Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

No one could have predicted…

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I was promised a recession.

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70Comments

  1. 1.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Frist!

    watched Malcolm X this weekend on netflix. Great movie. Back to the grindstone today.

  2. 2.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Is this the English open thread then?

    It’s nice to see Balloon Juice bucking the call by the right for English-only and presenting bilingual versions.

  3. 3.

    gypsy howell

    I love how it’s all Ted Kennedy’s fault that we’re not going to have a health care bill, because of him being dead and everything now. If only he had lived, all those good republicans could have voted for the bill! But now…. sadly not.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    Glenzilla is at his snarkiest this morning on the very important breaking news that Jenna Bush is riding the wingnut welfare train. I bet Not Jenna is having a sad.

  12. 12.

    Cat Lady

    This blog is the best way to start off the week. Cole, DougJ, TimF, AnneLaurie and their minions provide so many nuggets, kernels, flashes and pearls of info, insight, humor and wisdom to arm myself against teh stoopid and the lame. Pets, politics, sports, food and music FTW. Also, too.

  14. 14.

    Something Fabulous

    Thank you, Mr. Prosser, for reminding me of the correct attitude! Was feeling the dread as well. This is better.

  15. 15.

    Punchy

    Cassel “out 2-4 weeks”. Read: at least 4 weeks.

    Bet against the Chiefs, every single game all season. Enjoy your mad money in January.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6/9:05 am

    Here’s a wonderful paragraph from the AP story on Jenna’s new job:

    “He [Jim Bell, Today’s executive producer] said he didn’t consider the job as a down payment for a future interview with her father. . . . Attacks on NBC News by conservatives for the liberal bent of MSNBC also had nothing to do with it, he said.”

    LOL.

    h/t Jamison Foser @ MediaMatters

  21. 21.

    jibeaux

    This morning I was just thinking I need to take a step back and not obsess so much on silly little political things that I can’t change and just take a deep breath and proceed with my life. My dentist says I’m grinding my teeth and indeed when I pay attention, my jaw is generally clamped tightly shut. I blame wingnut stupidity and I just can’t stop reading in despair about all the idiocy involved in shutting down health care and I need to let it go a little bit or at least focus on something tangible I can do about it.

    And then I read today about a grassroots movement to force the IKEA catalog to return to its former font. Verdana evidently has detractors, or maybe they want it to go back to Verdana, I can’t remember.

    So I feel better adjusted already.

  22. 22.

    SenyorDave

    from the Washington Post:

    The Republican National Committee suggested in a recent fundraising appeal that Democrats might use an overhaul of the health-care system to deny medical treatment to Republicans.

    One thing I do blame Obama and the administration for is not getting out in front of stuff like this. People in this country are stupid, and disinformation like this resonates.

    And get someone like Biden out there to confront the Cheney torture tour. How about going on the Sunday shows and point out that Cheney is openly advocating breaking the law. Then talk about the laws the administration did break.

  23. 23.

    The Saff

    @gypsy howell: Right. Lawrence O’Donnell told Keith Olbermann last week that McCain and his Repub colleagues didn’t negotiate back in 1993-1994 with Kennedy or any other Democrat for that matter. So, in other words, as much as stuff changes, it stays the same.

    I kinda feel like this country is ungovernable.

  24. 24.

    Kryptik

    @gypsy howell:

    Don’t forget all those nasty Democrats, politicizing Kennedy’s memorial, talking about health care and all.

    If only he was alive to be the only sane Democrat in the Senate, maybe the Republicans could work out a compromise!! But alas…all that Republicans can do is feign compromise while rejecting everything about reform. For the sake of bipartisanship, you know. And it’s all the Dems’ fault!

  25. 25.

    Kryptik

    @SenyorDave:

    And get someone like Biden out there to confront the Cheney torture tour. How about going on the Sunday shows and point out that Cheney is openly advocating breaking the law. Then talk about the laws the administration did break.

    But…wouldn’t that be partisan?! I mean, Cheney’s not in politics anymore, so having the Vice President himself rebut it is just not fair!

    Plus, wouldn’t that disrupt the delicate balance on the Sunday shows between Republicans and Conservatives?

    And don’t forget that Cheney’s proof comes from ANONYMOUS sources! That means they can’t come up and defend themselves when people try and discredit them with silly things like facts and personal non-anonymous testimony!

