Word has it that Rush Limbaugh has joined Erick Erickson in chasing down any fool rightwingers who stand in Sarah Palin’s way. Embarrassing the McCain campaign with her stupidity was not enough. Dragging down the entire GOP ticket and defrauding the party was not enough. It still won’t stop. The mere memory of Palin (who, sensibly, retreated quietly to Alaska) still has the GOP punching itself in the face while Democrats plan and build.
Do not plan on the entertainment ending any time soon. Those still defending Palin are the types who think the rest of the party’s blinkers are not screwed on tight enough. They will not, can not, admit that that they are wrong. The limb won’t heal, it will get stinkier the longer it stays on there, but good luck with the amputation. Politics is a boxing match.
***Update***
Alternate post title: The Great Foot Hunt.
Also: heh.
r€nato
Obama took North Carolina too.
My father – still a racist – is from North Carolina.
I’m hoping the combination of a goddamned n-word in the WH along with his home state giving him their electoral votes, causes his head to explode.
jaime
I floated by Limbaugh’s radio show this morning to hear him railing against the "Obama recession". Seriously, the "Obama recession". He was blaming the recession on the liberal ideas propagated by Obama, thus causing the "Obama recession".
Hubris
It has been ascertained that it was the fault of the party’s bourgeoisie and intelligentsia. Time for a Cultural Revolution!
jcricket
My brother-in-law, a "casual" racist, homophobe and no fan of taxes (favorite sample rants – "Another tax and spend liberal!", "Happiest day of my year is when I’m done paying Social Security tax!") is also from North Carolina.
He voted for Obama and at least 50% Democrats this time around.
In fact, he voted for Kerry (after voting for Bush Sr., Dole & Bush and other straight-ticket Republican votes).
If the GOP is losing my brother-in-law, who barely qualifies as an independent (he’s probably to the right of John Cole), they are not going to win anywhere the crazies aren’t the majority.
My mother and father, in their late 60s, both long-time "Reagan Democrats", who would also split tickets for moderate Republicans, have voted straight Dem ticket for 8 years now, and have come to be in favor of gay marriage. If there isn’t a GOP politician or initiative my parents are in favor of, they can’t win without the crazies in the majority.
Dems have a 45-35% registration advantage. If you assume both parties get 90% of voters to stick with their party, and the GOP loses (or the Dems get) another 15-20% in the middle, there’s just no way the GOP can win. Zero.
The Dangerman
If Rush is committed to further harming the Right through his unrequited "MooseRat Love" (humble apologies to the Captain and/or Tennile), the the Fairness Doctrine may have to be revisited from the Republicans simply to muzzle the guy. Popcorn, please.
Face
Can I ask what that vid is before I play it? Is it work safe? It looks grotesque.
Krista
I’ve often wondered if he actually believes the evil shit that he’s spouting, or if he just says what he knows his audience will want to hear. Either way, I would love to someday see that man (and I use the term loosely) held responsible for the fear and misinformation that he has sown.
Keith
The lengths he’ll go to keep "Bush Recession" singular. Wait, make that "Bush Jr. Recession". And that’s counting the first double-dip Jr. recession as a single one.
libarbarian
I think we need to purge Balloon-Juice.
All the people leaking horrible, horrible, slanders about Tim F. will be tracked down and turned into blogolepers.
John S.
I don’t wish ill things on anybody, but I think Limbaugh may get murdered some day by one of his biggest dittohead fans when he accidentally says something intelligent that scares and frightens them.
As long as he keeps serving up stupid, he’s safe.
i don't really want to take responsibility for this comment...
Hands down, that scene is perfect.
I can’t wait to see the GOP spending a lot of time pointing fingers, trading knuckle sandwiches, giving each other the thumbs down — all while the dems make a good ’08 hand-off and proceed to win handily for a few cycles. Maybe in 2016 or 2020 it’ll be a nailbiter, but in the meantime… I bite my thumb at them. I won’t give them any handouts.
TheHatOnMyCat
Well, he has pretty much answered that question, and the answer is, it’s the latter. He’s an industry. Actual ideas stopped mattering long, long ago. The man is a millionaire many times over for being a comedian paid to tell the jokes his audience wants to hear.
Hey, it’s a great con, and you have to give him props. It’s made him very rich.
jcricket
Limbaugh’s biggest threat is his own addictions. He’ll probably OD or die of a coronary long before anyone attempts to murder him. Plus, he’s not a "sell out" (of his own fans). He’s never gonna move to the center, even if the GOP does. He only makes money by talking to the (pretend) disenfranchised
Krista
At what price, though? Knowing that it’s a sham makes it a hundred times worse, in my opinion. He’s getting rich off of deliberately lying to ignorant people and fueling their fear and their hatred, and is making a very active effort to make society worse, not better.
I don’t give him props for anything. I think he’s an evil, evil man.
TheHatOnMyCat
I’m not wasting any time worrying about the GOP and its fate for the next couple of years. We all know what is going to happen. They are going to do the CDS thing on Obama, and they are going to fight amongst themselves over the scraps of blame left behind by their current debacle.
The Conservative Movement is not coming back, and the people who think that those "principles" are going to be the core of their resurrected party are just dreaming. The history of the wester world in general and America in particular for the last 100 years is a history of progressive thought and policy. That trend will continue, we will not be a country in retrograde. We will not be the country of the CATO institute.
We are a progressive nation, slightly center-left, not right, and we are going to stay that way.
Remember, the people telling you that America is center-right are the same people who last week were telling you that Barack Obama was a sociailist. So, the center-right nation just elected a socialist?
Time to stop listening to the blithering fuckheads and take our lessons from the realities all around us. The future belongs to the center-left. What role the GOP wants to play in that, is up to them at this point. I think it will take them a while yet to figure this out.
TheHatOnMyCat
And seriously, guys, your moderation filter is just a piece of complete shit. It’s just a joke. If it were completely random, it would make more sense.
TheHatOnMyCat
I’d argue that a part of the Obama victory is blowback against the Limbaugh effect.
As a country, we finally figured out that his merchandise is just snake oil. But he had to sell it for a while before enough people caught on. I give him credit for that.
Just as I credit the Rev. Wright ads for pushing our victory a little farther toward the landslide column.
Let the idiots be idiots. They make a good foil for our side.
TheHatOnMyCat
Blogrulers, do two things for me: Take my comment at 14 out of moderation, and then explain why it was in there in the first place?
Thanks.
Josh Hueco
One of the things I’ve noticed strongly since I moved to Texas from Oregon is the pathological hatred of taxes and ‘gubmint,’ that extends past Texas and through the entire South. Can someone please explain to me where the hell this comes from? Even people who, as my girlfriend puts it, who don’t have a pot to piss in much less a window to throw it out of, are terrified the gubmint will ‘redistribute’ their money now that Obama’s president. I’m not playing naive, I’m just floored by it.
EDIT: I’d appreciate an answer that goes beyond "ignorance and racism." I’m genuinely curious.
r€nato
I don’t usually believe in karma, but I’d like to think that the only way Limbaugh can get through the day (or night) is by popping those blue babies (still) or fucking little boys in the Dominican Republic in order to silence his guilty conscience.
Unfortunately, he still sleeps in a very nice mansion at night; however I’d also like to think that the only way he can get human companionship is if he buys it. I would find it exceedingly difficult to believe he has any real ‘friends’… just hangers-on and sycophants.
==================
I was reading the post below re: Henke.
I started thinking about what exactly the GOP would have to do, to get back to being a viable party.
The problem with the party is that there is a huge conflict between their coalition and what they need to do to adjust to the changes in the electorate.
Think of it this way: the GOP consciously pursued a ‘southern strategy’ since the 1970s.
The problem with that is it’s so toxic – a mix of racist appeals and pandering to religious nutjobs – that as our society evolves and leaves ever further behind the days of Jim Crow, as homosexuality becomes less scary, as our country becomes more and more multicultural, they’re stuck trying to squeeze the same amount of ketchup out of an ever-emptier bottle, so to speak. Standing astride history and screaming, ‘STOP’ is not a long-term strategy. Sooner or later, history is going to leave you behind.
Reagan and Bush 41 did not need to pursue a 50%+1 strategy; they had plenty of crossover votes from disaffected Democrats.
By the time of Bush 43, it was probably critical to their fortunes to polarize the country and energize their base to achieve their 50%+1. Oh, and to also start pursuing sleazy voter disenfranchisement tactics. A major assist from the Supreme Court helped, of course.
