Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

White supremacy is terrorism.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

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89Comments

  4. 4.

    Comrade Mary

    Beer. Because beer makes everything better.

    Mary, +1 and rising after a MAJOR work snafu, plus all the noise from south of the border.

  5. 5.

    Annie

    @Kristine:

    Not to piss my students off — never a good idea considering it is class evaluation time — but “Smudge” is really, really cute….

  10. 10.

    Catsy

    Repeating my suggestion from the other thread: Pixie.

    For some reason, the cat just looks spritely in some fashion I can’t pinpoint. It was the first impression that popped into my head.

  11. 11.

    scav

    Smudge, like it.

    otherwise, Basalt/mid-Devonian red micritic limestones containing Stromatactis cavities, infilled with white calcite 2012!

    Basalt with a deadly weapon.

  13. 13.

    ksecus

    I adopted a cat that i had seen around here for months, starving, nearly wild and obviously in trouble from exposure. It took weeks to even get this kitty to stop bolting when he seen me come outside. Slowly I convinced him I was of no danger and he started trusting me more and more. I started feeding him by leaving food for him outside and the trust between us got better and better. Now hes our pet. “Morris” lives in my house with my family and our other pets (two dogs and another kitty) Hes the most laidback , easy going cat now. We love the little guy.
    Morris is a happy kitty now and everytime I look at him I wonder at the transformation hes made from a few months ago..

  14. 14.

    PaulW

    If this is an open thread…

    Who do I speak to around here to get 37 or more states to form a constitutional convention so we can 1) fix the Senate to where this supermajority crap doesn’t kill the country and 2) do something about bank and finance regulation that Congress keeps ignoring?

  16. 16.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    Any kitteh named by this commentariat should obviously be called Skullfuck.

    You know John, I’m thinking the only way to solve this HCR deal is for all us progressives, liberals and Democrats to have a Great Big Flush. Tonight at 10 EST we, all of us, should in unison flush our toilets to signify our disgust with the sacred public option being flushed down the toilet.

    That’ll teach’em!

  18. 18.

    jibeaux

    Well, hell, I’ll just name something else Schmokey, then. Welcome to my desk, Schmokey the Stapler.

  21. 21.

    GReynoldsCT00

    and John, you’ve been reallllly stingy about pics of our Great White Balloon Juice overlord lately. Howboutit?

  27. 27.

    stacie

    Okay, I know it’s an open thread, which might be code for “change the subject”, but I started a new job today and haven’t yet been provisioned a computer, so I’m just now catching up on the Thursday edition of the leftward tantrum about the (admittedly very disappointing) HCR bill.

    Just want to say, in all caps and everything: PASS A FUCKING BILL ALREADY.

    So. Ready. To. Move. On.

  28. 28.

    LorenzoStDuBois

    I just want to comment on what I’ve been reading here this week, regarding John’s anger at liberals who are blaming Obama.

    Not that this is exactly the point John has been making, a lot of people have been saying it and I’ll use it as a jumping off point:

    “Obama was a centrist democrat, and he wasn’t going to enact super liberal policies, and you’re a fool to have thought otherwise.”

    Just because his presidency hasn’t been surprising, given the state of our political system, doesn’t mean it’s not immensely disappointing, and here’s why:

    Our country needs something like a miracle right now. Things are that bad out there. Major change is being squashed by special interests, and the middle class is getting absolutely killed. Saying, well, this is the art of the possible, and this is the best Obama can do, is fine. The problem is that history doesn’t give a damn. You either outrun the tiger, or you don’t. The tiger doesn’t give a damn if you had really heavy shackles on and you did a super good job considering you were chained down and all. You still lose.

    The only way to break the stranglehold of the special interests is to have a leader the people will support when he goes to war against them. That kind of leader comes along once in a long long time, and I believe Barack Obama could have been it. Sure, maybe there was a small chance this was going to happen, but there was a chance, and that kept me going.

