Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Bark louder, little dog.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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Open Thread

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I’m cranky, run down, tired, and spent. On top of that, I just looked at my Netflix Instant queue and that gave me anxiety it was so full. I’m remembering why I got rid of my DVR.

Add to that yet another day on the phone with Experian, and you get an idea what kind of mood I am in. I need to get that address issue resolved so I can have access to the website paypal account and pay for the website maintenance/upgrade.

On the upside, LauraW, Ahab, and Evelyn are working on some new stuff for the Balloon juice store.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    Restrung

    just heard a complaint from a store owner about Obama raising taxes on the middle class. Apparently they have to pay county property taxes at the store. I pointed toward downtown, but didn’t have the heart to say it was that freak Pawlenty’s fault.

    (not sure about commercial, but my property tax went down slightly this year. )

  3. 3.

    beltane

    The primary results tonight should be interesting, Delaware in particular. Maybe an O’Donnell win will put you in a better mood.

  5. 5.

    Allison W.

    Harry Reid will include DADT repeal AND the DREAM Act in the defense bill next week.

    Obama coming out with a kids book in November (after the elections). So the wingnuts and their leaders will have something to do.

  6. 6.

    Ahasuerus

    Found a great new phrase on Fark which I must share: Congenital Derpies.

    And cheer up, Cole. You could have gotten a finger shoved up your ass and a biopsy needle stuck in your taint. Now that’s a good day.

  8. 8.

    Roger Moore

    Add to that yet another day on the phone with Experian, and you get an idea what kind of mood I am in.

    So are you starting to think that maybe PayPal is only a small-time operator in the evil department?

  9. 9.

    Davis X. Machina

    Harry Reid will include DADT repeal AND the DREAM Act in the defense bill next week.

    And Ben Nelson will take it right back out again. If I was up for re-election this year, I wouldn’t bother to run. The game isn’t worth the frickin’ candle.

  13. 13.

    R-Jud

    @jeffreyw: Meow meow meow meow!

    I was diagnosed with asthma yesterday. My GP reckons I’ve had it for years. Apparently, it’s also the cause of my chronic sleep problems, because using the inhaler helped me sleep like a baby last night. So, you know, if you feel panicky and breathless when you lie down at night, and also have coughs that stick around for weeks, the two things might be related.

    @Restrung:

    just heard a complaint from a store owner about Obama raising taxes on the middle class. Apparently they have to pay county property taxes at the store.

    People just don’t understand that there are different levels of government, do they?

  14. 14.

    Lev

    All these ads for Meg Whitman’s plan for California are beginning to get to me. Since she only deigns to communicate to us people via ads and never says what her plan entails, I can only assume that her plan is akin to Nixon’s Vietnam Plan. It’s not like it would be too hard to turn the state around, but it would basically involve dismantling the prison state, dumping all the Reagan-era tax garbage and the budgetless ballot propositions, and if we could get some help from the feds on legalizing illegal immigrants, hey, that’d help too.

    Whitman doesn’t want to do any of this stuff, and the sad fact is that Jerry Brown doesn’t either. The fact that both of these people want this job despite the fact that Schwarzenegger is at Bush-level approval ratings, as bad as Gray Davis’s during the recall process and almost as bad as Pete Wilson’s late in his term strikes me as a form of insanity.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Mary

    @Ahasuerus: Speaking of fingers and needles shoved some place very private, this story is a gem.

    In 1983, at the Urodynamics Society meeting in Las Vegas, Professor G.S. Brindley first announced to the world his experiments on self-injection with papaverine to induce a penile erection. This was the first time that an effective medical therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) was described, and was a historic development in the management of ED. The way in which this information was first reported was completely unique and memorable, and provides an interesting context for the development of therapies for ED. I was present at this extraordinary lecture, and the details are worth sharing. Although this lecture was given more than 20 years ago, the details have remained fresh in my mind, for reasons which will become obvious.
    …
    The Professor wanted to make his case in the most convincing style possible. He indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be erotically stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes (hence the track-suit) to make it possible to exhibit the results. He stepped around the podium, and pulled his loose pants tight up around his genitalia in an attempt to demonstrate his erection.

    Read on. It gets even better.

  20. 20.

    Mark S.

