Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

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

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

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

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

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

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Let there be snark.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

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

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

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

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

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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Reader Interactions

135Comments

  1. 1.

    Dan

    please keep us posted on the tomato grower.

    I’ve been dying to know if that thing actually works.

  2. 2.

    Fergus Wooster

    Me too. We’ve got ours traditionally vertical in a raised bed. Our first tomato appeared yesterday – green, about the size of a grape. We’ve got 2 Champion plants that are supposed to give off juicy tomatoes with the diameter of a hamburger bun. Plus 2 heirlooms, and 2 cherry tomatoes.
    And zucchini and cucumbers.

    Can’t wait for the veggie harvest.

  5. 5.

    David in NY

    “[C]logged,” you say! “[C]logged”!!?? Don’t ask questions like how to get rid of dandelions (as many answers as there are homeowners) if you don’t like “clogged.”

  6. 6.

    stuckinred

    I made my own out of 5 gallons plastic buckets and didn’t get much. I was told to plant “patio tomato’s” or a similar small variety.

  8. 8.

    Punchy

    More great news for John McCain.

    Boy, I’d just love to see a Sunday Idiot actually call this c*cksucker out on his hypocrisy and flip-flopping on such a core, key issue. Or course, I’d love to see Keira Knightley nekid in my den, too.

    The two occuring having the approx. same percentage of happening.

  10. 10.

    Martin

    @Persia: Douchebaggy. I don’t care what his preferences are nor do I think how he votes is relevant. It’s his business, and outing people is a flat-out dick move.

    That said, I’m no fan of Lindsey.

  12. 12.

    Persia

    @stuckinred: That’s where my thoughts keep circling back to. I feel like I should have some kind of ethical stance, and then I think, “but it’s Lindsey Graham.”

  14. 14.

    r€nato

    That’s awesome JC. Now you’ll be able to pay your hospital bill with tomatoes when the Republicans replace ObamaCare with ChickenCare.

  16. 16.

    Ash Can

    I saw several of those tomato growers around the neighborhood last summer. Some didn’t grow very well, others got frickin huge. Good luck with yours.

  18. 18.

    beltane

    My husband wanted to get one of those tomato things, but then I yelled at him and all was well.

  20. 20.

    Sue

    My neighbor had two of those tomato grower things, hanging right next to each other. One had tomatoes (not many) while the other caught some nasty disease and was all shriveled and dead by August. So, your chances are probably as good as any conventional system.

  21. 21.

    Florida Cynic

    Can someone please tell me why CNN has found it necessary to note there were no indications that the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico was a terrorist incident? Who the hell would even seriously think that?

  22. 22.

    beltane

    @Face: Lindsay is a confirmed bachelor. It would be nice to not have this as an issue since there is so much else about him to critique.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    @geg6:

    You have got to go on over to TNC’s. Right now. I insist. Most awesome piece yet for CHM celebrating and TNC didn’t even write it

    And it’s not just about those old Confederacy days. I’d recommend that people read the obituary for the Civil Rights pioneer Dorothy Height, who recently died at age 98. One of her early experiences really struck me:

    A star student, the young Ms. Height applied to Barnard College and was accepted. Then, in the summer of 1929, shortly before classes began, she was summoned to New York by a Barnard dean.
    …
    There was a problem, the dean said. That Ms. Height had been admitted to Barnard was certain. But she could not enroll — not then, anyway. Barnard had already met its quota for Negro students that year.
    …
    Too distraught to call home, as she later wrote, Ms. Height did the only thing possible. Clutching her Barnard acceptance letter, she took the subway downtown to New York University. She was admitted at once, earning a bachelor’s degree in education there in 1933 and a master’s in psychology two years later.

    I am appalled at the ease with which the Barnard dean assumed that a Negro quota was mighty fine, thank you. And I am amazed at how Height didn’t buckle, but just kept on going. Another incident reminds me of how illegal immigrant day workers are treated today.

    Ms. Height was a caseworker with the New York City Welfare Department before becoming the assistant executive director of the Harlem Y.W.C.A. in the late 1930s. One of her first public acts at the Y was to call attention to the exploitation of black women working as domestic day laborers. The women, who congregated on street corners in Brooklyn and the Bronx known locally as “slave markets,” were picked up and hired, for about 15 cents an hour, by white suburban housewives who cruised the corners in their cars.
    …
    Ms. Height’s testimony before the New York City Council about the “slave markets” attracted the attention of the national and international news media. For a time, the publicity was enough to drive the markets underground, though they later re-emerged.

    Same crap today at day laborer centers, just a different shade of injustice.

  24. 24.

    licensed to kill time

    @Florida Cynic:

    Because theCheenyBooosh did such a bangup job of scaring the beejeezus out of the general public that anytime anything goes boom they automatically think “TERRORISTS!” and the good souls at CNN must soothe the fainters amongst us.

    I guess.

  25. 25.

