Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

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Reader Interactions

96Comments

  2. 2.

    Libby

    LOL. Just saw it on twitter. Knew you’d be not so cranky tonight. :) I’m happy too. Think that’s the only part of my bracket that isn’t in smoldering ruins.

  4. 4.

    fasteddie9318

    My Pitt-alum father must be crapping bricks right about now. Time to call him. Congrats to WVU!

  6. 6.

    4jkb4ia

    Big East, John!

    This has been an absolutely, positively wonderful day.

    If Kentucky had won today I didn’t trust anyone else out there to stop them except maybe Baylor.

  11. 11.

    jwb

    “Jay Bilas was insufferable the entire second half.” If you think that was insufferable, just wait until WV plays Duke.

  14. 14.

    MikeJ

    REPEAL!
    Of course had KY won it would have been repealed when the NCAA finally got around to looking at recruiting.

  16. 16.

    Tom Q

    Big congratulations, John.

    I’m born in WV myself (though gone since age 3), so I’ll take some reflected pleasure. And knowing Jim Bunning goes to bed sad gives me a further boost.

  17. 17.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @jwb:

    WVU completely outplayed the Cats tonight.

    Yes they did. The blitze of three pointers by WV in first half unraveled these frosh for one of the few times this season.

  20. 20.

    sbjules

    Even if I hadn’t wanted West Virginia to win, Jay Bilas would have driven me to back them. He was insufferable. Go Mountaineers.

  21. 21.

    Josh Huaco

    @gizmo:

    I don’t know if Baylor can go all the way, but damn it was fun watching them put that mouthy pissant Samhan in his place. The only thing missing was pancakes.

  22. 22.

    RSR

    woo hoo!

    Had to not visit here for a couple hours as I was watching delayed.

    BTW, today is the 40th birthday of a good buddy, WVU grad, and overall good guy. I imagine it’s special.

    Enjoy ‘Eers everywhere!

  25. 25.

    Dee Loralei

    Congrats John. Sorry Stuck. And my beloved Sooners didn’t even make it to the NIT this year, so rub it in, y’all. Is it football season yet?

    Anyone know a good round up of today’s Galtemont?

  26. 26.

    Splitting Image

    Man, my bracket sucks. I had West Virginia winning today, but from here out I’m depending on exactly one team (Duke) to pick up the only three wins I can still get.

    I might as well cheer for Butler or Tennessee from here out, just because they’re the underdogs at this point. Or whichever cheerleading squad has the best uniforms.

    Big congrats to everyone who picked Northern Iowa over Kansas and Ohio over Georgetown. Those were the two that really wrecked my bracket.

  28. 28.

    madmommy

    My west and midwest brackets are burst, but I have W Virginia and Duke getting through in the east and south. But given how things have gone thus far, I’m starting to get a Baylor vibe. Should the Dookies be worried???

  30. 30.

    Comrade Luke

    I’m on the Gonzaga bulletin board debating with people who adamantly state that Gonzaga has had Final Four talent eight of the last ten year, but didn’t make it to the Final Four (or Elite Eight, but there I go nitpicking again) due to matchups and bad luck.

    I’m a GU alum. I feel like I’m arguing with firebaggers about HCR.

  31. 31.

    apocalipstick

    So sad that John Wall fouled out of the final game of his storied Kentucky career.

    The Wildcats should be grateful. This saves them the embarrassment of a “vacated” Final Four berth.

    Congrats to WVU. Good, hard game; they deserved every bit of that win.

  32. 32.

    Bootlegger

    First 21 points on treys. UK 0-20 before hitting a couple of late treys. And the free-throw shooting. That was indeed a perfect storm.

    So who’s that handsome lad leading the Balloon Juice pool? Someone from Kentucky, mayhaps, who would never pick the ‘Cats to win a cornhole tournament at the special olympics.

  35. 35.

    Bootlegger

    @apocalipstick: That’s pretty damned funny. The NBA should pay for their own fucking minor league and leave that money in higher ed where it belongs.

  37. 37.

    Montysano

    @Mike Kay:

    Biggest upset since Obama beat Hillary in the primaries.

    Well…. WVU was the #2 seed.

    As a Hoosier, I’m thrilled to see Butler make it. A WVU vs. Butler final would be a great game.

