Working out some stuff with the Handycam, and I took it to the Rails to Trails for the inaugural LilyCam. Here she is just doing her thing:
About a mile or two in, there is a little field I go to and let her run around:
Also, don’t forget to vote for Bitsy:
You are on your own. Behave.
General Winfield Stuck
She got a proud doggie spring in her step, and plenty of stuff to sniff and explore. Puppy heaven. Bravo Cole!
Cat Lady
Happy dog is happy!
robertdsc
Sweet, sweet Lily. So wonderful. Thank you.
arguingwithsignposts
just dropping by to say “hi.”
JK
Wingnuts have Valerie Jarrett in their sights
Valerie Jarrett: The Next Van Jones
frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36289
Tinfoil Glenn Beck fan is breathing heavily over ACORN and Valerie Jarrett
“Glenn Beck just wrapped up what had to be the most compelling radio I’ve heard… and lately, most of his shows have been pretty compelling. Whew, where to start? Well, how about this: you should make it a point to do two things today: watch his TV show at 5 ET this afternoon on Fox News, and hit the Big Government website an hour earlier at 4 ET. Here’s what you’ll find – the latest video sting of ACORN. This one in a San Bernardino ACORN office where the employee can’t talk fast enough about the connections they have to politicians (naming them by name) and even an admission of murder.
Scott Baker of Breitbart TV’s The B-Cast was on during Glenn’s final segment, connecting the dots between POTUS advisor Valerie Jarrett and Obama’s past, including his grandparents, his mother, and Franklin Davis Marshall who played an influential role in his life. This is stuff you can’t make up. Yesterday I came across a detailed expose about Valerie Jarrett, who as we are learning, has and is playing a major role in this presidency. She is Obama’s brain. She’s also Michelle’s brain too… As Glenn Beck put it today, ‘The whole thing is coming undone. Brace yourselves.’”
radiopatriot.blogspot.com/2009/09/whole-thing-is-coming-undone-brace.html
JK
Clueless Bernard Goldberg’s latest rant
“Is the New York Times or NBC News really mainstream when they ignore the Van Jones story? Isn’t there something wrong when Glenn Beck, who doesn’t even pretend to be a journalist, scoops the “mainstream media” on all sorts of stories – from Van Jones to Acorn, to name just two recent examples?
The fact is there are lots of stories that Americans care deeply about that simply hold no interest for so-called mainstream journalists. I get the impression that if FOX News decides to run with a story that may, for example, reflect badly on President Obama or one that puts a spotlight on some liberal judge who let’s child molesters off with (barely) a slap on the wrist, the mainstream media won’t go near it. That may be regrettable, but I fear it’s true.”
bernardgoldberg.com/content/2009/09/14/mainstream-media-must-go
Dan Riehl goes off on Charlie Gibson
Charlie Gibson: Dan Rather Wearing Mary Mapes’ Underwear
riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2009/09/charlie-gibson-dan-rather-wearing-mary-mapes-und…
JK
@arguingwithsignposts:
Hi,
How are things going? Last night’s discussion was very interesting. I’m still bummed out that Denis Leary would appear on Glenn Becks’ show. Shame on him.
GReynoldsCT00
love the lily-cam! is that the field where she likes to roll in nasty dead shit?
Cat Lady
So here’s the vote breakdown on Joe Wilson:
On the vote breakdown: The seven Republicans who voted with Democrats to admonish Mr. Wilson are Representatives Anh Cao, of Louisiana, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Representatives Jeff Flake of Arizona, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, Tom Petri of Wisconsin. Dana Rohrabacher of California.
And 12 Democrats voted against their party’s action, including several from New York: Michael Arcuri of New York, Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Maurice Hinchey of New York, Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Dan Maffei of New York, Eric Massa of New York, Jim McDermott of Washington, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Harry Teague of New Mexico.
Five Democrats voted present – including Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts. Ten lawmakers did not vote.
One interesting aside on this debate, according to Carl Hulse, our chief congressional correspondent: The Democratic leadership decided beforehand to keep a tight control on the speeches so as to focus the topic solely on Mr. Wilson. Only Representative Clyburn and Mr. Hoyer spoke for the Democrats.
arguingwithsignposts
@JK:
sucky week is still sucky.
