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You are here: Home / Got a feeling about the future and it ain’t too good

Got a feeling about the future and it ain’t too good

by DougJ|  October 20, 201012:14 pm| 177 Comments

This post is in: Good News For Conservatives

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I am genuinely creeped out by the story of Ginny Thomas calling Anita Hill to fuck with her. It’s hard for me see it as anything other than some kind of not-so-veiled threat, despite what the principled thinkers at OTB say.

Meanwhile, Joe Miller’s rent-a-cops are unlawfully detaining reporters while conservatatrians cheer, and so-called centrist conservative bloggers are demanding that liberals get on our knees and worship our monied superiors. All against the backdrop of major teatard political gains this fall.

I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

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177Comments

  1. 1.

    soonergrunt

    October 20, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    There’s a large portion of us pale-faces who oppose this shit.
    Or do we ascribe the behavior of a few to the whole now?

  2. 2.

    Michael

    October 20, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    It means that they’re announcing that paybacks are coming, and they’re going to be personal. Every 20 year old grievance will be the subject of hearings – further back, if need be.

    Hell, they’d even go back in to Mary Jo Kopechne, if given a chance.

  3. 3.

    Hunter Gathers

    October 20, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    We’ve got 20 years. It’s going to be a long, long 20 years.

  4. 4.

    WyldPirate

    October 20, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    There is no saving us. This whole mess is going to degenerate into complete disaster, chaos and anarchy.

    Next stop–Banana republic land of the TeaTards. Duration of rule, unknown.

    After that, chaos, breakdown, revolution and start again.

  5. 5.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 20, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    A few?

  6. 6.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 20, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    Yeah, that’s how I see it.

  7. 7.

    MBunge

    October 20, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    I am genuinely creeped out by the story of Ginny Thomas calling Anita Hill to fuck with her. It’s hard for me see it as anything other than some kind of not-so-veiled threat

    Even if it wasn’t a threat, it’s just damned weird. People are a little odd as a general rule, but modern conservatism appears to be breeding folks who are more maladjusted than normal.

    Mike

  8. 8.

    ChrisWWW

    October 20, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    DougJ,
    Don’t put it beyond these guys to start deporting the non-whites en masse, or at least strip them of their voting rights.

  9. 9.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    Come on Doug, where’s that carefree, gonna-enjoy-the-upcoming-impeachment attitude? Maybe you need to start drinking. It’s after noon.

  10. 10.

    Ash Can

    October 20, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    @soonergrunt: I’m a pale-face myself, and I’ll be among the first to say that it’s more than just a few.

  11. 11.

    steviez314

    October 20, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    Just imagine if, against the math, the Dems only lose 5 Senate seats and 30 House seats.

    The Right’s heads will collectively do a Hiroshima and I expect to retreat to my batcave with duct tape until it all blows over.

  12. 12.

    quaint irene

    October 20, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    And what’s added weirdness to Ginny Thomas’ voice mail is the suggestion that Hill ‘pray over it.’ WTF?

    I can’t even imagine what that married home life is like. No wonder Thomas refuses to retire, prefering to get caught napping on the bench.

  13. 13.

    Citizen Alan

    October 20, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    Since I expect a Republican President to start interning Latinos and Muslims within 12 years at the most, I’m not very optimistic that we can meet that goal.

  14. 14.

    Shade Tail

    October 20, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    @soonergrunt (#1):

    Oh relax. First of all, DougJ was exaggerating a bit for comic effect. And second, yes there are some of us European-Americans on the correct side, but there’s a reason why people keep observing how white (and old) teabagger gatherings tend to be.

    And third, a large part of the reason why white folks like us are breaking off and joining the melting pot is because we’re exposed to that greater diversity and find that we enjoy it. So, whether he realized it or not, DougJ’s statement was well made for *two* reasons.

  15. 15.

    BenA

    October 20, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    @Ash Can:
    It almost makes me ill to think how stupid your average white male American is.

    I’m a also a little tired of the defensive boomer/white male saying “not me.”

    There’s probably a couple of reasonable Republicans out there too.. doesn’t mean I’m going to stop pointing out that the GOP is full of lunatic religious nuts.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    October 20, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    speaking of our monied betters, I’m assuming you saw the story about the Koch Bros having the American Billionaires Club convene on a mountain top in Aspen to listen to the Reverend Beck read from the Cliff Notes of Hayek?

  17. 17.

    debbie

    October 20, 2010 at 12:31 pm

    You know, Hill got all kinds of death threats during the hearings. How was she to know that this wasn’t the start of the same thing all over again?

    This is the same kind of conservative mentality that tried to label Valerie Plame as nothing more than a secretary.

  18. 18.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    October 20, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    I don’t understand my wife or her damned drinking and dialing.

  19. 19.

    Poopyman

    October 20, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    I’ve been thinking that the far right is lacking a real charismatic leader for anything so radical to transpire. Palin doesn’t really have the ability to rouse the rabble, Gingrich is too obviously in it for himself, Beck is in it for himself, and too “scholarly” to actually lead a revolution. No, when the real leader rises wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible, we’ll know the doo-doo is ready to hit the fan. At least we’re not there yet.

  20. 20.

    Martin

    October 20, 2010 at 12:33 pm

    If you’ve determined the person is crazy, you can’t expect them to adhere to rational motives.

    If there was a rational motive here, my guess is that something has happened that makes Ginny suspicious of Clarence and she’s looking for a way to investigate the prior claim by opening a conversation, and using this bizarro approach to do it.

    This should be ancient history for her, yet it’s clearly not, and my wild-assed guess is that something happened recently.

    In my experience that’s always been the motive for someone to chase down an accuser like this.

  21. 21.

    Scott

    October 20, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    I’m not at all sure I’d classify it as a threat or a promise for how the teabaggers intend to govern… although I’ll be willing to change my mind if we see some more evidence…

  22. 22.

    cleek

    October 20, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    @steviez314:
    this is my quiet wish.

  23. 23.

    Bullsmith

    October 20, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    @Michael:

    Yeah “look forward not backward” is a concept Democrats may extend to Republicans, but it certainly won’t be reciprocated.

  24. 24.

    Hunter Gathers

    October 20, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: What amazes me is that the people who continue to spew racist bull on a daily basis aren’t held to the same standard that they we held to even 5 years ago. Would Trent Lott get booted for his segregationist bullshit if he said it yesterday? George Allen’s Macaca horseshit? This country is on the verge of electing quite a few outright bigots to Congress and the press doesn’t give a shit.

    It’s going to take a federal building exploding or Ruby Ridge type shootout in the heart of DC in order for our MSM betters to wake up to the type of shit they are helping to foment by ignoring, or in some cases, outright fellating, the violent radicals that are poised to take control of at least the House of Representatives.

  25. 25.

    Blue Neponset

    October 20, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    I am not really worried about the future. The rich people who pull the strings aren’t going to let things get too out of hand. The tea baggers are just useful idiots and will be squashed and/or ignored when it suits their rich puppet masters.

  26. 26.

    4tehlulz

    October 20, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    @Hunter Gathers: The bombing of the Murrah Building massacre of dozens of federal workers obviously will be the fault of an extreme, but understandable, reaction to Clinton’s Obama’s policies.

    /MSM

  27. 27.

    david mizner

    October 20, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    yeah, bad times indeed.

    Maybe Dems ought to, I dunno, do something about the recession, which, after all, is stoking fear and hatred?

  28. 28.

    stuckinred

    October 20, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    So you think a military dictatorship will be subject to a plebiscite? sheesh

  29. 29.

    Stillwater

    October 20, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Doug, the oppressed conservative minority is just taking back what is rightfully theirs. And none too soon, I say. How long can this country survive if delusional self-centered ambitious people don’t simply get their way?