  38. 38.

    gbear

    @Dee Loralei:

    I tried to check back in at the Kos link, but there’s so much crap in the comments that my IE crashes every time I go there. I don’t want to bother with MSM sources.

  39. 39.

    Ed in NJ

    So glad to see UK go down. It’s a travesty of the sport that 60% of their starting 5 are leaving school as projected lottery picks in the draft next year after completing one semester of college.

    As previously stated, it sucks that I have to root for a team coached by Huggins. But WV has been my second favorite team in the Big East for years.

  41. 41.

    Tokyokie

    I turned off the game at halftime. Seeing as WV hadn’t scored a single 2-point field goal, I figured they’d been lucky to stay in it and that UK would roll in the second half. When I turned the radio back on and heard “12-point lead, 4:xx to play,” I figured that was exactly what happened. And when I heard that the Mountaineers were leading, I started whooping (then explaining to the spousal unit what a cheating scumbag Calipari is) and let the spousal unit go into the grocery store by herself as I listened to the end. Congrats, John!

    And Dee Loralei, glad to see there’s another Sooners fan in here! Looking forward to the spring game.

  42. 42.

    Comrade Luke

    Oh goodie.

    Some 2,000 enthusiastic people rallied Saturday on the steps of the state Capitol in a rock star-style reception to support state Attorney General Rob McKenna in his battle against a new health reform law.

    ha. The other Seattle paper is reporting far fewer.

    Hundreds of people turned out Saturday to show their support for state Attorney General Rob McKenna and his decision to join a lawsuit with a dozen other states trying to overturn sweeping federal health care legislation.

    The State Patrol estimated that 850 people rallied at the State Capitol in Olympia. The Tea Party rally came a day after a smaller demonstration urged McKenna to drop his participation in the lawsuit, which many legal experts describe as frivolous political posturing.

    I wonder how many actually showed up…

    blockquote fail – that last paragraph up there should be in the quote.

  45. 45.

    p.a.

    congrats to WVU. Mazulla went to my goddaughters’ highschool. the town could make ‘the jersey shore’ look like the algonquin roundtable. if acrylic nails and bondo were outlawed, it would dry up and blow away. the mayoral elections were nonpartisan, with the contenders listed alphabetically. Ralph Russo changed his name to aRusso to get to the top of the list, and won. one of his later opponents added aa to his last name to get ahead of Ralph (but lost).

  46. 46.

    Dee Loralei

    @Ed in NJ: I live in Memphis and watched Calipari coached teams for years. He can recruit, but he can never keep any of his really good players for very long before they go pro. ( And he’s an asshole and he cheats, why the fuck did anyone hire him?!) But I think it must be part of his recruiting speil. Work with me a season, two max and you’ll be worth millions more in the draft or lottery. He has no long term strategical thinking or team building. ( He must be a Republican ) He only wants stars and doesn’t give a damn beyond this weeks game, this season, whatever. Not a team coach. Apparantly it was the same way before he got to UofM.

    LOL, but I’m an Oklahoma alumn, so take my basketball knowledge with many salt grains.

    GBear, yea I went back there and waded in a bit, but didn’t want to read the entire comment section. I just want a few high/low lights, a summation, crowd numbers and maybe a few pics of signs etc. I’m sure some blog I read will have something tomorrow.

  47. 47.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Luke: Read the comments in the article. The Democrat responders sound like they’re using their brains, the teabaggers scream out Glenn Beck talking points. Funny part is Centralia and Longview aren’t that far away from Olympia, the crowd should have been much larger. Good on Gregoire for not funding this mishegas though.

  48. 48.

    Something Polish

    I’d give anything to be at The Tailgaiter right now. Assuming it’s still around.

  49. 49.

    Dee Loralei

    @Tokyokie: YAY Tokyokie! Soonergrunt is a transplant, not sure he went to OU, but he seems reasonable and smart anyway LOL. Lots of Big 12 fans on this board though so we can talk plenty of smack in the fall.

    I still get back to Norman a few times a year, try to have lunch at the Greek House at least once a year, still the best gyros evah! And a beer at the Mont. ( Have some family in podunk, OK.)

  50. 50.

    BruinKid

    And Kentucky thus can’t made headway into cutting into UCLA’s lead of 11 NCAA championships in men’s basketball. :-)

  52. 52.