    Face

    @beltane: Divorced, or never been married? If the former, than a Family Values hypocrite shitbag. If the latter, then probably gay, and while that bothers me not a whit, then he’s a Family Values hypocrite shitbag for all the gay-bashing over the years.

    In summary, I dont like Mr. Grayham all that much.

  27. 27.

    jl

    Brad De Long’s Earth Day Global Warming Panic Attack

    Looks like NASA has released data showing this is warmest

    Warm, and getting warmer
    New NASA data show just how quickly the climate is changing. What can we do now?
    Brad De Long, LA Times, April 22, 2010

    “…according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, we have just experienced the hottest twelve-month period in at least a thousand years.”

    latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-delong-20100422,0,5468093.story

    Earth Day Special II: More on My Global Warming Panic Attack
    Brad DeLong’s blog, April 22, 2010
    delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/04/earth-day-special-ii-more-on-my-global-warming-panic-attack.html

    Note that this is consistent with the hypothesis of consensus global warming science that warmer winters and more snow go together. It is not consistent with the hypothesis that more snow in the northeastern US means it must be colder all over the world.

    Probably still true that hypothesis test of recent warming trend not significant at arbitrary significance level of five percent used for announcing results in peer reviewed journals.

    Nevertheless, the point estimate is our best estimate of the recent rate of warming, and there is reason to suspect that the power of such a test is very low, maybe close to zero, due to limited data since post hoc eyeball estimate of beginning of cooling trend.

    (Power of test is the probability that you reject the null hypothesis of no recent warming trend if the alternative hypothesis of a warming trend is really true).

    So, if you interpret classical statistical tests in an incorrect way that might prevent you from passing an introductory statistics course, you can say that ‘no global warming’ and ‘recent global cooling’ is ‘in the ballpark’ of truth, I guess.

  28. 28.

    Persia

    @beltane: Yeah, I think some part of me wants to see him outed just so it’d be done. And then I think about what a dick move outing is, and I start going in circles all over again.

  29. 29.

    Brian J

    So here I am at work and politics comes up. One guy, who thinks he knows a lot but really, really doesn’t, mentioned how his mom was going to be voting a certain way (read: for the Republicans) because she was going to lose her job as a teacher’s aide due to budget cuts. I pointed out how this could not be the case if education spending were federalized or also if the stimulus money was larger. Which party voted against more stimulus spendig and doesn’t want the money to be spent federally but locally instead? The same one that this guy’s mother will be voting for in November.

    The stupid, oh does it burn!

  31. 31.

    freelancer

    @Tom Hilton

    Levin has responded directly to Manzi.

    Holy fuck, that’s awesome.

    Re: Sanity vs. Levin:

    You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.

  33. 33.

    r€nato

    @Persia: actually, the biggest ‘dick move’ is to be a closeted homosexual who engages in the worst sort of anti-gay rhetoric, votes to ban gay marriage, votes to ban gays from visiting partners in the hospital, and campaigns as a ‘family values’ (read, “I hate queers”) Republican.

    I can’t speak to Sen. Graham’s positions on all of this; but in general, outing is usually a well-earned ‘dick move’ after a series of ‘dick moves’ on the part of the outed politician.

  36. 36.

    Cat Lady

    My awesome Congressman Barney Frank sent me an email reply in response to the calls I made after the Scott Brown debacle (thanks Tim F.!)

    This one wasn’t personal like others I’ve received (the one I got from him after complaining about Hillary Clinton’s race baiting got answered right away – his sister was on Team Hillary), but it’s six long paragraphs, only one of which I will post here. Here’s the substance of what he had to say:

    “Substantively, I support legislation to provide universal coverage. My own preference would be a single-payer system. I believe that the Medicare system – in which I am now enrolled and have been for several years – works better than the private insurance systems, although it is obviously not perfect and needs some changes. But I also recognize that we are not close to having the support in the country that I wish we had for a single-payer system, and therefore we should do what we can achieve. I believe that the Massachusetts system has worked, on the whole, better than what existed before, and one of the things in favor of the federal bill, in my mind, is that it does somewhat approach the Massachusetts system. I am troubled, I should add, in general, by the notion of a mandate on people to buy healthcare plans, and I would have preferred something that avoided this, but I believe that something of this sort is necessary because a great number of the reforms that are very desirable – and broadly supported – cannot go forward unless we are able to broaden the base of those who are being insured. I note that the argument that this is unconstitutional surprises me some if it comes from people from Massachusetts, since the bill signed into law by Governor Romney in 2006 and passed by the Democratic Legislature, includes exactly this same sort of mandate, and if it is unconstitutional at the federal level, it is unconstitutional at the state level. I do not think there is a constitutional violation at either level and I believe that given the importance of universality to enact many of the reforms that are essential here, such as protection of people with preexisting conditions, the form of penalty for those who do not purchase is not punitive.”

    There’s a lot more he says about the process of passage, and what amendments should deal with, but long story short, he’s got my vote next time.

  37. 37.

    jl

    I’m sorry, I forgot my suggestion.

