Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

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

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

This blog will pay for itself.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

People are weird.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Let love rule

Let love rule

by | 171 Comments

This post is in: ,

It’s been a pretty crazy week here, with TapperGate, AccountabilityNowGate, LouisCKGate, and RadokGate. I should probably come clean and tell you that this is all part of a pageview-maximizing scheme John took from Politico and ordered me to implement. I’m not complaining though: Anne-Laurie awakes each day at 4 am to the sound of John screaming “Win the morning!”

The truth is, I’m feeling a little PGTD today, so I’m not up for much commentary. As a gesture of goodwill, I thought I would do a post consisting entirely of approving links to bloggers who are associated with the intertronic axis of evil. There are those who would call this appeasement:

Yeah, I know the FDL links are Tbogg and the TNR one is Chait. Baby steps.

Consider this an open thread.

Reader Interactions

171Comments

  2. 2.

    Punchy

    This seems like a big fucking deal w/r/t the Executive’s ability to sidestep FISA courts/laws/protocols. Of course, I’m not a lawyer, and I’m sure when it’s appealed to Scalia’s Crew, they’ll find a way to overturn this just in time for use by the next R Admin.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    The New York Times has just posted their entry in the prestigious “make the religious right pop a gasket” contest, with a long article on can animals be gay?. It’s actually a very interesting read, and I now know more about lesbian albatrosses than I ever thought possible.

    -dms

  5. 5.

    Dracula

    TapperGate, AccountabilityNowGate, LouisCKGate, and RadokGate

    Make it stop, puleeze. Can we please throw this “-gate” trend under the bus full of punched hippies?

  8. 8.

    Dork

    Anne-Laurie awakes each day at 4 am to the sound of John screaming “Win the morning!”

    They’re dating?

  10. 10.

    Mike Kay

    I’m so proud of you guys, you started two entire flame wars this morning without my help.

    Sniffle. They grow up so fast, ya know. Sniffle.

  11. 11.

    L Boom

    I’m generally pretty good with Intertoobzian acronyms, but PGTD?

    Pretty Goddamn TireD?
    Persistent Gestational Trophoblastic Disease?

  15. 15.

    debbie

    I never thought I’d read of a bigger schmuck than Dolan, but Donovan’s the new winner!

  16. 16.

    El Tiburon

    Arkon DougJ Sir,

    I tried sending you an e-mail but was unable to get it from your link on the side of the page.

    Don’t want to be a D-Bag about this, but I was wondering if you were going to wander back to yesterday’s previous post and respond.

    Thanks in advance.

  19. 19.

    Arkon DougJ

    @El Tiburon:

    I’m tired of arguing about that and I can’t answer all your questions for reasons I can’t get into here.

    (EDIT: I see the email links are screwed up — i am goppatriot50 at gmail dot com)

  20. 20.

    El Cid

    FWIW, Naomi Wolf did claim mail tampering in print, well, electronic print, in liberal type outlets, not just at Ron Paul rallies.

    However, having worked with quite a number of activists and organizations which very likely had their mail intercepted (particularly people & groups opposing Reagan’s wars against Central American civilians), I don’t believe immediately anyone’s claims, but I also don’t accept such claims just by quick anecdote either. Occasionally my mail has been returned or arrived opened, though not that often, and I don’t think I’m interesting enough to monitor.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dracula:

    Make it stop, puleeze. Can we please throw this “-gate” trend under the bus full of punched hippies?

    Are you trying to mainstream a shift in the prevailing narrative? Also, too, RAHM!

    Can someone point me to the Tappergate and LouisCK threads? TIA, as teh kids aware of internet traditions text.

  26. 26.

    Tom Hilton

    I’m always oddly pleased to see someone I despise on a visceral level for no clearly defined reason (Naomi Wolf, e.g.) give me a really, really good reason to despise him or her.

    Is that wrong of me?

  28. 28.

