I hate to bring this up on a Friday night or, honestly, to go here at all, but we live in a country where carrying around pictures of the Dachau death camp to “protest” health care reform makes you an authentic representative of real America.
I wish there was a more pleasant way to say this. There isn’t.
Update. I recommend this clip, not for Tom Tancredo walking off, but because it’s a rare nationally televised example of a journalist doing what a journalist is supposed to do.
The Republic of Stupidity
A phrase like “freakin’ idiot” has lost its meaning…
earlofscruggs
it’s reality’s old liberal bias again
Just Some Fuckhead
God, I just can’t stop watching this
lmfao
Omnes Omnibus
It’s a swindle.
jeffreyw
Way the fuck OT, but if you ever drop an SD card into orange juice, just throw it away man, ’cause it’s gone
dmsilev
And yet, the same set of people who don’t even blink at this sort of garbage go full ragetastic when someone who isn’t on the Approved list even uses the word holocaust (note the lower case).
-dms
General Winfield Stuck
She’s taking Godwin to the dance, and, afterwards, fuck his brains out.
WereBear
@jeffreyw: I once ruined a mood ring that way.
Regnad Kcin
@jeffreyw:
I am pleased to report that dropping an iPhone into beer can still be a recoverable act, however.
Darn volume switch doesn’t turn up anymore, but you can’t have everything…
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Since the healthcare bill is worse than the Holocaust, will the Repubs make the day of its passing a national day of mourning?
Hitler would not approve and neither would liebruls, thus: Libruls = Hitler!
/Guy Fawker
Omnes Omnibus
@jeffreyw: @WereBear: @Regnad Kcin:
Stop doing that.
jeffreyw
Got a product report on the Garmin astro dog trackin gizmo. Worked great for nearly an hour, then stopped workin. Boxed up and waitin for a return auth number. Too damn bad, it was really cool while it worked.
beltane
Elie Wiesel complained about this, so now they are hurling their nastiness at him. Michele Bachmann doesn’t represent my country; she only speaks on behalf of the lowest life forms who exist here. The wretched refuse yearning to commit genocide or some such thing.
eemom
I’ll repeat what I said earlier today, which was that Rude Pundit really nailed this one:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2009/11/modest-proposal-rape-guy-holding.html
Some may find the Rude Punditesque, er, imagery, objectionable……but I still think nothing else does justice to exactly how appalling it is that these “people” carried that sign.
Comrade Kevin
Sex Pistols reference, DougJ?
DougJ
Sex Pistols reference, DougJ?
Yes. It seemed appropriate here.
Violet
@DougJ:
You know Johnny Rotten is selling butter in a TV commercial, right?
beltane
Markos’s hate mail bag will be full this week. How dare he make the great patriot Tom Tancredo sad like that.
robertdsc
That sign was reprehensible.
Xenos
@Violet: The butter in question is really, really bad for your arteries. So that is OK.
r€nato
Bwahahahahaha
Brave Sir Tom ran away, he bravely ran away…
…from Vietnam, and now from Kos.
I did not know Tom Tancredo got a deferment during Vietnam. HA! Is there no end to the GOP chickenhawk parade?
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@Violet:
Crap! I thought when Harlan Ellison did that Geo commercial that the world was coming to an end. But that was…22 years ago, I think.
Leelee for Obama
@eemom: There are times when only the Rude Pundit can say it right. This is one of those times. His outrage is something marvelous to behold and I thank you for the link. No matter how dirty-mouthed I might try to be, this is something only RD has the gift for.
RedKitten
I love his sputtering after being asked if Medicare threatens the United States.
Gwangung
Of course not. SATSQ. Woulda been VERY surprised if he didn’t have a deferment.
El Cid
I think George Will is seeing starbursts.
asiangrrlMN
@Leelee for Obama: I am one of those people who did not like what he had to say. That’s why I get most my snark from here and from TBogg.
@Just Some Fuckhead: YouTube is down for maintenance. What is it?
asiangrrlMN
@asiangrrlMN: Never mind. YouTube back up.
El Cid
The Washington Post gives Michael Gerson space so that he can declare that since Obama is on the edge of successfully passing a health care reform program, this indicates the imminent arrival of a permanent Republican majority:
That part about being “opposed by a majority of Americans” comes from some bullshit Gerson spouts about the New Jersey and Virginia governors races.
SpotWeld
He walked away from the situation then, and he walked away today
adolphus
I realize that I may be in the minority here, but I think Markos’ did his side a real disservice here. Tancredo was floundering on the ropes, sputtering out incomprehensible answers and was being called on them. He and his tissue thin arguments were being exposed and it didn’t look all that difficult, to be honest.
Markos could have easily parried Tanc’s “I talk to veteran’s, do you talk to veteran’s” gibberish with a simple, yes I am a veteran and I talk to them all the time. He could have also quoted all the stats that show the VA is actually a pretty good system. He knows these stats. The shot about Tancredo’s deferment, while possibly accurate (I have no idea) provided Tanc with an opportunity to storm off and quit answering questions and make the issue about Markos’ remark which was utterly unnecessary to make Tanc look like an idiot.
Markos may have been right, it may have made him feel good to poke at Tanc, it was certainly fun to watch it, but was it really a good tactic in this situation?
Just my lone two cents.
Zam
@El Cid: Doesn’t the public option have a lot of support? Though low approval of the current bill could also come from some disappointed liberals I guess.
pcbedamned
@jeffreyw:
@Regnad Kcin:
But what happens when you put an ipod through the wash?!?
(My 15 year old daughter is still pissed at me – guess next time she will actually check her pockets like she’s told – yeah, right! a mother can dream…)
b-psycho
LOL @ the “forget cats, spay & neuter libruls!!” sign in that clip of the protests. I thought the wingnut talking point was that America was becoming more conservative by the day because libruls have abortions?
No one blinks an eye at eliminationist “wipe out everyone that disagrees with me” rhetoric anymore. That says a lot.
mistersnrub
The co-opting of Holocaust tropes by these know-nothing lemmings sickens me, as my grandparents were Holocaust survivors. This sort of ignorant zealotry that is oh so prevelant on the Right is “Why Jews are Liberals,” to answer Norman Podhoretz’ question. The persistent denunciation of liberal elites, the media and Hollywood are a jarring reminder of the anti-semitic Bircher undercurrent of movement conservatism. I mean, they have signs saying spay and neuter Liberals, and then they have the chtutzpah to compare the providing healthcare to everyone to Dachau?! They are the brownshirts. They are the goons. Gah, /rant.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Tancredo had to leave it there.
I’m sure I’m not the only liberal in America who, when Markos bitch-slapped Tancredo, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think this chickenhawk was bitch-slapped.” And the way he did it. By the end, when he clearly knew he was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, he’s got it.
libhomo
Tancredo’s political career is over. Republicans can’t get away with getting tears in their eyes because they have been humiliated.
valdivia
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
FTW.
Zam
@libhomo: Ha! A republican having their career ending by making a fool of themselves? Not Likely.
MikeJ
@Zam: True. David “diaper” Vitter is still in the Senate.
TenguPhule
I welcome our Canadian Overlords. Anything to clear the tides of stupid from the beaches of oversight.
TenguPhule
They were Manly Tears(tm)!
Feel the power of his Youth!
madmommy
@libhomo:
Not that that will stop him from being invited on all the talking head shows. See also, Cheney, McCain.
TenguPhule
Yep.
At this point I support a conservative bodycount simply because its the only way to be sure.
El Cid
I’m pretty sure that whenever anyone on the left improperly invoked the Holocaust, it actually had to do with something which might hypothetically lead to mass killings.
Not, you know, giving people some various insurance regulations.
Just Some Fuckhead
@adolphus:
Yes, many people just automatically assume Republicans have the moral authority to speak on behalf of veterans. Markos took the mantle of speaking for veterans away from Tancredo and then pulled Tancredo’s underwear down for the world to see his little peepee.
My favorite part of the video is where Markos replies to Tancredo’s demands for an apology: “I just told ya straight up.”
Tancredo then runs away.
Well played Markos!
New Yorker
That video rules. It’s extra special that the bitch-slap was served up by a Latino American. Maybe Tommy, bigot that he is, doesn’t walk off so quickly if a white guy says what Kos said.
New Yorker
Yeah, even Eric Cantor seems to be getting uncomfortable with it.
I hope Bill Kristol and Norman Podhoretz are happy with the movement they’ve cynically built and whipped into hysteria. I hope they also realize that Jewish intellectuals don’t usually last too long when the fascist mob takes over.
kay
@El Cid:
It’s just complete bullshit. Did he read the House bill? Stupid question, I know. Of course he didn’t.
The big fear the Democrats should have with the House bill is 95% of people aren’t going to see anything change for 3 years.
I’d like to replay all this ludicrous fear-mongering in a year, so the country can point and laugh at these clowns. And it’s not just tea baggers.
The fact that “serious journalists” and members of the US House of Representatives have now lied through their teeth for six months on how “radical” this is needs to be exposed. None of them bothered to put the slightest bit of effort into understanding any of it. It’s shameful.
adolphus
Yeah, I watched it again and I am wavering. But the discussion wasn’t about being a veteran or talking to veterans. The discussion was about the health care bill and the right wing nut jobs at the rally yesterday. Markos bitch-slapped him but good, but on a tangential part of the discussion. I am seeing this clip a lot now and everyone’s concentrating on the final put down. (See Think Progress, for example)
I would prefer that people concentrated on how utterly empty and ineffectual Tancredo was when faced with simple questions from a real journalist like DougJ did. That should be the real story here and Markos’ bitch slap, while accurate and fun, distracted from that.