    The slavish Obot Cole needs to call in some favors and put asiangrrlMN and me in control of the committe that designs our US money.

    We want to put Tunch and pics of hot chicks and dudes on all our money.

    This is part of an important effort to save the soundness of our money, so Cole should step on it and get it done quickly.

    Thnx.

    PS. if Cole gets right to it, I will be gracious and get Cole on too. Something like a design with Tunch rampant treading on Cole dormant right on the front. It will be very old school militaristic and wingnuts will like it.

  38. 38.

    Warren Terra

    Apparently McMegan has weighed in with an eminently mockable post about the new C-notes. I say apparently because I’ve only read Ezra Klein’s post on McMegan’s post, rather than click through. Closing line of the excerpt Ezra posted:

    What I will suggest is that the trivial damage done by counterfeiters might not be worth making our national currency a laughingstock.

    .
    Apparently it’s another example of McMegan’s situational ethics: everything is judged by how it affects her. She’s not much affected by counterfeiting (she’s certainly never had to forfeit a much-needed $100 because her till contained a phony note), so the aesthetic inconvenience of slightly modernized bills has her all in a dander.

    @Persia:

    Anyone have an opinion on the possible outing of Lindsey Graham?

    Well, we all know he’s metaphorically a c0cksncker. Metaphorically being a c0cksncker is an insult, while being an actual c0cksncker is not really an insult, is entirely a matter of personal preference, and is none of my business. Surely we can write about how his votes, his policy preferences, and his public stances are bad for America without lowering ourselves to spread rumors and innuendo about aspects of his private life that would be quite unobjectionable if true? I mean, it’s true that there’s the potential for a Gay Rights hypocrisy angle there – but even if he indeed is gay, he’s hardly trying to maximize his freedom to live a gay lifestyle either, so I’m uncertain about how bad a hypocrite he’d be. Although, as he’s a veteran (and a military lawyer no less), his hypocrisy on the rights of gays to risk their necks for their country may be quite telling – if all this is true. But still, my main answer is that I don’t care whether it’s true.

  39. 39.

    someguy

    Tomato growers are cool, but have you heard the truth about Acai berry juice and weight loss? As for this:

    I can’t speak to Sen. Graham’s positions on all of this

    I hear it’s bottom. Definitely bottom.

  40. 40.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @r€nato: That’s a joke, right?

    “Intelligent Design vs Evolution” is unique in that the playing pieces are small rubber brains and each team plays for “brain” cards. Each player uses his or her brains to get more brains, and the team with the most brains wins.

    That has to be a satirical site. Or satirical game? The goal is “to get more brains”?

    If the creationists are now becoming zombies, that’s almost as bad as Republicans becoming libertarians.

  41. 41.

    Fergus Wooster

    @Persia: I’m not sure Graham meets the criteria for outing. I don’t recall him flogging on the queers during ’04 or after the way, say, Larry Craig, did. It’s sort of like Jim Kolbe from Arizona – a gay Republican, but not nasty or hypocritical enough on gay issues to justify the invasion of privacy.

    On the other hand, you’ve got someone like Crist who backed a gay adoption ban in Florida. Or Ken Mehlman, who ran the RNC during the 2004 Presidential Election (“the gays are coming to marry your children”). Or Ted Haggard (“Ted #2”). Happily closeted gay men who try to legislate gay rights away are fair game for outing, IMHO.

    I’m still waiting for Rick Perry.

  43. 43.

    You Don't Say

    I’ve heard bad things about those hanging tomato planters.

    Watching NFL channel talk draft and the panel is expecting Tebow to go in the first round?!?

    If so (or in second or third) somebody here (I can’t remember who) owes me something (we never determined the wager).

  44. 44.

    John Cole

    People who are honestly worried because 100 dollar bills are too ugly should just shoot themselves in the head and save us the time of having to put up with their bullshit.

  46. 46.

    geg6

    John, my sister has a gigantic veggie garden, but bought some of the hanging tomato growers last year just for the hell of it.

    The awful tomato blight got her entire tomato crop in the garden. But her hanging tomatoes did well.

    Don’t know why the blight didn’t get them, but there you are.

  47. 47.

    Fergus Wooster

    @Linda Featheringill:

    Houston. Our last cold snap was in March, which is pretty rare for us. This is our first proper veggie garden, but I’m told that as spring moves into summer, it really takes off.

    The Champion tomatoes were bred for Houston’s climate, and are supposed to give off up to 50 lbs of tomatoes per plant (fingers crossed). . .

    If’n that ever happens, I’ll be sure to post some veggie-porn. And cucumber sandwiches for all. Also, too.

  48. 48.

    jl

    I agree with Cole on the triviality of currency aesthetics, but it remains true that TunchNotes will be superior to all designs of money ever in the history of humankind.

    Cole should see to it that it gets done, IMHO.

  51. 51.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Warren Terra: Personally, I’m a fan of the way Ezra put it:

    Megan McArdle wonders whether we should actually be that worried about counterfeit currency:

    Sort of sums it all up kind of like saying “former half-term governor.”