But now the GOP has long passed their own ‘Peak Wingnut’; they can squeeze that ketchup bottle as hard as they want; they’re not going to get 50% + 1 any longer from it.
So, what next? GOP version 2.0 needs to face up to global climate change and offer real solutions, rather than denying that it exists.
It needs to stop pandering to fundamentalist wingnuts with gay-marriage bans. Despite their tactical success in California, Arizona (to my embarrassment) and Florida, those amendments will not stand in the long run and they certainly did not achieve their strategic goal of turning out the GOP Qaeda to elect McCain.
It needs to marginalize the Grover Norquists, the government-is-always-the-enemy fundamentalists. Otherwise, every time they succeed in getting their hands on the levers of power, they are guaranteed to fuck things up and end up out of office again.
It needs to walk the walk with regards to fiscal conservatism. That means having the courage to say NO to Halliburton and Big Oil. You can’t cut taxes and simultaneously allow your donors to raid the Treasury. People tend to notice that.
It needs to cut back on the jingoism. Unfortunately we’ve had to find out first-hand what a dead-end that is.
It’s easy to recognize what they have to do; the problem is actually getting it done, because the people who currently hold a substantial amount of control over the GOP are the very parties mentioned above. They are the Newt Gingrich’s and Grover Norquist’s and James Dobson’s. They’d rather captain the ship all the way to the bottom of the ocean, rather than hand the bridge over to somebody who could save the vessel.
Long story short, they are going to have to raze the GOP power structure to the ground in order to rebuild it.
If they can find a way to do this in short order, it will be painful but they could come back within 10 years.
If they don’t, it’s going to be 20 years or more until the GOP regains its mojo.
Tim F.
It is grotesque. Bruce Campbell fights his own fist in Evil Dead II.
stickler
I’d be careful about assuming that Rush knows his act is a put-on. In so far as he actually "thinks" about anything, I’m pretty sure he believes quite a bit of the stuff he spews. Just because it’s reactionary, contradictory, or on-its-face asinine, doesn’t preclude him believing it. And remember, too all of his whoopsie-doodle racist outbursts (like when he was doing NFL commentary); if his version of conservatism was an act, he’d have kept his NFL persona separate from his Rush persona. He didn’t, because the talkshow persona IS the real Rush.
TheHatOnMyCat
I’m not. These people are incredibly uneducated about the most basic concepts of civics and policy.
Ask one of them to tell you what "socialism" is. I will wager that not one person who talks about Obama "redistriburing wealth" even knows what socialism actually is or has ever looked it up in a dictionary.
These are people whose party thinks, by a wide margin if memory serves me, that the earth is 6000 years old. Why would anything they think surprise us, and …. why would we care? We simply have to recognize that it’s us against them and every two years our job is to outnumber them at the polls.
We have seen what happens when we don’t get that done. Let’s not let it happen any more for a while.
Xecky Gilchrist
A Farewell To Arms
I knew it! They’re taking our guns away!
Joshau Norton
Palin could always hire herself out as a Tina Fey impersonator.
That should hold her over after they make her stop ripping off everyone that she comes in contact with.
Comrade Kevin
@Tim F.:
It got into my hand and it went bad, so I lopped it off at the wrist.
Bruce Campbell is awesome.
Dennis - SGMM
@Josh Hueco:
Wonder how they’d feel about it if Obama stopped redistributing Blue State tax money to their broke-ass states.
maxbaer (not the original)
Bruce is the greatest B actor ever.
TheHatOnMyCat
Probably the same way that Newt Gingrich’s district reacted when Michael Moore exposed it as being the biggest recipient of federal pork, per capita, of any district in the country.
Pissed that somebody might take their money trough away.
MikeL
Frum is being purged.
What makes this farce is that he’s being sent to the same guillotine he sent old-school conservatives to when he said "The paleoconservatives have chosen — and the rest of us must choose too. In a time of danger, they have turned their backs on their country. Now we turn our backs on them."
If you don’t mind, I need to go gets me some popcorn…
Dennis - SGMM
I thought that the short-lived "Brisco County Jr." was one of the best TV shows I ever saw.
Comrade Stuck
Mostly, he’s an entertainer like TZ said. the extreme shit he pumps out is an evil product though, lapped up by 20 million loathsome idiots per week who are some kind of serious haters. They are the ugly underbelly of American culture that must be watched and taken seriously, lest they find the opportunity to act out there hate. Rush does give them a collective voice, but he also sheds some light on who and how many they are. We take free speech in our country very very seriously, even for nasty motherfuckers like Limbaugh.
Barack the President
For fun, I read the comments at RedState’s Leper Colony post.
They blame Fox News for reporting ‘Africa is a country’. Some are calling Fox part of the leftist MSM. It’s good stuff.
Ben
I’m a big Bubba Ho-Tep fan myself. The fact that Ossie Davis is in it to is a big plus.
Comrade Stuck
Bonehead on Emmanuel as Obama’s Chief of Staff.
Wingnuts are afraid of Emmanuel, therefore, I am for him.
necros
OT tip: Joe the Plumber is a "Welfare King"
His family went on welfare twice, and he credits it with helping him lead a middle class lifestyle. But even though he was able to benefit from a socialistic safety net he doesn’t think anyone else should.
Dennis - SGMM
@Ben:
Have it on DVD. The first time I saw it I wondered "How the Hell did that ever get made?" But I was sure glad it was.
Len
Gosh, I hope the Republicans keep pushing Sarah Palin. Them choosing her to be their presidential nominee in 2012 would be a wet dream come true. Have we ever had a 538-0 vote in the Electoral College?
Joshau Norton
I don’t know about that. Obama managed to keep a tight lid on his campaign and leaks to the press were practically non-existent. The minute Emmanuel’s name was mentioned, he leaked it to the press and gave them a big song and dance about how he was "conflicted" about accepting the position.
More Clintonista drama queens we don’t need.
Dennis - SGMM
George Washington won a unanimous vote from the Electors. The Whigs were already bitching about big government and promising a return to Family Values.
Polish the Guillotines
Tim F: ANY Evil Dead 2 reference is an instant WIN.
Watching the wingtards kick each other in the junk is my new favorite pastime.
On a serious note: I’m not a religious guy, but pray the Secret Service is on their A-game. Assholes like Rush and Savage and Malikin push lots of buttons, and there are no doubt a whole bunch of Travis Bickle wannabes out there.
This may be the only time I’m glad for the goddamned Patriot Act.
Zifnab
At what price? Try $250 million over 5 years. There are top notch major league athletes who would shit themselves at the idea of making that kind of scratch. Limbaugh is paid well. Very, very well. And he’s an institution. The head of his own cult of personality that has little to do with liberals or conservatives, Republicans or Democrats. They just love Limbaugh for being Limbaugh.
In old days, he would be sitting atop a hill of skulls with a virgin under each arm and the bones of his enemies worn as jewelry while he demands more wine, more food, and more human sacrifice for his amusement.
I can understand why this may revolt you, but I can’t believe it surprises you. The story of Rush is the story of demagoguery going back ages.
Also, Bruce Campbell is the king. I loved that guy in Xenu: Warrior Princess before I even knew what Evil Dead was and everything new I see him in only makes me think of him better.
jcricket
I think it’s pretty simple. The GOP’s "greatest leader" and personal hero say: "The 9 most dangerous words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help". What impact do you think that has? Before that he was organizing/agitating against Medicare (!) by claiming it’ll lead to the end of freedom and the US as we know it. Not "it’s a bad idea" or "it should be implemented differently", but the end of freedom!
This is probably someone you personally idolize, who won the presidency twice, is called the "great communicator" is so lauded by your party that they are trying to get his face on dollar bills & Mt. Rushmore (along with naming everything else like airports, battleships, highways, etc. after him). If he is so fundamentally against the government, wouldn’t you be? Would you trust the government?
Couple this with the 30+ years of anti-government rhetoric from everyone else in the GOP hierarchy – from the NRA (government will take your guns) to the Dobsonites (your bible), to the Norquist-types (your hard-earned cash is going to welfare cheats).
And throw on top of this all the efforts to fuck government up by de-staffing, de-funding or overtly partisan-izing (sp?) government agencies like NASA, FEMA the FDA, FTC, IRS, etc.
I think it’s pretty simple. It’s an organized campaign against government conducted from the top to the bottom of the GOP. Outside of growing the military, Republicans hate the government they are a part of. So why wouldn’t the core base believe it too?