Also, I shake my head in amazement at the level of douchebaggery that’s happening in this country.
JK
@Cat Lady:
Congrats to the Republicans who voted to condemn Joe Wilson’s disgusting outburst.
The Democrats who voted against the resolution, voted present, or did not vote are clueless assholes. There’s no logical reason for them to not condemn Wilson’s behavior. To quote Barney Frank, I wonder what planet these holier than thou asshole Democrats spend most of their time on.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@GReynoldsCT00: Yeah, I was hoping we’d see her start to roll in something, hear John swear and then static because he’d dropped the camera.
In other news: Teabagging Shart Factory Frightened by Brown People. (link to Sadly, No!, not Upper fReichtardistan.)
Cat Lady
I wondered why SC Republican Representative Bob Inglis voted against Joe Wilson. He’s conservative without being a wingnut!
arguingwithsignposts
And i regret that I have but one vote per day to give to Bitsy.
Ash Can
@JK:
Good. I hope they go after her full steam. She’s a good personal friend of both Barack and Michelle. The wingnuts will find out in short order just how rough the Chicagoans can play when they put their minds to it.
arguingwithsignposts
@Cat Lady:
Indeed.
hahaha.
SGEW
@JK:
This is outrageous. If it turns out that Leary is a Beckian, he’s dead to me. I thought it was bad enough that he probably ripped off Bill Hicks’ material.
Ash Can
Oh, and Bitsy may be cute, but Lily is simply darling. :)
General Winfield Stuck
@JK:
Goddamn wingnuts are off their rockers with this Jarret shit. Something about her being some kind commie conduit of radicals into the Obama administration and also as Obama’s “mind melded” alter ego. I guess a dem version of Bush’s Brain, Karl Rove. These fuckers are certifiable and lower than whale shit at the bottom of the sea.
scout
You’re having such a good time with Lily…it’s heartwarming to watch. Thanks
donovong
@Ash Can: Spot on. They may as well go after Bo, for all the good this will do them.
Dave C
Such.A.Cutey.
John, you need to hold the Balloon Juice equivalent of Netroots Nation. But instead of drinking beer and talking politics, we all get to pet and play with Lily!
JK
@JK:
I hear you loud and clear regarding a sucky week. I visit this site to try and put my despair on the back burner. I still feel lousy afterwards, but for a few hours I derive a therapeutic value from this site and others.
Reading this blog and watching cable news, you’d never know Dems control Congress and the WH. In an earlier thread, people praised Obama’s oratorical skills. To that I’d say big fucking deal. Obama is a great orator, but as far as I can tell, the political debate in this country is still driven by Fox News, Rush Limbuagh, etc..
arguingwithsignposts
@SGEW:
To be fair to Leary, I can only find the one video right now, and it was from 2 years ago when Beck was on CNN, and Beck sounded reasonably deferential, almost sane at the time.
Re: Hicks vs. Leary, check out this three part comparison video. From watching the first part, i’m not totally convinced.
schrodinger's cat
Thanks for the LilyCam but Tunch fans eagerly await TunchCam aka Amuse me monkey boy I ar bored
Skepticat
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ve been getting e-mails from Canadian and German friends saying “What the hell is going on in your country?” I’m having trouble coming up with a answer that isn’t embarrassing.
Comrade Baron Elmo
“Is the New York Times or NBC News really mainstream when they ignore the Van Jones story? Isn’t there something wrong when Glenn Beck, who doesn’t even pretend to be a journalist, scoops the “mainstream media” on all sorts of stories – from Van Jones to Acorn, to name just two recent examples?”
My Repub brother emailed me this article, citing it as “proof” that the New York Times is a bastion of liberalism. Words fail me.
I’ve got a few responses to hit him with when I phone him tomorrow… feel free to add on.
JK
@arguingwithsignposts:
My message #22 which begins “I hear you loud and clear..” was meant for you. I was typing too fast for my own good and accidentally put my screenname instead of yours next to the @ sign.
JK
From NBC’s Mark Murray
In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, former Dem President Jimmy Carter attributed much of the conservative opposition that President Obama is receiving to the issue of race.
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,” Carter said. “I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that share the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans.”