  53. 53.

    Mark S.

    Checking the Corner for Manzi-gate updates, came across this from Mark Krikorian:

    John wrote years back that “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” I would elaborate, inspired by the recent controversy at Amnesty International: “All organizations that are not actually anti-jihadist will over time become dhimmified and accommodate themselves to jihadism.”

    God that’s stupid.

  55. 55.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Fergus Wooster: Ahh. Houston.

    This summer, you might have to furnish some shade for your tomatoes [and other stuff]. If you stretch some cloth or something 2-3 feet over the plants, you can catch a breeze sometimes. Giving them some shade, especially in the afternoon, and a breeze might stretch out your growing season.

    [Yes, I come from a long line of dirt farmers. :-)]

  56. 56.

    Ed in NJ

    I really enjoy Dave Weigel’s Right Now blog. He has a piece about New Left Media, which is a college group conducting interviews at Tea Parties.

    Right Now

    I especially laughed at this quote from the student conducting the interviews:

    “CNN, like Fox News and MSNBC, should be largely dismissed as serious sources of news,” said Whiteside, “as these outlets are all in the market of selling journalism through personalities, talking haircuts who report as much on what each other are saying as they do on reality. We could gather similarly substance-less interviews from people whose primary news source is Ed Schultz, but until those people gather with misspelled signs to protest policies they don’t understand, we have no reason to.”

  57. 57.

    freelancer

    @Mark S.:

    It’s almost like wingnuts can’t process anything beyond some retarded Bushian “with us or against us” dichotomy. Explaining that the world is not a binary state is anathema to them and makes their heads go ‘splodytime.

  59. 59.

    Poopyman

    Don’t know why the blight didn’t get them, but there you are

    ‘cuz it’s a soil-borne pathogen, IIRC. Thanks for reminding me. I got hit semi-hard by that as well, so now I’m thinking I should try the upside-down method.

  60. 60.

    geg6

    I would just like to go on record to say that the only good thing to come out of the whole Roethlesberger fiasco has been the laser-like focus the city now has on the Pens/Sens game tonight.

    As a huge hockey fan, this is good. Not only are they providing the giant tv screen outside Mellon Arena, but they have also opened up an outside terrace pub where drinking age adults can watch and eat and drink Mellon Arena snacks for a small cover charge.

    Mario takes care of his fans. We lurve him.

  62. 62.

    Kristine

    I tried an upside down planter once, a couple of years ago, without much success. It wasn’t the bag, but a standalone planter atop my deck. Four plants. Two didn’t get enough sun, and they didn’t grow well. The other two grew very bushy/leafy, but produced a grand total of two tomatoes. A bag may work out better. I’m back to ground planting.

  63. 63.

    tim

    It was my impression from the television commercials that those upside down tomato hanger devices were intended for white haired retired couples only, who have the time to stand around their tomato bags and smile with effusive grimaces and gesticulate wildly about how amaaaaaaaaaazing their tomoatoes and the tomato bags are.

    That said, I look forward to hearing how your tomatoes come out from this bizarre contraption.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    @Poopyman:

    Ah! That explains it then. I was just happy that she bought the damn things on a lark. My John’s tomatoes got hit with the blight, too, so I had none without those hanging things.

    That said, my John made me a steak dinner with asparagus fresh from his garden last night. There is nothing on earth quite like asparagus picked an hour before you eat it. And how awesome that the weather here has been so fine this spring so as to have somewhat early asparagus.

  66. 66.

    Calouste

    @Warren Terra:

    What I will suggest is that the trivial damage done by counterfeiters might not be worth making our national currency a laughingstock.

    The dollar notes are already a laughing stock.

  67. 67.

    bemused

    @Persia:
    Thom Hartmann said today that John Kerry & Lindsey together will be introducing a climate bill next week. Thom was wondering if there was a connection between that & the “outing” now, perhaps a preemption to discredit Lindsey & the climate bill.

  68. 68.

    Joe Vegas

    @Linda Featheringill: @
    I’m also growing tomatos in Houston. This is second time for me. Black cherries, romas, and yellow pears, both in pots and in a raised garden, as a sort of experiment to see what works better. We have big trees in the yard that allow morning and afternoon sun, but shade around noontime. So far all is working out pretty well.

    Heard the hanging tomato growers work well – fruit ends up being juicier than normal (coz water flows down instead of hiking up?). Might try that next year.

  69. 69.

    Bulworth

    Oh no. CNN sez Wall Street didn’t like Obama’s speech today. Sounds like their feelings were hurt. More good newz for John McCain.

  70. 70.

    Fergus Wooster

    @Linda Featheringill: Thanks! I’ll definitely try that when summer comes on.

    Although in all seriousness, my mind can’t process the idea of me suffering another Houston summer. Every one is hotter and more humid than the one before. And I have to wear a coat and tie to work.

    A colleague complained last August of “chronic swamp-ass”. About right.

