Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

“But what about the lurkers?”

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Democrats are back in array!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

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

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Bark louder, little dog.

The willow is too close to the house.

When we show up, we win.

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

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Books are my comfort food!

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80Comments

  2. 2.

    bootlegger

    Back to business. Anyone know if Becks group hug for teabaggers was an epic fail last night?
    Schadenfreude compels me.

  4. 4.

    Laura W

    I was standing in line at the grocery store Thursday looking at all the trash mag covers and then saw this one:
    The First Lady The World’s Been Waiting For
    It’s a very striking photo, and it was one of those moments where I again broke out of my habituated mindset and thought: Wow, this really happened! It’s really happening!

  9. 9.

    crustaceanette

    Eh meh frikkin gawd – watched some more of Glenn Friday, as much as I could stand. The ‘spontaneous’ outbursts of tears – embarrassingly fake and amatuerish. I hope Fox doesn’t try to rein him in one bit b/c he is going to have a catastrophic, mental meltdown on national teevee and I wanna watch.

  10. 10.

    crustaceanette

    Laura W, I know, I feel the same way — when a Glenn Beck is allowed to have a national forum, it’s easy to forget

  11. 11.

    passerby

    Its a rainy Saturday in E TN. With the newly coined terms "go Galt" and "Randian" making their way into our lexicon, I discovered a 5-part Ayn Rand / Phil Donahue Show interview on Youtube.

    This link goes to a page with an assortment of Rand interviews including one with a young Mike Wallace back in 1959.

    I watched most of them and found them thought provoking.

    p.s. And related, but not really, Gary Cooper absolutely butchered the climax courtroom scene in The Fountain Head sounding exactly like his hapless Meet John Doe character. Just saying.

  12. 12.

    El Cid

    I don’t know about you, but it kind of made me feel better to see Glenn Beck’s efforts to have right wingers feel a little less frightened and alone by sending in pictures of themselves so Glenn could make a computer mosaic — ‘you are not alone, little right winger! Someone cares! Your compatriots surround you!’

    It’s deliciously sad. It’s great to see the conservative movement so broken and despairing.

  13. 13.

    crustaceanette

    It’s deliciously sad. It’s great to see the conservative movement so broken and despairing *and as weak as infants*.

    Fixed. Whatever happened to the "macho conservative"?

  16. 16.

    Josh Hueco

    Going dark for a couple days, will be back Monday. In the meantime, Sic ’em Bears! Beat Mizzou!

  19. 19.

    GSD

    Apparently the Beck’s Bunker Battalions plan on surrounding their enemies and drowning them in tears.

    Pathetic.

    -GSD

  20. 20.

    bootlegger

    It’s also disturbingly ironic that Beck is harping on the media and the "curtain" behind which the powerful media figures hide, when he is a creation, a freezer burned embryo, of the Village. He is, in effect, rallying against himself and his fans are joining in their support for the thing which they claim to fear.
    Pass the popcorn.

  21. 21.

    Hugh

    I cannot watch Beck. It’s traumatic, like looking at photos of car wrecks in drivers ed. He’s a cautionary tale.

  25. 25.

    bootlegger

    @smiley: I can’t decide if he needs some bling, a felt hat, and a convertible Caddy for the pimp look, or a straw hat, walking cane and ribbon tie for the white-slave owner plantation look. Either way, the man makes that suit look fine.

  26. 26.

    Laura W

    @smiley: I’d not heard about that. Guess I’d be more excited if Palin didn’t have one. Feh.
    I want to get out for my walk.
    Who’ll stop the rain? (No link…Utube is still crankly. WTF is up over there?)
    Just threw clean, warm, laundry basket on the floor to answer emails.
    The inevitable.

  27. 27.

    smiley

    @bootlegger: Not sure which one you’re referring to. They come up randomly (I think) each time you open the link. If you haven’t already, check out the reset button at bottom right.

  28. 28.

    bootlegger

    Glenzilla reports on a study he did for the Cato Institute assessing Portugal’s drug decriminalization policy. Apparently, it worked. Duh.