Carter continued, “And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply.”
h/t firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/09/15/2070242.aspx
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
Jarrett is Obama’s Karen Hughes.
Remember how liberals went after Karen Hughes?
Bush’s advisor who he brought from Texas? The person who was front and center in every picture the Bush White House released after 9/11? His “informal advisor”, Karen Hughes? Hughes, who wrote a self-aggrandizing book immediately after 9/11?
Yeah. Me neither.
JK
@SGEW: @arguingwithsignposts:
This Leary / Beck business is tough for me because I’m a huge fan of Rescue Me.
Betsy
@Skepticat:
Eh, with the German friends you can just reply “the same thing that would be happening (with a somewhat different inflection/emphasis) in your country if you suddenly elected a Turkish chancellor.” They’ve got their crazies fully as much as we have ours.
freelancer
@arguingwithsignposts:
I got my seasonal flu shot around noon. Good on me. Of course this means I now have a 48 hour cold. Yay.
John Cole
Anyone have any experience with Toast Platinum 10?
JK
My sympathy to any Democrats living in the district of SOB Iowa Rep Steve King
Wingnut Steve King ciculated a letter urging House Republicans to resist efforts to require Rep. Joe Wilson to apologize to the House of Representatives
Excerpt from King letter:
“We, your colleagues in the House, stand beside you. During the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress, we had just heard President Obama declare ‘prominent politicians’ to be liars for disagreeing with him on health care. You, and we, knew his statement that health care legislation would not fund illegal immigrants was not supported by the facts, especially in light of two House committee votes, the Congressional Budget Office, and a Congressional Research Service report. However, we agree with your statement on your lack of civility and with your response.”
h/t blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2009/09/14/king-circulates-pro-wilson-letter
Midnight Marauder
Do they understand how irresonsible this is? How recklessly dangerous to a society’s cohesion and calm? Or is that what they need and thrive on?
–Sullivan, on Limbaugh and Malkin’s race-baiting via the St. Louis school bus incident.
He really doesn’t seem to get it, does he? I mean, I know we’ve chatted about this at length before, but I find it amazing (ed. note: not really; it is Sullivan after all) how naive he can continuously be to these peoples’ true motives.
The Grand Panjandrum
@arguingwithsignposts: You are right about Leary. CNN dumped Beck after he started acting out. Remember the interview with newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison? That was close to the last straw IIRC. He’s always been a loon but didn’t really turn up the dial until he made the move to Fox.
The Grand Panjandrum
@The Grand Panjandrum: Rats! This is the link to the youtube video of Beck and Ellison.
youtube.com/watch?v=tgbg604XqPY
General Winfield Stuck
Just reconnected XM after getting mad a year ago at them for taking off XM Cafe. Funny when you think you are punishing someone else, usually it’s yourself that suffers. Someday I’ll grow up.
Water/under/bridge and the music is alive again. Listening to Yes, Yours is no Disgrace. Great tune. on classic vinyls.
John Cole
@Midnight Marauder: No.
BTW- Reason was so proud of their designer jeans and malt liquor spot they ran it again today.
Incertus
@arguingwithsignposts: If Leary ripped off Hicks, he ripped off the D-grade stuff. I mean, Leary’s okay, but he couldn’t carry Hicks’s microphone.
And in open thread goodness, I present giant, hybrid, man-eating pythons. And it’s not a SyFy original movie, though I’m sure it will be.
JK
@Midnight Marauder:
Andrew Sullivan is book smart, but there are times when I find his observations jawdropping and breathtakingly clueless.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Midnight Marauder: Actually he is not at all naive. He is pretty insensitive, at best. He can go on and on (rightfully so) when a gay club is raided by the cops. IOW when its homophobia he can spot it from miles away. When its racism he can’t see it with a high resolution photo from a good camera. (OK that may be a bit of an exaggeration but he is more tolerant of when its not about homophobia.)
Demo Woman
Lily was so proud of herself in the second video. She had such a big smile on her face, that she could audition for the world’s happiest dog.
JK
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I never followed Glenn Beck’s migration to Fox News. Did CNN actually fire him? I just assumed that Beck’s contract had expired and that Fox News started a bidding war with CNN over him.
madmommy
So. Cute. I love the way her ears dance as she trots along.