  26. 26.

    jibeaux

    Also too I just set up my second payment plan for medical bills. I still have a few months left to pay for surgery I had in October, but that will roll off by the end of the year and I can devote myself to the other one. I have insurance. It’s insanity. Fortunately the bills aren’t too onerous and I have a job, so I’m not expecting anyone to play a little violin for me or anything, but I just can’t figure out why doesn’t everyone realize it’s insanity? Why is it that if you have to call the police or the fire department no one would think it was especially cool if they tried to bill you for their services (although I understand some municipalities are actually attempting this, I can’t imagine it’s going over too well) but everyone accepts that if you need an ambulance you’re going to pay? Why is it when wingers are on the teevee complaining about the Obama plan and giving lip service to the idea that we need reform, that no one ever asks them what, precisely, is it in the Republican plan for health care reform that they find superior? It’s not a “trick” question, it’s a fair question, they haven’t even come out with a little graphic of little connected bubbles that say “freedom” yet like their budget, and that couldn’t have taken more than 20 minutes to put together. The guys on fark made about a thousand in a morning.
    Dammit there goes the jaw again…

  27. 27.

    Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I’m listening to Bill Maher and Bill Moyers. It’s depressing to me how f**ked so many people are.

    If I had my way, it would be required that every American watch that interview this week. Afterwards, there would be a test: tell us, please, how Moyers is in any way incorrect, and show your work as you go.

    Probably old news, but I watched “The Reader” last night and am stilling thinking about the moral quandries, on multiple levels, that it presents. Let me own up to my bias, however: I’d watch Kate Winslet read the phone book.

  28. 28.

    JenJen

    Maybe you guys covered this last night, but for the Mad Men fans among us, I offer up the best LOL line of the entire series:

    I’m Peggy Olson, and I want to smoke some marijuana.

    I’m still laughing! Last night’s show rocked.

  29. 29.

    Punchy

    @jibeaux: my take is this:

    It’s the peeps with insurance who are leading the charge on reform; it’s the wrinklies (read: Medicare sycophants) and the uninsured that dont give a shit. After all, if you lack ANY insurance, you’re not going to pay the $1000 stitches-in-ER bill, nor will you pay the $50,000 surgery bill. Basically, you’re going to default on everything.

    Only those with insurance, who expect to not have to go broke at the hospital, but are still somehow forced to fork over thousands anyways, are the irate ones. We’re the ones who recognize that the covenant pact between insurer and insured is so whacked that it needs fixing. The uninsured dont know any better, and thus get all they know from medicinal expert Rush Limbaugh.

  30. 30.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Does anyone know which blog it is that does the translated version of Meet the Press and other Sunday talkshows?

  31. 31.

    Kryptik

    @Punchy:

    I think that’s a wrong analysis, since I see many people with the sentiment of “I already have good insurance, I don’t want the gov. taking that away from me to give it to some hobo!”

    The thought being that 1) their insurance is sufficient (which it may not be, but they don’t know it yet since they haven’t had anything truly debilitating yet, or just plain haven’t USED it yet) and 2) that any health reform plan, by necessity, either outlaws private insurance or forces people out of employer-provided plans.

    And I haven’t heard any uninsured chime in either way significantly, and those who do I’ve seen come down on the pro-reform side, since they actually WANT insurance.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Punchy/10:09 pm

    Right you are. And the point so obvious that it’s easy to overlook: it’s those people who pay for insurance and who also conscientiously pay off their med bills that insurance doesn’t cover, who are subsidizing all the people who default. nice double-triple-quadruple whammy there.

  36. 36.

    Strawmanmunny

    Cool. I need to post here more often. Didn’t know it would translate the website address directly to a link.

  37. 37.

    Betsy

    @jibeaux:
    I had a lovely breakfast yesterday with a friend of mine who had a baby last August. At the time, she was finishing grad school and her husband was starting, and there was a two-week coverage gap when his previous insurance ended and his new grad school coverage hadn’t yet begun. So he called around to try to get temporary health coverage. (She was covered separately.) He couldn’t get any, despite being young and healthy, because his wife was pregnant. (I don’t entirely follow the reasoning there, but that’s what she told me.)

    But the real kicker was that one of the insurance reps he talked to said to him, “Can you believe that some women call up five months pregnant wanting to get insurance?!” in a tone of disgust and disbelief. He was like, “Um, yes, I can believe that a pregnant woman would want to get health insurance.” It was so astonishing that not only would the rep seem incredulous that a pregnant woman would need insurance and try to get it, but that the rep expected HIM to be just as scornful. Ugh.

    Ok, that was probably longer than necessary. I’m avoiding work. But I’m grateful to @Mr. Prosser: for reminding me that I’m lucky to be here.

  41. 41.

    Skeptical

    @Punchy:
    You’re overgeneralizing just a tad. I’m uninsured but I do give a damn, I’m irate, I don’t get any information from Limbaugh, and I don’t default on obligations. (It’s too long and boring a story to tell, but it’s because I fulfill obligations that I no longer can afford heath insurance.) Don’t worry, rather than leeching off good, upright citizens like you, I’m going without health care.
    FWIW, I was strongly supportive of reform and the public option long before I lost my coverage.