  29. 29.

    bootlegger

    @smiley: Oh wow, I didn’t see all those. I saw the one where he’s in a white suit, collar undone, standing in front of the Whitehouse.

  30. 30.

    AhabTRuler

    @bootlegger: I actually e-mailed the Cato Institute to register for the presentation. I feel dirty, but it should be interesting.
    Maybe I can find a portrait of Ayn Rand to piss on while I am there.

  32. 32.

    bootlegger

    @AhabTRuler: I find myself agreeing with about half the orthodox liberterian positions and either disagreeing or feeling ambivalent toward the other half. A friend once said he thought it was the difference between "individual" rights and liberty (the orthodox liberterian position), and "civil" rights and liberty (my position) that doesn’t exclude individual rights but instead recognizes the times when the civil society’s interests should be weighed against the individual’s.
    So don’t feel dirty, have a good time and let us know how many heads explode.

  33. 33.

    gex

    @smiley: According to Dushku, the network wanted a bunch of largely stand-alone episodes of Dollhouse at the front before the story arc really gets going. Letting Joss know up front avoided the problems that Firefly ran into with episodes airing out of order.

    By which I mean to say I’ve been feeling "meh" about Dollhouse, but it is too soon to tell for sure.

  34. 34.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @bootlegger:

    Sign up for the Balloon Juice NCAA tournament pool. Email me, [email protected] if you have any problems getting in.

    Ladies, there are many more of you than there are of us non-ladies. Feel free to join. Just don’t win. And if you somehow get lucky and win, don’t ever freakin’ mention it again. Ever.

  36. 36.

    smiley

    @bootlegger: Heh. I hadn’t seen that one.

    @gex:

    By which I mean to say I’ve been feeling "meh" about Dollhouse, but it is too soon to tell for sure.

    Largely stand alone is an understatement. I’ve only watched the first three and something needs to happen soon, story arc wise, or it’s going to lose me. So, I agree. Meh so far.

  37. 37.

    AhabTRuler

    @bootlegger: Ehhh, douche-bags to a one, but I will enjoy hearing what Greenwald has to say. Plus, I have followed drug policy in Europe as an interest for a while now. I remember reading a couple of articles when Portugal first decriminalized drugs, so it will be interesting to hear what the results are. Plus plus, I actually trust Greenwald, one of the few people I can say that about.

    I mean, dig that the forum will be presented in the Hayek Auditorium, and you will understand that I will be rolling my eyes at least some of the time.

  41. 41.

    Montysano

    In my music purchases, I typically forgo greatest hits packages, preferring the original releases. So I was happy to pick up War’s "All Day Music" and "The World is a Ghetto" recently, both on squeaky clean vinyl. Both are good, but "Ghetto" blew me away. I realized I’d never heard the 10 minute album version of the title song, or the killer jam "City Country City".

    Video of War from back in the day is sadly in short supply, but damn they were good.

  42. 42.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Wini: Yes. I wasn’t willing to part with my personal information. Now I’m praying I don’t get all 63 (or whatever) picks right.

  44. 44.

    Laura W

    @Montysano: Yesterday I came this close to walking into a music store with LPs and all sorts of vintage treasures. I was going to look for HONK, except I finally found a CD on amazon. Lord knows when it’ll actually arrive, but I’ve waited 30 years, so what’s another month or two?

    Anyone remember Honk, besides me and Iowa Housewife? (Maybe Ned R, I’m guessing?) Growing up on Santa Monica Beach, vacationing down by Laguna, and going to Santa Barbara for college, this was an integral part of life. Best listened to when accompanied by copious amounts of Blue Nun, ‘ludes, valium, pot…whatever else I ingested back then. I shudder when I think of the chances I took with my life, and others’, back in the day.
    The soundtrack of my life was cool, though.

  45. 45.

    Montysano

    @Laura W:

    @Montysano: Yesterday I came this close to walking into a music store with LPs and all sorts of vintage treasures. I was going to look for HONK, except I finally found a CD on amazon. Lord knows when it’ll actually arrive, but I’ve waited 30 years, so what’s another month or two?