Billy K (D-TX)
Wow. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.
I still like McCain, as a person. But he screwed up so badly with the choice of Palin as VP, he just can’t be forgiven. He risked our country and he risked his party. Now this cancer he introduced to the system is going to eat at the GOP for a long time. And it’s all because of his blind greed.
It’s tragic, but this is his (deserved) legacy now.
Josh Hueco
I appreciate everyone’s input. The sheer contempt, by people who are piss poor, for the concept of the common good down here is amazing. I can understand people who’ve already ‘got theirs,’ because that’s just basic greed working. But from everyone else…(rolls eyes, shakes head).
This is way OT-but I’m mulling whether to buy Photoshop Elements vs. Photoshop CS 3.3 for my Mac, which runs OS X Leopard. I’d use it mostly for editing photos that I’d put up on my website and use in Keynote presentations. How much of a difference is there? I’d appreciate any input. Thx…Josh.
jcricket
I wanted to add that you should follow the link from Krugman here. There’s a great example where it describes Reagan’s screed against welfare cheats being so insanely inflated it’s hard to believe he got away with telling the story.
And that’s not the only example.
I’d say this is where it really galvanized (the anti-government sentiment, esp. as it related to redistribution/progressive taxation).
Comrade Stuck
Well, I didn’t say he was a drama queen, I said wingnuts fear him, and they do. Whatever his style, he’s a tough sumbitch who has done well in helping dems build their numbers in the House. He’s an asshole for sure, but an effective one, and is the best choice in dealing with congress, IMHO. He stated early on his conflicted choice to support Clinton, and had nothing bad to say about Obama during the primaries, at least anything nasty that I heard. Obama would do well to stay away from some of the Clintonistas, Emmanuel is not one of those. I think his loyalty to Obama will be absolute.
BooBooBear
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Yeah, it’s much different than you expected, huh Boehner? That’s change we can believe in, because it throws YOU off your game. Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Dennis - SGMM
If you’re just going to do simple cropping, re-sizing, red eye removal then you’ll be fine with Elements.
You can download trial versions of both Elements and CS HERE and see which one meets your needs before you shell out your cash.
Comrade Stuck
And how do you know Rahm leaked it to the press? And saying he was conflicted was a good thing for unity, I think. We don’t need to keep the fires going on the Obama/Clinton primary feud, unless for those Clinton supporters who actively choose that route.
phobos
I really can’t see any GOP candidate prevailing in the ’12 primaries without at least some moderate appeal. Assuming they again fail in the general–a fairly safe bet, there will be yet another round of culling of RINOs from the herd.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Eventually the only thing left of the Republican party will be Rush’s broadcasts radiating into deep space.
Anyway, from a purely practical standpoint, Sarah Palin has to be the future of the GOP for now. As Rupert Murdoch would say, "she sells paypahs".
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Sarah Palin is their chosen standard-bearer (no matter who leadership chooses to lead the party, the rank and file want Sarah and will not be swayed in the least) and I look forward to seeing her on the campaign trail in ’12.
Josh Hueco
@BooBooBear:
I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s confused. And it’s not like the North or the West Coast is perfect by any means. But I don’t understand. I took a major turd in the punch bowl on a message board here at BU by stating that Dixie is out of step and that the rest of the nation will be moving forward the next eight years while the South (in general, I understand it’s not a uniform monolith) will wail and moan and cling to its resentments and dysfunctions and continue to not get it. Yeah, it was over the top, but jeez, it’s the truth.
EDIT: I totally get what you say about contradictions. It’s what makes Texas so unique and interesting, and so maddening at the same time. I’m also not some snob who doesn’t understand. I grew up poor, way poor, like no flush toilet in the house poor. I grew up on food stamps and SSI and government cheese. So maybe that’s why, having lived that life, I’m so frustrated with the stubborn resistance to anything that advances the common good. :(
Bubblegum Tate
Awesome.
A question for the blog’s pondering:
As Operation Leper proceeds to demonize everybody who is not a part of Operation Leper as "elite," the the number of elites, as defined by Operation Leper will grow by leaps and bounds. So, when Operation Leper gets to the point that, say, 80 percent of the country is "elite," isn’t the elitism implicity taken away? I mean, if it’s 80 percent, that’s not elite, that’s almost everybody.
Josh Hueco
@Dennis – SGMM:
Thanks, Dennis. That’s about what I thought.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I don’t think they’ll be able to stop once they start. Brother against brother. Hopefully by the time they’re done, there will not be enough left to hold any sort of voting bloc together at all. Essentially, at that point, the party is defunct. It would be a fitting end, since they stole the party to begin with. To watch them fight so hard over it that they leave nothing to fight for at the end of it would be pure poetic justice.
p.a.
Dr. Squid
You mean like how the conservatives in power cock up things so badly that it takes a black man to save their asses?
1. Want to be farmers, but they can’t actually farm. Solution: import slaves from Africa.
2. Grow a monoculture cotton crop which gets all eated by boll weevils. Solution: George Washington Carver introduces them to what he already knew about peanuts.
3. Current economic crisis. Jury still out, but here comes that black man again.
Billy K (D-TX)
I wouldn’t get either. Try Acorn, Pixelmator, Seashore, Graphic Converter…and there’s more I can’t remember. Pixelmator seems to be well-liked.
When in doubt, try the Google to learn about OS X software instead of a political thread.
Josh Hueco
@Bubblegum Tate:
I recommend Robert Paxton’s Anatomy of Fascism for a thorough understanding of how this phenomenon occurs. If you haven’t the time, I recommend Umberto Eco as kind of a Cliff Notes version.
"When in doubt, try the Google to learn about OS X software instead of a political thread."
Dude, the beauty of this site is that we discuss politics, tech, beer, pets and music, usually on a single thread. Get a grip.
LanceThruster
"Operation Leper" is the PUMA of the right. I’m sure they’ll be just as selective with their outrage since some of the outing of Ms. Palin came from FOX.
pharniel
i red the comments at ace and redstate
4 srs. "it’s ok to take rights away from others because i disaprove of them".
In the same breath as stating that libruls are going to bring back eugenics.
oi.
Pastafarian
@Ben:
Word.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I caught some of FR on late Tuesday night and they were threatening to never watch Fox again (or any news for that matter).
NonyNony
@phobos:
Two things:
1) Not a safe bet. Never a safe bet. Look at Carter in ’80 – he inherited a big mess, it got worse, he floundered, Reagan pummeled him. I don’t think Obama is going to flounder like Carter (already I’m impressed by his choices in staff positions – I never thought he was naive, but he seems to be even more pragmatic than I may have given him credit for), but you never, ever, know. And can never, ever count on anything in American politics.
2) On the other hand – don’t assume that a Republican candidate in ’12 will need to have "moderate appeal" either. IF the crazy-nutbase wing of the party continues on their feeding/purging frenzy, then a crazy-nutbase candidate may well arise to take advantage of them. There really wasn’t one this cycle, but imagine, if you will, an "anti-Obama" who can really get those crazy nutters fired up, volunteering, spending their every spare moment working on his/her campaign, etc. Someone willing to build the GOTV machine at the local level to win the primary election. It could happen – not every crazy nutbase candidate needs to have Alan Keyes level of competence. I don’t see that person yet, but frankly I wouldn’t have pegged Obama four years ago, so who the hell knows? (The whole speculation on ’12 is crazy media stuff too – no one knows right now. No one can know right now. In ’10 we may have some idea of who the players are going to be, but not now. And anyway, STFU media idjits – we just finished a presidential election cycle, can’t we get a SINGLE GODDAMN YEAR OFF?)
So in conclusion – Obama and the Democrats better fucking not screw this opportunity up. They’ve got a real chance to put this country on the right track AND to force the Republicans to come back from the edge of crazytown and become a real political party again. But that doesn’t happen if the Republicans don’t spend 8-12 years in the political woodshed as punishment for their utter craptacular performance over the last few decades.
stickler
Yeah, that RedState thread is … amazing. Lessons being learned include this gem:
Yeah, that’s the way to build a bridge to 2012! Purge pragmatism!
The stupid, it is so pure … but it burns!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
The ones who are holding the GOP hostage right now are NOT going to come back from crazy town. They believe God took them there for a reason. They will remain faithful to their religious values and now they are pushing a NO RINO’S EVER AGAIN meme. The only place they are going is into obscurity.
Oh, and let’s get something else straight: they aren’t Republicans, they are religious social conservatives who usurped John Cole’s party and started tearing it apart.