    Arkon DougJ

    @El Cid:

    Yes, but if Jeff Foxworthy ever did a “you might be a tea bagger if” list, “you’ve compared Obama to Hitler” would have to be one of the top items.

  30. 30.

    Martin

    @dmsilev:

    It’s actually a very interesting read, and I now know more about lesbian albatrosses than I ever thought possible.

    You need to find better porn sites.

  31. 31.

    Art

    My favorite TBogg quote of the week:

    “Yee haw! Hot damn! Git’erdone! Free bird! Assorted other colorful regional exclamations!”

  33. 33.

    licensed to kill time

    Post Glenzilla Talk Disorder?
    Pretty Good Tag Dissemination?
    Pagan God Thrill Dead?
    Puny Goodwill Take Dat! ?

  34. 34.

    srv

    That Tbogg link to Mrs. Professors story about how JeffG got his feelings hurt by a former professor who didn’t want his name in Jeffie’s about page…

    My god, my irony meter just esploded…

  35. 35.

    Martin

    @Dork: How do we gently break it to John that screaming “Win the morning!” probably isn’t the effective turn-on that he thinks it is.

  37. 37.

    Arkon DougJ

    Post Glenzilla Talk Disorder?

    Yes. It was supposed to be PGSD but I got confused.

  40. 40.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Anne-Laurie awakes each day at 4 am to the sound of John screaming “Win the morning!”

    lolz

  42. 42.

    slackjawedgawker

    @Arkon DougJ:

    This was a term coined by Karl Rove back in 2004, in reference to Cheney’s non-crazy daughter and her partner.

    So, yeah, dmsilev is right that this article will get the wingnuts frothing again. But my guess is they’ll try to bury it by sending Liz out for another round or two of cable news appearances in favor of naked pyramids and sliced testicles.

  43. 43.

    Holly McLachlan

    I’m always oddly pleased to see someone I despise on a visceral level for no clearly defined reason (Naomi Wolf, e.g.) give me a really, really good reason to despise him or her.
    Is that wrong of me?
    In this case, it’s a win for TNR arch-weenie Jonathan Chait if you do. So yes, it may be a sin. But, consider it a venal rather than mortal sin.
    Is that too………. Catholic??? Perhaps you can nourish some contempt for both….. simultaneously. That would be like, totally Jesuit of you.

  44. 44.

    El Cid

    Another Al-Qa’ida loving judge tries to help Obama impose Shania law and end George W. Bush’s success in KEEPINGUSSAFE, no matter how much Obama’s AG tried to pretend he was against it.

    A federal judge ruled Wednesday that government investigators illegally wiretapped the phone conversations of an Islamic charity and two American lawyers without a search warrant…
    …
    U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said the plaintiffs have provided enough evidence to show “they were subjected to warrantless electronic surveillance.”
    …
    At issue was a 2006 lawsuit challenging the Bush administration’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program. The lawsuit was filed by the Ashland, Ore. branch of the Saudi-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and two American lawyers Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor.

  45. 45.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jesus H. Fuck. I never paid much attention to Naomi Wolf, but I had no idea she had joined forces with Rand Paul

  47. 47.

    scav

    @Arkon DougJ:

    lesbian albatrosses // I saw them perform once at the Mercury Lounge.

    But were they real lesbian albatrosses or merely faking it?

  48. 48.

    daryljfontaine

    @srv: If nothing else, the sociopathy of the Right continues to evolve — now they are claiming victimhood for “not being understood properly by the Left.”

    I understand them just fine, and that is why I have no empathy for them.

    D

  52. 52.

    RedKitten

    @Morbo:

    Arkon, I suggest 1-800-CALL-SAM if you’ve really been that affected by this dog bite.

    Please don’t. The kid’s already into everything. I don’t need him branching out into giving legal advice over the phone.

    Besides, his legal advice would consist entirely of “Pbbbbbbthh!”, “Ha-HAAAAH!” or “Waaahhhhhhhhhh!”