    On a related note (about the country going to hell in a handbag) there’s this article about Britian’s austerity measures. This is what happens when liberals don’t extend enough gratitude to the wealthy folks who allow the government to confiscate their income.

  30. 30.

    Jack Bauer

    October 20, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    This pale face will see you all at the barricades.

  31. 31.

    Violet

    October 20, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    It’s going to take a federal building exploding or Ruby Ridge type shootout in the heart of DC in order for our MSM betters to wake up to the type of shit they are helping to foment by ignoring, or in some cases, outright fellating, the violent radicals that are poised to take control of at least the House of Representatives.

    That wouldn’t change anything. They’d just blame the Liberal Soshulists who run the country.

    Please understand: IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. The media will play the horse race and give crazy people equal time. It’s all they know.

  32. 32.

    balconesfault`

    October 20, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    @MBunge: Yeah – I think the meme should right now be:

    Ginny Thomas – stalker

  33. 33.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    @debbie: Valerie Plame really should apologize to the family of Robert Novak for making him look like such a jerk when he blew her cover.

  34. 34.

    Violet

    October 20, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    @Blue Neponset:

    I am not really worried about the future. The rich people who pull the strings aren’t going to let things get too out of hand.

    Two words: French Revolution. It can get to a point where the “rich people who pull the strings” are outnumbered and can’t do anything about it anymore.

  35. 35.

    Hunter Gathers

    October 20, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    @4tehlulz: Your ability to channel David Brooks is eerie.

  36. 36.

    Citizen_X

    October 20, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    @Jim, Foolish LIteralist: Did you read the source article in the Times? I found that to be pretty scary/depressing. It tells how Koch and their legions of ultra-rich Kochsuckers (sorry, couldn’t help myself) are going to be meeting in secret in Palm Springs this January. No press is allowed; no riff-raff will be allowed entry; no reports from inside will be tolerated. Don’t worry, though: all they’re doing is planning out how they’re going to spend eleventy bazillion dollars to manipulate the 2012 election.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 20, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    @david mizner: “something”! That’s it! I’ll bet everyone in Washington is kicking themselves over not doing “something”! By jingo, mizner, you’re a jeenyus!

  38. 38.

    Evan

    October 20, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Just one more piece of evidence that conservatism is a pathology and not an ideology.

  39. 39.

    mark boggs

    October 20, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Tim Kowal has his support up for the “productive” class over at his blog. I’m not sure he understands the objection you guys make or is so versed in the ways of “the successful” that he can’t understand it.

    http://notesfrombabel.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/the-fuss-over-income-inequality/#comment-458

  40. 40.

    sherifffruitfly

    October 20, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    Those of us who maintain the “it’s just a few bad apples” lie are part of the problem. No different from any of us white folks who whine about “reverse racism”.

  41. 41.

    Stillwater

    October 20, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    @Blue Neponset: The rich people who pull the strings aren’t going to let things get too out of hand.

    You might want to have a little talk with the rich people pulling the strings in France.

  42. 42.

    shortstop

    October 20, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    @soonergrunt: I think Doug was speaking of us white liberals, who are the minority of whites, relying on non-whites to save us from crazy whites, who are most assuredly the majority of whites.

  43. 43.

    ChrisS

    October 20, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    Why won’t Bill Clinton apologize to Lucianne Goldberg for causing such a media fervor?

    BTW – I’ve already sent thank you cards to the board of Citi Group, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America for tirelessly working to support our great nation. I hope they hang the cards on their refrigerators with magnets from places they’ve traveled to.

  44. 44.

    Tractarian

    October 20, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    Slightly OT:

    OMGOMGOMGOMG.

    I just read the latest “why do liberals hate rich people” diatribe from Sully’s bulging mailbag.

    I think my head is about to explode.

  45. 45.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 20, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    @MBunge:

    modern conservatism appears to be breeding folks who are more maladjusted than normal.

    And the country is about to let the inmates take a whack at running the asylum. I try to take the sanguine view of things, but goddamn, is this country fucking stupid.

  46. 46.

    fasteddie9318

    October 20, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    I’m torn on this. Would military dictatorship be worse than a dictatorship of the stupid run by a cabal of Palin, DeMint, O’Donnell, Miller, etc.? At least I’m pretty sure that Alexander the Great General Petraeus can write his name in the ground with a stick.

  47. 47.

    Bella Q

    October 20, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    And yet the wingnut wurlitzer keeps right on shouting that there will be a Democratic bloodbath come November. I don’t see it. The political junkies and wingnuts have been following races and talking loudly, but regular people – some of whom are sane and many of whom will vote – have just now started paying attention. And I don’t think it’s gonna be the Republican revolution that’s been predicted.

    Do feel free to mock me now and remind me November 3d if I’m wrong, but I’m just not buying into it. Some midterms losses, sure. A cat 4 storm of R wins, nope.

  48. 48.

    John Bird

    October 20, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    I don’t see anything nefarious behind Thomas calling Hill, or at least nothing particular to the incident.

    What I see is a country where the right wing’s unstable elements are beginning to stir and recombine – hopefully we will avoid the compounds of the 1990s, but there’s no telling.

    I am really loathe to accept projection as a cause for any statement. But it really seems to be the case on the right. Its most vocal elements engage in the paranoid style of politics and are beginning to voice full-throated support for revolutionary thought. Not as in revolutionary, new ways of thinking, but rather pushing for a vague internal palingenetic social revolution.

    This manifests itself as a mass delusion that a coup has already been carried out, will be carried out, has always already been carried out by the radical left. Obama’s election is considered a Hail Mary for the Black Panther Party(!) and the Weathermen(!!) – that is, for forty-year-old marginal left-wing movements that don’t actually exist anymore. The country has been ‘duped’ into supporting a secret agenda, the right proclaims, and the only way to fix this has something to do with stockpiling weapons and keeping an eye on Hispanics.

    The danger is that what they’re projecting, the supposed capture of the country by a radicalized minority through a charismatic leader from well outside the discourse, is an event whose conditions are quickly being assembled by the right themselves.

    And I do not believe that many on the right are even able to see this. The way that Tea Partiers in my Southern state have related the idea to me is ‘vote the bastards out’ – that is, as anti-incumbent sentiment. However, what that means when I probe further is that they primary from the far right, and then vote Republican.

    Mainly, these Tea Partiers either have a right-wing incumbent who they love and cherish, or they are voting for the Republican no matter what. But what all of them have in common is that they see their interests being served, not by their own candidates, but by Senate races in Alaska, Delaware, and Kentucky, and believe that the ‘revolution’ (as they gladly describe it) will come from right-wing candidates from these states, combined with right-wing media personalities from television.

    If they’re looking for the locus of national political power in their party – they’re right. And that’s the problem: radical thought is often restrained by entrenched interest. What interest, exactly, does O’Donnell actually have in Delaware, a state where she couldn’t be bothered to put up lawn signs or make appearances? Is she running for Senate, or is she running for the seat held by Glenn Beck? And when someone “running for Glenn Beck” gets into the Senate and has the ability to single-handedly halt legislation – whether it’s O’Donnell, Miller, or Paul – what will be the result?

    It may not be enough to drop out of the Governor’s office and work on Facebook and endorsements full time. To become the next media darling, someone may have to actually opt to shut down the U.S. government in a time of extreme economic stress, during two international wars.

    Who cares if 80% of the country despises them and they are voted out? Not them. The support of 20% will buy mansions and jetskis and trips to Scotland, and all Americans lose is, well, perhaps everything.

    That’s what concerns me about the future.

  49. 49.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    The crazies are just the foot soldiers. Their masters behind the scenes won’t let things get too out of control. Revolution is bad for bidness.

  50. 50.

    Crashman

    October 20, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    @Tractarian: Take the jump like me and write his blog off. I’m through with his crap. It’s very relaxing.

