Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

This really is a full service blog.

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

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Giving up is unforgivable. ~Joe Biden

Republicans don’t trust women.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

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

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

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

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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Reader Interactions

85Comments

  1. 1.

    John Bird

    If you think that right-wingers couldn’t lose the irony of this post completely, you are asking too much of them.

  2. 2.

    matoko_chan

    Did you send Breitbart this clip, Cole?
    I’m sure he could put it to good use.

  4. 4.

    eemom

    meanwhile Sherrodgate has drowned out poor Fucker Tarlson’s big expose of Wrightgate, Bastard Son of Weigelgate, at his brave new bloggie yesterday.

  5. 5.

    steviez314

    Wasn’t that Michelle Obama is the 3rd row?

    Is this the famous whitey tape? Bout time.

  6. 6.

    Zifnab

    Chris Rock clearly has no place working in the Obama White House. When can we start calling for impeachment?

  7. 7.

    JCT

    We laugh but there are nutjobs out there (as in “work for Fox “News””) who watched the Sherrod video and saw exactly this.

    Sigh.

  8. 8.

    Daddy-O

    I’m shocked, shocked, I say!

    Proof positive they ALL hate white people! Where has the lamestream media been hiding this tape of Chris Rock?

    And the self-fulfilling prophecies just keep on keepin’ on…

  11. 11.

    Joseph Nobles

    I have a video of Chris Rock saying that he “understands” why O.J. killed Nicole. I guess Breitbart will say that’s grounds for murder charges.

  12. 12.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    There was an Office episode where corporate has to hold a seminar just for Michael because of his rendition of a Chris Rock skit. The trainer is played by The Daily Show’s Senior Black Analyst, Larry Wilmore.

  15. 15.

    maya

    That reverse-racist Rock also accused white males of secretly wanting to be black dudes because blacks dudes have it so easy. Funniest shit I ever heard.

  16. 16.

    Legalize

    Don’t worry. This will be featured on day 2 of the Obama Impeachment Hearings.

  18. 18.

    Bender

    And when Chris Rock says he hates all white people and that blacks have to kill some “cracker” babies to get “freedom,” that was hilarious.

    Oh, that wasn’t Chris Rock? That was the New Black Panther that Eric Holder protected from voter intimidation charges?

    Well, they all look like Tyson.

  20. 20.

    Bob In Pacifica

    Please, Balloon Juice, your West Coast Bureau is falling down. We need some commentary on Byron Williams, the guy who was going to do some mass murderin’ for Glenn Beck.

    Thanking you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.

  22. 22.

    stuckinred

    And in other happy news:
    Lieutenant Dan Choi’s National Guard unit has notified him by mail and phone he has been fully disachrged and is no longer serving as an American solider. According to Gay City News:

  23. 23.

    Bender

    @Mark S.:

    Bender, get a fucking life.

    Oooooo, nice one!

    Thanks, got one, but foot surgery is keeping me on the laptop for a few days.

  25. 25.

    KCinDC

    @eemom, unfortunately it’s also drowning out the passage of the financial regulation bill, as well as Republicans’ insane last-minute obstruction to make sure to hold up unemployment payments to people for 30 extra hours for nothing.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Mary

    Speaking of trifectas, there’s a little something coming up in about half an hour:

    Robert Gibbs has issued the official Administration apology to Shirley Sherrod for jumping the gun and forcing her out on the basis of Andrew Breitbart’s thuggery, and now Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has called a press conference for 4:45 ET. What form of abject apology, hair shirt, or ritual suicide Vilsack will unveil remains unclear.

    Why make him choose just one?

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bender:

    Actually, it was the Bush justice department that decided to dismiss the charges. But why let facts get in the way of race-baiting?

  30. 30.

    Svensker

    @Bender:

    1. Who you talkin’ to?

    2. Do you believe that crap?

    3. Underpants gnomes?

    4. Oh, very good point, Bender, very good. Obama IS a racist soshulist marxist mooslin, yes indeedy. You have proved it.

  33. 33.

    JCT

    @Mnemosyne: Next thing you know you’re going to claim that TARP was passed during the Bush admin too.

    You’re really messing with their pretty narrative.

  34. 34.

    Chyron HR

    @Bender:

    Why are you wasting your precious free time here? That secret Kenyan birth certificate isn’t going to find itself.

  36. 36.

    Jules

    I hate white people too.

    (of course I’m white so I guess I am a race traitor or something like that)

  38. 38.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    @eemom: Not just there. A lot of self-righteous pontification from the Manic-Progressives were just snuffed out by Gibbs’ apology to Ms. Sherrod.

    Unfortunately, I know what’s coming next, particularly from some of my black blogger friends: “Yeah, but Obama didn’t apologize to her personally…”

    I’m also anxiously awaiting the right’s next salvo: “Obama Humiliates White Member of Cabinet to Appease Black Woman”

    What? You still think they won’t go there?