    My son (a junior in college) and all his friends are into vinyl. Part of it is the cost factor (I bought 7 LPs last week for $35.00). Part of it is the ritual of it, I think. I asked him if they were bugged by the pops and clicks, and he looked at me like I was braindead; for them, that’s part of the romance. Go figger… Maybe they just need something to roll doobs on.

    HONK?? What iz?

  47. 47.

    bootlegger

    @Wini: Even if you don’t win the million bucks, there are the $10k prizes. Yahoo already knows where you live, you aren’t giving up anything they don’t already know.

  48. 48.

    Zuzu's Petals

    Re Shadegg’s ridiculous "no-cost stimulus" plan (drill, baby, drill!) that John posted about a few days back…my son, who works in the oil industry, has this to add to his prior comment:

    I forgot to tell you why this plan is stupid in regard to stimulus. They are assuming that oil companies will want to produce these new leases. Oil companies have been laying off people and downsizing their prospects due to the price of oil. At 30 we make no money, at 40 just keeping our head above water, 50 seeing some profit, 60 and above they start building new rigs

  50. 50.

    Wini

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Plus, I thought I saw in the terms that by entering you’re giving them the right to use your info for what seemed like additional marketing.. something other than what I am already allowing them to do by having a user id. Or something.

  53. 53.

    Svensker

    @Laura W:

    Anyone remember Honk?

    My kid’s high school put it on 2 years ago — first time I’d ever heard of it. Very cute!

    As for doing bad things as a teen and living to tell about it…yee gawds. Sometimes I break out into a cold sweat. I’d KILL my kid if even contemplated some of that stuff. What WERE we thinking?

  55. 55.

    Laura W

    @Montysano:
    @Svensker:
    Ooops…guess I need to ‘splain HONK some.

    Every place has its homegrown sound. Southern California is legendary for surf music, the ladies of the canyon, country-influenced rock as exemplified by the latter-day Byrds and the early Eagles, and great pop music. All those diverse elements came together, for a brief period, in a band called Honk. Back in the day, they provided the soundtrack to what’s generally thought of as the premier Seventies surf film (Five Summer Stories), played as headliners at countless venues, had a #1 hit in Hawaii, and opened for the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Loggins & Messina, Jackson Browne, among others. Signed to 20th Century Records in 1973, they recorded a pair of albums, one of which was released, and one not… until now. This long-awaited release uncovers their unparalleled musicianship and songwriting, plus it’s just a damn fine listen. The renowned surfer Corky Carroll called Honk his favorite surf band ever. But they were, and are, so much more than that. Trust us on this one; if you missed them the first time around, don’t make the same mistake twice.

  57. 57.

    AhabTRuler

    Poor Laura.

    On so many levels.

    I mean even if Bush is traveling a river in Egypt, she has to realize what a colossal failure he is. Georgie can burn in hell for all I care, but I do feel pity for her.

  58. 58.

    Svensker

    @Laura W:

    Oooooooh. Well bust my buttons. Thought you were talking about the cutie musical.

    Never heard of that there group afore.

  59. 59.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler:

    she has to realize what a colossal failure he is

    I have never understood this partnership. (And I am one who spends much time deconstructing other peoples’ relationships out of sheer fascination.) I get nothing but genuine, caring and loving from her. Why she has attached herself to him for any reason other than pathos, history, and kids is beyond me. She should be with some philanthropist, or a physician that works in war zones or the like.

    I recall seeing some scuttlebutt on a possible divorce once he was out of office? Now that would be interesting. I really do wish her well. I think she is a Good person. Maybe if he is drinking again she’ll get her ass into Al-Anon and wake up. Painful, either way she plays it at this point in her life.

    Open thread…one of my new singer/songwriter passions.

  60. 60.

    gwangung

    Poor Laura.
    edit: Bush, that is.

    Geez. for a minute, I thought your were referencing Laura Roslin…

  61. 61.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @AhabTRuler:

    Well yeah, but I was mostly thinking about how it must feel to NOT be "the first lady the world’s been waiting for."