    I used to think Colin Cowherd was an annoying dipshit and just one of the reasons I no longer listen to sports radio, but Jesus H. Christ:

    Then he went into this long rant about how great football players like Drew Brees were remarkable and irreplaceable, as are — and this isn’t a joke — radio stars like Rush Limbaugh, and appalling American Idol douche-twat Simon Cowell. Then, to steelworkers and teachers, he said this: “Steelworkers? I love you. But guess what? You can be replaced. You can’t replace Rush.” And there’s only one Simon Cowell, he said.

    God, I would be in favor of a nuclear “accident” at Bristol, Connecticut.

  21. 21.

    Lev

    @BGinCHI: It’s hard to say. Neither of them actually talk much to the press about why they’re running or, indeed, about anything else. From what I can tell, they mostly agree on policy since Jerry doesn’t want to gut Prop 13 or change the 2/3 budget rule or change the proposition system, which are big drivers in our budgetary problems. I’m halfway hoping that Whitman wins and proves just as hapless at running the state’s GOP faction as Arnold has, and that in 2014 we get a real progressive Democrat who will actually do something. Actually, I am hoping that’s exactly what will happen.

    Nancy Pelosi for California Governor 2014!

  22. 22.

    John Cole

    @srv: I decided on a new tv and blu ray. I am going to wait after christmas, provided I don’t have to pay for more crowns, buy another stove, or whatever other bullshit keeps popping up.

  25. 25.

    lamh32

    Okay,

    I’m, confused, the WH seems to be keeping their line on the Bush taxe cuts, but it the Dem in Congress who are waffling. Can somebody explain to me, how it’s Obama’s fault if the Congress people are behind him? Is that his failure, or theirs? I guess I get it that it’s the head of the company who gets the blame for a companies success or failures, but still?

    Anyway, if the Dems decide they don’t want to take up a vote on the tax cuts before the election, what options does the WH have?

    Obama Defers to Pelosi on Tax Cuts

    Obama aides tell our Christina Bellantoni that the White House is deferring to Nancy Pelosi on how to deal with a potential vote on a middle class tax cut.

    More ominously, the bright idea bubbling up in the House — to which the White House seems inclined to defer — is to raise the ‘middle class threshold’ up to annual taxable income of $999,999 a year. Or rather to create a new tax bracket on taxable income over $750k or $1 million per year.

  26. 26.

    Dreggas

    @lamh32:

    Because it’s always Obama’s fault. If he just waved a magick wand and spoke in a firmer voice when saying “Klatu verata Nicto” then the congressional dems would fall in line.

  27. 27.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    Fucking credit agencies, I hear ya on that one.

    When I changed my name I also changed it with the credit agencies, which I don’t think I needed to do, but I just wanted to triple check my bases (plus I wanted to use that recent law that allows you to freely check your credit reports).

    I ended up spending hours ripping my hair out in order to talk to a fucking human being, and I vaguely remember having to actually pay for the “free” credit reports, like having to give a credit card number and cancel a “subscription” to see my credit reports every month or something.

    When the socialist/communist revolution happens, you know who’ll be up against the wall first….

    And whats the BFD with your credit score going down if you check your credit reports continuously? It would be like my bank deciding to charge me fees for checking my checking account online every day to see if everything is kosher.

    Lets see…credit agencies, Pay Pal, the RIAA/MPAA, who else is on the evil incarnate list?

  28. 28.

    jeffreyw

    @cat48: So far it’s “for a couple of weeks”. Mrs J seems quite fond of him already so it’s gonna be a hard one to call. I see no problem with keeping him if she wants to.

  32. 32.

    BGinCHI

    @Lev: What happened to that SF coalition of Dems and GOPs that were getting together to fix the state’s structural (2/3) problem?

    That kind of systemic problem is going to be really hard to fix.

  33. 33.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    @Mark S.:

    I remember when Cowherd did sports for KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland, OR. Nothing about him seemed remarkable, but I guess douchebags come in all shapes and sizes.

  35. 35.

    frustrated mama (formerly demo woman)

    Gotta say being without a computer is frustrating. My son lent me his ipad which is great for watching tennis but it does not take the place of a computer.

    This is one reason why I missed this site..
    comment #6

    And cheer up, Cole. You could have gotten a finger shoved up your ass and a biopsy needle stuck in your taint. Now that’s a good day.

    comment #7
    This was tasty.

  36. 36.

    General Stuck

    @lamh32: Obama is being a bit snarky to a separate branch of government by giving them the go ahead to act where he has no authority.

    The electioneering posturing bullshit is getting so deep, you have to have wings to stay above it. And Obama is not up for reelection on the wingnut wave chopping block. So they are likely not reading his bulletins much these days, other than where his veto pen might be.

