Take a big drink because Halperin’s fronting the sacrifice stuff.
Obama deflects numerous questions at his East Room press conference, especially on issues of sacrifice.
Reader Interactions
84Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Their freedom requires your slavery.
“Squeaker” McCarthy
Come on, man.
Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.
A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.
Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.
Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.
But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.
No one could have predicted…
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
Battle won, war still ongoing.
No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.
I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.
Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
Only Democrats have agency, apparently.
Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.
A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.
Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?
dmsilev
Can we sacrifice Mark Halperin instead? Presumably to some god with low standards.
-dms
MikeJ
Sacrifice…..Mmmmm….
I’m about to fire up the grill for fish tacos. Should I throw a sacrifice on while it’s hot?
Jim Pharo
Now I know what NOT to think…Thanks.
Josh Huaco
@dmsilev:
Unfortunately there aren’t any volcanoes around Washington DC.
Veritas78
I feel better knowing that this guy is running things. For one thing, he actually knows stuff.
He listens to questions and answers them. His ego isn’t in the way. Common sense holds sway. And there’s a goal, which I understand.
Nice to have a President, again.
Trinity
Halperin is a douche of the grandiose persuasion.
Max
From the Dept. Of Totally No Surprise….
via Twitter… GOP Briefing Room
“Cambridge cop says he’s not apologizing.”
Looks like Joe the Plumber, Frank Ricci and Miguel Estrada have competition for the winner of the biggest token for race baiting/class warfare by white, southern men.
dmsilev
@Josh Huaco: That’s not a problem; we can consult Bobby Jindal, noted expert in “volcano monitoring”.
And in the absence of a volcano, I believe carrying the sacrifice to the top of a pyramid (or perhaps the Capitol Dome) and cutting out their heart is an acceptable substitute.
-dms
Robin G.
You’re sacrificing superfluous health care. Like you sacrifice a transmission check when it’s your windshield wipers that are malfunctioning.
Wine makes me snarky.
JGabriel
Whenever I see Halperin’s name, it makes me think of pharmaceuticals with debilitating side effects.
.
MikeJ
Southern? JTP is from Ohio, Ricci is from Rhode Island, Estrada is from NY. And you say they have competition from a cop from Cambridge, Mass?
Demo Woman
The site needs an infusion of espresso.. or is it just my computer
linda
i still cannot believe he’s mort halperin’s son. just like dan/floyd abrams.
Josh Huaco
Is it just me or has this site been slow tonight? It reminds me of the WordPress Error days.
Brick Oven Bill
Larry the Lizard, recovering after Obama’s ‘and I mean it’ line.
Keith G
I disagree. The problem is: this issue should be addressed. Ducking it as Obama has done only give ammo to the evil doers.
Ezra summarizes a NYT column that points the way.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/a_rational_look_at_rationing.html
Mike P
I find it funny that cloistered media types have the nerve to go around acting like they’ll be the one’s sacrificing anything in the health care debate.
What a bunch of no talent assclowns.
Ash
@Keith G: What issue are you referring to? WTF is this shit about sacrifice anyway? WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN? It’s so fucking abstract and stupid.
I’d like to sacrifice Halperin to Quetzalcoatl.
T Paine
Let’s remember Halperin’s gold standard of Presidential calls for sacrifice:
“Go shopping, America!”
Max
@MikeJ: White, southern men = GOP.
As in, the GOP is using them as tokens for their race baiting/class warfare.
I guess my sentence structure was poor.
Augustine
@Max:
That’s one reason Harvard 5-0 exists, to protect the students/faculty from the smackdown by City of Cambridge PD:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=269548
Anne Laurie
You certainly don’t want to cook a Halperin on the same grill you’ll be using for food! Besides, grilling Halperin probably requires an EPA exemption in most states…
oh really
Sacrifice?
If the president had his way, Halperin would be sacrificing some of his income in the form of increased taxes.
amk
While we sacrifice the msm douchebags on a stake, can we stick some pins on these pinheads too ?
