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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.
Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.
Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
We are aware of all internet traditions.
So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.
When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?
… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact
You cannot shame the shameless.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.
Infrastructure week. at last.
Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.
Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.
The words do not have to be perfect.
Battle won, war still ongoing.
This fight is for everything.
Bnut
No way O wasn’t chain smoking his ass off the past week or so.
You Don't Say
Anyone else feel a little dirty after a visit to HuffPo?
licensed to kill time
Jeez, I couldn’t blame the guy at all if he got…what was Cole’s phrase? oh yeah… snot-hanging drunk once in a while.
cat48
Presidentin while black is hard work!
another county heard from
That better not be an elitist micro-brew.
Bhall35
@You Don’t Say:
That’s why I’ve pretty much stopped going.
Bhall35
Also, too: Inception is already the most preposterously overrated movie of this young decade. The backlash cannot begin soon enough for me. Come back Charlie Kaufman, all is forgiven!
Hal
Huffpo is bugging me lately. One article after another, all saying the same thing; Obama is wimp, he won’t tackle race, he scared. etc etc etc
How is the left going to fight the right wing spin machine by continuously going after White House on the Sherrod issue? At some point, don’t we need to turn our attention to Fox News and the Right Wing? The White House apologized, Vilsack apologized, the President called Ms Sherrod. Who hasn’t apologized? Breitbart. Who’s skulking in the shadows and still throwing bullshit while Obama gets skull fucked for not being MLK.
Yutsano
@Hal: Arianna has one agenda: eyeballs. She’s a rich Greek aristocrat who has figured out how to play the American rubes like a Stradivarius. As long as she gets page views and ad revenue, she’ll keep harping on Obama until he’s out of office. Whatever else Arianna is, she is not some champion of progressivism.
Elizabelle
@Bhall35:
“Preposterous” is exactly the word my friend and I agreed on as we stood to walk out with about half an hour left of “Inception.”
Yes, it began with a shot of Leonardo DiCaprio washed up on a beach, barely alive (aha, there’s your happy ending for Titanic).
And then hours of special effects with characters you just don’t care about.
Christopher Nolan could have made a better movie if he’d had a lot less money. (“Memento” was awesome.)
Here’s a pretty good discussion thread on “Inception.”
http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2010/07/inception_has_christopher_nola.html
I couldn’t figure out why the DiCaprio character didn’t just kidnap his kids and spirit them out of the country. Low tech solution, and it’s not like zillions of milk cartons don’t attest to its success.
The Dangerman
@Bhall35:
Avatar took the last decade.
You Don't Say
@Hal: That, and the inane fluff. “Who wears it better: Lindsay or Kate?” “Has Palin had a boob job?” “Has Nicole had a nose job?”
As you can see, though, I remember all the inane fluff so my filthy feeling isn’t entirely HuffPo’s fault. ;-)
I saw Arianna on some show last night (Olbermann, I think) and all she did was dump on Obama.
joe from Lowell
@another county heard from:
Lest we forget, Obama had a Bud Light at the “Beer Summit.”
To recap:
Obama: Bud Light
Biden: Buckler’s Non-alcoholic
Gates: Sam Adams
Police Officer: Blue Moon
Ergo,
Boston > Washington
JAHILL10
HuffPo is basically an electronic tabloid. The prurient content is front and center combined with a daily dose of misleading headlines and Obama bashing. I left it a year ago. No content that can’t be found better written elsewhere and the celebrity guest columnists/wankers were worse than annoying.
KG
I really hate the cult of the presidency, whether the shit comes from the right or the left. I’m not sure which side is more annoying – the right with their president-as-king-god bullshit or the left with their president-as-magic-unicorn-pony-not-doing-enough bullshit – but both sides can just go fuck themselves with rusted cheese covered pitchforks. The president is, at least in theory, bound by congressional action; you know, those fuckers actually responsible for writing the fucking law. And he sure as hell can’t change the economy on a damned dime or reconfigure the better part of civil society because he gives a fucking speech.
Bhall35
@The Dangerman: At least I found Avatar entertaining. This was so mind-numbingly boring. Avoid.
Bhall35
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the Sun Times link!
Jennifer
Not to mention, but wouldn’t you have to be kind of…you know…stupid to believe that every hiring and firing decision goes to the president? The day this whole thing unfolded Obama was meeting with British PM Cameron. What kind of a moron thinks that someone came and pulled him out of meetings with Cameron to fill him in on a brewing brouhaha involving a relatively low-level employee of the Department of Agriculture? Probably the same kind that finds nothing wrong with a president sitting around for 7 minutes listening to kids read after learning the country was under attack.
