Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A consequence of cucumbers

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Consistently wrong since 2002

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

We’re not going back!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

He really is that stupid.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

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91Comments

  6. 6.

    debit

    I scanned the guest lists and didn’t see John McCain. How can I go on without knowing his deepest, innermost thoughts on all matters foreign and domestic?

  7. 7.

    Michael

    I’m sashaying in to make a request – for those who provide tinyurl links, you need to know that some of us don’t click ’em because we’ve been sent to malware sites at times in the past via tinyurl links.

    In other words, I like to see where links send me.

  9. 9.

    kdrtoona

    Ham salad sounds very unsavory and very Appalachian, in other words probably something I loved as a kid.

  11. 11.

    Svensker

    @Bryan:

    What is ham salad?

    First thing in my head, too. Also, considerably strange that it would be the only human food in a fridge.

    A friend from Columbus, GA, came to stay with me once when I was living in Los Angeles. She went off to the Safeway to shop for groceries and came back all astounded. “Y’all don’t have salad chunks!” she said. Salad chunks? Turns out they are jars of chopped sweet pickle meant to go in things like tuna salad and maybe ham salad. I actually called Del Monte headquarters to ask about “salad chunks” but they’d never heard of them either. Must have been a very local Georgia thang.

  12. 12.

    Bob K

    @ bryan

    Finely diced Sarah Palin & mayonnaise. Sorry – that’s word salad. Finely diced ham, mayonnaise and whatever spices they decide to put in it.

  14. 14.

    tamiedjr

    My mom used to make baloney salad. Ground garlic baloney, sweet pickle relish and Miracle Whip. Yum.

  16. 16.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    It’s funny, that sounds like standard fare for my refrigerator.

    I read an article once that said “For something different, just use whatever you have in the fridge to assemble an impromptu meal. The results can be creative and surprising!”

    I’ll say. I tried it, but the stew of baking soda, batteries, and half a shriveled avocado had me sneezing sparks for a week.

  18. 18.

    AdamK

    And if you already have a half pint of ham salad, CBS Sunday morning would be redundant.

  21. 21.

    RedKitten

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Yeah, before I met my husband, my fridge consisted mostly of leftover Chinese takeout, a few condiments, film and beer. We did the long-distance thing for awhile, and every Friday when he’d come down, he’d stop at the grocery store first to make sure my fridge had something edible in there for the weekend.

    /looks in fridge now, sees how incredibly overstuffed it is.

    Times have changed.

  24. 24.

    Emma

    Bryan: If you are american, it is diced ham, mayo, and assorted condiments depending on which are you’re in; if you’re cuban, it’s ground ham, mayo and pickle relish and usually sold as ” relleno para bocaditos”; and if you’re brit, it’s a slab of baked ham with tomato and lettuce or sprouts.

    My cousin, upon first asking for a ham salad sandwich in a shop in Baywater and getting that, nearly shrieked. On the other hand, I asked for a gammon sandwich and the ham came hot. Go figure.

  25. 25.

    Brian J

    I just saw some pretty lady who wrote Sarah From Alaska on MSNBC describe how, surprisingly, Sarah Palin and John McCain were actually pretty chummy. Even as he bashed his advisers and she did something similar, for whatever reasons, they remain on good terms.

    It is not shocking that she’s supporting his reelection in the face of a primary challenge against J.D. Hayworth. After all, she has to back establishment candidates at some point, and who better than the guy who plucked her from obscurity? But at the same time, I can see them being friendly, if only because they both appear to be incredibly vain and superficial on the issues.

  26. 26.

    PurpleGirl

    A bunch of good stories/features today:

    1) The bread story was interesting… now I want some.

    2) Mo Rocca usually annoys me but today’s story was decent and made me smile. And he even commented on hooks being for crochet and needles for knitting. I haz a happy.

    3) I like David Edelstein’s reviews but this review of The Runaways really makes me want to see the movie.

  29. 29.

    Brian J

    @Bob K:

    Isn’t that a pretty big insult to Reagan? I mean, I don’t think the book has really been written on his presidency yet, and while I am not entirely sure what I think of him, he seems like a man of…actual accomplishments and ideas, as opposed to quitting halfway through something and “LALALALALALALA NONONONONONONONO I am not HEARINGGGGG YOU!” as a response to governing.