I’ve been voting for Bitsy all week, but now I find out there’s a NOLA dog named Mozart that is also in this contest. A Cavalier King Charles spaniel that is seriously adorable. So now I am conflicted.
The Grand Panjandrum
@JK: I’m not sure either but IIRC they didn’t renew his contract. Now that could be that Fox outbid them but I do remember him having a show on the Headlines News channel. I didn’t watch it, just saw the stuff put out by Media Matters and other watch dogs. Looking back at it now its pretty tame compared to his frothing Bircher mania we see on an almost daily basis.
arguingwithsignposts
@madmommy:
Looking through the last week’s winners, I really don’t get the hair bow appeal.
Annie
Lily is beautiful. I loved the video, although she may object to all of us seeing her do her personal stuff…I am waiting for Tunch to grab the handycam and get his revenge on John…
The most amazing and scary thing for me watching the pictures from 9/12 march was how mean some of the protesters were. What is unclear is what exactly what people were protesting, except for hatred of Obama. And, how the organizers were fueling this mindless hatred. If people are against government-sponsored health care, than let Republican Congressmen give up their government-sponsored health care. Let them go out in the free market and try and get a provider. Let Joe Wilson and his family give up their government-sponsored health care. Let them practice what they preach.
Instead, they fuel the fears people have and offer nothing. Worse, they have health and want to deny others.
Mindless rage is scary. Just ask Jews in the beginning of the rise of Nazism — having vocal voices blame the “others” without a rational reason why they hate. It is easy to stir up a crowd. It is harder to bring them back to reality.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Skepticat: GERMANS are you asking that?
Man, we may be deeper in le du-du than I thought.
(I know, I suck.)
JK
Incertus, arguingwithsignposts, Midnight Marauder
I write this as someone, who until the revelation of his guest appearance with Glenn Beck, was a huge Denis Leary fan and a huge fan of Rescue Me.
From what I’ve seen the evidence, it looks pretty damning against Leary. It looks fairly cut and dry to me that Leary plagarized from Bill Hicks on a massive scale.
My question for any of you or anyone who understands the workings of the entertainment industry is this:
How did Denis Leary get away with it? If the case of plagarism is as strong as many BJ readers believe it to be, why wasn’t Leary blackballed and driven out of the business?
General Winfield Stuck
Marah — Walt Whitman Bridge
arguingwithsignposts
@JK:
Money talks. Look at Carlos Mencia. Also, a lot of Leary’s stuff was pre-YouTube.
Betsy
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Ditto sexism, BTW. It drives me absolutely apeshit that he can get so angry on behalf of his kind of people but not other kinds of people. It just illustrates for me how self-absorbed he is. Goddammit, if you’re going to get mad about one kind of oppression, you bloody well ought to at least TRY to understand and fight other kinds. None of us are perfect, but an effort needs to be made.
madmommy
@arguingwithsignposts:
Well, the hairbow is a pretty common girl-dog thing. I think it looks pretty silly too. When my lab gets a bath at the vet they give her a spiffy bandanna.
arguingwithsignposts
@Betsy: His hypocrisy is why he’s a conservative.
Spork
Just wanted to say, I really don’t think bitsy is cute. That type of dog annoys the hell out of me. But nepotism rules, so I voted anyway. Here’s to tribalism and all the worst traits of groupthink :D
Max
Re: Valerie Jarrett
The Wingers go after her at their peril. She is one of Obama’s closest friends, like family. I suspect any attack on her will bring out the Southside in our boy.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Betsy: Yep. As much as I don’t like Palin I think his constant nagging about who is Trig’s “real” mother was out and out sexism. It was uncalled for and stupid. I guess it was his form of birtherism. Need I mention his “dislike” of HRC? Whew.
Midnight Marauder
@JK:
How did Denis Leary get away with it? If the case of plagarism is as strong as many BJ readers believe it to be, why wasn’t Leary blackballed and driven out of the business?
There’s a reason Denis Leary has done pretty much zero stand up the past decade or so. There’s a reason that he shifted his focus so much into acting, and particularly, the world of television series. Also, aruingwithsignposts is right that a major reason he was able to get away with it is that it was a pre-youTube era.
