Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Books are my comfort food!

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Bark louder, little dog.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

In after Baud. Damn.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

A consequence of cucumbers

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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68Comments

  1. 1.

    patrick

    Washington is bending over for the For-Profit Health Care Industry as we speak, and taking it in both ends.

    Bastards.

  3. 3.

    Hunter Gathers

    Since Obama has already failed, I suggest everybody stock up on guns and canned foods, as President Palin will accidentally blow up China 15 minutes after she is sworn into office in January 2013.

  4. 4.

    sarah

    @patrick: have you seen any healthcare polling? i have to think the majority of americans at least want a public option if not single payer. but any hope of even a good bill seems to be circling the drain. what gives?

  5. 5.

    Montysano

    @sarah:

    i have to think the majority of americans at least want a public option if not single payer. but any hope of even a good bill seems to be circling the drain. what gives?

    Your representatives work to protect the interests of corporations, not your interests. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

  6. 6.

    Whatev

    @cleek: Bush was bad, McCain would have been awful, give Obama a free pass on fucking up health care and letting Citibank run the show in the financial crisis! And who doesn’t love blaming the gays for not having gotten Congress to work for them!

    C’mon people. Why are you so goddamn ineffective? Quit being ineffective. Do effective things like John does.

  7. 7.

    The Saff

    Your representatives work to protect the interests of corporations, not your interests. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

    This is so depressing. What does Obama have to do to get the Dems in line? Oh, never mind.

  8. 8.

    The Saff

    John Cole, BTW, love the Tunchcam and Lily pix. Cute overload is always welcome to counteract the effects of all the bad news in the world.

  9. 9.

    Montysano

    @cleek:

    Obama sucks! Bring back Bush!

    I’ve consistently been of the “give him time” school, but between his weak financial reform plan, and a health care plan that ignores the public in favor of the corporations, I’m having some doubts.

  10. 10.

    harlana pepper

    @Montysano: I suppose I should not be surprised. Don’t watch the coverage much except for CSPAN and that is about all I can take of congressmen telling the rest of us schlubs that we don’t want what we want.

    Fuck ’em all. May they rot in electoral hell. Mary Landrieu and the rest can suck my left tit. Assholes.

  12. 12.

    JK

    CNBC’s Erin Burnett and Jim Cramer compared the aftermath of Iran’s recent election to what would happen under the Employee Free Choice Act.

    h/t http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/cnbc

    CNBC needs to fire these clueless, fucking douchebags and hire correspondents who have a firm grasp on reality.

  13. 13.

    JK

    Obama deserves criticism for his lackluster defense of civil liberties in connection with the NSA and eavesdropping, but Bill Maher is out of his fucking mind when he criticizes Obama for overexposing himself on tv i.e. Leno appearance, going out for burgers, going to a broadway show with Michelle. Sometimes, Maher can be just as big of a prick as the Republicans he rails against.

  14. 14.

    gex

    Obama deserves criticism for his lackluster defense of civil liberties in connection with the NSA and eavesdropping

    Sigh.

  15. 15.

    Lola

    I’m not sure why everybody is so pessimistic about health care. This was always going to be a fight. I called Sen. Baucus’s office this morning about the missing public option. His employee was very polite. They want/need us to call.

    Obama has not even begun to apply any public pressure on this issue. His MO is to be pretty hands-off while Congress comes up with some plans and then to sweep in later than a lot of people would like to sell/defend the plan.

    I am not giving up yet. In fact, Obama has been more forceful about a public plan than I had expected.

    This will be a long fight but I actually think Obama is on our side on this one. It doesn’t hurt to call the White House, but we need to all of our Congressional leaders on this one.

    Thankfully the bad week health care reform had was completely overshadowed by world news and Obama killing a fly.

  16. 16.

    patrick

    @sarah:

    The craziest part of it is that the Public Option IS THE COMPROMISE between the existing For-Profit system and Single Payer.

    But the Congressional Democrats seem to be living in terror of Republican poo-flinging.

  17. 17.

    gex

    @Lola: Because we did the same thing as we did on the stimulus. We compromised away what we thought was our best solution before bringing the fight to Congress. Now just getting our compromise position is going to be difficult, with the damn Blue Dog Dems anxious to compromise even that away. What exactly is health care reform without a public option? Just asking the insurance companies to play nice, pretty please?

