Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

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

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans don’t trust women.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

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

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

107Comments

  4. 4.

    Midnight Marauder

    Y’all are on your own again.

    I guess John Cole never campaigned on being an involved bloghost…

  7. 7.

    Origuy

    Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, and others are playing at the White House tonight as part of the celebration of the Civil Rights Movement.

    Watch it live.
    They just introduced Joan Baez.
    Wow.

  11. 11.

    scav

    @Origuy: oh thank you for letting me catch Joan Baez live, there, in that company. I don’t usually get all hopey changey but that would do it. Did. Thanks.

  14. 14.

    madmommy

    They’re having a little parade in NOLA tonight. Just the Saints and a few thousand of their closest friends. Biggest crowd I have ever seen for a parade. Ever.

  15. 15.

    schrodinger's cat

    We can has Tunch? Haven’t seen the great white one in a long time. Wonder what he is up to?

  18. 18.

    mr. whipple

    They just introduced Joan Baez.
    Wow.

    Obama invited a hippy?

    She better watch it, or he’ll punch her.

  20. 20.

    batgirl

    Ugh! I just found out that I work with a birther! I don’t think she has thought deeply on the issue. She probably just hangs out with people who question Obama’s citizenship. I told her that Obama was born in Hawaii, he has shown his birth certificate, and it has been certified. Maybe it will make a difference, maybe not.

    In other news, Diane Ravitch, conservative school reformer extraordinaire pushing for free market reforms, choice and testing for the last 30 years, has changed her fuckin’ mind! A little fuckin’ late. She has a new book coming out titled The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education

  22. 22.

    gbear

    Since yesterday, I’ve been having a really strange problem trying to read Balloon Juice. I cannot call up the home page. All I get is a blank white screen. The only way for me to get here is to google Balloon Juice for links to individual postings. I can read any of the individual postings, but if I try to go back to the main page, I’m screwed again. Anyone else having this problem? Anyone know why it’s happening?

    edit: I see I’m not the only victim.

  24. 24.

    Loneoak

    I’m making this for dinner tonight. It’s a bumper crop for chanterelles this season up in the Santa Cruz mountains. I have somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds of fresh picked wild shrooms on my kitchen table. Yesterday I found an entire grocery bag’s volume in about 5 sq. feet.

  27. 27.

    debit

    @gbear: I’ve had no issues with either my Macbook and Firefox 3.5.7 or my iphone and Safari. Dunno what’s going on, but I guess it’s not just you.

  28. 28.

    demkat620

    Ugh, waiting for the additional 12-24 inches to hit here in SEPA.

    My husband is stuck out of town so the dog and I have the bed to ourselves.

    And my office is closed tomorrow, which I like.

  31. 31.

    HRA

    The problem I have is if I make a comment then I can’t get back to the home page at home or at work.

  32. 32.

    debit

    I recently found out my dog is a spoiled little princess. The shelter’s founder, Linda, did a follow up call to see how Chloe was doing. I mentioned her reluctance to eat dry food. Linda laughed and said at her first foster family, Chloe perfected the sorrowful look when presented with food she didn’t like. The upshot? She got bacon and eggs for every breakfast.

    Sadly for her, she doesn’t get people food at my house. Still gives me that look anyway. Then she goes to her dish, fishes out the kibble she doesn’t like and goes “pleh” as she spits them out on the floor. Brat.

  35. 35.

    Max

    Watching Hardball on the dvr and I’ve just got to say..

    Fuck all you Tweety haters! Chris is the only one out there slapping down the right-wing nutjobs. Keith and Rachel should take a lesson from him. He’s telling it like it is, not in a mocking or sarcastic manner. Chris is on fire.

  36. 36.

    CaseyL

    @Loneoak: OMG that looks good. Cream of mushroom is one of my favoritest things ever, and I’ve never ever had it made of self-picked wild shrooms. I’m sitting here wiping drool off my chin. Damn you!

    Tuesday is becoming my main TV night: NCIS, NCIS:LA (which I’m actually kind of lukewarm about, but usually watch it anyway, through inertia), White Collar and The Good Wife are all on. White Collar and The Good Wife unfortunately are on at the same time. It’s an easy choice: I watch White Collar now and The Good Wife tomorrow on On Demand. (On Demand makes it very hard to hate Comcast ).