  42. 42.

    jibeaux

    I dunno, I’m inclined to think that it’s people with a brain who are behind the idea of health care reform, whatever their circumstances, because you’re affected by the craziness in almost any situation. I realize there are a lot of folks already on Medicare, who are likely to be gone before the whole thing blows up, and who are definitely displaying an “I got mine” mindset, but others I have to assume are genuinely concerned about their children and grandchildren. I certainly know people both insured and uninsured who care deeply about this situation, and the common denominator for them is just that they aren’t morans.

    I read about one of those free health care fairs in the NYT, for example, where people drive a long way to start waiting in line at 6 a.m. for the hope of getting to see a doctor by the end of the day. Some of the people the reporter talked to had not even paid any attention to the health care debate and were unaware of its existence. Now, if I had to start driving at midnight to get somewhere by 6 a.m. to stand in a line all day to see a doctor, probably foregoing a day’s pay for the privilege, I would probably try to learn something about the attempts to change the health care system. I do understand that many working people who don’t get to sit in front of a computer all day are not going to be up to speed on Ezra Klein’s latest thoughts on the subject and I’m not trying to be elitist about it, but folks have got to wake up a little bit. Unfortunately, it seems like the more they try to get their news, the more the wingnut noise machine takes over their thinking, so maybe the ignorance is preferable.

  43. 43.

    The Saff

    @JenJen: Gaah! Ten peeyem is too late on a Sunday for me so my husband and I are going to watch it tonight. And isn’t John Slattery fabulous?

  44. 44.

    Cat Lady

    @JenJen:

    Totally agree with this – here come the DFH 60’s! I gasped out loud at Roger’s blackface. What a scene – John Slattery, good ‘ol Boston liberal, must have been gobsmacked (i) when he got his copy of the script, and as irony would have it, (ii) when it aired on Teddy’s memorial weekend.

  45. 45.

    jibeaux

    @Betsy:

    Of course it’s absurd that pregnant women are going without insurance, but I have to say it’s also an indicator that people don’t know how bad our system is that they would think they could get insurance at five months pregnant. I really don’t think there’s any insurance on the private market that you could get in that situation (“pre-existing condition”) at almost any price.

  46. 46.

    Rosali

    The Today show has become unwatchable. This morning featured what seemed like a 30 minute interview with the actress who played Cindy Brady. I think Meredith Viera is so annoying.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    @JenJen:

    Yes, yes, it did rock. And yes, that like from Peggy is a classic. Sunday nights are my out-of-the-news night. Between “True Blood” (which also is rocking mightily this season) and “Mad Men,” Sunday nights are the best night on teevee.

  50. 50.

    Da Bomb

    I try to stay from the intertubes on the weekends. I am mentally exhausted over discussing the Health Care Reform debate or how evil the Obama administration will be this week.

    This August spin cycle has been the most nauseating and stifling mentally ever. It’s definitely worse than last Ausgust.

    BLAH…

  52. 52.

    JenJen

    @The Saff: I’m sorry!! You’re going to love it, though. :-) Probably should stop reading the rest of this post…

    @Cat Lady: I almost fell off the couch during the blackface scene. It was interesting to me, watching so many people enjoy it, and then Don walking away, seemingly disgusted. I wonder at what time this kind of thing became entirely offensive to people? Was 1963 too early? I was also amused by the conversation about Nelson and Happy Rockefeller. “Well, looks like we’re stuck with Goldwater!” They have no idea, of course, that it isn’t going to matter…

    Joan playing “C’est Magnifique” on the accordian… sigh. Love that woman. She needs to get rid of Dr. McRapey or I’m going to just be heartbroken for her.

    Paul: “This is how the world ends! This is how the world ends!” I couldn’t stop laughing. That entire scene reminded me of college, somehow…

    And what was up with Trudy and Pete and their show-dance? The entire ep was like watching an unfolding anachronism. I was riveted.

  53. 53.

    geg6

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    Actually, Meet the Press was the best I’ve seen it since Gregory took over. A wonderful, IMHO, tribute to EMK, with only good friends and relatives discussing him and a montage of the senator’s appearances over 45 years. And Gregory, for the most part, keeping his stupid piehole shut.

    Oh, and HuffPo (I think it’s Jason Linkins) does a Sunday show wrapup that is always a howl.

  54. 54.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Punchy: I respectfully disagree. I have catastrophic insurance, and I am very much in favor of reform. I think it’s difficult to generalize who is and who isn’t for healthcare reform on the basis of whether or not that person has insurance.