  62. 62.

    AhabTRuler

    I recall seeing some scuttlebutt on a possible divorce once he was out of office? Now that would be interesting. I really do wish her well. I think she is a Good person.

    I was hesitant to believe such rumors when they were about the Clintons, I am equally as hesitant to speculate about the Bushes. I have no idea as to whether she is a good person, but I don’t specifically wish her any ill will, outside of general dissatisfaction with what can be loosely termed her "political class."

  63. 63.

    sus

    Anybody seen crazy Orly Taitz version of her stalking the Supreme Court Justices?

    The AP version of the story goes like this:

    "At one point during the audience question period, Orly Taitz, a woman from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., said she had documents proving that President Obama was not born in the United States and thus could not be president. While audience members laughed, she said she had half a million signatures of people demanding the Supreme Court hear the matter.

    Roberts cut her off by saying that if she had documents with her, she should give them to security officers. He also said he could not discuss the issue."

    Orly says…

    "I was the first to run to the microphone and told Roberts. " My name is Orly Taitz, I am an attorney from Southern California. I left home at three o’clock in the morning and flew and drove thousands of miles to talk to you and ask you a question". Roberts seemed to be impressed by that and I continued. "Are you aware that there is criminal activity going on in the Supreme Court of the United States."

    http://defendourfreedoms.us/2009/03/14/i-did-it.aspx

    He, of course, agreed to read her "documents", including a WND petition, and she went back to her hotel room to eat leftovers from yesterdays dinner. ewwwww.

    Please tell me someone has video of this event. Not the dinner… the Roberts appearance.

  65. 65.

    AhabTRuler

    That’s incredibly irresponsible of you.

    It has often been (pronounced ‘bean’ not ‘bin’) said that I am an irresponsible individual. If they only knew.

  66. 66.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: pssssstttttt…do you like kale (yet?) I had never had kale, collard, turnip or mustard greens in my life till moving to NC, and after trying them all, I only like kale. And I like kale a lot!
    Heretofore, I’d been steaming it or sauteing in olive oil. All good, but I happened to run into an elderly southern woman in the market last Thursday. She was in one of those motorized bike/carts things, and took an interest in me, for whatever reason, as I grabbed my bag of kale and she grabbed her bag of collards. "Like the kale, do you?" She asked me if I cooked it "The southern way", which turns out, is steaming it to death all day. (With a pork knuckle, or the like? But I’m not big on pig so I spaced that part out.)

    But that planted the seed that maybe I WAZ DOIN’ IT RONG. Today I found this recipe, which is unbelievably yummy sounding, with the egg and toast and all, but I was just looking for the basic "boil kale to death" instructions. I just boiled a bag of kale to death, in chicken broth, olive oil, sweet onion and fresh garlic. KALEMASMIC!
    I shall never cook it any other way again, and because it’s so easy, I will eat it far more often now. I may even introduce fresh ginger root.
    (I had brussels sprouts last night, but I have taken to using the microwave-in-a-bag kind and adding the sauteed garlic and ginger to them. Just as good, and quicker, which is my priority when in the dreaded kitchen.)

  68. 68.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: Whoops, I see in my orgasmic fugue kale state I said "steam it to death" when I obviously meant "boil it to death". I didn’t boil it for more than an hour, tops…on a medium simmer once it got going.

    If you like any of those greens, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you will love them boiled to death with the chicken broth (organic, MSG-free), olive oil, garlic and sweet onions. I might even try the greens I did not originally care for as I suspect this method of cooking boiling to death makes all the difference in the world.

  69. 69.

    AhabTRuler

    @Laura W: I have to say that I don’t favor greens in general. However, after the Sprout conversion, I am open to trying many things vegetable that I would not have otherwise tried.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    @Svensker:

    As for doing bad things as a teen and living to tell about it . . .