Caramon
Yay! Evil Dead FTW!
Laura W
Does she home school?
Comrade Stuck
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
It’s when they start sleeping during the day and only coming out at night we should start to worry. My pitchfork and lantern is ready.
Dylan
Newsflash: David Freddoso regains coherence in wake of republican defeat
It gives me hope. But I know deep down that some wingnuts will never change. Honestly, who still imagines that Obama’s father is Malcolm X, And were it true, what would it matter?
MR. Bill
Rural Southerner here.
A lot of their brains did explode, or at least, sort of evaporated. I’ve seen a Jungian critic of Christianity say that if you could accept the contradictions of a Biblicist religion, you were softened up to accept almost any craziness, and certainly authoritarianism and anti-intellectualism.
As I’ve ranted here and elsewhere, the South has bought a false version of history: Mrs. Margaret Mitchell excellent if racist romance novel and the blockbuster movie made from it are mistaken for history. The nasty brother against brother reality is ignored, and the history stops firmly at Appomattox.
The era of lynching and an apartheid as bad as, and indeed the model for South Africa’s, are ignored.
And their political leaders have gotten away with the most evil lying and corruption, but are supported because ‘their our kind’. It’s identity politics, and it’s not supportable.
But it will have to die out with the people who hold the ideology, ’cause they are too dim or stubborn to change.
I blame football, and the sort of mentality that makes everything (politics, religion) about ‘out team’.
And off topic: I’ve just heard that former NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer will not be facing prosecution for the prostitution charges. I think this means he won’t be disbarred (not sure on that, but…)
He was a Democratic Star, and an effective prosecutor. His message that the Bush Admin. allowed the Mortgage crash to happen, indeed, kept him and other state officials from acting, is important.
Why not put him in as a Special Prosecutor for the Wall Street mess? He has the background, know the lay of the land, and is in need of some rehabilitation.
The Republicans have let Newt Gingrich back, and he’s stinking up the airwaves with shocking regularity. Is Spitzer so radioactive?
BooBooBear
It’s quite true, the South is not a monolith. If you take a look at the electoral vote maps (2004 or 2008) by county, you will see a lot of purple not just straight out blue and red. Most of these are at the edges of the blue states, edges of metropolitan areas, and interestingly enough down the Mississippi river (the river is a kind of coast, I guess). That gives me some hope.
Having thought about this for a while, the only thing I can conclude is these attitudes are ingrained from birth and re-inforced through all the cultural mechanisms over time. It’s like the air they breathe down here, it never occurs to them that there might be an alternative way to look at things (though this is true of other areas as well). It takes crises, such as the depression or the current one to really get them to see things differently, to give them some empathy for ‘the other’.
But there is some hope. For one the education system despite the many shortcomings we all know, does expose them to the world, and despite all their best attempts to keep the world at bay, there is the internet and the popular culture; forces that were not as strong or non-existent say 50 years ago.
The other thing that I have noted and is the most worrisome is the rampant daily propaganda that comes from right-wing talk radio and of course Fox Noise. This is not a southern thing by any means, but I think it’s one of the primary reasons that keeps our national discourse at such a crass level and seems to fertilize the ignorance.
It is no coincidence that the ‘republican revolution’ (gingrich et. al) came with the rise of right wing talk radio.. . . There is currently NOTHING that can act as a counter to this ongoing brainwashing. When Fox Noise came on the scene it was more piling on. The local papers are in my opinion pretty worthless.
That said there is room for hope, mostly because of what we’re seeing happen. Despite the huge rejection by the voters, the wing-nut faction which holds sway wants to tack even more to the right! They’ve driven out the thoughtful ones, as this blog quite clearly shows. And the last eight years have given everyone a pile of dung to point to for every one of their idiotic talking points.
BooBooBear
Spitzer would be excellent, but it’s too soon.
He needs to be out of the limelight for a year ot two. It’s going to be tough enough for Obama to get most of the changes that need to be undertaken going, giving the wing-nuts an easy target for mockery would not be wise.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Brent Bozell on Fox News is stating he’s going to set up a whole new technology operation that is going to compete with the Democrats. Hmmm, does he not realize there is an IDEOLOGY problem? No amount of technology is going to fix this. Idiot!
BooBooBear
I say let them start spending money on technology! The more millions they sink into it, the less can go to political operations.
My suggestion for their first purchase: a mirror
It will show them everything that is wrong with their movement.
That One - Cain
@Krista:
The moral majority in the 80s did the same thing. Rip off old people by making them give them money while they sunk themselves in depravity. The right is always going to be cheated by hucksters because of their mindset. Since they react to fear, they are the ones most prone to being cheated by people playing on their fears of terrorists, religion, culture wars, whatever.
cain
That One - Cain
@Comrade Stuck:
Rush is just spewing out a "product" for consumption. If you got rid of Rush, someone else would come up (and there are plenty of them) to take up the mantle. It’s very easy to spew that kind of stuff. Hardly have to do any work. Even easier these days with the tubes.
The only way to defeat Rush is to push civics and education and what not. They used to do that back when. I don’t know what the schools are like now since I have no children.
cain
AkaDad
I’m a fan of Bruce Campbell, but I didn’t like Bubba Ho-Tep.
Two words. Burn Notice.
I’ve given up trying to figure out which Republicans are just ignorant and which ones are lying on purpose.
iluvsummr
OT: Obama and Biden bring: change.gov, a website for people to share their ideas for America. I wonder whose job it will be to weed through the million and one submissions.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Mika on MSNBC is so totally in the tank for Palin. I think John Harwood may wake up with a severed moose head in his bed for daring to contradict her on the wisdom of Palin going for Senator right now.
Litlebritdifrnt
I was listening to Rush today and he says that the reason the markets tanked today is because people believe (and quite rightly so) that Obama is going to seize all private 401K accounts and use them to shore up Social Security, they were therefore cashing them in and stuffing the cash in their matresses. I was gobsmacked that he would push such bullshit.
I am very much like John in my politics I was a "republicrat" for quite some time (fiscal conservative and social/environmental liberal) being former military I was foam at the mouth wacko in my support of the Iraq war to begin with (my yellow dog democrat boss and I used to have fantastic fights about it). At the beginning of the primary season I was torn at who to support (if Huckabee had not lost I would have still been torn I am very pro "fair tax"). I said Obama was going to win back in October 2007 when everyone said Hillary was a shoe in. What turned me away from my Republican roots was listening to Rush, Hannity, Boortz and Ingram. I simply could no longer, as a sane human being, listen to that vile stuff anymore. The visciousness just got worse and worse as the election season went along you could almost hear the spittle hitting the microphones. I finally turned Rush off when I could no longer bear to listen to his bald faced lies about the National Health Service in Britain, my resultant screaming at the radio was not good for my health. (listening since the election to hear them cry)seeing as the only talk radio station here in my area is a right wing one, I now listen to nothing at the office. However this evening on my way home (I still listen to the local shows cause they are usually about local issues) I heard the local host musing about the Obama administration saying that they would rely alot more on science than past administrations whereupon the host said
"Is that really code for abortion and euthanasia"
WTF? I about drove the fucking car off the road.
My name is Britty and I am a reformed republican.
demimondian
@Billy K (D-TX): Dude. If you use the word "Google" as a verb, some real techie type Google(TM) engineer will come in and remind you that the word is trademarked.
They do that in our threads, all the time.
p.a.
zzyzx
I listened to Michael Medved this afternoon and he was trying to explain to his audience that you can’t just appeal to the base and hope to win. Then again he was a supporter of McCain during the primaries so he doesn’t quite get the wingnut thing…
Dennis - SGMM
@demimondian:
Google is clearly overstaffed.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Oh, Jesus. Mika really is making the entire damn show about Palin. She’s obsessed with her spunky frontier heroine. I think someone needs to send the governor a copy of The Gift of Fear.
Krista
Who’s surprised? You’re right about the revulsion, though. I guess I tend to grant Limbaugh about as much thought as I grant to anybody who utterly lacks morals, like child molesters or people who run financial scams on the elderly. So when I do actually think of them, the mind shudders anew, due to the combination of revulsion and utter incomprehension.
Zifnab
Ideology isn’t the problem you think it is. Certainly, the fact that conservatives love implementing programs that don’t work presents a hurdle, but people are more than happy to do stupid things for an extended period of time even without seeing reasonable results. See: Vietnam, the War on Drugs, the Sales Tax, Britney Spear’s career, Mormonism, abstinence education.