    Oh, and tomorrow I start a short-term contract job, helping a local business set up a wiki. Wish me luck, y’all: it’s my first time working with MediaWiki, which I’ve been trying to teach myself by reading Barrett’s book and watching YouTube tutorials.

  37. 37.

    D-Chance.

    It’s official: Anyone who uses the term “snowpocalypse” should be punched in the neck AND jewel-kicked… took less than a week for that term to jump the frozen shark.

  38. 38.

    debit

    @Max: I agree he’s been great lately, great enough that I’ve started watching again if I get home in time.

    However, you have to remember that Tweety doesn’t care about right or wrong, good or bad. Tweety cares about winning and who is on top. When he slams Palin, it’s because he see her as a loser, as stupid and showing it. The next time Tom Delay issues a statement that Tweety thinks is a winning talking point, he’ll be back on Hardball for a 45 minute Matthews patented ball washing.

  39. 39.

    madmommy

    @South of I-10:

    No, between it being freezing-ass cold, an hour drive to get there, insane crowd size, who knows how long to get home, and a school night, we took a pass.

    I’ve been watching it on the telly though! My husband said at 4 this afternoon the traffic was at a dead stop 8 miles from the southbound end of the Causeway and all the way through Metairie to the Interstate. This is way bigger than any Mardi Gras crowd I’ve ever seen!

  40. 40.

    Svensker

    @gbear:

    Both of them need to find new careers as short story writers or painters.

    Second that emotion. Tom Waits’ voice make me run screaming for the exits with blood pouring out of my ears. I just refuse to listen to Dylan.

  42. 42.

    SIA

    @debit: Awww! My first dogs as an adult was a beautiful black lab named Chloe. What’s yours? I gave in to giving her people food for a while and she got sick. After that, no matter how forlorn she looked, it was dog food only.

  43. 43.

    getsmartin

    @madmommy:
    I watched it on telly as well and don’t regret skipping it. I had quite enough post Super Bowl revelry in the quarter Sunday night (slow recovery these days!).

  44. 44.

    MikeJ

    I’d much rather listen to Waits and Dylan than any autotuned no talent hack.

    I really like listening to both of them. They have voices that are appropriate for their songs. People who don’t like just ain’t got no soul.

  45. 45.

    Max

    @debit: Perhaps. I guess I see him as a 63-year old guy, who is proud of Obama and is totally dismayed at what is happening to his country.

    He loudly loathes Cheney(s) and Bush and Palin, so I’m willing to forgive him Tom Delay once in a while.

  46. 46.

    SIA

    @MikeJ: I deeply love Bob Dylan’s voice and lyrics. That will never change. Saw Tom Waits at a small club in Athens GA many years ago, and he lived up every expectation.

  47. 47.

    debit

    @SIA: My Chloe is a 9 year old rescue Jack Russell/Sheltie mix. We think. Crappy iphone pic here: http://yfrog.com/1y77nj I actually think Jack Russell/ spaniel of some sort. She’s got the speckles on her coat and the feathers on her legs.

    I loooooove black labs. Was actually thinking about one, since (before Chloe) my plan had been to get a jogging/biking partner. Now I’m pricing out dog panniers. Heh. (ETA: for my bike, not her. Panniers on her would have to be very tiny and could maybe carry a can of soda.)

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Sadly, I don’t get Showtime. Or HBO, for that matter. Generally it doesn’t trouble me, but every now and then I sadz out on it.

    Speaking of Valentino, I believe I saw something a week or two ago that for the first time in decades — DECADES, I tell you! — the mysterious figure who annually leaves flowers at his tomb didn’t show up this year.

    Also too, I loves me some Michelle Obama, but I really can’t stomach Larry King, so am just skipping that interview. Found out too late that FLOTUSMO was on Lehrer PBS tonight. Will try to track that down.

  50. 50.

    kay

    @Max:

    I haven’t watched Rachel Maddow in a while, but she’s doing something…interesting to Ron Paul.

    She just got him to admit that the tea partiers have been “infiltrated” by “the neocons”.

  51. 51.

