• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

No one could have predicted…

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

No Justins, No Peace

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / We are all Firebaggers now

We are all Firebaggers now

by DougJ|  May 11, 20104:33 pm| 30 Comments

This post is in: Good News For Conservatives

FacebookTweetEmail

The Tory-Lib Dem alliance in the UK has massive potential to generate annoying pseudo-narratives in the United States. This is good news for Unity 12! It’s proof that left-wing netroots should work with teabaggers! The opinion pieces and blog posts pretty much write themselves.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « This Blog Has Gone to the Birds
Next Post: Eleventh Dimensional Gay Chess »

Reader Interactions

30Comments

  1. 1.

    de stijl

    May 11, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    Broder just got his first non-Viagra boner since the Ford administration.

  2. 2.

    Bill Zebub

    May 11, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    Memo straight from headquarters: the line “We are all X now” is officially worn the fuck out.

    That is all.

  3. 3.

    R-Jud

    May 11, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    The opinion pieces and blog posts pretty much write themselves.

    And will re-write themselves saying the exact opposite if the coalition blows up in 7 months’ time.

  4. 4.

    That Other Mike

    May 11, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    I’d love to see the horrified looks when the baggers realise that most Conservatives are essentially equivalent in US terms to moderate Democrats.

  5. 5.

    Evinfuilt

    May 11, 2010 at 4:45 pm

    And it would all make sense if the Tories were anything close to our Republicans, but instead they’re more Liberal than most of our Democrats.

    The lesson I’ve learned is if the Dems break into 2 parties, they still could win majorities, just by allowing the Republicans to go even more insane.

  6. 6.

    steve

    May 11, 2010 at 4:46 pm

    Memo straight from headquarters: the line “We are all X now” is officially worn the fuck out.

    you’re saying that to a guy who would put ‘good news for conservatives’ on a post about washing his car. In other words, a guy so dumb he doesn’t realize that giving everything the same tag makes the tag worthless.

  7. 7.

    Brachiator

    May 11, 2010 at 4:51 pm

    The Tory-Lib Dem alliance in the UK has massive potential to generate annoying pseudo-narratives in the United States. This is good news for Unity 12! It’s proof that left-wing netroots should work with teabaggers!

    Based on one BBC news story, Labour reminds me of the Republicans who continue to act as though McCain won the presidential election.

    Earlier the Lib Dems said talks with Labour failed because “the Labour Party never took seriously the prospects of forming a progressive, reforming government”.
    …
    A spokesman said key members of the Labour team “gave every impression of wanting the process to fail” and the party had made “no attempt at all” to agree a common approach on issues like schools funding and tax reform.

    On the other hand, even in the UK, nobody is quite sure how a Tory/LibDem coalition is supposed to work.

    The Conservatives have been in days of negotiations with the Lib Dems – who were also negotiating with Labour – after the UK election resulted in a hung parliament.
    …
    Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg must get the support of a majority of his MPs and his party’s ruling body, the federal executive, before he can enter into a coalition.

  8. 8.

    SapphireCate

    May 11, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when the coalition falls apart in 18 months, triggers a vote of no confidence and a new election and the pundits start chanting mantras about the ineffectiveness of a centre-right government!

    They’ll do that, right?

  9. 9.

    David in NY

    May 11, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    @Bill Zebub:

    I think the “We are all X now” should have been retired in late Nov. 2004, when Garrison Keillor wrote a devastating little song called “We’re All Republicans Now.” Here’s a couple versions: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2004/11/27/scripts/repub.shtml and http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2006/04/01/scripts/republicans.shtml

  10. 10.

    Jim

    May 11, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    Speaking of FDL, it seems we’re back to the “Obama is unqualified” meme. This one is a beaut.

    But her background is also very similar to Obama’s (maybe that’s why you kind of like her). He also has a nonexistent legal background. He is perhaps the only editor of the Harvard Law Review in its history who has never written a single article, a single case comment, a single published word on the law.