I’m sure someone at the White House knew about it, but you’d have to be an idiot to believe that it fell to Obama to make the call.
As I said over at my place, it would be fairly easy for them to put the blame back where it belongs, with a simple and concise statement. They really should. It would put an end to all this carping bullshit on the left as well.
And as for Fox, remember: from here on out, any and all discussions regarding their accuracy or standing as a legitimate media organization should be answered with the shorter: “Monkey. With a gun photoshopped into his hand.”
jeffreyw
Lil sammiches
Yutsano
@jeffreyw: Mmm…bruschetta!!
The Dangerman
@Bhall35:
Agreed, it was; it was just massively overhyped for my tastes. Inception sounds insipid; sounds like a rental for when I need a good mindscrew.
Violet
I wouldn’t be surprised if he felt the need for something a little stronger than beer and cigarettes. Tough week.
I’m still really glad he’s my President. The thought of Old Man McCain in the White House with $arah lurking about plotting how she’d get him out of the way is terrifying.
Bnut
The best part of the “Jihad Monkey” story was the 2 hour conversation my friend and I had about how we would train and equip our own monkey strike force. I think edged and blunt weapons are a better choice in this scenario. I can out shoot a monkey, but one on one combat with a sword? Doubtful..
ruemara
Sorry but this a straight shot of Drambuie, neat, sort of week. Or at least Fin du Monde, ice cold. And fuck HuffPo and Arianna, with a rusty chain saw.
I wouldn’t mock the monkeys, if I were you. These kick ass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aH1xeIqNuo
BrighidG
Avatar was better when it was called “Dancing With Wolves”. I’d take Inception over James Cameron preachy self-insert movie any day.
Resident Firebagger
@KG: You know, the president wasn’t bound by congressional action in the Sherrod episode.
And even if he didn’t fire her himself, Obama hired the nitwit who did. Not sure why it’s so hard for some of you to understand that…
Yutsano
@Bnut: MONKEY NINJAS ATTACK!!
EDIT: I did want to post a clip here but ruemara’s was much bettah.
@Resident Firebagger: Does this mean Obama is the one perusing my qualifications to go work for the IRS passing up all the managers and Secretary of the Treasury just to sign off on my hiring? Do you realize how ridiculous you sound?
slag
Finally! ComicSans font strikes back:
I’m only pointing this out because I’ve been outwardly lamenting the lack of funny on the interwebs lately, and this McSweeney’s piece made me laugh out loud.
Although that’s not to dismiss the funny in this comic, Anne Laurie. It’s pretty good too.
Yutsano
@slag: That is all kinds of serious WIN!!
slag
@Yutsano: Ha! Seriously. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.
Pancake
A not particularly funny cartoon. While he may still smoke once in a while, there have NEVER been any rumors/stories whatsoever about him drinking to excess, no matter the circumstance.
ruemara
@Resident Firebagger:
With all due respect, go fuck yourself. I think I’ve had my complete limit of low information egomaniacs such as yourself foisting your opinions all over. You don’t like Obama, ergo he’s to blame? Fine, so what. As you lose your head because you think someone in the WH said fire her, you completely lose the point. The media, including blogs, take rumors, half truths and false evidence and gin up so much controversy that is then passed off as truth, that even government officials think it’s better to just let go a controversial figure because people won’t actually wait until facts are out before passing judgment and then waste time blaming the wrong fucking people.
KG
@Resident Firebagger: funny, because I didn’t mention anything about the Sherrod episode. My point was simply that too many people have too high an expectation for what the president, the man, can actually do.
Jennifer
@another county heard from: Let’s hope it wasn’t Heineken.
KG
@KG: or what ruemara said.
Jennifer
@slag:
If you haven’t read Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans, you’d love it.
John Hodgman’s piece about Fire, the Next Sharp Stick? is hysterical, as is another story about a bet that involved “I bet I can punch you hard enough in the stomach to make you throw up.” Plus many other gems.
KG
@slag: oh, I do so hate ComicSans. But then I hate so many of the various fonts out there.
And no, ComicSans, you are not “fun” – you are annoying and cheap. You look like someone is trying to write on my computer screen. Half the time, I feel like I should try to wipe you off my screen.
demo woman
@KG: I’ll sometimes post on the AJC political insider site. The last few times responders came back with “I’m not racist” which is a term I don’t use. Resident Firebagger did not use that term but tried to accomplish the same thing by changing the subject. I’ve decided that those tactics mean I got nothing.
Tom Hilton
I keep imagining Obama saying “Looks like I picked the wrong presidency to quit sniffing glue…”
(By the way, if you ever get a chance to see Zero Hour!, a ’50s movie with Serling Hayden and Dana Andrews, watch it. It’s absolutely hilarious…and oddly familiar…)
slag
@Jennifer: Sold. Thanks for the tip!