    There, I just saved you $500.

  56. 56.

    Citizen_X

    Anne-Laurie awakes each day at 4 am to the sound of John screaming “Win the morning!”

    Pfft. Just wait till Zulif Cole orders the entire team to start every day singing the Balloon Juice Corporate Anthem.

  57. 57.

    canuckistani

    @RedKitten:

    Besides, his legal advice would consist entirely of “Pbbbbbbthh!”, “Ha-HAAAAH!” or “Waaahhhhhhhhhh!”
    There, I just saved you $500.

    I’ve paid much more for legal advice much less useful.

  58. 58.

    eemom

    OMFG. Naomi Wolf is a fucking hair-tossing idiotic drama queen twat. We were in the same class in college and I know.

    UGH.

  59. 59.

    Arkon DougJ

    @scav:

    But were they real lesbian albatrosses or merely faking it?

    They went to Smith so they were probably LATG.

  60. 60.

    Arkon DougJ

    @eemom:

    You know, I think she’s full of it, but I like her anyway. That story about vomiting when Harold Bloom laid down the mojo, it makes me laugh, even though it was incredibly cruel of her to tell it.

  61. 61.

    Bob L

    Outed by TBogg

    “Finally, and my third possibility, is it could be lack of education that allows the left to lack empathy. They are not exposed to right-leaning and libertarian ideas. For example, how many classes at school are teaching about the ideas of Hayek, Friedman, and Rand? If kids grow up without this information, they may turn into adults who lack the ability to understand other points of view.”

    So in a year the left went from a bunch of post modern sissies so overcome with empathy they lost their moral compass to become a bunch of cold hearted bastards because they never read Ayn “Altruism is the only vice” Raynd’s Atlas Shrugs?

    Has anyone ever ventured the opinion that maybe the Left despises the Right because the Right is so caught up with their lies they don’t know the truth anymore?

  62. 62.

    JGabriel

    @Tom Hilton:

    I’m always oddly pleased to see someone I despise on a visceral level for no clearly defined reason (Naomi Wolf, e.g.) give me a really, really good reason to despise him or her. Is that wrong of me?

    Only if, like one commenter at TNR (third comment down), you’re confusing Naomi Wolf, who advised Al Gore to wear brown, with Naomi Klein, who wrote The Shock Doctrine.

    .

  65. 65.

    Betsy

    @dmsilev:

    In that clip, he warns against the possibility of our chicks growing up to be Indigo Gulls….

    I am a little bit ashamed at how hard that made me laugh.

  67. 67.

    dmsilev

    @scav:
    @Arkon DougJ:

    lesbian albatrosses // I saw them perform once at the Mercury Lounge.

    But were they real lesbian albatrosses or merely faking it?

    And more importantly, will the RNC reimburse the cost of all of the drinks and tips?

    -dms

  69. 69.

    JGabriel

    Bob L:

    So in a year the left went from a bunch of post modern sissies so overcome with empathy they lost their moral compass to become a bunch of cold hearted bastards because they never read Ayn “Altruism is the only vice” Raynd’s Atlas Shrugs?

    I think I can live with that.

    (Checks inner moral compass.)

    OMG, NOEZ! IT’S GONE!

    (Pause.)

    Hmm … that’s an oddly liberating feeling.

    Yep. I can live with that.

    .

  72. 72.

    dmsilev

    @canuckistani: The penguins are mentioned in the article, along with a bunch of other species. Specifically,

    Various forms of same-sex sexual activity have been recorded in more than 450 different species of animals by now, from flamingos to bison to beetles to guppies to warthogs. A female koala might force another female against a tree and mount her, while throwing back her head and releasing what one scientist described as “exhalated belchlike sounds.” Male Amazon River dolphins have been known to penetrate each other in the blowhole. […] One primatologist speculated that the real reason two male orangutans were fellating each other was nutritional.