  30. 30.

    Darcy

    OT- this is a bit weird, but is anyone having trouble getting to Tbogg? I keep getting pitched to Google, when I click on the link. I can get to Attackerman on FDL, but can’t go through to Tbogg. What’s that all about?

  32. 32.

    gnomedad

    @Bob K:

    “She’s our Ronald Reagan,” said Henry Postma, from Mobile, Ala.

    Reagan never quit midway through a term in office. Slept through one or two, maybe …

  34. 34.

    LuciaMia

    ham salad

    Just like the Thanksgiving turkey, you have to find something to do with the left-over Easter ham.

    Not sure where John’s came from tho.

  35. 35.

    Bob K

    And now for something completely different:

    As November draws closer and closer expect the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle to become more and more contentious. Expect this to do wonders for C-Span’s ratings.

    At one point I could swear I heard chants of “Move That Bus!!!”
    Could this be the shape of Tea Parties to come?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9y2qtaopbE

  36. 36.

    El Cid

    It’s not complicated. It’s chicken salad, but with ham. The fake lobster / crab salad combos are pretty good for sandwiches too. I don’t care for ham salad much, and thank god I’ve never encountered a beef salad.

    Note: One of the reasons pork is so much more prominent historically in Southern cuisine is that pigs could be allowed to forage for themselves in the forests and then could be rounded up for slaughter, curing, and sale, essentially costing no upkeep unlike other domesticated animals used for meats.

  37. 37.

    El Cid

    .

    “She’s our Ronald Reagan,” said Henry Postma, from Mobile, Ala.

    When you have to look back at the doddering Ronald Reagan as a more competent, more knowledgeable, more reasonable political elder…

    …F*** that.

    When you have to look back at George W. Bush as the more competent, more knowledgeable, more reasonable political elder…

    …then you, you might be a TeaTard.

  38. 38.

    Violet

    Maybe the ham salad was already in the fridge when John moved into the new place? Housewarming gift? Forgotten by previous occupant? The mystery box of food that somehow never gets cleaned out of the fridge and can live there for years?

    It does sound a bit like something you can eat right out of the plastic container with a plastic fork. Perfect moving food.

    Still sounds disgusting.

  39. 39.

    Brian J

    @El Cid:

    Interesting. And here I was under the impression it was all due to the South’s fondness for seeing those Paula Deen commercials for Smithfield hams. “Hey, y’all!”

  41. 41.

    Violet

    @El Cid:

    Note: One of the reasons pork is so much more prominent historically in Southern cuisine is that pigs could be allowed to forage for themselves in the forests and then could be rounded up for slaughter, curing, and sale, essentially costing no upkeep unlike other domesticated animals used for meats.

    Wild pigs are still a problem. Recent news story. Excerpt:

    MISSOURI CITY, TX (KTRK) — Dozens of wild pigs have been tearing apart yards and frightening people in a subdivision in Missouri City. The herd is roaming through Sienna Plantation, off Sienna Parkway.

    There’s a video too.

    Wild pigs don’t taste as good to the modern palate as domesticated pigs do. Ideally they should be captured and finished on corn feed for a few weeks before slaughter. That fattens them up and lessens the gamey taste a bit.

  42. 42.

    boomshanka

    is there anything more irritating than peggy noonan’s concern troll voice? why do i do this to myself

  43. 43.

    Brian J

    @Violet:

    Your knowledge of pig slaughter and preparation for cooking intrigues me. I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

  44. 44.

    scav

    @Violet: define modern. Some would probably pay extra for the gamey.

    I’m not arguing exactly, I’m just thinking niche marketing.

  45. 45.

    El Cid

    @Violet: I doubt too many people — even Southroners — have tasted much wild pig / boar in recent generations.

    I would guess that earlier generations (early 1800s) of average poor subsistence farmers / small traders may not have been able to afford fattening hogs for domestic consumption, though a few could do so for market trade.

  46. 46.

    Montysano

    I just learned from Michelle Bachmann that the gummint now owns 51% of the US economy! And Bob Schieffer seemed not at all troubled by this claim.

    Fuck this noise…… Donald Fagen’s “Nightfly” on the turntable is a much better use of my time.

  47. 47.

    El Cid

    @Montysano: Bob Schieffer’s dumber than dirt.