    Mac from Oregon

    I wanna know what Mazulla had written on the back of his arms. Looked like Sarah Palin’s play book, but who could read it?

  54. 54.

    Dee Loralei

    @gbear: Thanks, so basically they doubled the size of Searchlight. For a few hours. On a Saturday afternoon.

    Um……., isn’t that what happens in Lincoln everytime the Cornhuskers have a home game?

  59. 59.

    Dee Loralei

    @The Grand Panjandrum: I know that and I knew it held more souls than did Lincoln proper and surpassed it in population on gamedays. That’s why my comment was so pointed and funny about the teabagger rally in little teeny tiny Searchlight, Nevada. And why I accentuated the Saturday afternoon :-P.

  61. 61.

    Yutsano

    @gbear: I think that’s called “hedging”. Also known as wimping out. Of course the NYT is only good for bird linings anymore anyway.

  63. 63.

    Phoenix Woman

    So Duke’s the last #1 seed left, eh?

    Didn’t somebody try to do Sabermetrics for basketball recently? Apparently there’s some hot new stat that teams like WVU and Northern Iowa (and a bunch of teams that didn’t make it to the dance) had good numbers in, but Kansas and Georgetown didn’t, and that’s supposedly why this year’s tourney has been full of the sound of top seeds dropping.

  64. 64.

    gizmo

    Bilas truly sucks. Sports announcers like him are deeply invested in the notion of #1 seeds winning, because they think that is what sells Budweiser and Viagra commercials for their network. Asshole.

  65. 65.

    Libby

    @4jkb4ia: Ha! I’m surely no genius. Just checked my bracket. This game was my last little flicker of win. I’m at 177 in the rankings so I didn’t even make my goal of top 100. Don’t think I’ve ever done worse in a pool.

    OTOH, last year when was I in this pool, I did really well. Pole sitting the whole series. It balances. And next year, think I’ll fill out my bracket sooner than the last 15 min before it closes and I’ll skip the collosal hangover. Might help…

  66. 66.

    jl

    WV beat KY, so that almost makes up for what those mean mountain boys did to poor widdle Washington. I might almost be able to root for them.

    I guess next WV will play Duke or the evil Baylor what whupped St. Mary’s.

    OK, go E’ers (?) or whatever I am supposed to call them.

    E’ers? Is that right?

    Go Mountaineers!

  67. 67.

    Bill Murray

    @Dee Loralei: Calipari donated $1000 to Joe Lieberman and $2000 to GW Bush in 2004. He also gave $2000 (half of which was returned) to Fred Thompson and $2000 to Harold Ford. He also gave $450 to Steve Cohen a Democratic congressman from Memphis. He also sent Obama a UK basketball jersey with Obama’s name on it.

    This would seem to indicate that Coach Cal is more opportunist than partisan

  68. 68.

    Dee Loralei

    @Bill Murray: What I meant when I said he must be Republican was more about his coaching style, as I see it. No long term strategy for team-building, only in it for the most short term wins etc. And all the donated monies, except for Lieberman’s went to Tennesseans. Just as I’m sure most of his political donations this year will go to Kentuckians.

    We always talk here about how Republicans only try to win the news cycle, or the next election and Obama plays the long game. That’s why I said that about him.

    And seriously, the only one listed money-wise I think of as a true Democrat is Steve Cohen. Not Leiberman and not Harold Jr. And I’m sure the reason Jr got the 2K was because he was a Memphian and Corker is from East Tn.

    And if Thompson re-paid the other 1K, it was prolly for the general election. 1K for the primary.

  69. 69.

    jl

    Suddenly remembered that I have a branch of the family that has stomped around almost forever from Waynesboro PA along the PA Maryland border almost as far as Cumberland. Not sure anyone lived over the WV state line, though it is hard to tell which is what around there.

    That is close enough for me. Good to be able to root for hometown team! Go Mountaineers!

    I love roaming around that country, except in the winter. Never thought it would provide an angle of interest for me in the NCAA after the sad westcoast teams got the boot.

  70. 70.

    madmommy

    @Libby:

    I just checked and was surprised to find I’m in 65th place. It can only be because of the bonus points I racked up with the Ohio over Georgetown upset pick. Because I’m looking at my printed out bracket and it is a sea of red cross-outs. I can only go down from here, though, because I had Kansas and VW in the final with Kansas winning. So there’s only two more games I can score points on.