  51. 51.

    curious

    October 20, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    this call was made at 7:30 on a saturday morning, to hill’s office. it does not get braver.

  52. 52.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 20, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    @Tractarian: How do we know that he is not writing himself these e-mails, I mean he doesn’t allow comments does he?

  53. 53.

    Hunter Gathers

    October 20, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    @Tractarian: That’s almost as maddening as the reader who thinks that Obama should dump Biden, bypass Clinton, and name Mitch ‘The Iraq War will cost $1.05’ Daniels as his VP for 2012. Sully probably needs a change of pants after reading about the UK’s austerity measures.

  54. 54.

    Onkel Bob

    October 20, 2010 at 12:58 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship

    You should be so lucky to have a benevolent military dictorship. You never know, they might decide to summarily execute deserters (GWB) and traitors (DC).

  55. 55.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    The lack of a strong leader on the Right is a good point. I’ve been saying that there’s no real guidance behind the TP-ers and very little at the top of the GOP. The appearance of a powerful, charismatic figurehead could change all that overnight. Look at Germany in the ’30s if you have the stomach.

  56. 56.

    morzer

    October 20, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    Two words: United Fruit.

  57. 57.

    Martin

    October 20, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    @mark boggs: Heh. I piled on.

  58. 58.

    R. Johnston

    October 20, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    Since I expect a Republican President to start interring Latinos and Muslims within 12 years at the most, I’m not very optimistic that we can meet that goal.

    FTFY.

  59. 59.

    shortstop

    October 20, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    I was down with the Occam’s Razor petty vindictive grudge queen drunk dials theory, or, given the hour the call was made (7:30 a.m. on a Saturday, just to ensure she didn’t have to talk to Hill), more likely a prescription drug fog. However, somebody on some other blog notes that Ginni Thomas has been using her teabagging speeches of late to publicly call for Anita Hill to “apologize.” If that’s true (too lazy to look it up), this seems to involve calculation rather than being a simple display of pathology.

    Judging from the responses on Tapper’s blog last night, there’s a goodly portion of white Republican males who STILL get het up, and not in a good way, at the mere mention of Anita Hill’s name. Is this just whipping up the base?

  60. 60.

    eemom

    October 20, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    I’m all for freaking out about how fucked everything is, but I think it is unlikely that Lady Thomas’s bizzaro phone call is indicative of anything other than the fact that she is, for whatever reason, a mentally unstable person.

    Also, the worthless, utterly contemptible “love the rich” tripe that Sullivan and his croonies are peddling is just that
    — worthless tripe. That shit sure as hell ain’t going to win anybody any votes.

    What MATTERS, right now, is November 2. And from what I’ve seen in the last few days, rumors of the demise of sanity in the electoral process may yet prove to be somewhat premature.

    With all due respect, DougJisthebusinessandeconomicseditorforBalloonJuice, maybe you need to take a break from the emmessemm. You’re starting to believe what they tell you.

  61. 61.

    ChrisS

    October 20, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    I wonder if I’m too old to emigrate to New Zealand or Canada?

  62. 62.

    themann1086

    October 20, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    I don’t know why I didn’t think of this during our previous threads on our monied betters, but one of my all-time favorite quotes: “This disposition to admire, and almost to worship , the rich and powerful, and to despise, or at least neglect, persons of poor and mean conditions [is] the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”

    A cookie to the person who knows which commie soshulist said that without going to teh google!

  63. 63.

    Citizen Alan

    October 20, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    @Tractarian:

    OMG! “Even though I’ll never retire and will have to work till I die, I don’t want the Liberals raising taxes on rich folks to improve the quality of my life, because then I won’t be free!” (Paraphrased, but not by much.)

    I do not understand what is going on in the minds of people like that — resigning oneself to a lifetime of struggle and penury so that some asshole who inherited most of his wealth can pretend that he was “successful.” I don’t know who I hate more right now: the evil overlords or the fucking peasants who prop them up because of “the divine right of kings” or the modern day equivalent.

  64. 64.

    taylormattd

    October 20, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    @soonergrunt: oh jesus, give it a rest.

  65. 65.

    cleek

    October 20, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    @Blue Neponset:
    this

    and, frankly, with no offense intended, all this “the end of our nation is imminent” wailing is only a couple of adjectives away from “Obama the soshulist is destroying our country! wahh!” and just as likely.

  66. 66.

    lacp

    October 20, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    It is teh awesome. We may be on the verge of the greatest demonstration in our lifetimes of Mencken’s definition of the theory of democracy.

  67. 67.

    somethingblue

    October 20, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    @themann1086:

    Must be someone unlikely, so I’m going to go with Adam Smith.

  68. 68.

    brendancalling

    October 20, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    you have concisely articulated why my girlfriend is buying our household a gun for my birthday (tomorrow).

    self defense, and also for hunting when society collapses, which we think is coming sooner rather than later.

  69. 69.

    merrinc

    October 20, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    It’s going to take a federal building exploding or Ruby Ridge type shootout

    Let’s see: Pat Robertson would blame it on homosexuals and radical feminists, Eric Cantor would explain that it was the fault of Democratic policies for making people so angry, the NRA would fight tooth and nail against any new regulations on guns or explosives, and the 101st Keyboarders would start looking for any evidence that the bombers/shooters had ever voted for a Democrat.

    (I’m sure I left out a lot of pundits and prognosticators.)

  70. 70.

    jo6pac

    October 20, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    I hope this happens soon in Calif. because we are going down fast.

  71. 71.

    taylormattd

    October 20, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    @Violet: This.

    Folks need to realize nothing will ever change in this country until the media, which is uniformly right wing at this point, is destroyed and rebuilt.

  72. 72.

    WereBear

    October 20, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    @quaint irene: That’s just a coverage thing from a certain kind of fake Christian…

    I’m of a completely different mindset; they have gone crazy, and are letting their freak flag fly. Don’t you know that the more stubbornly reality resists one’s efforts, the harder one must beat on it?

  73. 73.

    ricky

    October 20, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    I am terribly concerned what this means for the viability of the
    fruit fly propagagtion industry.

  74. 74.

    Violet

    October 20, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    @Citizen Alan:
    I don’t get it either. And how the hell does increasing the marginal tax rate on rich people by a tiny margin mean we’re “not free”? It doesn’t even make sense.

    Most people agree on the need for some taxes. The question is the tax rate, not the existence of taxes at all. Is a 1% change in the tax rate for rich people the difference between being free or not being free? Really? What the hell are these people smoking?

  75. 75.

    somethingblue

    October 20, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Oooh! Ooooh! Where’s my cookie?

  76. 76.

    themann1086

    October 20, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    @somethingblue: Nailed it in one. From his little-read but interesting work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

  77. 77.

    lacp

    October 20, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    @ricky: I believe it was the noted philosopher Julius Henry Marx who observed:

    “Time flies like an arrow.
    Fruit flies like a banana.”

  78. 78.

    sparky

    October 20, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    @John Bird: well, yes, but–
    –one person can already hold things up in the Senate, and i see no reason to expect differently whichever party controls that body. (i’m talking about the rules, not whether they are used.)

    –i would be more worried about TP folks if all their leaders were not so transparently in it for the lucre. it seems that many of the people who support them are not political types, so they have yet to cotton onto the reality that their leaders have no intention of governing if it means they have to make less $.

    –as for the national security state, well, yes, that is a problem, but as that grows worse under Obama with essentially no D pushback, it appears that any slowdown (not rollback) will have to come from outside, if at all.

    –IMO the two unknowns that could cause problems (in that the reactions are unknown) at the moment are (1) another imminent collapse of the FIRE sector or (2) a major terror event.

