The heat is on, and we really need to crank out some votes to keep Bisty competitive this week, so don’t forget to vote for Bitsy:
I’m always accused of having minions, so go forth, army of Mordor, and conquer.
I’m heading out to dinner and hopefully some live music, so here is your open thread.
Royston Vasey
“Register To Vote”. Dang.
Oh well, back to my Torchwood marathon.
Cat Lady
Done, but honestly, if Scooter wins I will also haz a happy. Also too.
licensed to kill time
Done! Bitsy has 841 votes now. John, you have a blog with great heart and I thank you for it.
General Winfield Stuck
Being a General I resent teh minion. It taint’s the rank,. Or ranks the taint. whatever. Go Bitsy!!
Linkmeister
Man, rather than an army of Mordor, couldn’t we be Huorns? Or the Dead. I always thought those oathbreakers didn’t get enough screen time in the movie.
arguingwithsignposts
done. go bitsy.
sucky weekend still sucks.
bizzle
Thy will be done. As long as you keep up the beer blogging and Tunch/Lily circuses.
demkat620
@arguingwithsignposts: Why so sucky?
Laura W Darling
Being a Darling, I resent teh minion. Also.
Bitsy was in the top 30 finalists last week!
Out of 44,000+ dogs! She is SO CLOSE, and yet, still too far.
She will likely be there again this week unless we all manage to sign up for 3 more email accounts and cheat. Did I say that in my out loud voice?
I just know we can push her into #1 one of these weeks. Remember: it’s not a vanity contest for Bitsy…all monies (and attention) go to the furthering of animal rescue work done by the one-woman whirlwind who rescued her and placed her in a wonderful new home. (See four ads in left sidebar for name, address, voting links.)
Thanks, John.
JenJen
Guys, for your big laugh of the day, be sure to start following the rapidly-developing “12ther” story.
As we discussed in the Twitter thread here earlier, Michelle Malkin first tweeted, and then posted an update on her site, that TWO MILLION PEOPLE attended the Teabagger Rally in DC today. She said ABC News had reported such… updating her previous report that the official DC police estimate was 1.2 MILLION.
Now.. I used to live in DC. I think we have some DCers here. I think we know the city would, uh, feel the impact of two million people trying to get to the Mall at the same time. I think we’d have heard about it for weeks, because hotel execs would know these numbers were really going to happen, so they’d be telling all of us to stay the hell away, right? We have a recent example of this… the Inauguration!!
(By the way, nobody does official estimates anymore, but almost every news agency, and DC Fire/EMS, say 65-75,000. Sounds right from what I saw on TV. Two Million is a pretty big leap, is it not?)
So of course everyone has been laughing at Malkin all day, and she still has the post up. Now, people are wondering why she posted a phony photo of the marchers to go along with her phony count.
A day laughing at Malkin is a good day, if you ask me.
Calming Influence
The Bits-ter! Bits-o-rama! The Bits-onator! Little Bitsy gonna win a million dallas! She gonna buy a lotta biscuits for her hungry Buddies! Go, Bits-amundo!
arguingwithsignposts
@demkat620:
from last night’s open thread. If you get far enough down, there’s even a song.
JenJen
Fixing link from Post #9. Sorry!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/12/781110/-Is-Malkin-Cheating-with-Photos-(Updated)
shoutingattherain
@JenJen:
Could you try that link again? I want to laugh at MM too.
JenJen
@shoutingattherain: Sorry about that!
Some people are now claiming Malkin’s photo is authentic… they’re right. But that’s a dense piece of the march… seems like all DC Marches get bogged down right around there. But Two Million? No way. Not even possible.
Here’s MSNBC video from earlier, just to end the dispute as far as I’m concerned… they use the same feed of Malkin’s photo.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32811368#32811368
demkat620
@arguingwithsignposts: Well, stop listening to Morrissey. He’s fucking depressing. :)
Stay here with us. You can watch for BOB to show up.
And if you need to spill, do so. That’s what blogs are for.
demkat620
@JenJen: This is just another example of how they keep the publicity spotlight. Now there will be a “controversy” about the attendance that will go on for days.
Media simpletons.
Laura W Darling
@demkat620: You are very, very powerful.
I hope you use your White Witch powers only for good.
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=26737#comment-1365983
General Winfield Stuck
And here we get the scoop on where Malkin and her brood got that 2 million number for the tea party.
