Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

This blog will pay for itself.

Everybody saw this coming.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

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

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Books are my comfort food!

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

We still have time to mess this up!

He really is that stupid.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

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

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Senyordave

    OT, but I just read this at Sullivan’s site:

    Tea Party Nation has received hundreds of requests for press credentials to cover this convention. Everyone from a small town newspaper in Iowa to Fox News has asked for press credentials. We have had requests from Canada, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Croatia and Japan. We have been hard pressed to accommodate all of these requests and do not have the space or resources to support the entirety of the press corp. Indeed, we have asked the hotel if they would be willing to provide a press room during the convention. However, given these practical limitations, we have approved the following press organizations:

    Fox News

    Breitbart.com

    Townhall.com

    The Wall Street Journal

    World Net Daily

    So the Tea Party convention is giving press credentials to the completely bat shit crazy people at World Net Daily?

    And the people at FDL think they have commonality with the Tea Partiers? When the Tea Party takes over, the folks at FDL will be the first to be sent to the re-education camps!

  3. 3.

    asiangrrlMN

    Awwww, TUNCHIE! I don’t think it quite compares to the original, however. I need a pic of Tunch so I can do a quantitative and qualitative analysis.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    That is awesome! It should go on mugs as well. In particularly challenging meetings one could just turn the mug so Tunch eyes the other attendees. That’ll whip them into shape!

  16. 16.

    Amaliada

    Though I’m on a fixed income (social security) and don’t agree with everything you say (hell, I don’t agree with everything I think!) – this is something I would proudly buy and wear.

    Get better and get cracking!

  17. 17.

    bartkid

    Given all the photos of Tunch sleeping, I recommend the captions “Giant” or “Obey” instead.

  25. 25.

    Libby

    Most awesome tshirt logo ever. I’d go out and panhandle to get one.

    Belated sympathy on your shoulder. Yikes. Hope it heals really fast.

  32. 32.

    Josie

    I would definitely wear a Tunch t shirt – love those big, cuddly cats. On a different note, I am fairly new to the site, but I am blown away by John Cole’s obsessive dedication to blogging. After he decided to take a vacation and then severely injured himself, he has posted 12 or 13 times in the last 24 hours. John, you are my new blogging hero! I do hope you take good care of yourself and feel better soon.

    Josie

  34. 34.

    chopper

    i’m surprised noone has come up with any ‘tunch has a posse’ shirts yet. 1’13”, 250lbs, etc etc.

  35. 35.

    Demo Woman

    Would you consider the picture of Tunch on the front of the tee also? What a great idea!!!!!

  36. 36.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Edmonton. You know you’re in Canada when 90 percent of the ESPN sportscenter is full of NHL highlights. The money is so much cooler than ours. Also. Too.

  37. 37.

    beltane

    @Libby: She must have insurance because she once posted her BC/BS statement when they refused to pay for an out of network doctor. Maybe she doesn’t realize that millions of Americans don’t have the luxury of seeing any doctor at all, network or no network.

  38. 38.

    valdivia

    Loves it! Can we haz tshirts nao?

    OT–I just heard that one of my very good friends who works for UNICEF in Panama is now coordinating efforts in Haiti. Apparently it is even more hellish than we can imagine. Please keep her and all other workers and Haitians in your prayers.

  39. 39.

    asiangrrlMN

    @beltane: I thought she must have insurance, too (especially considering she’s been treated for breast cancer three times). As does, of course, Howard Dean. Because if one has health insurance, one can be as ideologically-pure on the issue as one would like. It’s easy to say kill the bill when one doesn’t have to worry about how the bill being killed would affect his/herself. It’s the same as voting for Nader in 2000 (full disclosure, I voted for him in 1996 after Clinton had secured reelection) because Gore and Bush ‘were the same’. Most of the people I know who were voting for Nader wouldn’t have been personally affected by the changes the W. regime wrought.

    And, MOAR TUNCH!

    P.S. On the front of the shirt, can we have a pic of Lily in her coat and booties? Perhaps cradled in your arms?

  41. 41.

    Libby

    @beltane: Easy to demand the perfect when you’re already insured and I suspect Jane has enough money that she’ll never be priced out of coverage. The debate takes on a whole new meaning when you don’t have insurance. Just saw a FB update from a friend who developed a serious medical problem. Quite suddenly her husband was just dropped from the workplace group policy.