If Bozell can create an engaging social network that inspires conservatives to keep on clinging to their guns and their bibles, he can have real success in galvanizing the movement. That said, galvanizing the movement creates its own set of problems. Ask Nancy Pelosi what she thinks of when she hears the name "Daily Kos" and while I’m sure she’ll think $$$, she’ll also be thinking about the giant headache she gets every time her office is blitzed with netroots activists in full protest mode.
The Republican Party wants to be in control. I don’t know if you can build a reliable net culture with a strict conservative hierarchy. It hasn’t seemed to work too well of late. The most popular sites – Free Republic, Red State, Powerline – regularly buck their party elders. And they pale in comparison to the liberal counterparts who are even more aggressive about steering their party.
BooBooBear
I’m one of the ‘carpetbaggers’ that came from the midwest. I don’t think that it was in enough numbers to make a difference. A few thousand iimmigrants into a few million is not that big of an impact.
It added a few congressional districts to the south and southwest. . . but that’s it. The only place it happens in any great numbers is Florida with the reitrees, but that’s different of course.
p.a.
Brittany- if you look at all taxes, state, local, sales, SS, etc. we all pay about 18% to 19%, rich, poor, middle, everyone. So there already is ‘fair tax’ and attempts to flat-tax the income tax is just another rich give away. (I believe my source is an old Angry Bear post).
Polish the Guillotines
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
Huh? You really think so? You do realize her dad’s Zbigniew Brezinski. She had him on days before the election and he ripped the stuffing out of McCain/Palin and put on a real good argument for Obama.
JL
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: I just put MSNBC on and Mika was talking to Marsha Blackburn. From what I heard Marsha thinks the repubs need to appeal to those born after 1988, become the party of Lincoln, be more like Reagan, cut taxes, appeal to the baby boomers and then they will win. Didn’t the repubs just lose because of those reasons? Did I miss something?
Josh Hueco
I was listening to sports radio this morning and one of the jocks seized on a scientific study by physics PhDs that claimed that Derek Jeter was the worst fielder in baseball. It didn’t really explain why. But the jock (and I mean radio jock, not jock jock) disagreed with the study’s conclusion and said that he thinks scientists just use facts that already fit their preconceived notions. It’s like a, I already know the truth in my gut so don’t distract me with facts mentality. And it’s not limited to the South, but there’s more of a pride here, in not being stupid (Texans aren’t stoopid), but a stubborn resistance to anything that contradicts what you already know in your heart. I think it’s the approach to religion that influences this mentality. That and a patriotism that is more like rooting for your favorite college football team than really understanding the history and principles of the nation you live in.
EDIT: I’m not bashing. I love the people down here. Love the music. Love the incredibly unhealthy food. But I just don’t understand. Dunno.
Dennis - SGMM
@p.a.:
I’m also old enough to remember the Great Sunbelt Migration. I memory serves, it began in the 70’s with retirees seeking sunshine, cheaper housing and a lower cost of living. Not exactly a liberal group. It continued with the collapse of the Rust Belt when some companies moved their operations to the open shop states to free themselves from labor unions. Some of the labor followed.
As BooBooBear observed, the numbers were probably never high enough or concentrated enough to shift the political balance.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
@Polish the Guillotines:
Yep, I’m serious. I missed her interview with her dad (I found out about him a few months ago, and was shocked, because she’s always seemed like such an airhead to me). But her entire guest-hosted episode of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. today was the culmination of her heroine worship of the past two months. She barely, grudgingly admitted that Palin may have ever done anything wrong, but quickly returned to her talk of what a smart, awesome, tough woman she was, how she was badly handled by the campaign, yadda. I really thought Harwood was going to lose it.
Litlebritdifrnt
p.a. I will respectfully agree to disagree with you about the Fair Tax.
PS) Jason, the Obama staffer stopped by today to pick up all his stuff from the office and say goodbye, luckily the AP had called NC for Obama about 15 minutes earlier. I hugged him and congratulated him for being a part of turning NC Blue, he said "No thank YOU, we couldn’t have done it without you" I blushed and said something about "however miniscule my assistance I just hoped it helped" That has what has struck me, for the most part Obama’s paid staffers have been so utterly gracious and wonderful. (Well don’t get me started on the damn concern troll they gave me on election day, gawd I could have slapped her her OMG OMG we’re going to loooooooose, we’re going to looooooooose routine was getting fucking old by 5pm) Jason is as we speak driving back to California (from whence he came), the dedication of these people is outstanding.
JL
@p.a.: IMO A flat tax on income over 70,000 would be more progressive than what we now have. Earned and unearned income would be taxed the same. The fair tax is only fair to the very wealthy who save most of their income. Bozo Boortz preaches the fair tax all the time and I’m not sure of the income level of his audience but judging from the call-ins that he has, the education level is pretty low.
Laura W
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: JUST SAY NO TO MIKA!
Mika-free for, um…since yesterday morning, whenever that was.
Joshau Norton
Have the wingnutz tried to start procedures to impeach Obama yet? Or are they going to wait until at least Inauguration Day?
BooBooBear
I think the person that has best captured what you are saying is Steven Colbert. If you listen to the speech that he gave at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner where he embarrassed the media and Bush. He talked about this ‘going from the gut’.
He also does it in all the skits about ‘truthiness’. It’s a sad movement away from reason, part of the post-post modern, world I guess
I agree with your last sentiment.
p.a.
Josh Hueco-
Last month heard Boston sports radio ‘personalities’ (both major wingnuts) complain that everything Obama has achieved in life has been given to him. Obama! This from two GW ballwashers. Imagine some GW Bush supporters being so un-self-aware as to say that about anyone else! I almost drove off the road.
BooBooBear
I think this is referred to as being irony-deficient. A mark of the true-wingnut.
The Moar You Know
No ‘effin way. Maybe in five years. Not now.
Why not Patrick Fitzgerald, if he’s not doing anything better? A Republican running the thieves to ground would be all kinds of awesome.
iluvsummr
@Joshau Norton: He’s already been impeached (in their minds at least).
Totally off-topic — I’ve visited balloon juice off and on since 2005, though I probably made no more than 20 posts between 2005-2007. I’m curious about one person who used to post a lot: ppgaz. Anyone know if he’s still on BJ (just idle curiosity on my part, nothing more)?
Comrade Stuck
@JL:
Oh, she wasn’t talking about actually doing something to attract those groups. She was talking about talking better about doing those things. Growing up around wingnuts, I learned early on that image is everything in their mind and everything is a sell. You sell good and you win. IMO, this is the main reason they did so well electorally the past 15 years. They spent millions and maybe billions in perfecting their product of creating a sparkling image of thrift, patriotism and smears on their opposition (dems). It was deep in the bowels of the Heritage Foundation and other wingnut thinktanks, the best bullshitting Orwellian word smiths put together a narrative to fool the American voter and get their asses elected. Combine that with a withered press concerned about ratings and phony equivalence and a democrat party with no organized deterrent and still on the run from Reaganism, and you have a winning formula.
Of course, as we now see, wingnuts can’t live forever on bullshit alone. And democrats have found a voice and at least a megaphone of moderate volume to fight back.
The Moar You Know
She’s not her father. It’s pretty damn obvious where her sympathies lie.
Jeff
What are the odds that someone is secretly negotiating a tape of Palin to TMZ or some other such gossip paper, TV show or website.
Jen
@Laura W:
I remember her saying something about looking forward to returning to AK so she could enroll her kids in school… So, they’ve been "absent" (truant) all this time? Wonder if they’ll have to go to truancy court–that would be so freaking hilarious!
BooBooBear
An excellent suggestion. Obama should be looking for the competent and conscientous Republicans that they’ve been running out of the party.
He can look at several of the fired at US Attorneys for a start. From what I read more than one of them was competent. I think the lady that was out west was running a lot of the corrupt repubs down (like Cunningham), she would be great.
Gov. Sibelius (sp?) in Kansas has done a good job of courting modrate republicans in Kansas, they should be talking to her.
Krista
Oh, he’s still around. He just likes to change handles every so often. For quite awhile, he was ThymeZone. And now he has yet another handle. But I’ll leave him to stand up and take his bow if he so chooses.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
It’s me, ppgaz, ThymeZone, ImRubberYour’reGlue, ThymeZoneThePlumber, and TheHatOnMyCat.
The handles are part of a vast consipiracy in which the letters in the handle interact with certain passages of Les Miserables to form code patterns which can only be deciphered using a trained manatee that lives in my neighbor’s swimming pool.