  71. 71.

    Libby

    @Dee Loralei: and whoever is interested in #Galtamont. I found a twitter acct with a lot of pictures at @MoLovesOc on twitter.

    Also have links to a couple an eyewitness lefty account and Las Vegas Sun gallery that were good at my twitter addy @libbyspencer.

  74. 74.

    madmommy

    @Libby:

    Pure happenstance, believe me! Doubt I’ll end up in the top 100, since my final picks are already blown. Still, it was fun and I didn’t blow the grocery money!

  76. 76.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    A big thumbs up for The Men Who Stare At Goats. Loved it.

    Not a whole lot different than my old Army unit, when we would do quaaludes then jump out of C-141 Starlifters.

  77. 77.

    Dee Loralei

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: I watched that earlier this week. It sure was quirky. Someone please tell Cloony never ever to wear that cheesy mustache again. OY.

    I watched The Informant last night, also a wee bit quirky and also a cheesy mustache. (Why did the 80’s in the movie look and sound like the 70’s)

    I need to put the goggys to bed and fire up the blu-ray for Chuck season 2. Night all.

  78. 78.

    burnspbesq

    Playing Baylor in Houston is going to effectively be a road game. Going to enjoy watching all those green and gold clad fans trudging up the steps after the game, grumbling and trying to figure out how they lost to a bunch of pasty-faced, unathletic suburban white boys.

    Going to enjoy it even more on Monday night. Twice as nice.

    UConn? Bring ’em on. Somebody is going to beat them some night – why not us?

  79. 79.

    Ash Wing League

    Strange thing is that Bilas had West Virginia to the Final Four before the tournament started.

    Congrats on your team making it to the Final Four! The first half reminded me of those fun to watch Beilein teams from a few years back.

  85. 85.

    Jeff Fecke

    All I know is that it’s really weird to watch a game where Bob Huggins is the better coach with regard to his players’ academic records.

  86. 86.

    Honus

    You really can’t appreciate how sweet this unless you were there (I was a kid in Wetzel County in front of the black and white TV) in 1959 when Jerry West’s team lost to Cal 71-70.

  91. 91.

    Josh Huaco

    Sic ’em Bears! Make Dickie “my-act-was-played-out-30-years-ago-baybeeee” Vitale cry.

  92. 92.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Have to agree with John’s assessment of the TV announcing for the Kentucky defeat. It reached the point it was actually pathetic and embarrassing as the second half wore on, and the audience was again and again told that that last play was Kentucky’s move to come back and win. It was as if the announcers simply could not accept the fact that Kentucky, the anointed, could conceivably lose.

    What we actually saw was a bunch of freshmen, however magnificently talented and with great potential, who folded under pressure, especially during the last two to three minutes, when it counts the most.

    As a Hoosier, let me take this opportunity to say that I
    REALLY, REALLY enjoyed the game just before this, in which Butler advanced to the Final Four for the first time in the school’s history. You realize we are talking about a school with only 4,000 students, right? But it also is home of Hinkle Fieldhouse, where the famous Milan defeat of Muncie high school, portrayed in the move “Hoosiers” took place, and which was used in the film, also. Which, by the way, if you have never seen it, go rent it. Now. Gene Hackman at his best. A great film.

    As for Butler’s victory last night, it was a victory by a well-coached team that understood playing until the final second ticks off the clock, playing without getting rattled or confused. It was a great game, and Butler earned this berth, every step of the way.

    As did West Virginia.

    One little aside, I find it fascinating that Butler’s coach left a career as a marketing associate with Eli Lily in Indianapolis to pursue a coaching career.

  94. 94.

    apocalipstick

    @HeartlandLiberal:
    In fairness, the game was never so far out of reach that Kentucky couldn’t have come back, especially with WVU’s horrendous free-throw shooting. The game was a tutorial in the difference between coaching and recruiting. Calipari’s teams never play well in close games, because his philosophy of one-and-done guarantees that he is unable to change the game of a young player like Wall. His teams are meant to overwhelm with the flood of talent he amasses, but discipline, cohesion, and the smaller nuances of the game will always be left by the wayside, and those are often the attributes that are needed in a tight finish.

  96. 96.

    Paul in KY

    Great work by WVU. You beat us fair & square. Our team let the pressure of the situation affect us. Good luck!

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