    Sure he was funded by the usual banks, telecommunications and insurance suspects, but a masterful politician can control them, rather than be controlled. FDR was able to do this a lot of the time.

    You can all roll your eyes and laugh at how unrealistic I am, but it really doesn’t matter. Our problems won’t be addressed with these “possible” and “pragmatic” and other euphemisms for ineffective policies. Some problems are too big not to solve. And America will fall. You can’t have America without the middle class.

    I’m upset at Obama because he has the best chance to save us. Reid doesn’t, because Americans don’t know who the fuck Harry Reid is. So sorry if Obama is a nice man and he’s better than Republicans. It’s probably unfair of me to burden him like this. But I care more about America than I do about Barack Obama.

  30. 30.

    J. Michael Neal

    @MikeJ: It’s a bit more complicated than that. At the start of a new Senate, it only takes 51 votes to implement new rules. A lot of people are correct when they say that. They neglect one of the details. The Senate has ruled, almost since its beginning, that, since only one-third of the membership of the body is voted upon at any given election, there Senate never truly ends its session. Unlike the House, which does count each two years as a separate session, the Senate just keeps going.

    This means that the rules for the Senate never need to be re-approved. They just continue. Therefore, they have to be changed within a session. That’s what takes 67 votes. The same is true in the House; if they wanted to change their rules right now, it would take a two-thirds majority. (I think.)

    The truly clever move would be to have the parliamentarian, in January 2011, rule that it is not the same session of the Senate, and that the rules need to be re-approved as a whole. Then we could eliminate the filibuster by majority vote. There’s only two problems:

    1) I doubt that you’d get the parliamentarian to rule this way. He’d, correctly, point out that this has been assumed to be true for a hell of a long time, and that nothing has changed. It’s kind of a stretch, though the rather obvious abuse of normal parliamentary procedure may offend him enough to do otherwise;

    2) I doubt that you’d get even 50 Democratic Senators to vote to eliminate the filibuster. As a group, they are far too jealous of personal prerogatives to do it. This is actually the biggest problem with the Senate. It’s not that there are too many moderates, or that it has strange rules, though a will certainly entertain the first and heartily endorse the second. It’s that far too many of them think about themselves as Senators rather than policymakers. The perks are at the top of their list, and wouldn’t give them up just because it makes sense. There are a number of liberal stalwarts that would jump ship, including Byrd, Schumer, and Feingold. One of the reasons I like Bernie Sanders, even though he’s well to the left of me and is wrong today, is that I don’t think that this is true of him. He really does care about policy first.

  31. 31.

    MikeJ

    Our country needs something like a miracle right now.

    I disagree. No miracle required. Just adults taking calm, rational steps to make things a little better, and then a little better, and then a little better.

    I’ll tie this into the previous thread. There is not more police brutality than ever before now. Just not true. We simply notice it more.

    There are not more child abductions by strangers than ever before. There never were very many, and there are very, very few now. It is very big news when it happens, so people tend to think it happens a lot.

    There are not more shark attacks than ever. See above.

    We don’t need a miracle. Things are not fucked to the point where only a revolution will save us. Things could be better. Actually electing people who don’t make things worse (any Republican) is an improvement. Things will get better. And then a little better. And then we’ll hear some horrible thing on the news and we’ll be convinced that things are worse than ever before, even after we have free unlimited power, food and water and interstellar travel.

  33. 33.

    LorenzoStDuBois

    @freelancer

    I get the reference. I don’t have a blog and it’s been building up for a few days reading balloon juice. Sorry if it’s long, but I thought that was the point of an open thread.

  34. 34.

    WereBear

    Ack. I see so many have weighed in before me on the kitten’s name.

    But in all seriousness, we can’t name a kitten until we have spent some time with them. The only way a kitten/cat fits their name is when we are inspired by contact with them.

    And yes, it matter. They need to hear the love in our voice when we call them.

    That’s why people bestow “pet names” when they fall in love.

  35. 35.