My url points to an actual photograph of me.
Scott H
Andy Ihnatko has a review of Photoshop Elements up at the Chicago Sun-Times. I have used Graphic Converter for ages, but I am considering making the step up.
At best, we are all high-functioning primates, and social mammals tend to mimic the conventions of their group. Some people have reason to be suspicious of the government (redneck doesn’t mean what many think), and how many people in these threads feel their tax money has been well spent lately?
Self-satisfied urbanites have their unexamined tropes as well as any backwater Southerners. In particular, the city attitude towards "hillbillies," which is as naked a display of ignorance with malice as one may find.
I am ready to embrace the "tax and spend liberals" as an alternative to the "borrow and spend" of The First Fratboy and his nearly feral "bros before hoes, man!" who have been living large off of America’s credit cards for the last eight years. At least, I know the bills will be getting paid. There is a testament to Obama’s self-discipline that he did not openly mock Bush and McCain on this point.
iluvsummr
@Krista: Thanks – I suspected as much.
Laura W
@The Moar You Know:
The irony is (I can’t believe I’m writing this. I think this means I am breaking my Mika abstinence…having a Mika slip…), Mika has spent months and months pretend-defending herself against Joe Blow for "being in the tank for Obama". I do believe she voted for him. However, I also believe this woman is incapable of expressing (on air) a position that she can call her own. For whatever her reasons, she does not feel comfortable taking a stand. I’m guessing it’s because, unlike Joe, KO, Rachel… she fancies herself a REAL JOURNALIST and not an opinion show person. Thus, the facade of impartiality. When she’s seated in between Joe Blow and Crazy Uncle Pat…clear partisans…she tries to appear "neutral". I am proud to say I flipped off of MSNBC as soon as I saw that she was filling in for Gregory. Don’t take the first glance! Mika is cunning, baffling and powerful!
Thus, I’m guessing that tonight she bent over backwards to not only appear "unbiased" and "impartial", but bent so far over that her head lodged up her perky ass and she is now appearing to be in bed with Sarah.
eeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww. (or yummmm…depending upon your fantasy preferences.)
(Wow. I just stopped Colbert on tape from last night and had on NBC…is that Deborah Norville? Is her face on purpose? Girl’s had some work.)
And another thing: The Obamas have promised to rescue a dog, NOT pay a breeder hundreds of dollars for a Labradoodle or Golden Doodle. These dogs are not "mixed mutts" (as a morning MSNBC anchor indicated, ie, easy to find as rescues.) They are fairly rare, BRED and SOLD dogs. I’m quite fed up today with the non-stop blather about these doodles, as darling as they are…a close friend has two LabDoodle puppies and they found ONE semi-conveniently located breeder in VA, I believe. They live in SC. I doubt you will find a doodle puppy in the breed rescue world.
Rants over. For now.
iluvsummr
@I’mRubberYou’reGlue: The photograph of you does explain a lot, Jean Valjean :-).
Comrade Stuck
@iluvsummr:
I’mRubberYou’reGlue: Makes every day a sticky situation.
Josh Hueco
Some of us self-satisfied urbanites grew up in rural areas don’t live there anymore for a reason.
"I think the person that has best captured what you are saying is Steven Colbert. "
IIRC, Colbert grew up Catholic in South Carolina. So he definitely knows of what he makes fun of.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
Yes, but I bounce back.
Laura W
@Jen: As long as she is not their sole source of knowledge on geography, civics, English and math.
Science, biology, anthropology, chemistry, sociology, psychology, statistics, comparative religions…
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
That imagery is really just full of win.
Not only does it fit, but it is just a delicious thing to contemplate.
Thank you.
Dennis - SGMM
We have an accidoodle: a poodle-terrier mix who rescued us.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I’m thinking of a similar image right now.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
Parlez lentement.
Laura W
pee ess:
NORTH CAROLINA BARACKED THE VOTE!
Finally I can say that. I knew it all along. I just didn’t know it would take so freakin’ long to confirm.
Last but not least.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
Duht.
The Raven
I think The Barracuda is going to become wingnut-in-chief. We await more tasty hominid as the result. Caw!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Speak English. Or perhaps you’d rather FRENCH? I’ll even accept Spanish at this point.
Polish the Guillotines
@Laura W:
You pretty much sum up my take on Mika.
Frankly, there just ain’t a whole lot of there there on cable news, period. I like Maddow. I appreciated KO up until a few months ago. Now he’s bordering on self-parody.
CNN is mostly lame, and Fox is not allowed in my house.
Actually, now that I think about it, the only cable news outlet that I can really stomach is the Weather Channel.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
I see a split coming in the GOP. I have strong feeling that the real power people and the cognoscenti in that party are questioning the value of trying build a coalition based on illiterate, superstitious ingrates who have a retrograde view of the world and whose idea of politics is grounded in division and not inclusion.
Sarah may become the champion of those latter people, but I have doubts that this group can continue to hijack the Republican party.
I'mRubberYou'reGlue
I fell over backwards :)
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Adios.
Dennis - SGMM
Coleman’s lead over Franken down to 336 votes.
The latest unofficial tally from the Minnesota Secretary of State has Coleman’s lead down from 725 votes. Franken is pushing for a recount. Coleman is, oddly enough, urging Franken to save the state the expense (Under $90,000) of a recount. The final results will be official on Nov 18th, and then the recount will begin.
Link
Scott H
@Josh Hueco Colbert grew up Catholic in South Carolina. So he definitely knows of what he makes fun of.
Affectionate fun-making, speaking from a place of knowing, is one thing – kneejerk derision is another. I can riff on hillbilly jokes all night long.
Although I am from West Virginia, I graduated high school in South Carolina, and I prayed shoulder to shoulder with Buckleys at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I get where Colbert is coming from.
As a kid, I crapped in my Grandmother’s outhouse, but I received 90% of my education from her bookshelves (not to mention endless suummers with piles of musty original Tom Swift and Hardy Boys).
I don’t hesitate to say that West Virginia is a great place to be from, I have lived all over the States and in Europe, but it is a comfortable, and lately a fairly exciting, place to return.
taodon
So, let me see if I understand this correctly…
The republicans are going to form a gestapo to destroy any republican that speaks out against any other republican. Is that about right?
Implosion as political theory
Laura W
So are we buying these?
I gave them who knows how much $$ over the months, and also, too, for an XL T-shirt that wouldn’t even fit my hyperthyroid 16-yr-old cat that is too small for me to even sleep in, too, and also tonight I said YES to their free sticker, which was just a lure to hook me in for more money, and now they want $100 for a poster, which I could totally frame and hang in my bedroom, but I did have my eye on the commemorative plate or coin:
Thank you for ordering an Obama sticker with Shepard Fairey’s brand-new "Yes We Did—Victory!" design.
We’re getting ready to offer 5,000 hand-numbered, limited-edition, poster-sized prints featuring this design—and we’d like your feedback.
If you could receive one of these posters with a $100 donation to MoveOn, would you be interested?
Just click below to let us know.
Yes, I’d definitely order a poster.
Not sure—I might order a poster.
No, I wouldn’t order a poster.
Thanks for your help!
MaurS
Allegations have surfaced of voter irregularities involving a paid staffer of Norm Coleman, and the ramifications could have a profound impact on the outcome of Coleman’s race against Al Franken"
http://wcco.com/election/ voter.i…s.2.857437.html
bago
yer doin it rong!
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Oh, my. Forget about Miko. I just found the most AWESOME phone EVER. (You need up to date Flash, but it’s worth it.)
I think Krista may already be familiar with this.
stickler
BeelzeppGaz already appeared, but I can not resist answering this:
If you say his name (ANY of his names will do!) out loud three times, while looking in the mirror, he will appear in a cloud of sulfurous smoke and proceed to mock your taste in cars. He will then lay down a curse of cranky snark upon you and all your house. Some say that he will also let the air out of your left-front tire on his way back to the River Hades.
Beware! You attempt to summon BeelzeppGaz at your own risk!
Laura W
@stickler:
…men’s head wear.
You’ve been warned.
Litlebritdifrnt
IMHO the Obamas should definitely adopt a shelter dog, whether it be a pound puppy, or a specific breed rescue dog whatever (if it were me I would recommend Boxer rescue) I have a male and a female boxer, therefore they will not allow me to rescue anymore, but given the chance I would have a house full of them. I think having a rambunctious boxer in the white house would be absolutely perfect. (Oh and a couple of cats, definitely some cats, a house is not complete without cats).