    –at the end of the day, it seems to me that the US will continue to punt until it can’t, and then there will be real austerity for thee. i am not going to predict when as i was already wrong, having thought it would have happened by 2005. oops.

  79. 79.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 20, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    @John Bird:

    But what all of them have in common is that they see their interests being served, not by their own candidates, but by Senate races in Alaska, Delaware, and Kentucky, and believe that the ‘revolution’ (as they gladly describe it) will come from right-wing candidates from these states, combined with right-wing media personalities from television.

    This is a good point. I haven’t seen any actual O’Donnell supporters in Delaware, but I’ve seen plenty of wingnuts stroking themselves to the idea that if you love freedom/Murrika, then you have to support O’Donnell.

    And yes, they all prattle about “The Second American Revolution,” which is both amusing and sad.

  80. 80.

    protected static

    October 20, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: No, he doesn’t have comments, but those emails are real (at least, they’re email that arrives in his inbox – who knows if the content is true at all) – he’s published email from me before.

  81. 81.

    themann1086

    October 20, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    @somethingblue: http://cookienation.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/worlds-largest-cookie/ here you go! :)

  82. 82.

    Ella in New Mexico

    October 20, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    The Virginia Thomas story is not so surprising, once you find out that she’s been emotionally unstable for years.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR2010101907062_2.html?hpid=topnews

    In the past, she has made unsolicited phone calls to voice support for people whose reputations have been shaken by what she sees as false accusations.
    In 1999, she called Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman after he wrote a front-page article about a Virginia man falsely accused of being a sex pervert. Weeping, she told Jackman that the story reminded her of the ordeal she and her husband had endured. “My husband’s name is Clarence Thomas,” she said.
    And when author David Brock – once hailed by the right for penning a book critical of Anita Hill – was pilloried for renouncing the book he had written, it was Virginia Thomas who came to his defense. She left Brock a long voice message saying that she was praying for him and that nobody should have his name smeared like Brock’s was.
    At the same time, Thomas, a longtime conservative activist who now heads Liberty Central, a nonprofit group aimed at stopping what she calls the “power grabbing” of the Obama administration, has been consistent in her criticism of Hill.
    In an interview she and her husband did with People Magazine just before Thomas ascended to the high court, she said of Hill: “In my heart I always believed she was probably someone in love with my husband who never got what she wanted.”

    Also, too, lets not forget she will make a lot of money in donations to Liberty Central from this “Poor, poor pitiful me done wrong by that harlot who tried to corrupt my Clarence” crap.

  83. 83.

    Citizen_X

    October 20, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    To mix a few laughs in with the tears, here’s a bit from Wonkette’s first-ever mention of Mooselini, a whole four years ago. Seems there was a confrontation between a Republican lawyer, Bill Large, and an angry mob of Palin supporters. (I know, hard to imagine, right?) It included this exchange:

    Large yelled again. Then he called the whole group Brown Shirts, referring to members of the Nazi Party.

    “He called us Brown Shirts!” someone yelled.

    “What’s a Brown Shirt?” someone else asked.

    “Well then, communists!” Large yelled, louder. He was visibly upset now.

    Everyone knew what “communists” meant. They were Republicans, after all. So they drew still closer.

  84. 84.

    ricky

    October 20, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    It worked for Lyndon Johnson. He even got the dead ones to vote in alphabetical order.

  85. 85.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    My gut says a revolution won’t happen, but around here (Detroit) people still talk about the riots. I imagine it’s remembered in Watts as well.
    Maybe we’re too passive and enervated to revolt. I mean, when you’ve got 235 cable channels and Netflix how can mere insurrection compete?

  86. 86.

    ricky

    October 20, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    @lacp:

    Time, arrows, banana peels? I am talking about the loss of stimulus research money and you go quoting one of the Marxist Brothers?

  87. 87.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    @Tractarian: I just read the latest “why do liberals hate rich people” diatribe from Sully’s bulging mailbag.

    Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
    Doctor: Then don’t do that.

  88. 88.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    October 20, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    My new theory:

    She did it to piss off C.T.

    There’s no way he wants this back in the news, and even less than any way he wants, “Supreme Court Justice’s Wife Calls Woman, Demands She Apologize to Him” in the news.

  89. 89.

    lacp

    October 20, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    @ricky: Connect the dots, dude. It all links back to the Tides Foundation…..

  90. 90.

    cat48

    October 20, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    There’s a large portion of us pale-faces who oppose this shit.

    Indeed, please DougJ don’t send us over with the crazies!

  91. 91.

    Svensker

    October 20, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    To mix a few laughs in with the tears, here’s a bit from Wonkette’s first-ever mention of Mooselini, a whole four years ago.

    Good God. That story just encapsulates the whole Palin/Teatard thing in a pretty little nutshell, doesn’t it?

  92. 92.

    Roger Moore

    October 20, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    @Hunter Gathers:

    It’s going to take a federal building exploding or Ruby Ridge type shootout in the heart of DC in order for our MSM betters to wake up

    No. The media is so narcissistic these days that only a direct, physical attack on them will wake them up. Just blowing up innocent non-media types won’t be enough.

  93. 93.

    BR

    October 20, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Kottke, which is a great apolitical blog even commented on this:

    http://kottke.org/10/10/you-shoot-me-in-a-dream-you-better-wake-up-and-apologize

    That’s either really passive aggressive, straight-up batshit insane, or the oxycontin talking. Ms. Thomas referred to the call as “extending an olive branch”, which I guess is true if she meant that the branch was stripped of leaves and the end sharpened to a point.

  94. 94.

    scav

    October 20, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    even sinking ships need theme music: The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum. more because I like the song than assume this is the last and definitively final of the glub glub glubs of this particular ship of fools.

  95. 95.

    Onkel Bob

    October 20, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    @ricky: You Drosophila melanogaster people get far too much money as it is. And next time one of you idiots sits on study section and propose another inane experiment, (Cherry is fatal to mammals, moron!) I’m going to gather a horde of Mus musculus packed to the ears with Siphonaptera and release them in your lab.

  96. 96.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 20, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    And therein lies the crux of the issue…

    ‘Cause they’re desperately hoping they can install that military dictatorship before none-whites…

    I’m not sure why I worry about this… I’m a middle-aged white man, and about a pure-bred WASP as you’re ever gonna find.

    Nice teeth, good features, well-spoken when I choose to be…

    If I were to put on a suit and tie and go hang out around the Republicans, they’d be falling all over themselves to welcome me aboard…

    I’d hate myself completely for doing that…

    Hmmmmmmm… mebbe that’s the problem…

    That ‘not being able to live w/ myself’ part…

  97. 97.

    Smiling Mortician

    October 20, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    @BenA:

    It almost makes me ill to think how stupid your average white male American is.

    I’m a also a little tired of the defensive boomer/white male saying “not me.”

    There’s probably a couple of reasonable Republicans out there too.. doesn’t mean I’m going to stop pointing out that the GOP is full of lunatic religious nuts.

    I realize I’m a little late to the party, but this is kinda dumb, BenA. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Republicanism is a choice, while race and gender are pretty much . . . y’know . . . biology. Jeez.

  98. 98.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    @Roger Moore: No. The media is so narcissistic these days that only a direct, physical attack on them will wake them up. Just blowing up innocent non-media types won’t be enough.

    Which conservative blog will cite this comment as evidence that John Cole’s minions are threatening violence against journalists?

  99. 99.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 20, 2010 at 1:28 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    I mean, when you’ve got 235 cable channels and Netflix how can mere insurrection compete?

    Mebbe if it were packaged up as a reality-teevee show, complete w/ a really hot female spokesperson…

  100. 100.

    Linda Featheringill

    October 20, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    @Violet:

    Two words: French Revolution. It can get to a point where the “rich people who pull the strings” are outnumbered and can’t do anything about it anymore.