It’s a matter of emphasis, I suppose.
Keith G
Well okay then. It’s been a nutty week out there with fail floating down and accumulating on the ground like so many fallen leaves.
Sully adds to the pile when he links approvingly to a Pam Spaulding post slamming the DNC for not stepping up to the plate in support of the Maine referendum. He adds, emphasis mine:
Oh, that’s all they did.
Well just fuck him, but not with anything attached to me. Sully once again indicates that his list of complaints notwithstanding, he would gladly skip back to the general horror that is the current GOP if they would just suck on his toes.
/rant
Sorry, just needed to vent.
soonergrunt
I’m sorry I missed this. My phone doesn’t do flash video. Middle of fricken nowhere and I’ve got 3G but I can’t see youtube videos. Just have to wait till drill’s over on Sunday evening, I guess.
Just Some Fuckhead
@adolphus:
No, it wasn’t tangential. It was in direct response to Tancredo claiming to KNOW what veterans want. Markos: I’m a veteran, not a draft-dodger like you, I’m a veteran and I speak for veterans. Nothing wrong with that.
kay
@El Cid:
The House health care bill ‘smacks of radicalism” and means Obama is “ceding the center”.
This, from the people who endorse standing in front of HUGE BANNERS with Holocaust dead on them, signing autographs, and chanting “Nazi” every time Pelosi’s name was mentioned.
Obama needs lessons on not “ceding the center” from these guys?
PurpleGirl
Agree that Markos’ comments and smack down of Tancredo was great… but I liked Ed’s comment at the end of the clip that if elected Republicans didn’t think government was good or works, that maybe they should consider a new line of work. Yup, if you don’t want to govern, get out of the government.
Ecks
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’m really ambivalent about it.
From a liberal point of view it was a breath of fresh air to see one of these guys slapped down from the BS they normally get away with running at will.
For anyone who starts of sympathising with Tancredo at all, once an insult is delivered a lot of them will forget almost all the legit stuff that preceded it, and go into moral outrage “how dare they” mode, which has this horrible way of shutting off all our critical thinking facilities. See any given argument you’ve ever seen. One person says something stupid, and then all of the reasonable exchange that might have gone up to that point suddenly disappears in a cloud of “And let me tell you another thing!!!11!!one!!”.
If Tancredo had claimed any more authority to talk about what veterans believe than “I talk to them, this is what I hear,” then maybe the slap down would have worked better… As it was, he escalated too fast. They already had him on the ropes and babbling, and he could have completely trumped “I talk to veterans” with “I AM veterans, and so are a lot of my best friends.” and completely blown him out the water.
He could even have moved to righteous indignation with something about “VA is the best care we can get, and how dare you say that the people saving my life are communists and threatening America.” Would have been a total KO.
FlipYrWhig
Markos did throw a bit of a low blow on that one, but it was actually retaliatory, IMHO, because Tancredo was trying to pull the gambit of saying that the liberal’s view was all castles-in-the-air airy-fairy nonsense, whereas serious-minded conservatives like him, Tom Tancredo, know what Real American Heroes want and need from their government. It clearly never occurred to him that Markos might be a veteran himself. I think that’s why Markos was getting pissed.
FlipYrWhig
@Ecks:
I think your scenario (“I am veterans,” no potshot at Tancredo’s deferment) might be an A response, but Markos’s was probably a B+ at worst.
arguingwithsignposts
Tom Tancredo can blow me. I am ashamed that journalists in this country even invite this idiot on their shows. I’m glad he walked off and hope he *stays* walked off. Same goes for Dick Cheney and his spawn Liz.
General Winfield Stuck
Funny this. Tom Tancredo is walking talking tangentialism with a long history of making up about any kind of hateful nonsense to make his points. There are and have been no rules for dipshits like this and why in gawds name would any network, newspaper, claiming to be honorable have this turd on their show is beyond me. I guess it’s for the wtf factor for the eternal food fight. Markos pushed the right button to cause this chickenshit loudmouth to run away like the frightened hater he is. No rules in this game.. Not always a big fan of the GOS, but he connected this time.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ecks: They’d already given Tancredo way too much airtime to spout lies and nonsense. He was clearly maimed and Markos delivered a well-placed kill shot. Then the two remaining sane people wrapped up the “debate” by shitting all over Republicans. I’m pleased Tancredo didn’t stick around to put a respectful finish on his crazy assertions that everything he doesn’t like is a threat to America and our freedom. Fuck him.
Ecks
@FlipYrWhig: Yeah, probably true. It was a clean hit, and would have worked great if Tancredo hadn’t quickly picked up that he’d been given a borderline out, and played it for all it was worth.
ChrisZ
Making light of real depression is not clever or funny. Tancredo was right to be incensed about the comment, it wasn’t just disrespectful to him but to anyone who has suffered from depression.
Also, giving a depressed person a gun would be absolutely idiotic, there is no way someone who is depressed should be in combat.
Ecks
@Just Some Fuckhead:
As I say, I’m ambivalent about it, much of what you say is also true. Except this:
Which is fuckin’ gospel.
Jean
The only reason Eric Cantor offered a lukewarm rebuke (“inappropriate”) of the Dachau poster is that a number of influential Richmond Jews were on the phone in seconds after seeing Cantor babbling about freedom with that poster behind him. You can count on it. No way Cantor woke up the next day having second thoughts of his own. He’s dumber than a post, but will never face an opponent because of crazy gerrymandering that makes his district a gigantic Republican stronghold .
John Sears
@FlipYrWhig: Yeah, I think the deferment shot takes a great answer and diminishes it. A draft-dodger really could be right on an issue where a veteran is wrong; it’s possible. The facts are on Markos’ side, he has personal experience with the VA and can refute Tancredo directly.
As it is, it feels like he was waiting the whole interview to drop this one in there, and it gave Tancredo an emotional excuse to leave a righteous whipping on the facts.
There’s always the possibility that Tancredo was telling the truth, too, that he has talked to a lot of vets who hate the VA. Somebody always hates anything.
arguingwithsignposts
@ChrisZ:
But the problem with that is that Tancredo doesn’t preface his remarks with any kind of humility or acknowledgment that he’s gotten that deferment. He’s an ass, a racist bigoted ass at that, and should be called out.
I’ve suffered from depression, and never served in the military, and didn’t see it as a slam against depressed people at all. I heard it as a slam against hypocrites.
ChrisB
@PurpleGirl: That was David Shuster sitting in for Ed Schultz.
General Winfield Stuck
Polite liberals. We need to quash that notion afore it takes hold, again.
Chuck Butcher
Tancredo is a fucking chickenhawk race baiting rude mouthed prick. Markos didn’t call him any names at all. Markos compared two facts, Tancredo took it as an insult.
Why did Tommypoo take it as an insult? You play at his game at real risk when someone else is tougher than you are. Yes, Markos is tougher, funny thing how being in real actual danger does that to a person.
I never fail to be astonished by how many tough talking weasles fall the hell apart when it gets damn rough.
Tancredo could have simply said, “Depression isn’t a joke.” But his manly pose was blown. Consider the pissification displayed, suppose that depression was pose as well? Backed by a friendly doc back in the day, when a fair number of well educated folks were pretty sympathetic to a lack of desire to go play in the mud of SE Asian jungles.
Fuck Tommy.
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m failing to see how Tancredo failing to fight and instead running away is a good thing for him and a bad thing for Markos. It’s the worse thing Tancredo could have done, especially right after being accused of running away from a war he supported. The health care questioning was done anyway, with VA being the last example Shuster had for Tancredo to poop himself over.
In the normal course of cable punditry, Tancredo would have had a couple more minutes to come up with something, anything to save face for his earlier ridiculous assertions, and Shuster woulda prolly helped wipe the drool off his chin. But not this time. This time we didn’t have to leave it there.
Chuck Butcher
@General Winfield Stuck:
Huh, you slipped that in while I was typing. Have I quashed sufficiently?
Shade Tail
adolphus (#31):
It was a perfectly good tactic to use. It actually *is* accurate that Tancredo was another draft-dodging supporter of Vietnam.
And even aside from that, it is not a bad thing for liberals to flat-out accuse their right-wing interlocutors of being hypocrites and liars. After all, they *are* hypocrites and liars, and we need to inform people of that. And because strong moralistic language always works better than dry factual lecturing, our only choice is to play hardball.
Seriously, this is a lesson we liberals should have learned a long time ago. We spent the past 30 years as the losers because we kept telling ourselves that “the American people are smarter than that,” and assuming that staying “above the fray” would make us look better. Meanwhile, the reality is that the American people are, by and large, utter cretins, and staying “above the fray” merely allowed the GOP to throw mud on us with impunity.
We *have* to fight back. That isn’t an option if we want to keep winning. And the fact that we have the truth on our side makes it all the more important to call out the GOP the way Markos did in this vid, and the way Grayson has been doing for a while now. Otherwise, the GOP will simply bury the truth under all that mud they like to throw.
MikeJ
@Chuck Butcher: Getting shipped halfway around the world to get shot at would make me mighty depressed. If I could have gotten a shrink to say so I would have done it in a second. Of course I wouldn’t have tried lecturing vets on what vets really want.
ChrisZ
@arguingwithsignposts:
Markos could have gotten the shot in without mentioning why Tancredo didn’t serve and it would have been effective. I felt that the comment implied that depression was a kind of pathetic excuse for avoiding military service, and that’s obviously not true. Maybe I’m overly sensitive because I think there’s a lot of “depression is just whiny sad people” type of sentiment around, but I felt that Markos’s insult was an example of that kind of thinking.