Ha. Punked again by crafty dems. Nice of you to play along Michelle/wingnuts.
Cat Lady
@JenJen:
Who cares. They’ve all gotten lost in their own mobius strip logic loop. As long as it’s a Beck led freak show, the other networks discharged their duty by even mentioning it today. It won’t get any more network coverage than today, because it would only benefit Fox, and the display of old white farts with misspelled signs yelling at Obama to get off their lawn is not going to help with the demographic they want. The oligarchs are riding the tiger now with the forces they’ve unleashed.
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: Keep posting, damn it! I like your song. Gravelly voice and unique lyrics. Plus, depressing. I like depressing. Can’t wait to see the video.
demkat620
@Laura W Darling: I try. :)
JenJen
@General Winfield Stuck: That’s interesting… a Teabagger on TV after the rally told Don Lemon on CNN that the organizers made an official announcement that there were two million there. ;-)
@Cat Lady: Oh, who cares about the 12thers, indeed. I just like laughing at Malkin. It’ll be funny watching her find someone to blame this on.
Let me quess…. JAMIL HUSSEIN!
jnfr
I have dutifully voted for Bitsy every day since we started. Do I get my minion t-shirt now?
calipygian
I was there. Third Avenue was clear enough to ride a bike full speed along and by mid afternoon I could walk my bike around the Capital Reflecting Pool with little trouble.
If there were 50,000 there, I’ll eat my dirty underwear.
calipygian
BTW, did you know that riding a bicycle is for children and f@660Ts?
One of the many things I learned at the Tea Baggers Ball today!
arguingwithsignposts
@jnfr:
I wonder why cole hasn’t put out a BJ shirt yet. Potential slogans?
@asiangrrlMN:
thanks!
For those who didn’t hear my song, here’s the link. It sort of explains the reason for my shitty mood.
I’m amazed at technology sometimes – we’re able to share stuff that would have taken much longer to do in the past. What a world.
watching Macheads right now.
arguingwithsignposts
@jnfr:
I wonder why cole hasn’t put out a BJ shirt yet. Potential slogans?
(my earlier comment is in moderation hell for some reason, so here’s a second)
arguingwithsignposts
@asiangrrlMN:
thanks!
For those who didn’t hear my song, here’s the link. It sort of explains the reason for my bad mood, even though I wrote it over a year ago.
I’m amazed at technology sometimes – we’re able to share stuff that would have taken much longer to do in the past. What a world.
Cat Lady
@JenJen:
I hope she blames teh gays smoking pot so Sully can weigh in and complete his summer of mood swinging madness.
arguingwithsignposts
Also, I got a big packet of paper in the mail today – my divorce was final last month (after 2 years of bickering). just got the docs. So yeah, W00t party and all that. :(
Calming Influence
@OriGuy:
Now picture Sean Connery saying that, in a kilt, one foot on each side of Glen Beck’s head…
Laura W Darling
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yeah, I suggested this in a thread long ago and the only slogan I can recall that I came up with right now is:
Wake Me When We Reach Peak Wingnut
I think it sorta rocks. John could rake it in with a tiny bit of effort and a Cafe Press store. Think of all the money he could give to THE ANIMALS IN NEED!
I even developed a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor toward this end
shoutingattherain
@JenJen:
This is
what 4 million people crammed into the Mall looks like.
Did the TBs have half that many? I think not.
arguingwithsignposts
@shoutingattherain:
It’s interesting that people debate the numbers on these gatherings all the time, especially given that we do have events like the inauguration which were known to have so many people attend.
Even if 1 million ppl showed up in DC, it really doesn’t say anything. Most ppl don’t have the resources to take off work, for instance, to go stand in the heat, even if they care a lot about the issue. Plus, they likely wonder about the effectiveness of the effort. I do. There were a couple hundred thousand ppl in Seattle’s downtown park for a hemp gathering recently, but no coverage.
meh. i’m cynical about it.
Cat Lady
@arguingwithsignposts:
“BJ’ers do it with the big head”
Shell
“the official DC police estimate was 1.2 MILLION.”
Like JenJen said, they don’t do official estimates anymore, after getting burned by so many groups pissed that it wasn’t the amount they thought it should be. But hey, Malkin, Fox, Hannity et al simply make shit up so….
gbear
Sometimes minions have bad days.
