Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

We still have time to mess this up!

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

So many bastards, so little time.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

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191Comments

  4. 4.

    linda

    clinton v bush at radio city music hall. but this really, truly sucks:

    American Express cardmembers can get advance tickets from Wednesday, 11/4 at 10am – Sunday, 11/15 at 10pm. Tickets on sale to the general public on Monday, 11/16 at 10am!

  5. 5.

    Dreggas

    What no mention of Dragonage origins being part of the discussion? I know my rig at home can handle blogging and gaming at the same time. :P

    (No I am not home yet, wish i was as i am eager to get playing).

  6. 6.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Looking through the movie channels now. Which one is the Obama movie? Enemy of the State?

  7. 7.

    SGEW

    May I just get this off my chest?

    Fuck Bloomberg!

    But the Yankees are a’ight, in my book.

    That is all. NYC out.

  9. 9.

    Morbo

    Oh, for fuck’s sake, even TPM is ignoring CA-10 tonight. “Even liberal” TPM will swallow the chosen narrative hook, line, and sinker.

  12. 12.

    Alan

    In my area ‘V’ is being broadcast as a blank screen. I can still hear the sound though–if that even matters. heh

  16. 16.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Dreggas: Hey, I’m downloading it now! Probably not going to get to play it tonight, but hey, I need a night to geek out over elections anyway.

  17. 17.

    Midnight Marauder

    Sucks to live in Virginia right now. Unless you’re batshit insane. Then again, what part of this great nation is safe tonight with The Great Teabagger Uprising of 2009 (Part VII) unleashing its fury all over the country?

    Nowhere, that’s where. Nowhere.

  23. 23.

    Chad N Freude

    @Just Some Fuckhead: @John Cole: I went to CNN’s website, and they are leading with the news that “Film-maker Joss Whedon says he wants to buy the rights to the multi-million dollar “Terminator” franchise — not for millions, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but for just ten grand.” Apparently, there are no elections for them to cover.

  25. 25.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I haz a sad. Mum went home. (would kill for a crying smily right now).

    More at the linky dinky. Tomorrow evening I will clean out the fridge and discover what truly bizarre and unusual things that she kept, in zip loc bags, in beneful containers, in margarine cartons etc., I expect to win the challenge that I have with Laura et. al. hands down no contest. I will be surprised if I don’t find a single baby carrot in a zip loc bag in that fridge somewhere.

  26. 26.

    Midnight Marauder

    @John Cole:

    What is going on there?

    Haven’t you heard? THE MOTHERFUCKING RECKONING is happening in Virginia, John Cole! And New York. And New Jersey. Hell, even Maine is getting into the act. Apparently, you’ve been on Nerd Alert all day and didn’t get the memo.

    But across the amber waves of grain, the lowly liberals cheer on their victory in the future Paperweight of the Pacific Ocean.

    Today, this land is their land.

    All 12 of them.

  27. 27.

    Max

    I am crossing my fingers about a job in DC. If I were to be so lucky, per tonight’s results, I will be looking to live in MD and not NoVa.

  29. 29.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    PS) example, last night for dinner we had liver and onions, boiled potatoes, green beans, and corn. The left overs consisted of several boiled potatoes and some corn. This morning she was down in the kitchen in her nightie cooking up potato cakes with corn in them for breakfast (with some fake sausage patties seeing as she is a veggie), she will not throw anything away.

  30. 30.

    NobodySpecial

    @The Other Steve:

    Apparently V is like 24 with spaceships.

    You know, time has allowed me to go back and realize just how much propaganda and badness was invested in V. I would really love more sci-fi if more of the people invested in writing it were less facistic assholes and more empathic humans.

  31. 31.

    auntieeminaz

    @Just Some Fuckhead: You must be right. From the review: “The Weather Man . . . is the most relentlessly pessimistic mainstream American film that I have ever seen. It seems to be telling us that over time you become a shell of the person you once were and a pathetic, ever decreasing fraction of the person you one day hoped to be. You will squander potential and become incapable of giving meaningful love to anyone that you care about. This doesn’t happen as a result of some huge disaster or tragic mistake, no, this happens as a result of hundreds of minuscule failures every day.”

  32. 32.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Former Congresswoman Thelma Drake was standing in front of my precinct all day shilling for Republicans. I told her I didn’t vote for Republicans and was glad she lost last year. That made me feel better.

    But she’ll prolly run next year and retake the seat.

  33. 33.

    ellaesther

    But what if I want to talk about something else? What if I want to, I don’t know, recall where I was a year ago today (technically, it was a year ago tomorrow, but it was a Tuesday, so it feels like it was a year ago today)? Or what I had for lunch? Or my general world weariness? Or the awesome Lin-Manuel Miranda piece on Alexander Hamilton that my husband alerted me to? Or the Playing for Change song that I put up at my own place today?

    What if I want to talk about any of that, huh? Then what?

    Sigh. Damn rules.

  34. 34.

    Betsy

    Having watched the first half hour, I can say with confidence that V sucks. Way melodramatic and cheezy. Plus the “mom” is about 8 years older than her “son.”

  36. 36.

    Keith G

    @soonergrunt:

    Is there any conventional grunt wisdom (that you are aware of) about what the Afghanistan decision should be.

    I ask because I have now heard way too many ex military talking heads playing the same tune – even ones whom I have heard be less interventionist in the past. I am wondering how big a sample they represent.

  41. 41.