  71. 71.

    licensed to kill time

    @tim:

    To be completely effective while effusively grimacing and wildly gesticulating at the topsy turvy tomato, they must also be garbed in a Snuggie(tm). It completes the ritual.

  72. 72.

    jl

    More news on the coming Free Capitalism bartertopia:

    Is It a Movement?
    We’ve been talking about Nevada’s Sue Lowden and her advocacy of bartering medical care for foodstuffs.
    But it turns out that a week ago another Republican in Tennessee was proposing bartering for medical treatment (in this case with VEGETABLES rather than CHICKENS) as a possible alternative to conventional health insurance

    talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/04/lowden_a_johnny_come_lately.php?ref=fpblg

    The Nevada GOP is trying to defend Sue Lowden’s ChickenCare proposal.
    Their argument is that the Dems are focusing on chickens because they can’t deal with her argument on the merits which they, somewhat creatively, interpret as getting rid of the health insurance model in favor direct cash negotiations between patients and doctors. Says the Nevada GOP’s Ciara Turns: “They can make this about chickens and about GOATS, and using one word instead of another word – maybe she should have said ‘negotiation’ instead of ‘barter.’”

    talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/04/the_old_college_try.php?ref=fpblg

    I emphasized the animal names, including ‘goats’ in the last quote.

    Kaus is running for Senate in CA. Coincidence? I think not.

  74. 74.

    Nick

    Here’s how Wall St. reform will go down.

    the media will spend the entire weekend ravaging the Democrats for cutting off bipartisan negotiations for political gain to force a bill through the Senate in the afterglow of the President’s speech. They will say that they’re forcing through because there’s something wrong with the bill, there’s something they don’t want us to know about it…depending on the audience, that will be a subtle attempt to rile up those who are rabidly anti-bank or think Obama is a socialist. By Monday, the Republicans will be winning the message war because the media will shut Democrats out all weekend, they will all vote to block the bill, and Democrats will be forced to drop it or water it down

  76. 76.

    Poopyman

    @Bulworth:
    That’s curious, because the market made steady gains after about 11:45, finishing in positive territory.

    If I didn’t know better, I’d begin to suspect CNN is making shit up.

    (Where’s that rolleyes emoticon again?)

  78. 78.

    ChockFullO'Nuts

    I want to rename the GOP to mean “Grand Old Poultry.”

    The Chicken Party.

    Not only do they have a candidate who wants people to pay their doctors with chickens (a pundit asks how many chickens does it take to get a CT scan?), the Republicans have acted like chickens on healthcare reform, like chickens on loans to American automakers to save jobs, like chickens on financial reforms. They are chicken to let Democrats actually govern and do what the American people elected them to do.

    If I am Harry Reid, I don’t make a campaign appearance in Nevada without a chicken on the podium in a cage labeled “Republican Healthcare Plan.” I talk about giving the GOP the Pullet Surprize for chickening out on bold action to solve serious problems. If I am the Democratic Party, I make my 2010 campaign theme the cowardice of Republicans in the face of twenty first century challenges. Reject the Grand Old Poultry party.

    Take their stupid chickenshit ideas and shove them right up their asses.

    Let’s take off the gloves and beat these morons to death with their own words.

  80. 80.

    r€nato

    @Poopyman: the DJIA also is up well over 50% since its nadir of about 14 months ago.

    Still waiting for Jonah Goldberg to give Obama credit for that, since he was so quick to cite the diving stock market as proof of Obama’s mismanagement of the economy a whole 6 weeks into his first term… waiting…waiting…waiting…

  82. 82.

    jibeaux

    I’d like to try them, but I don’t have a good place to put them where they’d get sun. I don’t know why you see them sometimes on covered porches. It doesn’t seem like they’d do real well there.

    If you have any sort of sloping, sunny area, some neighbors just planted up a whole slope in cherry tomatoes, so they ran down, did very very well. They could go and pick about 50 at a time. I complimented them on them, hoping they’d take the hint and tell me to take a few, but people are apparently getting obtuse these days.

  83. 83.

    licensed to kill time

    __

    There’s no such thing as an ugly $100 bill.

    You wake up next to an ugly $100 bill, you gonna kick it out of bed? chew your arm off? I think not.

  84. 84.

    Warren Terra

    @ChockFullO’Nuts:
    They’ve been The Chicken Party for years now, what with Dick Cheney’s 1% solution and all the “surrender your liberties or the islamofascists’ll git ya” rhetoric.

    The scary thing is the confluence of the Chicken Party and the Tea Partiers, because I’ve heard that Tea Chicken is delicious.

  85. 85.

    Poopyman

    You wake up next to an ugly $100 bill, you gonna kick it out of bed? chew your arm off? I think not.

    If I wake up next to a $100 bill, I’m going to break an arm patting myself on the back for whatever it is I did, which I doubtless won’t be able to remember.

  86. 86.

    twiffer

    @jl: does the the nevada GOP not understand that “negotiate” is not a synonym of “barter”? barter has a quite specific meaning; either she meant “barter” or she has a poor grasp of the english langauge.