Demo Woman
A Repub friend mentioned that we just needed to regulate health insurance more. She might be right so I suggested making the industry non profit. She didn’t like that idea but was at a loss to propose another solution.
valdivia
so now some guy writing to TPM says Obama sunk health care tonight by saying what he said about Gates. Huh? Can someone explain I don’t get it….
El Cid
I am really sick and tired of the working and lower class people of this country not sacrificing. For once it would be nice to finally see those people at the bottom end of the earnings spectrum give up something in the same way that a lot of Wall Street people have had to have significant reductions in the sizes of their bonuses this year.
Anne Laurie
Here’s the secret, Grasshopper: Rich “cloistered media types” like Halperin and Gibson figure they already have all the health care they need. But if proles like me & (presumably) you are all going to be guaranteed at least some minimum level of health care, it will require that taxes be paid by… you guessed it… rich cloistered media types. Why should Mark and Charley have to give up any portion of their not-so-hard-earned gains just so that a bunch of pore folk and DFHs can have medical care without going bankrupt? Oh, the unfairness! Oh, the humanity!…
Of course, the fact that Americans pay the most of any first-world country in return for health indices ranking below that of Costa Rica (much less Canada) would seem to indicate that in the long run it will be cheaper overall, even for Halperin & Gibson, if the national medical system were run less like a Mob-owned casino. But right now, the takeaway for the Media Village Idiots is “Obama wants to tax ME so that some working-class schlub can get cancer treatment. SO unfair! Americans will never stand for such ‘sacrifice’! “
Comrade Kevin
Halperin has trouble distinguishing between the words “answer” and “deflect”.
debit
@El Cid: Quite right! Why, just the other day as I was deciding between my utility bill and groceries, I remarked, “Man, I wish there was something more I could give up. If only I didn’t need food to live! Or a home. Or electricity. Or those other pesky things we require to get by these days.” Then I would have consoled myself with booze, but I’ve already given up that.
Anne Laurie
It’s an article of faith among the Lily-Livered Left that any mention of… you know, those people… reminds the great American proletariat that universal health care is “giving hard-working middle-class Americans’ tax dollars to shiftless welfare recipients.” According to Fux News and Rush Limbaugh, of course. The Media Village Idiots’ clever plan, planting that “When will you stop dissing the police, Mr. President?” question at the very end of the press conference, was (as the Lily-Livered Leftist reads it) a reminder to Teh Heartland(tm) that President Black Hussein Obama is, to the Fux News viewer, Not One of Them. (Me, I think some of the LLL have become so sensitive to dogwhistle politics that their ears start bleeding spontaneously at times.)
Beeb
Krugman was impressed by the speech. By Howard Fineman, not so much. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/professor-in-chief/
kay
@valdivia:
I’ll try. Obama wasn’t supposed to address the question honestly, because it feeds into the preferred GOP meme of the Ricci firefighters and the arrogance of black people.
Gates wasn’t quick enough with his ID, and was rude to the cop, so they arrested him. Gates was pissed. The response to a pissed off and confused citizen standing in his own home is not to arrest that person. That’s stupid. It’s also unusual, if you’re in Gate’s social class.
You would be mad. I would be mad. Obama is mad.
Eugene Robinson had a good question. Larry Summers is sort of an arrogant SOB. Truly, can you imagine Larry Summers being cuffed and hauled away from his own home because he didn’t get his ID out fast enough?
It would not happen.
I know we’re not supposed to tell the truth in mortal fear of what Republicans may do to us, but every once in a while people get mad, and they do.
El Cid
@debit: I am not a goose laying golden eggs, but I have vowed to give up eggs in the hopes that the actual productive people will be more productive if they have more egg-based proteins.
Ash
@valdivia: I think that post was just a musing as to how the “librul” media will try to spin it.
I don’t even get why this Gates thing is such a big deal. Is he important or something? [/ignorance]
Slaney Black
The versailles media loves Sacrifice almost as much as it loves The Troops and also General David Petraeus. They’ve asked about it at every primetime presser thus far, so why not this one?