Peter von Nostrand
Did not read the comments in the thread (I’m just that lazy) but here is something that some might find amusing. I believe this is the brainchild of Malkin. I left one but I’m sure it’s been deleted by now. 7747, IIRC.
Anne
I sincerely hope that Balloon Juice will continue to report on this. I’ll bring popcorn.
Litlebritdifrnt
PS) Can anyone explain to me why one of my cats, Nelson (he has only one eye natch) absolutely adores Angel Food Cake, it is like kitty crack to him, the minute I get it out of the fridge to cut my DH a piece he is all over it, to the extent I have to cut him a slice so he can mainline on it. Anyone have any clue?
jibeaux
I’ve got all you so-called Bruce Campbell fans beat by miles.
Live reading from If Chins Could Kill. Poseurs.
Now, where do us granny-panties go to figure out what the hell all these cryptic new buttons do? I am not down with this much html.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Well, this turned out to be an aptly named thread.
I’ve had a wonderful time here for the last almost four years and I’ve come to know you all as my family, but I must be moving on now.
TZ is free to speak french to strange females all he’d like now. (careful, don’t move for him, you’ll regret it).
Bye all.
Comrade Stuck
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Cats are just weird is all I can offer. Not only in general, but individually as well. It’s been a while since I had one for a pet, but I remember.
Laura W
Apparently, I am not the only person disturbed today by all the talking head blather about the "new first puppy" and the constant on-screen shots of the very pricey, intentionally bred, Golden Doodle, coupled with talk of Labradoodles. This email from Best Friends tonight, who started the petition to ask the Obamas to rescue, not buy.
The heat is on. (I’ve no doubt they’ll keep their promise as he has a great record insofar as animal rights are concerned. I like the proactive attempt of Best Friends to nip the pure bred puppy purchase story in the butt is all.)
Dear Members and Friends,
Did you hear President-elect Obama’s victory speech promise? “You have earned the new puppy that’s coming to the White House,” he told his two daughters.
Here at Best Friends, we hope Mr. Obama keeps the promise he made to homeless pets, too: that the First Family will adopt “a rescue dog.” (Get the full story here.)
We’ve even offered to help the Obamas find a forever friend. So until they take us up on our offer, here are a few happy endings you’ve made possible:
cleek
WTF is it with wingnuts and their constant impassioned manifestos?
I Am John Galt!
I Am Joe The Plumber!
The Euston Alliance!
The Gates Of Vienna!
Operation Leper!
Erick The Dumb’s Rebuild The Party!
and why do they all sound like they were written by the same douchebag ? why do they all sound like a 15 year old who has just discovered the Lord Of The Rings ?
(i’d link to them all, but it’d get spam-blocked)
Steve The Other Plumber
@Laura W:
There’s nothing wrong with getting a breed, as long as you are dealing with a responsible breeder.
Our little dachshund is the greatest puppy ever.
Comrade Jake
Heh – "Erick the Dumb" – you crack me up cleek.
I love that this idiot has taken up the charge of rebuilding the GOP. This is the same numbnut who was all too willing to cast out anyone who wasn’t a Palin cheerleader as a "leper".
Good luck to them.
Steve The Other Plumber
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Because you are feeding your cat angel food cake. If you give your pet one scrap ever, they will never let you alone.
If you want to give them something, you put it in their bowl.
Comrade Jake
Has anyone said fare-thee-well to Joe Fucking Lieberman yet? I don’t really care what the Dems do to him, I just want him off the goddamn teevee.
gnomedad (fmr. Nixon Hailfire Palin)
@p.a.:
I’d love to see a reference for that if you have one.
Laura W
@Steve The Other Plumber: I strongly disagree. If you must have a purebred, go through a breed-specific rescue group. With the millions of cats and dogs "put to sleep" every day in this country for lack of caring homes, there is absolutely no reason to breed and sell. Spay, neuter, and adopt from shelters and private rescue groups. Period. And educate yourself on these issues if you really care.
Not something I have any interest in debating.
It just is.
boonagain
Since I am an AKC Judge and Dachshund and Basenji breeder, I have another opinion, of course.
If someone wants a pet, they are certainly welcome to adopt from a shelter or Rescue Group if they wish, but it is not somehow wrong to buy from a responsible breeder (puppy mills are another story).
As for the ‘doodles’, they are merely a scam for seling mutts at a high price.
Comrade Stuck
@Comrade Jake:
Heard he met with Harry Reid today and for now will keep his committee chairmanship. My guess is that Reid put him on a short leash and told him to deep6 the teevee appearances and GOP lovecrush crap.
Iowa housewife
@Laura W: Oooooo, yikes
jcricket
Coleman’s lead is down to like 236 at last count. This article makes it very clear that not only might Franken have the lead (or Coleman expand his a little) before the recount – the recount is very, very necessary.
Whenever humans and machines interact, there is a margin of error (or even if it’s all machine, you can have systematic programming errors). In most cases the net difference in elections is large enough that a 1% margin of error doesn’t materially effect things. But with record high turnout, new voters, new technology, absentee voting at an all-time high and a 0.11% difference – it certainly matters in the MN senate race.
If we all voted by mail, there were no registration questions, everyone used the same optical scan ballots, and everyone used the most recent counting mechanisms, and had a well oiled, audited counting facility (with trained staff, secure ballots, etc.) you’d still never achieve a perfect result. You’d still have some margin of error with the machine counting, and also there’s errors on ballots, and problems with ballots (paper, stray marks, etc.) where the voter intent is clear but the machines reject them. And the law almost always says those ballots should count, even if the machines reject them.
A well-observed, transparent, double-counted hand recount is empirically the most accurate. It’s just the slowest. But sometimes its necessary to ensure democracy and the voters are "served".
Comrade Stuck
More on the Lieberman Reid talks.
"not through a partisan lens" From an interview with Newsmax on October 8, 2008.
Obama is having none of it, however.
Joe Lieberman — Wanker
jcricket
Here’s your latest example in "human error" from Minnesota.
Sheesh.
ptw
Rush should have a serious talk with Viguerie. Time for a new party perhaps?
kommrade jakevich
I hope this comes down to fReichtards engaging in acts of self-mortification for thoughtcrimes against She Who Must be Obeyed.
But I realize I’m being greedy.
And I need to ease up on the popcorn for a while. I mean, we haven’t even gotten to the massive freak outs over what, exactly, Obama placed his hand on when he took the oath of office.
jcricket
OT – but I would like everyone to scroll through all the "voter fraud not an issue at all" stories at TPM Muckracker.
Voter fraud not an issue at all, most of the issues just with registration (provisional balloting) and occasionally with long lines and broken equipment.
That said, someone needs to get on the stick and fix the mess of voter registration (make it easy, accurate, secure, and eliminate false mass challenges at the last minute). And each state should move to all vote by mail, with a single kind of ballot, and count using centralized, secure, properly equipped well-staffed facilities. Would eliminate 80-90% of the problems we do have.
ETA: Bwahahahahaha. RNC to sue over computerized vote fraud. Too funny.
Martin
FWIW, the chatter here in the OC is that they’re largely done with the GOP if they don’t fix their shit in a very big way. OC are the deep pockets of the Republican party and they aren’t getting what they want. A number of them broke ranks and chased Ron Paul. They mostly don’t give a shit about the social crap. Yeah, they’re somewhat socially conservative, but the gays really aren’t their issue, or abortion, and so on. They barely approved of Prop 8 – far more support came from the latino communities in north county.
They want their flat tax. They want their deregulation (though they regulate the shit out of John Wayne to keep their neighborhoods quieter) and the GOP isn’t doing it. I was wondering if the Republicans here would push in and boot out the fundies, but I’m almost getting the sense that they are ready to walk away – which would make things very interesting indeed.
Martin
You know, why don’t we just have the postal service do it?
I know its almost a recreation sport to shit on the USPS, but if you want 130 million pieces of paper processed really fucking fast, you could hardly do better. What’s more, with them, people wouldn’t even need to put on a stamp.
Given that they’re all civil service, you really don’t need to worry about vote tampering any more than usual, and they are distributed as perfectly for the population as you could hope.
Plus you could channel all the money that already goes into the whole vote apparatus into them and slightly offset the cost of mail delivery.
Mike G
WTF is with your banner ads?
"Michelle Malkin is a national treasure"?
Hugh "Harriet Meiers is highly qualified to be a Supreme Court justice" Hewitt?