  87. 87.

    mr. whipple

    @Poopyman:

    That’s curious, because the market made steady gains after about 11:45, finishing in positive territory.

    If I didn’t know better, I’d begin to suspect CNN is making shit up.

    We watched it on MSNBC, and right after they go to a trader on the floor of Wall Street who starts waxing poetic about Ronald Reagan and ‘too much regulation bad’. These fucktards STILL don’t get it.

  91. 91.

    Bubblegum Tate

    @licensed to kill time:

    You wake up next to an ugly $100 bill, you gonna kick it out of bed? chew your arm off? I think not.

    Well, to praphrase Shit My Dad Says, sometimes you wake up to a $100 bill on the dresser and then realize it’s there because life fucked you last night.

  92. 92.

    Tax Analyst

    So I went out to the henhouse this morning and picked up a couple of hens so I could pay my overdue doctor bill. His receptionist took them in, but came back and said I only owed 1 3/4 chickens because the insurance company had finally remitted that chicken neck and beak that they had been denying for so long. She asked me if I just wanted to credit my account or if I wanted my change. Well, I’ve got other bills to pay so I asked for the change. I’m going to take those two goat testicles and the pig’s foot over to the dentist right now, and then I’m gonna go buy a new wallet. This new bartering method is really tough on them.

  93. 93.

    David in NY

    @geg6:

    Don’t know why the blight didn’t get them, but there you are.

    How interesting, assuming they were near one another and thus in the same general microclimate.

    My guess: I’ve heard that for some fungi to attack a plant, the plant needs to be moist for several consecutive hours (and I’m not sure that periods of active rainfall, during which spores are apt to be washed off, count). So plants planted in the ground, with the lower parts shaded, seem more likely to stay moist for the requisite period. I’d bet the plants on the upside-down thingy dry out pretty fast.

    What’s the selling point of the upside-down thingy, anyway, besides making us oldsters smile.

  94. 94.

    Pangloss

    Those $100 bills may be ugly, but they have something that you can’t get from a regular $100 bill…. Zazz!

    Zing, Zork, Kapowza, call it what you want, in any language it spells mazooma in the bank!

  96. 96.

    ChockFullO'Nuts

    @Tax Analyst:

    Bawk! Laughed my wattle off.

    If I am a doctor, I am putting up a sign at the sign in window in my waiting room: CASH, CHECK OR CREDIT CARD ONLY — NO POULTRY PLEASE

  97. 97.

    licensed to kill time

    @MikeJ:

    They should have put lupus on there. Only I heard that for lupus you need to pay with a Fox.

  98. 98.

    Brachiator

    @ChockFullO’Nuts:

    Not only do they have a candidate who wants people to pay their doctors with chickens …

    I din’t realize that some Republicans were continuing to run with this nonsense.

    If this is supposedly a direct transaction between doctor and patient, is this supposed to do away with insurance companies (and have their lobbyists been told about this)?

    So let’s see. Some wingnut gives a doctor 4 chickens for services worth $8,000. Either the doctor is going to have to show the difference between the fair market value of the chickens and the price of the service as income or the doctor is going to have to kick a 1099 back to the patient, who will then show the difference as income on his own tax return. The doctor could, of course, drop his fees for cash paying customers — and go broke. Or the GOP is going to have to throw out the entire tax system.

    And when are GOP members of Congress going to drop their health insurance and go on the Chicken Plan?

    What a bunch of clowns.

  100. 100.

    mr. whipple

    And when are GOP members of Congress going to drop their health insurance and go on the Chicken Plan?

    You’re onto something there.

    If Reid can’t parlay this into a win, there’s no hope for him.

  101. 101.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    I finally broke down and picked up one of those topsy turvy tomato growers. We’ll see how that works out.

    I inherited a couple of these and have tried them twice.

    The first time I had a little trouble finding a good spot for the plant to get full sun. In fact, the grower itself partially shades the plant when it is small and slows down its development.

    The second time the plant stem snapped from stress after the mass of the plant got to be too much for it to support.

    If you are in an urban environment it might be worth a try, but I have a decent sized garden for growing tomatoes the old-fashioned way and won’t be using the topsy-turvy again.

  102. 102.

    MikeJ

    @Bruce (formerly Steve S.):

    The first time I had a little trouble finding a good spot for the plant to get full sun.

    This is my problem. The only way anything grows is putting it in a planter on wheels and chasing the sun around during the day. Too many trees.

  103. 103.

    Anne Laurie

    @geg6:

    If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense…
    __
    You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood, the great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

    Wow.

    Sad thing is… Jourdan could almost have been writing this in 1965 instead of 1865.

  104. 104.

    ChockFullO'Nuts

    New physician rate chart:

    Office Visit — 2 chickens

    Annual Checkup — 4 chickens

    Blood Tests — 3 chickens

    X-Rays — 3 chickens

    In-office Minor Surgery — 6 chickens

    Republican Patients with Grand Old Poultry Discount Card: You may substitute up to two fertilized eggs for chickens at payment time. Please do not send eggs through the mail.

