Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

This blog will pay for itself.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

This really is a full service blog.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

You are here: Home / Archives for 2009

Archives for 2009

Some Good News

by | 63 Comments

This post is in: 

Prepare for much wailing from the very serious people like birther Andy McCarthy at the NRO:

The Justice Department is preparing to impose new limits on the government assertion of the state secrets privilege used to block lawsuits for national security reasons. The practice was a major flashpoint in the debate over the escalation of executive power and secrecy during the Bush administration.

The new policy, which could be announced as early as Wednesday, would require approval by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. if military or espionage agencies wanted to assert the privilege to withhold classified evidence sought in court or to ask a judge to dismiss a lawsuit at its onset.

This seems like a positive step.

Some Good NewsPost + Comments (63)

BJ Dictionary Open Thread

by | 375 Comments

This post is in: 

Many of you have asked about the dictionary function to the right. The point of it is to allow newcomers some idea of what the older folks in the comments are referencing when they make statements about things like “hoot-smalley” or “IOKIFYAR.”

The problem, of course, is that you all can not edit the dictionary like a true mini-bjpedia, and only the blog overlords have that ability. So take this thread and write out definitions as you think they should be, and I will add the ones I think are best.

Also, I address the FAQ as often as possible, but I am seriously sick to death of “Were you really once a Republican?”

Yes. Yes, I was. Maybe one of you can work on that, but seriously, I just wish my archives would get corrupted for everything prior to Schiavo.

*** Update ***

Now this was just a cheap shot:

Tunch: Thought to compose up to 90% of the mass in the universe, but very rarely seen since the dog came along.

That simply is not true. There is simply no way Lily is overshadowing how much I love Tunch and how important he is to me. Look at this photographic evidence:

theanimals

I’m totally going to lose this argument, aren’t I?

BJ Dictionary Open ThreadPost + Comments (375)

Tuesday Night Open Thread

by | 102 Comments

This post is in: 

I’m completely unimpressed with the television offerings tonight, and after multiple hours watching training videos, I think my eyes would pop out of my head if I tried to read, so we are spending the night working on “sit”:

wealmosthavesit

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this dog (and before you ask, I still love Tunch to death)? And yes, I am fully aware that the blanket is hairy and needs to be shaken out and washed, but I have been really busy lately.

Have at it.

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (102)

Approximately How Insane Does One Have to Be Before No Longer Getting an Invite to Hardball?

by | 105 Comments

This post is in: 

For some reason, Frank Gaffney is on Hardball offering his expertise about something. I’m not sure what, because I switched the damned tv off as soon as I heard his voice.

This Frank Gaffney, talking about secret “codes”:

Frank Gaffney is an insane crazy person. He has proven it on any number of occasions, but he quite clearly demonstrated that he is a lunatic in the above clip, right there on Hardball. So why, exactly, are Matthews and his producers inviting him back on the show to babble?

Approximately How Insane Does One Have to Be Before No Longer Getting an Invite to Hardball?Post + Comments (105)

Ike’s Revenge

by | 58 Comments

This post is in: ,

A little know fact about Eisenhower’s Military-Industrial complex speech:

In the penultimate draft of the address, Eisenhower initially used the term military-industrial-congressional complex, and thus indicated the essential role that the United States Congress plays in the propagation of the military industry. But, it is said, that the president chose to strike the word congressional in order to placate members of the legislative branch of the federal government.

And then you have this:

Going after ACORN may be like shooting fish in a barrel lately — but jumpy lawmakers used a bazooka to do it last week and may have blown up some of their longtime allies in the process.

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to “any organization” that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Can a brother get a “Heh-Indeedy?”

Ike’s RevengePost + Comments (58)

Of course it’s about race

by | 130 Comments

This post is in: ,

Amazingly, this is from a Politico Ideas piece:

Imagine that Joe Lieberman had been inaugurated this past January, as an independent with a neocon foreign policy that infuriated Democrats and a domestic health care plan that enraged Republicans.

[…..]

But the mainstream leadership of both parties would immediately react to even subtle appeals to anti-Jewish sentiment. One reason Pat Buchanan ended his long career in Republican politics as an obscure third-party candidate was his consistent tendency to cozy up to neo-Nazis, former Nazis and other anti-Semites. When former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and those closest to her spouted anti-Semitic rhetoric, mainstream Democrats largely abandoned her.

The same ostracism just doesn’t happen with a lot of anti-black rhetoric. Mark Williams, the organizer of the national tea party movement, called Obama, on national television, a “welfare thug,” while marchers at a recent rally carried pictures of Obama as an African witch doctor. I think that’s pretty close to calling a Jewish president a “cheating landlord” or “kike banker” while carrying signs depicting Lieberman in a yarmulke running the world’s media. But there has been no outcry among Republicans, no pledges to avoid Williams and his movement.

Maybe I’m going too far here, but it’s hard for me not to think that race is by far the most important issue in American politics. In several southern states (Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi), over 80% of the white vote went to McCain; in all confederate states, at least 60% of the white vote went to McCain. And, of course, in those same states, over 90% of the black vote went to Obama.

What’s more, this pattern began to emerge almost immediately after the civil rights movement. I suppose David Brooks’ explanation is that southern whites just started hearing Burkean bells in 1965, by chance.

Can’t we just admit that we have an idiotic political system that revolves primarily around class and racial resentment and not much around competence and issues? And I don’t mean to single the United States out here — hating people you perceive as ethnically different is just how homo sapiens roll.

But it nauseates me that we have to pretend that Reagan wasn’t dog whistling when he kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, that pictures of Obama in white face aren’t racially motivated, and that Sam’s Club conservatism is a viable alternative to catering to bigots.

Of course it’s about racePost + Comments (130)

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

by | 58 Comments

This post is in: 

The next installment in the ACORN chronicles:

Police say a worker with the activist group ACORN who was caught on video giving advice about human smuggling to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute had reported the incident to authorities.

National City police said Monday that Juan Carlos Vera contacted his cousin, a police detective, to get advice on what to with information on possible human smuggling.

Vera was secretly filmed on Aug. 18 as part of a young couple’s high-profile expose.

Police say he contacted law enforcement two days later. The detective consulted another police official who served on a federal human smuggling task force, who said he needed more details.

The ACORN employee responded several days later and explained that the information he received was not true and he had been duped.

So, he plays along with them, then contacts the police, by the time they get in touch with him he learns it was a hoax, and a month later the wingnuts post the video as if he really was trafficking in humans. Awesome.

It gets better:

Vera was fired on Thursday.

I’m sure we’ll hear all about this at Breitbart and the cable news. USA! USA! USA!

(via)

No Good Deed Goes UnpunishedPost + Comments (58)