    PaulW

    The SciFi Channel (there is no syfy) had been broadcasting the original V miniseries and sequel the past few days. Oh man, my geeked-out childhood… I just re-watched the scene where they enter the stasis tube part of the ship, and they turn the lights on and there’s all these tubes… and Martin drops the hint about the “other shortage” on the lizard homeworld… oh man that was a scary moment for someone who hadn’t read through all the TV Tropes back then… wait they didn’t have TV Tropes on the Intertubes back then… ah well…

  43. 43.

    Max

    I wonder if all the pundits realize that no matter how many GOP’ers win tonight, Obama is still President tomorrow.

  44. 44.

    Tom Hilton

    Morbo:

    Oh, for fuck’s sake, even TPM is ignoring CA-10 tonight. “Even liberal” TPM will swallow the chosen narrative hook, line, and sinker.

    Um…the polls don’t close here in CA for another 2 1/4 hours. TPM may well ignore CA-10 later, but they aren’t ignoring it yet because there’s nothing to ignore.

  46. 46.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Max:

    That’s Ok,. Let them feed on the intestines of each other to evolve a better wingnut. The wankers on teevee will have something to wank about to show they are not O-bots. And the rest of us will soldier on to pass HCR and mock as needed.

  49. 49.

    anonevent

    Political statement so far: Obama is the head alien because he is wanting Universal Healthcare, but the Wingers are sleeper cell aliens causing wars.

  50. 50.

    Betsy

    @SP:
    Nah, they just said they want universal health care. That means they’re EVIL UNAMERICAN COMMUNIST FASCISTS.

  51. 51.

    slag

    @Max: So far, the headlines I’m seeing include some form of: “Obama Not a Factor”. While I’m glad to find that certain factions in the media are finally coming to the realization that not all roads lead to Obama, the night is still young.

  53. 53.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Max:

    I wonder if all the pundits realize that no matter how many GOP’ers win tonight, Obama is still President tomorrow.

    An Honest Question if I ever heard one. “Chuck Todd, to the courtesy phone. Paging Chuck Todd to the courtesy phone…”

    +2

  54. 54.

    Demo Woman

    Tom Price’s wife is running for city council… I dragged my self to the polls today just to vote for her opponent.

  55. 55.

    WereBear

    Well, I’m kinda lost so far on V. Granted, I might have missed some vital steps when the kitten knocked over a pyrex mixing cup and it ‘sploded all over the kitchen.

    Most cats would have run from it, but I found her trying to play with the pieces! Fearless little devil that she is.

  57. 57.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    And now a Special Comment For Keith Olbermann:

    If I want to watch classic baseball highlights, I got about a dozen other channels for that. And no, we will not be talking about the smartest plays ever around the watercooler tomorrow.

  58. 58.

    MikeJ

    GOS says early returns show marriage equality ahead in Maine. Which is nice, but if Maine is like other states, cities often report before the boondocks, and cities tend to be liberal. The plus side of course is that cities tend to have actual people living there, so it may work out ok.

  59. 59.

    Max

    @slag: Apparently, the talking heads on CNN don’t read their own headlines.

    I refuse to watch that channel and every time I slip and click over, I regret it.

    But, Keith has some montage of World Series stuff and I could not care less. Baseball = yucky NFL = good

  60. 60.

    ellaesther

    @slag: @Betsy: All right then! Because I am a rebel!!1!! And because you were kind enough to ask!

    Ok, a year ago today: I was in Indiana, helping turn it blue for Obama. I still feel such pride over what Obama supporters did in that election, and, in spite of my general deflation over the past few months, so proud that we elected who we did…. It’s a better world for that work we did, isn’t it? If not yet as perfected as I was hoping, it’s still better.

    Lunch: Chicken noodle soup. Yay for soup!

    General world weariness: Oy. The world/this union is still not as perfected as I was kind of hoping it would be by a year after the election…. I wonder if my hopes were unrealistically high, and I’m very tired of feeling that way. Sigh.

    Lin-Manuel Miranda: He did this at the White House poetry slam, and I just want to say that anyone who can find the genuine through line from Alexander Hamilton to hip-hop has my vote for AWESOME!

    Playing for Change: A commenter on my site (CitizenE, better know over at Ta-Nehisi’s place) linked to the Playing for Change cover of “One Love,” and it’s just so, so beautiful.

    PHEW! I feel so much better! Rules are for breaking, say I!

  61. 61.

    ellaesther

    (Shoot! My comment is awaiting moderation! I’ll just take out one of the two [two! all of two!] links and see if that does the trick).

    @slag: @Betsy: All right then! Because I am a rebel! And because you were kind enough to ask!

    Ok, a year ago today: I was in Indiana, helping turn it blue for Obama. I still feel such pride over what Obama supporters did in that election, and, in spite of my general deflation over the past few months, so proud that we elected who we did…. It’s a better world for that work we did, isn’t it? If not yet as perfected as I was hoping, it’s still better.

    Lunch: Chicken noodle soup. Yay for soup!

    General world weariness: Oy. The world/this union is still not as perfected as I was kind of hoping it would be by a year after the election…. I wonder if my hopes were unrealistically high, and I’m very tired of feeling that way. Sigh.

    Lin-Manuel Miranda: He did this at the White House poetry slam, and I just want to say that anyone who can find the genuine through line from Alexander Hamilton to hip-hop has my vote for AWESOME!

    Playing for Change: A commenter on my site (CitizenE, better know over at Ta-Nehisi’s place) linked to the Playing for Change cover of “One Love,” and it’s just so, so beautiful. (Just click on my username and it’ll bring you to the beauty. I dasn’t have a second link!)