  105. 105.

    Will

    I had no luck with tomatoes, but my topsy-turvy produced enough jalapeno peppers for several families.

  106. 106.

    Anne Laurie

    @beltane:

    My husband wanted to get one of those tomato things, but then I yelled at him and all was well.

    My husband, the Virgo, thinks they would be “tidier” than the current system with the (expensive) self-watering planters and ‘tomato ladders’… which sit next to our driveway, between the crabgrass patch and the totally untended ‘buffer zone’ of oak trees and scrub around the storage facility next door. I keep telling him that if he wants “tidy” vegetable production, he might just as well spend the money to set up a complete hydroponics system in the basement.

  109. 109.

    lamh31

    This is gonna be so disgusting, but I watched last night’s episode of Law & Order SVU, and based on that story, I just wanted to give the men of BJ some advice. Dispose of your own condom after….

    THAT IS ALL!!!

  112. 112.

    jeffreyw

    Mr Cole, WP sez my comments with links to whats4dinner are spam. Gonna be hard for BHF to do her Thursday night menu thing.

  113. 113.

    Mark S.

    Chunky Bobo:

    Both politically and intellectually, American conservatism would be better off if Levin’s fans responded to Manzi’s post, not by objecting that he didn’t take “Liberty and Tyranny” seriously enough (he did take Levin’s arguments seriously, and that’s precisely why his criticisms were so scathing), but by saying “relax, it’s only entertainment.”

    No, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t engage in this kind of knob-hobbling when you’re speaking to one audience and then laugh it off as a big joke when other people point out how stupid it is. This has got to be the shallowest and stupidest political movement in history.

  114. 114.

    Svensker

    @twiffer:

    does the the nevada GOP not understand that “negotiate” is not a synonym of “barter”? barter has a quite specific meaning; either she meant “barter” or she has a poor grasp of the english langauge.

    She obviously brain-farted and said “barter” instead of “bargain” — it’s fairly clear if you watch the original video — but then instead of just saying, “Oh I meant bargain”, she doubled down on it and started with the stupid chicken thing. Or maybe she doesn’t fugging know the difference between bartering and bargaining.

    If she doesn’t get elected, I predict a news reader job at FOX for her.

  115. 115.

    Svensker

    @Mark S.:

    Chunky Bobo’s column made me so mad I’m gonna get off the internets for a while.

    But it’s only entertainment!

  116. 116.

    Mark S.

    @Svensker:

    But you might miss something really exciting, like a new Rick-roll or defense of Creed.

    What will you tell your grandchildren?

  117. 117.

    Tonal Crow

    @Persia: It’s appropriate to out a person who has considerable power and who uses it to oppress members of the group in which she denies membership. Thus, if Jerry Falwell had been gay, it would have been appropriate to out him: he frequently used his high-profile forum to push legislation, judicial decisions, and private practices aimed at denying gays basic civil rights.

    Beyond that limited (but important) case, I believe outing to be improper.

  119. 119.

    Mark S.

    I eagerly await the glibertarian rebuttal to this:

    They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators. Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information.

    Free markets, baby, they’re mother fucking magic!

  120. 120.

    Gravenstone

    @Svensker:

    If she doesn’t get elected, I predict a news reader job at FOX for her.

    Apparently she was already a talking head in Nevada, so it’s not like it’d be a role stretch.

  121. 121.

    dmsilev

    @Cris:

    Video games can never be art. Discuss.

    Strongly disagree. Take a strongly story-driven game like, say, Planescape: Torment; it’s literature in a somewhat different medium than pure text. Is it a timeless masterpiece on the level of the Mona Lisa? Probably not. But then, the vast vast majority of paintings aren’t at that level either.

    dms

  122. 122.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Mark S.:

    Both politically and intellectually, American conservatism would be better off if Levin’s fans responded to Manzi’s post, not by objecting that he didn’t take “Liberty and Tyranny” seriously enough (he did take Levin’s arguments seriously, and that’s precisely why his criticisms were so scathing), but by saying “relax, it’s only entertainment.”

    Wait…what?! Are you fucking kidding me?! So Douthat jumps on his NYT blog and spouts off the following nonsense:

    On domestic policy, I think the intellectual right doesn’t have nearly as much of a close-mindedness problem as many people seem to think. Even if you don’t venture into the wilder parts of the blogosphere and just stick with National Review, The Weekly Standard, National Affairs (which has made a big difference on this front) and a few other outlets, you’ll find a pretty lively debate about everything from financial reform to health care to taxes, with plenty of room for diversity and disagreement and heterodoxy.

    And then when that lively debate fails to materialize (because it was never a real thing in the first place), he tries to pull the “Hey, it’s just entertainment, maaaaaannnnn! Why so serious?” card? American “conservatism” would really be better off if its practitioners responded to pointed and accurate criticism with “We’re just trying to entertain people?”