But make no mistake, Leary is considered persona non grata for a lot people in the comedy world.
arguingwithsignposts
@Spork:
Duck!
Incertus
@JK: I honestly don’t know the whole story. All I know is that Leary isn’t half the comic that Hicks was, so if Leary stole, he didn’t do much with it.
arguingwithsignposts
@Midnight Marauder:
He lost his joke writer? (rimshot)
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JK:
I enjoy Sully’s writing style – he is a gifted writer of prose, taking into account the speed with which he has to write posts to keep up with the pace of events in the blogosphere. And I have to give him some credit for turning his ship around with regard to Bush and the war. I know that seems like it should be easy, not something worth giving credit for, but look how few other pundits have done so and are willing to admit it in public.
Having said that, sometimes Sully’s political judgments can be just train-wreck levels of terrible. Part of the problem is that he doesn’t know jack about American political history. And that’s putting it kindly. He has no sense of context for anything that stretches back further than the late 1980s, as if this nation sprang new-born from the brow of Ronald Reagan like Athena from Zeus.
And more of his cluelessness comes from the fact that as an upper-class Brit he doesn’t have an ear for the undertones in American politics – there are a lot of dog-whistles that he can’t hear for example. Richard Wolfe can be the same way sometimes, but no nearly so much.
But it doesn’t help that Sullivan is basically a massively overeducated twit with a preference for romanticizing everything he looks at and a tendency to treat everything in politics as an intellectual game. Sometimes he breaks through that shell and seems to get that certain issues have a real impact on the lives of real people (like with torture, or more recently with the series he posted in mid-summer of reader emails regarding their personal experiences of the healthcare crisis). But always, always this has to happen for him one issue at a time. He never seems to generalize from his narrow epiphanies.
Kristine
I love Lily’s tail.
SGEW
[Tues night tl;dr]
Why doesn’t anyone use the phrase “culture war” anymore? It seems so very appropriate, nowadays. I think the sides are pretty obvious, and can often be explained by overt cultural differences (generational, geographical, ideological, educational, racial, etc.). Luckily (for us), “their” [1] “culture” [2] is a minority in the U.S.A. now, and is undergoing a peculiar form of reactionary madness.
It was not thus during the Bush years, where ideological political differences trumped those of culture – many people with whom I share many cultural markers (educational, geographical, economic, etc.) were very clearly on the opposite side of the partisan divide from me (e.g., Mr. John “Wingnut” Cole, circa 2004). Joe Lieberman, wretched right winger as he is, is not going crazy in town hall meetings, yelling about Obama’s birth certificate. For some reason.
I could (kind of) understand how the Iraq invasion supporters thought: I shared enough cultural markers with them, either political (e.g., Yglesias), educational (Sullivan), or philosophical (Cole). This culture we’re seeing manifest now [3] seems, to me, to be based on entirely different facts and assumptions about how the world actually operates, and what one’s place in it should be. It’s like they’re from some very strange, foreign land – except that I’ve understood my classmates and colleagues from strange, foreign lands [4] a hell of a lot better than I do these people.
I leave aside what sort of cultural markers these people share (it’s not what the right wing coalition used to be, I can tell you that), but I think a few of them are pretty obvious.
Also: Lily really is a charmer, ain’t she? A joy.
Also, Also; re: Andrew Sullivan – He is a professional ingenue: overeducated, whipsmart at times, but ultimately, hopelessly naive. I find it kind of endearing, sometimes.
[1] “Them” meaning “teabaggers” and “Beckians,” I guess. But it’s more than those particularly disturbing (yet somehow hilarious) phenomenon.
[2] More of a subculture, to be precise. But “Culture” (capital C) sounds better.
[3] “Now,” to my eyes, means ever since Obama looked like he might have a chance at winning the primary – this was when I first started really seeing this particular culture. Funny, that.
[4] Of course, I shared educational, economic, and media factors with them, so mutual understanding wasn’t very surprising.
Midnight Marauder
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Actually he is not at all naive. He is pretty insensitive, at best. He can go on and on (rightfully so) when a gay club is raided by the cops. IOW when its homophobia he can spot it from miles away. When its racism he can’t see it with a high resolution photo from a good camera. (OK that may be a bit of an exaggeration but he is more tolerant of when its not about homophobia.)