    PHEW! I feel so much better! Rules are for breaking, say I!

  63. 63.

    Anne Laurie

    @NobodySpecial:

    I would really love more sci-fi if more of the people invested in writing it were less facistic assholes and more empathic humans.

    Famous quote: “The golden age of science fiction… is twelve.” Relatively few twelve-year-olds have evolved past the I-Would-Be-the-Best-God-Dictator-EVER stage of political imagination. Tragically, there was a feedback loop created where writers/editors stuck at an emotional age of 12 produced exactly the sort of jackboot fantasies that would attract other 12-year-olds, some of them chronologically old enough to shave, and vote, and collect social security. And this gave non-genre critics the chance, as Kurt Vonnegut put it, “the chance to treat the drawer marked SCI FI as a urinal”… which encouraged people not interested in narratives best suited to the 12-year-old imagination to avoid the whole genre. But jackboot fantasies have never been the only, or even the original, strain of scientifiction — you just have to be willing to look past the noise & flash of crap like Starship Troopers or Orson Scott Cardboard’s latest Mormonological wet dreams.

  65. 65.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Gotta get all of my computers changed to the new name.

    As for “V,” I give it an “eh.” We’ll have to see.

  67. 67.

    General Winfield Stuck

    This is your Tea Bag party in action.

    From Dede Scozzafava

    “The amount of hate and lies and the deceitfulness,” she said. “I don’t believe that should be the characteristics that define the Republican Party. I think people should be allowed to have discussions and reasonable disagreements. But this was a full frontal assault on me personally and politically, for weeks.”

    The phone calls came in to her office, as they had for weeks, from angry people all over the country.

    The ringing overwhelmed her three state government staffers. Scozzafava answered a phone herself.

    “There was a man from Oregon,” she said. “We talked for half an hour. In the beginning, he just started lecturing me on the Bible, lecturing me on sin, on liberalism. Finally, I said, ‘How about honesty? How about telling the truth?’”

    All hail Glenn Beck.

  70. 70.

    WereBear

    There is great science fiction; Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and James Tiptree Jr, and Ursula K. Le Guin: to name just a few of my favorites.

    But like so much else in our society lately, it’s all about the Lowest Common Denominator. We don’t get books; we get Book Chow. Just as popular music has become Music Chow.

    However, I feel that, just as the Internet has fostered the new independence of musicians and let them have an outlet for their work despite the music industry, the open publishing will make real books available; not just crap written by people who are already celebrities.

  72. 72.

    MikeJ

    @WereBear: There are plenty of great writers still doing science fiction. Cory Doctorow, Scalzi, China Mieville, fuck, some people call William Gibson science fiction.

  74. 74.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    @Max: It doesn’t matter. “Dem Loses Show NObama iz a Lame Duck” allows the media to demonstrate it totally doesn’t have a liberal bias.

    Frankly, and with apologies to the people of NY-23 (all 16 of you), I really hope Hoffman wins. Not only will it encourage Beck and Palin, but I was poking around in Wonkette* earlier and saw this link: 912candidates.org/ny/files/2009/09/doughoffman.jpg

    We must, must, must have a pol whose name looks like Dough Offman.

    In fact, win or lose, I move Dough Offman goes in the lexicon as the definition of a pol who’ll kiss any psycho’s ass for a shot at power.

    *You know what I mean.

  77. 77.

    Svensker

    V was cheesy, but fun. And the Queen V looks just like the gorgeous French tile maven from Lambertville, NJ, on Antiques Roadshow, so the hubster is happy.

    And I went and voted for Goldman Sachs pond scum overlord Jon Corzine today. I really really loathe him. But the idea of having Christie as gov. of NJ flipped my dome.

    I’ll talk about homemade waffles with anyone who wants to. Didya ever try the bacon/cornmeal ones in Joy of Cooking? Unflippingbelievably delicious. If a bit high in fat.

  78. 78.

    WereBear

    @MikeJ: I do love Cory Doctorow and William Gibson. I’m sure I’m a victim of the “cream effect.”

    What I call the Cream Effect: waxing nostalgic over the great movies produced during the heyday of the studio era, because we are exposed only to the best of the crop. TCM, especially in the wee hours of the morning, offers ample proof they produced a lot of crap, too. We just don’t see it that often, because it has not withstood the test of time.

    Likewise, I came to science fiction over a period of ten years when I was exposed to the then contemporary late sixties/early seventies explosion of wild boundary breaking, while also going back as far as the thirties to scoop up the best writers of previous decades.

    Now, I’m sulky because good new stuff is few and far between.

  79. 79.

    Betsy

    @ellaesther:

    If not yet as perfected as I was hoping, it’s still better.

    This is what I cling to, and have for a long time. When I was 22-23 and working full time at a homeless shelter, it was sometimes pointed out to me that for the vast majority of the guests, our shelter did not end homelessness. (Or occasionally some obnoxious 19-year-old “radical” would accuse us of enabling capitalism by ameliorating, but not fixing, its casualties.) When that happened, I would remind myself that no, maybe we weren’t changing the world, but we were giving people food and shelter,. That mattered. And for maybe 2-5% of the guests, we *were* the first step toward not being homeless anymore. And that mattered too. That was someone’s life. It made a difference.

    Sorry for my ramblyness. I know that it’s important to not settle for crumbs, but for me it’s absolutely crucial to keep sight of the positive changes that do happen.

