Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

We still have time to mess this up!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

No Justins, No Peace

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

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

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

It’s a doggy dog world.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    jacy

    Via TNC, , this cracked me up to an unreasonable degree, because, yes, I am 12.

    Crazy Rabbi Yehudi Levin will soon be appearing in the Catskills:

    “I was in the middle of eating a kosher pastrami sandwich,” Rabbi Levin said. “While I was eating it, they come running and they say, ‘Paladino became gay!’ I said, ‘What?’ And then they showed me the statement. I almost choked on the kosher salami.”

    Try the veal! And don’t forget to tip your waiter.

  2. 2.

    blahblahblah

    I emailed this to John, but I might as well post it here too:

    “Capitalism Saved the Miners”

    Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has a wonderful OP-ED where the author promotes the notion that CAPITALISM saved the day in Chile. Never mind the work of actual engineers involved in the planning, nor the hard physical work involved in freeing them, no … they’re just beneficiaries of the REAL mover and shaker of that success: CAPITALISM. You got that, John? Not people. Not their ideas. Not especially their hard work. CAPITALISM.

    And if you don’t understand that, CAPITALISM will just go Galt on us all and what will the next set of trapped miners do then?

    You must hate the REAL Chileans who all love CAPITALISM, these wonderful FREEDOM LOVING capitalist formerly trapped miners, and every other REAL FREEDOM LOVING CAPITALIST.

    Now, go bow to your new found love, LENIN, democRAT.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550322091167574.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

    (seriously, what the hell has Murdoch done to that paper?)

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    Obviously proof that Balloon-Juice is just a big Obot site. True progressives know that they’ve been thrown under the bus and are going to pout and let the Republicans win to teach Obama a lesson.

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    Thank goodness for a little OT.
    I thought this article on data mining, or “scraping” was very interesting:
    ‘Scrapers’ Dig Deep for Data on Web

    Essentially, companies sign up for accounts and retrieve all personal info anyone has posted, sometimes crashing the site. Kind of like a DOS with a side bennie of selling your info to Big Corp.
    HT thru Corrente

  7. 7.

    Zam

    Not to bring everyone down, but I am fucking pissed off. I went to cast my vote today and was told directly by the lady working the desk that the dems and specifically my candidate were liars. This comes after several other attempts here in Wisconsin to intimidate voters by claiming that early voting is illegal as well as voting while black.

  10. 10.

    eemom

    @Zam:

    please, please notify the local Board of Elections, Democratic Party, and Election Protection (nonpartisan legal group that does what its name says) about any and all shenanigans like this, ASAP.

  11. 11.

    Cat Lady

    Valerie Jarrett apologizes for her lifestyle word choice. The DK firebaggers will acknowledge their butthurt from yesterday is all better now, and extend Obama the benefit of the doubt now for an inartful use of a phrase by an ex-staffer, right? Right? Although the day is relatively young and still provides an opportunity for a new way to be slapped in the face and thrown under a bus. Victimhood is quite the drug.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    @Zam: You need to call and report that incident, IMO.
    If you are concerned about calling authorities, call Feingold’s office.

  13. 13.

    Cain

    @lacp:

    @jacy: He almost choked on a kosher salami? Was it being shoved down his throat? I guess it’s a Republican thing.

    The rabbi put a lot of symbolism in that article. I don’t know how he knew the salami was kosher.. maybe the guy who owns the salami was kosher too.

    cain

  14. 14.

    Cain

    So it is day 3 now, and no cat. :( Someone spotted him on tuesday at 2:30pm right next to our house. So it makes no sense that he wouldn’t come home. We’re leaving for chicago tomorrow for the weekend. Every once in awhile I start getting all depressed thinking about the furry guy. This really sucks.

    He’s chipped so if someone turns him in, our contact is already there. To make it worse, I saw a dead cat on the road on teh way home yesterday. I went back, and put him to the side so that he wouldn’t be run over. Poor tabby. I’ll probably call the shelter to get someone to pick him up. I definitely didn’t want my wife to see the dead cat on teh way home.. it would have broken her heart.

    cain

  15. 15.

    Barb (formerly gex)

    @jacy: Ample demonstration of Poe’s Law. You could have spoofed this. But it could just as easily look like a position an actual human being holds.

  16. 16.

    jacy

    @Cain:

    Ack, my sympathies. I can never sleep when my Spike accidentally gets out. Here’s hoping he gets tired of being contrary and gets his butt back before you have to leave. I’ll think good thoughts.

  17. 17.

    jacy

    More political funny, via Talking Points Memo:

    The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled “Rich Whitey” on electronic-voting machines in 23 wards — “about half in predominantly African-American areas.”

    Because you can’t make this stuff up.

  18. 18.

    Paula

    mistermix, please don’t feed the emo. It’s taking a damn near herculean effort to get through the wankfest for the mockery.