    Yes, this really is the New York Times, not National Geographic Penthouse.

    -dms

  73. 73.

    Martin

    @dmsilev:

    One primatologist speculated that the real reason two male orangutans were fellating each other was nutritional.

    Oh please don’t make that show up on the food pyramid…

  74. 74.

    Bob L

    @JGabriel:

    I think I can live with that. (Checks inner moral compass.) OMG, NOEZ! IT’S GONE! Hmm … that’s an oddly liberating feeling. Yep. I can live with that.

    It a problem you know. Without a inner moral compass you don’t know who is fair game to screw over in the rat race. Take me; all I can do it look at a poor person and think of how much fun it would be putting on the Joker makeup and one dark night force some public health care down his throat!!!!LUZSATANSRULS6666RAWR!!!!!!!!!!

    Pathetic isn’t it?

  75. 75.

    JGabriel

    @Persia:

    Holy crap, I’m agreeing with Maureen Dowd. Up is down.

    Nah, Dowd is randomly right about a third to half of the time — except when she’s writing about sex and sexual politics, of course. Much more frequently than Bobo or Douch-hat.

    If you find yourself agreeing with Bill Kristol, on the other hand, then, yes, up is down and Armageddon is fast approaching.

    .

  76. 76.

    Citizen_X

    @dmsilev: OK, now this blog must endeavor to become the primary internet source for the phrase, “blowholefuck a dolphin.”

  77. 77.

    licensed to kill time

    @dmsilev:

    I’m sorry, but “exhalated belchlike sounds” , “penetrating through the blowhole” , and “nutritional fellating” has me snorting so uncontrollably that I am unable to focus my eyes on the screen. brb after I recover.

  79. 79.

    BruinKid

    Whew. For a moment I too thought “The Shock Doctrine”‘s Naomi Klein had turned into a teabagger.

  80. 80.

    Quicksand

    @Citizen_X

    Pfft. Just wait till Zulif Cole orders the entire team to start every day singing the Balloon Juice Corporate Anthem.

    Now c’mon, this isn’t TPM.

  83. 83.

    Mike Kay

    @JGabriel: I’d put it at less than 5%. She’s such a Georgetown elitist (she lives in JFK’s old house from the 1950s) that she’s completely out of touch. If you saw the guest lists to her dinner parties, not a single person without a chauffeur. She only looks good in comparison to Sally Quinn, because MoDo is so self-conscious, it inhibits her, where as Quinn has no self awareness.

  84. 84.

    slackjawedgawker

    @dmsilev:

    From the article:

    The Stanford biologist Joan Roughgarden told me to think of all these animals as “multitasking” with their private parts.

    But can they handle two wetsuits and a dildo?

  87. 87.

    El Cid

    @slackjawedgawker:
    Animals are primitive beings without the faculties that God gave humans. Clearly it’s proof of an Intelligent Designer that a few conservative religious types can use 2 wetsuits and a dildo as part of their honoring of their Creator.

  88. 88.

    soonergrunt

    @Dracula:

    Can we please throw this “-gate” trend under the bus full of punched hippies?

    “bus full of punched hippies” sweet.

  92. 92.

    Linda Featheringill

    Completely OT:

    The “real face” of Jesus, as taken from the Shroud of Turin:

    [Pictures on Yahoo]

    The dude looks Italian, Paisano actually. Sure as heck does not look like a poor Jewish boy.

    Working on the assumption that the shroud once covered a real dead body, I feel compelled to remind everyone that the Romans crucified more than 100,000 people, maybe up to twice that number in some estimates. The original occupant of the shroud, even if crucified, could have been any of a lot of different people.

  93. 93.

    soonergrunt

    @Citizen_X:

    Just wait till Zulif Cole orders the entire team to start every day singing the Balloon Juice Corporate Anthem.

    The Balloon-Juice Corporate Anthem? That won’t take long since it’s only a few lines:

    Losers talking shit about my cat!
    Like my dog, fear the feline fat!
    I want posts of intellectual heft
    Going after the Jane Hamshers of the left!