    He also admitted a few weeks ago hat he was unemployed for 3 months after graduating from Harvard Law School and being unemployed is why he took the community organizer job. For someone who graduated from Harvard not to have a job, for someone who’s black these days not having a job offer, and for someone who is black who served as Editor of the HLR not to have a pile of job offers is an indictment against Obama. Kagan is very similar to him in that respect.

  11. 11.

    mistermix

    May 11, 2010 at 5:03 pm

    You’re far more imaginative than me – the only narrative I was thinking would come out of this is that Tories aren’t real conservatives.

  12. 12.

    David in NY

    May 11, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    @Jim:

    Do not do that. Made me go to the site, which I totally regret (though your excerpt had me on full notice).

  13. 13.

    Hob

    May 11, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    @steve: You know, if DougJ wants to beat a joke into the ground, that doesn’t actually make him dumb. And before saying shit like that, you might want to check whether you actually understood the joke in the first place. It is, like it’s been ever since the 2008 campaign, a reference to the way Republican columnists insist that everything is “good news for conservatives.”

  14. 14.

    mai naem

    May 11, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    I give this alliance 9 months. The Tories will screw the Libs. and Cameron will have to call another election. Cameron will be the Callaghan of the Tories. Sorry, but the natural allies of the Libs are not the Tories but Labor. Clegg only gives a crap about himself. Kind of the Bill Clinton of the Libs.

  15. 15.

    DougJ

    May 11, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    @Hob:

    Thanks.

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    May 11, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    The Tory-Lib Dem alliance in the UK has massive potential to generate annoying pseudo-narratives in the United States. This is good news for Unity 12!

    And even better news for John McCain, correct?

    Conservatives are essentially equivalent in US terms to moderate Democrats.

    Who in the US media would even bother to go there in the first place?

  17. 17.

    fourlegsgood

    May 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    Too late, Calamity Jane made common cause with Grover Norquist and the teabaggers months ago.

  18. 18.

    Texas Dem

    May 11, 2010 at 6:20 pm

    I really don’t care about British election or the Tory-Lib alliance, but I couldn’t help but notice that the new PM has a smokin’ hot wife. Yowza!

  19. 19.

    Nick

    May 11, 2010 at 6:34 pm

    The Tories are the British equivlaent of the Democrats…there is no conservative base in Britain, it’s like the conservative base in Vermont, it doesn’t exist…the Conservative Party is center right if you’re lucky. They can get away with something like this.

    Want proof? Would Zac Goldsmith ever have a place in the American Republican Party? Google him.

  20. 20.

    That Other Mike

    May 11, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    @Texas Dem: I think she’s pregnant again; if so, the man himself clearly agrees with you…

  21. 21.

    tatertot

    May 11, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    @SapphireCate:
    By golly, I hope so!!

  22. 22.

    Robert Sneddon

    May 11, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    @mai naem:

    Unfortunately the “natural allies” of the LibDems, the Labour Party ceased to exist when New Labour won the election in 1997 putting the Blairites in charge.

    I give the Lib/Con coalition two years or so before it falls apart. It might blow up spectacularly before then but it has a combined majority that can cope with some rebellion in the ranks over any given piece of legislation. The alternative Rainbow Alliance of Lib/NuLab plus all the other small parties and individual MPs could have kept New Labour in power now. However it wouldn’t last three months before some of them would leave in disgust, probably at Lord Mandelson’s efforts to etch away more civil liberties in the name of freedom and progress. It’s better for the Labour party that they step away from power right now; the next couple of years are not going to be pleasant and even if they helped create the financial situation we’re in they can at least claim at the next election they weren’t in charge when the shit really hit the fan for most folks.

  23. 23.

    Mumphrey

    May 11, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    I’m kind of amazed that Broder hasn’t already shoved his way onto the editorial page. No worries, though, he’ll be swooning over all the bipartisan comity tomorrow by the latest.

    People like him make me want to punch, well, people like him. He doesn’t care what the laws that get passed do, as long as some Republicans and some Democrats work on it together, and Sherrod Brown is pissed off that it went through. They could pass a bill that mandated the execution of David Broder, and as long as Joe Lieberman, McCain, Ben Nelson, Collins, Snowe and Mary Landreiu wrote it, and Sanders and Brown voted against it, and vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers were pissed off about it, they’d strap him into the chair a happy man. I don’t understand why he doesn’t just go away and yell at clouds on his own time.