I agree with you wholeheartedly about his insensitivity to the struggles of other groups. But I think that’s something different than what goes on with his posts regarding the Conservative Death Spiral.
He genuinely seems surprised that these people are being driven not out of some kind of noble but misguided ideology; but instead, out and out visceral hatred at a black man who had the gall to be elected by a healthy majority of the American public.
It’s as though he’s completely forgotten about the nastiness that came out of the campaign, and more importantly, failed to realize that it was merely a precursor to the bitchfit that was working its way down the pipeline.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Max: From what I’ve read Jarret’s pretty goddamned badass on her own right. You don’t get to the place she’s at in politics without some serious political game. But, yes, she’s family.
Incertus
@Midnight Marauder: It’s as though he’s completely forgotten about the nastiness that came out of the campaign, and more importantly, failed to realize that it was merely a precursor to the bitchfit that was working its way down the pipeline.
He seems to have forgotten his own little part in the nastiness during the run up to the Iraq War, when he accused pretty much everyone who was against the war of being traitors. He’s not the most self-aware guy out there.
JK
Midnight Marauder, arguingwithsignposts
Speaking as someone who possesses zero comedic, artistic, musical, or literary talent but is a devout fan of those who do possess such talent, if YouTube does nothing else, a major decrease in acts of plagarism would be a welcome development.
Gina
@Spork: I agree, I’m hooked on Rotties myself. But none of the Rotties in the contest are anywhere near as cute as MINE, so I’ll join the groupthink bandwagon and vote Bitsy too :-)
cleek
Locke and Demosthenes
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@SGEW:
I dunno. Maybe the kulturkampf was more salient back during the 80s and 90s because there was still some fluidity to the politcal situation – there were still culturally conservative Dems that the GOP hoped to pick off that they hadn’t gotten yet. But after the last couple of decades that sorting and winnowing process has now reached a terminal end point. Sides have hardened to the point where no further movement is possible; sort of like the deadlock on the Western Front in WW1 – both sides are dug in deep and nobody is going anywhere anytime soon.
Looking a few years down the road, I predict the big “cultural” issue in the 2010-2012 elections will be crime. Crime rates are pretty strongly correlated with economic downturns and if the current period is anything like the recessions of the late 1970s and early 1980s then we should be due for a doozy of an uptick in crime any day now. Those are lemons the GOP can make lemonade out of.
Shinobi
Look at that happy confident dog. She’s even cuter in motion.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Midnight Marauder: I see your point now. @SGEW: Culture Club!
JK
SGEW, Midnight Marauder, Incertus, Grand Panjandrum –
I’m grateful to Andrew Sullivan for his unrelenting attacks on Sarah Palin during the presidential campaign. If his ongoing focus on her breathtaking incompetence and dishonesty caused any undecided voters to vote for Obama I’m appreciative of his efforts.
Unfortunately, Sullivan seems to have drunk Marc Ambinder’s Kool Aid when it comes to the teabaggers. Back on April 15th, I was disgusted beyond belief to read Ambinder naively speak approvingly of the teabaggers.
OriGuy
The International Brotherhood and Sisterhood for the Establishment of a Republican Homeland Somewhere Far Away is an international organization dedicated to helping Republicans and their minions find a new Homeland, where they will be free to practice their unique Political and Philosophical tenants without interference from, or with, the Government of The United States of America.
h/t kissmybigbluebutt.com/
General Winfield Stuck
@The Grand Panjandrum:
The wingnuts are playing the same game here as they did with Clinton. They aren’t interested in a head on fight. They are working hard to create urban myths. This pne about Jarrett and a dozen others are spun from whole cloth and slung into the ethers like throwing out a worm on a hook.
Maybe one will get bit on by the MSM and if it gets mentioned even once on teevee, no matter how silly and easily debunked, it lives in the thoughts of people. And if enough of these little parasitic sound bites get stuck in the publics neural net, then a doubt is born and can be exploited later.