    SIA

    @Max: Matthews often drives me crazy and is too influenced as debit said by whoever he last talked to.

    However, I like his weird nicknames for people; as I mentioned earlier, “hermit crabs” and “empty vessels” for Palin & W, and I love that he always calls Cheney a “troll”. Heh.

  56. 56.

    freelancer

    I’m waiting for answers to WTF? questions about the parallel universe right now.

    ETA – Oh and Cole, I hate you now. I gave in and watched the first two eps of Chuck on XBL last night, and now I own both seasons on DVD. Could this site inspire more time-sinks?

  57. 57.

    Max

    @kay: When Rachel is interviewing, she’s good, if she loses the snark. Sometimes, she’s too cute by half. I also can’t erase the “HOOVERISM” debacle with Jared Berstein. It really make me lose interest in her.

    She’d be a great host of MTP.

    I dvr Hardball everyday, and watch most of the segments each evening. I only watch Keith or Rachel if I happen upon it, or I see on Twitter there was an interesting segment.

    Maybe that says more about me than them. I’m finding I’m more of a moderate than I thought I was. Or maybe not moderate, I don’t know what to call it, but whatever Obama is, I’m that. I find his management style and policies line up with my thinking more and more each day.

    I want to point out that I specifically say “management” style, rather than leadership. I think management is more important. Leadership is an arbitrary term (IMO) and while I am officially the “Leader” of my team, it’s the “Manager” in my title that I think its most important.

    But, I’m an O-bot, what do I know.

  59. 59.

    madmommy

    @getsmartin:

    No kidding! I was partying in my living room and still felt like hammered shit the next day. But it was all worth it. I just can’t drink and carry on like that like I used to!

  60. 60.

    rootless_e

    there’s another thread

    @max – I’m so tired of the Clinton/Bush era of emoting. With Obama you get the sense that he is working on his job, not working out his emotional issues.

  64. 64.

    gogol's wife

    I assume John is watching the documentary about the designer Valentino, not the actor Rudolph?

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @gogol’s wife #64: Oh! LOL! I never even thought of the designer Valentino, only of the film star Rudolph Valentino (as witness my comment at #49, which I now realise must sound daft).

    New rule: No two famous people may ever have the same name.

  72. 72.

    cat48

    @Max:

    I never miss Tweety. I don’t agree with him 100%, but he is definitely pro-Obama which is comforting once a day. Ed, Keith, and Rach seem more inclined to go full blown negative on Obama most days. Hell, I can see that on Fox. I know he’s not “progressive” enough for them, but nobody’s perfect. I never thought he seemed all that progressive, whatever that means to them.

  73. 73.

    AntKat

    I haven’t been able to read this site all day. Someone at Daily Kos advised posting a comment, so here it is. Hope it does the trick :D

  74. 74.

    getsmartin

    @South of I-10:
    Super Bowl hangovers are actually pretty sweet when your team prevails, right?

    Here are a few pics pre and post game in the city (click here). I missed a lot of photo ops, but I’m not very adept at quaffing and shooting simultaneously.

  75. 75.

    WaterGirl

    @jeffreyw: You are the only person I’ve ever seen that serves rice with chili – except for my family. Very happy to see rice in that picture.

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: So glad to hear about your contract job, even if it is short term. Yah! No need for luck, it’s gonna go great.

    Edit: completely agree with your TV choices. You know white collar airs at multiple times, right?

  79. 79.

    South of I-10

    @getsmartin: That was a freakin’ sweet hangover. I assumed everyone at work would feel like I did, so I stopped on my way and picked up biscuits and a king cake, which made me very popular. My husband is watching the replay of the game right now on NFL network. He has rewound and watched the interception about 5 times.

  81. 81.

    kay

    @Max:

    When Rachel is interviewing, she’s good

    It’s a great question. Why don’t the teabaggers follow Ron Paul?

    Let’s face it, he’s the granddaddy of teabaggerdom. He was on this way before Sarah Palin, who clearly gave not a rat’s ass for populism or libertarian-leaning conservatism when she was running her scam in Alaska, before she went national.

    Well, Ron Paul answered that.

    Because they’re neoconservatives, and he’s not.

    Do they know that, yet? That they’re signing on with that crowd?

  84. 84.