General Winfield Stuck
Dem prank update. From the dim bulb commenters at MM
Best Snipe Hunt ever.
calipygian
Another thing I learned at today’s modestly attended Tea Bagger’s Ball is that cons never said “It is unpatriotic to criticize the President in a time of war”. That is what Liebruls SAID that cons said.
THAT’S cleared up.
Demo Woman
From TPM
The DC Fire Department has issued an unofficial estimate of 60,000 to 70,000 people in attendance, which is smallish but definitely respectable. Meanwhile, organizers and various participants are claiming one or two million have shown up but that the numbers are being suppressed by pro-Obama media, etc.
Redshirt
I know we (some? me?) really want talk LOTR:
I regret my initial experience with them: Read The Hobbit as a kid, saw the cartoon, dug it, but nothing special. I never read LOTR and then the movies came out and at the time I lived next to a huge movie theater so I went alot and I figured why not, big summer blockbuster. Well, I was pretty bored, and did not like all the soft focus lens flare from Arwen.
Anyways, being a sucker, I duly saw the next two in the theatre as well, and enjoyed them, though not overly, and felt them rather long. But I must say I grew exasperated with the battle scenes, for one after another was pretty much the same: Bad guys have overwhelming and scary force, and good guys are doomed; except! Something shows up to save the day for the good guys, including, and dare I say I snorted in the theatre, an army of machinas ghosts.
So! All that said, I finally read the book and absolutely loved it. It’s incredible, and I’ve read it three times since. I find the book’s real charm as less to do with the plot than the harmless observations and antics of the hobbits. Really, it’s a book about home, and getting back there.
The battle scenes in the book did not feel as forced. Also, the Silmarilion is awesome.
shoutingattherain
@arguingwithsignposts:
Quite frankly, I don’t give a rats-ass how many people showed up. 1000 or 1,000,000. Who cares?
People absolutely have the right to peaceably assemble and display their displeasure with their government, even with poorly worded and badly designed signs. I am all for that, as I have done the same thing many, many times before (starting with the VNam War) and it’s part of what makes us different than some other countries. Being pissed off about the direction of our country and dissenting to the policies of its governing bodies is patriotic. It’s a good thing. Freedom rocks that way.
I’m more concerned as to whether it has any effect on the real debate in Congress. I don’t think this little temper-tantrum will change anything, but I’ve had a lot of experience getting screwed with my pants on by the USG before, so I’m not going to make any wild predictions.
I’d like to see a Pro-HealthCare rally in DC demanding our Leaders take the long view and do the right thing, but I wouldn’t be able to go because no way I can afford the airfare from Oregon. Hell, I can’t even afford an MRI to confirm a torn rotator cuff injury which I can’t afford to have repaired anyway because I don’t have insurance.
If there is ever such a rally I’ll blog the heck out of it and wish all who attend my best. I’ll be there in spirit, but I can’t afford to have my body attend. I can make signs.
arguingwithsignposts
@shoutingattherain:
This is central to my point. Most ppl can’t afford the time/resources to go. which, in a way, makes it so much more wild that the ppl showed up for MLK in 1963 for the I have a dream speech.
Calming Influence
@calipygian:
Heh, heh heh. You said “Tea Baggers Ball…”
JenJen
@Cat Lady: Gawd, no shit. I’m actually starting to think Sully must’ve given up the weed, from the way he’s been this summer.
Ash Can
You know, all these bumblefucks have to do is say something like “we think official counts are light” or even “official counts put us at x, which is a good turnout, but just you wait till next time!” But no. They have to insist upon some totally unrealistic number, and make asses of themselves. Then they whine about how nobody takes them seriously.
Conservatism used to be a socio-political-economic stance. Now it’s a term associated with clinical delusion. O tempora, o mores.
JenJen
@General Winfield Stuck: This is absolutely cracking me up. Any updates from Malkin yet? If she actually does end up blaming it on that leadership memo, it would be all the more delicious.
General Winfield Stuck
@JenJen:
Not yet. My guess is she’s quickly changing into her patented victim persona and will make a grand appearance later to cry foul and burn herself at the stake. That’s usually how it works.
And the ONLY place I’ve seen sourced for the 2 mill number is the dem memo, but now the Tory rag Daily Mail is loyally spreading the rumor.
General Winfield Stuck
New Libby pic.