Mike in NC
We hated it as much as “Memento”, which was quite a bit.
jeffreyw
nerd shrimp
Corner Stone
@ruemara:
Well shit. What am I supposed to do til the Astro’s come on at 6:05?
Tom Hilton
@ruemara: Ooh, Fin du Monde is really good stuff. On the other hand, for the President to drink anything with that name might send a bad message.
Shalimar
@Resident Firebagger: Even if he didn’t do anything wrong, it’s still his fault. Yeah, sure.
The administration fucked up and then did what they could to fix it the next damned day. You really think the Bush administration would have ever acknowledged even making an error? It wasn’t perfect, but hopefully they learned from being punked and we won’t deal with this shit the next time. That is much more than we can say for Breitbart and Fox News.
tworivers
@Mike in NC:
Yeah, Memento was kind of overrated, wasn’t it? I kind of have a crush on Carrie Ann Moss, but otherwise I have no use for it. Take away the showy, surface-level cleverness of the backwards chronology, and there’s not all that much to it.
There really was a trend there during the mid 90’s – the early 2000’s where movies included some sort of mind fuck at the end that totally changed your perspective on the events that transpire (e.g. movies like Sixth Sense, Fight Club, and The Usual Suspects, which sort of kicked off the trend).
Unlike Sixth Sense, Usual Suspects and Fight Club, I’ve never made a point of watching Memento a second time.
bago
People who find recursive dream hacking boring are the kind of people I avoid.
JAHILL10
@bago: Har! Yeah, you would want to avoid someone who thought that was ho-hum, especially if you felt sleepy…
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
Grandparents.
I thought that Inception was pretty good. It was also interesting to see how Nolan has created a kind of stock company of actors who keep appearing in his films (e.g., Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy).
I also liked the throwaway scene of the opium parlor like dream room, where people go who have become addicted to induced dreams. Scarily plausible.
But if people don’t care for Inception, there’s always The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, or Salt.
Which reminds me: good political cartoon. I bet there are a couple out there with an Inception theme, although the idea of the beer summit is understandable since it is already part of the political vocabulary.
Nick
@Yutsano: Arianna is proud of herself for saying this;
Ok Arianna, who is the Martin Luther King in the current analogy? you? when are you putting thousands of people on the streets demanding clean energy?
Also, Lawrence, being a student of history, also knows that after the Selma march, NOBODY CHANGED THEIR VOTE, and the bill was filibustered for another three months until Everett Dirksen, the Republican Senate leader, brought to the floor a compromise bill that weakened regulations on private establishments to get the votes of three Republicans.
But this is, of course, a less fantastical idea of what happened. It’s much better to believe the Selma march pulled at the heartstrings of Senators who decided “oh, I must vote for this now”
This is funny, because I always thought it was LBJ’s “arm-twisting” that got Civil Rights passed, now it’s Martin Luther King ordering a march that turn racists into not-racists.
p
Ok Arianna, whose Martin Luther King in this analogy, you? and when is that person gonna get hundreds of thousands of people to march for cap and trade?
Oh, and besides that, Lawrence also knows perfectly well, being a student of History, that even after the Selma march, the bill was filibustered for three months before Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen
But this is less exciting than the fantastical notion of Martin Luther King marching in Alabama and dozens of US Senators feeling the shame and walking proudly into the Senate to change their votes.
Linda Binda
If what you say is true, Nick, then, that just shows how great is the need for more facts out about what happened during the Civil Rights Movements, rather than letting everyone, especially those in the media, talk on about everyone involved during that period as demi-gods who could do no wrong, and not sneaky, smart bastards who knew what had to be done.
Back when the movie Barbershop came out, there was a controversy when Cedric the Entertainer’s character said that Rosa Parks wasn’t the only woman who “sat her black ass down! (his character’s words)” and said that the whole event was staged. For whatever reason, people were offended by that suggestion, but if it were true, wouldn’t that have been a GOOD THING?
I mean, think about it. If Rosa Parks did what she did on purpose, then that just shows how smart and dedicated the activists were about embarrassing the South and getting the buses desegregated. Planning out strategies to force the hands of everyone involved, rather than relying on spontaneous opportunities to arise and hoping to bank on the goodwill of others when there’s really no reason to be so lax and trusting — hardly the worst thing in the world.
If anything, if the SCLC, et al, didn’t seem so disorganized and run by old farts right now, maybe they should be running the Democratic Party, rather than the milquetoast, cowardly fencesitters we have now.