    So the New York Times doesn’t have to keep beefing up its ACORN Department? They don’t need to stay on top of the performance art that is the Republican Party and its never-ending army of know-nothings?

    I think there are a lot of editors and journalists who are partying nonstop at the news of this revelation.

  123. 123.

    asiangrrlMN

    @jl: Yes. Double this. jl and I can design some kick-ass monies. TUUUUUUNCH!

    Graham: On civil rights issues, here is his record according to ontheissues.com.

    Support the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. (Aug 2008)
    Voted YES on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
    Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
    Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC. (Jul 1999)
    Voted YES on ending preferential treatment by race in college admissions. (May 1998)
    Supports anti-flag desecration amendment. (Mar 2001)
    Rated 0% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
    Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
    Rated 11% by the NAACP, indicating an anti-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006)
    Amend Constitution to define traditional marriage. (Jun 2008)

    Therefore, out the motherfucker. I don’t give a shit about his orientation until he votes for laws that harm LGBT folk.

  125. 125.

    mandarama

    @jl:

    But it turns out that a week ago another Republican in Tennessee

    Aw jeezus…not another one. You know why my every comment here has something to do with either where I grew up or where I live now? Because neither place will stay out of the fucking news, and I feel like I need to tender y’all a daily apology. Someone send MS and TN a 50-gallon drum of STFU and a straw.

    And if we end up with crazy-ass Zach Wamp as governor, I’ll have to come apologize twice a day.

    On the plus side, I guess…we grow a lot of great tomatoes. I guess when Rep. Bell talks Vanderbilt and St. Thomas and Centennial into taking tomatoes for medical services, we’ll be doing great.

  126. 126.

    Anne Laurie

    @geg6:

    The awful tomato blight got her entire tomato crop in the garden. But her hanging tomatoes did well.
    __
    Don’t know why the blight didn’t get them, but there you are.

    Apparently the spores that cause the blight don’t travel very well when airborne. The patient-zero infected plants seem to have originated at a “factory” producer for the national big-box home-supply megacorps. Last year our tomato seedlings came from either a local independent garden center (Mahoney’s, for the Boston-centric) or mail-ordered from two different “gourmet” sources, and none of our immediate neighbors have tomatoes in their gardens. So our plants grew lushly into October before succumbing to the usual end-of-season woes. On the other hand, we had a record rainy summer, so our beautiful green vines didn’t ripen nearly as many tomatoes as they should have — not enough sun!

  128. 128.

    Karen

    My next door neighbor is a construction contractor & he said he’s seen the topsy turvey things being used. He was surprised at how well they did. Since we don’t put anything out generally until after Mother’s Day, I have to wait.

  130. 130.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @jibeaux:

    When my cherry maters are producing I give out bags of them to the neighbors as I usually get more than I can ever eat. One year my next door neighbor saw me unloading mater plants from my car in spring and said “you planting cherries again?” I said yes and he gave me a thumbs up. I am such a sucker.

  131. 131.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Speaking of maters, does anyone know why there is a shortage of Roma mater plants this year? I have not been able to find any anywhere, the closest I got was an empty container at Lowes. There is not a Roma in sight, anywhere.

  132. 132.

    kay

    @ADS:

    This type of stuff just upsets me terribly and I know I should just leave it the frell alone but… oh well, whatever….

    Well, don’t be upset because I had never seen the blue dress-black belt-with-black boots outfit before, and I like it a lot. I might now purchase black boots with a flat heel, to wear with a dress.
    They hate Michelle Obama. They hated Hillary Clinton, as First Lady. It’s another wacko obsession on the Right, the First Lady thing. It’s just further evidence of how small and shallow and nasty they are.
    I never gave a second thought to Laura Bush, or what she wore.

  133. 133.

    Anne Laurie

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Speaking of maters, does anyone know why there is a shortage of Roma mater plants this year? I have not been able to find any anywhere, the closest I got was an empty container at Lowes. There is not a Roma in sight, anywhere.

    Uh-oh. Wonder if it’s a result of last year’s Blight Disaster? Maybe the factory-farm ‘sources’ where the spores originated didn’t replant this year, or aren’t getting the orders from the Lowes where angry customers came in screaming about dead plants?

    More importantly for you, is it too late to start your own Romas from seed outdoors?

  134. 134.

    Lovely Rita

    @ADS 129

    It’s always upsetting to see people acting like venomous seventh grade girls. I guarantee that a majority of the posters on that forum are rich middle aged white women who have never had to work for anything in their soulless little lives. It’s pathetic. Don’t let it bother you, because I can promise you that it doesn’t bother Michelle. And in regards to her plane outfit, you know, god fucking forbid that the woman be comfortable while she travels. Bitches.

  135. 135.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Lovely Rita: Holy shit. I skimmed over the comments, and yeah. Wow. Those are some really nasty bitches. I am stunned speechless. I love the black/red dress, and I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t care. The venom is amazing, and more than a little sad. Disgusting, actually. I’m never going back there again.

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