    I believe the current bill still makes that illegal. But let’s kill it because it has some stuff that isn’t perfect. And dare I say, taking that position gets you lots of face time on the teevee? Makes me sad. I always thought liberals put the common good over their own interests.

  45. 45.

    Karen

    I’ve already bought a cup from the Mudflats site. You sell t-shirts with Tunch, I’ll buy one.

    I have a German shepherd, who would try to play with Tunch, but would indeed back off once the claws come out. She does it with my cat.

  55. 55.

    Ash Can

    LOL! I love it too! Although the caption that immediately comes to my mind is “Tunch…thinks you suck.”

  59. 59.

    arguingwithsignposts

    This is contest-worthy, imho. Cole could take submissions, and then the minions could vote on the final catch phrases for the t-shirt.

    What else is he going to do but bitch about the Jane Hamshers of the left while he’s healing up?

  61. 61.

    VladCat

    Damn John. We need to pitch in and get you a Morphine pump. Just don’t let Tunch near the button or he’ll have you sedated for a week.

    I’ll take a hoodie of that please. Can you send that to CafePress or something so I can get one next week?

  62. 62.

    Gus

    Wonderful how well they captured the “what the fuck are you looking at?” expression of Tunch’s.

  64. 64.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Annie:
    Smudge is *always* on vacation. :)

    And this is a business trip, not a vacation for me. Although it’s always good to be around canadian sensibilities. last night after i got in, the first conversation i had was with a college student who was amazed at how f**ked our conservative politicians were. He knew more about american politics than most people i interact with on a daily basis. Also was amazed about the health care debate.

  65. 65.

    kay

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I thought she must have insurance, too (especially considering she’s been treated for breast cancer three times).

    This is an incredibly unpopular sentiment, but I think people who have had a really tragic and (somewhat) exceptional experience are the worst policy drivers. Hamsher’s experience is valuable, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for the norm.
    If you look at some of the most draconian and inane criminal laws, they’re always inspired by the “bad case”. All you need is one high-profile sex offender case and you end up with 25 year sex offender reporting requirements for a 19 year old who dates a 16 year old.
    You can’t base policy on your experience. It can inform your view, but if you’re legislating based on anecdote, no matter how heartbreaking, you’re going to end up with a lot of unintended consequences.

  66. 66.

    Senyordave

    Bhall35,

    Just bear in mind that this is the Washington Examiner, a “newspaper” that isn’t exactly know for its unbiased reporting.

  67. 67.

    machine

    Time to attempt a photochop of Tunch’s head on Jabba’s body in that throne room scene w/ Leia (Lily?) in the steel bikini.

  69. 69.

    Annie

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    LOL. I know how you feel. I have heard from former students and colleagues abroad re: the health care debate. They can’t believe the level of discourse here, and the amount of misinformation and nastiness, particularly regarding health care in other countries.

    Enjoy your trip and don’t work too hard!

  71. 71.

    Bhall35

    @Senyordave: Yeah yeah, I know, but believe me, here in Massachusetts, the gloom is palpable. Brown said it is not “Kennedy’s seat, it’s the people’s seat,” but believe me, this is one scalp that the Republicans have wanted for decades, and they’ll be happy to take it posthumously. They will be insufferable, and will have no problem describing it as “Kennedy’s seat” when they win it.

    I hope I’m wrong, but I think this is over. I know the dynamics of a special election are not really predictive either.

    But man, she really ran a shitty campaign. I mean, we haven’t sent a Republican to the Senate since ’72. How the F is it even this close?

  74. 74.

    Mike from DC

    That image certainly captures Tunch’s certain “je ne sais quoi”. He also sorta looks like he’s about to pay Boba Fett for Han Solo encased in carbonite.

  76. 76.

    Bhall35

    @PanAmerican: Nobody hopes you’re right more than me, I’m just expressing a legitimate worry based on everything I’ve seen, read, and heard over the last 2 weeks. I remember the Senate elections here since the 80’s, and there is always some traditional Democratic last minute panic, but this is different. This is not garden variety concern trolling.

  80. 80.