    Also: Germany in the early 1930s. The rich folks bankrolled the fledgling Nazi party and thought to use them.

    As it happened, the wealthy class did prosper until 1945 or so, frequently with VERY CHEAP labor. Maybe they didn’t care about the rest of the stuff going down.

    They [the very rich people] probably wouldn’t care about what happened in the US, either.

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    October 20, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    @Tractarian:

    If you’re talking about this, I almost think it might be snark.

  102. 102.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 20, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    @Cris:

    Which conservative blog will cite this comment as evidence that John Cole’s minions are threatening violence against journalists?

    Alexander Hamilton says it’s Malkin…

    ***slaps bill down on counter top…***

  103. 103.

    burnspbesq

    October 20, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    DougJ:

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    Ha. Disenfrachising all those brown people is high on the Republican agenda.

    Military dictatorship might be preferable to rule by the Tea Party. At least those guys are smart and principled.

  104. 104.

    shortstop

    October 20, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    @The Republic of Stupidity:

    If I were to put on a suit and tie and go hang out around the Republicans, they’d be falling all over themselves to welcome me aboard…

    Ah. So you can “pass.”

  105. 105.

    Napoleon

    October 20, 2010 at 1:32 pm


    Three Things to Do When Clarence Thomas’s Wife Calls You

  106. 106.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 20, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    @Steeplejack: Now that I think about it, t does sound like what DougJ might come up with.

  107. 107.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 20, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    @Linda Featheringill:

    They [the very rich people] probably wouldn’t don’t care about what’s happened -ing in the US, either.

    Sorry, but it just seems more accurate this way…

  108. 108.

    lamh32

    October 20, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    One of my fav bloggers had this to say, and I completely agree!

    Wife of Clarence Thomas Calls Anita Hill to Demand Apology For Her Husband Being A Jerk 19 Years Late

    …If there were alcohol involved this would perhaps make more sense. But even with alcohol — what? You and Clarence are still sitting around talking about Anita Hill like it happened yesterday? What brought this up? Do you just reinact the hearings once a week to get yourselves all riled up all over again? Does he give the high tech lynching speech before blessing dinner? You’re all still mad even though everything turned out exactly how you wanted it in the first place and no one, almost NO ONE, brings it up anymore? (People tend to focus on him being kind of a jerk and silent on the court.)

    Last time I checked he’s still a Supreme Court Justice. Hill is a professor at Brandeis. Everyone moved on. Moving on is a form of conflict resolution. And since it’s highly unlikely that Clarence is going to have a dry drunk epiphany and apologize for being horrid when he was her boss, it’s equally unlikely Anita Hill is going to apologize when she has stood by her story that the advances were unwanted and he was gross. What is there to talk about here? And since when was it the victim’s job to patch things up? What is this? Who is this? Why are you calling? Hello? HELLO?!?!?!

    It’s TOO LATE, Ginni! Go to another Tea Party rally. Take another angry trip to a Wal-Mart parking lot in your RV with your husband. Gurl, gurl, GURL! Let it go! You won the war. Stop firing shots.

  109. 109.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 20, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    @shortstop:

    Ah. So you can “pass.”

    Much to my chagrin and embarrassment, quite readily…

    ***… hangs head in shame…***

    I once had an acting teacher who had an acquaintance working steadily in commercials. He’d tell her, “Come over here and get some of this silly money”. Being serious about her acting, she just couldn’t stomach the compromises involved…

    When I see the kind of bread right wing doooooooochebags constantly get showered w/ for writing the putrid crap they do… I ask myself…

    Jeebus… why don’t I go get some of that silly money?

    But then, when I sobered up in the morning… I’d hate myself…

  110. 110.

    cat48

    October 20, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    Things that make you go Hmmmmm

    NYT ran story about Thomas’ wife’s activity in Teaparty the morning she called Anita Hill and she cancelled some radio media events she had scheduled.

  111. 111.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    Am I the only person to have spotted this in the call transcript: “…what you did with my husband.”

    Not “to”, but “with”.

    To me, this sounds like Clarence told Ginny that Evil Anita Hill had come onto him and he’d rebuffed her, hence Evil Anita’s accusations against him. However, Ginny may well suspect that Clarence really did do the nasty with Anita, and wants Anita to tell her about it. Except that Anita didn’t do anything but try to stay out of arm’s reach of Mister Grabass, as several of Ms. Hill’s co-workers testified:

    Four individuals (Ellen Wells, John W. Carr, Judge Susan Hoerchner, and Joel Paul) testified that Hill had been upset at the time she worked for Thomas about what she had said was sexual harassment by him. Angela Wright, another of Thomas’ subordinates, stated that she had not considered the behavior to be sexual harassment, but that others might. She was interviewed by Senate Judiciary Committee staff, but did not testify at the hearings. Wright had been fired by Thomas from the EEOC. [4]

    The only way Ginny’s actions make sense is if she thinks Clarence has been seriously catting around.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    October 20, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    The only thing crazier than Mrs Justice Thomas’ phone call to Anita Hill is Samsung pricing a smaller tablet at the same price as Apple’s iPad:

    Verizon Wireless on Wednesday said it will start selling Samsung Electronics Co.’s tablet computer, which is half the size of the iPad, for $600. That’s more than the basic version of Apple Inc.’s tablet.
    __
    Verizon will start selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab on Nov. 11. It has screen that measures 7 inches diagonally and runs Google Inc.’s Android software. Access to Verizon’s cellular data network will cost $20 per month for up to 1 gigabyte of traffic. The tablet has two cameras, which could be used for videoconferencing. The iPad has no camera.

    The camera does not add sufficient additional value.

    Also, too, why didn’t Mrs Thomas just invite Anita Hill to her Facebook page?

  113. 113.

    JGabriel

    October 20, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    @david mizner:

    Maybe Dems ought to, I dunno, do something about the recessionpublicans, which, after all, is stoking fear and hatred?

    Fixed that for you. You spelled Republicans wrong. It’s understandable, Republicans and recession are never very far apart.

    .

  114. 114.

    Walker

    October 20, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    @Martin:

    That comment was a thing of beauty.

  115. 115.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    Mebbe if it were packaged up as a reality-teevee show, complete w/ a really hot female spokesperson…

    The Revolution will be television.

  116. 116.

    Walker

    October 20, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    @Brachiator:

    The truest thing that Jobs said in the earnings conference call is that the market for a 7 inch tablet is nonexistent. Not enough real estate to be a true tablet and too big to be a phone.

  117. 117.

    JGabriel

    October 20, 2010 at 1:53 pm

    Brachiator:

    Access to Verizon’s cellular data network will cost $20 per month for up to 1 gigabyte of traffic.

    Jeezus. That’s what I download in an hour.

    No wonder the telecomms are fighting net neutrality with tooth and nail. They’re afraid of losing all that monopoly-like captured customer goodness.

    .

  118. 118.

    Midnight Marauder

    October 20, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    @Phoenix Woman:

    Am I the only person to have spotted this in the call transcript: “…what you did with my husband.”
    __
    Not “to”, but “with”.
    __
    To me, this sounds like Clarence told Ginny that Evil Anita Hill had come onto him and he’d rebuffed her, hence Evil Anita’s accusations against him.

    As someone up-thread cited earlier:

    In an interview she and her husband did with People Magazine just before Thomas ascended to the high court, she said of Hill: “In my heart I always believed she was probably someone in love with my husband who never got what she wanted.”

  119. 119.

    Dennis SGMM

    October 20, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    @BenA:

    I’m a also a little tired of the defensive boomer/white male saying “not me.”

    Fuckin’ boomers. Speaking as a long-haired Old Guy who still works the phones for the Democrats every last time – even when I swear up and down that I won’t do it again, I congratulate you on your ennui.