  37. 37.

    geg6

    Well, if it helps, John, Bennen seems to he saying that Bobo might have written something semi-sensible today. Hard to believe, but it almost tempted me to click until I remembered that I always lose IQ points when I click on a Bobo link.

    Perhaps you are braver than I and will read it and let us know. Or perhaps DougJ should be tasked with this. He does seem to have a finely tuned antenna for Bobo bullshit.

  40. 40.

    Cris

    I’ll admit that I haven’t been paying attention, but I’m surprised I haven’t seen any mockery of I Want Your Money. The description of the movie is hopelessly naive:

    Set against the backdrop of today’s headline – 67% of Americans don’t approve of Obama’s economic policies, the film takes a provocative look at our deeply depressed economy using the words and actions of Presidents Reagan and Obama and shows the marked contrast between Reaganomics and Obamanomics. The film contrasts two views of the role that the federal government should play in our daily lives using the words and actions of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you; the other believes that the elite in Washington know how to best allocate your wealth. One champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one’s lot in life and even daring to dream and build big. The other holds that there is no end to the “good” the government can do by taking and spending other peoples’ money in an ever-burgeoning list of programs. The documentary film I Want Your Money exposes the high cost in lost freedom and in lost opportunity to support a Leviathan-like bureaucratic state.

    Somebody thinks he’s the Republican answer to Michael Moore.

  42. 42.

    Lev

    @BGinCHI: There are usually a few Republicans who are bought off every year to get to 2/3. There aren’t any Republicans in office that actually want to make it a simple majority that I’m aware of because then they lose their leverage. And voters in California generally support the 2/3 requirement because taxes would go up if it were just 1/2. Considering how much we spend on junk from ballot propositions and on pointless Wilson-era “law & order” bullshit I can’t really say I blame them. We have a hefty tax burden, which is something I don’t have a problem with personally, but it’s not like there’s no fat we can’t cut off first. But that would require taking on, say, the prison guards union. Which just doesn’t happen.

    Of course, California politics is mostly filled with reprehensible and irresponsible people on both sides of the aisle. Now we’re going to get a governor who doesn’t want to fix our problems. Goody.

  43. 43.

    Bobby Thomson

    @lamh32:

    create a new tax bracket on taxable income over $750k or $1 million per year.

    Now that’s how you do class warfare. People may argue that professionals in New York are less wealthy than Midwesterners making the same salary, but there’s no denying that people making $750K are well off, no matter where they live. Isolate the truly filthy rich and jack their top rates. Don’t stop at 750K either. Have another trigger at $5 million and one at $10 million. I haven’t crunched the numbers, but I wonder if you could pay for taxcuts to the two percenters (and more) simply by allocating it differently.

    Unfortunately, just about everybody in Congress would personally get their rates jacked at 750, so it’s probably a nonstarter, but I can dream.

  44. 44.

    lamh32

    Does this surprise anyone? Not me.


    Dylan Ratigan: ‘I Consider Myself A Conservative’ (VIDEO)

    It may have come as a surprise to some of his viewers, but Dylan Ratigan said he sees himself as a conservative.
    On his MSNBC show Monday, Ratigan was talking to a panel of guests about conservatism when he said, “I consider myself a conservative.”

    “Really?” asked a surprised Jonathan Capehart.
    Ratigan went on: “You can do whatever you want, the social [issues] I could care less, but when it comes to actual structure…”

    “But wouldn’t that make you libertarian?” Capehart cut in.
    “Libertarians lose me when they go to the law of the jungle but refuse to actually prevent the game from being rigged,” Ratigan responded. “I don’t think it’s the law of the jungle when the game is rigged for the lions to eat everything.”

  50. 50.

    lamh32

    Wow, as an African American, I’m not sure what to think about this story?

    Famed Civil Rights Photographer Worked As FBI Informant

    Ernest C. Withers, a famed photographer who chronicled the civil rights movement in photographs and was able to sit in on some of the most sensitive strategy meetings, also worked as an informant for the FBI, Memphis’ Commercial Appeal reports.

    But according to documents the newspaper obtained via Freedom of Information Act during a two year investigation, Withers was also working for J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

    According to the documents, Withers followed King the day before his murder and told FBI agents about a meeting King had with suspected black militants and later divulged details he learned at King’s funeral in Atlanta.