  40. 40.

    bootsy

    I have to admit, I was unfamiliar with the racists’ meme of “black people hate us, too,” until this whole thing hit. It’s fascinating…

    I wonder if the Texas history textbooks will expose the true story of how MLK was white, and was shot by a black man. Or how the slaves stole all the fun outdoor work for themselves. Or how lynching victims were suicides who forced all the white people to hold barbecues around them.

  41. 41.

    Ash Can

    LOL! Bender’s popping up all over the place today, isn’t he? Must be a slow day at the bar.

  42. 42.

    scott charmin

    and what was Mr. Rock’s sentence RIGHT BEFORE THE VIDEO CLIP? HUH? context is everything!!!!!

  44. 44.

    stuckinred

    Gibbs called the episode a “teachable moment,” but declined to address who exactly was being taught or who was doing the teaching.

    Maybe this shithead Bender is teaching class today?

  46. 46.

    JGabriel

    Bender:

    That was the New Black Panther that Eric Holder protected from voter intimidation charges? Well, they all look like Tyson.

    Christ, Bender, you know something? You’re a racist shit.

    .

  47. 47.

    Captain Goto

    Oh, just go on to the next clip in that collection to complete the circle…

    “Who’s more racist..black people or white people? Black people. Why? ’cause black people hate black people, too!!”

  50. 50.

    Legalize

    The manner in which Chris Rock paces about the stage – while being black – intimidates me from voting for white, conservatives. Why is Eric Holder not looking into this?

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    @David in NY:

    Claims an injury, but I’m betting out on SSI —mental.

    Getting his foot out of his mouth required surgery because he had his head shoved so far up his arse.

  53. 53.

    Karen

    Speaking of edited sound bites, Vilsack just apologized and offered Sherrod a new job in the USDA.

  54. 54.

    SIA

    @Karen: Good for Vilsack, a full out apology, taking full responsibility. This is the right thing.

    Having watched Robert Gibb’s press briefing today, and part of the Vilsack press conference, I have determined that I despise these reporters.

  55. 55.

    MattR

    @Karen: Was there any rationale given for not giving her back her old job? Is it a better job? Did she not want to return to her one? Any idea?

  56. 56.

    Origuy

    @Bob In Pacifica: Are you the Senior Left Coast Correspondent or am I? Anyway, the police are still keeping the contents of his notebook a secret, except for his plans to shoot up the ACLU and the Tides Foundation. I’ve lived around here for 30 years and never heard of the Tides Foundation, but apparently Beck mentioned them on his show.
    He’s anti-government, but he’s asked for a public defender.

  57. 57.

    ruemara

    I listened to half the apology and while there wasn’t enough groveling and “breitbart is a lying asshole”, there’s just one thing that bothers me.

    Why is this Obama’s fault? I’m not sure how all things lead to Obama making a panicked decision. I don’t see where Obama is leading the charge to fire a state worker, so wtf is up with all this “disappointment in the administration” and “Obama kowtowing to the bullies” meme? It seems to me the problem is 2 fold; a lying sack of crap set of media talking heads and a less than stellar, spineless, inappropriate application of zero-tolerance pearl-clutching set of department heads.

    It’s hard to be left. Most of the people I may agree with in principle make me just facepalm.

    @Origuy:
    A white guy with guns & body armour, shooting at cops while prattling about starting a revolution via race war? Move along, nothing to see here. And never mind that shooting of an innocent black man by a moron cop who can’t figure the difference between a taser & a pistol, nor can provide a viable reason for needing a taser while a man is being held down by several of said cop’s fellow officers. We’ll tell you what to fear the next time we find crazy blacks with a camera and a stolen party name.

  58. 58.

    batgirl

    Yes, the administration is doing the right thing by apologizing to Sherrod and offering her her job back but why, oh why, can’t they take the fight to Fox News and all the other outlets that ran with this story without verifying it. Here is a golden chance to call them out.

  59. 59.

    And Another Thing...

    @Origuy: I’ve seen Beck weave Tides into his Commie/soc 1alist/progressive/fascist conspiracy. He’s a master of guilt by association. When Beck talked about Tides I did a bit of research on them…ho hum.

    If you basically don’t know any history or political science, Beck can be quite persuasive what with his magnetic props and all. I routinely pick some item to fact check and there is always a significant distortion or lie involved. He and his researchers are either liars, incompetent or stupid or some combo of all 3.

  60. 60.

    DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective

    I’ve seen Chris Rock in person (in Pittsburgh of all places) and all I can say is, he might hate white people, but he is still the funniest stand up act on the planet right now AFAIC. I laughed so hard I felt like I had broken ribs.