General Winfield Stuck
@Chuck Butcher:
yes
Wile E. Quixote
@ChrisZ
Take your fucking fauxtrage and shove it up your ass, and then for good measure shove half a dozen copies of Glenn Beck’s book up there. The only thing that Tom Tancredo was depressed about in 1969 was the possibility that his ass might get dropped into the fucked-up meatgrinder that was Vietnam. Fortunately for him he got a deferment and didn’t have to go off and serve in a war that he supported.
Someone who wasn’t a goddamned useless, pearl-clutching, concern troll fucktard like you would be concerned with the mental health problems of the troops that served in Vietnam, you know the ones who couldn’t gin up a convenient excuse for not going, and for the mental health problems of the troops coming back from Iraq and AfPak and not with Tom Tancredo’s supposed depression.
Chuck Butcher
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Oh Tommy’s a Confederate, we’ll soon hear how lucky Markos was that he wasn’t in the same room with a Southern Gentleman who’d have … oh pistols at noon or something really chevallier like. Umbrage works really well when you can’t whip out a glove or call for seconds.
arguingwithsignposts
@ChrisZ:
I suppose that’s true. My first impression wasn’t to see it as an insult to people who suffer from depression, but I am familiar with the GOS, so I have a background from which to see the statement for what it is – a shot at a chickenhawk.
Tancredo is a jackass, pure and simple, though.
mai naem
I love me some wingnut bitchsmack and Markos did it the right way. As far as the depression thing, I am willing to bet if the shoe was on the other foot, Mr. Tancredo would be talking about what a whiny titty ass Markos was being. All that said, I wish Markos would wear some glasses or something. His eyes always look like they are popping out. He has however come a long way as far as his teevee appearances. I am just so f@#$ing glad that there are so many young liberal voices getting airtime and getting better at their teevee appearances. It’s nice to have somebody who can go up against the blonde wingnut bimbettes.
ChrisZ
@Wile E. Quixote:
So I don’t know the facts about Tancredo’s depression diagnosis, but I’d love to know if you have any evidence to support your assertion that the depression diagnosis was wrong.
I’m not just being obnoxious here, I think it’s important to not make baseless assumptions, and I think it’s important not to make light of a mental disorder that destroys lives if not treaty properly.
Your last point is a red herring. Of course I’m concerned about PTSD and other mental health problems veterans experience. That’s simply irrelevant to the current discussion.
Just Some Fuckhead
Ya know who else thought Markos was out of line? Hitler.
reid
I have to say, I’m with adolphus. I watched the clip on Olbermann, and I was turned off by Kos’s attack. It’d have been different if Tancredo was talking about eliminating deferments or something along those lines, but this seemed like a bit of dirt Kos was saving up. I’m all for liberals growing spinal sacks, but let’s not stoop to those levels.
Don’t get me wrong, Tancredo is a hemorrhoid of a douche of a sham. I have no sympathy for him.
ChrisZ
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Oh shit! I take it all back!
Comrade Luke
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Because it’s always good news for the Republicans.
Imagine the boost this will give the McCain campaign.
John Cole
A lot of you are missing an important angle of the Markos bitchslap.
This was Tom Tancredo.
Kos is Hispanic.
Chuck Butcher
@ChrisZ:
I have real strong doubts you were a part of that shit or know how it worked. Hey, cysts are not funny, particularly perinoidal cysts, that is where your tail bone keeps growing stuff, not bone, and it hurts like hell. Kept the Rushbo out of the shit.
But it also is about a two day stay in the hospital and then you’re good as gold. In ’69 if you were the right type and had a sympathetic doc some whining would get you the fuck out. You might have to doc shop and you might have to have money…
I ran in real mixed circles for an upper middle class white boy – actual real money, comfortable, and then poor working folks and guess who the grinder ate. GWB wasn’t a bug, he was a feature. So was Rushbo and Tencredo has shown nothing to dissuade me there, either.
General Winfield Stuck
@John Cole:
He saw his chances and took em/ Good for Markos/
Jean
Tancredo is just another schoolyard bully Republican who smirks and snipes at people, sputtering meaningless phrases like “trial lawyers.” What Markos said was nothing compared to the idiocy, lies and stunning personal nastiness of the other side. They never apologize except to their overlords at Fox. At the very least, Tancredo got off the set. He ran away. Good. I’m glad his demand for an apology was rebuffed. He deserved worse than he got. When someone does hit back, jerks like Tancredo go poof.
Jeffro
@Wile E. Quixote:
This. Regardless of whether or not Tommy T. really was so depressed he couldn’t go to ‘nam, he deserves absolutely no sympathy from anyone now. It would be one thing if he was tirelessly laboring to help veterans, but he isn’t. He’s more concerned with being a giant asshole. Fuck him, indeed. If he want to talk tough he better be ready to take it on the chin every time.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@John Cole:
Markos Moulitsas is Hispanic? How is he not Greek?
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole: Yeah, but he’s half Greek too and Greeks were the first white people back when everyone was brown, according to 300.
Chad N Freude
I believe that the Tancredo Cohort is of the opinion that a psychological illness or disorder is not really real, that the claimed symptoms are really indicators of a character weakness, someone who just won’t man up. To be accused of this is utterly humiliating, especially if it’s true. Tancredo could not remain on camera with his shame so exposed for his community to see.
Chuck Butcher
@John Cole:
Hmm, I thought somebody hit on that. I’m pretty sure
covers most of that ground.
Jason Bylinowski
@adolphus: I actually think Markos got a good deal here. He got in a good shot – excellently good, considering that depression is perceived as “depression” by most Republicans anyway – and he got to have the last word. Shuster’s demeanor after he left, however, did him no favors, but I’m not a big Shuster fan anyway. I just think he’s a fucking prick, doesn’t much matter if he’s on “my side” or not.
Jason B +2 ::takes shot:: ….and +3
IndyLib
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge:
Salvadoran and Greek.
Mister Colorful Analogy
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
I believe these Internets are yours, sir. Well done!
Comrade Luke
You know what’s depressing? People giving Tancredo – TANCREDO! – the benefit of the doubt on any of this.
I mean, really. He could have ignored the whole comment and kept talking and very few people would have been able to put two and two together anyway. Instead he goes to the fainting couch and asks for an apology, and not only does everyone here buy it, they take it to the next level and defend Tancredo’s alleged depression. Who outside the blogosphere even knows about that?!
As far as what he heard from veterans…well, I have personally heard people say they believe there were pods under the airplanes that bombed the WTC, but let’s just say I don’t plan on researching it any further.
Tancredo’s a dick who has no business being on TV, and I fully expect his outrage to last until the next time he’s invited on.
Fighting Republicans by slapping them with our white gloves is what got us in this mess to begin with.
This is long overdue.
wobblybits
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: Greek father, hispanic mom. Fiull name is Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga
Jason Bylinowski
@Jason Bylinowski:
Or, what Chad N Freude: says……GMTA muffukkaz!
MBSS
brown on brown crime, ay, john cole?
Chuck Butcher
Tommy has gotten away with his shit for as long as he has because nobody stand up to him. He is politely disagreed with. There really is no polite disagreement with how and who he is, but that is how it is done.
I don’t do it. Not with the likes of Tommy. I’m careful where I don’t want to make enemies in the political world, but some enemies one should be proud to have. If you have facts, you give an enemy no quarter, you cut them to pieces with facts.
There was no possible loss for Markos in that exchange, not politically and not on the basis of facts. Oppo research is a wonderful thing, it provides a knife rather than a sledgehammer. Surely you heard the snick snick as Tommy’s scrotum was opened and the lack of balls fell out.
bago
@John Cole: If there ever was a truly deserved bitchslap, this was it. Straight up.
Btw, there is a steelers bar in DC at 18th and U north west I think. Posting from my phone, and am afraid a context switch to check will dump the process from memory and wipe out everything I typed.
Chuck Butcher
@Chuck Butcher:
I should specify that there is a difference between opponents and enemies.
MikeJ
I went and searched thomas.loc.gov to see how Trancredo used his office to help service members suffering from depression or other mental health problems. I saw that he wants to force immigrants to swear that they won’t advocate for sharia law in the US, but nothing about helping those in or out of the military with mental health problems.
Wile E. Quixote
@Chris Z
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong and Republicans aren’t always chickenshit chickenhawks. But that’s where the smart money bets. And when I see an asswipe like Tancredo I’m willing to lay good money down that his depression was only caused by the fact that he was about to get his ass shot off in the war that he supported.
Assuming we buy into your nonsense, and that it’s not just pearl clutching bullshit you seem to think that it’s a bad idea to give someone suffering from depression a gun and to send them into combat but that it’s A-OK for them to be a member of Congress.
I’d love to see that campaign ad:
ChrisZ
Yeah, so I’m really trying hard to understand the commenters here. I never said, nor did I mean to imply, that Tancredo was absolved of all sin because Markos made a tasteless dig at him (and really, bringing up a 16-year-old Tom Tancredo’s diagnosed depression is tasteless unless you have good evidence that he was faking it). He can still be a douche, racist, chickenhawk.
But just as Tancredo isn’t absolved of all sin because of the attack my Markos, Markos isn’t absolved of a disrespectful insult because of Tancredo’s douchiness. I only wished to point out that I thought that bringing up depression was tasteless. There are a lot of depression deniers out there who don’t consider depression a real mental disorder. I thought that the way Markos made his comment he was playing to that idea, and I found that offensive.