And if by chance, the mark decides to make an issue out of it, then the evil seed gets watered some more. It is the lowest form of human interaction and communication, born in the pits white hot cynicism. It’s the Psyops of political warfare, and almost impossible to combat, unless a threshold of tolerance is reached and backlash ensues, like it did with Clinton late in his presidency. And even in that case, if not handled with political skill, it can still cause a lot of damage. So far, Obama has made it look relatively easy, and it is driving the wingnuttery to increasingly incredulous levels.
ellaesther
You know, if any one had told me — up until about, oh, say, two years ago? (when was the YouTube invented?) — that I would one day sit in the privacy of my own home and watch short clips of other people’s dogs on my personal computer — I would have laughed my head off.
And, having said that: My word, she is a cute and happy dog, isn’t she?
The Grand Panjandrum
@General Winfield Stuck: If any smart Republicans remain they’ve got to be nervous. Obama took on the vaunted Clinton machine and beat them. They now work for him. The GOP impeached Bill and STILL couldn’t get rid of him. I’d say, so far, advantage Obama. If healthcare passes I predict thats when we see the real bitchfits. Most of what we’re seeing now are temper tantrums. Just wait, what comes next may even rival some of the shit we saw in the 50’s-60’s.
ChrisNBama
Thanks for the dog vid’s, John. Good stuff!
Left Coast Tom
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I see that as a minimum requirement for entry into sane conversation. Which probably explains my grumpiness about my state’s Senior Senator (Feinstein), though I’m glad she’s starting to ask what our exit strategy is from Afghanistan (not that I think the two are parallel, but we do need a set of clearly stated goals coupled with an exit strategy).
CaseyL
I love seeing Lily walking so happily through open fields. I wonder if she ever thinks about the Bad Place she used to live, where she never had a chance to play in the great outdoors.
But I don’t think you can call it a “Lilycam” unless it’s attached to her and filming at all times, so we can tune in 24/7 to watch :)
slag
Disappointed Lily didn’t roll in any dead stuff for the camera. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Also, TunchCam! Also.
IndyLib
Oh, my fucking god, this book by Matt Latimer about Bush that’s being excerpted all over the place is going to be such a winner.
“This is a five-spiral crash, boys”, says the idjit that flew the plane around the world to the right until it ran out of gas, and engine sputtering handed the controls over the McGrumpy.
IndyLib
@IndyLib: forgot the link
Ash Can
@IndyLib: It looks like it’ll be coming out at a good time, too. With people still talking about the teabaggers, the imbeciles in the media insisting that health care will be DOA, and various GOP pols making highly public asses of themselves, it’ll be good for everyone to just take a breath and recall that only a few short months ago our federal government was a smoking crater.
WingNutz
Well, thanks a lot. Your whistling made my cats come running. LIke they do that for me.
JK
@IndyLib:
Good stuff. Will Sarah Palin have anything to say about this on her Facebook page?
I hope reporters ask McCainiac if he has any response to the Bush quotes.
IndyLib
@Ash Can:
If this is what the publisher is putting out there now imagine the potential for what isn’t being publicized. This particular book seems to be causing some serious consternation among the Bushies.
General Winfield Stuck
@IndyLib:
It’s nice to see the former wingnut King George out for a little rumpus on his former subjects. Seems Our first frat boy presnit has a passel of wedgies to dish out to his buds. I just love it when they start circling each other with fangs bared and snapping towels.
Brachiator
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Not even with this one?
wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget?
I agree with you about Sully, by the way.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@The Grand Panjandrum: A lot of people do think that if they stomp and howl long enough magical ponies will arrive and they can ride back to the 50s.
Not gonna happen.
Might there be random fuckery here and there through out the country? Sure. Bet on it. But I’d rather deal with that shit than cops, fire hoses and police dogs.
What will also happen is a lot of people are making themselves the political equivalent of Sarah Palin. If she were radioactive and ate small children.
Popcorn?
General Winfield Stuck
Like I predicted all along, there will be no GOP support, even for the Senate Finance Committee bill that has no PO and is largely written by wingnuts themselves. It is about existential ideological party politics and no gooper is going to stick their political neck out with the rage virus wingnut mob poised to chop it off.
It’s reconciliation process or bust for dems. Just like the preordained script was written.
craigie
It’s like you’ve never seen a dog before. How cute you are!
freelancer
@cleek:
It’s shameful that Card will have been attributed as pre-conceiving the blogosphere considering how much of a Mormon Fundie bigoted wingnut he’s become.