    When I see the heroic street actions undertaken by the generations that succeeded mine I feel ashamed that I was beaten and arrested by the Alameda County Sheriffs for our street actions so few times.

    May your Tweets of rage shake our enemies to their very cores.

  120. 120.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    @JGabriel: Jeezus. That’s what I download in an hour.

    I didn’t think there was a BitTorrent app for iPad yet.

  121. 121.

    Jay

    October 20, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    The voicemail Mrs. Thomas left for Anita Hill was 78 words. That’s about 78 more words than hubby has said on the high court.

  122. 122.

    HRA

    October 20, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    @lamh32: at #107

    That’s the best I have seen yet.
    My theory about Mrs. Thomas is she yearned for the position of Palin, O’Donnell and Angl in the MSM and she got it.
    I would have done the same as Anita Hill did by calling the police. I am done with believing harassment will just go away if I give it a chance.

    One of my thoughts upon reading the Anchorage press about those security guards being active duty military was are we at the point of the military taking over the duties of the civilian police officials. I really do hope it is not true.

  123. 123.

    Kristine

    October 20, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    @Hunter Gathers: Rachel Maddow had a segment about just this thing last night. What would have been Macaca Moments a few years ago don’t even raise eyebrows now. At least, not MSM eyebrows.

  124. 124.

    Bella Q

    October 20, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    No. The media is so narcissistic these days that only a direct, physical attack on them will wake them up. Just blowing up innocent non-media types won’t be enough.

    But that won’t work either, it seems. See, e. g., national media furor over private goons detaining reporter for having the nerve to ask an inconvenient question of the R Senate candidate for AK following a public presentation. There is no media furor? Surely there is.

  125. 125.

    ricky

    October 20, 2010 at 2:01 pm

    @lacp:

    Dot connecting is funded under the arts section of the porkulus bill. Fruit fly grants come from theoretical science slush funds.

  126. 126.

    Sad_Dem

    October 20, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    I live in Los Angeles with a lot of nonwhites. I wouldn’t count on them. Many hate the gays (or some other Other) and wouldn’t mind seeing them rounded up. Many come from places where gross injustice, backed by lots of violence, is normal, and they’re here because they managed to escape, not because they were able to change things back home, so why should they think they can change things here? Others are here for the big house and big German car. They aren’t any better than human beings generally. When Greece, Chile, Argentina, and other countries that had a history of democracy fell into right-wing dictatorship, the good and the bad guys came from all walks of life.

  127. 127.

    Cain

    October 20, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    So I guess you ain’t gonna wear “shades” huh? Let’s see you puzzle that one out, dougj-master-of-the-universe’s-economic-dept-secretary

    cain

  128. 128.

    Poopyman

    October 20, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    @Napoleon: Oh, that’s just beautiful.

  129. 129.

    JGabriel

    October 20, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    Cris:

    I didn’t think there was a BitTorrent app for iPad yet.

    Heh. You know there are uses for Bittorrent that are unambiguously legal, as well as movie download services that aren’t Bittorrent.

    For instance, how many episodes of House and Chuck and Colbert can someone watch on Hulu before they blow past that 1 GB limit?

    Don’t get me wrong though: Bittorrent IS your friend.

    .

  130. 130.

    ricky

    October 20, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    @Onkel Bob:

    Blow yourself, science boy. I don’t do research. I am a magnate in the theoretical science/grant funding industrial complex. We don’t give a damn what they study. We only care if they have the cash to buy.

  131. 131.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    So I guess you ain’t gonna wear “shades” huh?

    Timbuk Three. Nice flashback to the Young Republican ’80s.

  132. 132.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    The only real winner in a cold class war gone hot is the MSM. They frikkin’ LOVE it when shit goes sideways.

  133. 133.

    John Bird

    October 20, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    @sparky:

    But that’s exactly my point. Their leaders are in it for the money and the power granted them by a minority for their extreme stances, not to engage in real politics, even corrupt and self-serving politics. They will act radically for applause; it’s why Fox News can imply that the President is a traitor and make more money rather than less.

    They do not want to be senators or presidents. They want a cable show, a radio show, T-shirts, a secret club, and their own army of thugs.

    They will thus have incredible personal power (as you noted) as senators, power they will abuse to APPEAR MORE RADICAL THAN EACH OTHER, which in turn will get them a TV show where Less Radical Senator does not get one.

    We will suffer.

  134. 134.

    Socraticsilence

    October 20, 2010 at 2:14 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    I’m actually curious what the GOP strategy is for the next 10-15 years- I mean at the 20 year mark it will be too late to become more than frankly a third party in terms of the national popular vote (with re-districting they might keep a a permanent supermajority from forming in the House, and they should keep 40-45 senate seats simply by holding there current uber-white areas and retaking seats in the mountain west), I mean how exactly does the GOP win if Texas swings Democratic (which will likely happen simply iwth age- not including any die off or demographic trends- simply having the first generation of natural born citizens for the current Latino population shifts Arizona and Texas)- I mean in 2004- I got there plan it made sense- achieve 50% or so of the hispanic vote and things stay roughly the same, but that was when Karl Rove was setting a long-term strategy, you know before the Tancredo wing won on Immigration. Now with around 40% of the Latino Vote (and I’m being optimistic for 10 years out, because the current trends would put it more at 1/4 to 1/3 of the latino vote) and what 8% of the African-American vote (counting on Obama being at least a 2% permanent overall boost here in any presidential year) they’d need something like 75% of the White vote to win- lets assume that roughly 20% of the white vote will never vote GOP ever-and that 40-50% will always vote GOP- that leaves 30%-40% of the white vote undecided in any given Presidential race- and of that the GOP would need to get 5 out of every 6 undecided white voter to win. I mean I don’t see how that can happen unless the flip the equation through massive disenfranchisement and/or cheating.

    If I’m the GOP the #1 thing I’m looking for longterm (besides a solution to Immigration that simultaneously pleases the base and doesn’t alienate hispanics) is a hispanic Presidential canidate- and no, I don’t think Jeb’s son counts.

  135. 135.

    Legalize

    October 20, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Ginny’s call is just a preview of what TeaTard “governance” will be like. It’s no different that Tony Soprano suggesting that someone “pray over” the idea of paying him back for a favor he once did them. Once in charge, the Teabaggers will suggest to everyone whom they perceive to have hurt them, i.e. 70% of Americans, that they “pray over” making amends.

    Or else.

  136. 136.

    eemom

    October 20, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    @Cain:

    heh, I thought of that too. Gettin’ good grades….

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    October 20, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: Obvious lyric tie in for Mrs Thomas’ phone call madness:

    Ginni, Ginni, who can I turn to. You give me something I can hold on to. I know you’ll think I’m like the others before …

    867-5309

  138. 138.

    Ross Hershberger

    October 20, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    Let’s be clear about Ginny’s call. She did not call to talk to Ms. Hill, who she certainly knew would not be in her office at 0730 on a Saturday. She called to make a recording to her. This is the conversational equivalent of a horse head in the bed.

  139. 139.

    Face

    October 20, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    I believe it was the noted philosopher Julius Henry Marx who observed:
    ………
    “Time flies like an arrow.
    Fruit flies like a banana.”

    And the noted musician/hemphead Sir Thomas Petty who observed:

    “You can tune a piano, but you cant tuna fish”

  140. 140.

    Bob L

    October 20, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    @fasteddie9318:

    I’m torn on this. Would military dictatorship be worse than a dictatorship of the stupid run by a cabal of Palin, DeMint, O’Donnell, Miller, etc.? At least I’m pretty sure that Alexander the Great General Petraeus can write his name in the ground with a stick.

    Me too. At lest I can trust Petraeus not to kill us all in a nuklear war with Russia to stop communist witches from invading the US by flying into Alaska.