    Senyordave

    BHall35,

    What is depressing to me is when I read about Brown he sounds like a complete idiot, almost Palinesque in his lack of understanding policy. He want a large across-the-board tax cut? So instead of a $400 billion structural deficit, we’ll have a $600 billion structural deficit.

    Coakley sounds like a bad candidate, but Brow seems to be a total lightweight. At least in the past when Mass elected Republicans they were intelligent people.

    I took it for granted that the people of Mass would not vote for someone like Brown.

    By the way, wasn’t Mitt Romney once pro-choice?

  82. 82.

    jwb

    @Bhall35: We’ll see. Personally, given the nature of this sort of race, which will be highly dependent on turnout, I wouldn’t be surprised either way. But it really does depend greatly on how the GOTV efforts go.

  85. 85.

    Brien Jackson

    I think this might be a good candidate for Craziest Blog Post: Teabaggers are our Friends Genre.

    And yeah, um:

    Don’t listen to your leaders that tell you that liberals aren’t capitalists. That’s nonsense. We’re the real capitalists. Just like you, we don’t think the government should be in the business of handing out taxpayer money to people who didn’t earn it

    Way to go blowing those right-wing dog whistles Cenk.

  88. 88.

    Bhall35

    @Senyordave:

    What is depressing to me is when I read about Brown he sounds like a complete idiot, almost Palinesque in his lack of understanding policy.

    Exactly. His op-ed in the Globe yesterday was absurd. But those Palinesque qualities are what scare me the most…if he can get elected here, then everything we know about her chances of getting elected to higher office is wrong. These two should be appearing on the tops of wedding cakes, for fuck’s sake, not treated seriously as public policy thinkers.

    Again, the only caveat is that the dynamics of a special election are different, and the animus toward Kennedy in certain circles feels like it is being played out here in some sort of public exorcism. They see a chance to do what they couldn’t when the man was alive.

    And yes, Romney changed several of his positions once he got out of the state and ran for president. You still have to at least pretend you’re a moderate to get elected here.

  89. 89.

    GregB

    BHall35,

    Bear in mind that is Byron York. The Democrat he’s talking to is probably Lieberman looking to depress the base.

    If the Democrats lose this one though, it’s gonna be a long few years to 2012.

    Anecdotally, I have never seen so many stand up comedians coming out to endorse a politician as I have with Brown.

    Boston comedy legends Steve Sweeney and Lenny Clark as well as a few others have put their endorsements out there.

    Very strange stuff indeed.

    -G

  92. 92.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Neither Janet nor Tunch is very intimidating. Drudge inferred that Janet is a lesbian with that picture of Janet drooling juxtaposed against the picture of the hottie with the airport-scanner image so I consulted DIVA Lesbian Magazine as to be fair. This is what the magazine has quoted a Washington insider as saying:

    Is Napolitano a lesbian? ‘She has to be,’ said the source.

    In any case, I am not a big fan of Chertoff, but if Chertoff walked into a room to interrogate me, it would be scary. If either Janet or Tunch walked into a room to interrogate me, it would not be very scary at all.

  93. 93.

    YellowJournalism

    I see the awesome mug idea and raise you a Tunch pillow case.

    King size, of course.

    BTW, BoB made me think you should make a design that says, “Mmmm….I love pie.”

  94. 94.

    Bhall35

    @GregB:

    Boston comedy legends Steve Sweeney and Lenny Clark as well as a few others have put their endorsements out there.

    As reluctant as I am to pull out the misogyny card, those 2 are the northeastern equivalent of good old boys, no? If they are really listening to Brown’s policies and still think he’s fit for the office, then something else is at work there. Her unfavorables have skyrocketed in the last 2 weeks. The whole “Fenway Park” thing didn’t help either.

  96. 96.

    Dee Loralei

    I love that pic! Who’s the artist? Kudos to them . Yea John, you have some free down time, resting and recuperating and not posting and galt going and stuff look into a cafepress store.
    You haven’t run any ” A view from your couch” pics or rescue stories lately. Do those when you need an open thread/ break. There are stores online that print books to order so as soon as you get 50 or so really good ones you need to look into a bj book. And then you can add John Cole: Publisher to your cv. It’s a veritable BJ Empire sir.