    This overly cautious bipartisanship is certainly Obama’s M.O. but does anyone for a minute think that what we need to fix problems is to incorporate the Republicans’ “ideas”?

    Ezra Klein seems to be one of the bloggers who follows this most closely. If he thinks health care reform is in serious trouble, I’m inclined to suspect it is as well.

  19. 19.

    Aaron

    @patrick:

    The poo flinging is part of it, but the massive influence (read: money) the health-insurance can leverage against a threat to their profits is also a factor.

  20. 20.

    The Saff

    @Lola:

    I’m not sure why everybody is so pessimistic about health care. This was always going to be a fight. I called Sen. Baucus’s office this morning about the missing public option. His employee was very polite. They want/need us to call.

    You make a good point. I swear I go between being totally depressed about what’s going on in Washington to being hopeful (re: your comment). But then, isn’t that a feature of being a Democrat? After all these years, one would think I’d be used to despondency.

  23. 23.

    Hunter Gathers

    It’s good to know that Amuricans have the patience of a 6 year old. Just because a couple of Senate Committees have released preliminary outlines that lack the public option and have been given shitty scores by the CBO, everybody is pissing themselves. Whatever gets through the Senate will then have to go to the House, which will add the public option. Which will fail to garner 60 votes when kicked back to the Senate. If a health care bill is not passed by October 15th, it goes to reconciliation. Reconciliation means 50 votes plus Biden.
    This has all been planned out. It’s not up to the Senate to add the public option. Obama was in the Senate. He knows how useless it is. It’s full of old, white men who plain don’t give a crap. Pelosi will get the public option added.
    It’s not in anybody’s interest to get a bill passed before October 15th. A bill passed before then will suck. A bill passed after that will contain the public option. GOP grandstanding with an assist from thier buddies in the ‘librul’ media will come to no avail.
    And I imagine that everybody freaking out right now will feel quite silly when the damn thing gets passed after the October 15th ‘cut-off’ date. Chill the hell out.

  25. 25.

    Lola

    @gex:

    The difference between this and the stimulus is that Obama is not bargaining away our best hand, the public option. With the stimulus Obama started out with a lot of tax cuts because he expected some reasonable behavior from Republicans. Obama has not made that mistake twice.

    Unlike many here, I do not believe Obama can snap his fingers and control the Senate Dems. Many of them are moderate Republicans in reality. All of them are a timid lot. That is where we come in. Max Baucus got a lot of heat from his constituents over his crap ideas.

    I called Baucus even though I live in Texas to criticize his actions. We all have to do this. We have to give the Conservadems a super strong reaction every time they act conservatively.

    Supposedly, Congress is getting more calls against the public option even though less than 20% of our population. There is still a difference in organization. Ezra Klein is probably right that reform has taken some hits, but I doubt he intended that to mean we should all give up. That should motivate us even more.

    Liberals still don’t know how to fight. We know how to whine. I, for one, am sick of it. Look up phone numbers and call people.

    Here are some to get people started: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/19/744302/-Baucus-Enzi-Grassley-Release-AHIPs-Wet-Dream-(updatedx2)

  26. 26.

    Hunter Gathers

    @JK: Don’t forget Charles “Let’s Bomb The Shit Out Of Everybody” Krauthammer. He’s always right. Like Bill Krystol.

  28. 28.

    Bill Belichick

    Interminable series of Cat pictures, Skanky nekkid Blondes, Hairy backed nekkid Republicans, and stories about Pittsburgh championships. Lord help me. The only reason I keep coming back is to see if any of the femme fatales here are talking about their spectacular breasts.

    Not today so I guess I’ll just have to brag about all the hardware the Boston Bruins brought home the other night. Rather have the big one of course, but we’ll take what we can get.

  29. 29.

    gex

    @Lola: Actually, our best hand is single payer, which was written off prior to bringing this to Congress. Now you and I know that single payer will not fly in America, but without the threat of single payer, how do we get insurance companies to countenance the existence of a public option?

  31. 31.

    gex

    @Lola: Wow, you and John. You act like you know what letters or calls we have and haven’t made, then you get to criticize us for venting here while assuming we haven’t done jack-all otherwise.

  32. 32.

    maybe

    Wow. Just played Tunchcam6 below and my cat went INSANE. Apparently kitteh laser fixation works even in 2D. Who knew this? Not me.

    Or maybe our little kitteh is just hot for ol’ Tunch….