    If I can’t have democracy I’ll take the dictatorship of the evil and competent over the dictatorship of the foolish and delusional.

  141. 141.

    Southern Beale

    October 20, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    I wrote about this today. I understand it perfectly. It’s part of the Teanuts’ culture of victimhood. Of course Ginni Thomas feels like SHE is owed an apology after all of these years, that SHE is the real victim. It’s how conservatives roll these days.

  142. 142.

    EconWatcher

    October 20, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    Who knows. This is all armchair psychology, but it sounds to me like she desperately needs some affirmation that she wasn’t wrong about her husband. And I agree with those who think maybe something unpleasant has happened recently that makes her need the affirmation all the more.

    Think of how much she has psychologically invested in her husband’s innocence. If she’s learned something recently that’s shaken her faith, this would seem to be a fairly predictable reaction by an insecure person: “Please, please, tell me I was right.”

    Those who call this a threat or part of a larger plan for paybacks (if you’re really serious) need to take a little time off and chill out, I think. They’re getting to you.

  143. 143.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    @Bob L: If I can’t have democracy I’ll take the dictatorship of the evil and competent over the dictatorship of the foolish and dangerous.

    Not me. The former group is going to be much better at eliminating their chosen enemies.

  144. 144.

    licensed to kill time

    October 20, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    @Martin:

    If there was a rational motive here, my guess is that something has happened that makes Ginny suspicious of Clarence and she’s looking for a way to investigate the prior claim by opening a conversation, and using this bizarro approach to do it.
    __
    This should be ancient history for her, yet it’s clearly not, and my wild-assed guess is that something happened recently.

    I’m with Martin here. A guy like CT that does this kind of thing (even if it’s just smarmy come-ons) doesn’t stop, usually. Something has stirred the green-eyed monster in Ginny and she’s so much in denial that she has to dredge up the vixen from the past and blame it on her again.

    That and the amb ien dream dialing.

  145. 145.

    Corner Stone

    October 20, 2010 at 2:36 pm

    @Jack Bauer:

    This pale face will see you all at the barricades.

    Forget about it. If it comes to barricades then we have already lost.
    Don’t you know wingnuts have the super human power to hold their pee for hours on end? How are we supposed to defeat that kind of steely resolve?
    How, I ask you! How?

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    October 20, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    @Bob L:

    If I can’t have democracy I’ll take the dictatorship of the evil and competent over the dictatorship of the foolish and delusional.

    Anyone here actually ever tried dictatorship before? Anyone?

    Evil is never competent in the long term, and is always delusional. It goes with the territory, and is one of the reasons that “good” usually gets the upper hand when there is a confrontation.

  147. 147.

    FlipYrWhig

    October 20, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    I have to think that Ms. Thomas did this to say, “Get ready, bitch, we’re coming to settle the score.” Or, “Soon enough it won’t be the Obama era anymore.”

  148. 148.

    Barb (formerly gex)

    October 20, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    @Violet: At which point whining about how the people with the guillotines aren’t grateful enough for you taking the lion’s share of everyone’s productive work will commence. I wonder if they keep whining for a bit while the head rolls around.

  149. 149.

    Anoniminous

    October 20, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    Shorter ‘DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice’:

    We’re all gonna DIE!!!!

    Midterm elections are all about GOTV.

    The TeaBaggers/GOP (same thing) are not a majority. In order to win one of the following has to occur:

    1. They manage to appeal to enough non-TeaBaggers to win. Possible but unlikely, IMHO.

    2. Non-TeaBaggers don’t vote in enough numbers to match their demographics.

    Incumbents have a historic advantage in midterms. This is playing out in this election, as well. Take any pre-election poll and add 2-5% for the incumbent.

    The biggest Democratic demographic are the under 30 crowd who are also the biggest US demographic — by A LOT – who are also Cell-Phone only households. Meaning an old-style “robo-poll” over landlines won’t reach them.

    We know the GOP doesn’t have the same amount of money for their 72 hour GOTV operation they’ve had in the past.

    We know OFA is busily GOTV’ing 2008 first time voters.

    GOP is running a Top/Down media campaign the effectiveness of which is questionable — see any DLC campaign over the last 20 or so years.

    In my 40 years of experience ‘doing’ elections the biggest bang-for-the-buck is the wearisome toil of going into the precincts and knocking on doors. The Dems — OFA, in particular — is doing exactly that.

    We knew going into this election the Dems would lose seats. They won too many marginal seats in 2008 to keep unless the same organization and intensity OFA & etc. mustered during the 2008 was maintained … a very hard thing to do.

    The GOP has failed to “nationalize” the election. Nobody cares about Pelosi cooties, Kenyan born Islamic terrorist communists, & all that other crap that gives TeaBaggers boners. It’s all smoke, mirrors, and astro-turf.

    Not going to even pretend to know what is going to happen. I do think it’s not going to be the whole scale massacre the RW is touting.

  150. 150.

    Dennis SGMM

    October 20, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Don’t you know wingnuts have the super human power to hold their pee for hours on end? How are we supposed to defeat that kind of steely resolve?

    Many of us are gamers and gamers have mastered the art of not-peeing to extents that would make hard-core ascetics go green with envy. We’ll be at the barricades long after the wingers have all gone off to change their urine-soaked fatigues.

  151. 151.

    Nellcote

    October 20, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    @BenA:

    I’m a also a little tired of the defensive GenX/white male saying “not me.”

    fixt

  152. 152.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    @Dennis SGMM: For want of a poopsock, the siege was lost.

  153. 153.

    Scott

    October 20, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    @Cris:

    Not me. The former group is going to be much better at eliminating their chosen enemies.

    I think I’m with you. If the teabaggers show up at your house with kill-orders, they can be distracted by a bell on a string, or by yelling “Look, it’s Bristol Palin!”

    If necessary, you can take the method used by the doc at the end of Bradbury’s “Small Assassin”: “Look, teabagger, something shiny, something pretty!”

  154. 154.

    goblue72

    October 20, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    @Cris: I need to remember that more often. I actually made the bone-headed move of reading Sully’s latest POS “reader mail”. Some tool actually wrote “In what possible viable world view could the “right to vote” be valued more favorably than property rights and the freedom of enterprise?” To wit, Sully responded with a “Hear, hear.”

    I’m really waiting for a sale at Costco so I can pick up a torch and pitchfork and start in with these Kochsuckers.

  155. 155.

    Cris

    October 20, 2010 at 3:06 pm

    @goblue72: The cool thing about getting the torches and pitchforks at Costco is they’ll only come in 12-packs. Enough to share with your friends.

  156. 156.

    fasteddie9318

    October 20, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    @Bob L:

    I was thinking more of a benevolent military dictatorship turning things back over to democratic rule as soon as the stupid gets flushed out of the system, but I know that’s naive. It used to happen in Turkey if you replace “the stupid” with “Islamic fundamentalism,” but it wasn’t ideal there either.

  157. 157.

    Spooky Language

    October 20, 2010 at 3:13 pm

    @merrinc:

    Let’s see: Pat Robertson would blame it on homosexuals and radical feminists, Eric Cantor would explain that it was the fault of Democratic policies for making people so angry, the NRA would fight tooth and nail against any new regulations on guns or explosives, and the 101st Keyboarders would start looking for any evidence that the bombers/shooters had ever voted for a Democrat.(I’m sure I left out a lot of pundits and prognosticators.)

    You forgot the most important piece of all: The “Muzlins”! Hell, just combine Muslims and Mexicans, “Mexilims,” and you have the ultimate right-wing spooky adversary!

  158. 158.

    TooManyJens

    October 20, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    @taylormattd:

    Folks need to realize nothing will ever change in this country until the media, which is uniformly right wing at this point, is destroyed and rebuilt.