    I still can’t get over when he about cried two weeks in a row when various Democrats suggested that John McCain wasn’t automagically qualified to be Preznit because he was a POW.

  48. 48.

    Violet

    @Brian J:
    Heh. I’ve got a friend who knows about this stuff, so that’s how I learned.

    @scav:
    I haven’t actually eaten the wild pig meat myself. A friend of mine had to organize wild pig removal from an area, and we discussed various ideas, including selling the meat. Apparently it’s gamey and can be very strong and almost unpleasant unless cooked properly, so the market for it is limited.

    It doesn’t taste much like the pork meat we eat today. It doesn’t taste much like the expensive wild boar meat sold in upscale restaurants either. The largest pigs don’t taste all that good – for eating you want the smaller ones. They can weigh up to hundreds of pounds (500, I think?), so they are huge and extremely destructive. Plus they have lots of babies, so they’re constantly multiplying in numbers.

  49. 49.

    Brian J

    @El Cid:

    Does anyone remember when, at the debate that he hosted, he enthusiastically went and shook McCain’s hand at the end and, instead of doing the same with Obama, shrugged him off with a mere hand wave? He’s certainly entitled to his own opinions, but that little gesture said more to me about the way he thinks than all of the alleged propoganda of the Couric/Rather/Jennings/Hitler/Olbermann/Stalin/Zedung/Maddow axis.

  50. 50.

    Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist

    all I have is dog/cat food, coffee, and a half pint of ham salad…

    …it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.

  51. 51.

    Bob K

    @montysano

    “I just learned from Michelle Bachmann that the gummint now owns 51% of the US economy! And Bob Schieffer seemed not at all troubled by this claim.”

    Just reminded me of a line from a George Harrison song “Awaiting On You All”

    “And while the pope owns 51 percent of General Motors”
    “And the stock exchange is the only thing he’s qualified to quote us”

  54. 54.

    scav

    @Violet: I was just thinking south of France and then all the trouble my uncle goes to here to find non-standard critters to cook. To go all snob-end, maybe the local terroir isn’t up to snuff? Meaning, bluntly, the local wild pigs aren’t lolling about eating acorns.

    still, if it can be cooked properly some way . . . ignore me, I’m one of those idiots that makes basic soup stock from the remains of my other veggies and re-uses bones for meat stocks.

  55. 55.

    Pasquinade

    @El Cid, when referring to that President, it should always be:

    Ronald Reagan (R-Alzheimer’s)

  57. 57.

    scav

    oh, and while we’re babbling about pigs, here’s a link to a Guardian thing on pig slaughter and then sausage making in Italy (link to one of several videos, and not directly to the one about slaughter). And a different link here that’s more instruction like on how to make salami.

  58. 58.

    Chris

    @djork:
    No you didnt go there with the Ruth’s man! I do buy their cole slaw on occasion to put on a hotdog with chili…as the FSM intended.

  59. 59.

    RedKitten

    @El Cid:

    The fake lobster / crab salad combos are pretty good for sandwiches too.

    I knew they made fake crab, but please don’t tell me they make fake lobster too!

  60. 60.

    sputnikgayle

    Morning Violet–feral hogs are indeed as damaging to crops as a hail storm. They travel in packs and just won’t move on. We have motion-activated wildlife infrared cameras that we use in our fields for census purposes. I’m researching a way to get that camera set up to call me on my cell to tell me when the hogs arrive so we can trigger some type of intervention. Most folks in my neck of the woods make sausage out of them–really delish.

    Eating them is a type of revenge, I guess. I don’t like being outsmarted by swine.

  61. 61.

    Laura W.

    @Violet: A caution for you, Violet:

    “It’s no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying, ‘Really, I was meant to be a dancer.’ By then, pigs will be your style.”
    -Quentin Crisp

    Just a nice chance to work in one of my all-time favorite quotes.

    Also, Charlie’s Angels/Evelyn Bridges chose the new logo design. Product will appear in the BJ store as soon as we get it all sized up and slapped on swag. There were some really lovely submissions. Thanks to Juicers Ecks and Frank Chow for their contributions.

  62. 62.

    bob h

    I was struck by how haggard and aged George Will, so eternally youthful, looked this morning on ABC. HCR has taken a toll on him physically.