    (chorus)
    Fuck you assholes!
    Fuck you assholes!
    Screw the tone!
    You can all go to hell!
    Jackasses!

    My front-pagers can kick all your asses
    We’re all a bunch of Obama-bot fascists
    You all fill threads to fast
    I was a wingnut in the past

    chorus

    guitar bridge

    We hate politico, we hate drudge
    On thursday we get a recipe for fudge
    We all know Obama is Rahm’s pawn
    You little bastards get off my lawn!

    Chorus

    Chorus fade-out

  94. 94.

    El Cid

    I’m one not given to nostalgic recollections of a better news media past.

    But did we really used to see in constant national news coverage which celebrity had which mistress?

    And you kids better stay off my lawn.

  95. 95.

    freelancer

    @Linda Featheringill:

    You have no idear how many people I know that use that and the Dead Sea Scrolls as slam dunk evidence that science proves the Bible.

    Believe what you want, but don’t use physics, carbon-dating, geology, and archeology to say that Science validates your faith in one breath, and in the next, throw out all these fields when they conclusively dismember the claim that the Earth is no more than 10,000 years old.

    http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1836#comic

  97. 97.

    Tara the antisocial social worker

    There’s something very, very wrong with having the words “Let love rule” directly underneath a picture of Ann Coulter.

  98. 98.

    djork

    One primatologist speculated that the real reason two male orangutans were fellating each other was nutritional.

    New Sunkist OJ. *

    *Orangujizz

  99. 99.

    eemom

    @freelancer:

    Yup. She was on Lake Batshit a long time ago pimping that book. Her and Hamsher in the same place at the same time was like witnessing the Exxon Valdez of hyperbolic faux-progressive narcissism.

  100. 100.

    Shalimar

    Naomi Wolf…teabagger?

    She’s going to be pissed when she finds out the teabaggers only share her hatred of corporations because Dick Armey told them all the corps are run by black and/or brown people.

  103. 103.

    licensed to kill time

    Speaking of lesbian albatrosses and gay penetrating dolphins, the Family Research Council suggested yesterday that Obama may already be our first gay president:
    __

    [I]f it was argued during his two terms in office that Bill Clinton was “our first black President” because of his supposed liberal policies that would benefit African-Americans (though I’m not quite sure what President Clinton did, that he wasn’t forced to do, that would benefit any minority except for Chinese monks with political donations to spend.) With that argument shouldn’t Barack Obama already be our “first gay President” due to his liberal policies pushing the homosexual agenda?

    via Steve Benen

  108. 108.

    licensed to kill time

    @soonergrunt: LOL. I love the Drudge/fudge rhyme. Somebody set this to music! Or is it a chant we all have to do during our morning run?

  109. 109.

    Tim (The Oher One)

    Martin at #73 illustrates the entire reason for the existence of this blog.

    Hilarious !

  110. 110.

    Citizen_X

    @soonergrunt: Outstanding! But, if I may, I think in order to truly fit the tone of Balloon Juice it still needs a “D-I-A-F!” chorus somewhere.

  111. 111.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @eemom:

    OMFG. Naomi Wolf Jane Hamsher is a fucking hair-tossing idiotic drama queen twat. We were in the same class in college and I know.

    I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist. Falling off the leftwing circular firing squad bandwagon is just so easy. It’s like a heroin addiction without the petty thievery and methadone programs.