    Jules

    HCR is depressing me, but the progressive freak out is even more depressing.
    I agree with Nate Silver that they are passing up an opportunity to still craft what is in the bill that will be passed:

    “There are a lot of ways that progressives might be directing their focus — arguing for more generous subsides, for instance.

    The point is, at this point I don’t think they’ve been directing their focus in ways that optimize the progressive-ness of the health care bill. But, as both Markos and Jon imply, that might not be the point. Rather, progressives are fighting a sort of proxy war over the public option — as a way to exert their influence and authority. This is where I’ve always parted ways with the strategy — I think health care is too important an issue to use as a demonstration of one’s authority. What might be better? Financial reform would be one answer. But obviously, the cat is way out of the bag now on the public option and people have become vested in their positions.”

    http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/20-questions-20-responses.html

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    I vote for Smudge. Not that it really matters because, judging by all of the cats I’ve had, she’s rarely going to be called that. Keaton may be the big guy’s official name, but Keaters, Keats, Mr. K, and Big Boy are all popular substitutes, along with a bunch of also-ran choices.

    Though Charlotte refuses to answer to her nickname (Chuck) and will only respond to Charlotte. Interesting.

  37. 37.

    jwb

    @LorenzoStDuBois: You haven’t been reading Arguingwithsignposts’ comments then. I think the idea of this particular thread is that it be free of politics and that we talk about the name of AWS’s new kitteh.

  38. 38.

    LorenzoStDuBois

    And I have no idea what MikeJ is talking about. Shark attacks haven’t increased? What?

    Like I’m saying our country is in desperate shape because I’ve seen a lot of scary images in the news about child molesters? No, I’ve been listening to experts (those who have been right about things) and looking at data.

  41. 41.

    LorenzoStDuBois

    @JWB

    I don’t know then. My bad I guess. I’m not on here a whole lot so I don’t know all the etiquette. I take “open thread” literally.

    Congrats on the new kitten. My vote is for tiny giggle pants…

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @MikeJ:

    There is not more police brutality than ever before now. Just not true. We simply notice it more.

    True. Just ask the criminal suspects in Chicago who were routinely tortured by the cops over a period of 25 years if police brutality is a brand-new phenomenon.

    People are noticing it more partly because they don’t restrain themselves to just the “acceptable” targets anymore (poor, minority, petty criminals), especially since the number of targets that society deems acceptable has gone way down. Thirty years ago, the death of pretty much any black guy at the hands of the police got barely a shrug. Now people (rightly) get upset about Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Sean Bell, etc.

  43. 43.

    GReynoldsCT00

    I take “open thread” literally.

    And normally that’s true, but everyone is battle fatigued with this week’s news

  48. 48.

    Leelee for Obama

    Arguing-please come visit with us in this here open thread. We are recalcitrant, but well-meaning policy wonks who need to print the picture of you new Kitty and pin it to our monitor screens, so that we can haz a happy over her. I am drawn to Smudge, for obvious reasons, but I also like Skitch, because she reminds of snow and I wish for snow so I could do that crazy kid thing again. Just grab a bumper and take your life in your hands. It was immediate and, unlike un-inspected carnival rides, absolutely free. Yeah, a little silly today, but hey, at least I’m not saying this to my Granddaughters, right?

  49. 49.

    Tax Analyst

    ksecus said:

    I adopted a cat that i had seen around here for months, starving, nearly wild and obviously in trouble from exposure. It took weeks to even get this kitty to stop bolting when he seen me come outside. Slowly I convinced him I was of no danger and he started trusting me more and more. I started feeding him by leaving food for him outside and the trust between us got better and better. Now hes our pet. “Morris” lives in my house with my family and our other pets (two dogs and another kitty) Hes the most laidback , easy going cat now. We love the little guy.
    Morris is a happy kitty now and everytime I look at him I wonder at the transformation hes made from a few months ago..