  33. 33.

    harlana pepper

    @Lola: It would actually feel good to have a Dem congressman or senator to lash out at. I would threaten them with electoral hell and such. Alas, I have none.

    By the way, I am so fucking sorry if I sound angry & impatient at this point. There are some here who are fucked even worse than myself with regard to health insurance and I’m sure they are *very* discouraged with the tenor of the debate (which includes conservadem bullshit) right now. So sue me.

    (btw, Lola, not directing this to you personally – I have just seen a lot of criticism of general bitching on this subject – if I can’t come here and bitch, well, just pack me off to the nuthouse; gex told me to fuck myself on a previous thread and I sincerely hope he/she felt better – I’m not being facetious or snarky since I’m sure I deserved it — every blog needs an asshole and I’m happy to oblige when I can)

  34. 34.

    patrick

    @Hunter Gathers:

    You have a lot more faith in Washington’s ability to do the right thing than I do.

    I, on the other hand, consistently underestimate just what a spineless bunch of wanks our Democratic overlords can be.

    But this time, I’m not going to be disappointed. I’m expecting the worst.

    I’ll be happy to be pleasantly surprised.

  35. 35.

    Johnny B. Guud

    OT—this from today’s NYT aggravated me to no end:

    Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. noted the “unparalleled ability” to prove guilt or innocence using DNA evidence. But he treated that breakthrough more as an irritant than an opportunity.

    The availability of conclusive DNA testing, he wrote, “cannot mean that every criminal conviction, or even every criminal conviction involving biological evidence, is suddenly in doubt.”

    Ugh…

  38. 38.

    Punchy

    as President Palin will accidentally blow up China 15 minutes after she is sworn into office in January 2013.

    The wrestler, or her wedding gift?

  39. 39.

    Warren Terra

    RE Froomkin, Dave Noon of LGM has a great post pointing out that the WaPo has celebrated its firing of Froomkin with an Op-Ed from Paul Wolfowitz, renowned for his disastrous and dishonest Iraq performance long before he was fired for nepotism from his World Bank gig. Surely, no-one could have predicted that in his Op-Ed Paul Wolfowitz would be disingenuous to smear Obama?

    Noon’s summary of his post follows:

    the Post just provided editorial space to a famously discredited proponent of a badly-conceived war in Iraq — space that was subsequently used to draw a pair of bad-faith analogies to the current administration’s policy toward Iran. I’m sure Andy Alexander will leap to Wolfowitz’s defense, however, with a reminder of the multi-layer editing and fact-checking procedures his paper applies to the stable of right wing columnists in their employ.

  40. 40.

    debit

    @harlana pepper: Whenever I think of Landrieu, I remember a Bush State of the Union where he had the nerve to mention Katrina. The camera cut to Mary Landrieu, who had a teary but adoring smile on her face. I have never wanted to bitch slap someone so badly in my life, and I don’t even live in her state.

  41. 41.

    JL

    The Washington Post also has an article comparing Michelle to Clair Huxtable. Obviously they could not find an accomplished black female to compare her to so they have to use a fictional one.

    So far, the first lady has chosen to be a food bank volunteer with an outsize entourage and an education activist with the largest soapbox imaginable. But Michelle Obama also fills a role that is not of her choosing but that may, in fact, be the most influential: She serves as a symbol of middle-class progress, feminist achievement, affirmative-action success and individual style. And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.

    She’s an affirmative action success and she’s black. Yup, I sure love that Washington Post.

  43. 43.

    Hunter Gathers

    @Punchy: No, the actual country of China. She will mistake the missle launch codes for the number to Pizza Hut. Nuclear Armageddon? You betcha!

  47. 47.

    jake 4 that 1

    Here’s a suggestion: Summer recess begins soon. Take the family on a trip to your CongressCritter’s local office deliver your opinons in person. It’ll serve as a nice reminder that real people will be real pissed if they grab ankles for AHIP.

  48. 48.

    Lola

    @gex:

    I don’t know what calls people have or haven’t made, you are right. But I do know the general vibe I have gotten from your comment which was let’s all do nothing because Ezra Klein is discouraged. I guess I am frustrated when I hear people sound like they are giving up.

    As for single payer, none of the Democrats in power have endorsed it, ever. I can’t be mad at them for not supporting something they never supported and that probably could not have gotten 3 votes in the Senate. I still think Democrats have plenty of bargaining chips with the public option, because there are quite a few public options to choose from.