Now, maybe I’m wrong about what Markos intended, maybe I overreacted anyway, but I don’t think that Markos’s comment needed to be vigorously defended, especially with the “well he’s an asshole too” defense I’ve been seeing. BJ commenters are usually better than that in my experience. Maybe it’s the Friday night crowd.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@IndyLib: @wobblybits:
My bad. A good buddy of mine is half French, half Greek. He can’t decide if he’s a “Freak” or “Grinch.”
Mark S.
Well, this sucks:
I knew it wouldn’t have a chance in hell of passing, but I would have liked to have seen it get a vote. Also, this was no surprise:
Jesus, some days I think this country is run by special interests.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah ChrisZ, that’s the great thing about being a liberal. There’s always a killjoy around to chastise ya for some perceived insensitivity.
ChrisZ
@Wile E. Quixote:
You have to be shitting me . . .
It’s a bad idea to give someone suffering from depression a gun because there’s a pretty high rate of suicide among that population. It’s not because they’re “crazy,” it’s because they’re a danger to themselves. That’s why they shouldn’t be sent into combat, there are lots of weapons around . . .
Mike G
Yup, if you don’t want to govern, get out of the government.
The thing is, they don’t want to ‘govern’, in the sense of a responsible and responsive administration of the nation’s affairs.
Eight years of the Chimp Assministration demonstrated that for them, getting elected is about the ego thrill of grabbing the reins of power, from which they can loot the treasury, funnel fat contracts to their cronies and indulge their GI Joe hate and cowardice driven need to kill brown people far away.
Boring details of government, like effective anti-terrorism legwork away from the spotlight in the summer of 2001 and hurricane disaster preparation, is, like, soooo boooring and girly and not worthy of their time that could be better spent strutting on the decks of carriers.
Chuck Butcher
@Mark S.:
Maybe it will help assuage your feeling to know that Health Ins premiums are a huge capital source for investment banks … or … maybe not.
IndyLib
@The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge:
Lol
My husband is Greek and Welsh I guess that makes him Week or Grelsh. Damn, that’s just not as funny as yours.
New Yorker
Um, cough cough:
John Sears
@Mark S.: It is. It always has been.
Wile E. Quixote
@ChrisZ
Great, why don’t you go clutch your pearls with Robert George. You two can just wallow in your fauxtrage about the perceived insensitivity of liberals, and hey, Brick Oven Bill was offended too. So you could make it a hot and heavy fauxtrage threesome.
gwangung
Generally, I’ll take the word of folks with personal experience over the well meaning outsiders. Given some other comments from depression sufferers, I think you’re making the same mistake as Tancredo did.
Just Some Fuckhead
No doubt that by the time the
pearl-clutchersJanes Hamshers of the Left are done, Kos will be forced to issue an apology for his insensitive remarks about depression. Because to do otherwise is like beating the mentally ill in the streets with baseball bats.ChrisZ
@Wile E. Quixote:
I’m beginning to think that you’re like the opposite of a concern troll. Like an outrage troll or something, getting outraged and throwing out absurd arguments and insults just for fun. Do we have a term for that?
Yutsano
@Mark S.: Actually, seeing the details behind this Weiner really did the right thing. If his amendment would have been allowed then Prlosi would have had to consider all the anti-abortion bullshit and all that. It was tactical and part of the sausage-making bullshit. I somehow get the feeling this is part of the endgame here, but this card sucks for those that want it all now.
Chuck Butcher
@ChrisZ: @ChrisZ:
Would it be insensitive to note that it would have saved a bunch of innocent people a bunch of grief in Tommy’s case? Why sure it would be. And I just flat out don’t give a good goddam about Tommy’s feelings in this life or any other one. I care considerably more that my dog is still breathing tomorrow than if Tommy is. (I’d find the news coverage annoying as hell)
I give a hell of lot more of a damn about my friends from that war that aren’t right and never will be because they weren’t as angry as I was and willing to do jail rather than do that mess.
The thing itself, war, is bad enough. To have to sweat being alive day in and out for something you can plainly see is stupid and isn’t supported at home or there and lets anybody with swat out of is soul killing. Try to think about the result of killing a person over complete asshattery.
Just Some Fuckhead
@ChrisZ:
“Balloon Juice Regular”
John Sears
@Just Some Fuckhead: I don’t always agree with Jane Hamsher but I also fail to see what she has to do with this particular conversation.
On that subject I think she’s really doing some great work on this biologics issue with the health bill. Talk about a huge gift to Pharma, heh. Hopefully it gets fixed.
bago
Internet commentator?
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Sears: I wasn’t talking about her. What makes you think I was talking about Jane Hamsher?
John Sears
@Just Some Fuckhead: Huh?
Beauzeaux
Jeebus, that made me laugh so hard my stomach hurts now! Well done, Chuck Butcher. Another shining example of how the commenters at Balloon Juice are far and away the snarkiest, wittiest, and most entertaining of any blog on the net.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Sears: What?
r€nato
Those of you who think Kos dealt a ‘low blow’ to Tancredo… remember Josh Marshall’s ‘bitch-slap theory of politics’.
Also, if I was a veteran, I’d be pissed at some slimy third-rate washed-up ex-pol like Tancredo invoking the veterans when not only is he not one, he got a deferment just like all the rest of the ‘any war I don’t have to fight is a good war’ crowd.
Kos told him to go fuck himself. Good.
John Sears
@Just Some Fuckhead: I thought you were talking about her because you said this:
Now, there’s an extra ‘s’ in there, but I’m not aware of a Janes Hamsher of the Left. So I assumed you were talking about Jane Hamsher.
Now I’m just confused.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@valdivia: @Mister Colorful Analogy:
I blame it on smoking weed. Yeah, that’s the ticket. ;)
Mark S.
Whatever slight amount of sympathy I had for Tancredo evaporated when I read this:
If he were some apolitical twenty year old who didn’t want to go to Vietnam, I wouldn’t blame him, but he was advocating for the war. Fuck him if his feelings got hurt by being told he was a fucking coward and hypocrite.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Sears: No, two entirely different things.
Jane Hamsher is a lovely lady, internet activist and all around “good guy”. The Jane Hamshers of the Left are a radical paramilitary group bent on the destuction of America. It’s just unforunate their names are so similar, not only from Jane Hamsher’s viewpoint, but it’s also a fact that the Jane Hamshers of the Left have taken a lot of flack from other paramilitary subversives at the annual meetings: Oh, we love your site, where did you come up with that precious domain name.., etc.
IndyLib
@John Sears:
I believe Just Some Fuckhead is fucking with your head.
“Jane Hamesher’s of the left” is shorthand for concern troll liberals who spend a lot of time telling us how we’re not sensitive enough all sorts of things, mostly isms – sexism, etc.
vg
God, Markos is such a little shit.
Jason Bylinowski
@Just Some Fuckhead: Hey now, the JHL is not such a bad org. You get a free blog account with your annual membership, a This American Life DVD, not to mention the free continental breakfast!
Andre
The funny thing about the Tancredo incident is that the Right has painted itself into a very tight corner with their own policies and actions, so it’s the perfect way of illustrating that those policies and actions help noone.
Noone’s going to be able to answer back for Tancredo because that’d sweep the leg out from under their own position: you can’t be seen to support someone who didn’t fight while others did, particularly not for something as pussy-fied and liberal as a mental health deferment. And if that person can’t stand up for themselves, well, they’re not really worth defending anyway.
It’s times like this I’m glad I’m on the side of people who would back me up for speaking from a position of experience.
MikeJ
@vg: But he’s *our* little shit, god bless him.
MBSS
you guys are marginalizing the jane hamshers of the left, and it’s getting a little out of control. we are the new gays.
TBogg
@Just Some Fuckhead:
No. We like a good cock punching.
Jane_in_Colorado
@ChrisZ:
No, making fun of depression isn’t funny. I’ve suffered from suicidal depression off and on for much of my life. But making fun of a chickenhawk for claiming to speak for veterans might be fair game. Was Tancredo really so depressed when he was of draft age that he couldn’t serve? If so, has he fought for services for the depressed? I’ve never heard that he did.
The man stalked off in a huff. He didn’t try to make a case for his deferment.
Of Bugs and Books
@ChrisZ:
I would sincerely agree with your point, but I don’t consider Tancredo credible (another story).
See comment #23 Klem Kiddilehopper for an example of what will be thrown Tancredo’s way, not as documentation:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/24/romney-family-immigration/
I haven’t gotten far enough to see if Tancredo has received sufficient treatment since then. Obviously someone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted to serve as a U.S. Congressman (much less President). If he’s proven it before, he will be expected to do it again.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@TBogg:
I thought it was good cock blocking. Did I miss a meeting?
AhabTRuler
Oh good, Jane-Hamshers-of-the-Left Redux.
I’ll get out my graphing calculator.
John Sears
@IndyLib: Ah, ok. I haven’t read BJ that long, so.
Plus I have a killer headache from playing too much of the Left 4 Dead demo tonight, so my thought process is not at peak efficiency.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@John Sears:
We speak in tongues here, mostly twisted ones. ;)
VladCat
I hope there is a succulent sauce to go with that tasty, tasty roasted chickenhawk.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
From Wikipedia:
Could have been written better but at least it’s there!
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
That was appended to the Immigration Issues section on Tancredo.
Also.
John Sears
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
Could have been written betterbut at least it’s there!Redundant. You already mentioned that the quote was from wikipedia.
Chuck Butcher
@Beauzeaux:
Thanks, I usually can’t compete with this bunch
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Robot Chicken is on and the Libertarian Convention skit is running. I love the epic fail of the whole thing.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@John Sears:
Heyyyyy you! Stop picking on teh internets! You is mean!