  20. 20.

    Alex S.

    Since this is an open thread… I was out of town and out of the World Wide Web for a week. Being back for a few hours now, I can really feel the stupification of the political discourse. Carl Paladino’s gay stories, Rich Whitey, 1000 lasers in the sky…. It really gets dumber every week.

  22. 22.

    Jamie

    I have a prediction for the next big wingnut talking point. I don’t know why I’m sharing this, since I could probably submit it to NRO and get a lifetime job, but oh well.

    *puts on wingnut thinking cap*

    Given the rampant problems with voter fraud recently illustrated in Illinois by Mark Kirk, isn’t it time we considered alternative solutions to the problem. Clearly, the government can’t handle the job, or else Kirk wouldn’t have hired private lawyers to ensure a fair election. So, why don’t we just privatize the whole thing? It’s clear that only private enterprise, not wasteful big government, is efficient enough to guarantee fair voting practices. (Just look at Cash for Clunkers!!)

    In this model, we could put each polling station in the control of a corporation. The corporation would administer the poll as it saw fit. Then, the magic of free market would take over. Voters would choose to vote only at the most reliable and reputable polling stations, which would in turn allow those corporations to charge a fee for their services. Polling stations that didn’t meet a certain standard of profitability would clearly not be performing their duties correctly, and their votes could be discounted, or thrown out altogether in sever cases, such as the South Side of Chicago.

    Obviously, big government liberals will scoff at the notion that private enterprise could do anything better than their beloved state, but this is the kind of common sense idea that doesn’t get talked about enough. It would allow us to harness the free market to eliminate voter fraud and give citizens an easy way to choose the best polling station for them. More freedom of choice AND a profit for private enterprise? No wonder liberals hate it!

    *takes off wingnut thinking cap*

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: That’s a lot of bad days in a row. Just a bad patch or time to do something different? I’m not sure it’s possible to eat enough pie or spend enough time on the treadmill to make up for hating your job every single day.

  27. 27.

    Anya

    Is anyone watching MTV’s “Conversation with President Obama”? He was just asked about DADT. The question was (paraphrasing) why don’t you repeal DADT with a stroke of a pen, like Truman’s Executive Order that integrated military. Obama answered: unlike Truman, I cannot do that because congress passed a law that allows military to discriminate against gays. Again I am paraphrasing.

    Another one asked him if being gay and trans was a choice. He said no it was not a choice and we are all children of god and that’s way it’s wrong to discriminate.

  28. 28.

    debit

    @WaterGirl: Believe me, if there was something out there, I’d take it in a heartbeat. We’re at the end of a quarter and getting ready for tax season (and W2/1099 season) and the deadlines for filing extended personal returns is tomorrow. I hate everyone.

  29. 29.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Zam:

    What that woman did was ILLEGAL. Absolutely. Contact the Board of Elections and get her fired. You might even call you local television station to complain. If she is doing that to you, she will do it to others.

    Other: If the Republicans are saying that it is illegal to vote early, that must mean that they don’t have their goons out yet.

    ETA:
    You might also contact your local Dem party or OFA. I would imagine somebody would know what to do in the case of the woman dishing out propaganda at the voting place.

  31. 31.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Cain:

    Poor Cain. Poor Mrs. Cain. You were probably just giving your beloved cat some outside time for enrichment and fun.

    On the bright side, cats do go off now and then and eventually come home. Don’t give up hope yet.

  33. 33.

    debit

    @Linda Featheringill: Thanks. I’m home and about to walk the dog, so things are automatically better.

    And I just want to make clear, I don’t hate my job every day. Most days I enjoy what I do and the people I work with. It’s just that some weeks are worse than others and some clients really push my buttons. This has been one of those weeks.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: I am late getting back to the thread, so you will probably never see this reply, but I’m sorry it’s so stressful. I had forgotten that you guys do taxes, too. No wonder you hate everyone right now. :-)

    Edit: I see you are back, our comments crossed in the night.

  36. 36.

    debit

    @WaterGirl: Heh. I just got from the dog walk and all is right with the world. And I need to work on being patient and understanding with our clients. They pay my check and I should be grateful for them, even the ones that drive me apeshit.

  38. 38.

    gene108

    One more reason to be excited: Combat operations in Iraq have ended.

    If you remember the 2008 campaign, no Republican was willing to give a time line one when combat troops would be coming out of Iraq. For them stating troops would be withdrawn by the summer of 2010, was tantamount to surrender.

    Obama stated he was going to end combat operations in 16 months and stuck to his time line.

    I just hope people realize withdrawing from Iraq was still a hot button issue in 2008 and was not guaranteed to go smoothly, after Obama was elected.

    The Obama Administration handled this well, quietly and made it seem like there was no alternative, thus silencing critics on the right.

Comments are closed.