    @harlana

    For the first time in almost ten years I am about to get private health insurance through my job. Before that I relied on Medicaid since I was able to qualify for health reasons. Medicaid, as it exists right now, is a huge success and a huge failure. This is a fight I want to win. I always enjoy reading your comments.

  51. 51.

    jurassicpork

    Mike Flannigan: “Republican democracy vultures who had bitterly and tirelessly fought to subvert the very foundation of our own democracy are now cheering on the very same people whom John McCain wanted to bomb and give lung cancer to.”

  52. 52.

    Ash

    What’s all this whining about? You really think Obama is gonna cave on one of his biggest plans just cause of a preliminary report? Durrrrrrrr.

  53. 53.

    R-Jud

    @Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:

    Monks on Segways, with fire on the top of their heads, playing “Lightning” by Philip Glass.

    You know, I got eight solid hours of sleep for the first time in six months last night, and watching that has just totally ruined the buzz of well-rested refreshment I had going on.

    I need a stiff drink and a nap.

  54. 54.

    Awesom0

    If the current Iranian regime is still in place 6 months from now, I know what the Republican rationale will be for bombing them: “The failed Iranian revolution proves that the people want us to bring them Democracy. Obama is a dictator loving thug for denying them this gift. This time we really will be greeted as liberators!!! Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy for all!!!!!”

  56. 56.

    jcricket

    I think Atrios had a good point (natch) when he said this today

    While some Democrats are just, you know, bad, it seems that others are just perpetually frightened of the right. I don’t know how many victories and how many seats it will take to convince them that it isn’t 1994 anymore, but I guess until then it’s useful to remind them that they did actually win.

    Sure, we’re not going to get single payer. But let’s stop acting like we have to win over 10 Republicans or the public. We won the election. Act like it. Have the debate openly, but not from the crouched, hands-over-head position.

  59. 59.

    Brachiator

    @JK:

    Obama deserves criticism for his lackluster defense of civil liberties in connection with the NSA and eavesdropping…

    Maybe I’m missing a hot Greenwald story on this, but is the Obama Administration actually eavesdropping on anyone?

    Is the Obama White House behaving in the same way as the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate?

    And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.

    WTF? I say again, WTF? This is world class racist condescension.

    This reminds me. Remember back when the wingnuts were complaining about how gauche, how inappropriate, how out-of-her-place Michelle Obama was for … gasp … touching the Queen when the Obamas visited England?

    Well, a little covered story indicates how clearly outraged the Queen was since she invited Michelle and her daughters to a private tour of Buckingham Palace (Michelle Obama’s friendship with the Queen grows stronger after private Palace visit).

    Michelle Obama and her daughters met the Queen on a private three-hour tour of Buckingham Palace during their visit to London last week. It was Mrs Obama’s second meeting with the Queen in a matter of months, after first being introduced at the G20 summit in April. A royal source said the pair had kept in touch by exchanging letters and speaking on the phone, adding: ‘There is clearly a personal warmth between them.’…The palace visit on Wednesday with Malia, ten, and Sasha, eight, was arranged for the latter’s birthday.

    Pretty good for Michelle. Even while being black.

  60. 60.

    jcricket

    Pretty good for Michelle. Even while being black.

    Don’t tell the queen, but the kids are black too.

  61. 61.

    patrick

    And she has done all this on the world stage . . . while being black.

    EEEEeeeekkk!

    Black peoples!

  62. 62.

    steve s

    There was a time when we were hearing about Eric Erickson’s retardified comments every day. But lately, nothing? Did he suddenly get smarter, or have we all just been distracted?

  63. 63.

    pablo

    A few months ago, I wankered about the raw, bloody hunk of red meat that was hanging around the top left of this site. (and to be fair, a whole bunch of others)
    I am happy to take credit for its demise.
    Now, about Pam Anderson’s ungodly looking sack of silicone…..

  67. 67.

    gex

    @Lola: Well, next time when you add your own content to my posts, try to add stuff that doesn’t assume I’m a complete idiot. That way you won’t have to lecture me for whatever bullshit you are imagining.

  68. 68.

    J. Michael Neal

    @asiangrrlMN: I know you have a pretend husband, but I’m wondering whether you have an opening for Official Stalker. I will submit my resume, but my main qualifications are disturbing abilities to obsess over something and hold grudges, and an ability to be mean and threatening when needed/wanted/at random.

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