    Besides, I think that many people without insurance skip the routine checkups and having minor injuries looked at because they are painfully aware of how much a trip to the doctor will cost them.

    As for the rest, eh. Whatever. The traditional media will die off because it can’t adapt, and I just hope I’ll alive to see it happen.

  56. 56.

    PurpleGirl

    I saw District 9 yesterday. Has anybody else from the BJ community seen it? What did you think of it?

  57. 57.

    JenJen

    @geg6: How awesome was “True Blood” last night! Loved that Evan Rachel Wood was the Vampire Queen… that was a most pleasant surprise.

    Can’t believe they’re making us wait TWO WEEKS for the finale! Boo. But at least we’ll have a fresh Mad Men again next Sunday. I usually watch Mad Men right after True Blood, but had to take a break in between last night… I kept expecting Eric and Bill to walk into Sterling Cooper. It’s tricky to switch genres so quickly, you know?

    You’re right…. Sundays rock lately. And soon… FOOTBALL! Cole is right… we humans have a good thing goin’ on sometimes. :-)

  58. 58.

    falloch

    Today is Beatles Bank Holiday Monday here in BBC-land, on BC Radio 2 – a day devoted to playing Beatles music and talking about the Beatles, etc. etc. You might want to have a listen.

  59. 59.

    geg6

    @JenJen:

    “True Blood” is really getting ready to rock us for the finale. I thought I loved last season, but this one has been a freakin’ roller coaster ride. Queen Sophie needed to have a strong but young and beautiful actress to play her and I can’t think of a better young actress than Evan Rachel Wood. I have to say that I am more than a little attracted to one Eric Northman. My sister and I have read all the books and, no matter how much of a bad boy he is, we both keep cheering for Eric to get Sookie in the end.

    I have come to the conclusion that “Mad Men” is what we have now that there just don’t seem to be (many) great literary novels any more. I find it to be so intelligent, lyrical, relevant, and character-driven that I think about it for days and days afterward. It’s been mostly books in my life that have affected me that way. And, yes, I was one of those completely shocked and taken aback at the Roger in blackface scene.

  60. 60.

    Kathy

    Great day for people who hate RichRod and Michigan for taking him away from WVU! Sucks to be a Michigan fan today and no I am not buying “everyone breaks that rule” as a defense. (Although the quote from the Michigan State players with wide eyes saying their coaches stick to the rules is sickening). . . also.
    John, thank your lucky stars WVU dodged the RichRod train wreck that is fast approaching.
    http://tiny.cc/wVX31

  61. 61.

    Kathy

    Also :) my apologies for busting in on the Mad Men thread. It totally rocked last night, I missed the black face part, I was watching Inspector Lewis on Masterpiece but Joan was superb and the scenes between Betsy’s father and Sally were completely creepy, but gave you that sense of anticipated dread that you get with some of the best horror films. I watched them with my hands over my eyes taking a peak through my fingers.

  63. 63.

    JenJen

    @geg6: I have to admit, Bill is more my type. Eric is just a wee bit evil for me… although I loved it when he was trying to scare the little girl at Fangtasia.

    Perhaps I’d feel differently if I’d read the books? Gawd, I love this show.

  65. 65.

    Anne Laurie

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    Does anyone know which blog it is that does the translated version of Meet the Press and other Sunday talkshows?

    Driftglass?

    “Yes, defenestrating Liz Cheney from the top of her Daddy’s pile of lies and treason may be immoral, but would it also be effective?”

  66. 66.

    The Moar You Know

    @Strawmanmunny: Good lord, that is fifty kinds of awesome. Should be required reading.

    Gregory: was this an awesome year for Teddy?

    Shriver: yes except for the dying part it was pretty good

    Gregory: that’s nice

  67. 67.

    Linkmeister

    @JenJen: I’ve not read the Sookie books, but I’ve read every other Charlaine Harris mystery novel (she’s written three other series characters with three-five books apiece). Based on that experience, I’ll bet the Sookie books are worth a read. I haven’t done so because I’m trying to reduce the TBR pile before I start another series.

  69. 69.

    vacuumslayer

    @JenJen: It wasn’t my favorite episode of the season. Seemed kinda choppy to me. Cramming in a lot of plot before the big finale. But I’m DYING to see the finale, which promises to be mind-blowing. I’m not sure there’s a more engrossing soap on the air these days, save maybe The Young the Restless. And if soaps keep losing viewers, I imagine I will soon have to depend completely on primetime soaps to get my fix.

  70. 70.

    PurpleGirl

    vacuumslayer: I thought the story was good and I was impressed by the production. It was very well done. I agree the ending was sad.

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