  113. 113.

    daryljfontaine

    @soonergrunt:
    Apologies or something to Sascha Baron Cohen…

    Balloon Juice greatest progblog in the world
    All other progblogs are run by little girls
    Balloon Juice number one exporter of OBEY mugs
    Other progblogs have inferior OBEY mugs
     
    Balloon Juice home of snarky commentariat
    They post thirty comment and reply eighty comment
    Spam catching filter a marvel to behold
    It remove 80 percent of human solid waste
     
    Balloon Juice, Balloon Juice you very nice place
    From posts of John Cole to orbital pics of Tunch
    Balloon Juice friend of all except Red State
    They very angry people with bone in their brain
     
    Balloon Juice punditry best in world
    We invent “kitten skullfuck” and other turn of phrase
    Balloon Juice’s prostitutes cleanest in the blogosphere
    Except of course for FireDogLake’s
     
    Balloon Juice, Balloon Juice you very nice place
    From Greenwald flame war to N-C-Double-A
     
    Come grasp the mighty penis of our leader
    From junction with the testes to tip of its face!

    Some of those lines just begged not to be rewritten.

    D

  117. 117.

    MikeJ

    @JGabriel:

    Only if, like one commenter at TNR (third comment down), you’re confusing Naomi Wolf, who advised Al Gore to wear brown, with Naomi Klein, who wrote The Shock Doctrine.

    A commenter you know you can ignore because it seems to think that mentioning ANSWER is a trump card.

  118. 118.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @robertdsc:

    She goes to the same plastic surgeon as Sally Fields and Jane Fonda.

    Okay, I just made that up but hopefully you get my drift.

  122. 122.

    robertdsc

    @Mike Kay:
    I suppose. She doesn’t look her age to me. Like her red hair, though.

    EEmom, I think of FDL as FireBagLake these days. I almost typed that in the other day, lol.

  123. 123.

    licensed to kill time

    Die in a fire!
    Screw the tone!
    Cole-bots! Cole-bots!
    Leave John alone!

  124. 124.

    Legalize

    Damn. I have no idea what happened in teh news this week. All I know is that it’s approaching 70 degrees and sunny outside.

  126. 126.

    Martin

    BTW, Cole and DougJ owe dmsilev bigtime for getting this blog back on its proper foundation.

    And I hereby move that soonergrunt’s song be adopted as the official BJ anthem. I agree with citizen X that DIAF would benefit, but where do you draw the line? Skull-fuck kitten? Punch in the neck? Maybe we could just keep going with alternate verses.

  130. 130.

    Mark S.

    @mistersnrub:

    Donahue has got to be the worst fucking advocate in history (“there were only six scandals this year!” “If they’re 12 or 13, it’s not pedophilia!”). Keep letting him talk and Catholicism will outlawed in this country.

  132. 132.

    soonergrunt

    @Martin:

    And I hereby move that soonergrunt’s song be adopted as the official BJ anthem.

    Thanks!

    I agree with citizen X that DIAF would benefit, but where do you draw the line? Skull-fuck kitten? Punch in the neck? Maybe we could just keep going with alternate verses.

    More of this, please.

  134. 134.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @soonergrunt:

    A very fine effort, although I confess I can’t quite intuit the melody. Also, seeing as how we are now a Dear Leader Cult, shouldn’t we have something a little more paramilitary sounding, i.e. more like a boot camp marching chant:

    I don’t spoof but I’ve been trolled
    Hating Jane is pagehits gold
    1, 2, 3, 4
    TUNCH!

  135. 135.

    jl

    The Tunchforce runs this site. That is obvious to me now. What else could be so cranky, unpredictable and unsatisfiable?

    It explains the all the foody posts, that emphasize the maximum-eats aspect of food and drink.

    and all the +10s.

  136. 136.

    licensed to kill time

    @Cat Lady: I started to type that but got distracted imagining jogging down the beach chanting soonergrunt’s awesome lyrics.

    Skullfuck a kitten!
    Punch it in the neck!
    Take your rusty pitchfork
    and fuck ’em like heck!

    ok, weak ending..

  137. 137.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    OT

    Judge Walker gives plaintiffs grants favorable summary judgment in Fisa case.

    Here’s his argument. The government had a way to defend against al-Haramain’s case directly, in camera, but they refused to avail themselves of it.