    Nick

    I laughed today while reading this article in Rolling Stone about how Obama is paying the price for muzzling his attack dogs…a.k.a. the blogsphere. There really is no explanation about how he did that, except Rahm yelled at them for attacking Lieberman and Nelson (cause, you know, the blogs have influence over them!). I almost had to call a WAAAAAMBULANCE! For chrissakes, MoveOn.org has been having demonstrations in front of Senators and Representatives’ offices for months, Rahm or not, and nobody’s been showing up! I’ve been there, where was everyone else? They’re too busy whining Rahm isn’t licking their asses.

    My favorite quote was at the end.

    “I can’t say that we would have health care reform,” said [Markos] Moulitsas. “But people wouldn’t be so demoralized. We’d have an engaged base still willing to fight for that change. And I tell you what; We would not have lost Ted Kennedy’s seat”

    OMG, the delusion! it burns!
    Ok, so, if only we had allowed Markos to slap around Lieberman a little more, Coakley would’ve won? Really? Dissing Fenway and all?
    And you can’t say we would have healthcare reform? Why the fuck would I agree to a strategy that the person proposing it to me isn’t confident that it’ll work.

    This isn’t about passing healthcare reform, it’s about being relevant. They don’t care about issues, like all political beings, they only care about power.

  85. 85.

    Anne Laurie

    @debit:

    My Chloe is a 9 year old rescue Jack Russell/Sheltie mix. We think. Crappy iphone pic here: http://yfrog.com/1y77nj I actually think Jack Russell/ spaniel of some sort. She’s got the speckles on her coat and the feathers on her legs.

    How big is your Chloe? If she’s under 20lbs, she may actually be part Papillon (aka “squirrel spaniel”). Not saying these guys are the BEST at the poor-little-me routine, but the British breed specs back in the 80s actually said “A good Papillon should have a ‘melting’ expression, and any dog that lacks this should be penalized”.

  86. 86.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl:

    You know white collar airs at multiple times, right?

    No, but it wouldn’t make a difference in which show I watched first; it would still be White Collar. No doubt The Good Wife is more highbrow, but White Collar: a) brings the male pretty like whoa; b) has a wife character who is very far from completely useless and clueless; c) has terrific secondary and tertiary characters; and d) did I mention the male pretty?

    And NCIS was pretty darned good. Not the most interesting or suspenseful episode, but – speaking of male pretty – Trent Dilfer, whose Damon Werth has been in three episodes, is just too wonderful for words. I’d love it if they could make him a regular somehow, but I don’t see how – unless he gets together with Ziva, with whom he has incendiary chemistry.

  95. 95.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    I always feel so guilty, because the site works perfectly for me. I never even had that many WordPress errors.

  98. 98.

    seatown

    @wasabi gasp: I’ve been thinking all week that the servers were buried under snow – so glad I did a post search! /index.htm is the only one working for me as well.

  100. 100.

    Mark

    Can I get lies of Newt Gingrich for $100?

    On John Stewart tonight, he claimed that the reason Richard Reid was Mirandized was because…he was an American citizen.

  101. 101.

    debit

    @Anne Laurie: She’s 14 pounds and a tiny bit portly; foster family believed in people food, but not in walks. That is so interesting about the Papillion. I always assumed their cuteness magic was in the ears.

  102. 102.

    chopper

    snowmagideon time!

    so we have some snow in NYC. meh. (puts on glasses, grabs swattin’ cane) i remember back in 78, in chicago we got 5 feet in the blizzard! and gale-force winds! 60 below with the wind chill! you easterners are like a cheddy brat, poke you once and it all oozes out.

  105. 105.

    Tom Hilton

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I never even thought of the designer Valentino, only of the film star Rudolph Valentino

    Me too. I thought it sounded intriguing until it turned out it’s just about some designer.

    New rule: No two famous people may ever have the same name.

    Or: nobody I haven’t heard of gets to use the same name as anyone I have heard of.

    Better still: no new celebrities, period. The ones I’m aware of are already way too numerous.

  106. 106.

    Donald G

    Sorry folks, I’ve got to post another useless comment to see if I can fix the problem again. I made the mistake of closing the browser to test something before coming back.

Comments are closed.