  61. 61.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Bob In Pacifica:

    Please, Balloon Juice, your West Coast Bureau is falling down. We need some commentary on Byron Williams, the guy who was going to do some mass murderin’ for Glenn Beck.

    This is the latest development I’ve seen on the situation:

    Organization Targeted By Anti-Gov’t CA Shooting Suspect Was Frequent Topic On Glenn Beck’s Show

    The Tides Foundation, which prosecutors in California say was among the targets of the anti-government unemployed carpenter Byron Williams before he got into a chaotic shootout with several law enforcement officers Sunday, is also a favorite topic of Fox News host Glenn Beck.
    __
    Beginning in 2009 (and as recently as last week), Beck has repeatedly included the group — along with ACORN, the SEIU and George Soros — in his cabal of liberals and liberal organizations that are supposedly agents of President Obama’s plan to spread Marxist and socialist ideas throughout the United States.

    What’s that? You aren’t surprised in the latest to read this? Yeah, that’s right; it’s definitely depressing.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @MattR:

    I’m guessing that Sherrod is (rightly) holding out for a better job before she’ll agree to come back, but that’s just me. She has really good grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit and could make a giant mess if she chose to.

  63. 63.

    bemused

    Breitbart is only 41. I would have guessed 15 years older. Leading a life full of hate, vindictiveness and ego driven ambition seems to have sped up his aging process.

  64. 64.

    JMY

    Vilsack apologizing was the right thing to do and I commend him for doing so publicly, as well as Gibbs for doing so during his press briefing. That’s unheard of in politics. It was a mistake, an over-reaction. It happens. There are steps being made to correct it. Let’s move on.

  65. 65.

    Svensker

    @Origuy:

    He’s anti-government, but he’s asked for a public defender.

    He’s just getting back some of those taxes he had to pay.

    /wingnut

  66. 66.

    Bender

    @Mnemosyne:

    Actually, it was the Bush justice department that decided to dismiss the charges. But why let facts get in the way of race-baiting?

    Another weak regurge of a failed JournoList meme…

    On our planet, the charges were dropped on April 28, 2009.

    WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Justice Department announced Thursday it is dropping charges against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and two of its members who were allegedly involved in voter intimidation on Election Day at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania polling station.

    So who do you think was President on April 28, 2009? Boooooooosh?

  67. 67.

    JCT

    @bemused: This is the incredible thing. Here we have Sherrod on the one hand, who actually did grow up with significant adversity in her life and completely rose above it. She has spent her career helping others — the sort of things you tell your kids to do, “work hard and do good things”.

    And what happens? Some asshole who grew up in Brentwood (my g_d we likely went to the same elementary school) and has likely never done anything for anyone (and clearly worse) — plays character assassination on national TV and gets her publicly humiliated and fired based on a complete and total fabrication. Aided and abetted by all sorts of folks including her own boss. And then repeatedly lies about it. It’s Kafkaesque.

    And insane.

  69. 69.

    eemom

    @Malron aka eclecticbrotha:

    ugh, you’re right. Hamsher is creaming her panties over at Lake Batshit, cuz somehow this whole mess PROVES that Obama HATES liberals. AND that Rahm is the anti-Christ.

    I can’t quite follow the logic; maybe someone can explain it to me?

  72. 72.

    eemom

    @JCT:

    as I said earlier though, it’s got the makings of a freakin KILLER defamation lawsuit here in DC. In front of a DC jury. That would SO totally rawk.

  73. 73.

    Origuy

    @ruemara: Oscar Grant was shot by BART cops. Williams was arrested by the CHP and it appears that the investigation is being done by Oakland PD. Different departments can have much different approaches.

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bender:

    Way to throw Abigail Thernstrom under the bus:

    “This doesn’t have to do with the Black Panthers; this has to do with their fantasies about how they could use this issue to topple the [Obama] administration,” said Thernstrom, who said members of the commission voiced their political aims “in the initial discussions” of the Panther case last year.
    __
    “My fellow conservatives on the commission had this wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president,” Thernstrom said in an interview with POLITICO.

    Why do you hate former Bush administration officials, Bender?

  75. 75.

    Bender

    @JGabriel:

    Christ, Bender, you know something? You’re a racist shit.

    I’m donating to Allen West. I bet you support the crackincumbent running against him. Therefore, I say to you: YOU are Teh Racist!!eleventy!

    Hmmm. I don’t see why you guys like this “racist card” game so much. It’s pretty dull.

  76. 76.

    El Cid

    @Mnemosyne:

    She has really good grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit and could make a giant mess if she chose to.

    Remember — this woman was one of the class action plaintiffs who took on the USDA for its historic record of discrimination against black farmers and won.

    I don’t think the USDA wants to fuck with her much more in courts. Last time she and her fellow plaintiffs got several billion dollars (not yet received, but still) out of them.