  63. 63.

    Violet

    @scav:
    This is very true – what they eat makes a big difference to how they taste. Which is why, according to my friend, finishing them on corn feed for a few weeks really helps the flavor.

    Also, apparently, if they run scared while being hunted it truly affects the flavor. So it’s key not to have them run too much. Again – why trapping, finishing, and killing them when they’re docile helps.

    Transportation and sale of wild pig meat varies state by state, too. So sale to upper end restaurants could be challenging, depending on the laws in your state.

  66. 66.

    Violet

    @sputnikgayle:
    So long as the pigs taste good, that’s reason enough to eat them! Revenge is a dish best served as pork. Heh.

    @Laura W.:
    Love that quote!

    The new logo is nice. Glad to help this worthy project even a tiny bit with my purchases.

  67. 67.

    Josie

    We eat wild hog quite a bit. We have some brush property in South Texas and they are everywhere. My son kills a couple every month or so. They don’t run since he feeds the roads to draw them in. Also, they manage to destroy other feeders to get at the corn. That is, I guess, why they taste so good. I had some ribs the other night that he had smoked and they were incredible. They tear up senderos on the ranch land and people’s yards because they have tusks and root into the ground. Violet’s right – they get huge and can be very dangerous.
    We use the meat for smoking, tamales and sausage. All are excellent, but, if we ate it every day, we couldn’t make a dent in the population. They have as many as 15 in a litter and can mate at six months of age. You can do the math.

  71. 71.

    Martin

    @El Cid: It is a little more complicated than that. Proper ham salad (which I grew up on, make regularly, and have successfully ordered in butcher/delis from coast to coast) is ham, gherkin, hardboiled egg, onion, all shoved through a coarse meat grinder, bound with mayo and a bit of seasoning. It’s the consistency of tuna salad, but usually a wee bit drier. It’s really an ideal way to polish off a shank ham once all the good slabs are gone, followed up by a pot of soup using that ham bone.

    If you have ham salad, particularly on homemade bread and lettuce from your garden, you have no other needs.

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Obama’s in Afghanistan! WaPo alerts says Gibbs twittered it. Meeting with Karzai, but you know he’ll spend some time with the troops.

  73. 73.

    asiangrrlMN

    @arguingwithsignposts: Lady Smudge grows more beautiful by the day! Give her all the loving you can.

    @El Cid: Aaaaand that’s why I fake-married you in a drunken stupor one night! Your searing wit.

    Ham salad: It’s tuna salad with ham instead. My co-op has it. I prefer tuna salad or chicken salad, though.

    Michele Bachmann needs mental help. She’s really not well.

    @Darcy: I got to his site just fine. Maybe it was just a glitch.

  74. 74.

    zmullls

    Yeesh. I read Sheryl Gay Stolbergs column in the NYTimes today about the recess appointments. I can’t remember the last time, if ever, if felt it necessary to write to a reporter directly about a story. I just emailed this:

    Ms. Stolberg:

    I read your front page article on the President’s recess appointments. There were a lot of charged words in the first few paragraphs. A lot of novelistic choices like “muscular authority” and “newly emboldened” and “unafraid to provoke a confrontation” and “certain to intensify partisan rancour” — very emotional images in support of a particular narrative, that may or may not be supported by the facts.

    I had to wait until the fifth paragraph to hear that there were 77 nominees pending on the floor and 217 pending total. That puts a little more perspective on the situation, and suggests a level of frustration or exasperation — perhaps justified — rather than making the appointments just to tick the other side off.

    I looked through your article for the factoid that at this point in the Bush presidency, there were only *5* nominees pending on the floor. Quite a difference. I wish you had mentioned it. I only know it because it was stated quite early in the official White House press release. Now, as a journalist, I don’t expect you to take what’s in the White House press release as gospel, but it seems like it would be fairly easy to have your research department check to see if it was true — and to report the White House claim and whether it was supported or not. Because the difference between 77 pending and 5 is very telling.