El Cid
In the good old days when America was right and disciplined, i.e., the South of the 1920s, the average adult textile factory worker made so little money that they had to SACRIFICE in their food budget and prioritize the children’s food, such that literally in each day at work the adult workers expended more calories than they took in in food, thus starving themselves to death and making the prevalent diseases much more serious.
Why are Americans clearly so unwilling to SACRIFICE like these good workers back in the good, correct old days (before the communist FDR and all the Outside Agitators screwed everything up) were happy to do?
Slaney Black
Oh for fuck’s sake. The cable coverage is just fucking unbearable. “I don’t want gov’t bureaucrats tellin’ me what to do!” quoth Michelle Bernard. Roger “Pat Buchanan Jr.” Simon is all indignant about the CBO report. And this is the DFH channel! God only knows how bad it is on CNN and FOX.
These people are just determined to kill America.
El Cid
That’s odd, because the actual CBO report (check teh Google) has the entire plan covering 97% of Americans with a likely maximum cost of $24 billion a year, and maybe less if Medicare reforms are implemented.
Keith G
@Ash: Hey, Ash.
“Sacrifice” is not framing, or even a general concept that I feel is logical. But it matters little what I, or you, know.
As I ask around the people I come in contact with, I hear differing variations of the “what about rationing” meme. It is out there and it can and it will be used by those who want to stop or stall reform.
The primal fear is these people have is a tired cliché to us, but to them it is real – the government will deny my 75 year old mama the radical, last gasp cancer treatment and she dies, what, 6 mos sooner – ie: the sacrifice.
You and I know the holes in that scenario, but many do not and the Pres needs be more elementary clear on this……that’s wtf.
valdivia
Anne laurie and Kay thanks for you answers.
Ash–skip gates is probably one of the foremost scholars in the country.
I will add that the media are idiots
joe from Lowell
Even a great explainer like Obama had trouble making headway Wednesday night as he delivered his extensive opening remarks and offered unusually long answers to the press.
That’s a criticism, by the way. His answers on health care policy were unusually long.
Asshat.
someguy
Really? $80 a person? That’s all?
Then it’s criminal we haven’t done it yet.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Why just the bitches? I say we offer some assholes to the Gods too.
MikeJ
You remember what Lee Atwater said Republicans wanted to scream, but, sadly couldn’t anymore? “N****r N****r N****r!”
kay
@valdivia:
I just get tired of everything being political. I’ll cheer anytime a politician stumbles and tells the truth.
I’m slightly amused by the fact that the buttoned-up Obama is being portrayed as an Angry Radical Black Man by Chris Matthews.
lamh31
Here’s what will happen tomorrow.
1.)Blacks and other minorities will be applauding President Obama’s statement (even minority policemen will probably be nodding their heads too).
2.)Whites (mostly Repub, but some “liberal” whites) will be in a uproar because Obama called the WHITE cops stupid. Therefore Obama done gone all NWA on us, and hates cops.
Anyone else want to bet on it.
Keith G
It is not a big deal, except that this lil trip off message will led to at least a few versions of:
“Obama called police officers stupid racists”
Now that’s not what he said, but take a few word out, rearrange a couple more, and that’s what he said. Remember the bitter white folks with guns?
It sucks, but POTUS could have done better.
valdivia
I don’t know what will happen but if the media make this out to be a big thing then the media will do it. i have to disagree that this is in any way comparable to the gun clinging statement. Obama said nothing wrong tonight—arresting a man in his own home after he proved he lived there is stupid. period.
jaime
@ Kieth G
Too late. via RiehlRacistsView (to which I won’t link):
“How sickening that the president of the United States would stoop to calling the Cambridge Police stupid”
AhabTRuler
Ain’t his fault that we suck.
PeakVT
I don’t even get why this Gates thing is such a big deal.
It’s “important” because 1) it can be easily made into a controversy, which will increase ratings, and 2) it distracts from the real issue at hand, which is health care.
gwangung
Yeah? And we, as Americans, should care—exactly how? ‘Cause that’s NOT what all Americans are?
Tiptoeing around the stupid authoritarian asshat segment? I thought Obama had little patience for fools?
Brick Oven Bill
“Separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-American and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.”
