palin demonstrate any actual competence to do the job.

    And sadly, there are people who will be willing to vote for him even if it puts the country’s future more at risk. I keep hearing a core of people say that they don’t like Obama or don’t trust Obama. They half-heartedly trot out his lack of “experience,” but for the most part they simply avoid questions of competence. A couple of these people said that “America is not ready for a black president” when Obama was still contending for the nomination in the Democratic Primary.

    Ultimately, they cannot get beyond their own fear, and fall back on the hope that McCain and Palin will magically make the right decisions for America precisely because the former POW and the hockey mom satisfy a narrow fantasy of what it means to be American. A hero would never betray you. A mom will always take care of you. McCain can all but suggest that we go to war with Russia over Georgia and people will believe that we can nuke the Russians before they nuke us back.

    McCain’s shrill cries of “Country First!” amount to little more than a childish demand. “Listen to me! Obey me! I’m the only one who knows, I’m the only one who understands.” It’s interesting to see that McCain doesn’t understand that his claim to deep understanding is undermined by his fierce defense of a woefully out-of-her-depth Palin. It leads too easily to the question, “What, exactly, does Palin know and understand?”

    His insistence that Obama doesn’t “understand,” despite the fact that McCain’s knowledge and experience too often resulted in boneheaded decisions is made even more repulsive by McCain’s strange megalomania and obvious contempt for Obama. McCain seriously seems to believe that Obama should do what McCain wants — go to Iraq with him on his terms, have town hall meetings instead of debates, defer to him in all things. McCain takes Obama’s refusals to defer personally. McCain feels more entitled to the presidency than Hillary Clinton, who only presumed that the Democratic Party nomination was guaranteed to her.

    Televise Bristol Palin’s [shotgun] wedding. Seriously. Yep. You can’t make this shit up.

    This could take the place of the VP debate.

  112. 112.

    J. Maynard Gelinas

    Here’s a Republican Attack Video promoting the position that it was Democrats who deregulated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

    Some striking things about the video:

    – Not all of the content appears to be from the same House Finances SubCommittee hearing, but appears to be stitched together from several unrelated hearings.

    – Democrats are routinely edited in the middle of a sentence or statement. Look at the fast edits, you’ll see a head suddenly change position slightly right at an edit-point, where a statement has been taken out of context and its intended meaning edited away.

    – Nowhere once does the video state which hearing this references, nor a date, nor who was the ranking committee member for the hearing(s).

    This is a hit job. But it has been front paged at Redstate and appears to be the next line of Republican attack: “The Dems did it”.

    So… can anyone place these C-SPAN videos? Do you know which hearings they’ve been taken from? Because “Late 2004” sure isn’t enough of a reference for me.

  114. 114.

    dslak

    It may be that the McCain campaign has outsourced their trolling to Bangalore or Taiwan.

    Given the value in local markets of the McCain swag they could buy with their points, I could see a definite financial motive.

  115. 115.

    Nikolita

    Thanks for the upgrade JC! :)
    This is my test post to see how quickly my posts appear, if it all. WP was eating my posts before the upgrade.

  116. 116.

    bago

    Numbered posts, Excellent. However you need some kind of bordering mechanism. Perhaps a div tag with a JS or css to alternate background colors slightly so you can clearly see post distinctions.

  117. 117.

    John

    Umm, I could be wrong on this, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to dispute something no one said.

    Philly is absolutely essential for Dems to win Pennsylvania.

    Sigh. Did you even read beyond my first sentence? The Philly suburbs lean Democratic, but there’s a lot of Republicans there. Getting those Republicans to come out and vote for you is absolutely necessary for Republicans to win in the state, even if the area is mostly Democratic, because it’s a huge part of the state.

    George W. Bush got 2,793,847 votes in Pennsylvania in 2004. Of those, 690,422 came from Philadelphia and the 4 suburban counties (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery). That 24.7% of Bush’s votes in the state. A further 364,975 came from other counties in the Philadelphia media market (Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Northampton). Meaning that 37.8% of Bush’s votes in the state came from areas where they get Philly TV stations.

    In spite of incredibly high turnout in the Pennsyltucky parts of the state, furthermore, Bush was unable to win the state. I don’t see how McCain is going to get better numbers out of the rural parts of the state than Bush did in 2004. Which means that the key to winning the state (or, at least, one key – he also could use doing better with blue collar Democrats in the Scranton and Pittsburgh areas) is to do better than Bush in the working class white parts of Philly, and in the traditionally Republican, but recently Democratic, parts of the state. Obviously he’s not going to win Philly, and I see little point in sending Palin to Center City, which is bound to be deeply unfriendly to him, but working South Philly, Northeast, and the suburbs makes a lot of sense. A vote for McCain in Southeast Pennsylvania is worth exactly the same as one in other parts of the state, and there’s a lot more people in the Delaware Valley than anywhere else.

    Just because the area is not likely to actually give a majority of its votes to McCain does not mean that doing better than Bush there is not a key element to any strategy for the Republicans taking the state.