    I also looked through the article to see how you handled the fact that there was talk of recess appointments just before the last recess, about a month and a half ago. As you’ll recall, the President was considering making some recess appointments and the Republicans, to stave him off, agreed to votes on a handful of nominees. The President relented on his threat, but made it clear he expected to see some movement after that recess. Seems to me there hasn’t been much. (See Kate Phillips’ article on 2/11/10)

    I also looked for a reference to last week’s story about Chief Justice Roberts comment, in hearing a case about the NLRB (and the fact they have not had adequate staff to hear cases). CJ Roberts practically *told* the President, through oral argument, to go ahead and use the recess appointment power, and use it with regard to the NLRB in particular. Another fact that might have given another perspective to the story.

    Ms. Stolberg, it’s easy to grab onto the narrative of the President ‘feeling his oats’ and pushing boundaries; but there’s ample evidence — not reported in your article — that there has been a level of obstructing nominees that is without precedent, and an understandable frustration with the process. A summary of a few facts, easily verifiable and most reported in your paper, would have been welcome.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zmullls: Excellent letter. Thank you for doing that. Please report back if you get a response from Stolberg.

    BTW, did you cc the Public Editor? If not, it wouldn’t hurt (IMHO) to forward it to him.

  77. 77.

    zmullls

    I went through the “e-mail the reporter” link and there wasn’t a CC available. I *could* e-mail Hoyt separately but I’m POed at him too this morning.

    (He published an excellent letter regarding ACORN — what it did for low-income people in terms of housing and voting registration — pointing out that it was their success at getting people to vote that had Republicans trying to bring them down. He published a second letter along similar lines, which ended with a foolish paragraph suggesting the Times infiltrate Keefe’s organization to find out what they were up to.

    Hoyt *only* responded to the idiotic third paragraph of the second letter about infiltration. He didn’t address the substance of the other letter at all)

  78. 78.

    Nellcote

    Watching Fareed Zakaria’s show focusing on HCR, it’s somewhat amusing to see that Krugman fully realizes now the political limitations of what could be done. To his credit he defends the bill well.

  79. 79.

    Nethead Jay

    @zmullls: Whoa, that’s extremely well written. And no punches pulled, either. Well done.

    Understandable reaction, too. That piece was very irritating. Wonder how she’ll react, if at all.

  80. 80.

    Lisa K.

    @Brian J:

    Isn’t that a pretty big insult to Reagan?

    Sorry, but the insult has not been conceived that is big enough for the racist, sexist, class warrior par excellence Ronald Reagan. No Reagan=No Tea Partys. What you are seeing now is the is simply fruition of 30 years of Reagan worship on the right. Fuck him. He would have loved and heartily approved of Miss Look-At-My-Tits-In-This-Tight-Leather-Jacket!

  83. 83.

    El Cid

    @Uloborus:

    Seriously, am I the only man in the world who thinks Palin is hideous?

    If she were a decent person instead of nasal tone banshee with the soul of a lobotomized Harpy, I could easily find her attractive. It’s amazing how much not being a landfill-decayed monster can make one more attractive.

  85. 85.

    Svensker

    @Bill H:

    Oh, good lord, look for “Pickle Relish” in the “Condiments” aisle.

    That’s what I thought, but my friend from Georgia says that pickle relish is cut too fine, and that “salad chunks” are bigger. ‘Bout the same taste, tho.

  87. 87.

    Svensker

    @Uloborus:

    Seriously, am I the only man in the world who thinks Palin is hideous?

    No. My hub thinks so, too. One reason why I keep him even tho he’s pretty much a firebagger.

  88. 88.

    Annie

    When I was growing up, we used to get “chipped” ham at Isley’s on the Blvd. or the one in Squirrel Hill…

  89. 89.

    Ming

    @zmullls: Thanks for putting that together. I agree with SiubhanDuinne (how do you pronounce that, btw?) — it would be a fine thing to send that to the Public Editor as well.

  90. 90.

    Honus

    @Violet: Smithfield hams are fed on peanuts. I understand Italian pigs for proscuitto are fed on chestnuts, or maybe that’s Westphalian hams.
    And good ham salad is fine thing, pretty much a staple of any respectable lunch counter. John Cole, being from the Northern Panhandle understands that.

  91. 91.

    Yutsano

    @Honus:

    I understand Italian pigs for proscuitto are fed on chestnuts

    Acorns, but you are correct that their diet is tightly controlled. It could be the Weshphalian pigs that get the chestnut treatment. Prosciutto is expensive enough without going for the really pricey nuts there.

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