-President Barack Obama
Community Organizer Update:
Mr. Obama’s Neighborhood, Part I: 6 hours, 4 dead, 24 wounded;
Mr. Obama’s Neighborhood, Part II: 4 more dead, only 8 wounded though, another 6 hours
In contrast, in Naperville, just to the west, an Asian/European community, there have been no reports of carnage, although if there were even one juicy shooting, it would have made the news. This I attribute to cultural biases.
freelancer
White, southern men = GOP.
No, OLD White Southern-minded men = GOP
OriGuy
How come they never asked Bush about sacrifice when he started two wars? Never mind, I know.
The place to sacrifice Halperin would be in the very center of the Pentagon. (h/t Robert Anton Wilson)
Comrade Kevin
I see BOB is back on the racist stuff again, I guess he finished his beer and is now huffing sterno.
kay
@valdivia:
They were warming up to it all week, valdivia. Obama was not getting away without a comment on Gates.
They love to talk about race + Obama. Health care and the economy are dull, and require a certain familiarity with the subject matter, and that they don’t have.
Comrade Kevin
Who was the dipstick who stood up and asked the question in the place of the guy from Cleveland?
Delia
Bush sacrificed, you libtards. He gave up his golf game for the Glorious War Effort.
/wingnut
Montysano
@AhabTRuler:
That’s the most brilliant thing I’ve read lately. Because we really do suck.
Comrade Kevin
@Delia: Are libtards related to yelptards?
Keith G
@Comrade Kevin: ‘Course, he has never stopped his racist “stuff”.
valdivia
I imagine kay, the media like shiny things. maybe in the end this obsession is good because the message was gotten by those that needed to get it. the press can push the OMG Obama insulted the cops meme for a while.
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
Halperin
Safety is important. And HALPERIN has an established safety profile of over 10 years. But HALPERIN is not for everyone.
Who should not take HALPERIN
If you read any media outside of Time Magazine or any liberal blogs you should not take HALPERIN.
If you believe in discussing issues like mature and rational adults you should not take HALPERIN.
If you are not insane you should not take HALPERIN.
If you are not suffering from neoconservatismus fucktardus you should not take HALPERIN.
If you can read and understand this warning notice you should probably not take HALPERIN.
Possible side effects
The most common side effects of HALPERIN are:
headache
upset stomach
nausea
projectile vomiting
raised blood pressure and increased heartrate
facial flushing
clenched jaw and teeth grinding
A desire to scream “HOW CAN HE BE SO FUCKING STUPID?”
In the rare event of an erection lasting more than 4 hours, seek immediate medical help because if you have an erection, regardless of duration, after taking HALPERIN, you are a sick, sick puppy.
Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to HALPERIN.
If HALPERIN begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
HALPERIN may stick to certain types of skin.
When not in use, HALPERIN should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration…
Failure to do so relieves the makers of HALPERIN, ABC News and Time Warner from any and all liability.
Ed Drone
B.O.B., your lizard looks nice, but your guitar looks dorky. What the hell brand/model is that, and what kind of amp? Looks like an off-brand Fender copy and maybe a Peavey (or other cheap copy) amp. Why should we listen to someone who plays that kind of instrument?
Ed (who plays a Reverend Slingshot through a Fender DR reissue — when I’m not playing Martin acoustics)
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Brick Oven Bill: Naperville is white bread you idiot. I have been there for an extended stay. Calling it an “Asian” community is purposefully misleading. Chinatown is “Asian” not Naperville.
Look BOB, I support your lunacy, mostly because you make me laugh and your ability to gin up robust arguments from the commenters here against your lunacy helps me against the people I work with (I work in energy finance), but I have to draw the line somewhere and Naperville as a “Asian” community is the last straw.
Okay – I have had a lot to drink tonight…
freelancer
lol, freelancer +7
And the only real journalism I heard tonight was from the woman who challenged him on transparency. Everything else was a kabuki-esque beltway answer.
Brick Oven Bill
My guitar is not dorky.
That’s Fender Stratocastor bitch. There are a whole lot of Asians in Naperville. They seem to be good people. Balloon Juice should not mock Asian males. They are assets to our Country.