  81. 81.

    arguingwithsignposts

    May I just say that Sarah Barracuda’s smiling face at the top of the page is off-putting. I suppose I should rejoice that her money is going to the opposition, but still, it’s jarring. Moreso even than that Pam Anderson ad.

  83. 83.

    Betsy

    Plus, I’ve always loved the phrase “a more perfect union.” We’ll never be perfect, but we can keep trying to be more.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    @Svensker:

    I’ll talk about homemade waffles with anyone who wants to.

    Ooo! Me! Meee!
    I’ve just had a recent craving for the thick, tasty, real deal waffles. Thinking about buying a waffle iron.
    Any suggestions?

  86. 86.

    WereBear

    @Betsy: That’s a good point, because for the people you helped, you changed their world.

    What, we’ll just let people starve until we get all the hinky bits worked out?

  88. 88.

    ellaesther

    @Betsy: Not rambly! (You’re talking to the woman who just posted a four-point bulletin not once, but twice!)

    I agree — especially the “gave food and shelter” bit. It matters that today is a better day for someone, even if (possibly especially if) there is not upward trend to that someone’s life. My brother once spent two weeks delivering water to those water tanks that good people put in the desert of Arizona for the people crossing over the Mexican border, and I just felt like: Yes. that’s the work. That’s the very most basic thing, and if we fail to do it, we’re less human.

    I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes on the achievements we’ve made so far, even though I’m usually the one trumpeting them…. I really do think that my hopes were too high.

  91. 91.

    NobodySpecial

    @Anne Laurie:

    Yeah, I know. I hold a special place in my heart for stuff like the Kutath cycle by C.J. Cherryh, or whatever they call it now. Faded Sun Trilogy? I also loves me some Asimov and (for lighter palates) the Sten books. Stuff like The Unteleported Man by Philip K. Dick.

  92. 92.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    Is it just me or does anyone else find it interesting that a commercial for Lendingtree has what sounds like Adam West doing a voiceover, talking about how “dastardly” people messed things up in the markets but Lendingtree is a calm oasis in all of the turmoil.

    I love “Adam We” and think he is a riot on Family Guy, but it’s almost like they (Lendingtree) are poking fun at everything by using him as a ‘serious’ voiceover. If it isn’t Adam West, it’s someone trying to sound like him and yet sound like they are to be taken seriously. After Batman (60’s show) and Family Guy, Adam West is not exactly someone you want assuring you that the markets are safe. I almost expect him to announce the new solid gold “Dig’em” statue that Landingtree had made.

    Ok, if you are insane then Adam We might be a comforting voice to listen to.

  94. 94.

    The Other Steve

    Ok, I sort of liked V. I liked how they’re old school like the klingons!

    I give it 4 episodes before it’s cancelled.

  95. 95.

    Svensker

    @Corner Stone:

    Ooo! Me! Meee!
    I’ve just had a recent craving for the thick, tasty, real deal waffles. Thinking about buying a waffle iron.
    Any suggestions?

    Only in the negative, the one I have is crappy but too old (15 years or so) to be on the market anymore. Read Amazon’s reviews to see or maybe check to see if Cook’s Magazine did a “compare waffle irons” and it’s in their archives. There really IS a huge difference in irons — you want one that is fast, so you get a crisp crust while at the same time a tender interior from the quick explosion of the air bubbles in the dough under the heat. Slow ones like mine tend to make flabby, heavy gut bombs.

    Why did you bring this up? I haven’t had a good waffle in a dog’s age and dang, a crisp, delicious, buttery waffle sounds good. Me wantee now!

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    @Betsy: Hmmm. Well, WordPress is just about as effective and useful as the WaPo. So I guess they could be interchangeable.
    Just like somehow FTFY now equals F the F’ng Yankees when it used to equal Fixt That For You.

  97. 97.

    RedKitten

    Goddammit, now I want waffles.

    As far as “V” goes, it’s got potential, and I’ll give it a fair shot. But it definitely wasn’t as awesome as the premiere of BSG (mind you, that was a 2-hour miniseries, so there was a lot more time for character development). Still…there was just a certain something lacking, and I wish I could define what it was.

  98. 98.

    Sanka

    @General Winfield Stuck: And so is this:

    Republican Wins Virginia Governor Race


    Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican and a former state attorney general, won a decisive victory in Virginia’s governor’s race Tuesday, a stark reversal of fortune for Democrats who have held control in Richmond for the past eight years.

  99. 99.

    RedKitten

    Oh, and I’m guessing that the wingnuts will absolutely drool over “V”, and those dastardly charming aliens offering universal healthcare!

  100. 100.

    Fax Paladin

    @NobodySpecial: Just FYI, the whole point of the original V miniseries (forget the crap regular series that followed) was as a statement against fascism. In fact, it was one of those Rod Serling situations where the project was turned down in its original non-SF incarnation as a TV adaptation of It Can’t Happen Here, and adopted SF trappings as camouflage.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_%281983_miniseries%29

  103. 103.

    ellaesther

    @MikeJ: No I didn’t, and I will definitely go look at it. I love Eugene Robinson, and I could use some talking down and some wisdom. And maybe some more soup. Thank you for the link.

  104. 104.

    Betsy

    @ellaesther:
    Yes. How great of your brother to do that! And WRT the shelter work, it was not only food and shelter, but it was also warm, respectful human contact. The one I worked at had all kinds of the problems these tiny nonprofits often have, but where they really shined was in the staff-guest relationships. I never saw anyone working there who treated the guests with anything other than respect. Those fleeting interactions are so important, I think. (Or so I like to tell myself in my smug Liberal Intellectual Elite way, to assuage my Liberal Guilt.)