  118. 118.

    John

    I don’t understand this Republican line about Fannie and Freddie. I’m correct in thinking that there is nobody serious who thinks that Fannie and Freddie were anything like the principal cause of the current crisis? They may have gotten involved, but the idea that they’re to blame for the mess is totally absurd.

    (On MTP this morning, Schaffer was utterly mauling Mark Udall on this very issue. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity, I guess.)

  120. 120.

    oh really

    I was disappointed in the skit. It wasn’t bad, but the truth is Sarah Palin is much funnier than Tina Fey.

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    John Says:

    I don’t understand this Republican line about Fannie and Freddie. I’m correct in thinking that there is nobody serious who thinks that Fannie and Freddie were anything like the principal cause of the current crisis? They may have gotten involved, but the idea that they’re to blame for the mess is totally absurd.

    This is one of the things that makes the bailout such a dicey proposition. Bush and other Republicans have tried to shut down Fannie and Freddie before because of their core belief that the federal government should not be involved at all in mortgage lending, not even indirectly through agencies like Fannie and Freddie. And so, they lay more blame on Freddie and Fannie because it suits their larger purposes.

    Worse, Bush and his buddies are ideologically and psychologically incapable of blaming anyone other than Fannie/Freddie for this financial mess, nor are they able to do anything to hold anyone accountable or to put in place any serious mechanisms to prevent the problem from recurring.

    But Bush is perfectly willing to saddle the federal government with an extra $700 billion burden because it will hamper all future presidents’ ability to enact new domestic programs, no matter how worthy.

  122. 122.

    TenguPhule

    A guy that can’t even remember how many states there are in his own country?

    He was counting US territories as well, which is damn impressive since most people don’t even know they exist.

    Better trolls please.

  123. 123.

    Товарищ НеинтересноСобака

    I hate (hate, HATE) the way Democrats have gone along with blaming Fannie and Freddie, just because of Rick Davis. It’s done nothing but distract from the root causes, and allowed Republicans to spin more lies about the CRA using “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand subprime lending” headlines.

    I can’t believe no one says the obvious, here: lenders made a KILLING in subprime mortgages! They didn’t need any “encouragement”! They gave subprime mortgages to people who qualified for prime rates, for fuck’s sake, and sold the risk on to investment banks. (That’s what “predatory lending” means to any dumbfucks out there who still don’t understand why Democrats hate it.) The banks bought the mortgages on the assumption that no one would ever default as long as housing prices went up, and investment bank CEOs made fucktonnes of money selling securities on that same premise (and bailing on golden parachutes before their clients came calling). None of that was caused by the Community Reinvestment Act–it was caused by greed and lack of oversight.

    People really seem to be ignoring the front side of the bubble, and it’s just bewildering to me. People don’t try to exploit bubbles because the government tells them to! Just because the market’s crashed NOW doesn’t mean that the government always had to force banks into the lending industry, and I just can’t fucking believe that people are falling for that lie.

    .
    .

    ANGER!!!1!!11!!

  124. 124.

    Товарищ НеинтересноСобака

    He was counting US territories as well, which is damn impressive since most people don’t even know they exist.

    No, that’s silly. There aren’t 59 states and territories, and he hadn’t been to 57 (I don’t think there are even 57) anyway. He said he’d been to “50………..(pause)……7 states, and two to go.” He obviously meant “47 states, and two to go,” (he eventually went to every state but Alaska) but reflexively started to say “50 states” instead. It was a stupid verbal gaffe, and that’s all.

  125. 125.

    Товарищ НеинтересноСобака

    Wait, new-Wordpress filters out multiple exclamation points!!!???!!!! That’s gotta be fixed. (!!!!!!)
    Fix it!!!!!!!!1111!!11!!(one)

  126. 126.

    John

    I hate (hate, HATE) the way Democrats have gone along with blaming Fannie and Freddie, just because of Rick Davis. It’s done nothing but distract from the root causes, and allowed Republicans to spin more lies about the CRA using “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand subprime lending” headlines.

    Indeed, as I was saying, Udall was totally ineffectual in combatting the stream of nonsense that Schaffer threw his way on this front on Meet the Press. It was disheartening. (Of course, Schaffer basically just barreled over anything Udall was trying to say throughout the whole encounter, and Brokaw made little effort to rein him in and let Udall get anything out. But, still – based on that, I’d not write Schaffer out).

  127. 127.

    Polish the Guillotines (formerly FLILF Hunter)

    Товарищ НеинтересноСобака Says:

    It’s been years since my last Russian language class. “Comrade Uninteresting Dog”??

    Also, I just noticed that the Cyrillic font renders differently in the sig line than when you paste it into the comments field or block-quote it (wherein it appears more correct and proper).

  128. 128.

    Товарищ НеинтересноСобака

    Closest I could get to NonWonderDog. The Cyrillic is correct in the byline, though; that’s what Cyrillic italics look like.

Comments are closed.