Keith G
Just for the record: Naperville is 75% white, 15% Asian. More importantly: The per capita income for the city was $44,235. About 2.5% of the population was below the poverty line, including 1.2% of those under age 18.
And also just for the record, Bill you’re still a racist.
gwangung
Mighty white of you, asshole. White man’s burden, I take it.
Chuck Butcher
@Brick Oven Bill:That’s Fender Stratocastor bitch
The real question is can you make it sound like anything? I know people who can make a 40+ year old cheap ass Jap copy sound incredible. But then they know a bunch about pots, set up, and just plain playing.
Brick Oven Bill
I can make a pussy purr, with the stroke of my hand.
America will be fine, although sometimes I worry Chuck. I know I worry too much. Free will is very powerful. Galileo won. He had nothing compared to us.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Improved.
Fix’t.
OGB
CNN image capture from the front page.
With everything that Obama had to say about health care tonight (though I must admit I’ve been watching on tape delay, as I was catching up on True Blood with a friend), this is what the librul media focuses on. It seems to me that the MSM can simply not get over the fact that we have a person of color in the WH, so they will take any chance they get to point this fact out, even when the primary agenda of the Obama administration right now is to FIX THE BROKEN FUCKING HEALTH CARE SYSTEM in this supposedly 1st-world country.
And to pile on, they phrase the headline so that it looks like Obama is “anti-police.” This shit makes me feel hopeless, and I am counting the days until I can move somewhere oceans away from the Red State/Blue State nonsense.
Also, I wish I could have played along with DougJ’s fun drink/gulp/kill the bottle game, but I was already half in the bag when I started watching the vid.
Mike P
@Wile E. Quixote: Lots of win here.
PeakVT
@Brick Oven Bill: That’s Fender Stratocaster, moron.
Nethead Jay
@AhabTRuler: And where would you like the shiny Internets you just won delivered :)
Napoleon
@PeakVT:
PeakVT said: “It’s “important” because 1) it can be easily made into a controversy, which will increase ratings, and 2) it distracts from the real issue at hand, which is health care.”
Exactly right.
chopper
@kay:
exactly. being a dick to a cop is a dumb thing to do, but if you’re in your own goddamn house you should be able to tell some prick to choke on a bag of dicks.
if you read the police report, the cop made up some bullshit excuse about ‘the acoustics in the house being bad’ and asked the dude to step out onto his porch, where he put the cuffs on him. obviously the cop knew he couldn’t get the guy on a disorderly charge inside his house (most jurisdictions require the perp to be in a public or publically-viewable place).
total dick move by the cops. its like asking a dude drinkin on his front porch to step out to the curb so you can cuff him on a drunk-in-public charge.
Napoleon
@Comrade Kevin:
Comrade Kevin said: “Who was the dipstick who stood up and asked the question in the place of the guy from Cleveland?”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer says it was Steven Thomma of McClatchy. I did not watch, what did Thomma ask about that he had to pull a stunt like that?
chopper
@Brick Oven Bill:
In contrast, in Naperville, just to the west, an Asian/European community, there have been no reports of carnage, although if there were even one juicy shooting, it would have made the news. This I attribute to cultural biases.
i attribute it to you being a dumbass. i grew up in the town next to naperville. its a pretty well-off town.
Hunter Gathers
@Brick Oven Bill: Naperville is mostly upper class whites you dipshit. Try harder.
Ed Drone
B.O.B.
A Strat, huh? Sorry — the photo angle made it look like one of the lesser-lights among look-alikes. I had a Strat once, a 70s Japanese that someone had stripped and refinished in natural. Nice guitar. And even the knock-offs can be good guitars; I have a $99 Telecaster copy that’s very nice for the price, and might be even better if I tweaked it some.
But then again, it’s you playing it, so what could we expect? Do you have a lumpy rhythm section to accompany you? And don’t you get kind of tired, playing out of the Pat Boone Songbook (vol. II)? From your postings here, I suspect you get upset at these modern musicians and their crazy be-bop, too.
Now we know you, cowboy!
Ed