    Nice story…must have got him before the feral instincts got too ingrained. A welcome relief from all the ++teeth-gnashing angst over the you-know-what issue.

    Thanks.

  54. 54.

    burnspbesq

    Hurley and Laettner say that AWS’ new friend should be named Trajan or Wojo. Dookies stick together.

  55. 55.

    asiangrrlMN

    @ksecus: Aw, that’s a very sweet story. I love reading rescue stories that turn out well. Especially during these dark days.

    @burnspbesq: Hell to the no. By the way, every time I see you write Hurley, I think Elizabeth Hurley. So there.

  57. 57.

    danimal

    My cat’s name is “kitty.” My kids tried to give him a name (Sparta), but he liked Kitty better. We all serve our feline overlords.

  63. 63.

    KBS

    I have a cat named Smudge, and it’s the most perfect name ever. His embarrassing nickname is Smudgipher Robin. (Sorry, never had to spell that before and it comes out pretty odd. It rhymes with Christopher.)

  64. 64.

    R-Jud

    A lot of us seemed to think of “Smudge” independently. I think it has momentum, AWS.

    (I was going to say “Joementum”, but, um, no).

  65. 65.

    Comrade Kevin

    @Paul L.:

    Expecting the Anti-war types and Moveon.org to protest the superhero named War Machine.

    You really shouldn’t assume that everyone else is as stupid as you are.

  66. 66.

    Annie

    @GReynoldsCT00:

    My students wanted “Mohawk” because of they thought the spot looked like a Mohawk haircut, so we shorten it to Mo. But, Smudge is too cute to pass up.

    I do agree in some cases you have to know the cat. We named our second cat “Diesel” because his purr is so loud, and he purrs so often, that he sounds like a Diesel engine.

    But, Smudge has my heart. “Tiny giggly pants” is too funny, but I am afraid the other cats will laugh if she ever meets them. It is a self-esteem thing.

    Our first cat is named “Smrda” which means stinky in Bosnian. We found her on the street in Sarajevo after the war. There was no cat food, so when we fed her she would fart all the time. We decided to call her the Bosnian word for stinky, because when we brought her to the states, no one would know what her name really meant, although a few Bosnian friends in DC where we live have gotten a good chuckle out of her name. Even with her name, she is still quite the proud princess.

  67. 67.

    Skepticat

    Where is this kitten photo of which you speak? I need to live vicariously.

    As mentioned last night, I took my cat for surgery this morning. The tumor is inoperable and has metastasized. The vet, who had said that if he found extensive cancer he’d recommend immediate euthanasia, didn’t suggest it today, and instead is doing an additional biopsy to send out because the tumor isn’t blocking anything and there’s a chance that a drug protocol can shrink the tumors enough to buy the cat months of some fairly comfortable life. His compromised kidneys are relatively strong, he came through the surgery well, and overall he’s healthy. (It’s the teeth are fine but the gums have got to go syndrome.) Perhaps I’m being selfish by keeping him alive just for the time being, but apart from the nausea and weight loss, he’s his usual normal wonderful self, and I know I can increase his comfort with subQ fluids. Though of course I don’t know how he’ll tolerate the drug. I just couldn’t let him go until I had no choice at all.
    He can’t come home until midday tomorrow, and I’ll start to deal with it then, though I’m not sure what to expect. It’s going to be a strange night without him, but the Maine coon cat is totally wrapped around me and keeping me consoled. I’m exhausted.

  71. 71.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    @arguingwithsignposts: OMG, KIIITTTYYYY! She’s adorable. I kind of like Smudge, but any really feminine name looks like it would fit her. My Emma is sitting on my lap and she agrees. (Although my Emma is a Gemini and seemed to need two names – Emma for her cute little calico side and Kate for her Taming of the Shrew side – Emma Kate works for her).

  72. 72.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    @Skepticat: No, you are doing the right thing. A bit more time with him is what you both need. It’s not time yet to say goodbye, when it is, you’ll know. I wish you both as much time together as possible with him feeling as best he can. Sending you lots of light.