Just Some Fuckhead
And let’s not pretend all the bandying about of the phrase “bitch-slapped” isn’t hurtful to women. Some of you motherfuckers need to walk a mile in someone else’s heels or get yer own pair of Irish sunglasses so you can see what yer missing.
Chuck Butcher
@John Sears:
I just discovered that I’ve got Quake 4 that I’d only played a few minutes of so I’ve logged a couple hours on that, now. There are some aspects of it that are really cool but I’ll have to finish to see what I really think of it. It can’t match Oblivion but I’m not sure it doesn’t match Dead Space.
Ah well, I’ve got critters to kill…
Chuck Butcher
@John Sears:
I just discovered that I’ve got Quake 4 that I’d only played a few minutes of so I’ve logged a couple hours on that, now. There are some aspects of it that are really cool but I’ll have to finish to see what I really think of it. It can’t match Oblivion but I’m not sure it doesn’t match Dead Space.
Ah well, I’ve got critters to kill…
John Sears
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Heh, see, L4D can’t sap all my brainpower.
Hooray for those few stalwart neurons that keep up the fight.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I thought “bitch-slapped” referred to a female dog slapping down a wimpy male would-be-suitor. Is there some other meaning?
Irish sunglasses suck. Breaking the bottoms of the whiskey bottles to fit empty frames is a pain in the ass. That and everything is all distorted and funky looking.
Although having a pair of 750 ml sunglasses is kind of unique, I’ll pass.
John Sears
@Chuck Butcher: It’s been years since I seriously played a FPS, but I think I’ll pick L4D up. It should be fun with other people (I only tried offline tonight)
On its own, though, the bot AI sucks. Yeesh. Unreal Tournament had better bots however many years ago that was.
(I mean, when I point out the healing items that my AI partners need, repeatedly, and they refuse to pick them up I start to think they deserve their grisly fate)
Ecks
You’re kidding, right? Abraham Lincoln was a depressive and he was a pretty damn good member of Congress.
Look, clinical depression isn’t just feeling kinda bummed out sometimes, it’s a living nightmare that screws you the hell up. Put it this way, depressed people most often commit suicide when they are starting to get better, because when they are at the peak of their depression they feel so utterly fucking miserable and depressed they don’t even have the energy to kill themselves though they want to. If you ever knew someone who went through it, then you wouldn’t be making flip jokes that hinge on “teh stoopid crazee LOL people hahaha” to be funny. These people are already miserable enough, and it just makes it worse that they know there are lots of people out there with this dumb ass ignorant prejudice who will shit on them more for having it.
If that makes me a wet blanket for ruining your fun laughing at the “retards,” or what have you then so fucking be it, but I will do that every fucking time because it’s the right and humane thing to do.
All of which doesn’t change that Tancredo is a douche nozzle, and if he just found a friendly doc to sign off on some fake diagnosis so he didn’t have to go to war, then that makes him even more of a dipshit than he was before… And heck, it’s even quite probable that that’s how it went down.
So yay he got his ass bitch slapped, but can we please quit slimming the poor people who get stuck with a fucking horrible mental illness while we’re at it.
Stooleo
Okay, its late, i haven’t read throught the 150 comments and I’m Stooleo +9, but I’m channeling my inner Eric Erickson. So we send Tom Tancredo .. lithium, Zoloft,. something else? You know like Red State sent Olympia Snow.
Ruckus
@ChrisZ:
As a Vietnam era vet (and I’ll be right up front – I was not sent in country, I was sent to the other side of the world) I knew of many guys who tried for deferments. When taking my draft physical, I saw guys wearing panties, not underware. Didn’t work. I know of one who swallowed ground glass. That did work but the cure was worse than the disease. I have a friend who got out for being allergic to bees. It took him 2 years. And lawyers. I was never asked about any mental or health issues, I peed in a cup and gave blood. Both of these containers were placed in racks with no identifying marks or labels, as they all were.
Don’t tell me that he got a deferment for depression without having to bring it up. Or without knowing someone in power. It didn’t happen that way.
BTW I’ve suffered from depression and I carried a gun. As someone pointed out just being subject to the draft was depressing. As I’m sure being shot at is. Oh wait I know that being shot at is depressing. Another story for another time. Unless he was clinical and hospitalized the only way I see for Tancredo to have gotten a deferment for depression was by the
abuseuse of power.Stooleo
Salt.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@John Sears:
Our daughter plays L4D with friends from our old online Myst community. I got her into the Orange Box/HalfLife stuff and she has dived into it head first. She is a big Garry’s Mod nut (as am I) and she also makes goofy ‘movies’ in HalfLife. We have modded the games to hell and back.
Chuck, we are huge Quake fans here. I still play Q2, 3 and 4 (plus Doom 3). Our daughter, son and myself have regular frag-fests in custom maps we have loaded (tons of mods in Q3 especially). I prefer to play as Snoopy. Having him blasting the shit out of stuff just fits my twisted personality.
I still enjoy old ones like Serious Sam 1 & 2 too. Some of the SS2 custom maps are mind bending and a blast to play in.
Ruckus
@Ecks:
Well said.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Stooleo:
What, send him five pound bags of Lithium? You work for a drug company or supplier? See, while I won’t waste money on Tancredo, I could really use some… Oh, you don’t?
Get fucked. ;)
gwangung
So, basically Markos knew Tancredo was lying about his depression, Tancredo knew Markos knew he was lying, and Markos treated him like Tancredo was lying, and the only way Tancredo could defend was to lie still more.
bago
Dead Space is very involving, except for the two asteroid shooting bits. The fact that you do everything realtime and have no HUD except fir the hologram makes it very immersive. Especially on the captains deck.
Chuck Butcher
@Ecks:
I missed that part of it. In fact that part seems to be missing other than perhaps in reference to Tommy. Now it may be rather Neandertal on my part, but I’ve been known to refer to “Jap Cans” regarding cars I won’t buy and I’ve even been known to refer to the {R} brand as the Confederate Party of Republicanism and I know I’ve called Ann Coulter something unappealing before. As the result of a joke gone horribly wrong my wife has taken to calling me Thupidhead (lisp is hard to type) and I’m sure that’s probably offensive as well.
Whatever it is that is wrong with Tancredo might have an entry in the book of mental illnesses, but they’d probably spell
differently than I do. I don’t care what the fuck ails his brain, he still is exactly that.
Having depression really sucks, being Tom Tancredo means making other people’s lives suck – there’s a difference.
John Sears
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Ahh, mods. That takes me back.
The truth is, though, I dropped out of PC gaming a long time ago. It just got to be such a hassle, and I’ve grown to hate PCs with such a passion, I try to do my relaxing on the consoles. I spent way more time trying to make the games run properly than I ever did playing them.
Ruckus
@Chuck Butcher:
Better said than I did. Thanks Chuck.
But I do think that Ecks has a point. Depression is hell breathing. And I can’t imagine depression that requires meds and hospitalization.
That said, Tancredo may have had or still suffers from depression. That doesn’t change the fact that he is a fucking chickenhawk race batting rude mouthed prick.
Kind of rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?
Chuck Butcher
@bago:
I was ready to shoot the person who put it in there.
I play on a 48″ rear projection, I damned near jumped out of my skin a few times starting out with it.
The hover tank in Q4 is exceedingly cool, very senses boggling on that big screen.
The new Wolfenstein is pretty good, but I’m now stuck somewhere near the end, just dying repeatedly and unable to figure out, how not to. It has set for awhile, now.
Chuck Butcher
@Ruckus: I have a particular axe to grind with that prick. I wind up getting lumped in with him because I am a fierce opponent of illegal hiring. I’m in construction and I see first hand what it does, both to my employees and the illegal ones and just to make some cheating prick a profit. And don’t even think that while Tancredo is race baiting he doesn’t know whose bread gets buttered by it as he takes their money.
Mark S.
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
That reminded me of this silliness.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@John Sears:
Servicing computers is my work so pc gaming it is…lol! Really, as far as problems running any of those games (at release and after) has never been a problem though I did/do always apply any available updates to the games. I stick to Intel/ATI hardware and that has kept problems to a bare minimum.
Plus I like the ability to mod the game to suit my flavor of blowing shit up. One of the settings in Serious Sam I use is showing the ‘gibs’ as hippy flowers splashed all over.
All ya need is luv. That and a good rocket launcher.
Stooleo
God, I wish, thats big pimping money.
Maybe we send him the 1st season of Venture Bros, that always makes me happy. That and weed. Yeah, we should send him weed.. (Stooleo + 9.5)
Fencedude
@John Sears:
Same here. Sometime around the middle of the decade I realized I just no longer gave a shit about PC gaming, so I’ve switched almost exclusively to consoles.
Just got a new 42″ plasma TV and ZOMG PS3 games are amazing on it. Been playing the heck out of Assassin’s Creed in preparation for Assassin’s Creed II on the 17th.
Blue Raven
As someone who actually HAS a form of depression, I didn’t hear a jot or tittle of “depression is fake” in Markos’ remarks. At most, he was insinuating that Tancredo lied about it.
John Sears
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): I guess it’s about effort and expense for me. I’ve literally fished consoles out of the dumpster in the pouring rain and they still work a decade later with no special effort. Whereas if I want to play a lot of my oldest PC games… good luck getting them to run.
As for new ones, keeping a gaming PC up to date involves a lot more money so I can hand cash to PC game makers who treat me like a criminal and saddle me with obnoxious DRM and huge installations that eat up hard drive space I could use for work. Or I can get a console game that sits in its sleeve for me to play it now, or ten years from now. No hardware compatibility, no driver issues, no operating system worries.