  106. 106.

    Corner Stone

    @Svensker:

    Why did you bring this up? I haven’t had a good waffle in a dog’s age and dang, a crisp, delicious, buttery waffle sounds good. Me wantee now!

    I blame it on my iatropic excitement due to the special elections today.
    To me, nothing symbolizes democracy in action like a good thick waffle with butter and honey and/or syrup.

    *growing up my next door neighbor had his own hives and gave my family honey every year (and my mom made his family home made bread in return). Until I was older and experienced the joy of good sushi and real curry, that real deal home collected local honey was the absolute balls. Balls.

  108. 108.

    Bob In Pacifica

    That Repub McConnell in Virginia who won the governor’s race today is down on fornicators.

    What are the odds on when this McConnell guy is found out to be going down on fornicators? I mean, these holier-than-thou guys are generally found out to be horny bastards who are putting things in places where they claim people shouldn’t be putting things. So what’s the over/under? Six months?

  109. 109.

    James K Polk, Esq.

    Are all you nerds playing Dragon Age? Should I buy it right now and play it?

    I love turn based RPGs, never played KoTOR…

  110. 110.

    dfd

    I wish the Maine results would come in a bit faster. I don’t want to be up all night hitting refresh.

  111. 111.

    soonergrunt

    @Keith G: Not so much at my level. I will say that I have very little faith in anybody who speaks about Afghanistan as if they know exactly what to do, or they have a single, un-nuanced answer.
    You’re not going to like what I am about to write. Sorry, but you asked, and Soldier to Taxpayer, I owe you honesty, if nothing else. I am speaking strictly from my limited experiences in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan. I am also speaking strictly for myself, and no one else.
    I know that I personally don’t believe we should get out of Afghanistan. In my own experience, about the only people who want the taliban to be in charge are the taliban and their families. Some Afghans don’t want us there, but they do understand that the Afghan National Army isn’t capable of standing on its own right now. Most Afghans don’t care as long as we leave their particular village alone.
    The reason we are where we are after 8 years in Afghanistan is because the Cheney administration took their eyes off the ball in order to do Iraq for the Israelis. It most emphatically is NOT the case that “we can’t achieve our goals” or that “they’ve been fighting for a thousand years and we won’t change that” or that “they hate Al Quaeda too and will kick them out after we leave.”
    It is the case that the concept of a national government is foreign to most Afghans. The only level of government that affects their lives is the local and district level, and that is the very level that has the least effective governance. I’ve been places in eastern Afghanistan where the capitol of Kabul was as foreign as Washington, D.C. Most of the Afghans I met couldn’t care less who was the president of Afghanistan. It has no bearing on their lives.
    They want clean water and electricity. A phone or two would be nice. They want a fair price for their crops, and they want their children, boys and girls, to have an education. They want more for their kids than they have.
    Having said all of that, I lost track of all the times people asked us for help getting rid of the Taliban. Anybody who thinks that there’s any difference between the Taliban and Al Quaeda other than slight variations in skin tone or pronunciation of arabic doesn’t know what they are talking about. They are one and the same.
    Basically, we can fight them now, or we can write off Afghanistan and Pakistan (with her nukes) to the radicals.
    If John will give me about two full posts (and I take a couple of days off to write it) I could give you a really good document about why I feel all of this.
    I guess the simplest way to put it is to say that I personally think we need to stay there and put more troops into the fight and into the effort to build up the Afghan military and more dipolmats and bureaucrats into the effort to build the Afghan government. It won’t be easy. It will take a long time. More Americans and more Afghans will die. But we either do it right, or we don’t do it. If we don’t do it, well, I don’t know what will happen. But I believe in my heart that something will happen.
    And it will be horrifying.

  112. 112.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Sanka:

    a stark reversal of fortune for Democrats who have held control in Richmond for the past eight years.

    That is an idiotic statement, since Va. Gov.’s are term-limited to 1 term of six years, so they held the statehouse for 12 years. Va.’s gov. terms are among the stupidest in the entire U.S.

  114. 114.

    Svensker

    OK, waffle mavens, went over to Amazon and looked at the reviews — there are a bunch of irons that get good reviews and a few that have heat controls so you can choose your brownness level, which sounds good. But my cheap side liked the sound of the Proctor-Silex Morning Baker…$29.95, and great reviews, generally agreed that it makes crispy, light, tender, juicy waffles.

    @Corner Stone — that honey sounds like it was worth some iatropic excitement. I am envious of your past.

  116. 116.

    Svensker

    Oh, I’m being paged to watch Episode 5 of Invasion, so it’s sayonara. And sweet wafflish dreams.

  119. 119.

    NobodySpecial

    @Fax Paladin:

    See that now. I’m still shaking my head at how much of the current Tea Party’s howlings have stolen so much of the anti-fascist narrative. From the wiki on It Can’t Happen Here:

    Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a charismatic and power-hungry politician, is elected President of the United States on a populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, and, more importantly, promising each citizen five thousand dollars a year. Once in power, however, he becomes a dictator; outlawing dissent, putting his political enemies in concentration camps, and creating a paramilitary force called the Minute Men who terrorize the citizens.

    I may need a break from the politics.

  120. 120.