    Not a bad thing, and I was fairly mild as a teenager, but one thing does stick out in my memory. Texas, 1960s: learner’s permit at 12, full driver’s license at 14. Still cannot believe that my father went along with that and taught me to drive in his baby blue stick-shift Mustang. Talk about nerves of steel. And then later let me actually use the car after I got my license. You can’t buy memories like that.

  72. 72.

    Laura W

    @Zuzu’s Petals: That’s sound really good, actually!
    I’m thinking about doing a spring cleaning juice fast of sorts (I can still drink wine, right, cuz it’s juice?), and this is an interesting recipe to consider.

  73. 73.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Laura W:

    I’m thinking the exact same thing. I have an excellent juicer, but am lazy … would rather pay the folks at the coop to do it while I wait.

  74. 74.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Laura W.

    My son (a junior in college) and all his friends are into vinyl. Part of it is the cost factor (I bought 7 LPs last week for $35.00). Part of it is the ritual of it, I think. I asked him if they were bugged by the pops and clicks, and he looked at me like I was braindead; for them, that’s part of the romance. Go figger… Maybe they just need something to roll doobs on.

    Vinyl is coming back, in a limited fashion, The New Pornographers released a couple of their albums as LPs with a coupon for a download of the MP3 version. It’s pretty cool for people like me who have a vinyl fetish (no, not that vinyl fetish, I’m more into warm leatherette). I love the sound of CDs and I love my iPod but there is just something about putting a record on my turntable and watching it spin up that I really enjoy and that I’m at a loss to explain.

  75. 75.

    Wile E. Quixote

    You know, I watched the Glenn Beck cries like Rush Limbaugh on prom night video and one thing he said really shone through:

    It sounds intimidating,
    but do you know what?
    Pull away the curtain,
    you’ll realize that there isn’t anybody there.
    There’s just a few people
    and they’re pressing the button
    and their voices are actually really weak
    The truth is they don’t surround us
    we surround them.
    This is our country.

    I thought, "what a perfect description of the antics of the villagers and the 24 hour news machine that is cable news, most especially, and egregiously, the Fox News Network". When I thought about it I realized that those fuckers at Fox don’t surround us, we surround them and it’s time for us pull away the curtain so we kick ass and take names and give bastards like Beck and Hannity such a beating that they’ll think that God in his infinite mercy, wisdom and benevolence has turned his back, dropped his trousers and taken a big, wet, warm runny crap all over them. Oh wait, that’s not the "them" that Glenn Beck was talking about? Well, it still seems like a good idea.

  76. 76.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @John Cole

    Here is a shiny new one. I am going off the grid for a while.

    Does this mean that you’re going Galt? Should we all start asking "Who is John Cole?"

  77. 77.

    Laura W

    @Wile E. Quixote: I will not quibble with any of your fetishist fancies, however, I would like to clarify that Montysano was responding to me about HIS junior in college son. Your post might lead persons to believe that I could have a son that old. Christ. As if.
    ;-)

  78. 78.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Laura W.

    I have never understood this partnership. (And I am one who spends much time deconstructing other peoples’ relationships out of sheer fascination.) I get nothing but genuine, caring and loving from her. Why she has attached herself to him for any reason other than pathos, history, and kids is beyond me. She should be with some philanthropist, or a physician that works in war zones or the like.
    I recall seeing some scuttlebutt on a possible divorce once he was out of office? Now that would be interesting. I really do wish her well. I think she is a Good person. Maybe if he is drinking again she’ll get her ass into Al-Anon and wake up. Painful, either way she plays it at this point in her life.

    You should watch this:

    Henry Rollins Writes to Laura Bush

    My favorite line? I think it’s "I mean come on. How many hours of a drunken Lynne Cheney reading aloud from Mein Kampf can anyone stand?"

  79. 79.

    Laura W

    @Wile E. Quixote: DAMNIT! I’ve been unable to get youtube to load without non-stop buffering or whatever you call it since yesterday. It’s truly driving me mad. I will come back to this thread in the morning and hope the issue has magically resolved itself, since I’ve tried everything I can find to do to fix it. Probably my connection.
    He’s funny. I look forward to watching this.

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