My roommate fired up an old Katamari game today, the last save file was almost three years old, the game is like five. Five years was 3 computers ago for me.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, except maybe that I’m lazy, fear change, and am heading to bed. Night all.
Chuck Butcher
@Fencedude:
Oh yeah, Xbox360 on HD on the 48″ rear is pretty intense. I am champing at the bit for AC2 as well. I may pre-order tonight yet.
Depends on BJ and Q4 frankly. This flu bug is kicking my ass.
aarrgghh
chuck “the” butcher @ 102 ftw:
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Mark S.:
I like the ‘game shows’ they have there, the crap they do is hilarious. Some pretty creative (and pretty disturbed) minds out there…lol
I like Garry’s Mod because it allows you to do just about anything with the game assets. You can put together some pretty cool Rube Goldberg-like contraptions and screw with the physics to no end. Want a flying toilet? No prob. Want an exploding flying toilet? Ditto.
That and things like the chicken grenades. Once you’ve unleashed a horde of pecking and exploding chickens on an unsuspecting T-Rex, you’re hooked.
Chuck Butcher
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
Shit like I need another expensive time consuming hobby.
Well…Harley riding is coming to a close, the 1/4 mi is closed unless I trailer well south, hunting season is done, and I sure the hell don’t ice fish. Work has turned into an expensive hobby. Nah, I ain’t buying more computers.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Stooleo:
This kid ain’t parting with his Train Wreck, damned shit is gooood and it would be a crime to waste it on a turd like Turdcredo.
@John Sears:
Heck, our gaming rigs are five years old but I have kept what hardware I can up to date (drives, audio, power supplies, etc). All of us are still running i865/i875 chipset boards, two gigs of ram, various ATI AGP cards (X850XT PE, X1950XT and HD3850). Everything runs fine and everything we are interested in playing runs well on that hardware. I like gaming, and these machines were expensive to build when I did them (custom cases, big power supplies, huge copper sinks, enough fans to run a vacuum cleaner, two have 3.4 EE procs, etc), but I ain’t throwing tons of money at it. I will milk these for all they are worth…lol!
When I move up there will just be more shit to select from and it will cost a heck of a lot less. Works for me. :)
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Chuck Butcher:
Expensive? Get The Orange Box ($30 on the ‘bay now), load it up, connect to Steam and you can buy Garry’s Mod for something like $9.95. Updates are free and Valve/Steam keeps things pretty up to date. You don’t have to connect online to play, you can select offline mode and that allows you to start and stop the game/computer all you want and connect online only when you want to play on a server, run a server or update the game files.
I got less than $40 into my Steam games though I am going to get L4D soon (L4D2 can wait, I ain’t a beta tester). The Orange Box comes with lots of great games, one of which is Portal. That portal gun is a blast to mess with. The puzzles are pretty damned fun to solve with it. That, plus having an insane computer that is promising cake at the end of the ‘test’, all the while apologizing for the live fire exercises with robotic machine gun turrets that talk to you, is pretty humorous.
The song at the end of Portal is pretty great too.
Chuck Butcher
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
I doubt my desk top has enough ass to play stuff like Oblivion and neither it nor the lap top has enough screen. I’m pretty spoiled by the big Sony. It was our home theater until a part went out and I bought a new one. Had this one fixed for a reasonable price and it now is the one i use to not annoy wife with news programs and to game on.
I don’t play on line much, those people stay at it. I’m doing Quake 4 as we’ve conversed. I get killed and check BJ while it loads or just pause it.
I have a busy mind…
Mark S.
But there’s no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of cake.
Fencedude
@Chuck Butcher:
I preordered the Master Assassin edition a while ago, but I’m a sucker for Special Editions of things.
(lets not even talk about the two import PSP games I have coming at the end of the year that come to over $300 for the two. orz)
Of Bugs and Books
@Blue Raven:
Yup.
I assume Markos considered more than one possibility beforehand too, but considered the source. If I was Tancredo and thought I had had a legitimate deferment, I would have advocated on the spot for the cause, not taken it as an insult, just as I do for a medical condition of my own. Not to run it into the ground, but:
From http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3255494
E.g.,
“Tancredo’s provocative statements hurt his credibility, said Republican activist Grover Norquist, a liaison between the White House and conservatives. Norquist contrasted Tancredo’s remark about bombing Mecca to someone suggesting bombing Dublin in response to an Irish Republican Army attack.”
(about a quarter of the way down).
From http://www.tomtancredo.org/ (Tom Tancredo Watch), on
” . . his lack of personal ethics and integrity in making a solemn term-limits vow, not once but on numerous occasions . . ”
(about seven paragraphs down).
Chuck Butcher
@Fencedude:
I’m a bit of a sucker for ’em myself. I’ll probably do the pre order on the special ed. I liked AC, though the end was kinda left in the air.
What games cost that much???
Chuck Butcher
@Of Bugs and Books:
I wouldn’t defend TommyT from satan himself, but ole Grover is a major asshole and pretty far from one to talk about ethics
Of Bugs and Books
@Chuck Butcher:
He of “drowning gov.t in a bathtub” fame? No, but I try not to wander, or I would have added “(not that I think he said it for other than practical political reasons)”. Actually, it surprised me that he would say it. His criticism seems that much less partisan.
Fencedude
@Chuck Butcher:
Special Edition Japanese Imports.
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s Portable -The Battle of Aces
Queen’s Blade Spiral Chaos
When anime fandom and gaming fandom meet, scary, scary things can occur.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Chuck Butcher:
I don’t have a whole lot of time to game so that is why I have a few titles to waste my time on. Besides that, I would prefer to spend money on the Mustang, the motorcycle, guitars or traveling with the wife (not necessarily in that order). The computers are pretty much dead last on the priority list, I prefer to collect from my customers who like to spend crazy money for the latest pc gaming hardware.
Let someone else run the bleeding edge stuff, I got tired of getting cut long ago. If it does what I need it to then that is enough for me.
Chuck Butcher
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
As soon as I get over this flu crap I need to rebuild the 750 Eddie on the ’62 Chevy II. I’ve got (I hope) a fuel delivery problem on the launch. I need to get that done before the weather gets too bad to take it out someplace ‘private’ and check it. I only need about 100 ft but I don’t need an audience considering a burnout is also called for.
I’m afraid the Harley doesn’t have more than a few days of riding left. I can putt around town a bit at less than 50F but highways get rough.
dSquib
Grover Norquist has become less partisan recently, now that the Republicans have become less than popular, and they hold little power that he could exercise any influence over. He said recently Cheney should be water-boarded and that torture investigations are a good thing.
The guff he wrote at the height of the Bush admin’s power about a 50 year reign or whatever should not be forgotten though, and be forever ridiculed.
Chuck Butcher
@Fencedude:
OK, I’m not quite that far gone. Actually I’ve never even seen an anime. Seriously – and I have a jumped up satelite subscription.
Chuck Butcher
@dSquib:
The chances are real small that a lefty Oregonian would ever forgive him for using my state as one of his fucking test tubes. The havoc his bunch of asswipes has wreaked on this state is not to be forgotten or forgiven.
Gotta get some sleep
Robert Sneddon
@Fencedude:
Queens’ Blade ? You’re going to need a wider screen…
dSquib
@Chuck Butcher: Indeed. The degree of influence Norquist has is quite amazing, it’s not something I see to this extent outside of foreign policy. Not sure how he does it. He’s played a major role in getting these TABOR measures on ballots, recently, though they’re consistently voted down of course. I feel like I’m always reading about a new state whose legislature or governor he has managed to wrangle into implementing one of his “ideas”.
arguingwithsignposts
@dSquib: Indeed. FTFGN (Fuck the Fucking Grover Norquist)
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Chuck Butcher:
Hope you get over the creeping crud soon, the wife finally shook hers but it took a round of antibiotics to do it.
Got an Edelbrock (Carter) 750 AFB on it? Good carbs when they are dialed in right. I got a couple of the old Carter Strip Kits for the AFB/AVS carbs kicking around here somewhere. I run an old Carter ThermoQuad (800) on my 351. Carter carbs are better than the run of the mill Holley (IMO), cheaper and once dialed in they give great mileage and performance. Lots of carb people don’t like the Carter TQ/AVS/AFB models as they don’t understand the metering systems and how adjustable these carbs are. If you know what you are doing you can get a cheap, solid and reliable carb that will run for years with only periodic tuning and cleaning. I first ran an AVS on an Edelbrock Performer manifold for twelve years but stepped up to the TQ when I went to the RPM manifold and ported heads. I have been running that combo for the last eight years now.
Car stuff, yum. Right now I am rebuilding the rear end in the Mustang and the garage smells like car ass. The pinion thrust bearing and race were pretty wiped out though it lasted 164,000 miles and 31 years so I can’t complain. I put some serious hurt on it so that is to be expected…lol
Less than $200 for the parts to do a full rebuild so that isn’t too bad. Doing my part for the economy. ;)
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Oh, and I hope that when Norquist slips in the bathtub that he ends up with the faucet up his ass.
What, you thought I was going to make a drowning in the tub joke? You people. ;)
sparky
maybe Tancredo’s problem is that he’s off his meds now.
/shows treated for depression card and skips….
Little Dreamer
@ChrisZ:
Politics is dirty, if you can’t handle the mud slinging, go play with your Hasbro toys or something, leave the dirty stuff to those who have the stomach for it.