    Moonbatting Average

    @James K Polk, Esq.: FWIW, KoTOR was a turn-based RPG, it just played as if it was real-time. A pretty good game, really…you could set up your character to dual-wield lightsabres :-)

  123. 123.

    Tom

    V was pretty not good. Is it an actual series or miniseries? I’m not sure how they’ll sustain multiple seasons (not that I think it’ll last that long).

    In the old miniseries, I recall that the lizard people reveal took a while, maybe two or three episodes? I guess people know it’s coming this time ’round, but in the original it was a pretty pivotal turning point in the story arc.

    I’m just not sure how you execute this premise when everyone knows the aliens are lizard people looking to destroy humanity right off the bat.

  124. 124.

    parksideq

    @Max: Speaking of which, check out/refresh The Watertown Daily Times’ front page to see real-time results for NY-23. Don’t hold your breath, but based on the returns so far, Owens might win it.

    I’d love to see what DougJ has to say about the ideological leans of the counties that haven’t announced their numbers yet (I’m originally from NY-22, Maurice Hinchey’s district, so I have no idea how NY-23 could play out).

  128. 128.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Tom: The real shocker was that Wash is a visitor. Now, all we need is for Kaylee to show up as a horny alien.

  129. 129.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @MikeJ:

    OK, even more idiotic. Sometimes I wonder what Thomas Jefferson thinks of the idiots who live in the state he helped found.

  134. 134.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @freelancer:

    Spent a year in SW Va. – five in upstate SC. My question: Why are some of the most beautiful parts of the country populated by ignorant racist assholes? Same with W.Va. and most of N.C. (excluding Asheville and the research triangle). I’m sure the same holds true in rural NY. What is wrong with these people? Surrounded by the beauty of nature and yet so many hold the darkest opinions of their fellow man. I just don’t get it.

  136. 136.

    RedKitten

    @Corner Stone: Thank you kindly. :) We’re going to try weaning him off of swaddling over the next little while, as he’s getting to the age where he might roll over any day now, and we don’t want him to roll over onto his front while swaddled. I’m dreading it, though — he sleeps so beautifully right now that I’m terrified of fucking with it.

  137. 137.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    I am hearing this “Obama voters did not turn out in the numbers needed like they did in 2008…” on the ‘news’ and the first thing that comes to mind as to why this could be is because it’s the same old ‘establishment’ candidates/incumbents. Why should Obama voters be excited to vote for Corzine or Deeds? What ‘change’ do they offer? Forget the NY-23 race, that’s just crazy shit going on in a reliably Republican district. Sideshow stuff. New Jersey is, well… New Jersey. Virginia has been a reliable counter pendulum to the party who holds the White House since the 70’s.

    Anyone who draws the conclusion that these races are a referendum on Obama is either a political simpleton or has an agenda they have to stick to so they can collect their paycheck.

  139. 139.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Well, it could be the difference between whether or not someone has access to health care insurance or not with a public option opt-out. If that isn’t enough to get Democrats energized about voting, fuck ’em. They aren’t Democrats. They’re just tailgaters looking for a good party.

  142. 142.

    South of I-10

    Just finished watching V with Mr. South. We were not impressed. I should have read here first. Is anyone else watching Flashforward? I recorded them all and just started watching last week. Definitely better than V.

  143. 143.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Corner Stone:

    I want to talk about waffles. The kind you make in a waffle iron.

    I won a bitching waffle iron in a raffle at a work-related picnic event about fifteen years ago. It’s small, it only cooks one belgian waffle at a time, but it came with good instructions and a simple recipe. And it fooking rawks, mate. Best Gaia-damned waffles. Except for the ones mom made, since those are recalled in the warm, golden light of childhood nothing shall rival them in this life. Except for the bitching raffle-won waffle iron waffles. Too bad its bedtime.

  144. 144.

    South of I-10

    @RedKitten: It took Little South a couple of weeks to adjust to not being swaddled – harder to get to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night. Then she went right back to doing her sleeping thing.

  147. 147.

    Donald G

    @Betsy:

    Having watched the first half hour, I can say with confidence that V sucks. Way melodramatic and cheezy. Plus the “mom” is about 8 years older than her “son.”

    Actually, the actress playing the mother is 19 years older than the actor playing her son. Yes, I’m so sad that I actually went and looked it up.

  148. 148.

    BruceFromOhio

    @WereBear:

    Now, I’m sulky because good new stuff is few and far between.

    Dan Simmons “Hyperion” series will occupy your senses for a good read. Four nice big paperbacks and a marvelous story, yours for the picking: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion. Go forth and read!

  149. 149.

    lamh31

    Well Obama doc is over. it was pretty good. No hero worship at all. it was mostly an homage to the people who worked tirelessly for the campaign for the whole 2 years.

  150. 150.

    Nellcote

    Yay for HBO/BHO! The timing of it reminds me of what an island of sanity for an hour once a week “The West Wing” was during the latter Clinton years.

  151. 151.

    Donald G

    @MikeJ: @arguingwithsignposts:

    That is an idiotic statement, since Va. Gov.’s are term-limited to 1 term of six years, so they held the statehouse for 12 years. Va.’s gov. terms are among the stupidest in the entire U.S.

    As Mike J just corrected you, Virginia governors are elected to four year terms. However, a sitting governor can’t succeed himself. After the first four year term is up, he has to sit out for four years before he even can consider running again. Unless things have changed since 1991, when I left the state, there are no other term limits for the governorship.