    The alleged spying took place from at least 1968 until 1970. Withers, according to documents, passed on tips and photographs to the FBI which detailed an insider view of the civil rights movement as well as politics, business and everyday life in Memphis’ African-American community.

    “It is an amazing betrayal,” Athan Theoharis, a historian at Marquette University who has written books about the F.B.I. told the New York Times. “It really speaks to the degree that the F.B.I. was able to engage individuals within the civil rights movement. This man was so well trusted.”

  51. 51.

    burnspbesq

    Cole, you are in the perfect mood to watch a Mets – Pirates game. Drink after every mistake, and you will be unconscious by the fourth inning.

  52. 52.

    General Stuck

    @Mark S.: I really wonder if Nate is not doing some reverse psyche fu to motivate complacent dem voters. A libtard Paul Revere. The Wingnuts are Coming, The wingnuts are coming. At least I hope so.

  54. 54.

    Lev

    @General Stuck: He could well be right, but I just don’t see some of those seats flipping. Chet Edwards is listed as a likely flip when the guy has gotten 2/3 of the vote in both Rep (’04) and Dem (’06 and ’08) years. And his model give Joseph Cao about even odds of holding on when it seems to me that he’s pretty much toast.

    Maybe his numbers are right, I don’t know. But I noticed a few ones that seem to defy common sense to me.

  56. 56.

    jl

    IMIO, a large portion, though admittedly not all, of Cole’s recent problems stem from him not posting enough pet pics.

    May the Wrath of Tunch consume me alive if I lie about this important matter.

    Note: IMIO is ‘In My Infallible Opinion’

  57. 57.

    Betsy

    @lamh32:

    I wish we knew more details. It really explains why people in The Movement (be it civil rights, antiwar, women’s liberation, black power, student movement, gay rights…) so often were painted as irrationally paranoid (and sometimes, indeed, became quite paranoid). Is it still paranoia if someone really is out to get you spying on you for J. Edgar Hoover?

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Allison W.: now joined by uber-establishmentarian Lawrence O’Donnell! I’m sure he’ll get great ratings, if he made enough money off West Wing to buy up a few thousand DVRs to record his own show.

  60. 60.

    Cain

    I’m cranky, run down, tired, and spent. On top of that, I just looked at my Netflix Instant queue and that gave me anxiety it was so full. I’m remembering why I got rid of my DVR.

    Oh, so you’ve been reading the “dude, you have no Quran” thread all day too huh?

    cain

  61. 61.

    cat48

    @jeffreyw

    Love the cute puppehs; but Homer stole my heart. Cats are my favorite and I can’t have both.

  62. 62.

    Mary G

    @jl: Yes! We need Tunch, Rosie & Lily pics in the worst way. My mom had a relapse and is back in the hospital. Jeffreyw’s blood hound pups and the kitty in the cast are the only things I’ve smiled at today.

  65. 65.

    BruceFromOhio

    Add to that yet another day on the phone with Experian, and you get an idea what kind of mood I am in.

    There is payoff at the end of this bad dream. I had a local BruceFromOhio with a different middle initial on my Experian report for almost a decade. He was getting credit left and right using my credit history, and fucking it up by degrees. He started out small at HFC, and eventually graduated to Sears & Roebuck. And then started screwing it up.

    So for as long as he was on my credit, and as long as it took to get it all figured out correctly, Experian has rock-solid data on me now and they know it. I figure I’m good for another ten years (though I will be checking annually on these incompetent motherfckers).

    Laugh it off as test of the universe, and think about something else for awhile. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

  68. 68.

    burnspbesq

    @Jon H:

    The Real IRA = the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. They’re nothing but a pain in the arse, and Sinn Fein should rat them all out and we’ll be well rid of them.

    And by the way, fuck you and the English horse you rode in on.

  69. 69.

    Jon H

    @burnspbesq: ” the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. They’re nothing but a pain in the arse, and Sinn Fein should rat them all out and we’ll be well rid of them.”

    Eh, they seem to be picking up in activity lately, blowing up a 250lb bomb in front of a police station in Derry not long ago.

    “And by the way, fuck you and the English horse you rode in on.”

    Hey, I’m just waiting to see if the teabaggers decide that the Irish are as big of a threat as the Muslims.

  70. 70.

    asiangrrlMN

    @jeffreyw: Aw, kitteh and puppehs and food pr0n all in one thread? You do not play fair, man.

    @Restrung: Dude. “It’s fucking Pawlenty’s fault” should just trip right off your tongue. It doesn’t matter what the topic is–that’s the right answer.

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