  77. 77.

    El Cid

    Nobody protected the New Black Panthers guy from voter intimidation charges — except for those lazy, pathetic voters who refused to turn up to claim that they had been intimidated.

    It wasn’t just that the Bush administration failed to prosecute him — you have to actually find intimidated voters to charge that.

  78. 78.

    bemused

    @JCT:
    Oh, they say they believe in the work hard ethic but that’s just for everyone else, including their base.
    Breitbart is definitely cuckoolala as Rachel Maddow puts it.

  79. 79.

    Bender

    It wasn’t just that the Bush administration failed to prosecute him—you have to actually find intimidated voters to charge that.

    What you say is so wrong on so many levels, that it’s hard to know where to begin (Bush Administration? Check your dates.) (And the government won the case anyway, when the NBPP no-showed to court.) (And the Voting Rights Act also includes “attempt to intimidate” even if the attempt is unsuccessful.) Anyway, how about this for starters?

    The episode—which Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and publisher of the left-wing Village Voice, calls “the most blatant form of voter intimidation I’ve ever seen”—began on Election Day 2008. Mr. Bull and others witnessed two Black Panthers in paramilitary garb at a polling place near downtown Philadelphia. (Some of this behavior is on YouTube.)

    One of them, they say, brandished a nightstick at the entrance and pointed it at voters and both made racial threats. Mr. Bull says he heard one yell “You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!”

    In the first week of January, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring voters with the weapon, uniforms and racial slurs. In March, Mr. Bull submitted an affidavit at Justice’s request to support its lawsuit.

    When none of the defendants filed any response to the complaint or appeared in federal district court in Philadelphia to answer the suit, it appeared almost certain Justice would have prevailed by default. Instead, the department in May suddenly allowed the party and two of the three defendants to walk away. Against the third defendant, Minister King Samir Shabazz, it sought only an injunction barring him from displaying a weapon within 100 feet of a Philadelphia polling place for the next three years—action that’s already illegal under existing law.

  80. 80.

    And Another Thing...

    @Bender: I’d read this before following a link from another source. I admit that I hadn’t really focused on the author…John Fund. He’s a dour, unimaginative, political hack. He’s only slightly more credible than Mark Steyn or Glenn Beck.

    Interestingly, one of his main claims to fame is writing about voter fraud which is pretty damn scarce.

    Don’t waste our time.

    And another thing, as a newspaper the Journal is pretty damn good but their editorial pages are a wasteland devoid of insight, wisdom or integrity. Anybody who spends much time there is looking to be lied to…unless you’re doing oppo research.

  81. 81.

    maya

    @And Another Thing…:

    He and his researchers are either liars, incompetent or stupid or some combo of all 3.

    No, they’re Original Interpretation Constitutional scholars.

    Didn’t you know the right to lie is the fundamental building block of the 1st Amendment? And Glenn isn’t even a news program. He’s in the entertainment biz. Geesh! When are you DFH’s going to stop smoking that stuff?

  82. 82.

    JCT

    @eemom:

    t’s got the makings of a freakin KILLER defamation lawsuit here in DC. In front of a DC jury. That would SO totally rawk

    Absolutely- would be similar to the medical malpractice situation in the Bronx. Medical care at several of the big public hospitals was so bad for so long, that *all* (as in virtually 100%) of the med mal cases are settled instantly by the insurance company, no attorney wanted to mess with those Bronx juries. I do like the imagery of that asshole Breitbart on the witness stand, though.

    Hamsher is creaming her panties over at Lake Batshit, cuz somehow this whole mess PROVES that Obama HATES liberals. AND that Rahm is the anti-Christ.
    I can’t quite follow the logic; maybe someone can explain it to me?

    You know, I don’t understand her at all. Who exactly do they want to be President? I think I am better off not “understanding” her — that way madness lies. (Not to quote the Snowbilly of Avon or anything.)

    @bemused

    Breitbart is definitely cuckoolala as Rachel Maddow puts it.

    I love when she says that– damn funny.

  83. 83.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    @eemom: I held my nose long enough to visit that site and guess what blogger she decided to take a hilarious cheap shot at? Yep. Sir John of Cole.

    Still, she posted that in the AM so she hasn’t had time to go Full Metal Batshit yet, but she’ll get there…

  85. 85.

    Bender

    @And Another Thing…:

    I’d read this before following a link from another source. I admit that I hadn’t really focused on the author…John Fund.

    What, you thought that a lefty journalist would write about the story? Surely you jest. Still, you won’t take Bartle Freaking Bull’s word for it? The civil rights activist? Look, your ad hominem fu is weak, especially since you can’t dispute the facts. Feel free to continue to live in an alternate reality, but don’t blame Fund.

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