    And if you’re bored, Netflix Instant. Starz has a gazillion new movies, or look under their British stuff, you can see Gina Bellman in Coupling or Jekyll. They have some Terri Pratchett stuff, blanking on name about an underground world, and the original totally cheesy HitchHikers Guide or watch the 6 hour original State of Play. There’s thousands of hours of things not political and not Haitian Earthquake.

  98. 98.

    Senyordave

    Surpises me to hear that Lenny Clark is a legend? My brother took me to a comedy club years ago in NJ as part of a birthday present, and Clark was the headliner. He was obviously somewhat drunk or stoned (probably both), occasionally funny, and pretty mean. Could tell he was probably funny when sober. Can’t imagine that a Lenny Clark endorsement would move the needle.

    Bottom line is that people in this country are f**king stupid, they want lower taxes and the same services. We have a huge structural deficit in this country caused by Bush and his GOP buddies. Things better be improved by midterm elections or the Democrats will get smoked. Because the GOP will promise a tax cut as a panacea, and most Americans don’t understand that if they had elected McCain we probably would have had 13% unemployment, and no growth in 2009 fourth quarter.

  102. 102.

    canuckistani

    I would never wear that on a t-shirt.
    Unless Tunch himself commanded it, in which case I would be afraid to disobey.

  103. 103.

    ilsita

    That is wickid. I’m actually really, honestly jealous. I think I have to go meditate or something…

  109. 109.

    licensed to kill time

    I love this, too! Totally want one.

    Don’t you think this image is a natural for the “Obey” logo?

    Maybe you can get Shepard Fairey interested…since no doubt there would be a copyright issue.

    ETA: shoot, of course someone (SGEW) got there before me.

  111. 111.

    Paul in KY

    schrodinger’s cat, I think the title would be ‘Couchman’ for Tunch. ‘Chairman’ just doesn’t hold up :-)

  116. 116.

    canuckistani

    Unlike Schrodinger’s cat, no mere radiation can kill Tunchzilla. It only makes him stronger and angrier.

  120. 120.

    Anne Laurie

    @Punchy:

    I dont get it. Why is he watching?

    Contemplating whether to torture you slowly to death, or just sit on you and squash you flat, vermin.

    Be afraid… be very afraid.

  121. 121.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Last night there were a lot of us from various parts of the country (or planning to travel) beginning to make plans for Balloon Juice get-togethers. We could spare all ourselves the sartorial awkwardness of pink shirts and black leather jackets if we all just bought t-shirts with the Balloon logo on the front and Tunchie on the back.

  123. 123.

    Delia

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    We could spare all ourselves the sartorial awkwardness of pink shirts and black leather jackets if we all just bought t-shirts with the Balloon logo on the front and Tunchie on the back.

    This is very true. Although I suspect I’m the only person in my town who would join.

  124. 124.

    metalgirl

    I want t-shirts and mugs. John, you could have a thread to estimate the order size & collect the money in advance and then have them produced here:
    Cafe Press. I’m sure there’s a better way to do it but maybe this will get you thinking in the right direction (or get someone else to post a better approach). I love wearing my DailyKos shirt on special occasions when I know I will piss off a conservative :)

    Sincere wishes for a speedy recovery and lots of effective meds or booze (not both at the same time) in the mean time :)

  125. 125.

    Lesley

    It’s nice, but I think a photo of Tunch would be better. Like the one you have on your Twitter site. Nothing compares to the real Tunch.

  126. 126.

    ChrisNBama

    I want one of those Tunch shirts when they come out! That is the most badass cat I’ve ever seen. Those half lidded eyes send icy chills up my spine!

  128. 128.

    Evelyn

    Oh hey, I’m so glad people like this. I made this drawing at my dad’s behest who is a little obsessed with Tunch. As are we all, I think. :)

  129. 129.

    Tax Analyst

    I’m seeing “Tunch as Big Brother” (1984).

    “Long Live Big Tunch(er)” (?)

    If that cat looked at me like that I’d say 2+2 was whatever the fuck he wanted it to be.

  131. 131.

    Lesley

    Heh, wouldn’t it be awesome if Tunch’s wicked yellow eyes followed you?

    I’m visualizing an ornately framed portrait in oils on the wall over a staircase. Very Agatha Christie.

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