All I’m seeing here is that you’re a concern troll who is very concerned. That attitude has gotten us NOTHING previously.
Little Dreamer
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
Nah, I think the faucet up the ass is much more fitting. ;)
jeffreyw
[yawn] [blink blink]
[looks around]
This thread still here? Where’s my coffee?
sparky
@Little Dreamer: not necessarily. here’s an example: remember Grayson and “whore” a little while ago? there’s a fine line here, and what you don’t want to do is give the opposition something that they can take refuge in. in other words, if you are going to eviscerate someone, do it with a sharp knife so you don’t make a mess.
as a sometimes depressed person who was not old enough for Vietnam, i have no idea what was going on then. i would think that getting out for depression might actually be difficult, and given that there was more stigma then than now about it, it seems a surprising route to a deferment. on the other hand Tancredo has made a career out of making stuff up, so who knows.
the only point here is that it doesn’t make one a concern troll to say Markos could have made the exact same punch without saying why Tancredo got the deferment. in this case, giving the reason gives Tancredo an opportunity to squirm away through fake outrage. if Markos hadn’t given the reason, Tancredo would have had to explain it himself, which meant he would hoist himself on his own petard in front of his supporters. and that would be even more betterer. even. also.
still, all in all, that’s a quibble, so if we were grading this, i’d say A. (A+ if the reason hadn’t been given.)
sparky
@jeffreyw: in yr base, killin yr chipz.
maye
The problem with Markos’ bitch slap of Tancredo is it diverted attention from the issue: healthcare reform. It was a missed communications opportunity. The conversation became all about the insult instead of Tancredo’s deceitful stance on veterans healthcare. It’s a fun clip for sure, and no one but lefties are watching the Ed Show anyway, but Markos would have been a more effective advocate for HCR without bringing up Tancredo’s depression. Now the clip is all about the theatrics instead of the issue.
Robin G.
@ChrisZ: I agree. When I saw the clip, it made me edgy too. Whether Tancredo deserves it, whether he was lying, whether none of that matters now… it felt like a quick, cheap appeal to the “depressed people are whiners” crowd. In addition, I’m not wild about the idea that finding this sort of thing a bit offputting means that I’m a pearl-clutching concern troll. I must have missed the memo where we have to agree with everything the GOS says or risk being labelled trolls.
I admit, this may be affected by the fact that I find Markos offputting in general. He’s a great writer, a great organizer, but he really wasn’t meant for pundit-land. His speaking tone grates.
Little Dreamer
Really? Repubs do that all the time, how’s that worked out for us so far?
Little Dreamer
I’ve been dealing with depression on and off since I was a child, and I don’t seem to feel that this was a direct attack on folks with depression at all. I also am a female who doesn’t seem to take any umbrage in the term “bitch-slapped” either.
People need thicker skin.
El Cid
While I don’t like the particulars of what Markos hung his comments on, I do think that it’s important to establish an attitude of “f*** you scumbag right wingers, you don’t scare me and I am willing to call you out as a windbag worthless piece of sh*t.”
You have to take away this ridiculous air both put out by and respected for Republicans in which these god-awful right wing shit-heads are treated like serious, impressive commentators and policymakers on the national scene.
Tancredo is a crazy, worthless figure — why the hell would anyone put such a maniac to comment on any subject?
And they’re backed up in this Overton endeavor by continually assuming that they will be viewed by liberals and Democrats as fearsome, frightening, intimidating figures.
And Markos cut through all that and said “you’re not any different than any jackass I’d insult on the street”.
And this is what the righties do all the time with liberals and Democrats and the liberal-left almost always just smiles and politely goes along with it.
So, though I don’t like the mention of depression, I’m all for the ‘f*** you, you worthless lying hypocrite windbag.’
Little Dreamer
@El Cid:
Exactly!
Little Dreamer
His speaking tone grates? Then don’t listen to him. He knows what he’s talking about, that’s good enough for me. Apparently, to you, the appearance is more important than the message.
chopper
love it.
kos beats the hell out of tancredo on national television and all we can talk about is how we’re apparently a bunch of assholes for liking it because it involved depression. even when we win we have to feel guilty as fuck for not being ‘sensitive’ enough.
fuck it, i’m going to go listen to some bill hicks.
Leelee for Obama
@asiangrrlMN: I understand that rape analogies can really be ugly, and I know not everyone will approve.
I feel as if people like the ones who used that image are raping the truth, so I kind of get where the RD is coming from.
catclub
El Cid @ 216:
You mention that only lefties watch the Ed show, and Tancredo
was on it. If you said the same thing (reflected rightward) about, say, Hannity and Colmes, the point would be that only punching bags show up from the other side.
I think that tells you where on the power spectrum Tancredo
already is. Especially when the host said, “you are welcome back anytime” at the end.
Five deferment Dick is not going to get roped onto that show anytime soon.
I enjoyed the insult, too. But it has less meaning than we might hope.
geg6
Wow. All this concern trolling over one of the best smackdowns ever by a liberal on teevee.
I want this to happen every single day. Dozens of times a day. They are almost all chicken hawks and it should be pointed out ad infinitum.
And before anyone gets all “think of the depressives!” on me, let me say that I have suffered from clinical depression. I have no problem whatsoever with what Markos said because he wasn’t shitting on depressives, he was shitting on the chicken hawk who advocated for the Vietnam War and then chickened out of serving.
And I’m old enough to remember Vietnam well. I have a brother and two cousins who served there. One of those cousins re-upped for a second tour because, as he will admit today, he was so depressed he was hoping he’d get killed. Thankfully, he wasn’t but he is still being treated for what that war did to him to this day.
So fuck Tom Tancredo and his deferment. And a big smacking kiss to Markos for doing what liberals and progressives should be doing all the time. It’s time we quit playing nice with the bullies. That never works and just empowers the bullies. Take ’em on with no fear and no regrets. I love it.
Will
If there was an event where aliens had attacked the Earth using giant lasers, wiping out 80% of humanity, gosh darn it, the teabagges would have signs of Obama shooting lasers at us captioned “healthcare”. They just go to the worst thing. It’s not rocket science. Frankly, it shouldn’t even be paid attention anymore.
Robin G.
@Little Dreamer: To me, the only issue is solvency. I think Markos, on screen, is less persuasive than others would be.
Little Dreamer
@Robin G.:
Well, in case you haven’t noticed, 33% of the nation is batshit insane, solvency isn’t even on the horizon right now. The media refuses to even voice our opinions. What is the color of the sky on your planet?
Citizen_X
@El Cid: This. I mean, come on, Tom Motherfucking Tancredo? Why is this racist asswipe on? Fuck him and the Klan he rode in with.
I’ve been clinically depressed before, but if I thought that Tancredo was still suffering from depression up through the time he was thrown out of office, I would’ve mailed him a nice pistol and ammo [Can’t mail ammo, can you? Will couriers take it?], along with a note saying, “Thanks to a great American. It’s too bad the liberals won’t let you be of service to your country any more.” Hell, I’d send him a pistol every month.
rs
Kos deliverd the bitch slap of Tancredo with the attitude that Tancredo’s deferment for depression was in the same league as Limbaugh’s deferment for anal cysts, Kemp’s deferment for knees that he could quarterback on, and Cheney’s multiple deferments for ??? In other words, he was implying Tancredo was full of shit. People who were against the war in VietNam, I support them doing whatever it took to stay out of the military. People who gamed the system while supporting the war belong in Dante’s 8th circle.
Maybe Tancredo is legitimate- maybe he did try to hurt himself, maybe he got electroshock therapy. The world was less sensitive to mental illness in the sixties, so it would be logical that it took something major to earn the diagnosis of depression. If that’s the case, he has my sympathy. However, he also had the option of not mentioning that history and being allowed to go fight the war he supported. Also, the fact that he didn’t make mental health issues, especially veteran’s mental health issues a cornerstone of his political career suggests to me the depression thing was a scam. Everything I’ve seen of the guy tells me that he’s a mean-spirited, opportunistic asshole who didn’t get nearly enough from Kos to level the scales.
Shade Tail
Tancredo deserved that bitchslap. He deserved every bit of it. He’s an asshole, a chickenhawk, a racist (and Markos is a Latino; there’s a connection there), and, basically, a Republican.
But there is a much bigger point here: it is very important for liberals to stop being “nice” and start exposing these GOPers for what they really are.
A huge part of the problem in this country is that lower-than-scum twists like Tancredo are allowed to put themselves up as authorities, at which point they start deliberately spreading false info. Knocking them off their faux pedestals is just as important as getting the substantive truth out there.
By now, the past 30 years of constantly losing to the GOP slime machine should have taught us liberals that staying “above the fray” merely allows the GOP to splatter mud on us with impunity. We have to start playing hardball, and that’s exactly what Markos did in that clip. It is also why I’m a huge fan of Alan Grayson. Enough playing nice, it is time to stop allowing the GOP to bury the truth with their lies and slime.
Bonnie L. McLellan
@pcbedamned:
15 years old? Take it from another non-pc mother… If your kid is able to operate an Ipod, your kid is able to operate a washing machine. Cut ’em off if they bitch about the service around here.
Ecks
@Little Dreamer: Ok, there’s a legit argument to be made that if they are going to fight dirty then we should too.
But even if so you still want to be tactical about it. You don’t throw the dirty hit when you are already cleaning someone’s clock straight up, and about to go for TKO. Maybe it hurts him, but not as much as the pounding he was taking on being so completely wrong about the central leg that the conservatives are standing their entire opposition to HCR on. He was getting annihilated, and Markos just handed him an out to escape the worst of it.