  73. 73.

    Skepticat

    @arguingwithsignposts: Thanks to you and to and to MattR, but it was a true shock to see–that sweet thing is the image of my cat with cancer. When he first arrived (having tried to chew through the window frame of my office to get in, he had a very symmetrical black blot like that in the same place, and I named him Rorschach. As he got older–and he is old–it faded away. (As he seems to be doing, dammit.)

    I like Smudge, as the li’l thing is too cute to be called Snake Eyes.

  78. 78.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Skepticat: I’m so sorry, Hon. I’ve been where you are and you’re right to take a bit of time to store up memories, for both of you. I’m sending a hug, hope you can share it with Rohrschach.

  79. 79.

    Skepticat

    @arguingwithsignposts: I figure that I’m going to be the little old lady with thirty-five cats before I’m done. I admire your self-restraint, I’d probably have scooped more than one. You got a super cat, congratulations–having a warm fuzzy is wonderful.

    @Leelee for Obama:
    Thank you, that’s comforting. As soon as I get the white knight back here tomorrow, I’ll give him a big hug from you, too.

  81. 81.

    Annie

    @Skepticat:

    We can be two little old ladies, jammies, slippers and 70 cats…Just think of the pictures…I’m like you. I would have grabbed them all. The only thing stopping me is that my two at home don’t like strangers. It took a few years before they reconciled with each other. Now, they only fight when it is for position on our bed. Then we get the kitty boxing thing.

  82. 82.

    Svensker

    @Carnacki:

    Merlin

    But she’s a girl.

    Since AWS is asking us to “nym” the cat, how about one of the names for the Lady of the Lake in the Arthur legend, Nymueh or Nimue? I’ve always loved the name.

  83. 83.

    HRA

    My childhood kitty was named Smuts. It was a tiger striped male kitty.
    I would chose something feminine for your kitty as was mentioned above. She is beautiful and looks so graceful in the pic. How about Mia for a name?

  85. 85.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Skepticat: I’m so sorry about your precious Rorschach (and, as a psych grad, love the name). You have to do what your heart is telling you to do. I am sending you support in your time of grief. Please keep us updated.

    @Bad Horse’s Filly: I know! And he’s MY senator. I think I feel a major political crush coming on.

    @arguingwithsignposts: I was mostly tweaking you, but Lindsay Whalen is awesome, and either name would work. Congrats again. She’s a doll.

  86. 86.

    Something Fabulous

    @Skepticat: Not going to stop and read the rest of the thread to see if it’s over yet, want to rush and send my condolences but also best wishes! Great news that he was able to survive the surgery and you can have some more time with him while he can enjoy time with you. I lose sight of “one day at a time,” often, but that is really all there is. Best thoughts to you…

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    @Skepticat:

    I’m so sorry. We lost our cat Natasha to breast cancer a few years ago (yes, cats can get it, too) after it metastasized into her lungs. We had several conversations with our vet about euthanization and her advice was that as long as she still had all of her functions working (eating, drinking, peeing, pooping) and had good quality of life, there was no need to rush to euthanize her. She ended up dying here at home on her own because she never got to the point where she no longer wanted to eat and she still wanted to be around us all of the time. In fact, the night before she died, I was petting her in the living room and she heard Boris (the other cat) eating in the office. She got up and shoved him away from the dish so she could eat. (She was always the dominant one.) Twelve hours later, she was gone. G. came home from work for lunch and found her lying on the third platform of her beloved cat tower. We still have no idea how she managed to get up there — she hadn’t been able to climb it in at least a month.

    Which is a very long-winded way of saying, there’s no need to rush as long as he seems reasonably comfortable.

  89. 89.

    Platonicspoof

    AWS:
    Try out Puppet for your kitten’s nym . . .
    “Here Puppet! Come on Puppet! Here, Puppy, Puppy, Puppy, Puppy!

    /yeah, well, it’s new to me.

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