Is Michael Savage running ads next week?
But I guess if they want to toss their money away advertising to an audience that wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole, except perhaps out of irony or anthropological research purposes, then we should encourage them.
Jeff
Has anyone compared the wingnut rhetoric today with the rhetoric of the Whigs in the 1850s?
Martin
We got our dog from a breeder, mainly to ensure that he was healthy and so forth. We found a breeder of show Corgis that had one from a litter that they were adopting out. Wonderful experience – it was kinda cool being interviewed in order to get a dog.
p.a.
Soul on Ice
Clinton used Steal This Book
Bush used his father’s rollodex; it had served him well ’till then.
Conservatively Liberal
While browsing a musicians forum (in their open talk area), I saw a link to this post at Freeperland where they are talking of Texas secession. Pretty entertaining reading…lol!
Drama queens.
Conservatively Liberal
Mine is 9,839, where I said:
The other pro Obama posts there are a laugh to read. Thanks for the entertainment link! ;)
Dennis - SGMM
Lieberman’s future as a committee chair is in doubt according to this piece from HuffPo:
Lieberman Meets With Reid, Tries To Cling To Senate Chairmanship
Looks as though Liebeman’s only hope is to try to win over other members of the Democratic leadership. I doubt that he he will be successful after his remarks during the campaign.
OriGuy
Only if they take Oklahoma with them.
Dennis - SGMM
One more for the "Cry Me a River" column:
Religious Conservatives Brace for Future Under Obama
Albert Mohler, the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had this to say on his web site:
Good riddance.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@Dennis – SGMM: Reid, in a sternly worded statement after the 45-minute meeting, said no official decisions have been made.
OOooooOOOoooooOOoooh! Stern words from Reid. No doubt Joe’s a-quakin’.
oh really
Ah, Red State the hypocrites that keep on giving.
There is really choice post up now at Red State by Pejman Yousefzadeh. In it he makes the following offer to Joe Lieberman:
Wait, just a sec there old Pejjie. Isn’t Red State the same group that is pushing Operation Leper? Are you kidding me?
Conservatively Liberal
Re:Reid, I’ll believe it when I see it. I hope Obama pushes Reid out and gets someone with balls to do the job right.
Hillary sounds about right. She makes Reid look like a girlie man.
Jeff
It almost seems as if the modern day Republicans are kicking everyone out to form the modern day equivalent of the Know-Nothing Party. They could even have the same platform with only a few slight adjustments.
Ash Can
@Peter von Nostrand: @Conservatively Liberal:
Following up on a tip at GOS, I checked and sure enough, the petition appears to be shut down. I wonder if it had anything to do with certain smart asses not displaying proper deference to Her Royal Mooseness.
Dennis - SGMM
@Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist:
Afraid so. The Senate Democratic Caucus needs to vote out Reid. I don’t know how able a parliamentarian Clinton is but, you’re correct: she has more balls than Reid and she’d be more of a Lyndon Johnson-type. The Democrats will need to pass some legislation in order to make a success of the Obama presidency. The Republicans know that and they’ll be as obstructionist as hell. If they want to filibuster then make them actually hold the floor. Reid just isn’t up to the job.
Conservatively Liberal
The circular firing squad is forming up for a practice session at the GoS now. Jeez, Obama ain’t even in office and they are already battling about inane shit. It is times like this that I am glad I left that place a couple of years ago. When I left, I was told by others there that I ‘would be back’.
Fuck that static. It is a great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to post there again.
Chuck Butcher
When trying to evaluate organizations it makes sense to look for cohesiveness, when there is a bloc of that something will come out of it. If you take that approach to the Republican Party you will find the nut fringe as the cohesive element.
The theocratic right is not going to just blow away from this Democratic breeze, the farther Obama moves us from their point of view the more cohesive and the more pissed off they will be. You can argue about whether they have big money sources and any intelligence, but they do have stick togetherness and virtually unlimited ability to do small dollar building, (televangelists anybody?), and organizations. The only reason they were considered as allies in the corporate Republicanism is that aspect. A funny thing happened to Republicans from that.
I have no idea who will get to hang onto the RNC label in the coming fight, but I do not expect the corporate wing to demolish the Theocrats. The "Other" is such a potent source of fear and anger that even a light weight should be able to keep them together and stirred up. A 20% sliver of the population is not going to make it as a majority party, but they’ll certainly create plenty of grief and they’ll sell themselves at a high price tag once they figure that out.
If you look around for another 20% group with anything like the cohesiveness of that bunch it’ll take awhile. The closest I can come up with is the 2nd Amendment for size and really quite lacking in the cohesive measure. I’m perfectly happy for them to finish their take-over of the Republican Party, I do wonder where the philosophical wing is going to go once that happens.
For all the scoffing at third parties, that is, to me, the most likely outcome of this election. I have a hunch that it will be the ideological wing of the party that has to start one. Considering the hold in the House that the theocrats have I’d expect them to hang onto the name.
You can certainly make the case that the Theocrats hate taxes, but the small government part is strictly aping of "their betters." As long as big government is religious they have no particular problem with it. At this point I really don’t care what happens to them as long as they are ineffective. The question to be asked of Democrats is if this split occurs and a new conservative party is born with theocracy stripped out of it how many of the more right Democrats would go that direction.
I’m sure there are plenty of holes in this little prognostication, but I do believe it bears further thought.
Xenos
No. It is much more a matter of a ‘nice mom’ character telling the puerile boys to stop picking on the slow kid. She really feels vicarious shame for the asinine, antisocial, shameless Palin. It is a waste of charitable feeling, but there it is.
Josh Hueco
@Conservatively Liberal:
Oh, please secede, Texas. I mean just because you EPIC FAIL’d the Republic and the Confederacy doesn’t mean it won’t work now, will it? Just remember to give NASA and the military bases and the highways and farm subsidies and border patrol back to those evil Yankees Socialists. And then in ten years when you degenerate into Rwanda on the Rio Grande and you call for our help, we’ll say we’d love to, but we’re still trying to clean up the messes that Dubya and Rove and Gramm and Delay and Cornyn and all the other Textards left us with. Sorry!
-Love
The USA.
John
The nasty brother against brother reality is ignored, and the history stops firmly at Appomattox.
If you haven’t noticed, Mrs. Mitchell’s novel and the movie based on it go well beyond Appomattox. Reconstruction has normally formed an indelible part of the whole Lost Cause legendarium.
canuckistani
You wouldn’t have Birth of a Nation without it.
Patrick
@ Josh Hueco #19:
That’s a question whose answer could make a damn good dissertation and book.
I live in one of the "collar counties" in North Texas where all of our county results were around 60-40 in favor of the Republicans, even in this election cycle. We added 31,000 Democratic voters from 2004 while the Republicans added around 8,000 voters from 2004 and Obama still lost the county by 60,000 votes.
I’m a native Texan and a Texas history buff. Ignorance and racism both play huge roles in why we have the Know Nothing hard right attitude in abundance in this state. Part of the answer to your question is because we have a big chunk of "independents" that aren’t really independent at all. These folks are what I call Republitarians or what some folks around here call Paultards. They present themselves as independents but in reality they are just big teases who always get in the car with the Republicans come time to vote. You can see this dynamic in CNN’s exit polling data where the "independents" in Texas broke overwhelmingly for McCain.
Contemporary Texas is six urban concentrations (El Paso, Bexar, Travis, Harris, Tarrant and Dallas), five collar counties (suburban/exurban concentrations) (Denton, Collin, Williamson, Montgomery and Fort Bend), medium concentrations in areas like Killeen/Temple, Waco, Abilene, Amarillo, Odessa and Midland and then a whole bunch of rural counties with more mesquite than voters. All of the urban concentrations went for Obama this time. All of the collar counties went for McCain. The rest of the state outside of the Rio Grande Valley went for McCain.
There’s a synergy of mythical Texas history and Know Nothing Republicanism that appeals to both conservative and "independent" white rural voters and conservative and "independent" white collar county dwellers. Here in the collar counties many of these developments and communities are completely new within the last 15-20 years. 15 years ago one here in my county had 900 people in it; today there are just over 25,000. Everyone drives to work in Dallas. Since most of these communities are almost exclusively bedroom communities full of commuters where the communities are relatively new, there’s a double edged sword at work: Little interconnectedness (makes folks more susceptible to the Republican line in my opinion) and all the culture is new Generica.
In the end, though, it does come down to a lot of latent racism masquerading as some narrow concept of liberty.