WARNING; Cute factor could be overwhelming.
Shell
“Really, it’s a book about home, and getting back there.”
I think you summed it up nicely.
Shell
As of my vote, Bitsy has almost 934 votes. Does he have alot of serious competition? When does this thing get decided?
Cat Lady
@General Winfield Stuck:
How are you able to withstand that much cute?
General Winfield Stuck
@Cat Lady:
She’s not mine, but a flickr friend. Doubt I could if she was/
Betsy
@General Winfield Stuck:
That is just too cute to be real.
General Winfield Stuck
Alvin pigging out, as usual.
Betsy
Am working on the diss tonight, which involves the history of psychoanalytic/psychological theory, and can I just remark how distracting it is that one of the foremost psychoanalytic theorists of the mid-20th century shares a name with some dumbfuck from (I think) Redstate?
Woodrowfan
When well over a millon people DID come to DC to see Obama inaugurated the DC Metro had to run special trains back to back to back starting at 5 or 6 am. People waited hours to get onto a train, the Mall was people standing elbow to elbow from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and there were thousands more who couldn’t get onto the Mall, the bridges were closed, thousands of buses clogged the roads and the highways were jammed.
Today, nada. Traffic was fine (I listened to the reports on the XM traffic/weather channel because I wanted to hear the weather), there was also a marathon in town and some sort of festival at the Kennedy Center. No special Metro trains, no lines of buses, zippo. MM is a liar, plain and simple.
Laura W Darling
@Shell: Yeah, her rescuer, Evelyn Bridges, emailed me last Monday saying: “There is another dog with over 1,000 votes already. What can we do?” So…you know that these other contenders have huge groups of minions, trolls, sycophants and darlings behind them too. They might just be bigger and tougher, more mobilized and organized than Juicers, although I find that incredibly hard to believe.
Week 6 ends tonight at midnight. We have 6 more weeks. All we have to do is get her ONE #1 slot so she is a semi-finalist (one of 12). I think the fact that we pushed her into the top 30 last week is pretty amazing, considering there were 44,000 other dogs! I honestly did not think the momentum would continue on through this week, but as usual, I was wrong. Maybe we are getting stronger as time goes on?
Or not.
I can’t overthink this any longer. JUST VOTE.
Please?
Thank you.
Cat Lady
@Woodrowfan:
YOU LIE! la la la la fascist castro libtard la la la la can’t hear you la la la la
Ash Can
@General Winfield Stuck: LOL! ‘Tis the season, after all. Here in our neighborhood, the chestnuts, walnuts, and other goodies are reaching their peak, and the squirrels are starting to chow in earnest. When people start decorating for Halloween in a few weeks, however, the squirrels will be packing on the weight in earnest. Indian corn, e.g., usually doesn’t stay put for even one day. And it always cracks me up when I walk past the pumpkins on the porch and the squirrel sitting right next to them, stuffing his face with both hands, not only doesn’t run away but gives me a look as if to say, “I don’t care how big you are; if you touch my pumpkin I’ll fucking kill you.”
OriGuy
@Calming Influence: I don’t think Sir Sean would let Beck within 10 feet of him.
Sean Connery in a kilt. I don’t look bad in a kilt, but nothing like him.
Calming Influence
@OriGuy:
That’s awesome! He’s in a kilt, the Queen’s holding a sword, and he’s thinking “…if she’s heard any of the jokes I’ve told about her, I’m about to lose my yam sack…”
Don
Some great shots over at this flickr set.
By great I mean alternately hysterical and pathetic.
General Winfield Stuck
@Don:
Those are hysterical. And is it just me, because I remember dem protesting that usually only had posters of Bush, and sometimes Cheney/ These wingnuts have them for about every dem and his/her brother. I mean why drag Oprah into this shit? Different planets we live on together, I suppose.
asiangrrlMN
@Betsy: I know! I was a psych major in college, and it’s a lifelong interest of mine, and I can’t stand the fact that Erick the son of Erick has the same name as one of the leading figures in psychology.
@General Winfield Stuck: So. Freaking. Cute.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m late to seeing this, but hee, yeah. The first time I saw someone here talking about him, I thought they WERE talking about the first Erikson, and I was very confused.
Steeplejack
Just pushed that little bitch up to 977.
Steeplejack
@Laura W Darling:
Mmm, Tunch’s Peak Wingnut . . .