The time to drop bombs like that is when the substantive part of the fight it either totally stalled out, or not going your way. Pick your moments y’know.
All in all I agree, that clip was awesome to watch and I love it, but his shot takes it from an A+ assault to an A-.
Plus I still think he didn’t need to mention depression in there. I don’t care if it gives Tancredo a sad (as y’all say, he’s worthless to start with), but this all exists in the context of a lot of stigma against depression, with a lot of people thinking the whole condition is just BS and whining, so you’re not helping THAT situation any. It’s a small thing.
Chuck Butcher
Baker County and Baker City, Oregon are named for the last serving US Senator to serve in combat – Civil War. Even then it was an extraordinary thing. It is simply the case that politicians make the decision and kids/soldiers do the dying. It isn’t even reasonable to expect that only veterans should vote for a war or advocate one. I ran for the House and there may have been a situation where I’d vote for a war.
There is something a bit different in regard to people likeTommyT who wasn’t serving in office, or DickC, or Rhushbo, or… (what a list) who consistently love them some war and yet ducked when the country asked. There is a consistency of behavior with these pricks that stands in stark contrast to the Confederate Party of Republicanism’s aura of tough dedicated people. There is the little matter of privilege and power giving outs during Viet Nam while most were expected by LAW to be subject. That is the most abrasive part of the equation – war for the other, privilege for me and I want more of it.
I don’t think it is a good thing to want to go to war, to desire it but I also don’t think it is a good thing to duck it when your fellows are being scooped up. If you will not do it then you should make a stand, but it also is a lot to expect people to shit on their lives by committing a Federal Crime. As you watch the greed heads skirt the financial law and ethics because they can you see the same thinking in operation.
If TommyT were my neighbor down the street just trying to inoffensively get by I’d leave him alone. He isn’t, he proposes to affect the nation’s policy and tone and that makes him fair game. Also down the street from me is the top US sniper from Vietnam.
Nellcote
Ed Shultz is going to have to apologize to Tancredo or else Tommy won’t do his show any more. Why does Ed invite him on all the time anyway?
Chuck Butcher
@Ecks:
Tactics dictate that when advantage over an enemy is offered you take full advantage ot it. Strategy may indicate that a superior moral tone is better than smash and crush. Strategy does dictate that one does not make enemies, enough already exist and an opponent is not necessarily an enemy. That requires some niceness of judgement, who is an opponent and who is an enemy.
TommyT and those who support him are enemies with whom no compromise is possible. You wage total warfare with these pricks, unconditional surrender or nothing. You eliminate them from the dialogue and any respectability. It is not a case of descending to their level, that would require lying, cheating, and deceit. Their object is to destroy you, not just get something for their side. You don’t use gas attacks, if TommyT watches porn isn’t relevant to war-mongering or VA – chickenhawk is.
This wasn’t a sledgehammer, it was a knife. I hear worries about collateral damage – depression. This kind of issue is going to have some, regardless. A lot of people took college deferments so anything regarding deferments is bound to ding someone and I agree there are going to be some dings. In any attack someone other than the intended target will be able to take offense, that is how it will be. If you decide to take offense then you’ll have to deal with it. Life is exactly like that, I get to read polls that show construction contractors one step up in public regard from used car salesmen – should I take offense because there are assholes in my business?
Chuck Butcher
@Nellcote:
ummm, because he’s an inviting target? What? Markos isn’t known for bringing out knives?
Maybe there was a hope somebody would do something like this?
Chuck Butcher
The right does this all the time, invite attractive easy targets, their problem is finding any with influence. Our targets of opportunity aren’t a problem that way – we just don’t do it, sadly.
Wile E. Quixote
I have seen the light, the fauxtraged, pearl clutching light that shines from ChrisZ’s eyes like the kids in Village of the Damned. Here’s the deal. I’m an amputee, I’ve got four pounds of really cool looking titanium and carbon fiber below my left knee to replace what I lost in a motorcycle accident. So now, whenever anyone on Balloon Juice uses the word “lame” I’m going to launch into a huge diatribe about how this shows that that person is an insensitive prick who doesn’t care about the problems of amputees and other people who have mobility problems.
What, you say that this is completely and totally lame, as lame as Ecks writing
When Markos never said anything of the sort, when not one single person on the thread said anything of the sort, when not one single person on the thread said or implied that depression wasn’t a legitimate problem. Well that just shows what insensitive pricks you are, slamming the poor people who got stuck with a fucking horrible disability.
Wile E. Quixote
Oh, and for the record ChrisZ, the reason I have that nifty piece of carbon fiber and titanium instead of a left foot is because my health insurance covers it. Prosthetics cost an arm and a leg, both literally and figuratively. Lots of people don’t have such coverage, lots of people are forced to get by with shitty prosthetics or no prosthetics at all because their insurance doesn’t cover it. And for the record lots of people have to get by with no mental health coverage for depression because their insurance policies don’t cover it either. But that isn’t important to you, the only thing that’s important to you is the fact that poor little Tommy “Obamacare == Dachau” Tancredo, Tommy “I get really good health care paid for by the taxpayers, fuck the rest of you peasants” Tancredo’s feelings were hurt.
Thank the FSM for Markos Moulitsas, I’ve had my problems with GOS, but if all we had were fauxtraged, pearl-clutching asswipes like you we’d be living in holes in the ground and looking under rocks for grubs under the wonderful administration of President Palin and Vice President Caribou Barbie (assuming of course that she hadn’t resigned the position).
Ecks
@Chuck,
Yeah, chicken hawk draft dodgers are assholes. I’ve got an amen for you there.
But yeah, I do think it was a TACTICAL slip. If Markos just says “you dodged the draft, I was an actual veteran, and so are my friends, let me tell you what is REALLY going on with the VA”, then what can Tancredo say in response? Nothing. He’s jacked. He can just stammer “oh, well I heard some other people say something else,” and he just looks weak and ill informed and spineless, and he has NO way out of the the “how is saving lives socialism” thing. It is check and mate, and all he can do is drool on himself in public.
But instead because Markos went two close to a third rail (deserved in this case or not), then Tancredo gets to storm off saying “how dare you”, and Markos is down to a win on point instead of a KO.
@ Wile
Ok, I agree, nobody took open shots at depressed people. But it is still a dog whistle in the context of the general stigma against mental illness (which really is a serious problem – people get fired and not hired over this kind of crap, people commit suicide because they feel like they are a freak and not normal).
It’s a lot the same as if Markos had just called him a fag or something. I’m happy to see the asshole get hit, and sometimes it’s fine for people to use the word fag (who’d ever get upset when Dan Savage does it), but that doesn’t make it cool to just throw around as a jibe against assholes, EVEN IF they are enormous assholes who deserve all the shit they have coming to them.
pcbedamned
@Bonnie L. McLellan:
Aww, honey, you made my day!!! That is exactly what I have said. Actually, when she bitches, I make her take her stuff to the local laundromat and pay for it out of her own money so that she is not wasting my hydro and detergent! That usually puts an end to the bitching right away…
I love being the ‘mean mom’!!!
Ecks
Moderation? Whut’d I do?
Chuck Butcher
@Ecks:
Disagree with me?
I haz power…
(like I’ve always avoided the dread moderation)
licensed to kill time
@Ecks: You have to search your post for hidden words. Or maybe you typed your handle or email addy wrong (been there, done that). Or probably Chuck Butcher is wielding his awesome power granted to him by his straight marriage license Authority.
Ecks
@licensed to kill time: I was even writing to say that I mostly don’t even agree with Butcher…. I guess he is a vengeful god of the intertubes.
pcbedamned
Just have to add my 2cents re: the exchange last night. As a traditional righty, I gotta say that although I personally despise GOS, even I knew that TT deserved what he got. As soon as the “All the veteran that I have spoken to..” came out of his mouth, I was waiting for GOS to slap him down (even I knew he was a vet). TT was behaving like a condescending, arrogant ass. And if his deferment was legit, he should have defended it as opposed to going all juvenile. Plus, as one who has suffered from manic depression for the last 25 years, I did not take any offense to GOS’s remark. Rather that looking at it through partisan eyeware, take it for what it was. One vet telling a non-vet what is really what.
(see, to me it like when Yanks try to state that Canadian health care is all ‘sochalist’, when it clearly is not…)
Again, just my 2cents from the ‘right side’ of the spectrum.
Chuck Butcher
Damn, in the name of comity I’ll assent that the lack of the modifier “depression” could have been better. I also understand why it got in there, it wasn’t a deferment for one-leggedness. That was a deferment, you know?
So tactically it was a direct strike rather than carpet bombing. Nah, comity be damned – it was done how it needed to be done. TommyT could have backed it up, no nutz. Empty sack. Whining mewling puke.
Chuck Butcher
When you say traditional righty and Yanks, those Yanks should understand a bit different understanding of righty.
gwangung
@Chuck Butcher: I admire your restraint with regards to Tancredo.
pcbedamned
@Chuck Butcher:
Ah, yes, forgive me and the cultural divide. As a Canadian righty, I probably fall more in line with American centrists. I also know that traditionally Yanks are northerners, but many Canadians (myself mistakenly) refer to Americans as Yanks. Forgive me. I know what I meant, but I should have been more precise talking to an American, across the board audience.
Apologies, and no offence intended :)
Paul L.
Nice of Markos to bring up Tancredo’s past Deferment.
Since it is fair game to bring up past behavior, I would he will not longer use the “old news” excuse when someone brings up his “screw them” comment.
Nasty little pr*ck should remember the lesson about Stones and Glass Houses.