Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

So many bastards, so little time.

Most of you should go to bed and try to be better Jackals in the morning.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

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

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

I really should read my own blog.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

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Archives for 2009

Wookin Pa Nub

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Such a shame:

Sen. John Ensign has moved out of the C Street house, the Christian home he shared with other elected officials on Capitol Hill that came under scrutiny for its residents’ beliefs and practices and their role in trying to end the Nevada Republican’s affair with a campaign staff member.

The red brick town house emerged this summer as the subject of political intrigue — not only as a pivotal location in Ensign’s affair with Cynthia Hampton, but also that of South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, who sought guidance there as he wrestled with his own affair.

Looks like there will be no more wetsuit optional Christian seksitime at the C street brothel for Senator Ensign, which means he will probably be really grumpy at the office tomorrow. Then again, since he apparently is into banging the hired help, maybe this just expands his opportunities.

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It’s all in the game

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In my earlier incarnation as a local and state blogger, I used to email Ben Smith when he was at the Daily Politics (which is now run by the excellent Liz Benjamin). He struck me as an excellent political journalist, hard-working, sharp as a tack, and a nice guy. And, for what it’s worth, I think he did a great job with on-the-ground reader emails during the run-up to last November’s election.

It’s no secret that the Politico’s business model is to get lots of links from Drudge. It’s why they push the stories that they do — Edwardian hair cuts, ACORN, global warming denialism, and so on. Try reading the comments there on any story and you’ll see teh tell-tale misspelled, ALL-CAPS rants; there’s not much doubt that most of the commenters migrated over from the Drudge Report. I don’t think that anyone from the Politico would dispute anything that I just said.

I know that for journalists today, it’s cold out there, and rough. There aren’t a lot of ways for an outlet to make money, and, in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably more honorable to whore yourself out for Drudge links than to work for Rupert Murdoch or the Moonies.

So I don’t blame the people at the Politico for doing what they do, anymore than I blame the kids on “The Wire” for getting involved with the drug trade. People need to get paid. But when you read the Drudgite comments on Smith’s piece about Elie Wiesel, it’s a lot like watching Michael Lee shoot someone or Duquan shoot up.

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It’s too late to stop now

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I’m having a hard time mustering up my usual enthusiasm for ranting about all the stupidity out there on the internets today. The possibility of a decent health care reform bill just seems so much more important.

Now that it’s through the House, I can’t imagine that the Senate will drop the ball. We’re going to have a bill. No doubt it will fail to “bend the health care price curve” to Fred Hiatt’s and Ruth Marcus’s satisfaction. And no doubt it will be widely heralded as good news for conservatives. But getting access to health care for 30 million Americans matters a hell of a lot more than any of that.

Consider this an open thread.

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Kristol by the case

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No discussion of good news for conservatives is complete without mention of Jon Chait’s excellent compendium of Weekly Standard good news proclamations from 2005-2008, which probably were — and this is no exaggeration — the most disastrous run of years for Republicans in modern political history. Most of it’s a twofer, because not only is it all good news for conservatives, it’s all contrarian good news for conservatives: “Everyone thinks that Bush’s low approval rating/McCain’s poor fund-raising and poll numbers/the American public’s dislike of Sarah Palin is bad for Republicans, but if you look beyond the conventional wisdom of our liberal media overlords, you may be surprised to learn…”

Chait makes a good point about the Standard relative to the National Review.

This sort of argument is actually the signature style of the Standard. A magazine like National Review specializes in making the case for conservative ideas. The Standard’s contribution is to assert over and over that Republicans are succeeding, or at least doing better than you think they are. The idea is to buck up your side and encourage them to keep fighting, in order to ward off the self-defeating psychology of losing.

I think another part of the idea is to get your smart-ass, nonsensical good news talking points repeated by Halperin et al. Nearly every example of Kristol hackery that Chait cites is just a more extreme version of stuff that pundits were saying at the time (Broder’s mythical Bush comeback, Halperin’s insistence Dems would get creamed in the 2006 midterms for example).

Most of the stuff I read on the Corner is not like this; frankly, a lot of it is just too weird to get picked up by mainstream media. The Cornerites write strange things because they believe strange things. Kristol is an unapologetic propagandist.

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Open Thread

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Simp, Aramona Beach, New Zealand. [Aoteroa Aotearoa indeed – ed.]

dunedin-dunes

Cay, Annecy, France.

annecy-france

Email me a link to your one or two favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put up favorites in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one.

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Tell me something good

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Word on the street is that Dems have the votes to get this whole health care huckleberry through the House tonight.

I know some of the amendments suck. But still, we’re one step closer to getting health insurance for tens of millions of Americans.

I have a hard time writing about health care reform without sounding sappy, so I’ll shut up and throw up a YouTube.

DougJ +5

Update. We are at 212.

Update 218!!!!

As recommended by a commenter, time 4:30 of this.

Update update. Maybe this is a link too far. But I don’t think so.

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