    Read the article at FDL. Obama doj did a rope a dope and did not try to defend the indefensible . And also let the court decide the cases fate, rather than fold completely the governments case giving the appearance of acting out of political pressure from dems liberal base.

    This is Obama.

  140. 140.

    Michael

    Cue up the Lee Greenwood “Ah’m Proud to be Murkan” song, and hold up your “USA#1” foam fingers – I bring you a great triumph of our “bestest in the world freeest of enterprises” health care system.

    At birth, Houston Tracy let out a single loud cry before his father cut the cord and handed him to a nurse.
    …
    Instantly, Doug Tracy knew something was wrong with his son.
    …
    “He wasn’t turning pink fast enough,” Tracy said. “When they listened to his chest, they realized he had an issue.”
    …
    That turned out to be d-transposition of the great arteries, a defect in which the two major vessels that carry blood away from the heart are reversed. The condition causes babies to turn blue.
    …
    Surgery would correct it, but within days of Houston’s birth March 15, Tracy learned that his application for health insurance to cover his son had been denied. The reason: a pre-existing condition.
    …

    Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/25/2068267/crowley-newborn-with-heart-defect.html#tvg#ixzz0jmwT8fuv

  142. 142.

    freelancer

    @Shalimar:

    Oh, yes you may. I have a soft spot for Klein. On top of being one of the great voices against globalization and the perils of raw capitalism for our time, she’s also smoking hot for a woman who is 10 years older than me. (Brains are an afrodisiac for me)

  145. 145.

    El Cid

    @Michael: Are there no charities? Can he just not drop the infant off in an emergency room? Is he too good to go broke and get on Medicaid? Are there no poorhouses?

  146. 146.

    El Cid

    @freelancer: Just don’t put Naomi Klein on a panel with Andrew Sullivan, because you’ll never get to hear her over Sullivan’s hysterical anti-left screams.

  147. 147.

    Michael D.

    @Dracula:

    Can we please throw this “-gate” trend under the bus full of punched hippies?

    One of my BIGGEST peeve. Yes to this. It’s as though gate is a word whose definition is “controversy” or something. Its the fucking last four letters of the name of a hotel.

    God forbid something happens with Microsoft or at the Department of Defense.

    Gatesgate. Someone would think that is totally clever.

  157. 157.

    robertdsc

    @eemom:
    Perhaps, but in a couple of pics I have of her, her hair is red. A 2006 video has her hair as red. So that’s where I’m coming from.

  158. 158.

    Arkon DougJ

    @Origuy:

    Lesbian Albatross Til Graduation.

    You’re right, the T should be a U. I can’t spell acronyms today.

  159. 159.

    canuckistani

    @soonergrunt:

    Melody? Nobody said shit about a melody.

    Everyone makes up their own melody and sings it as loud as they can. It’s the BJ way.

  163. 163.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @canuckistani:

    Everyone makes up their own melody and sings it as loud as they can. It’s the BJ way.

    New tag line
    Balloon-Juice: Skull-fucking the Music of the Ainur since 2002.

  164. 164.

    Brent

    You all are a bunch of Cole cock sucking masochists. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

  167. 167.

    maus

    @Dracula:

    Make it stop, puleeze. Can we please throw this “-gate” trend under the bus full of punched hippies?

    So what were the “-gate”s between watergate and whitewatergate?

  171. 171.

    Uloborus

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:
    I have suspected this from just about day one of his presidency. His attitude towards all of Bush’s bizarre overuses of executive powers has been to halfheartedly defend them in court and go ‘Oh, no. The court has overruled me and reinstated habeas corpus in a way the next president will be stuck with. How awful. I am utterly defeated.’

    However, that this was his DELIBERATE strategy based on his general attitude of wanting to get things done via checks and balances (like DADT) was… just a guess on my part. I can’t prove it, so I generally did not like to push it. ‘It seems like something he would do’ is the same argument that lets Greenwald say exactly the opposite.

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