    As far as the Republican victory, the party opposite to the one holding the White House tends to consistently win the governorship, dating back to at least to 1981. I would not read too much into McDonnell’s victory. The Commonwealth survived George Allen, it will survive this bozo.

  152. 152.

    r€nato

    Loved the Obama doc. I’m glad they decided to do a ‘where are they now’.

    The speech he gave the night before the election was something else. That was one of the three times the doc made me cry.

    And now I know what it looks like when someone finds out they just got elected President!!!

  156. 156.

    tripletee

    @RedKitten:

    As far as “V” goes, it’s got potential, and I’ll give it a fair shot. But it definitely wasn’t as awesome as the premiere of BSG (mind you, that was a 2-hour miniseries, so there was a lot more time for character development). Still…there was just a certain something lacking, and I wish I could define what it was.

    It was badly-paced, I thought – too much story crammed into 40-odd minutes. It felt like a 2-hour premiere with all of the connective tissue removed, so everything seemed rushed and jumpy and almost everyone came off as plot delivery devices instead of fleshed-out characters. Needed more room to breathe.

    I thought the actors did a good job with what they were given, though, and I was definitely intrigued enough to come back next week. We’ll see where they take it now that the set-up is out of the way.

  161. 161.

    SGEW

    Ooo, ooo! Sci-Fi recs!

    N. Stephenson’s Anathem, absolutely. Fantastic. Most of his other novels are tremendously good as well (tho’ the guy really needs an editor sometimes).

    Everything W. Gibson writes is gold. Gold.

    D. Simmon’s Hyperion series was pretty great (if a little hit or miss in the writing), but I felt the second half of the series was a bit of a disappointment.

    Surely you’ve read Maria Doria Russel’s The Sparrow, right? It’s the scifi book I lend to people who’ve never read scifi before. A truly stunning work.

    G. Wolfe’s four volume (plus coda) Book of the New Sun may be one of the finest written pieces of English language science fiction of the 20th century. Really. But not for everyone: The prose and vocabulary is intentionally opaque (even more so than Gibson’s), the protagonist is . . . peculiar?, the tone is grim, and the narrative is kind of inexplicable until the entire thing has been read at least once. But very worth the effort, imho.

  162. 162.

    AhabTRuler

    everything seemed rushed and jumpy and almost everyone came off as plot delivery devices instead of fleshed-out characters. Needed more room to breathe.

    Wow. You just described the first 2/3’s of Star Wars: A New Hope perfectly.

  163. 163.

    lt shinysides

    Watched BO doc. Pretty good. Not the super late campaign trailer that i thought it would be.

    Fuck “V”, btw. I had heard some say that the series was some sort of reactionary allegory to the Obama administration, and so now I am stuck making paranoid connections with every plot point. Ooooh, terrorist activity is up once the visitors arrive. A media hack defending the visitors, telling everyone to lay off, the aliens have only just arrived, give them some time. Is it just me?
    Of course, it does not help that the show sucks in general. I miss the original.

  167. 167.

    soonergrunt

    @lt shinysides: I saw it more as referring to the wingtards, with the resistance cell leader talking about unnecessary wars and so on.
    At least that was the part that will stick out in the minds of the less rabid political geek types than us.

  170. 170.

    lt shinysides

    Wow, there’s even a preemptive tea bagging resistance bubbling up in the pilot, even before the lizard heads come out, Brilliant!

    Glad to see Elizabeth Mitchell got off the island, tho. I was always pulling for her.

  171. 171.

    ChrisB

    Boy did Wolf Blitzer look like a tool in the HBO Obama documentary claiming that Hillary’s narrow wins in Ohio and Texas had reinvigorated her campaign when all it did was further confirm the math that she had no chance to win.

    I remember all that. At least there were no clips of Lanny Davis or Terry McAuliffe.

    But there were lots of uplifting moments as well.

  173. 173.

    lt shinysides

    @soonergrunt:

    Yeah, maybe, but that whole “peace forever” thing could also be construed as some half-assed stab at balance by the show’s creators. This version of “V” is a total abortion. They have missed absolutely everything the first version was talking about (and yes, I just re-watched the original in the last year and, yes,production-wise, it is a dated piece of shit). Maybe it is too soon to tell, maybe not, but right now it seems like “24” without the cutting insight or social commentary. It seems like some clueless exec’s idea of satire, executed in the laziest of ways, the re-make.

  175. 175.

    M. Bouffant

    Had ‘V” on but wasn’t watching listening very closely.

    However, the implication that there were lizard-people terrorist sleeper cells destabilizing Earth in preparation for the lizards’ arrival sound like 9/11 troofers to me. The lizard-people: They’re Bushies!!

  176. 176.

    soonergrunt

    @lt shinysides: I was thinking about that very thing.
    I’ll watch it again later (it DOES have Morena Beccarin) and see if my current impression, that it seems to have been written so as to avoid appearing to pin anything on anybody is correct.
    If that is the case, it’s sad, because the whole point of Science Fiction according to William F. Nolan, who wrote the original story for Logan’s Run, is that the best Science Fiction is actually social commentary dressed up so that the message goes down a little easier.
    If they tried to avoid offending anybody, then they either succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, which is impossible because it’s network TV, or they failed massively, and this IS the network owned by Disney after all.

  177. 177.

    Keith G

    @soonergrunt: Much thanks!

    As far as:

    You’re not going to like what I am about to write. Sorry, but you asked, and Soldier to Taxpayer, I owe you honesty, if nothing else.