    This is why our English teachers told us not to write in passive voice. Until who destroys and rebuilds the media? How?

  159. 159.

    Kyle

    October 20, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    All we really need to do is take teabaggers at their word instead of their hypocrisy, and abolish the eeevul soshulist Medicare. I’d love to see the premiums for a 70-ish teatard seeking private medical insurance, or the crap coverage.

    Give the teatards the Galtian jungle they’re screaming for, and a wide swath of them will be in the ground from lack of medical care in the next decade.

  160. 160.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 20, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    @Cris: You can find 12 packs?. Here in Madison, Costco only carries them by the gross.

  161. 161.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 20, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    @Kyle: I have no interest in doing this to my very liberal parents and my very liberal, almost 89 year old grandmother nor do I wish to do it to any other people like them.

  162. 162.

    Nellcote

    October 20, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    I think C. Thomas read the Abram’s story in the NYT that Sat. morning and told his wife to dial it back. She decided to create a distraction (and piss on the hubby) by calling Ms. Hill. V. Thomas probably thought Hill would run to the press with the story and didn’t think it would take a week and a half for the story to come out.

  163. 163.

    Ruckus

    October 20, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    @ChrisS:
    You might be. I tried. I am.
    Maybe it’s running away but people do it all the time. They move to a better place. Maybe it’s to another city, or state or even another country. But people have been moving to find a better life since time began. They walk, with only the possessions they can carry if they have to but they do it. Why is it so wrong for someone to think the US may not be the best place for them? You’re a quitter because you leave some place that you can’t change to a possibly better place? I’m so glad to learn that the defining american characteristic is suffering.

  164. 164.

    Joshua

    October 20, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    They weren’t even rent-a-cops, strictly speaking. Two of them are active duty military personnel. Yea, a bunch of soldiers handcuffed and bullied a private citizen, a journalist, attempting to ask questions of a person running for office, and the right wing is cheering this on.

    This is what happens, folks, when half the country doesn’t believe in the legitimacy of the other half. I think a lot of people on the right are retards but I respect their right to be retards. But they don’t respect my rights. They think my votes are illegitimate, they think I should not be considered a citizen of this country, they think I am a terrorist. A literal terrorist, like bin Laden. This is what the right wing has been beating into the heads of their supports for decades, and it’s only been getting more intense since 9/11.

    This is no way to have a political debate and it’s no way to run a country. And we are going to be paying for it for a long long time.

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    October 20, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    It’s not that they can hold it, it’s the colostomy bags and the depends.

  166. 166.

    mds

    October 20, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    We’ll be at the barricades long after the wingers have all gone off to change their urine-soaked fatigues.

    Oh, you poor naive fellow. Wingers don’t change their urine-soaked fatigues.

  167. 167.

    Bob L

    October 20, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    @Cris

    : Not me. The former group is going to be much better at eliminating their chosen enemies.

    Well it’s the day after the Junta so the job is to restore public order. So who is enemy number one for the new Generialissimo?

    1) snarky liberals who want public health care.

    or

    2) Tea baggers with their private, armed militias backed up by a pair of billionars hell bent on them controlling the government or anarchy.

    If anyone should be getting a seriously queasy feeling over a coupe and an American Caesar it should be the teabaggers, though I doubt if they are smart enough to realize it and cheer it on right up until they are disappeared. While I have no idea were it will end (and going by the French Revolution I don’t want to find out) I will bet the Kotch brother will the very first ones into the camps if that happens. They’ve already said they want to be Caesar themselves.

    If you want another analogy if this is 1970s Chile then the teabaggers are the commies.

  168. 168.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    October 20, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Don’t you know wingnuts have the super human power to hold their pee for hours on end?

    You have proved that Carl Paladino is subhuman.

  169. 169.

    DPirate

    October 20, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    Yuo think Clarence Thomas didn’y swear to his wife by all that’s holy that he was seduced by Hill? She bought the story and has harbored a resentment against Hill for all these years and, getting more religious in her old age, wants to set the past aright. Big fucking deal. Do you really have to demonize everyone you disagree with?

    And fuck Anita Hill for making a stink over it.

  170. 170.

    Lori

    October 20, 2010 at 8:50 pm

    I just hope we can stave off military dictatorship until non-whites become a large enough voting bloc to save us.

    Unfortunately, taking a look at many Central America and African countries (just to take a couple regions as examples), enough people being brown or black alone isn’t enough.
    I’m optimistic: I think hearts and minds can be changed. To do that, we need not only persuasive politicians and bloggers, but also artists who are charismatic and use their art to educate people who otherwise wouldn’t pay attention to politics. Speaking of which, who do you folks think are artists currently doing that?

  171. 171.

    Bill

    October 20, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    I’m white and I oppose all of the stuff they’re doing. I can’t stand Conservatives.

  172. 172.

    NativeSonKY

    October 20, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    I don’t think you can just lump all “whites” as being anti-progressive! I am identified by the racial classification Caucasian (White), but actually am 1/8 Cherokee and half Irish/Scottish (or some number equaling them all), but what I’m saying is that there are plenty of progressive whites, too. Even here in Kentucky I can see a big change in the past 30-40 years. I do think that things will get better in the future, as you say, when more non-whites make up more of the electorate. You have to have “been here” to know what it’s like to live close to the bone for so long, and then you’d really try to help do something when you got in office, instead of laying off and getting nothing done.

  173. 173.

    Bernard

    October 20, 2010 at 10:36 pm

    this Alaska incident is so Weimar Germany. Way too similar.
    and because it’s a journalist against the “Tea Party” it is okay?

    more than frightening that only “one side” finds a problem here. if both sides can’t see the similarity, that line of peaceful co habitation is way past gone. this is one of those “incidents” that mark a “serious point of departure.”

    inch by inch by inch, the goal posts are moving further into that nebulous land of “tomorrowland,” today.

  174. 174.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    October 20, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    @goblue72:

    I’m really waiting for a sale at Costco so I can pick up a torch and pitchfork and start in with these Kochsuckers.

    While you’re there be sure to get some paint stripper so you can remove the protective coatings on them. Then mist them with a saltwater spray to get them nice and rusty. Repeat the applications of saltwater until you build up a nasty layer of rust on them.

    OT: I was listening to Rachel talk about the conventional wisdom out there that “Obama has a white voter problem” and the first thing I did was mentally flip that to: White voters have a problem with Obama.

    If the foo shits, wear it.

  175. 175.

    mclaren

    October 20, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    We’re already living in a military dictatorship.

    People on this forum have internalized military and paramilitary rule of civilian society to the extent of advising everyone to “Obey a cop whenever he orders you to do something. It’s the chain of command.”

    Absolutely. The chain of command. In a militarized society, there are no civilians, everyone lives under the chain of command, and if a cop or a TSA goon or a DHS thug orders you to do something and you hesitate, you’ll get tasered to death.

    Many American citizens like Mnemosyne love this state of affairs and have argued forcefully in favor of it, so the constitution has already disappeared and you’re living under de facto martial law. Deal with it, bitches.

  176. 176.

    mclaren

    October 20, 2010 at 11:53 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    There’s a large portion of us pale-faces who oppose this shit.

    This from the bully-worshiper who applauded Obama’s order to assassinate a U.S. citizen without trial and without charges.

    You’ll be the guard hauling the children off boxcars and dragging ’em screaming and crying into the gas chambers, you pathetic piece of cowardly human garbage.

  177. 177.

    Beej

    October 21, 2010 at 12:14 am

    @DPirate: Anita Hill reported it to Brandeis University, her employer. Perfectly proportionate since the message was left on her office voice mail at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. She apparently thought it was a prank, probably by a student, and thought it ought to be reported. It was the campus police who reported it to the FBI.

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