Mark S.
Is it wrong for me to love George W. talking shit about McCain? Of course, not every put down can be golden:
I can definitely believe all those lackeys thought that was the funniest shit they’d ever heard.
burnspbesq
@Midnight Marauder:
Has it occurred to you that those might be rhetorical questions?
parksideq
Don’t know if this is final, but it looks like the crazies at Operation Rescue are reaching the end of their financial rope. Karmic justice, we haz it.
freelancer
@ Cole:
Lily is a gorgeous pup, and you are a lucky owner.
I beg you, ignore the circus today, and watch this Bill Moyers’ Journal segment between himself and Glenn Greenwald from last spring
pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch2.html
It profoundly touches on almost everything we have been discussing in the last 9 months, and it makes me want to scream that in terms of media, that the DFH were right.
p.a.
Leash, please! Dog sees furry wild creature. Dog chases furry wild creature until out of sight. No good.
Midnight Marauder
@burnspbesq:
Has it occurred to you that those might be rhetorical questions?
Very briefly, yes. But if you think those are rhetorical, then you don’t know Sullivan.
Anne Laurie
@parksideq:
It would make me very, very happy if this proved to be true. However, cynic that I am, I suspect this is just more legal-weaseling to escape the possibility of civil suits (from Tiller’s family or business partners, for instance), especially in light of the salesmanship at the end of that article:
I am not a lawyer, but that sounds to me like a PR press release intended to prepare for some kind of ‘Under new management, plus extra crazy’ re-branding campaign.
asiangrrlMN
2nd night I’m off the grid, and Cole provides two videos of the sweetest and happiest dog ever frolicking? What happens if I stay off a third night, videos of Tunchie and Lily spooning??????
Jay in Oregon
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’m glad to see you.
I guess I will be staying on my friend’s couch for another night or two. We both need some space.
I want to save my marriage but my heart is beginning to tell me it’s too late and I need to take care of myself. Keep hoping and keep praying for us.
parksideq
@Anne Laurie: In this case, I’m really hoping that reports of its demise aren’t greatly exaggerated. But I do see your point.
Joy
John, you’ve done such an amazing job with Lily. She looks like such a happy puppy!
asiangrrlMN
@Jay in Oregon:
@arguingwithsignposts:
I am glad to see BOTH of you posting. I am sending out strong, positive vibes to both of you. You can get through this. Keep posting, you guys.
Jay in Oregon
@asiangrrlMN:
At this point I’m not worried for myself, I’m worried about my wife.
I’m beginning to realize, based on conversations with people around her, that she has probably been suffering from depression for the better part of a year. She doesn’t want to face this, so she’s been pushing them away.
I can barely get her to talk to me as it is — saying “you need to get help” while my own emotional state is so fragile will break this marriage up for good. And will leave her even more hurt and confused.
I need time. Time to work with her on us, time to get her to a point where she realizes she needs help.
Devon Cole
Glad to see you have officially lost your mind. I thought I was obsessive with Irie and now Huck, but I can honestly say I have never videotaped either of them relieving themselves and then posted it on the internet. Oddly enough, I watched both videos.
Lily is a lucky little girl. I am so happy you rescued her.
Welcome to the club for people owned by their dogs.
Dog is My Co-Pilot
Lily looks so happy. I bet she thinks she’s died and gone to doggie heaven. Dogs are so wonderful. I’ve been voting for Bitsy every day.
Jay in Oregon
@asiangrrlMN:
And thank you, by the way. I’m hoping that all of the love and prayers being directed as us is having an effect, because I sure as shit can’t seem to do anything right at this point.
I know it’s because of her pain and her distrust of me that every slight becomes another failure or betrayal, but she has to figure out how to be comfortable around me again.
And the crazy part is, everyone around me thinks I’m amazing for responding the way I have. Going straight to a therapist? Checking into the possibility of depression? Making some quick, decisive choices to start changing my behavior and keeping the promises I’ve forgotten? Good for me!
But it’s all hollow to me, because the only person who seems not to see this is my wife. I feel like she is looking at me and thinking, “too little, too late”.
But she’s still here, for now.