    Look, I am smart enough to know that I do not know what the fuck to think about this. I want us out, but just to turn our back and walk away may be as problematic as staying. If there actually is a critical mass of that society that is willing to fight for those things you mentioned, than I would very much be supportive of your ideas. Its late for me so even tho I want to give a more detailed account of my concerns, I’ll trust that there will be time for that in the future.

    Again, thanks.

  178. 178.

    Steeplejack

    @WereBear:

    Well, keep in mind what Theodore Sturgeon said when someone complained to him that 90 percent of all science fiction is crud: “Well, 90 percent of everything is crud.”

    So, yeah, as each decade recedes into the past, we are left with only the highlights (with occasional rediscoveries and reëvaluations).

  179. 179.

    Steeplejack

    @Betsy:

    You can’t fall into the trap of letting the best–ending homelessness once and for all!–be the enemy of the good–providing food and shelter for this person in this moment.

  180. 180.

    Steeplejack

    @Svensker:

    Why did you bring this up? I haven’t had a good waffle in a dog’s age [. . .].

    I haven’t had a waffle in so long I’m jonesin’ for an Eggo waffle from the toaster. And I don’t own a toaster.

  181. 181.

    Steeplejack

    @BruceFromOhio:

    I plowed through all four of the Hyperion books in short order in the last year and had a mixed reaction. The general mise-en-scène was good, as was a lot of the overarching plot, but, man, there was one book–can’t remember which one now, but I think it was No. 2 or No. 3–that was way too talky. I kept yelling, “Get on with it!” And I thought the character Endymion was kind of a passive wuss in the last two books. But I’m not sorry I read them.

    Sorry if that comes across as faint praise.

    Uh, okay, try Vernor Vinge’s A Fire upon the Deep. That was good. Or anything by Iain M. Banks. Maybe The Player of Games.

  182. 182.

    Seanly

    @Jake:

    Yeah, when the reporter said so universal health care and the alien hottie leader said yes, I was hoping the reporter would ask what Presidents Baucus & Snowe and the tea baggers would think.

    The new V is less silly & melodramatic than the original V (was it all mini-series?). I thought it was good storytelling to get the hook right out there in the first episode. Reminded me of the adage I learned in a writing class – if you don’t set up the conflict in the first seven pages, you won’t get the reader interested. I’ll give it a few more viewings.

  183. 183.

    pixelpusher

    Completely agree with SGEW choices — Stephenson, Gibson, Simmons and Wolfe, though I don’t know Russell. Will have to check out.

    For pure genre SF, Iain M. Banks is terrific. Nobody thinks bigger. Also check out Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga.

    That said, Stephenson’s Anathem is definitely the best SF book I’ve read in years and years. It starts slow, but it’s in that rare group of books that makes you really think about how civilization can work over the long-term. Of course, all of Stephenson’s work is worth checking out. The Baroque Cycle is a long haul, but yields great dividends. Probably the work that will endure.

  184. 184.

    Seanly

    @SGEW:

    Gene Wolfe rocks. He’s a vastly underrated literary genius though in real life his politics verge on the Anchoress. The layers of meaning and nuance in the New Sun books is incredible. I’ve been reading his novels & short stories for about 25 years now.

    Total geek factoid – Gene Wolfe was an engineer (I forget which discipline) and was involved in creating Pringles. So more good from him. He has described his involvement as minimal (helping develop pieces of the mechanizing of the process).

    Forgive the double post…

  185. 185.

    tripletee

    @soonergrunt:

    I’ll watch it again later (it DOES have Morena Beccarin) and see if my current impression, that it seems to have been written so as to avoid appearing to pin anything on anybody is correct.

    Aside from the “universal healthcare” line, I think that was exactly what they were going for. The rest of the political allusions were all vague enough that you could read whatever you wanted into them. Which tells me a lot about the reviewers hacks who were claiming that the show was aimed directly at the Obama administration.

  186. 186.

    JenJen

    Got stuck doing stuff I didn’t want to do instead of watching TV last night, so just got around to watching “V.”

    I LOL’d at the “Universal Health Care” line! Yep. First and last time I’ll watch that show, and I was actually looking forward to it.

  187. 187.

    JenJen

    Oh, and “By The People” was beautiful, really. Kind of gave me some of that great campaign glow back. Working on the campaign in Ohio was so thrilling, it really was, and the doc captured that feeling perfectly.

    As far as political docs go, though, “The War Room” is still the best. I need to dig that old tape up… oh, and a VCR, too.

  189. 189.

    gil mann

    Just finished watching V…so was the Bush administration one of the V’s terror cells?

    You jest, but the answer is yes. When Unshaven Resistance Guy was giving his speech about how aliens have infiltrated all levels of society and government in order to destabilize the world, the line “waging unnecessary wars” (if I’m paraphrasing it’s not by much) was given the camera-close-up, winking-at-the-audience treatment.

    Have you guys seen the original V recently? I’m kinda shocked at how much it didn’t suck.

  190. 190.

    tootiredoftheright

    @M. Bouffant:

    You also forget the mentions of the aliens crashing the economy numerous times, causing fantascism among the religious by taken control of the religious leaders.

    All so that the aliens when they arrived and started delivering the message would be viewed as saviors.

  191. 191.

    tootiredoftheright

    @gil mann:

    The network did reveal a huge spoiler about him in the next episode preview which majorly pissed me off even know I know it was a possiblity. Do the people who do these previews not have the sense to keep out spoilers of important shit that the audience shouldn’t know in advance since it is supposed to be a major revealation?

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