  24. 24.

    Carl

    May 11, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    I just want to know how Scottish nationalism plays into the US Midterms.

  25. 25.

    Calouste

    May 11, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    @Robert Sneddon:
    The coalition has actually picked up quite a few things from the LibDems manifesto, so they aren’t too unhappy. The LibDems have given in on some hot button items for the Tories, like joining the Euro and immigration (although even the most fervent pro-Euro LibDem would probably agree that joining the Euro in the current financial turmoil is a no-no, so it’s not like they are giving away that much with that. But it sells well).

    Besides having quite a decent agreement worked out, what is going to hold the coalition together like nothing else is that they are going to have make cuts to lower the deficit and will consequently drop in the polls in the short term. They’ll have to stick together for a few years to see the recovery set in and regain the votes, otherwise Labour will just take over.

  26. 26.

    Comrade Bukharin

    May 11, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    @Texas Dem:

    You are correct, sir. Sam Cam is gorgeous!

  27. 27.

    Mike Kay

    May 11, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    @Jim: the problem is it’s all untrue.

    he was community organizer before he entered law school, not after.

    the assholes never fail to get the facts work.

    And he had plenty of offers after leaving law school. that’s how he met michelle, during a summer internship.

  28. 28.

    toujoursdan

    May 11, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Given the reactions of my Lib-Dem friends, I wouldn’t give this a year. They are outraged that the LD cozied up to the Tories and consider it a complete betrayal of the party principles.

    If the Tories succeed in their quick and dirty budget cuts to health and education, I’d be surprised if the Lib-Dems remain a viable major 3rd party after this.

  29. 29.

    Barney

    May 12, 2010 at 9:01 am

    @Nick: Zac Goldsmith inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his businessman/failed politician father, and was avoiding paying tax on in it the UK by being declared ‘non-domicile’. And he’s just been divorced for committing adultery. Of course he’d be welcome in the Republican party. He’d just have to find the right safe district where his environmental ideas could be overlooked in favour of his money.

  30. 30.

    mds

    May 12, 2010 at 10:07 am

    That’s right, the British Conservative Party is more liberal than the Democratic Party … in Bizarro World. The Tories are like moderate Republicans, back when the Republican Party was sane and non-theocratic. Starve social services of funding, and seek to prevent their own Paris Hiltons from having to pay estate tax. Just because they’re not anti-science idiots on climate change, and know that the NHS is the third rail, doesn’t make them left wing; it makes them non-stupid. For God’s sake, CamCam basically ran on “compassionate conservatism,” and haven’t we heard that somewhere before? Hence toujoursdan’s reference to some possible disaffection in the non-Tory-Lite wing of the LibDems. Clegg got a better offer on electoral reform from Labour, and went with his natural home anyway. So now the pain commences.

    Of course, this might be a good thing for Labour, if they draw the proper lesson from it. The DLC-style approach of making yourself as indistinguishable as possible from your opponent has its limits. If Labour remembers that their party is named Labour, not Banker or Big Brother, they will once more provide a real choice to voters. Of course, in the US, the Dems will probably view November’s Republican resurgence as evidence that they did too much, rather than not enough, and will scramble even further to the right in response. I pray that Labour will avoid being so goddamn stupid.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Geminid on Late Night Open Thread: That Feeling You’ve Been Cheated (Jun 7, 2023 @ 8:03am)
  • evodevo on Late Night Open Thread: That Feeling You’ve Been Cheated (Jun 7, 2023 @ 8:01am)
  • Geminid on On The Road – raven – The Low Country (Jun 7, 2023 @ 7:59am)
  • evodevo on Late Night Open Thread: That Feeling You’ve Been Cheated (Jun 7, 2023 @ 7:57am)
  • OzarkHillbilly on On The Road – raven – The Low Country (Jun 7, 2023 @ 7:49am)

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Seattle Meetup on Sat 5/13 at 5pm!

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!